PLANET 5 / CH. 8: AMBASSADOR
Prophesy of the Last Kingdom -unedited version- top secret imperial archives. Royal family only
Grandson of my grandson, do not reject the noble virgin born of the slave. Is the law's mistake her fault? Why must those freed by Jesus' blood still lie in bondage? The sky shall be fire and there shall be two rulers over kings, one last kingdom over all. The learned will call and the faithful will pray, and the King of kings and Lord of Lords will send help from the skies to the earthly rulers over kings, and so the sun shall not destroy. What does it matter who has the crown over all, when all earthly rulers bow as one to the King of Kings? But my child, you will not sit on your father's throne long without the teacher whose gift is like mine beside you, because the sun will destroy. You must be one in faith, one in hope, one in flesh, replacing unthinking laws and traditions of desolation, united in thought and tongue.
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IMPERIAL PALACE OF DAHEL, SIX WEEKS IN THE PAST.
It was the season of royal balls, and crown prince Salay had spent much of the afternoon trying to keep his thoughts pure around the beautiful girls who were desperately trying, against his better judgement and that of his parents, to win his favour and his hand in marriage. Some of them had decided that he needed to see more of their pampered flesh than decorum dictated to help him make up his mind. It was alluring, and repellent at the same time. He decided that dances were actually the best part, since he needed to concentrate on the steps, and make sure that his hand met theirs at the appropriate time, hence his eyes were not be drawn to their indecently gaping tops. But it was hard, and he had a headache. Joyfully he noticed a messenger indicating a letter for his attention. He made his excuses and left. Ten minute's later, his mother decided that he needed following.
“Selfish, grovelling fool! The idiot! How dare he?” the crown prince muttered.
“Someone upset you, Salay?” his mother asked calmly.
“Upset me?” Salay exploded. “How might it possibly upset me that the ambassador I sent to find the woman in the prophesy now writes me a letter from his death-bed saying sorry, but he's pretty sure the woman he was sent to look for is his soon-to-be widow.”
“His widow? How can the virgin daughter of a slave be the man's widow?”
“The now-corpse asked her about her story before consummating the marriage. He killed her Teskan father and her legacy-slave mother died in the pens. He writes that he hates himself for taking her away, but hopes I'll forgive him.”
“Her faith?” his mother asked.
“Kept secret until she was safely out of the central zone. She's a teacher, she's got faith, she's got Tesk blood, her mother was a slave. The only box she doesn't tick is that she's not developed the gift.”
“And she will need the catalyst before she has a hope of doing so,” his mother said, knowingly. “And travel now is impossible.”
“Unless I decided to risk drowning at sea. Oh, he also says there's a trade blockade in progress between Caneth and the Isles and that Tew looks like they are preparing for war, unless that's how they always look like.”
“Of course you mustn't risk sailing!” the empress said. “Our boats sink too easily. So you'll have to write, won't you?”
“Except the other thing the useless corpse did was keep her so totally ignorant she has no clue, and it sounds like even if she opens his letter case she's not going to get much wiser. It's entirely possible that she'll have decided that she's out of a job and married someone local by now.”
“Well, if she's the one she'll be available, and she might not be the one, Salay, so don't make promises. You can't unless she's got the gift. Even then, that doesn't mean anything. Surely there are more that have the gift there, after all. There's the question of age difference, she might be ugly...”
“Mother, I saw her, she looked my age and beautiful, I called him a lucky old man and wished him many children. If that's not rejecting the noble virgin born to a slave then I don't know what is.”
“You didn't know, presumably.”
“I didn't think to look. It's here in her records, all of it, except her faith. The prophesy says I'll not sit on father's throne without her and I've sent her away.”
“But the prophesy says she'll have the gift. If she didn't have it, how could you know?”
“Maybe I was supposed to go with her to Caneth, or the Isles, mother.”
“You ought to be back at the ball.”
“The messenger said that the captain was a bit worried about delivering messages that said he'd be paid out of the royal purse,so his ship was ready to sail. He's already left port, if I'm to get a message to her with the same ship then I'll have to send it overland before he gets to the coast. No time to waste. And please talk firmly to the mothers. There was so much flesh on show it might have been a slave auction; a girl who thinks she's got a hope of being future empress should not be showing off her nipples. Can't you just tell them I've got my heart on marrying a half-barbarian maid from Tesk?”
“Have you any idea about what half-barbarian maids from Tesk wear?”
“Only when they are wearing the robes of a high official's modest wife. And I expect the library is out of date, too. I'll be sure to ask Lady Ambassador Hayeel.”
“That's her name?”
“Yes, mother. Her parents had good taste in names, did they not?”
“A little presumptuous for a slave woman.”
“Treated by her foreign trader husband as a free woman. Hayeel's records say she was trapped in slavery by the inheritance laws.”
“Ah. The process of changing them is almost complete.”
