Path of the Magi (Tales of Tiberius) (42 page)

He smiled back at her.  “I don’t know, it might be interesting to hear how the Alfaran settle a business dispute.”

“La! You think I could concentrate on such trivialities with you in sight?  Go!  I must try to work!” she laughed. 

Gillyian led them away on a quick tour of city's extensive gardens.  He was called away for a moment, and Darras and Tiberius were left alone together. 

Darras immediately stepped over to Tiberius.  "You didn't know?" he asked with a mixture of amusement and amazement.

"Know what?” Tiberius asked.  “That she was the countess?  No."  Darras just shook his head in wonder but Ti continued talking.  "I knew she was more important than she was letting on, but I didn't know she was the countess.  She told me she wasn't.  You heard her."

"You never suspected?  Didn't you read her mind or something?"  Darras asked.

"I didn't know how to do that when I first met her.  It isn't easy with her anyway.  Dallen must have known but decided to respect her privacy." 

"This puts a bit of a different spin on things,"  Darras said.

"Yes, I guess," Tiberius said. He was still trying to make sense of this new development.

"You guess?” Darras replied.  “I think we can conclude you have some influence with her."

"Yes, ok, I have her ear, obviously.  It also means she can't have as much control over things as one might think of a countess.  Otherwise she'd have done more to help us already."

"I suppose that's true too," Darras said.

"It explains some personal things, too.  She's not exactly free to spend her time where and with whom she wishes is she?"  Tiberius pondered. 

"I can see where that would complicate things.  Some of her councilors looked none too happy that she had a personal relationship with you.”

“Things never quiet go as I plan where women are concerned,” Tiberius said.

“I think that goes for all of us,” Darras said, smiling.

Early in the evening they were led to their rooms to dress for dinner.  Darras wore his dress uniform.  At formal occasions in the castle, knights tended to wear their dress armor.  That wasn’t always appropriate, especially at occasions in the capital.  There, as here, a proper knight wore an scarlet unarmored dress coat with gold epaulettes and trim.  Tiberius also put aside his armor and staff for the evening, wearing a soft and billowy green poet’s shirt with black pants.  He wore the magi’s symbol on a chain about his neck. 

When dressed, they were led to a long low table set in a open air garden.  It was within the elfin city, but like much of the city it was so lined with greenery that it was hard to tell where forest stopped and city began. 

Salina came up to greet them.  She too had changed.  She now wore a diaphanous robe of green silks that was transparent to the point of being in questionable taste, at least in a human castle.  A glance around the room showed she wasn’t the only one free with her attire.  The elves were dressed light and loose fitting silken garb which befitted a summer’s evening amid torches and starlight.   

The dinner conversation was kept light.  Salina drew out some of Darras’ jousting exploits.  Even here in the courts of the elves, some had heard of Walker the Hammer.

As usual, Tiberius found Alfaran cooking a trifle exotic at times.  The main course was a slow cooked pork which seemed to have a cinnamon flavor.  There was a salad of wild greens with a light dressing, and wild rice and chestnut bread served with butter and honey.  A selection of wines were served, which pleased Darras, as it gave him a subject he could at last talk sensibly about.  The Walker Family Vineyards were known and respected here.  Tiberius was served white tea and a naturally carbonated fruit drink. 

As usual the elves were wonderful hosts, but Tiberius could sense a certain tension in the air at times, which was not typical at the Alfaran meals he’d attended previously.  Then again, he’d never been at a state dinner among the Alfararan before.  He could tell Salina was not relaxed.  She was working tonight, playing the politician, not simply enjoying the meal.  She was making sure the conversation stayed on safe channels.  Always there had been elves who were not friendly to humans.  The Redcaps were not popular, being viewed as extremists, but there were elves who sympathized with their views, if not their methods.  Some of the elves there viewed the Sons of Adam as lesser creatures, possibly as dangerous parasites, and certainly as uncouth meddlers.       

At length, the councilor who had spoken for Salina to recluse herself brought up the topic of the Rangers' work around the province of Vonair. 

“News has reached us of the exploits of the Rangers of late.  You mean to drive the goblins from your lands it seems,” he said. 

“Are they your friends that you care for their welfare?”  Salina replied with a forced laugh.

“Of course not,”  the councilor snapped.  “But all the same, I am curious what the Stewardship’s plans for the future are.  Change is not welcome to us, and you stir things up in the province of Vonair.”

“Change is not always a bad thing.  We shine light into the darkness.  No more than that,” Tiberius replied. 

“But when your armies done slaying goblins, where will they turn next I wonder?”  the councilor asked.

