It was interesting that although he used the word “treason,” he also used the words “bordering on,” not quite committing himself to the full charge, but still using it out of anger and as an attempt to intimidate his younger brother.
Larz was absolutely furious. I’d never seen him so mad, except maybe for that time cycles ago, during the Athelonian war, when I accidentally said I knew all about black powder and then used way too much of it to help in Janos’s escape from the Athelonians. I blew up half the Athelonian army that day. Larz was pretty mad about it too, but in my defense, I’d only been nine cycles old at the time. What did he expect?
Anyway, without any more messages being sent to his Tygerian relatives, not even an acknowledgment of receipt, he told the servants to begin packing up all our things and to prepare his and Janos’s personal ship, a large, sleek, fully armed striker, and to have it ready for us to leave by the next morning. All of the Royal Guard who wanted to go with us had been welcome to leave with us and bring their families along. Almost all of them accepted the invitation.
Then finally, on the day we left Laltana, Larz sent a simple reply to Mikos’s charge that he was “treasonous.” He sent the message to his father, too, with copies to each member of the family. His reply was just three words:“If you think I’m a traitor, then hang me.”
He also sent a message to King Stefan of Moravia, asking for temporary asylum, and he received a quick and affirmative reply, though his brother Vannos, who always played the role of peacemaker, asked him to allow him to at least inform their father. Vannos also called Larz personally and tried to smooth things over, begging him to let him set up a meeting to talk things over and perhaps reconcile.
He asked Larz to consider Blake’s feelings as well. He reminded him of Blake’s advanced age for a human and his “bad health,” trying to play on his sympathies. The consort’s age seemed irrelevant to me. Don’t get me wrong. I liked Blake a lot, and on the occasions he’d been to visit, I’d enjoyed talking tohim. He was smart and funny and he obviously loved Larz. He was also really nice to me and Janos.
But I thought the “bad health” thing was just made up. The last time I’d seen him, he looked pretty damn healthy to me, and his handsome face was barely even lined. It was said Davos gave him supplements to keep him in good shape. His alleged “age and bad health” never seemed to come up unless and until he needed to wield it as a weapon to keep his children in line.
But since all the brothers were absolutely crazy about the Consort Blake, including Larz, it worked very well. Larz had agreed to a meeting on Moravia, though he was careful to make no promises beyond that.
As for me, I was excited and looking forward to the whole adventure. I’d never traveled off planet before, and Blake wasn’t the only one who liked a little drama. We definitely had that in common.
When I’d first come to live with Janos and Larz at their palace, Larz would allow traveling players to put on a show in the courtyard from time to time, because Janos liked it. These traveling entertainment troupes performed in town halls and inns all across our country, Herkos, and relied on minimal props. They did wear elaborate and colorful costumes though, and delivered powerful vocal performances, often with music and dancing and even the occasional trained animal or clowns. I have to confess I loved it.
Now it seemed as if a different kind of show was coming again after all these cycles, and even though there wouldn’t be music, the stage was set for an elaborate production. There might not be any dancing animals or clowns—more’s the pity—but there was bound to be plenty of high drama. And I could hardly wait.
Chapter One
Oh, life is a glorious cycle of song,
A medley of extemporanea;
And love is a thing that cannevergo wrong;
And I am Marie of Rumania.
~ Dorothy Parker
Taran
It took us a little over a week, and the use of three, separate wormholes in space to make the long journey to Moravia. It was an unbelievably long way away, over a week’s journey beyond Tygeria, which we gave a wide berth. Janos hated space travel with approximately the same level of passion as Larz loved it, which is to say, a lot. But then it had been a long time since he left Laltana, and he was very much a homebody. He’d never sought fortune or fame, and I didn’t think he’d ever really enjoyed being king. Circumstances and the war had thrust that upon him.
As for me, this was my first trip, and I guess I fell somewhere in the middle in regard to space travel. I liked being in space, and the speed of travel thrilled me, but occasionally the thought of just where I actually was—in a hunk of metal hurtling through the endless vastness of space—scared the hell out of me. I would have died before admitting it, however.