“Good. I propose another change: any slave with free children is freed on the death of his or her spouse. Unless we just do away with slavery entirely. Caneth has, according to the corpse. Why must those freed by Jesus' blood still lie in bondage?”
“I wish you'd stop calling him that, Salay. You would probably break the economy.”
“I think the economy will survive, and I do not worship the economy, I worship the saviour, and I will obey him. Please try to persuade father to bring forwards the end to the ban on faith in the central zone too: there have been no riots, no unrest. And tell him I believe I know my future wife's name, and that she is a high official in the civil service.”
“And you're going to tell her that?”
“I'm going to write to her saying that her late husband has spoken well of her, and that whether or not they accept her as ambassador, as he thought they might, she remains a high official in my service gaining valuable insights, and I must talk to her sometime. Also, even bereft of company as she is, as my high official she may not form romantic attachments without my authorisation.”
“Fitting, my son. Most fitting. I will talk to your father on the matters you have raised.”
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EMBASSY OF DAHEL
“How did your evening at the palace go?” Hayeel's sister Taheela asked.
“Mostly it was at the docks, sister. Princess Yalisa of Tew arrived, crown princess Esmetherelda welcomed her, let her know that prince Henk who she'd expected to marry was in jail and the princess practically leapt for joy. Then the crown princess interviewed all the sailors about what the Tew captain called her version of the last kingdom. And everyone is calling me Ambassador, and I've been given explicit permission to write about it all to home.”
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“So you will open your husband's chest?”
“I think I must. I mentioned the minister for foreign affairs and the ship's captain did a double-take and said that I needed to see whose orders I'm here under. He knows something. He said that the prophecy of the Last Kingdom is a central plank of the thinking that brought me here, and assumed I'd know all about it.”
“What's the prophecy of the last kingdom? I've heard about the story. But prophecy?”
“The prophecy was first. The story came second, is much longer, and just that, a story. But from what my late husband said, the story is mostly compatible with the prophecy, but there are even two versions of the prophecy.”
“Two versions?”
“The original and the public version.”
“Layers on layers.” Taheela said.
“Sounds positively like the empire, doesn't it? The crown-princess knows about the story, not about the prophecy. I thought it was just passing the time. I'm so dumb!”
“What was passing the time?”
“My husband, talking about the prophecy. It mentions the sky being fire, and he looked up at the sky and said 'It does looks like fire, like the prophecy said, doesn't it?' I said pardon, and he told me about the prophesy.”
“Maybe there's something in his papers.”
“Maybe. But you know the empire. Layers. If it is the central plank, then it'll be covered in layers, and might only be spoken about, not written down.”
“And I'm not allowed to know, am I?”
“Probably not, no. It's unfair.”
“Unfair?” Taheela asked. “You have wealth, power, important friends and big responsibilities and don't know if you mourn your dead, fake husband. I have a very real loving husband, an adorable son, and a rich powerful sister who's paying me to live in a lovely home and cook, and God willing, soon another son or a daughter. Who said anything about fair? May God bless you, Hayeel.”
Hayeel cracked the seal on the box and gave a low moan.
“What is it?” Taheela asked.
“A letter. 'To my beloved and honourable virgin widow, Hayeel, may she be acknowledged by all as Lady Ambassador, just as they allow a woman minister here.'”
“I'll bring you tea. You'll be reading even later than normal, I think, sister.”
Taheela didn't expect a response. She knew Hayeel well enough to know that presented with such a letter, the outside world would mean very little.
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THE PALACE CHAPEL, AFTER THE REST-DAY SERVICE.
“Hayeel,” Esme said, “Come, you are distraught.”
“I do not particularly wish to work today, but I opened the official papers of the Ambassador, highness.”
“And?”
“The uppermost was a letter to me. My husband-in-name wrote of our mission, and why he did not tell me much about it before.”
“And?”
“And in the three months since he died, much time has passed, but I finally know that he longed for me deeply, but also was sure that I was not his to take as wife. He has not told me all, but I think I understand enough. And it scares me.”
“What scares you?”
“I am not sent by the ministry for foreign affairs, but by crown prince Salay. If I am ambassador, then I am his ambassador, my role is not to seek out trade deals or establish treaties, but to learn about what you know, what you plan to do, and also to find a woman who matches the prophesy. My late husband realised on the first night of our marriage that not only had he murdered my father, but that I fitted some of the description, and as time went on he realised I fitted more and more. He tried to pretend to himself he did not know who he was searching for, but that pretence was another reason for him hating himself, another reason he would not touch me: he hints that he'd became convinced that it almost must be me, except that I didn't have the gift of Tesk.”
“You think the prophesy points to you?”
“A teacher, 'the noble virgin born to a slave', having the gift of Tesk, 'one in speech' which probably fits someone who speaks Dahelese far better than agreeing, which is how some people suggested. I doubt there are many other candidates.”
“But you don't want the role the prophesy speaks of?”
