Black Unicorn, Tanith Lee [famous ebook reader txt] 📗

“Once or twice,” said Lizra. She added philosophically,

“They never fall far. Father’s Chief Counselor, Gasb, once got abroken leg. Rats had gnawed the ropes. The rope-checker was beheaded.”

They reached the fifth floor, that of dining, and got out to achorus of pleased whoops from the lower Chair gang.

The doors to the hall were covered in gold. Two servantsflung them open. At once a boy playing a flute and a girl strewingflower petals jumped into their path and preceded them into the room. If anyone of the hundreds of people there looked round, itwas unlikely. The din was deafening. Scores of musicians playedon a gallery that encircled the chamber, pipes and drums, harpsand tambourines. Nobody listened, or tried to.

Ranks of tables, high-legged and low, laden with food and drink, had attracted sitters like hungry gulls. Servants glidedabout with enormous platters of vegetables, fruits, breads, roasts,and cakes, and vessels of wine, water, tea, and brandy. The mealdid not apparently have courses. Everything was served at onceand continuously. On the mosaic floor, flowers lay crushed. Sleek dogs, cats, and monkeys, with collars of silver and jewels, roamed the area, while on several of the great golden chandeliers,pet parrots swung, eating something or singeing themselves onthe candles. A pink bird dived overhead, trailing a leash of crystals. The peeve made to spring, and Tanaquil held it down.The bird settled in a cut-glass tureen of presumably cool soup,and began to splash and preen.

The Prince’s table was at the end of the endless chamber, amid an indoor arbor of vines and potted trees, the brancheshung with small gems, glittering. The table itself was of gold, andof an odd coiling and twisting shape, like the bends of a river.About seventy people were seated at it in one curve or another.They were all dressed in incredible clothing, many flamboyant styles, armored by precious metal and stones.

“There’s father,” said Lizra. “And that’s Gasb, with the hat like an owl.”

Tanaquil saw the hat first. It was made of feathers, the spread wings extending over the Counsellor’s head to either side,the savage face coming down to mask his eyes and shield his nose with a beak of gold. Whatever he truly was, the contraption madehim look both absurd and rapaciously cruel. Of the Prince, Tanaquil had only a fleeting glimpse before Lizra had turned heraside into one of the bends of the table: a man with very black,long, curled hair, a diadem with diamonds, patchwork clothes of

silk, cloth-of-gold, and the hides and furs of a great many ani mals, which might otherwise have been living their own lives. “Have some of this,” said Lizra. “Let the peeve on the tableif it wants. Look, there’s Lady Orchid’s marmoset in the pie.”

Tanaquil began to eat. The food was good, though some of ithighly spiced. The nobles of the Prince’s court were also con stantly shaking out clouds of pepper, salt, and cinnamon ontotheir plates, and dipping sugars and essences into their cups. Occasionally, Tanaquil got another look at Lizra’s father. He wasa handsome man. He never smiled. And though he paid no heedto the general antics, when the clean, dainty marmoset patteredclose, he pushed it roughly away, and Lady Orchid might be seencreasing her glorious gown in bows of apology.

Lizra seemed to have no connection to her father. She glancedabout and spoke of several people at the table. She pointed out alord who had invented a strain of rose that would shrink into the soil at sunset, and thereby not need to be protectively coveredevery night by gardeners against the frosts, and a lady who hadwon a chariot race, and a general in golden mail who was said to have eaten a crocodile. But of Prince Zorander Lizra said noth ing. There’s nothing between them, thought Tanaquil. As I had nothing with Jaive. Then she and Lizra started to laugh again atsomething, and Tanaquil heard herself with surprise. Who does she remind me of?

“Do you know,” Lady Orchid’s voice broke out in loud, self-conscious tones, as she tied the marmoset’s emerald leash to her chair, “a unicorn has been seen again in the city.”

Tanaquil felt as if a stream of boiling cold water were beingpoured down her spine.

“A unicorn? Some foolishness—”

“No, there were various reports on Lion and Lynx Streets. About midnight a ghostly shape went by with a blazing silverhorn.”

“I heard the creature was scarlet and had fiery eyes,” said anoble to Lady Orchid’s left.

“The fishermen said they saw the Sacred Beast of the cityswimming in the ocean near dawn.”

“There are always these lying rumors,” said Gasb suddenly, in a harsh, owl-cruel voice that carried over all the table’s coils.

Everyone hastened to agree. “Oh, true, Lord Gasb.”

Somewhere above, in the vault of the palace, a huge bell rang

out. It tolled for midnight, and the whole hall sank into abruptand utter silence.

Prince Zorander rose to his feet. He was tall and command ing in his robe of dead things. He raised a goblet cut apparentlyfrom a single amethyst. Every person in the hall also got up andraised a drinking vessel. Tanaquil rose too, as Lizra did. The Prince’s cold, calm voice rang like the bell. “The city salutes midnight and the Sacred Beast.”

“Midnight. The Beast.”

They drank and sat down. The peeve, which had speech lessly devoured pieces of meat on the table and spilled gravy,climbed into Tanaquil’s lap and ruined Lizra’s yellow dress.

8

In the sunrise, Lizra took Tanaquil round the mile of palacegardens.

Tanaquil was not sure she liked going to bed so late and thengetting up again so early. The fire lit in her cinnabar fireplace forthe night was still glowing when she woke to Lizra standing bythe bed with a tray of food, already clad in a wild white gownwith feathered sleeves. “Salute the day!” said Lizra, just as Jaive had made her sorcerous portrait do.

However, the sun rising on the many different trees andstatues, and over the limpid pools of the garden, was a marveloussight.

The gardeners were going about uncovering the plants andshrubs. Some had