[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

bushwa. You've been at the forefront of scholarship and learning. Indeed, my friend, the
Commission hopes you'll honor us by giving us first look at every word that comes out of
your scriptor."
"Only if you promise to read it carefully and point out any mistakes I might make." No doubt
the Commission intended only to censor his work to remove political material-- which Leyel
had never included anyway. But Leyel had already resolved never to publish anything again,
at least as long as Linge Chen was Chief Commissioner. The safest thing Leyel could do
now was to disappear, to let Chen forget him entirely-- it would be egregiously stupid to
send occasional articles to Chen, thus reminding him that Leyel was still around.
But Rom wasn't through yet. "I must extend that request to Deet's work as well. We really
want first look at it-- do tell her so."
"Deet?" For the first time Leyel almost let his fury show. Why should Deet be punished
because of Leyel's indiscretion? "Oh, she'll be too shy for that, Rom-- she doesn't think her
work is important enough to deserve any attention from men as busy as the Commissioners.
They'll think you only want to see her work because she's my wife-- she's always annoyed
when people patronize her."
"You must insist, then, Leyel," said Rom. "I assure you, her studies of the functions of the
Imperial bureaucracy have long been interesting to the Commission for their own sake."
Ah. Of course. Chen would never have allowed a report on the workings of government to
appear without making sure it wasn't dangerous. Censorship of Deet's writings wouldn't be
Leyel's fault after all. Or at least not entirely.
"I'll tell her that, Rom. She'll be flattered. But won't you stay and tell her yourself? I can bring
you a cup of peshat, we ran talk about old times--"
Leyel would have been surprised if Rom had stayed. No, this interview had been at least
as hard on Rom as it had been on him. The very fact that Rom had been forced into being
the Commission's messenger to his childhood friend was a humiliating reminder that the
Chens were in the ascendant over the Divarts. But as Rom bowed and left, it occuffed to
Leyel that Chen might have made a mistake. Humiliating Rom this way, forcing him to place
his dearest friend under arrest like this-- it might be the straw to break the camel's back.
After all, though no one had ever been able to find out who hired the assassin who killed
Rom's father, and no one had ever learned who denounced Rom's grandfather, leading to
his execution by the paranoid Emperor Wassiniwak, it didn't take a genius to realize that the
House of Chen had profited most from both events.
"I wish I could stay," said Rom. "But duty calls. Still, you can be sure I'll think of you often. Of
course, I doubt I'll think of you as you are now, you old wreck. I'll remember you as a boy,
when we used to tweak our tutor-- remember the time we recoded his lector, so that for a
whole week explicit pornography kept coming up on the display whenever the door of his
room opened?"
Leyel couldn't help laughing. "You never forget anything, do you!"
"The poor fool. He never figured out that it was us! Old times. Why couldn't we have stayed
young forever?" He embraced Leyel and then swiftly left.
Linge Chen, you fool, you have reached too far. Your days are numbered. None of the Pubs
who were listening in on their conversation could possibly know that Rom and Leyel had
never teased their tutor-- and that they had never done anything to his lector. It was just
Rom's way of letting Leyel know that they were still allies, still keeping secrets together-- and
that someone who had authority over both of them was going to be in for a few nasty
surprises.
It gave Leyel chills, thinking about what might come of all this. He loved Rom Divart with all
his heart, but he also knew that Rom was capable of biding his time and then killing swiftly,
efficiently, coldly. Linge Chen had just started his latest six-year term of office, but Leyel
knew he'd never finish it. And the next Chief Commissioner would not be a Chen.
Soon, though, the enormity of what had been done to him began to sink in. He had always
thought that his fortune meant little to him-- that he would be the same man with or without
the Forska estates. But now he began to realize that it wasn't true, that he'd been lying to
himself all along. He had known since childhood how despicable rich and powerful men
could be-- his father had made sure he saw and understood how cruel men became, when
their money persuaded them they had a right to use others however they wished. So Leyel
had learned to despise his own birthright, and, starting with his father, had pretended to
others that he could make his way through the world solely by wit and diligence, that he
would have been exactly the same man if he had grown up in a common family, with a
common education. He had done such a good job of acting as if he didn't care about his
wealth that he came to believe it himself.
Now he realized that Forska estates had been an invisible part of himself all along, as if [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]