The Palace of the Kahn of all
Searingsands was the most beautiful building Ellis had ever seen. It was impressive enough on the outside,
like a gigantic spider made of gold and yet also reminiscent of images Ellis
could remember seeing of the Taj Mahal.
Inside, however, it was a whole other world of luxury. The floors were made of a mosaic of precious
and semi-precious stones, laid in an entrancing pattern which never stayed the
same for more than a few feet and yet never seemed irregular or gaudy. The walls were clad in gold and marble and
draped with silks and velvets in rich colours.
The high ceiling was made of carved gemstones, sculpted crystal and
finely woven bronze, silver and gold, all forming the shapes of planets, stars
and heavenly beings. The level of
detail the artisans had achieved was simply staggering and it was all Ellis
could do to keep putting one foot in front of the other as they followed
Nadiyya through the corridors and not stopping and staring upwards for the rest
of the day.
The Former Baron was less
dazzled, partly, Ellis assumed, because he had seen things like it many times
before and he was long past being fazed by the luxury of others, but it was
also because he spent every step looking for traps, pressure plates, tripwires,
and other devious devices he assumed the Khan would have activated to quietly
(or not so quietly) eliminate him before the inconvenience of their
audience. AS it was he did find one
device, a little slide-panel which, when pressed, opened to reveal a miniature
water cannon which squirted him in the face.
The Former Baron was triumphant for having found it, but Ellis was
reasonably sure that it only activated because it was being looked for.
Gulliver was subdued, walking
alongside Ellis and saying hardly anything.
He seemed to be slipping back into his post-Siren depression again and
Ellis couldn't blame him really. Now
that the threat of Kerring had gone he was starting to feel inclined towards a
little moping himself, but the Kahn's palace was like a gaudy bauble, a perfect
distraction for the idle mind.
Nadiyya remained silent as she
led them through the corridors, taking corners without warning and ignoring the
comments from various members of the palace guard who obviously recognised
her. It was like she was so intent on
her destination that she didn't care about anything else, or perhaps she was
just mortified to be there. She hadn't
seemed to happy to meet her uncle under such circumstances.
I wonder why she was
pretending to be an animal trainer, Ellis thought. It did not seem likely that she would
explain herself any time soon.
Eventually they came to an
enormous anteroom lined in marble with artificial veins of gold and filled with
many fine sculptures and enough potted plants to make it feel just a little
like a pristine jungle ruin. One wall
was dominated by an enormous set of gold plated double doors so large that they
had to have smaller doors set into them, assumedly so that they might be used
by mere mortals. Nadiyya brought them
to the foot of the doors, then came to an abrupt halt. A guard stood to either side of the doors,
but the Kahn’s niece didn’t seem to want to speak to them. She just stared sullenly at the doors ahead
of her, as if waiting for them to open of their own accord.
Gulliver took this moment to
finally say something.
“Do you think the Kahn will
actually open them up?” he asked.
“Oh, I expect he’ll open those
doors just as soon as he’s sure that we have all been torn apart by tigers,”
said the Former Baron, staring fixedly at the outreached arm of one of the
sculptured figures, “or have absorbed all the spores from his poisonous
bryophytes, or after he’s triggered the silent alarm that tells these two
thugs-in-armour to assassinate us.
He’ll open them up quick as a flash, then, I’m sure!”
“Or perhaps I’ll have them
opened when I arrive?” came the rich, aged whiskey voice of the Kahn from
behind them.
“Oh, Irfan,” the Former Baron
replied, stepping hurriedly away from the statue and turning to face the Kahn,
“I had thought you would be in ahead of us?”
“I went to freshen up after
that unfortunate affair at the circus.”
He nodded to the guards and the smaller, inset doors were swiftly pulled
open to reveal the palace throne room, or, as the Former Baron had explained
earlier in their journey through the ornate corridors, the Chamber of
Supplications. “Do, please come in.”
As the Kahn disappeared into
his sanctum of power in a swish of gold robes and the regimented footsteps of
palace guards, the Former Baron and Nadiyya fell into step behind him, leaving
the unprepared duo of Ellis and Gulliver gaping at each other in the
antechamber, until Ellis could close him mouth and hurry through the open doors
into a room which, with its sculpted marble clouds and stars and celestial
beings of gold suspended on silver wires, was basically a physical
representation of a kind of heaven. The
surprisingly simple wooden throne in the centre said all it had to, especially
once it was effectively obscured by the Kahn’s cloth of gold robe once he sat
down and straightened himself out. This
was a man who made a statement of modesty, then hid it behind a show of wealth;
someone who wanted your reaction to him to be complex, hard to settle on and
thus, in its way, deeply unsettling.
Ellis felt the powerful man’s gaze drift across him and was forced to
avert his eyes.
“So, Franck,” the Kahn began,
fixing that terrifying gaze on the Former Baron, “what is it you wanted to
speak to me about?”
“Well,” the Former Baron was
rubbing his hands, but showed no other sign of nerves, “we have a friend in
need of some highly specialist assistance and-”
“How specialist?”
“It’s quite a sensitive issue
and requires a unique response of the kind, I’m sure, that only you-”
“How specialist?” the
Kahn repeated, clearly interested only in the specifics.
The Former Baron cleared his
throat, then replied, “We need the Ember.”
There was a moment of chilly
silence despite the heat in the air and the Kahn’s eyes locked with the Former
Baron’s.
“No. Absolutely not.,” the Kahn said with a voice suddenly like steel.
“There really is no other way
to help this friend of ours as far as I can see, Irfan.”
“Then that’s most unfortunate
for him, but I am not giving you of all people access to the Ember.”
“Just because I happened to
start a fire that one time.”
“A fire which destroyed the old
palace and killed my sister. Don’t you
ever dare to suggest that you ‘just’ did anything, Franck.”
“It wasn’t my fault,” the
Former Baron pleaded, something Ellis had never imagined him doing before, “if
you would only have let me explain-”
“Explanation is pointless,
Franck. Aisha is dead and you are not
getting the Ember.”
“It’s not even for me, Irfan!”
“I don’t care. The Ember is the most precious artefact in
all of Searingsands, the source of our prosperity and one of the few remaining
heirlooms after you destroyed my family’s ancestral home. I. am. not. giving. it. to. you.”
“Isn’t there anything we can
do, anything at all to earn even a chance to use it?”
“No and if that is all you came
for you might as well just leave now! Guards!” he called towards the open doorway, “Guards!”
“Uncle, perhaps there is a way
they could help.”
The Kahn looked down towards
his niece, clearly surprised that she had spoken at all, then shook his head.
“No. I don’t want to involve Franck in any more family matters.”
“But it would get rid of him
for a while,” Nadiyya continued, “and it might give him a chance to make some
small reparations for aunt Aisha’s death.”
“What opportunity is this?” the
Former Baron asked, “I would be most eager to help in anyway, especially if it
might give me a chance to use the Ember afterwards.”
“It’s a private matter,” the
Kahn said stubbornly.
“It’s about to be a full-blown
war,” added Nadiyya, “let him help.”
The Kahn glared at his niece,
then suddenly slumped back in his wooden throne, his expression softened. He looked old and tired.
“Oh, very well. But you can explain it to them, Nadiyya, and
don’t let them think for a minute that this will guarantee them access to the
Ember. I will decide whether or not
they can use it and only if they succeed.”
He lowered his voice and added, “and don’t think it will get you off the
hook either. You have some explaining
to do.”
“Then I believe this may solve
two problems at once,” the former tamer replied, “for it all revolves around my
father, the noble Khalif of Shadedstreams, and his, shall we say, unfortunate
desire to bring about the end of the world.”
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