Saiai Webnovels

The palace of Istak was a hollow stepped pyramid, a structure that reminded Helena of the Great Palace of Arlis.

Silen led her and captain Astor outside again, then up a large staircase that brought them to the top of the pyramid and finally inside a vast hall with a tall ceiling.

The walls were decorated with golden friezes: winged figures, circles inside other circles, the image of a great sun spreading its rays of light. These surrounded colored frescoes and pure white reliefs, scenes that maybe told a story: five people sitting at a table; a lone figure that seemed to be watching the starry night sky; a ship in a stormy sea; a scene of battle, in which stood out a man holding a huge hammer; a man and a woman in front of a great tree.

Helena recognized those scenes: she had seen similar images in the Rook as well. But in Elis, each and every figure had been deliberately vandalized, losing its face and hands, in some cases even its whole arms and legs. She would have gladly stopped to study those scenes and its peculiar main characters now that she could finally see what they looked like, but her eyes were drawn to the man who sat on the throne at the end of the hall.

He wore a long robe, dark red in color. A stole girdled his shoulders and dropped down along his chest, forming a golden letter Y. From his round headgear that had on the front something similar to a diadem peeked out locks of chestnut-colored hair. Of that same coloe were his short beard, his well-groomed mustache and his thin eyebrows, in that moment arched in curiosity as he watched Helena approach him.

He turned for a moment to a person to his right and said something, at too low a voice for Helena to hear. And the person left, exiting from a door close by, before she could even only approximately make out their appearance.

At five or six steps from the throne, Silen stopped and knelt. Captain Astor immediately did the same, as if he had been long ready. Helena hesitated, then she bowed her head and started to bend a knee like the other two.

«No, no!» she was stopped by a voice with a heavy accent. «Noble Ghelena, there is no need.»

Helena lifted her gaze, slightly surprised by the high pitch of that voice, that she could hardly associate to the physique of the man on the throne.

«Your ladyship is esteemed guest of us.» the man continued, gesturing her to stand.

«I am very grateful for this hospitality…» she answered as she straightened up, but she could not finish the sentence, gripped by a doubt on how to call that man and confused by his use of “ladyship”.

«Noble Zamoshan.» Silen whispered to her, coming to her aid.

«Noble Zamoshan.» she repeated. «Your gen-»

«Your lordship’s…»

«Y-your lordship’s generosity will not be forgotten.»

The lord smiled to her. «Do not worry about. Rather, allow me to offer your ladyship condolences for noble Stefan.»

Helena was startled. She had found it strange that no-one until now had expressed any surprise at her father’s absence.

Zamoshan seemed to intuit her unuttered question. «He wrote so in his letter. He knew he would probably die before arriving here, and he asked to treat your ladyship with same respect we would have had for him.»

Father… She closed her eyes, dedicating to him a silent thought. But immediately the mention of the letter brought another matter to her mind.

«The watchers who brought you the letter. Where are they now, noble Zamoshan?»

For a single instant the lord stiffened, then his face showed surprise and confusion.

But that instant before he changed expression was enough for Helena to see the flash of fear that had appeared in his small dark eyes.

«I sent them back to your ladyship moment they gave letter. Did they not return?»

Helena opted to shake her head and feign ignorance, but in her mind she had come to an unequivocal realization.

This man is lying to me.

She still could not figure out his reason, but Helena was certain Zamoshan was hiding something from her.

He sighed, then he stood up from his throne and moved to a large window to his left.

«I should have sent escort with them, but I have not enough soldiers. Unfortunately plains are full of dangers, first among them bandits.» he said, looking outside, toward the wall. «I am really dismayed. Blame for this loss is all on me.»

That apology seemed almost sincere, but Helena ignored it. «Bandits?»

«Yes, exactly. Rovers, deserters, armed and organized criminals. Your ladyship must have them in her kingdom too, I imagine.»

«Antrakhora is not a kingdom.» Helena felt sorely offended.

«Oh, of course. Forgive my poverty of language.» The lord penitently bowed his head. «Anyway, bandits are main reason we built those walls.»

Helena avoided telling him she knew for a fact that those walls were there long before the whole lordship even existed. If Zamoshan was trying to impress her, then she was going to let him think he was succeeding.

«But your ladyship has nothing to fear, noble Ghelena. As long as your ladyship stays here inside walls, she will be safe.»

Finally, she began to suspect where this conversation was heading. «As long as I stay inside the walls, noble Zamoshan?»