“I was not asked to take wedding vows. I was only told, 'Your assigned role is wife of ambassador, his assigned role is ambassador. Only death may separate you, may your union be blessed with respectful children and may you bring honour to the emperor.' But if the prince wants me as future empress — that's not clear to me in the public, censored version of the prophesy, but that seems pretty likely — then there will be vows. Just this morning I read 'Make vows only with one to whom you are united in faith'. I won't willingly marry an unbeliever, highness. But the prophesy says that without the woman in question, either the help won't be effective or just plain won't come.”
“Help? What help?”
“Sorry, you don't know the prophesy do you? The censored version goes 'Grandson of my grandson, do not reject the noble virgin.
The sky shall be fire and there shall be two rulers over kings, one last kingdom over kingdoms. The learned will call and the faithful will pray, and help from the skies will come to the earthly rulers over kings, and so the sun shall not destroy. What does it matter who has the crown over all, but my child, you will not sit on your father's throne long without the teacher beside you, because the sun will destroy. You must be one in hope, united in thought and tongue.' The uncensored version apparently says 'noble virgin born of the slave.' and 'teacher whose gift is like mine.'”
“And it was actually given by your dangerous Tesk Empress?”
“It was, yes. Her daughter-in-law wrote the children's story.”
“But the children's story does end with the prince marrying the girl from Tesk with the gift, after together they've saved the planet.”
“Yes, but that's from an evil dragon, not the sun. And in the story she wasn't a slave.”
“It always struck me as odd that a story from the royal house of Dahel, had followers of Christ as the hero and heroine, though. It's not that Tesk is known for the strong faith of its people.”
“In Dahel, it is known exactly for that, highness. The Empress from Tesk had a strong faith, and refused to marry the Emperor until he had removed the ban on her faith from all but the central zone, and — according to my late husband, which I was not aware of — himself converted.”
“Interesting, I hadn't heard that. Why no believers in the central zone?”
“Because the central zone is ultra-conservative. Dahel is a country of layers, highness, and near the emperor, stability. Orders come from the middle and go out, changes start at the outside, and percolate in. Depending how radical the change is perceived to be, it can take many many decades for a major social change to percolate into the laws of the central zone. It also depends how gradually the change has been made. By forcing the issue upon so much of the country, the Empress from Tesk accepted that it would not affect the central zone for a very long time. Such a large change, from Emperor worship to allowing another religion was felt to risk rioting and civil war, the very highest social change. To change the whole Empire thus, except the central zone, was the largest change that the emperor could make. If she had been satisfied with steady progress, the law could have percolated in, demonstrating at each layer of the empire that it caused no riots, and after twenty or thirty years, it would have reached the central zone. As it is, it will take two hundred years before anything changes in the central zone. So believers in the central zone move out if they can, or must keep their faith a secret.”
“May I politely express my dismay at the idea of a country where a thing is illegal on one side of a street but legal on the other, but yesterday was legal on both sides.”
“This is what caused trouble for my father, highness.”
“And so if the emperor decided to end slavery, it would take twenty or thirty years?”
“As a single decree? Yes. There are other ways, however that the change could be made. Changes in taxation, for instance apply in the whole empire at once.”
“They're not seen as liable to cause riots? I'd have thought the biggest riots would be caused by such changes.”
“There must be fair warning, but people moving to gain taxation advantages has been a large cause of social unrest. Thus taxation occurs all over. But ending slavery was given to us as an exam question: if the emperor wished there to be no more slaves in Dahel, how quickly could it be ended?”
“And the answer?”
“Some of my class-mates suggested that everyone classed a slave could be re-classed as a debt-slave with high debt, and this could be done very quickly with no change in society. They got high marks. I suggested that, as with other changes on death, a slave with parental responsibility for free children could be classed as free on the death of their master, and as that reduced the social upheaval of death it could be applied almost instantly. I also suggested that as slaves are transport for some of the time and workers for some of the time and livestock for other times, and also transferable property they should be taxed as all categories that might apply, depending on what they do each day, and as they are workers who provide services worth a certain amount and they should be taxed as such also, and that the birth of a slave should be treated as a major capital gain, the death of a slave be classed as a work-place death. All of these are administrative changes, and while they force a certain administrative burden on people, that has never been classed as a social change. I calculated that for the owner of a single slave, the cost of paying the annual taxes and submitting the paperwork would be more than the cost of freeing the slave and employing them at a basic wage. For larger owners the costs would multiply. The changes could be done as a whole in one tax cycle, and the conversion of slaves to free workers would begin almost as soon as the taxation changes were announced. The examiners said yes, well, very clever, but that as a whole my raft of measures constituted a social change as the wide-scale freeing of slaves would result, so I got only half marks, which should have failed me. I don't know why I was allowed to continue, but I was.”
“I think your class-mates should have failed. The emperor's wish was no more slaves, not can we reclassify them without the social change.” Esme said.
“You are kind, highness. But what can I do about the prophecy?”
“Pray that the prince might come to faith?”