Tarashana by Rachel Neumeier (best novels to read for students .TXT) 📗

I frowned at him. I should have been more careful with that thought. I might not have done it, but perhaps I would have. Now it was too late to try. I knew he would not permit anything of the kind.

I had not thought of his duty to his uncle. When I thought of it like that, I knew he would not turn aside and why he warned me not to interfere. Even so, I said, “The young man struck at you because you are a sorcerer and he believes you are evil. Probably he believes you have made your uncle into your slave, and that killing you would free him and end a terrible danger to all your people. Trying to kill you is not the same as trying to kill the king, even if you hold a scepter from his hand.”

“All of that’s true, but none of it matters.”

He was as stubborn as an Ugaro. I said, “Drink the wine. It will help.”

He said, “I don’t think it will, unfortunately. Though I suppose it can’t hurt. The advice you’ve given me is good, but I can’t follow it.” He drank some of the wine. Then he went back around the table and sat down. Very little showed on his face. He had practiced for many years to hide everything he felt. Despite this, I knew perfectly well that he was sick with this problem.

I said what was obvious to me. “If you made a decision not to do it, you would be able to think of something else to do. If you decide you must do this, that will stop you from thinking of other things you might do instead.” I paused to let that thought stand in a quiet space. Then I said, “Customs sometimes change. When people become unhappy with a custom, they choose something else to do, until the old custom is forgotten and everyone behaves a different way.”

He drank the rest of the wine and set the goblet aside. “It’s not merely a custom. It’s a law, one that’s been in place for a long time. Everyone knows the law. That’s the whole point. People are supposed to know this law. It’s supposed to be so severe no one will break it. Every now and then someone does, of course, and the example that’s made generally deters any further attempts for several generations. His attempt was public. There’s no way to avoid answering it publicly.”

Even though I had lived for more than a year among the Lau, the distinction he made between law and custom was not clear to me. The Lau wrote down their laws, but I did not understand why they thought the act of writing down a custom made it more important. But I only said patiently, “Even if it is a law, can it not be written in a different way? If you ask your uncle, will he not permit you to choose some other punishment?”

“No, he won’t.” Aras sounded quite certain of this. “Even the king is ruled by law, Ryo, not by his personal whims. If Soretes threw away the law whenever he didn’t like it, that would be far worse. Even if I begged him to make an exception, he has far too much sense to agree. But I wouldn’t ask even if I thought he might grant my request. Clemency in cases like this only invites further problems.”

I could think of only one other thing he might do.

“No,” he said. He sounded tired. “Even if I broke my scepter and sent it back to him in pieces, it wouldn’t help. The assassin tried to kill me while I held it. Nothing can change that.”

I nodded. I did not really regret he could not do that. If he broke that scepter, I thought many more men would try to kill him, probably very soon. For a whole year and more, I had been surprised no one tried to do it. Once everyone knew he was a powerful sorcerer, I had expected many such attempts. Now that I knew the punishment for such an act, I understood better why it had not happened until now.

He said, “I wish I could take your advice, Ryo, but it’s impossible.” I started to tell him it was completely possible, but before I could, he said, “They’re coming back now. That didn’t take as long as I expected.”

“The man was already tired.” I moved around the table, to take a place at his back. I did it to show the soldiers that he trusted me there and that they were stupid to mistrust me. I also took that place to show Aras I did not intend to kill the assassin the moment he stepped through the door. I wanted to do it badly enough that I was not sure he would be able to tell I would not, and I did not want to force him to order me back. That would embarrass us both.

“Thank you, Ryo,” he said, but most of his attention was the door.

Esau opened it. He came in first, and the three other soldiers, who came to stand protectively near Aras. Then more soldiers, half-carrying the young assassin, who was trying to walk, but not very successfully. Geras came in last. He said, his tone level, “Pretty sure he’s not faking it, my lord.”

“I don’t think he is,” Aras murmured. Nothing showed on his face. He looked like he did not care about anything that was happening. He had picked up his scepter again. He held it as though he hardly knew he had it in his hands, as he did sometimes when he was thinking and sometimes when he was upset.

The young man slumped to his knees, swaying. His wrists were still bound behind his back. That makes it hard to run, and he had plainly fallen more than