The Sword Of Heaven - An Earthly Crown Part 47

"Anahita," said Gwyn in a low voice. "Shut up, or leave."

Anahita went red in the face. With a snort of anger, she walked away. But no one laughed at her discomposure. Hyacinth fell silent.

Arina Veselov looked grave. She looked so impossibly tiny, standing there with the weight of her authority on her, and yet she carried an air of implacability with her.

Her chin quivered, and she set her mouth in a thin line, then spoke. "In the days before day existed, Mother Sun and Father Wind talked together, Aunt Cloud and Uncle Moon talked together, and from this congress came children. So did they, the G.o.ds, decree that when a girl becomes a woman, when a boy becomes a man, so will they talk together, that from such congress will come children. And so did the tents of the jaran grow from one tent to many tents, and the tribes of the jaran from ten tribes to a hundred hundred tribes. But this one-" She opened a hand, palm out, to indicate Hyacinth. "-has turned his face away from the G.o.ds' decree. Thus must we, in our turn, turn our face away from him."

Quinn had sidled up next to Diana, and Diana felt that Gwyn had moved up behind her, like a s.h.i.+eld at her back. Hal glowered at the jaran. Yomi looked perplexed, and for once, Owen appeared to be perfectly alert, absorbing every word.

"I don't understand," whispered Quinn. "What does that mean? What did he do?"

"I thought," said Gwyn in an undertone, "that Hyacinth was being discreet."

Yomi sighed and stepped forward to extend a hand toward Hyacinth, but he ignored her. "Mother Veselov, I'm still not sure I understand what you are trying to say."

Arina set her lips even tighter, as if the entire conversation were distasteful to her. She glanced back once at Hyacinth and then at one of the men standing guard- her brother Anton, Diana realized. "I beg your pardon for bringing such news to you, Mother Yomi. He was found consorting with another man."

"And?" Yomi asked, waiting for the explanation of the crime that had evidently followed this discovery.

Arina stared blankly at her. Yomi stared blankly back.

Diana took one step forward. "Yomi," she said softly in Anglais, "I think she's trying to tell you that same-s.e.x partners.h.i.+ps aren't-ah-tolerated here, and certainly not when they become public."

Owen swore loudly. Yomi hastened forward and took Hyacinth firmly by one elbow, dragging him away from his jaran escort. "Mother Veselov," she said briskly, "I thank you for bringing this boy back here. Now we will speak with him."

It was a dismissal. Arina recognized it. She nodded, apologized again for the unseemly episode, and retreated, ruthlessly dispersing the distant crowd as she went.

"You d.a.m.ned fool," said Owen.

"Oh, h.e.l.l," murmured Gwyn. "He's going to lose his temper and antagonize Hyacinth at the same time."

"Have you no self-control?" Owen demanded. "I thought I admitted only professionals to my troupe, but now I see that I've made an exception. Clearly you can't think any farther than your genitals extend."

Hyacinth burst into tears. He gulped out words that no one could make sense of, strangled in sobs.

"Owen," said Ginny quietly, going over to put an arm around Hyacinth. "Perhaps we'd have better luck in a softer and more private discussion of what happened."

But Owen was in a white rage by now. "I wash my hands of him!" He stalked off.

"Yes, let's discuss this in private," said Yomi. "Ginny? Joseph?" She glanced up.

"Gwyn and Diana, you, too. Come." Hyacinth trailed pa.s.sively after her. They went to the Company tent.

"Sit," said Ginny sternly, pressing Hyacinth down into a chair. "Now, what in h.e.l.l happened, my boy?"

Hyacinth looked awful. His bright hair was mussed and tangled. Dirt streaked his chin. His left sleeve had a rip in it. He stared at his hands, which lay motionless in his lap. There was a long silence. At last Hyacinth spoke, his voice so low that Diana had to strain to hear him. "I met this man. I liked him."

"But, Hyacinth," said Diana, "by the way you talk, I thought you knew all about-I mean-" She faltered."I think what Diana is trying to say," said Yomi, "is how, if you're so experienced at this, did you get yourself into this mess?"

