"For the moment," Sunteil said. "Only for the moment. Naria can be pushed as easily as Periandros was."
"Are you planning another assassination?"
"Oh?" Sunteil said, smiling a sly Sunteil smile out of that parched and ravaged face. "Was Periandros assassinated? I thought he was stung by a wasp."
"A metal wasp that someone sent flying through his window."
"Is that so? How very interesting, Yakoub." He let his glance rove for a moment toward Chorian, who shrank back as if wishing he could make himself invisible. "But if that was the case, I suspect that Naria will be on guard against any attempt to do something similar to him."
"Then how do you intend to get rid of him?"
"You'll help me," Sunteil said.
I let the astounding effrontery of that complacent statement go sliding by me. It wasn't easy.
"Help you?" I said, trying to sound innocently perplexed. "How can I possibly help you, Sunteil?"
"You say you are the king. I suspect that you are. The Rom everywhere obey you. No starship in the galaxy will go forth if the Rom baro gives the word. Flights everywhere will halt. Stop everything dead and Naria will fall."
"Perhaps."
"No perhaps about it. Do I need to tell you that the Rom hold the Imperium by the throat? Without interstellar commerce there is no Imperium. Without the Rom there is no interstellar commerce. You send out the word, Yakoub: There is to be no star travel until the legitimate emperor has taken the throne. In six weeks commerce will choke. You have the power."
His eyes were blazing. I had never seen Sunteil like this before. He was saying the unsayable, openly acknowledging the reality that everyone pretended did not exist. One didn't have to be as astute as Sunteil to see the stranglehold in which the Rom held the Imperium. But it was a power we had never chosen to invoke. We didn't dare. We could shut down the galaxy, yes. But we are very few and they are many. In time the Gaje could learn how to pilot their starships for themselves. If the Rom walked off the job there would be an ugly and chaotic period of transition in the Imperium, and then everything would be for the Gaje as it had been before. And then they would kill us all.
I was silent for a time.
Then I answered, "Possibly what you say is true, Sunteil. Possibly with my help you could force the Imperium to accept you as emperor. And possibly not. What if Naria survives the breakdown of commerce and keeps his throne? What will happen to me, then? What will happen to my people?"
"Naria will fall within weeks. Within days."
"And if he doesn't?"
"You know that these are idle questions, Yakoub."
"I'm not so sure. Tell me this, Sunteil: What do I have to gain by meddling in your civil war? If I back the wrong side, I destroy myself and perhaps the whole Rom kingdom. If I do nothing, you and Naria fight it out and the winner will have to recognize me as king anyway."
Out of Sunteil's grotesque skull of a face came the brilliant flashing Sunteil smile again.
"If I win without your help, Yakoub, what makes you think I'll necessarily recognize you as king?"
I heard Chorian smother a gasp of shock. I had wanted him beside me here to learn the craft of statesmanship; but this was a post-graduate course.
Carefully I said, "Surely you imply no threat, Lord Sunteil."
"Do you infer one?"
"I am the legitimate king of the Rom, chosen by the great kris and ratified by the Fifteenth Emperor. The Sixteenth, whoever he may be, has no way of undoing that ratification."
"It was my understanding that you abdicated, Yakoub, and that your son Shandor was chosen in your place by the great kris. And that no less a personage than Lord Naria, acting as deputy for the Fifteenth, laid the wand of recognition upon your son Shandor. All I would need to do is ratify Naria's action once I became emperor."
"Shandor is dead," I reminded him.
"Then the Rom throne would be vacant. I would nominate a successor."
"A blatant attempt to interfere in Rom sovereignty?"
"Don't try to be naive, Yakoub. It's never very convincing when you do. When Periandros pulled you out of Shandor's prison and set you up as king again, what was that if not interfering with Rom sovereignty? I concede that you Rom have a certain power over us, but we're not without power of our own. You know that the Rom king serves at the sufferance of the emperor."
"And apparently the emperor serves at the sufferance of the king, also."
