JULIEN
II
Chapter 54
New Quarters
The move didn't take long to complete: soon Julien and his friends were all resettled into the Emperor's private quarters, in which each of the party was able to choose a room that suited him.
Lord Tahlil had been very specific and very insistent, and as a result Niil found himself in a vast suite, part of which was fitted out to allow a few secretaries and a number of indispensable civil servants to annoy their First Lord at any hour of the day and night with demands for him to deal with urgent business affecting the Ksantiri domains. A room in the suite was set aside for Ambar to use, although it seemed unlikely that the bed-linen would need changing, at least not as long as Julien continued to sleep nearby.
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Tannder had left Karik to supervise the moving of his quarters, giving the boy strict instructions not to indulge in unnecessary luxury. As an obedient disciple Karik decided that two bedrooms would be a terrible waste of space, and that a single large bed was quite sufficient for two people of normal size. The rest of the kang was left with its original Spartan furniture and decorated, following the advice of Julien who, remembering a trio of unforgettable films that he had seen at the Champollion Theatre, advised Karik to restrict himself to a few sober flower arrangements and three precious sabres from the Palace stores.
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As for Dennkar, he wanted to be as close to Julien's apartments as possible, and so he was given a kang which shared the terrace and stretch of garden attached to Julien's own rooms.
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Separating Master Sandeark from his favourite student would have been like separating an angry mother bear from her cub – very unwise. So he was given the privilege of residing in the Palace so that he could maintain what was gradually becoming a collaboration, rather than a traditional master-student relationship. Ambar might have lacked the purely formal tools necessary for the expression of certain mathematical concepts, but he was nonetheless showing a strong tendency to surpass his master, who was no slouch himself, in understanding the subtleties of some very abstruse reasoning.
One indication of the amazing way his mind was developing was that certain Masters of Mathematics among the Guides were perfectly happy to come to offer him instruction, instead of their more usual approach, which was to grant aspiring human mathematicians the favour of an interview on their own world. Of course this was a great honour, but Julien very quickly put some restrictions on it when he saw the effects of this constant intellectual overheating on his friend's health.
“Master Sandeark!” he said. “I didn't entrust Ambar to your care so that he could be devoured by those ghouls! I want you to put together – right now! - a timetable that will allow him plenty of time for rest, and even for him to have fun. If the Honourable Master Guides of the Higher College of Mathematics think they can suck his blood on the pretext of bestowing upon him a little of their knowledge in return, they are sadly mistaken, and you may tell them so from me!”
“Well...”
“And for starters, I hereby decree that he has the next eight days off!”
“But... he has appointme...”
“And the next time he comes to see me looking like death warmed up you're likely to find yourself teaching calculus to the trangtchenn caterpillars of the polar region!!”
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Julien also offered a place in the Palace to Gradik and Tenntchouk, but they politely declined: they were happy staying with Julien's parents and had been delighted to accept their invitation to stay with them whenever they weren't off sailing their boat. And now they were spending a lot of their time doting on the Ultimate Wonder of the Known World, otherwise known as Gilles, the new-born brother of His Lordship. His Lordship himself was not particularly interested in babies, although he thought that when the howling, tyrannical creature had advanced far enough to crawl on its own he might change his mind. Possibly. Currently he got black looks from the sailors whenever he politely declined the privilege of holding the charming little being.
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Since he spent almost every moment of his life with Xarax Dillik lived in Julien's kang, in which he had, not a separate room – he'd refused point blank to consider that option – but an alcove which he regularly abandoned early in the morning to benefit from the attention of either Julien or Ambar, or sometimes both. At the very least he was able to enjoy a nice intimate cuddle, something he said he couldn't survive without.
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The hunt for Dalanni agents was going well, and every day Julien had a pile of sentences to confirm and pardons to grant. Since the art of government is largely about delegating he had decided that the sensible thing to do would be simply to confirm every decision that was submitted for his approval.
The number of Dalanni agents uncovered so far was now close to a thousand, but the number of traitors from the Nine Worlds themselves remained surprisingly small. The way that all probes were cross-checked and repeated if necessary made it fairly clear that they knew almost everything of importance that was available from the people they had taken, but there were three issues that still eluded them: who was the leader of the network; who were the people responsible for the death of Aďn; and, most worrying of all, how, and more importantly by whom, had ghorrs been used.