"Oh, G.o.ddess," said Ginny under her breath, "what will Soerensen say when he hears of this? He was so insistent that we not break any taboos."

"Go on, Hyacinth," said Joseph gently. "You may as well tell us the truth now, since I think you've done as much damage as you can by-"

"By lying?" Hyacinth flung his head back. "Well, it's true, that I exaggerated. It's true I joked about sleeping my way through the camp, and sleeping with everyone, and, no, I never did. Oh, men looked at me in that way, a few of them, but they never did anything about it, except once, and then he was ashamed, and it was all so secret and quick and shameful that it was ugly instead of joyful, and it made me feel dirty since he clearly felt that way. Women propositioned me, lots of women, and they were fine and pleasant, those I went to. But you know I prefer men."

"But then if you knew they thought it shameful, if you knew it was wrong as a cultural norm, then why did you go ahead this time?" Ginny asked, shaking her head.

"Why? We're in their culture, Hyacinth. We can't just tromp around in our seven- league boots and trample wherever we go."

"If it was wrong? You know it's wrong, how they act. Punis.h.i.+ng someone for what's only natural." He was no longer sobbing, but tears leaked from his eyes again.

"Do you know what they're going to do to him? They're going to exile him. Ostracize him. You know what that means, don't you? He'll die."

Diana stared. The truth was, she had never thought Hyacinth capable of thinking much about anything. He was a decent actor, with a chance to grow in time if he worked at it, but the rest of the time he was such a d.a.m.ned flighty, shallow, pretty boy that it was hard to take him seriously or even to believe that he could feel this deeply and understand this much.

Gwyn sighed. Yomi covered her eyes with a hand. Joseph shook his head.

"Then why did you do it?" demanded Ginny.

"I didn't know," he said, anguished, and Diana believed him. "I know they're savages, and I knew enough to know that the kind of primitive war they wage would be ugly-but you can learn to look the other way.''

"Oh, G.o.ddess, maybe you can," whispered Diana.

"But I thought because they're pretty open about their s.e.xuality that they wouldn't be so harsh. I knew I had to be discreet. And it was my fault. He said I ought to leave, and I said-well, and then we fell asleep. And then it was morning." He began to weep in earnest again. "It isn't fair. His life has been hard enough. He and his sister were orphaned and sent to live with their aunt, but she didn't treat them well, and then he became an outlaw-I don't understand that part-and now they let him ride with the army again, but I think they'll be happy enough to see him go. It's a good excuse to get rid of him. He's worried about his sister.''

"Hyacinth," asked Yomi slowly, "how long has this been going on?"He shrugged. "A month? Right after that skirmish up in the hills we were caught in. Longer than that, I guess. A while."

Yomi turned to Diana. "Do you know anything about this?"

"No. It's not a subject I ever-discussed-with my husband. Or with anyone else, for that matter. Just with Hyacinth. But I thought he knew what he was doing!"

"You don't understand." Hyacinth stood up. "It's my fault. If we don't do something, he'll die."

"What do you suggest we do?" asked Ginny quietly. "We're traveling with them, Hyacinth, not the other way around. I remind you that we work under the duke's interdiction."

"t.i.ts!" swore Hyacinth. "You know d.a.m.n well we're breaking that interdiction anyway. All the plays. Theater. Everything. It's so much p.i.s.s, if you ask me. We're in- fluencing them just by being here-and his own sister is married to the king! I think it's for the better, too. They need to be civilized. Do you really approve of the way they kill? Slaughter wholesale? And now they're going to kill Yevgeni just because he loves men rather than women, as if that means anything."

"They're not going to kill him!" Yomi exclaimed.

"Do you think he has a chance, sent out into hostile countryside alone?" Hyacinth sounded disgusted.

"You're dependent on the tribe, here," said Diana softly. "Everywhere, here, whether you're in hostile country or out on the plains."

"Yevgeni said there used to be a tribe that was just men, just fighters, who had left their tribes because they-because they wanted that freedom. He was with a group of them when they came into the army, but he says that the last real group of them died." His beautiful, mobile mouth twisted down into a bitter grimace. "They died saving Bakhtiian's life. I told him that he should demand to see Bakhtiian. If men like that would save Bakhtiian, surely Bakhtiian owes them a favor, to save Yevgeni."