«But of course!» he answered with a smile. «One entire floor of palace is at your ladyship’s disposal, for all time she will grace us with her presence.»

«And my fellow citizens?»

«As for your ladyship’s people…» the lord’s expression turned apologetic. «…your ladyship very well understands we cannot house everyone permanently inside walls. But I assure you ladyship if emergency happens we will find way to take them in.»

Now I see.

«And what of my guards?»

Again, for an instant fear flashed on Zamoshan’s face.

«Have understanding. For security reasons, I cannot allow armed people who are not my guards to stay in this palace or inside walls. Your ladyship will not be in any danger anyway, noble Ghelena. From now on your ladyship is under my protection.»

Just what she expected.

«Your lordship has my gratitude, noble Zamoshan.» she answered him, with the greatest courtesy and the largest smile she could show. «I will evaluate your lordship’s offer in the coming days, but for tonight I wish to stay with my people.»

The lord smiled back but she nevertheless noticed that he had clenched his fists. «Yes, perfectly understandable. It is not my intention to force your ladyship. We’ll have chance to speak of this again, in future. Your ladyship will always be welcome.»

After that, the man looked away, signaling that as far as he was concerned the meeting was over. Helena was about to leave, but then she had a thought.

«Before the hour becomes too late, noble Zamoshan, one final question.» I do not know how much I can trust him, but any information is better than no information. «Did news from Dysis reach your lordship? What does your lordship know of their situation?»

Zamoshan looked upward, as if he did not expect that question. «Deesis? Deesis is as it has always been.»

Helena sighed. Her father’s plan was for Dysis to attack on his behalf, forcing the Regent to fight on two fronts. Until that moment, a small part of her had still hoped that at least part of the plan had been put in motion.

She almost did not hear the observation the lord uttered in a low voice: «I think new political situation made them hesitant, like everyone.»

«New political situation?»

For the third time in that meeting, Zamoshan showed he was hiding something from her. «Ah, pay no mind. We will be able to talk about this too, in future. Now it is late, sun has almost disappeared under horizon. If your ladyship wants to join back with her people, she has to leave now, gates will soon be closed. Go.»

---

«What do you think, my Exarch?» Astor asked her as they descended the great staircase, this time without Silen accompanying them.

«That man wants to isolate me. He offered me a gilded cage in which I would be ever at his mercy. I still do not know what his aims are, but I’m already certain he does not share our own.»

«I thought the same. We cannot trust him.»

«…Were you testing me, Astor?»

The captain did not answer, but even in the dying light Helena saw the rare smile that had appeared on his rugged face.

Irritated, Helena absentmindedly brought her right hand to one of the pockets of her new tunic, and was surprised to feel something inside of it.

She resisted the urge to take it out. Judging by her touch alone, it seemed to be a slip of paper, repeatedly folded. She was sure she had not put anything into her pockets yet, so the one who put it there must have been…

«Who brought these clothes into the bathroom?» she asked.

Astor gave her a puzzled look, then he answered: «One of the women that Silen man wanted to serve you. I inspected them thoroughly, there should be no…»

«Never mind, you did well.»

This also told her that the slip must have been put there precisely then, after the inspection and before she exited the bathroom. So the one responsible really had to be one of those women.

She was preemptively pondering what that might mean, when she was distracted by an unusual gesture of the captain. Astor had took out of his uniform what looked like a small statue, and was holding it in his hand with a pensive look, occasionally gently rubbing his thumb on its colorful surface.

It was a clay figurine, of a roughly human shape. For a moment she thought it had some religious significance and she found it bizarre but not impossible: many different cults were practiced in the Principate, but she would have never expected a man like Astor to adhere to any of them.

However, once she gave a better look at it, she realized that the figurine, however rough, looked familiar. It wore the blue uniform of the Principate’s soldiers, had large blue eyes and long black hair.

Yes. Now he was keeping his hair shorter, but the figurine looked like a portrait of the captain himself when he was younger. A portrait… like the one a child could make.

«You have a daughter, Astor, have you not?»

«Twin daughters, my Exarch.» he answered, as if the question had brought him back from his reverie.

«That is a very cute present.»

Astor quickly looked back at the figurine. «Oh. No, this isn’t a present from them. This… is an old memory. Sometimes I need it, to not forget.»

«A memory of happier times?» she asked, now moderately curious.

«Unfortunately no, my Exarch.» the captain sighed, putting the figurine back inside his uniform. «The memory of a promise I made to myself.»