Lawrence Watt-Evans - The Vondish Ambassador

"Yes, but…"

"I'm sure Neyam screamed when he was flogged."

"No, he didn't. Witches can block their pain."

Emmis frowned. That seemed to defeat the purpose of the flogging.

It wasn't his responsibility, though.

Ithinia had turned back to the balcony, and as Morkai's screaming subsided to a whimper she announced, "That concludes our business here, for the present." Then she pulled a wooden flute from her sleeve and raised it to her lips.

Emmis blinked; he was quite sure that she had put the flute in her right sleeve after their arrival in Lumeth, but she had just drawn this flute from her left sleeve. He leaned forward, trying to get a better look at it.

It wasn't the same flute; he was sure of it. This one was lighter in color, and when she began to play the tone was slightly different.

It had the same effect, though. When she reached that final note and held it the sound seemed to echo and re-echo, and the stone pavement shook beneath their feet, then with a great rumble it rippled and split open. A slate skidded off a nearby roof and shattered on the pavement.

"I thought we would stay here tonight!" Emmis whispered to Lar. "I mean, we came all the way to Lumeth, and after half an hour we're going back to Ethshar? I didn't even get to see the famous towers!"

"I don't think Ethshar is where we're going," the ambassador replied.

Startled, Emmis asked, "It's not?"

"I don't think so."

Then Ithinia was leading the way down the steps, and Lar and Emmis followed the crowd descending into this new fissure. Emmis decided not to ask any more questions, since he would see soon enough where they were going.

He glanced back as they were entering the rift, and saw the three Lumethan magicians still sprawled miserably on the pavement; they were not accompanying the party to whatever its new destination might be. Annis the Merchant was still being escorted along, though.

This time the passage stayed stone the entire way, but changed hue, from gray to a off-white. Once again, they emerged into sunlight in the middle of a public square. This time, though, Emmis could smell the sea and hear the cry of gulls overhead; he began to think that they were indeed returning to Ethshar, just not to Ithinia's garden.

Then he looked around, and knew that whatever this place was, it wasn't Ethshar of the Spices. The buildings surrounding them were white or golden yellow, gleaming in the sun, without a trace of red brick or dark timber anywhere. The air was warmer than it had been in either Ethshar or Lumeth.

Again, when the gargoyles bringing up the rear had emerged from the chasm, Ithinia concluded her tune and the fissure rumbled and closed.

Again, a crowd had gathered, but stood well back from the newly arrived strangers.

"Prince Sammel of Ashthasa!" Ithinia called. "Come forth and hear me!"

"This is Ashthasa?" Emmis whispered.

"I suppose so," Lar said. "I've never been here before."

This time they had a wait before at last the doors of a large white building swung open and a young man in gaudy green-and-gold robes emerged, attended by half a dozen spearmen in gleaming golden helmets.

Again, Ithinia and the other wizards introduced themselves, Lar, Lord Ildirin, the theurgist, and the demonologist. Then Ithinia had Annis dragged forward.

"This woman," Ithinia announced, "conspired with three Lumethan agents who attempted to assassinate the Vondish ambassador to Ethshar of the Spices."

The man in the elaborate robes replied, "Not by my orders; I assigned her to watch the ambassador, not kill him." He spoke Ethsharitic well, better than any of the Lumethan lords.

"I didn't try to assassinate anyone!" Annis protested – unlike the Lumethan magicians she hadn't been gagged, since she had no magic to call upon. "I just didn't try to stop it! And I told Emmis, who did stop it!"

"Then I see no crime," the prince replied. "Why have you come here so dramatically?"

"To inform you that your concerns about Vondish expansion are groundless, and warn you that you are not to interfere in the Empire's trade negotiations with the Hegemony. And to return you your spy, who is no longer welcome in Ethshar of the Spices."

"You are saying that the Wizards' Guild will guarantee that the Vondish Empire will not attempt to extend itself into Ashthasa?"

"We are saying that the Wizards' Guild will guarantee that the Vondish Empire will not attack Ashthasa without provocation, nor will we permit the Empire to use warlockry against any of its neighbors under any circumstances. We would suggest, however, that you do not provoke the Empire."

"I am not a fool, my lady," the prince replied. "Even without magic, the Empire could swallow Ashthasa in mere hours; we will not provoke them. Thank you for your assurances!"

He and Ithinia exchanged bows.

Then a guardsman cut Annis' bonds and gave her a shove. She took a few steps, then stopped to turn and glare at the Ethsharites. No one paid her much attention as Ithinia drew a flute from her sleeve.

This time Emmis had been watching closely. He knew she had put the flute that had brought them from Lumeth to Ashthasa in her right sleeve, yet she drew this one from her left. And it was chased in silver, where the others had been plain wood.

How many flutes did she have in there?

Again, she began to play; again, the music behaved unnaturally, the ground shook, and a fissure opened.

Emmis waved to Annis as he marched into the waiting passage; she waved back.

Then he had once again turned that strange corner onto the magical staircase, and was on his way somewhere – perhaps back to Ethshar, perhaps somewhere else.

He didn't bother asking Lar where he thought they were bound; they would find out soon enough.

The sun seemed even brighter here than it had in Ashthasa, even though it was now well down the western sky and the walls of the houses and shops were a slightly darker shade of golden-yellow. Once again they had emerged in a public square, but this one was hard-packed earth, rather than being paved with stone, and appeared to have little in the way of city around it. A white marble palace loomed over them on one side, while the other three sides of the square mostly had just a few open-fronted shops shaded by brightly-colored awnings. A broad road led out of the square directly opposite the doors to the palace, and Emmis could see that it led, perhaps half a mile away across a valley, to a castle built of dark red stone, looking like something out of a picture book about the Small Kingdoms.

Well, that was reasonable enough, since they were presumably somewhere in the Small Kingdoms. Emmis could not see how they had any business anywhere other than Ethshar and the Small Kingdoms, and this definitely wasn't Ethshar of the Spices.

"Semma!" Lar exclaimed, as they climbed up out of the fissure.

"Is that where we are?" Emmis asked, looking around. The crowd here was smaller than the ones that had gathered in Lumeth and Ashthasa, which seemed peculiar; wasn't this the heart of an empire, where the others were little more than city-states?

"Yes!" Lar said, pointing. "That's the Imperial Palace, where the Council meets, and over there is Semma Castle, where the Regent lives – and where I live."

That was interesting; Emmis studied the castle. It didn't look terribly appealing. He noticed it had a rather sprawling village clustered around it, where the palace only seemed to have this one square's worth of homes and businesses near it. "I would have thought the Regent would live in the Imperial Palace," he said.

Lar turned up a palm. "He doesn't like being that close to the Imperial Council."

That struck Emmis as slightly odd, but then, much of what Lar had told him about Lord Sterren seemed a little odd.