"Hyacinth." Gwyn shook his head. "But custom has to be strict in a place like this, in a society like this. Isn't it true that they have to be rigid to survive? Isn't inflexibility necessary in a hostile environment?''

"I don't know," said Hyacinth peevishly. "I just know that Yevgeni trusts me, and I'm not just going to stand by and let him be exiled."

This fierce declaration brought only silence.

"What precisely do you intend to do?" asked Yomi. "I remind you that you are a member of this troupe, and bound by its rules as well."

"I forbid you to interfere," said Ginny.

Diana twisted her hands together. She had seen so much suffering in the last months. So much of it had been distant suffering, the suffering of strangers and it was true that it was easier to ignore it, to displace it, to thrust it aside; it disturbed her to know that she was learning to do that. Perhaps one had to learn to do that to survive, to make existence bearable, to make happiness tenable, in a world so full of pain. But if offered the chance to do one thing. . . .

"I could go," she said softly. "I could talk to Arina. He must be from her tribe, or in her tribe's jahar, if she has jurisdiction. What did you say his name was, Hyacinth?"

The hope on his face was painful, the more so because Diana knew very well that her pleas had only the force of sentiment behind them, with no authority whatsoever.

Unlike, say, Tess Soerensen, she had brought nothing to her marriage, no power, no ties, no value, and while it was possible that Mother Sakhalin had forgiven her for that, still, no one was likely to do Diana any favors for the sake of her connections.

"His name is Yevgeni Usova. His sister's name is Valye. She's one of the archers.

He's so proud of that, that she's one of the women training to be mounted archers.

She's really a.s.signed to Anatoly Sakhalin's jahar, but he didn't take any women with him when he went because they were going so far into khaja territory, and they didn't want to risk it." Diana felt sick, suddenly, feeling that she hadn't clearly understood how dangerous the mission Anatoly had undertaken was, but Hyacinth went blithely on, reminiscing about his boyfriend. "So she was training with Kirill Zvertkov to begin with, so they remained with the Veselov tribe until Sakhalin gets back. But they didn't want to leave Yevgeni there, with the Veselov tribe, because he used to ride with Veselov. The cousin. Vasil, that's his name. They say he's very handsome, the cousin, and charismatic. I think Yevgeni is in love with him, though he never says as much to me. But he rode with him for three years, and longer, really, before that. But they let him stay because of Valye-he's the only family she has. Now what will she do? They won't trust her either, or she'll do something stupid like try to follow him into exile. She's sweet but not very smart. But she adores him. She wors.h.i.+ps him. Oh, Diana, do you think you can do something?"

"I'll try," said Diana. "With your permission, Ginny, of course."

Ginny swore under her breath. "What are we supposed to do? Take him in? Take him back to Earth with us? Like a pet dog?" Hyacinth went red. "Oh, don't yell at me, young man. You've caused enough trouble. I want you to think clearly for a minute- if you can-about what it would be like for one of these people to be jerked out of the world they know and thrown headlong into ours. It won't be an easy transition, no more than it would be for us if we were really and truly abandoned here without any of the fail-safes and modelers and slates and medical supplies and equipment and weapons we brought with us."

"That happened to Tess Soerensen," said Diana.

"And let her be a lesson to you, Hyacinth! Now. Go on, Diana, and why don't you take Gwyn, too?"

"Let me go," begged Hyacinth.

"No," added Ginny. "Mother Veselov already gave you into our hands. They don't want you back. Owen's not going to take this at all well, my boy, if it means they'll forbid you performing as well. And we're supposed to do Caucasian Chalk Circle sometime in the next five days.''

"You can even think of that? With a life at stake?""Hyacinth, we all have our limits. I can't save the world. I can't stop this war.

Maybe, just maybe, I can communicate a few things through art."

He flung himself back into the chair and buried his face in his hands. The entire line of his body spoke agony.

"I'll go now," said Diana, more to be rid of this scene than because she desired the next one.

