The Tower Broken(97)
In any case, he liked the duke.
Azeem stepped from the dais and spoke quietly to Herran just as the gong sounded. The herald crept down the aisle, his smooth expression betraying none of the excitement of the moment. ‘Austere Adam, Your Majesty.’
The austere walked down the silk runner, and despite their earlier threats the men of court backed away from his path. He had an air of dignity and physical prowess, the sort of man most people were not brave enough to confront without significant preparation. He walked all the way to the end, his chin held high, and Sarmin started to worry, for the last time Austere Adam had come to this room he had refused to bend his knee until Govnan took action with his staff. If Adam would not kneel today he would likely die for the infraction before Sarmin could say a word about it – and then he might never find his mother or his brother.
To his relief Adam knelt without prompting and touched his forehead to the purple silk.
A collective sigh, felt rather than heard, rose from the assembly.
Sarmin waited a long while, and another long while after that, and the men of the court started to fiddle with their robes, to cough, to sneak looks at one another. The door shut behind Azeem and Herran and Sarmin felt the same buzzing in his ears that he had felt on Qalamin’s Deck, but now he recognised it as the noise of the Scar, a clattering of things, the whispers of all the life that flowered and died there, over and over, in a confusion of sound and motion.
He cleared his throat. ‘Rise, Austere.’
Adam rose to his feet. Dinar stood just behind him. Though Dinar was the bigger of the two, they were of similar build, and Sarmin wondered what it was in the life of a priest that lent itself to such muscle.
‘What brings you here, my enemy, in this time of war?’
‘Your Majesty,’ said Adam, meeting his gaze with eyes of indigo, deeper in colour than even Didryk’s, ‘I hope that we will be allies, not enemies, once we have finished talking. I have commanded my men to lay down their arms.’
‘That is nothing to me. They have already done enough harm to warrant their executions.’
Adam shrugged. ‘My men know that they are going to paradise, and soon.’
Sarmin regarded him in surprise. If he did not care for the lives of his men, what then did he care about – and why had he come? He went directly to his own concern. ‘Where are my mother and brother?’ At this the courtiers looked to one another, startled, for they did not know the Empire Mother was gone.
Adam looked surprised. ‘I do not know where your mother is, Magnificence. I have not seen her. I had your brother and I let him go.’
Lies and more lies. ‘Why? Why did you let him go?’ Sarmin leaned forwards, anxious to hear whatever reason Adam might offer. The austere had switched his brother with another boy, and Sarmin would get the truth out of the man eventually.
‘Because I could not send him to Yrkmir. The first austere is mad, Your Majesty. The child would not learn about Mogyrk, not the way children are meant to learn of him, in his light and love. So I allowed Rushes to escape.’
‘Blinded.’
Adam looked chastened, but Sarmin was sure he was only pretending.
‘I did that early on so that she could not escape – or if she did, she could not tell anyone where we were.’
‘Not so that you could change my brother for another boy?’
Again the courtiers murmured, and Adam looked at him wide-eyed. ‘No, Your Majesty! The boy who escaped with Rushes and Farid was the same boy I took from the palace.’
‘We can have no alliance if you continue to lie.’ Despite his words, a certainty took hold in him: he feared the austere spoke the truth. Mother, Daveed, where are you? He motioned to the Blue Shields and ordered, ‘Take him to the dungeon.’ With Adam safely in a cell he would have time to think – but he would need to send more than Blue Shields if he was to ensure the man did not die before he reached the dungeon. Herran had left with Azeem, so he turned and gestured to Ne-Seth and another of the sword-sons. ‘Go with him. Ensure his safety.’
Adam struggled against the arms of the Blue Shields who held him. ‘Your Majesty! I come to offer you salvation. Death is near! You must bring yourself and your brother into the light before Mogyrk—’
The doors closed behind him and Sarmin heard no more.
The courtiers stood in silence for a time. At last Dinar spoke. ‘Would we truly seek an alliance with a Mogyrk austere?’
Sarmin leaned back in his throne. ‘If I wish it.’ Didryk had never met the first austere; Adam clearly had. There was information there.
‘Magnificence,’ Dinar said, picking his words, ‘the gods have been very clear. The earthquake, the wound that grows to the north … I worry we may anger them further with our actions – or inaction.’