Ascendant (43 page)

“
You were afraid of Daddy?
”
Ariana asked, surprised.
Afraid of the man who crawled around the palace on his knees, pretending to be
a horse, with his little daughter on his back? Afraid of the man who tucked her
into bed at night, with a kiss, and a bedtime story, not leaving that task to
maids?

“
You have to understand, I
was merely the daughter of a minor baron, and my parents weren
’
t especially rich or
powerful. My parents
’
greatest dream was that I would marry the younger son of a duke someday, or
perhaps a wealthy merchant. Their true hope was my sister, and she was supposed
to go attend the duchess when your father visited. But my sister fell ill, and
I went in her stead, and my mother told to stay out of the way and not call
attention to myself.
”
Carlana said the last with a touch of still-fresh bitterness, a wound that had
not fully healed.
“
Your
father noticed me when I was practicing archery, which ladies were allowed to
do, and later he noticed me again when I was singing in the choir during dinner
one evening. I was in the back row of the choir, mind you, and I don
’
t know how he heard my
voice among all the others. He called me forth to sing for him, and I was so
nervous I almost fainted, and then I forgot the words to the song. He knew the
words, and he sang along with me-
“

Ariana
laughed.
“
Daddy
couldn
’
t sing!
”

“
Oh, his voice was
atrocious.
”
Carlana laughed also.
“
But
he sang anyway, in front of all the guests, until I remembered the words. That
was, the first kind thing he ever did for me.
”
Carlana remembered with a wistful smile.

“
Then why were you afraid
of him?
”

“
Why? Because he was the
king, silly girl! He had the power of life and death over us all. He was young,
and strong, and so handsome, and all the girls fawned over him. I feared he
only wanted to toy with me, like some men do to poor servant girls. And when
his emissary came to my parents, to ask for my hand in marriage, I didn
’
t know what to think. I
’
d never lived in a palace!
Many of the noble ladies here were terribly jealous of me, and they were mean
to me.
”

“
Mean to you? But you were
marrying the king!
”

“
Much of the court thought
your father made a terrible mistake choosing me, for I brought nothing to the
match; no money, no influence, no political advantage. I arrived at the palace
a month before the wedding, and stayed in the royal apartments. The ladies were
sure a dumb country girl like me would soon make a fool of myself in the royal
court, and your father would change his mind. I think that just made him more
determined to marry me.
”

Ariana had
never before heard the story of how her parents had met.
“
Do you think I
’
ll marry a man who loves
me?
”

Carlana pulled
her daughter close and hugged her.
“
Oh,
honey, I think you
’
ll
be a good queen someday, and
all
your people will love you.
”

Seeing Ariana
almost kiss Koren, and talking with her daughter about silly dreams of
marriage, made up Carlana's mind about something she had been considering for
almost two years. Considering for years, and secretly negotiating for years,
and never reaching the point when she felt comfortable committing herself. It
was time to put comfort aside, she decided, and take the type of action her
critics said she was not capable of.

She sent for
the ambassador from the Indus Empire, to meet in her private chambers. The Bey
of Begal arrived with an aide and a pair of guards, and was mildly surprised to
see that the Regent of Tarador was alone in her ornate sitting room, except for
an elderly woman he did not recognize. "Ambassador Ulligrapat, please have
your guards wait outside the door. I wish to discuss something with you, in
private." The Regent said.

Usay
Ulligrapat bowed, and gestured for his guards to leave. "May my aide
remain, Your Highness?" He was hopeful about the absence of the royal
chancellor, who almost always accompanied Carlana when discussing matters of
state. Hopeful, for there were certain matters of state he had been discussing
with the Regent, that her chancellor was not aware of.

"Yes,
please, I wish your aide to join us, as we require witnesses. For this purpose,
I have invited the royal scribe, she is the official keeper of records for the
realm. Including records which need to remain secret for a time."

The
Ambassador's heart leapt in his chest, soaring with hope that he would soon
achieve the result for which the Emperor had sent him so far from Indus. He
bowed to the woman he now knew as the royal scribe, for her odd robes now made
sense. Her sleeves were short, the bottoms of the sleeves were rolled up and
pinned near her elbows, Usay supposed that was to keep her sleeves away from
fresh ink on documents.

"Please,
Ambassador, sit." Carlana said, gesturing to the chair across the low
table from where she was seated. It was a rather intimate setting, a setting
Carlana had chosen to emphasize the intimate, and sensitive, nature of their
discussions. "Would you like tea? We recently acquired a supply of Masala
Sahm tea leaves."

The royal
scribe had heard gossip around the castle of how shockingly expensive a single
bag of this special tea had been, a bag no larger than a loaf of bread. The Regent
must have been very eager to court favor with the ambassador, to pay so much
for a bag of dried leaves. While the Regent and the Ambassador exchanged
endless and meaningless pleasantries, the scribe considered how much the price
of the ordinary tea she drank at breakfast had soared in price over the past
few years. The steep increase in price was a sign, she had been told by the
people who dealt with the realm's finances, of how foreigners feared that
Tarador was slowly losing the war, for foreigners no longer gave credit to
Taradoran merchants, and those merchants were forced to pay in silver or gold.
The scribe kept a neutral expression on her face, and glanced out the window,
bored of the Regent's verbal sparring with the foreigner. She was thinking of
her son, who had recently become apprenticed to a merchant, and would be
leaving home in the springtime to travel far and wide, perhaps even across the
sea. Would her son ever travel as far as Indus? The scribe shuddered at the
thought of such a long and dangerous journey to a strange foreign land, where
people-

"I have
decided to sign the treaty." Carlana interrupted her scribe's thoughts.