"Exactly," Sunteil said. His smile returned, bizarrely benign this time. "Therefore why are we speaking of threats? I have no desire whatever to interfere in Rom sovereignty, to meddle with your right to the throne, or anything else of the sort. I simply want to be emperor. And I want you to help me."
"I told you. There are risks for me in it. And I see no reward, except to be allowed to keep what is already mine by absolute right."
"Oh, there would be a reward, Yakoub."
"I suggest you name it."
"Romany Star," Sunteil said. "What do you say? Give me your support and you can have Romany Star."
11.
I HAD TO LOOK AWAY, SO THAT SUNTEIL WOULD NOT SEE how stunned I was. Romany Star? How did he know that name? How was it that a lord of the Imperium was speaking of Romany Star?
I felt a moment of terrible vertigo. My face grew hot and my knees went weak and sudden bewildering terror stabbed my heart. For one flailing instant I thought I was going to fall. It was a bad moment, a dropping-through-the-hidden-trapdoor sort of moment. Then I managed to get the upper hand over my glands and transformed my fear into rage, which was no more useful but less debilitating. In God's name, who had told Sunteil about Romany Star? Who had revealed our most precious secret to this slippery Gajo? I would throttle the traitor with my own hands. Who could he be? I glared across the room. Chorian! Chorian! Of course. Sunteil's own little personal Rom, his Gypsy aide-de-camp-currying favor with the Gajo lord by letting him in on the deepest mysteries of our people-
I gave Chorian a look that I wished could blast his soul. He turned scarlet. And into his eyes came a piteous expression of-what? Anguish? Bewilderment? A yearning for the forgiveness that he knew could never come?
When I was a little more calm I turned back to Sunteil and said in a tight voice, "What do you know of Romany Star?"
"That isn't important. What is important is that I guarantee it will be yours, Yakoub, when I take the throne."
"You've already said that. But what do you think you're talking about? What do you mean when you say 'Romany Star'?"
Sunteil seemed very uneasy.
"A red star, it is. With a single planet circling it, that is also known as Romany Star."
"Go on."
"A place that for some reason is holy to the Rom people."
"For some reason, Sunteil? What reason?"
"I don't know."
"You don't?"
"How would I? It's some private Rom thing. All I know is that you want this Romany Star terribly, but you don't dare go there and claim it, either because it currently belongs to someone else or because you think we'll want it for ourselves if we find out that you're after it. I don't know and I don't care. I don't even know where it is. What I'm telling you, Yakoub, is that Romany Star will be yours if you help me become emperor. Isn't that enough for you? My solemn promise."
A Gajo's promise, I thought bitterly. A Fenixi's promise.
"You have no idea where it is or what it is, but you'll let me have it?"
With some exasperation he replied, "I'd take your word for it. You say, 'This place is Romany Star, Sunteil,' and I'll say, 'All right, it's yours.' Wherever it may be. No matter who claims it at the moment. All I know is that it means a great deal to you, the possession of this Romany Star. All right. It means a great deal to me, becoming emperor. You can give me that. And then I'll give you Romany Star. What do you say, Yakoub?"
I studied him. It began to seem to me as though he genuinely did not know anything more of Romany Star than what
he had told me. Making allowances for the fact that he was Sunteil, that he was a man of Fenix, that he was famed for his deviousness and his deceitfulness. Nevertheless he had sounded uncharacteristically muddled and irritated as he responded to my questions about Romany Star. My instincts told me that this once, at least, he was being sincere when he said that that was really all he knew. Which was too much for any Gajo to know; but it was not in fact very much.
"I need time to think about this," I said.
"How much do you need?"
"I have advisors to consult. Options to weigh."
"Are you in touch with Naria?"
"I don't see why I need to tell you that. But in fact I haven't heard a word from Naria since all this began. Only Periandros. Who is still begging me to ally myself with him."
"Periandros is dead."
"Someone looking like Periandros and sounding like Periandros called me only a little while ago. A doppelganger, perhaps."
"A doppelganger, most certainly," Sunteil said. "Periandros is dead. I can give you the firmest assurance of that."
"I thought you could," I said.
"You'll be hearing from Naria sooner or later. Probably sooner. But I don't think he can offer you anything that can top my offer. How long will it be until I hear from you?"
