Empire of Grass by Tad Williams

Author:Tad Williams
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: DAW
Published: 2019-05-06T23:00:00+00:00

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Earl Drusis entered the duke’s study with the ease of someone who had grown up in the Sancellan Mahistrevis—which of course he had. He wore armor, although it was obviously ceremonial: his gleaming breastplate had never seen a scratch, and his greaves and other brightly-polished metal fittings looked more like the sort worn by parading imperators than by anyone actually concerned with protecting themselves. Still, the armor and the helmet beneath his arm showed off his handsome face and figure well, as Drusis no doubt already knew. With his sun-browned skin he looked like someone had cast an exaggeratedly heroic military statue of his brother Duke Saluceris in bronze.

His bow to her was swift and short, in the soldier’s manner. Miriamele found herself both amused and irritated. “Your Majesty,” he said, “I am grateful that you made time to see me.”

“My lord, how could I do otherwise?”

“I came because I have not yet had a chance to thank you for your bravery during the wedding. I was not told all of what happened until you returned here to the Sancellan, and then I was called out of the city. But you have my undying gratitude.”

Miriamele smiled and nodded, but could not resist poking such a handsome but stiff target. “Have you had any luck yet discovering who would want to do such a thing? Who would dare to send armed men to disrupt a wedding at Count Dallo’s own house?”

To his credit, Drusis did not look ashamed or guilty. If, as Miriamele suspected, the whole thing had been arranged by Dallo himself, the earl made a good show of seeming not to know it. “No. But I can promise you that when I find out, someone will be very unhappy that I did.”

They made small talk about the man to whom the room had once belonged, the old duke Varellan, father of Drusis and Saluceris. Varellan had been a largely ineffective ruler, only gaining the throne because his older brother Benigaris killed their father and then died a usurper’s death himself, so there was not much to say about him and the discussion soon trickled into silence.

“I sense there is something else you want to say to me, my lord,” Miri ventured at last. “Please, feel free. Today this room is mine, not your brother’s. Everything will be for my own ears and no one else’s.”

Drusis nodded. “Very well, Majesty. Yes, there is something, but I must say first that I mean it in no other way but as your loyal servant.”

“Go on.”

He scowled, but Miri knew it was not aimed at her so much as a grimace of general frustration. It was a habitual look of his, as though words were always a poor substitute. “Simply this, Majesty. You must leave Nabban.”

“What?”

He shook his head. “It is not a threat, I promise you. You are of our people by blood, but you have been a long time away in the softer, kindlier lands of the north. You do not understand this place.

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