“Back to sport I should think,” Darras said, parrying the verbal lunge.  “I lost my last major tournament on a disputed call.  I should like nothing better than the chance to avenge that loss.  Before I do that, I must see to the safety and welfare of my fellow citizens.” 

“An admirable sentiment, Sir Darras,” the councilor responded.  “But will you not turn to home and hearth as well?  To raising families?  Families that need room to expand.”   

“La, must you speak of country matters?  I think talk of raising families is something I would discuss in private,”  Salina said with a laugh. 

“The councilor is simply expressing his hopes for future peace between the Stewardship and the Alfaran race.  A sentiment we all share,” Tiberius replied.  “In three hundred years of living as neighbors, there have been no major incidents.  I have every confidence that our peace will continue.”

“I wish I shared your confidence,” the councilor replied.  “I have seen many summers of human activity.  The open lands between us now drift out as the sands in the hourglass.  When you have no frontier left will you not again seek more lands?”

“Mankind will always seek new lands,” Tiberius replied.  “But not your lands, Councilor.  Our lost brothers across the sea have shown us the way.  We look to live in peace with our neighbors and expand to the stars.  If you ask me what I see for the future of the Stewardship, I see us in the roll of ambassadors.  We mean to prove that we can live in peace as good neighbors to all peaceful fairy folk.  The Stewardship can be more than the lands of the Sons of Adam.  It can be a place where all free peoples can live and work together in peace and freedom.  Already we number gnomes and a few trolls as citizens.  Maybe someday when we’ve shown that to you, you’ll see fit to try and speak with our brothers across the sea once more.”

“I fear that day will be long in coming,”  the councilor replied.

“La, but you bore me with politics.  Have I not done enough work for today?  Tell me of the theater in Walsingham,” Salina said, turning the conversation to other subjects.   “I hear you’ve become quite a patron of the arts.”

After dinner, Salina had Darras distracted with a tour of the stables.  She led Tiberius into the gardens.

“At last we are alone,” she said.  So saying she brought her arms around him and kissed him.  For the first time since he first saw her that morning, he thought he felt her relax.  She led him along the moonlit gardens. 

He could see she still did not seem quite right.  “What's wrong?” he asked at length. 

"Why should something be wrong?" Salina replied. 

"You're an emotional wreck.  I can feel your soul is in turmoil," he said. 

"La, I forget how strong you've become.  How much you have learned.  You can see right into my heart I suppose," she said. 

“I don’t need magic to see you are troubled.  Something about the trial?"

“It is not so fun to see you here,” she said.  “It’s not you; I welcome your company, but I lied before.  We are not alone.  I am never alone here.  All eyes look to me.  The trial was difficult, too, as you guessed.  My past comes to haunt me again."  She leaned against him, as if to seek strength from his arms.   

“I thought I would have forgotten by now, but some wounds never quite heal,” she said. 

"Is there anything you want to tell me?"  Tiberius asked gently. 

Salina stepped away, troubled by the thought.  Idly she pretended to examine a flower.  "Want to tell you?  No.  La, I never want to think of it again.  But my past won't leave me.  And it's better you hear it from me."   

She looked back at him, holding the flower, but not meeting his eyes.  "Would it surprise you to learn I've been in love before?"

"No," Tiberius answered.  "You told me you are a widow.  I know you are older than you look."

"La, but you don't know how much older.  I don't know myself.  I don't count the sunsets, only the memories.  I walked long in places where time has no meaning."   

Salina drew a deep breath.  "My marriage did not work out so well.  You'd think a seer would see her own future better, la?"  she said with a sorrowful smile.  "It did not start out badly, though.  We were both young and in love.  He was handsome, strong, like you in some ways.  He led some of our people against the Spider Lords.  Do you know them?"

Tiberius nodded.  "I've heard of them.  A bit before my time.  They were here before the Elizabethan migration.  Over three hundred years ago." 

"Many people have come to the Anderheim over the years,” Salina said idly, sitting and looking at him now.  “Romans, Spaniards, English, Scottish, Irish, but not just Europeans.  Some of the South American cultures have colonized the eastern shores of the Anderheim.  Aztecs to the south.  Where Port Elizabeth now sits used to be the capital city of a people we called the Spider Lords."

"I don’t really know much about them.  They mentioned them in my history books though.  I believe they were some sort of offshoot of Maya or Moche culture,"  Tiberius stated.  He’d never been all that interested in their culture.

