CHAPTER FIFTY FOUR

The guard returned with the Emperor’s personal Butler.

The Butler ushered Tom and Fox into a vestibule where Fox discarded his sling, and his bow, and his quiver of arrows, and his dagger, and a skewer that he had hidden up his sleeve. The Butler gave Tom a mask, that he insisted that Tom hold up to hide his face.

‘For your protection,’ the Butler explained.

The mask was white-faced, with a long nose and elongated eyes and wide, fat, red lips. It had a stick at the bottom for the wearer to hold.

The throne room was long and high and made of giant rectangles of cream coloured marble. A crimson rug ran down the centre of the room to a raised dais, where three steps went up to where the throne was positioned between two statues of naked men. Although the Emperor was seated on the throne, Tom couldn’t see him between the crowd of men who were jostling around the front of the dais, all seeking an audience with the Emperor.

Between the entry where Tom stood, and the throne at the other end of the long hall, there was a lounge area, with chairs arranged into intimate spaces. On little metal tables were glasses filled with red wine. These spaces were filled with reclining men and perching women, all immersed in hazy puddles of smoke that came from long cigars. The men wore colourful coats and colourful hats. The women wore shining gowns (pearl coloured, strawberry coloured, cream coloured, sugar coloured, liquorice coloured) that hung from bare shoulders.

One woman crossed her legs, and a split ran up the side of a thick white thigh. She pointed her toe and trailed it up the back of a man's calf.

These people reminded Tom of the club that his father belonged to down in London, where the aristocrats came to drink and make deals.

Sounding impressed, Fox pronounced:

‘There is an army at the city wall, and still the fancy people do their fancy things.’

The butler said, ‘Our people are safe … the walls will not be breached.’

Walking ahead of Fox and Tom, the butler held his chin high and forward. Around his neck was a white frill, like a Christmas decoration.

They followed the crimson carpet, and the conversations hushed as they passed. The lounging aristocrats knew that something unusual was about to happen. Tom could feel the eyes of these privileged people watching him. Although they didn’t know he was Elion (because of the mask) they must have expected he was someone important, to be walking with the Emperor’s butler on the approach to the throne.

Tom pressed the mask hard against his cheeks and nose.

They approached the crowd of men jostling for access to the throne. Judging from the deep blues and the sharp collars and the stiff lapels and embroidered armbands, these were all military men of high rank.

Tom could now see Emperor August seated on his golden throne. Finally the Emperor. Actually the Emperor wasn’t sitting as much as lounging, slumped with one leg up on the throne’s golden arm. He had an insolent expression, like he was the schoolyard bully ready to fight anyone who looked at him wrong.

The Emperor’s face was round like a dish, and his hair lay across his forehead in bow shaped strands, trying to hide the baldness that shone through like a lamp behind a tree. And he was short. It was hard to tell his exact height, but perhaps not much more than five feet.

He wore white pants and gold shoes, and a white shirt and a dark blue coat, with the Empire insignia on his right breast. The suit had buttons that might have been made of pure gold.

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A man was exiting the dais, stepping down on the crimson steps. The Emperor spoke after him:

‘This must remain confidential.’

The man turned back. ‘It will remain private, your excellency.’

Now the Emperor’s eyes flicked across the group of waiting men. The eyes found Tom and Fox and the blue uniformed Butler. The Emperor stared at Tom in his mask, then looked at Fox.

A General, who must have been next in line to have an audience with the Emperor, took two steps up onto the dais. The Emperor turned to the General and said something quietly, and the General shook his head, as though this was something unusual; something he didn’t want to accept. The Emperor looked sideways where a red-coated palace guard stood at attention, and the General read something in that look and stepped back down off the dais.

The Butler, still standing with Fox and Tom, was rocking back and forth on his feet, and making a sound like the meow of a cat waiting for his master to feed him. Tom sensed that the Butler got into a wobble when he was in the orbit of the Emperor.

The Emperor put his white-gloved hand toward the Butler, and waggled fingers like he was playing piano in the air. The Butler nodded and let out a sharp breath and began walking toward the dais.

The Emperor turned to the palace guard and said something quietly. The guard nodded and immediately started walking around the outside of the crowd. Immediately Fox got a sense of a looming problem. His moustache twitched, and while not looking at the approaching guard, he concentrated on the motion of the guard’s approach from the corner of his eye.

‘This might get ugly.’

Tom stayed hidden behind the mask, and the guard ignored him. The guard sidled up and took a position beside Fox, standing so close that his large arm brushed Fox’s shoulder. This agitated Fox, and he snarled, ‘You are a poor excuse for a fighting man.’

The palace guard didn’t reply, and Fox stared at him, trying not to be insignificant.

The Butler approached the Emperor with his hands out, like he was walking toward a loved one. The Emperor was inscrutable and he watched the approaching butler through heavy black eyes that had sunk into puffs of flesh. When the butler stopped in front of the throne, the Emperor extended his hand for the butler to kiss.

‘You have brought Fox back,’ said the Emperor.

‘It is not Fox that is interesting … It is the boy.’

‘It is HE, isn’t it?’

’Yes.’

‘Have them approach,’ said the Emperor.

The Butler turned. He seemed to be filled with joy. He stepped lightly down the stairs and moved, almost with a skip, between the military men.

As the Butler approached, the guard stood to attention. He had a hand inside his coat where his dagger was kept, and his red uniform tightened around his balloon shaped biceps. He was ready for action in case Fox made a problem.

An old military man, with long hair and a long fur coat said, ‘The mask wearer is just a boy.’

‘He must be royalty,’ someone else said.

‘Follow,’ said the Butler.

Fox stepped ahead of Tom. He was so close to the million rizers he could almost smell the money. He needed to exercise some caution as it had only been an hour earlier that the Emperor had told Fox to leave and never return to Coronet or he would likely end up dead. But Fox was excited and he couldn’t contain that excitement.

The Emperor swung his legs around and put his feet on the ground. He sat up straight and reached for the sceptre that rested against the side of the throne. Although Fox was desperate for the Emperor’s attention, it was Tom that the Emperor looked at.

For one moment Tom and the Emperor locked eyes, and although the Emperor’s blue eyes searched, trying to see into Tom’s ‘shine’ Tom could tell that the Emperor didn’t recognise him as Elion.

Fox raised a hand to get the Emperor’s attention. The Emperor brought his eyes away from Tom. Fox walked up the stairs onto the dais. The Emperor put his hand out for Fox to kiss. On his middle finger was a large royal ring, the one that had once been worn by the man King of Coronet. Fox bent his knees and put his lips close to the ring, but he didn’t actually touch the ring with his lips. A dozen dirty men would have already kissed the ring this evening.

‘I have brought the prize,’ said Fox.

‘And you will be paid,’ said the Emperor. ‘Go with the butler for a payment of half a million rizers.’

‘Half a million …’ Dismay ran over Fox’s face. His moustache drooped and his eyes widened, and although he managed to speak his voice was strained and halting. ‘The price was a million rizers.’

‘You brought two boys. One boy was a lie. You get half or nothing.’

Fox spluttered but his words came out nonsensical. His outrage had blotted his ability to think or form a sentence.

The Emperor repeated:

‘Go with the butler for half a million rizers.’

‘I believe that you are reneging on a royal contract.’

This made the Emperor laugh, with a sound like a snort.

‘Perhaps if you had kissed the ring I might have considered giving you the full amount, but now it is too late.’