"Not long," I said. "Only give me time to think. It has been an honor to speak with you, Lord Sunteil."
"The honor is mine, Yakoub."
Sunteil beckoned toward Chorian, as if expecting the boy to escort him out. I shook my head and indicated with the movement of a single finger that I wanted Chorian to stay; and Sunteil, nodding, went doddering from the room.
The moment he was gone I looked toward Chorian in terrible wrath. He was pale beneath his midnight-black skin.
"How is it that your master knows of Romany Star?" I asked him in a very quiet voice.
"He is not my master, Yakoub."
"You are in his pay. He knows of Romany Star. Not much, so it seems, but he knows. How is it that he knows, boy?"
"I beg you, Yakoub, believe me-" He faltered. "Believe me, Yakoub-"
"Say what you mean."
"If he knows anything-and it isn't much, what he knows, it is very little, of that I'm certain-if he knows anything, Yakoub, he did not learn it from me."
"No?"
"I swear it." He had shifted to speaking Romany now.
"You swear, do you?"
"By Martiya the angel of death, by o pouro Del the god of our fathers, by Damo and Yehwah, by all the spirits and demons-"
"Stop it, Chorian."
"I will swear by other things. By anything you name."
Coldly I said, "You've learned your ancient Gypsy folklore well, haven't you? Studied the Swatura like a good boy? And sold it all to Sunteil? All those quaint little scraps of myth and tradition, eh, boy? Did you get a good price from him, at least?"
Tears glistened in his eyes. "Yakoub! I have sworn!"
"Someone who will sell Romany Star to the Gaje would swear on the muli of his dead mother, and what would it mean?"
"I was not the one, Yakoub. When Sunteil began speaking to you of Romany Star I wanted to hide, to die, because I knew it was wrong for him to know anything of Romany Star, and I knew you would think right away that I must be the one who had told him. But I was not the one. What can I say to make you believe that?"
He came to my side and stood towering over me. He was trembling. His tears were flowing. Was he that good, to be able to feign tears? He was Fenixi, yes, and Fenixi can fool almost anyone; and he was Rom besides; but I didn't think he could counterfeit emotions like these. There is acting and there is true feeling, and if I am unable to tell the difference between the one and the other at my age then it has been pointless for me to bother to live so long.
In a voice that was scarcely loud enough for me to hear he murmured, "Yakoub, on Mulano you told me the story of Romany Star, and much else besides. And afterward, as I was waiting for the relay-sweep to come for me, I told you that I had discovered at last, while spending those few days with you, what it was like to have a real father. Do you remember that? The story of Romany Star was your gift to me. You were your gift to me. Do you think I would sell those gifts to Sunteil? Do you? Do you?"
And I had to say, though only to myself, No, Chorian, I do not think that you would.
To him I said, "I would prefer to think you are innocent, if I could."
"I am innocent, Yakoub." His tears were gone and he was no longer trembling. Perhaps the conviction of his own innocence was strengthening him now. "Believe me. I can say no more."
"I think you tell the truth," I said.
"For that I thank you, Yakoub."
"But how, then, did your master learn of Romany Star?"
"I tell you again, he is not my master. And I have no idea how he learned of it. But if you wish I will try to find that out."
"Yes," I said. "That would be-"
Just then the screen lit up and there was Julien, calling back to ask if I would speak with Periandros now, even though it was still early in the morning and I had promised to hold my next conversation with him at noon. Periandros did not want to wait until noon.
I took a long look at Julien.
I had the answer to the mystery of Sunteil's familiarity with Romany Star.
Julien! Of course! He knew of Romany Star. I remembered now what he had said on Galgala, when I had spoken of France as an unreal place, and he had said to me that France was to him what Romany Star was to us, the great lost place, the only true mother. That had amazed me. We do not speak of Romany Star with the Gaje. But Julien had learned of it, God only knew how. Perhaps it was not too difficult for him, in a long lifetime spent mainly around Rom. A few bottles of his fine red wines, a long evening of rich French foods, some Rom star-captain of his acquaintance lulled into an expansive mood, and it would all have come rolling out, the Tale of the Swelling Sun, the loss of our home and the dispersal into the Great Dark, and everything else. Yes. Yes. And Julien had filed it all away, our legend, our scripture; and he had saved it for the right moment and he had sold it to the right man.