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Chapter 55
A vault and a key
Apparently Julien's Gift had returned permanently, and so had his ability to display or hide his Marks, and Master Subadar was confident that the Emperor's other abilities would also reveal themselves in due course, if the proper stimulus could be found. Consequently he had started a training program which, he said, would soon convert Julien into a fully functional Warden of the Nine Worlds.
Julien, on the other hand, wasn't all that keen on achieving this glorious destiny. There might have been a moment early on when the thought of wielding such power, way beyond that of most rulers on Earth, was quite attractive, but now he knew that power of that sort was actually a terrible burden that would squash you flat if you weren't able to resist its harmful nature. He thought that the Empire had managed quite nicely without him for fourteen years or so, and it seemed unlikely that everything would grind to a halt now if he took his eye of the ball for a moment. And the activities that Subadar and his colleagues were now trying to prepare him for looked certain to occupy a large percentage of his waking hours.
It was true that they were unerringly polite, and that they stopped to ask after his well-being on a regular basis. They even had the immense generosity to ensure that he wasn't overburdened by their activities. But as far as he could see, the Emperor of the Nine Worlds was actually no more than a luxury employee in the service of masters who were completely implacable because they were working to serve the entire population of the Empire. Nobody would ever actually demand anything of him, but instead they would arrange it so that he would be able to see no alternative to undertaking whatever indispensable task they set before him.
Why was everything his responsibility? Every day Tannder, or Tahlil, or Subadar told him about the problems that beset the R'hinz, and every day he did his best to learn, to train, and to try to use adult reasoning to understand the point of view of other people so as to moderate the excesses of implacable defenders of the honour of one clan or another, all of whom seemed willing to slaughter each other at the slightest provocation.
They would tell him that this was just a temporary situation, and that the only conflicts they were telling him about were long-standing ones which had remained unresolved over a long period. But the longer it went on, the more he felt that Xarax was probably the only person who cared how he felt. Of course, that wasn't true. He knew that his friends wanted to make him happy and so they always tried to be in a good mood whenever they were together, but they couldn't do anything about the pressure of his duties. And of course Niil was in a similar situation himself.
Xarax was doing all he could to help Julien learn – or, rather, as Subadar put it, to recall techniques and knowledge that were as strange as they were essential. At the same time the haptir was slowly recovering his ability to fly, and in general was starting to become more like his old self. Dillik was of course delighted by this. The two of them had a relationship which was becoming closer and closer, and now they dreamed together almost every night. Julien was almost expecting to see Dillik starting to grow wings.
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I need you.
Xarax, you might not have noticed, but it's the middle of the night! said Julien.
That's perfect. Nobody will wonder where you've gone.
And where do you want to take me?
I want you to take me somewhere.
All right, then: where do you want to go?
To the Palace.
So why can't it be done during the day?
I want to go to a place that nobody can know about except you and me. I don't want Tannder or Subadar to start asking questions.
I see. I suppose that if you didn't need a Guide you'd go on your own.
No. Once, maybe – I don't really know. But not any more. I don't know yet what we're going to find, but I want us to find it together.
If Ambar wakes up and finds me gone he'll turn the place upside down looking for me.
I can make sure that he doesn't wake up for four tchoutsö or so. I've already done that for Dillik. That will give us more than enough time.
All right. I'll put an abba on and then we can go.
I'll deal with Ambar, then.
In the twilight of the large sitting room Xarax climbed up onto Julien's shoulders.
I'll show you the klirk, he said, and he showed Julien a pattern far more complicated than any klirk Julien had seen before. This klirk wasn't simply a two-dimensional drawing, but a kind of large calligraphic structure in subtly varying colours. To be able to memorise something like that was a tremendous feat.
And when Julien applied the 'mental push' that triggered the jump he felt a resistance – it was like pushing against an elastic membrane which only gave way gradually, and which consequently made the transition perceptible, instead of it being instantaneous as was usually the case with jumps.