CHAPTER FORTY.

Trouble came in the guise of a woman. It always did, Jiroannes reflected. The guards snuck two wh.o.r.es into camp and he caught them at it. He was not sure whether the guards intended to pay the women or simply kill them afterward, but the women looked desperate enough, thin and dirty and ragged. One had a child with her, a wild-eyed little creature with weeping sores around its mouth and a red rash on its arms. Once, Jiroannes would have left his men to it. They deserved some reward for their months of service in these G.o.d-forsaken lands. Jiroannes had not touched Samae in twenty days, and already even the sight of the wh.o.r.es' scrawny thighs and grimy abdomens moved him to l.u.s.t. The guards had gone much longer without women.

"Syrannus," he said as the wh.o.r.es straightened their clothes and the guards rebound their sashes, "chase the creatures away.''

"Yes, eminence. May I give them some food?"

"Give them food!"

"Eminence, in these lands, wh.o.r.es receive payment."

"Do what you wish. Don't bother me with it."

The next day, the guards mutinied. Politely, it was true, but they sent a delegation consisting of the captain and his two lieutenants to present their grievances to their master. This would never have happened in Vidiya.

Jiroannes received them on the carpet. Lal attended him, standing behind his chair with a large fan, which the boy worked up and down. Samae was out getting water from the river. She did the work Lal used to do, and the boy had quickly learned the more elaborate business of being a personal body servant.

''Your eminence.'' The captain knelt and bent to touch his forehead to the carpet.

"You may speak."

"Eminence, you must know that the jaran women will have nothing to do with us.

They call us names, eminence, foul names, and scorn us, and there are none who will accept coin or cloth or food for lying with us. Now you forbid us congress with these women who are willing enough to come into our camp. This is unjust. The Everlasting G.o.d has also decreed, eminence, that it is improper for a man to pa.s.s more than ten days without knowing a woman, for fear he will succ.u.mb to baser l.u.s.ts."

It was true, of course. Jiroannes sighed. "I will consider your grievances, captain. I will have an answer for them tomorrow.''

The captain touched his forehead to the carpet again, rose, bowed, and backed away. His escort backed away as well, until they were far enough away from the tent that they could without deliberate insult turn their backs on their master.

"What are you going to do, eminence?" asked Syrannus.

Jiroannes smoothed out his trousers. The hot, stifling air made him sweat, even with the turgid breeze stirred into life by Lal's tireless fanning. "I have no choice, Syrannus. I must take this matter before the jaran."

"Ah," said Syrannus, and nothing more.

Jiroannes sat, brooding. Smoke cast a pall over the air, adding to the stifling heat.

Although the Vidiyan camp was now situated at the end of amba.s.sadors' row, in the least desirable site, still the tents of the jaran army spread out beyond his camp.

Farther, at the eye of the storm, a city bled smoke into the heavens. Jiroannes could see its wall from here, a distant line. He thought there might still be some fighting going on there, but he could not be sure. Now that Mitya was gone, Jiroannes had no inside source of information. For twenty days he and his party had drifted along in the wake of the army, moving at the right time, camping at the right time, and otherwise utterly at sea. He did not know the name of this city, or which general was in charge of this a.s.sault. The guards had heard a rumor that Bakhtiian was ill, that he was dead, that he had been witched by the Habakar priests and that his spirit had left his body to do battle in the Otherlands for this kingdom. It might be true, for all Jiroannes knew.

He missed Mitya's information.

He missed Mitya's friends.h.i.+p.

What a strange thing it was, to think of having a friend. There had been other boys at the palace school whom he had liked, but one never trusted anyone at the palace. He sighed.

"Syrannus, you will attend me. Together with two of my guards." He rose. Lal dropped down to kneel behind the chair.

"Where are we going, eminence?"

"I don't know. We must find Bakhtiian, I suppose, or if he isn't here, then whomever is in charge." The two guards took their places at his back, and they walked together out of their huddle of tents. Syrannus went ahead to accost a pair of older jaran men who were repairing a shattered cart wheel. He spoke with them for a while and then returned to Jiroannes.