Not to Periandros, whose cerces he had been taking all these years. But to Sunteil. Periandros was dead, and Julien knew it, no matter how many doppelgangers of the late lord were stored in the hiding-chambers. Periandros the doppelganger might yet prevail in this three-cornered struggle, but it was unlikely, and Julien was wisely placing his bets on Sunteil now. Cutting a little side deal for himself while there still was a chance. I had to admire him for that. But he should not have sold Romany Star to Sunteil, even so.
I had long ago fallen into the easy temptation of thinking of Julien as Rom, or almost Rom; but he was not Rom. Not at all. And this proved it.
"The emperor wishes to know," said Julien, "if the Rom baro has had sufficient time to consider their earlier conversation."
I wanted to reach into the screen and strangle him. My old friend, my rescuer. What I strangled instead was the impulse to do any such thing. If Julien had betrayed us, so be it. A Gajo is a Gajo, even Julien. You had to expect that from them. And in any case the damage was done. I had other problems to deal with. I didn't want to talk to Julien at all. Or his doppelganger master.
I told him that it had been a frantic night for me, that I hadn't had any chance to reach decisions about Periandros' offer. Hoping Julien would take that and go away before I had a chance to get really furious with him. He didn't.
"A thousand pardons, mon ami, but the emperor asks me to stress the fact that time is of the essence."
"I understand that, Julien."
"And if you are willing to negotiate on the points already discussed, then there is no time like the present for-"
"Julien?"
"Oui, mon vieux?"
"What's the point of this dumb game? We both know that Periandros is dead and that you're dealing on behalf of a doppelganger. So why are you bothering to bother me with all this shit now? What go
od is pretending that a doppelganger can actually function as emperor? Especially in view of the fact that you're getting ready to jump ship anyway and go over to Sunteil's side."
"To Sunteil's side? But I do not understand, Yakoub! What you are saying is incomprehensible to me!"
"Perhaps you might understand it better if I could say it in French. But I can't. Merde is the only word of French I know. What you're trying to tell me is so much merde, Julien. That's a French word, isn't it? If you don't understand it, maybe I should try speaking to you in Romany."
"You are so angry. My old friend, what have I done?"
I didn't want to start in on the whole subject. But he was irritating me at a time when I didn't need irritation.
"You don't know?" I asked.
A pause, minute but revealing.
"Whatever I may have done," he said after a moment, "it was for the sake of the Rom as well as for the sake of the Imperium, Yakoub. N'est-ce pas? It is the truth."
"Whatever you may have done," I told him, keeping tight control over my rage, God knows why, "was probably for the sake of Julien de Gramont, n'est-ce pas? With some slight thought, maybe, for the incidental damage it might cause, but that was purely secondary, I suspect." I amazed myself with my own ability to hold my fury in check. A trick one sometimes learns, with time. And sometimes forgets. "Just tell me this: whose pay are you in today? Periandros or Sunteil?"
Silence. Consternation.
"Both?" I suggested. "Yes. Yes, that would be more like you, wouldn't it? And right now you're calling to do Periandros' work, or what passes for Periandros these days. An hour from now you may be scheming with Sunteil. And-"
"Please, mon ami. I implore you, no more. Truly, I have done you no harm. I feel great love for you, Yakoub. Do you comprehend that? It is the truth. La verite veritable, Yakoub." He held his hands outstretched toward me. "I call you now on behalf of Periandros, yes. He wishes to speak with you. It is what I am asked to tell you."
"Then I ask you to tell him that I can't be bothered with doppelgangers at a time like this. Tell him he can go off somewhere and fart in his hand, for all I care. Tell him-" A stricken look appeared on Julien's face. "No. No. All right, tell him what I told you a minute ago. That I've simply been too busy to decide anything. Just stall him. Sidetrack him. In your slick diplomatic way."