Shadowplay

"We fought, Master." Vo shrugged, his gray-green eyes as empty as two spheres of glass. There was nothing notable about him, Vash thought, ex

cept his accomplishment. He had forgotten the man's face in the short time since he had last seen him and would forget it again as soon as the man was gone. "At your request, as I understand it. I won."

"He cheated," said the captain of the Leopards angrily."He broke a floor tile and used it to stab Yaridoras to death."

"Thank you, Kiliarch Marukh," said Vash. "You have delivered him and nothing more is required of you. The Golden One will decide what to do with him."

Suddenly conscious that he was drawing attention to himself in a place where attention was seldom beneficial, Hijam Stoneheart paled a little, then bowed and backed out of the chamber.

"Sit," said the autarch, surveying the pale-ski

A strange honor for a mere brawler, to be served by the high priest of Nushash himself, thought Pinimmon Vash. Panhyssir was Vash's chief rival for the autarch's time and attention, but it was a contest Vash had lost long ago: the priest and the autarch were close as bats in a roost, always full of secrets, which made it seem all the more odd that the powerful Panhyssir should be carrying drinks like a mere slave.

As the high priest of Nushash moved with careful dignity toward a hid¬den alcove at the side of the great chamber, one of the autarch's eunuch ser¬vants scuttled up with a stool and placed it so that Daikonas Vo could seat himself within a few yards of the living god. The soldier did so, moving gingerly, as though his wounds from the combat with Yaridoras were in¬hibiting him. Vash guessed that they must be painful indeed: the man did not seem the type to show weakness easily.

Panhyssir returned with two goblets, and after bowing and presenting one to his monarch, gave the other to Vo, whose hesitation before drink¬ing was so brief that Vash could have almost believed he had imagined it.

"Daikonas Vo, I am told your mother was a Perikalese whore," declared the autarch. "One of those bought and carried back from the northern continent to serve my troop of White Hounds. Your father was one of the original Hounds-dead, now. Killed at Dagardar, I'm told."

"Yes, Golden One."

"But not before he killed your mother. You have the look of your peo¬ple, of course, but how well do you speak the language of your ancestors?"

"Perikalese?" Vo's nondescript face betrayed no surprise. "My mother taught it to me. Before she died it was all we spoke."

"Good." The autarch sal back, making a shape like a minaret with his lingers. "You are resourceful, 1 understand-and ruthless as well. Yaridoras is not the first man you have killed."

"1 am a soldier, Golden One."

"I do not speak of killings on the battlefield. Vash, you may read."

Vash held up a leather-bound account book which had been brought to him by the library slave only a short while before, then traced down a page with his finger until he found what he sought. "Disciplinary records of the White Hounds for this year. 'By verified report extracted from two slaves, Daikonas Vo is known to have been responsible for the deaths of at least three men and one woman, " Vash read. " 'All were Xixians of low caste and the killings at¬tracted little public attention so no punishment was required. That is just the re¬port for this year, which is not yet over. Do you "wish me to read from earlier years, Golden One?"

The autarch shook his head. A look of amusement crossed his long face as he turned back to the impassive soldier. "You are wondering why I should care about such things-whether you are to be punished at last. Is that not true?"

"In part, Master," said Vo."It is certainly strange that the living god who rules us all should care about someone as unimportant as myself. But as to punishment, I do not fear it at the moment."

"You don't?" The autarch's smile tightened. "And why is that?"

"Because you are speaking to me. If you only wished to punish me, Golden One, I suspect you would have done so without wasting the fruits of your divine thought on someone so lowly. Everybody knows that the living god's judgments are swift and sure."

Some of the tension went out of the autarch's long neck, replaced by a certain stillness, like a snake su

"Whatever you wish, Master." The soldier's voice remained flat and emotionless.

The autarch finished his wine and gestured that Daikonas Vo should do the same. "As you have no doubt heard, I am no longer content merely to receive tribute from the nations of the northern continent. The time is coming soon when I will take the ancient seaport of Hierosol and begin to expand our empire into Eion, bringing those savages into the bright, holy light of Nushash."

"So it has been rumored,Master," Vo said slowly."We all pray for the day to come soon."

"It will. But first, I have lost something that I want back, and it is to be found somewhere in that northern wilderness-the lands of your fore¬fathers."

"And you wish me to… retrieve this thing, Master?"

"I do. It will require cu

"And may I ask what that thing is, Golden One?"

"A girl. The daughter of an unimportant priest. Still, I chose her for the Seclusion and she had the dreadful ma

"Of course, Master." The soldier's expression became even more still.

"You are thinking again, Vo. That is good. I chose you because I need a man who can use his head. This woman is somewhere in the lands of our enemies, and if someone learns I want her, she may become the object of a contest. I do not want that." The autarch sat back and waved his hand. This time it was only an ordinary servant who scurried forward to refill his goblet. "But what you are wondering is this: Wliy should the autarch let me go free in the land of my ancestors? Even if I sincerely try to fulfill his quest, if I fail there is no punishment he can visit on me unless I return to Xis. No, do not bother to deny it. It is what anyone would think." The young autarch turned to one of his child servants, a silent Favored. "Bring me my cousin Febis. He should be in his apartments."

As they waited, the autarch had the servant refill Vo's cup. Pinimmon Vash, who had some inkling of what was to come, was glad he was not drinking the strong, sour Miha

Febis, a chubby, balding man with the reddened cheeks of an inveterate drinker made even more obvious by the pallor of fear, hurried into the chamber and threw himself on his hands and knees in front of the autarch, bumping his forehead against the stone.

"Golden One, surely I have done nothing wrong! Surely I have not of¬fended you! You are the light of all our lives!"

The autarch smiled. Vash never ceased to marvel at how the same ex¬pression that would bring joy if it were on the face of a young child or a

pretty woman could, just by transferring it to the autarch's smoothly youth ful features, suddenly become a thing to inspire terror."No, Febis, you have done nothing wrong. 1 called you here only because I wish to demonstrate something." He turned to the soldier Vo. "You see, I had a similar problem with those of my relations, like Cousin Febis, who remained after my father and brothers had died-after I, by the grace of Nushash of the Gleaming Sword, had become autarch. How could I be certain that some of these fam¬ily members might not ponder whether, as the succession had passed over several of my brothers upon their deaths and came to me, it might not con-tinue on to Febis or one of the other cousins after my untimely death? Of course, I could have simply killed them all when I took the crown. It would only have been a few hundred. I could have done that, couldn't I, Febis?"