"They had the worst features of all of them, if that is what you mean.  They worshiped a spider-like decapitator deity.  They fed it blood.  Not just of captives, but the blood of their best.  They murdered thousands of children.  The dark demons they worshiped gave them power.  The large spiders you see in the woods now were their pets.  Unholy creatures created with their black magic.  Finally our king had enough of them.  They were becoming well versed in black magic and they had contracted an alliance with a dark sorcerer, a necromancer of surprising power and ability.  Together the two of them threatened our very existence,” she explained.  

“The Great Father was with us though.  The necromancer disappeared quite unexpectedly.  No one knows how or why.  That left us free to deal with the Spider Lords,” she continued. 

Tiberius looked into her eyes and saw a deep sadness as she continued her tale.  “You have never seen our anger unleashed, my dear friend, and I do not wish you to see it.  It was terrible to behold.  We hated them.  My lover hated them especially, and I, to my regret, encouraged that hatred.  For you see, in the end, he learned to hate all the Sons of Adam.  We won the war.  We utterly destroyed the Spider Lords.  But some of us did not stop hating when the war ended."

"He became a Redcap?" Tiberius asked.

"La, not a Redcap.  He was a prince among Redcaps.  You think I dally with common folk?    La, only the best for me.  Or, it seems, the worst,” she joked though her tears.  “He said nothing of this to me.  He thought me weak.  Would that I had been.  A seer is not blind forever.  I found his cap one day, and confronted him.  He called me a fool and told me to mind my place as his wife.  This I did.  Seeing an evil spirit had taken hold of my lover’s heart I spoke with our elders and sought help for him.  I did not yet guess the depth of evil that had gripped his heart.  They sought to speak with him and he met them with fire and violence.  He became a kin slayer.  I was found blameless; la, it was I who had turned him in.  As countess, too, it was my duty to sign his death warrant.  I watched his execution.  Then I took a walk in the forest.”

“That war was over three hundred years ago.  How long a walk?”  Tiberius asked in surprise.

“I told you I walked where time has no meaning.  There are places in the forests like that.  Beautiful places where I tried to forget about him and the pain.  It is rare that our people ever return from such walks.  Something held me back from the deepest paths, though. 

One day a few years ago, the king sent for me and I returned.  Reluctantly, I resumed my duties as countess.  I could see the king was right to send for me, though.  My ability to see has not lessened over the years.  Far from it.  I could see, and still do see, terrible dangers facing my people.  All free peoples.  But I could see hope as well.  I heard of the prophesies, and then I saw you,” she said, smiling at last.   

“You make my heart both strong and weak, you know.  Looking on you gives me courage.  Courage that we may yet overcome the darkness that surrounds us.  La, you’ve taken the first steps already.  But you weaken me as well.  My heart longs to be with you.  I’ve no desire to rule anyone.  Gladly I would renounce my title and stay by your side.”

“Or maybe it is I who should stay by your side,” he said.

She gave him a sad smile.  “You treat me as befits a lady.  But pray do not say such things.  If I thought for one moment that I was distracting you from your duties…

“Part of me longs to take your offer.  But you have your duties and I have mine.  I am countess here.  I have duties, as do you.  If we wed, one of us will have to abandon our position.  For now, neither of us can do this.  If we take the final pleasure together I will have your son or daughter, our hearts and souls will be bound together, and we must wed or incur the anger of the All-Father.  Again this is not possible now.  And so we must show some little restraint.  More than a little.  You make my life difficult, beloved.”   

“Having a Son of Adam for a companion causes you some trouble, I gather.”

“As a companion?” she said with anger, though not anger directed at him.  “No, I may treat humans as playthings to my heart’s content.  That I should treat you with honor.  That I would think to marry one of you.  That is another matter,” she said.  “If I were to abandon my throne to marry you, that would be considered a political statement, however personal my motives really are.”  

“What do you want to do?”

“What do I want?  La, I want to bid them all farewell and leave them to their own folly.  I would like for the two of us to go off somewhere quiet and beautiful and spend our time raising children together.  If I did this, though, I would not be the lady you care for.  To do this I must abandon others.  Would you have the Redcaps take over?  Would you have a countess abandon her post in a time when her people need her?” 

She drew herself up, and Tiberius saw her as she truly was, possibly for the first time: a true princess among her people. 

“What I want is for you to understand that we cannot now be lovers.  It is not my wish, but it is what we must do to serve the All Father.  You must heed my head and not my heart in this.  I’m a seer; I have known all along that you will have other loves.  I shall outlive them, if the Father wills.  When the darkness is past we may have time together, but not now.  For now we must withdraw a bit or we shall tear one another apart with longing.”