Kate Elliott - An earthly crown

"Is there a problem, David?" Charles asked abruptly.

"A problem?" The question took David aback.

Charles sat down on his bed and considered David with that level, bland gaze that had come to characterize him. However busy he might be, however many pans he might have frying in the fire, he never did two things at once. If he spoke to a person, singling that person out, then all his attention focused on the conversation. Even his hands sat at rest, folded neatly in his lap. David knew how deceptively mild his expression was.

"You're upset about something," said Charles, "and I don't keep sycophants around because they don't do me any good."

Thus neatly forcing David to speak his mind, even if he was reluctant to. "It's this damned interdiction. It's hypocrisy and you know it. I'm tired of lying to Nadine-well, to all of them, if it comes to that, but to her in particular. Don't you think they know we're holding things back? Aren't we harming them more by being here than-?"

"Than if we hadn't come at all? No doubt about that. But Tess came here, and so here we are. Think of it as damage control."

"It's not damage control," said David. "Oh, Goddess, you mean that message that came in this morning."

"About the actor running away? Yes, in part that."

"What are you going to do about him?"

"Rajiv is hunting down the code on that transmitter. We'll likely get a fix on him within five or ten days. If he's still alive by then."

"You're cool about it."

"David, you know me better than that."

"You've changed, Charles. I say that as one of your two oldest friends."

Charles regarded him evenly. "What choice? No choice. I do what I must." He gave a short laugh and grinned, looking for an instant so much like the young man David had met at university that David might almost have thought they were the same person again, and that the gulf that had grown between the old Charles and the new one had suddenly closed. "Bakhtiian confided in me before we left the army that he couldn't tell what he could and couldn't believe out of all the things Tess had told him."

"If he expected you to enlighten him, then I'm sure he was disappointed.''

"You are angry."

"It's disrespectful, beyond anything else," said David. "Treating them like children-as if we know better, as if we have to protect them."

"The interdiction did protect them."

David sank down into the single chair and rested his forehead on a palm. "Which is true. Oh, hell, Charles, it's just an untenable situation."

"Yes," Charles agreed without visible emotion. "Remember as well, David, that this is the only planet we have any real control over, because of that interdiction. Chapalii can't come here without my permission-or, if they do, as that party that Tess fell in with did, they must do it covertly. We can't afford to lose that power. Cara can run her lab in Jeds precisely because the Chapalii can't investigate it at their whim. This is our-our safehouse. Our priest hole. Our hideaway. Not to mention the entire philosophical issue of whether it would be ethical to ram our culture and technology down their throats in the name of progress. So it's to my advantage to keep the interdiction in force."

"Even if you break it yourself."

"Even so. I'm not a saint, David."

"However much you try to be?"

Charles chuckled, a refreshingly and reassuringly human sound. "I only try to be because I know that whatever I do wrong will come back to haunt me tenfold. I don't like this situation any better than you do. If we took Tess away, we'd be quit of it."

David lifted his head off his hand. "Would you force her to go? Could you?"

"Of course I could. I control this planet, David. Would I?" He thought about it. The little room the priests had given him to sleep in mirrored him in many ways: simple, plain, without obvious character. But David knew that behind the plain whitewashed walls ran a complex network of filaments and power webs and ceramic tiling for strength and the Chapalii alone knew what other technological miracles and contrivances, hidden from sight but always present, there where they couldn't be seen. "I don't know. I haven't been forced to make that decision yet.''

"Goddess help them both when you do."

"Both?" asked Charles.

"Both Tess and Bakhtiian. And his people. And the countries in the path of his conquest. He's a madman. You could stop him."

"I could kill him physically. I could tell him, show him, the truth, which Tess believes would kill him spiritually. What's so strange about him, though? Earth has had such men in her past."

"Does that make it right? Knowing we could intervene?"

"I don't know. Is intervening right? Will it make any difference in the long run? Does this argument have anywhere to go except around in circles? He's better than most, David. He thinks, he's open-minded and curious, he cares about law and legal precedence, and I believe he cares enough about what Tess thinks of him that he'll temper brutality with mercy.''

"Like that man he executed for rape? He did it himself, and he didn't look one whit remorseful about the act to me."

"Who knows? Perhaps killing him on the spot like that was a merciful punishment, compared to what he might have received."

"Without a trial?" David demanded.

"He had a confession. But I can't help thinking about the actor. Three of them alone in hostile territory."

"And horse-stealers, too. That must be punishable by death, under nomad law."

"Do you think their deaths will be easy, or quick?" Charles asked.

"Don't forget, the actor has a weapon with him-one of our weapons. And other equipment. That gives him an advantage."

' 'And it breaks the interdiction in exactly the way I did not want it broken," Charles added.

"In fact, it might well be easier if the poor boy did die, and his companions with him."

"It might well. But then there'd be all that equipment out there to be recovered. Either way…" Charles shrugged.

David felt suddenly heartened. He chuckled. "You know, Charles, I don't envy you. I'm perfectly happy to be sitting here, and you sitting there."

Charles's pale blue gaze met David's brown one. His lips quirked up. "As well you might be. Now, I'm going to get some sleep."

David realized that that was as close to a confession of the burdens weighing on him as Charles was ever likely to give him, or to give anyone. Perhaps Charles could no longer afford to be vulnerable. Perhaps Charles regretted what he had lost but knew well enough that the loss was permanent, that there was nothing of his old self that could be recovered, even if he wanted to.

"Yes," said David on a sigh. "That's a good idea." He stood up and left Charles to his solitary state. Back in his own tiny room, he managed to nap on the hard bed for the few hours until dawn. He woke when the first light bled through the window, and he rose and dressed quickly and hurried downstairs to the eating hall in order to make it in time for breakfast. Maggie was there, although Charles wasn't. She signaled with one hand-"all okay, going as planned." That meant that the riders ought to come in mid-morning, escorting their "party from the coast." What would the jaran make of this Chapaliian visitation? Mother Avdotya had mentioned the khepelli priests who had visited four summers past. Their stay had been short and uneventful with a single exception: they had left with one fewer member of their party than they had come with. This mystery had never been solved, nor had any remains been found of the missing priest. The jaran knew of blood sacrifices, both human and animal, but as far as David could tell, they did not indulge in them except under the most pressing need. He had asked Nadine about it, but she seemed to think such an act shameful, although he could not tell whether that response came from her jaran upbringing or her Jedan education.