The Totem-Maker (part ninety-one)

The Totem-Maker

Chapter Nine

The Recalcitrant One

(part ninety-one)

This fulsomeness of nature I would not have suspected. She took me up the steps with little pats and chuckles. I thought Jute had risen in fortune, that she was an intimate now of her mistress. I was daunted, but I was glad for her. I went further, I hoped for Jute all the haughtiness in greeting me—refusing to do so, perhaps—that her heart seemed to feed on.

The person I was led to was the Prince.

He had placed himself in his wife’s quarters, kept secret from the Balbaecans. Of their adopted tyrant’s presence, Shenath was not to be told. But Shenath stayed for hours only, and I must stay for days.

Lord Ei’s cook ordered a stone lifted from the floor, a fire below fanned. A great conical basin was mounted on four lions of bronze. One servant brought a board, angled it against his hip and chopped at a slab of meat, pieces falling like tiles, sizzling out their fat. Another chopped root and leaf, and from the basin’s two sides, these ingredients crossed in air, a showy dance. The cook herself finished the dish by pouring in a cup of wine.

I could not mind, it smelled so good…but I was amply fed that day! That particular generosity never ebbed; among these people, one did not move from outdoors to indoors, room to room, without sustenance. The rule was to banquet when banqueting, show enjoyment of all given, invite no evil by speaking of evil. If I must be the exemplar of the gods, then, I must be apt in manners, resting against these pillows on this carpet, tended by both households, the Prince’s own faithful, and Lord Ei’s…

Word would be carried to him, I thought, of the personage come to his house. Here was another I must not harm, bring anxieties to.

When we were alone, I framed a question for the Prince.

“And so, you would travel on, in disguise as you arrived. But you desired to see with your eyes this, and the others.” I drew out the totem. I offered it, and he waved a hand. I longed for anyone to show me the courage of touching it, and the Prince most of all. “Do you see the face?”

Did he? I feared not, and that also sat with me badly.

“You don’t believe it,” I said. “The Balbaecans are a kind and honorable people. Wise, no doubt, regarding their bargains. I have not met the ruler of the Alëenon. He trades with the Citadel. The risk is bitter for him, that he aligns with you, that the day will come. When he the Peddler called the Zhatabe will sue the gods for this land’s destruction. You have seen the buried city. You have seen Lotoq’s wrath. When a cause is righteous, the vengeance of those Ami’s hand restrains is greater, loosed, than humankind can imagine.”

95

The Recalcitrant One

The Totem-Maker (part one)

(2018, Stephanie Foster)