The
Ambassador's perpetual expression of a pleasant half smile broke into a genuine
smile. The scribe thought the man was pleased that his mission to Tarador had
been successful, and he could now look forward to returning home, leaving
behind the cold winter rains of Linden. The Ambassador's reserve broke so much
that he clapped his hands in delight. "Thank you, Your Highness, we are
most grateful. The prince will be so pleased, I know that he is eager to
finally meet you, having heard so much about you."

"And I
look forward to meeting him."

"The
prince is very handsome, Your Highness, he is considered-"

"Yes, I
have seen the portrait. Ambassador, I will sign the treaty, with conditions,
there are several issues we have not addressed."

The
Ambassador's broad smile did not waiver. Conditions were to be expected, and
would not stand in the way of Usay Ulligrapat returning to Indus in triumph, to
be rewarded by the Raj himself, a grateful Raj. The Bey of Begal was a king in
his own right, king of a land almost half the size of all Tarador, which is why
the Emperor of Indus had sent the Bey to Tarador as his personal
representative, to complete negotiation of the treaty.

"The
treaty specifies loan guarantees to Tarador of eight hundred thousand rajtees,
which is acceptable," Carlana said while trying to keep all expression
from her face, "however, the treaty does not specify the exchange rate
between Indus rajtees and Taradoran florins. We require the treaty to be
enforced at the rate of exchange that is in effect at the time, for both initiation
of the loan guarantees, and for repayment."

The Bey's
smile slipped ever so slightly, then returned. With the value of Tarador's
currency slipping, such a floating exchange rate would make the treaty more
expensive for Indus, which would not please the Raj. The Raj would be pleased,
however, that the loan price the Bey had negotiated was less than half of what
the Raj had allowed. "Of course, Your Highness. We did not specify an
exchange rate, for we expected the rate to vary over the years," he lied
smoothly.

The scribe
glanced out the window again, as the two leaders discussed the dull minutiae of
finance. She had been interested to hear that a prince of Indus would be
apparently arriving in Linden, to meet Carlana. Why had the Ambassador said
'finally'? Had the Regent been corresponding with a prince, and why? And why
would it matter whether the prince was handsome or not?

"Agreed."
Carlana said with a nod. "The same conditions will apply, at the time, to
the dowry."

Dowry! The
scribe almost gasped aloud in surprise. A dowry was an exchange of gifts or
money in consideration of marriage. Marriage! The Regent was negotiating to
marry a foreign prince! Oh, what a clever woman the Regent is, to make such a
bold move in Tarador's time of need!

"Of course,
Your Highness," the Bey said with his smile not wavering, "it is
entirely reasonable for such conditions to apply to the dowry. Of course. We
are in agreement."

"With the
financial details settled, then, we can discuss the wedding ceremony."
Carlana was not smiling, her lips drawn tightly. "The marriage will be
here, in Linden, in the royal chapel, and will be officiated by a Taradoran
priest." Hopefully, thought Carlana, Mother Furliss would perform the
marriage ceremony.

"Of
course, Your Highness, we would be honored for the ceremony uniting our two
peoples to be held here, in Linden."

The scribe
fairly quivered with excitement at the prospect of a royal wedding in the
palace. Even if the people of Indus were foreigners, those of Indus she had
seen in Linden were elegant and exotic. The wedding would be a spectacle, an
event to lift the spirits of the people of Tarador.

"Our
traditions require-" The Bey began to say.

"Yes, I
understand the imperial priests must perform their own ceremony, at the heart
of the empire in Indus." Carlana said. "So be it, we have no
objection."

The scribe
wondered at the strange customs of foreigners. The Regent was wise to let them
perform their pagan ceremonies far from the borders of Tarador. What manner of
dress would the Regent wear for the wedding, the scribe wondered? In addition
to her authority as Regent, the Lady Carlana was a former queen of the realm,
and mother of the crown princess. Would Carlana be getting married to this
foreign prince as the Regent, or as the crown mother, or both? The scribe could
not recall an instance in the long history of Tarador when a Regent had married
while in office. An office Carlana Trehayme would hold only until Ariana came
of age on her sixteenth birthday. The powerful empire of Indus would not marry
a prince of the empire to a mere Regent, no, the empire sought marriage because
Carlana was the crown mother, and through her, Indus could cement ties to her
daughter, the future queen.

The scribe
thought fondly, and a bit sadly, of the crown princess. The princess had been
only two years old when the woman who was now the royal scribe came to the
palace to serve in the royal library, and became the official head scribe six
years later. The princess had grown into a young woman in that time, and had
seen much tragedy and sadness. The invasion of Tarador's western border by
Acedor's army, the untimely death of her father in battle, and the long,
grinding, wearying war that had been raging hot and cold as long as the
princess could remember. The prospect of becoming queen, something most girls
could only dream of excitedly, only meant crushing responsibility falling onto
Ariana's shoulders. And she, too, would someday have to seek a husband who
could bring an advantage to her realm. Marrying for love was not something a
crown princess or a queen could even dream about. It was so sad that such a
kind and lovely girl-

"However,"
Carlana continued, "my daughter will not be traveling to Indus. You will
perform your ceremony without Ariana."

The scribe
gasped out loud, shocked. The Regent was not marrying a foreign prince, she was
marrying off her own daughter!

Carlana and
the Ambassador turned sharply to look at the scribe, whose face was red. The
Ambassador asked "Will this be a problem, Your Highness?"