They found themselves in what looked like a crypt – a large one, with lamps fixed at regular intervals along the walls that grew steadily brighter with a glow like that of kerosene lamps. There seemed to be no klirk below Julien's feet, which made it clear that this was not a place that was intended to be visited by ordinary Guides. The floor was made of some milky translucent stone similar to moonstone, polished to perfection and which helped to diffuse the light so that no corner of the room remained in shadow. The room was square, about twenty metres wide and with a grey-green ceiling about four metres above the floor. The walls were panelled in precious light red wood, the carefully assembled veins of which formed elegant abstract patterns. The absence of any opening in the walls confirmed Julien's impression that they were somewhere in the depths of the Palace, and his first thought was that a sarcophagus would look completely at home here. However, the room was completely empty, and it looked as if no grain of dust had ever settled on the immaculate floor.
There's nothing here, he said. I hope I can get us out again.
Don't be in such a hurry.
All right. Tell me what you want me to do.
Move to the wall in front of you.
Julien walked a few steps.
“We're not moving!” he said aloud, his voice sounding strangely flat and without echo.
Strange, isn't it? commented Xarax.
You knew! You could have told me!
It was easier to let you find out for yourself.
Can you explain now?
You disappoint me. Use what passes for your brain for a moment.
Listen, if you keep waking me up in the middle of the night to ask me riddles, I suspect you and I won't stay friends much longer!
Stop trying to look grumpy. It doesn't suit you at all. Just think!
After a few seconds Julien realised what Xarax was driving at.
“The Narthex!” he exclaimed. “I was wondering where I'd heard my voice sounding dead like that before. It was in the Narthex!”
The Narthex was the room outside normal space where Julien had done much of his training under the supervision of Master Subadar.
Right, but we're not in the Narthex, said Xarax. Still, this place was built along the same lines. The main difference is that, unlike the Narthex, this place actually exists in normal space, more or less. Its existence depends on a crystal buried somewhere in the foundations of the Palace, and that means that you can't change this place to look the way you want it to, like you did with the Narthex.
You mean it's always going to look exactly like this? Don't you think it's going to get boring just standing in the middle of an empty room like this?
I mean that the reality of this place obeys certain strict rules that you cannot change. This place was built to keep certain objects and information safe.
So it's a bit like a safe in a bank?
If you like.
And you're the one who keeps its key.
Julien was aware that Xarax hesitated before answering.
Actually, he said, you possess it too. If you look carefully you'll find that you can visualise that klirk without any help from me.
That seems to bother you.
Julien, you're not supposed to be able to do that! Whether you want to or not.
I don't understand, Xarax. What's happening?
What's happening is that I'm just starting to realise that I've been fooled.
Fooled? Who by? Not by me, that's for sure! I didn't even know that this place existed!
That's true, but Yulmir... Yulmir knows.
So what? What difference does that make?
Julien, you ARE Yulmir!
But I haven't done anything! You know I'd never try to fool you – you're my friend! And in any case, how do you know I've got this key you're talking about?
When you told me that I was the keeper of the key to this room you thought about the klirk and its image appeared, just for a fraction of a second, in your head. Not even Yulmir should have been able to do that, unless he already possessed it. He was supposed to be able to get here only with the help of his haptir.
Well, all right, but what's so terrible?
Julien, I should kill you!
What?! But why?!
Because that's part of the reason I exist.
Xarax!
Right now I'm having to struggle like mad not to do it.
Julien was horrified to realise that Xarax could easily slit his throat before he even began to react.
You must take me to Dvârinn, said Xarax. Now, right away! Then you must go back to your room in the Palace. Once there's no more danger I'll contact Niil so that he can get me back to you. Now – hurry!
There was no time to argue. Julien went to the Orientation Table, and from there he jumped to the klirk which marked the place where he had first appeared on Dvârinn, close to the now-vanished city of Tchenn Ril. It was early morning, and the freezing mist added a sinister touch to an already depressing situation.
Xarax, he said, I don't really know what's going on – but thank you. Come back to me as soon as you can. Dillik's going to miss you, too.
I know. Invent some tale to reassure him. Now go!
Julien visualised the klirk that led to his own apartments, realising that he owed Wenn Hyaď a very large 'thank you' for forcing him to memorise that particular klirk which, of course, was not to be found on the Orientation Table.
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