We finally arrived in Moravian airspace early one morning a few weeks later, and the captain of the ship took us into orbit around the planet. We used a shuttle to go down to the surface. Most of the Guard would follow us down later, and only a small contingent came with us or directly after us, and those were mostly our most trusted men.
We were met on the docks by a large group of soldiers led by the king himself, accompanied by his consort, Prince Vannos, another of Larz’s handsome Tygerian brothers. I’d never met them before, but they seemed nice—especially for royals—and gave us a warm welcome. Prince Vannos, who appeared to be good natured and strongly resembled his younger brother Larz, greeted his brother in what I’d come to think of as the Tygerian family way, touching foreheads and then gripping each other’s upper arms. It was reserved for really close family members though, and Larz merely bowed formally to King Stefan, while Janos inclined his head. The Moravians and notably their king, Stefan, closely resembled the Tygerian people, and his race was more or less distant cousins of them. He was a regal king, almost as tall as Larz, with bulky muscles and long brown hair, but the Moravians didn’t have the markings under the skin, like the Tygerians did.
I really liked the fact that Prince Vannos had greeted Janos warmly after first saying hello to his brother, giving Janos a courteous bow, even though all of Janos’s royal titles had been stripped away from him by the Tygerians. I could see that Janos was touched by the gesture too.
After talking for a while on the docks, the king and Prince Larz rode the large animals the Moravians called arrizes to go up to the castle, while the rest of us left to get in the shuttles that would take us up to the king’s mountaintop fortress. Apparently, from what I overheard, the Tygerians weren’t coming for a couple of days yet, at the earliest. Vannos told me that he’d decided to wait a day or so after talking with his brother Larz, to message them about the meeting, afraid that King Davos would try to intercept us on the way if he told them too soon. He said he thought this meeting was long overdue, and Larz just smiled at him and gave him a real hug. Like he usually reserved for me and Janos.
“You just want us all to get along, don’t you? You’ve always been the nicest one of us. Don’t worry so much, brother. It will all work out. And if it doesn’t, then you and I will never lose touch. I promise.”
Larz told me that Vannos normally would have ridden to the shuttles on an arriz too, but to be polite, he stayed with us. Riding arrizes was an ancient custom on Moravia, and everyone seemed to love the magnificent, but scary looking beasts. Those of us not riding to the top on an arriz traveled over to the hangar where the shuttles were kept in what was just a glorified cart, really, though it was sturdy and well built, even a little luxurious, filled as it was with cushions and furs. I badly wanted to be on the back of one of those arrizes, like Larz, but he told me he’d learned to ride them as a child, and that it would be better for now if I accompanied Janos, as they could be wild and unpredictable animals. That just made me want to ride them even more, but he promised to give me lessons soon, and I contented myself with that.
As we traveled to the hangar to get on a shuttle, I saw the old trail leading up to the fortress, high atop the mountain on a steep, narrow trail, with a huge drop on the side down to the green valley far below. I was secretly glad I’d decided to stay with Janos to ride the shuttle once I’d seen that drop, while Larz and the king and his men rode up the treacherous looking trail. Janos held my hand all the way up to the palace in the shuttle, but outwardly, he looked pretty calm. Larz had told us that Moravia was an odd mixture of old and new technology, so we’d been more or less prepared for all of this.
The mountain fortress was a formidable sight. It sat high atop a ridge over a large chasm that Vannos told us was called Mithran Deep. The fortress had gray, stone walls that rose up out of a sheer cliff, like it had been carved from the mountain itself. A wide bridge led across Mithran Deep right up to thepalace gates. Vannos leaned forward to point it out to Janos as we passed over it.
“When I first came here, that bridge was much narrower, only wide enough for three arrizes to ride abreast, and the sides of the cart literally scraped the rails. It was terrifying, so I made Stefan build a new bridge as soon as I could. Unfortunately, he hasn’t been as open to many more of my suggestions about renovations on the palace. I’m afraid it’s not going to be as beautiful and modern as what you’re used to at home. My omak told me how nice your palace is.”
Janos looked a little sad at the mention of his home, but he recovered quickly and smiled at Larz’s brother. “Home is wherever my family is. And I think your mountain fortress is beautiful. Thank you so much for hosting us. I’ve hardly ever seen Larz be so upset as when he received that message calling him a traitor.”
