Chapter 17 - The Tale of Crispin, Chancellor of Ajanabha.

[Scribe's Note: A description of Zhou Yu’s household taken from “Letters to the Emperor,” a collection of love letters and erotic tales written to the Zeeshan Emperor by his concubine and published to mark the fiftieth anniversary of his reign.]

*

Lord Crispin hated traveling by sea and he liked the scorching heat of Thamud even less. Still it was vastly preferable to have his feet firmly planted on the arid soil of the desert kingdom; frankly anything would be an improvement over the gently rocking motion that he had been subjected to for nearly two weeks.

Crispin was the Chancellor to the Zeeshan Emperor. He was a Talosian by race but a citizen of Ajanabha by birth. The Zeeshan empire is one of the few multicultural societies on the great continent of An, with a tenth of the population consisting of citizens of Talosian descent. This was the natural result of Talosian expansionism over a century ago which led to the absorption of a third of Ajanabha into the Talosian empire. When the Talsosians were finally driven out, some of the colonizers chose to stay (having intermarried with the natives); bending the knee to the resurgent royal family. Ajanabha was the ruling entity of the conglomeration of small states which constituted the empire, and it was from here that Emperor Zeeshan ruled.

The trade and diplomatic mission led by Crispin had been deemed necessary in the face of recent poor harvests and scattered outbreaks of famine, the result of logistical issues across the empire. Customs incentives were also on the table; seeing as so much trade had to pass through the large land mass of Talos which separated Ajanabha from Thamud with all the resultant cost and taxes this incurred. The trade mission was meant to establish new trade routes using the relatively safe coastal passage.

The suggestion for this diplomatic mission was put forward by the Lady Neela over tea. She was the favorite of Ajanabha's chief military strategist; a coquettish woman who had various mercantile interests throughout the empire. At this point, Ajanabha was desperate to do anything to diversify its supply lines away from its larger neighbor; even a mutual security pact would be welcomed by Ajanabha.

This was Crispin's first face to face meeting with the Queen of Thamud. He was familiar with all the stories emanating from Talos as to how she had twisted the character of Idris, her husband, turning a once peaceful country into one ever on a war footing.

In appearance the Queen seemed an average sized Qin woman with long black hair. She received him dressed in the traditional robes of her race. This made her stand out from all her attendants but no more so than usual, seeing as she was the only Qin person in the entire palace, if not the capital itself. She wore a simple but expensive headdress in the form of a jewel encrusted hair pin which she said was a present from her husband. Some would consider her reasonably pretty for one who was in her mid thirties–shapely for a Qin woman with a pleasant enough face.

Crispin did not think her appearance surpassed those of the average servant girl in the palace in Ajanabha. It seemed even less likely that this was the person responsible for the deaths of thousands of men across Talos and Albion. Was this diminutive Qin woman the person who had helped Duke Gaius subdue half of Albion-inciting the peasants to rise up against his rivals and pledge allegiance to the Duke in exchange for food, shelter, and reduced rents? There was really nothing about her which suggested this or any type of danger.

During his long tenure as one of the King's chief advisors, Crispin had received many rumors indicating that it was the Thamudian Queen who paved that bloody road which Sabine took in her great purge of the nobility of Talos some ten years back. The reader will probably have heard of Queen Zhou Yu's designs on Talos, and that it was she who proposed an alliance between Thamud and Talos through the marriage of her son to the daughter of Queen Sabine; going so far as to keep Sabine's daughter, the Princess Anthea, as a hostage in her palace to ensure that her ends were met. Needless to say, Crispin had a very poor impression of the Queen even before meeting her for the first time.

It soon became clear to Crispin that the citizens of Thamud were the most [propagandized] on the continent. When the Chancellor conversed with members of the nobility, they were invariably convinced that the Queen was a loving mother who treated Anthea like her very own child–almost provoking the jealousy of her own true daughter, Princess Zeinab.

As for the negotiations and Crispin's audience with the Queen; apart from a few cursory words of greeting, she did not interfere in the trade negotiations at all; at least not to his face. Instead, she moved in and out of the negotiation room at her leisure; sometimes for nothing more important than refilling her tea cup or nibbling on some biscuits. The Thamudian negotiators would largely ignore her comings and goings but, whenever a more important decision was to be made, the chairman, a noble of the highest standing, could be seen hastening out of the hall to consult his superior. Who this might be was anyone's guess.

Crispin's delegation was put up in a luxurious summer lodge situated a short distance from the main palace. There Talosian and Ajanabha delicacies were served to them on demand. On other occasions, they would take lunch in the main dining hall where more details could be ironed out informally. Only when the negotiations were nearing their end was he invited to take breakfast with the royal family.

The King had taken his son Safin to the fire villages near the Thamudian-Talosian border and would not be back for a few days yet, but he did have occasion to meet Princess Anthea who was in Thamud without her mother (Sabine of Talos) as had been rumored. Crispin asked her quite casually what she thought of life in Thamud and whether she would prefer to be back in Talos. Anthea gave the Chancellor a look of perplexed disgust and snidely asked him if he had ever met her mother. It appeared that Anthea had no inkling of her status as a hostage, though it did occur to Crispin that the Princess could have been turned by the Witch Queen to her own ends through long years of isolation. Either way, he pitied her.

One morning, when Crispin was left alone at breakfast with the Princesses of Thamud and Talos, Zhou Yu's youngest, Zeinab, seized the opportunity to interrogate him.

Zeinab: Where do you come from?

Crispin: I'm from Ajanabha, your Highness.

Zeinab: But you're a descendant of Talosian colonizers.

Crispin: I suppose that is historically accurate but...

Zeinab: Do you like my mother? You don't seem very friendly to her. Is that because you still feel some affinity for Talos?

Anthea: Stop disturbing the Chancellor, Zaya. He's here to spy on mother.

Crispin: I am not here to spy on anyone, Princess Anthea. I am here to discuss new trading opportunities and to meet the members of our permanent mission in Thamud.

Anthea: As I said, spying. Using a permanent mission to spy on Thamud is about as smart as the Qin using their shops to spy on Ajanabha. Do you think that's the way the Queen gets her information on Talos and Ajanabha, Chancellor?

Crispin: I couldn't possibly comment.

Crispin rarely spoke with or worked with children, but he knew now never to repeat this experience if he could help it. He could hardly strike them down with the cold calculating logic he was known for back in Ajanabha; after all, they were only children and it would be like smiting defenseless rabbits.

The next moment, Crispin felt a light tap on his shoulder which made him almost jump out of his skin. He heard a familiar voice coming from just behind him; a voice which seemed to be laced with warm honey.

“Are the children bullying you, Chancellor?”

“Yes, of course, your Highness. I mean, no...they were not.”

“I'm so pleased that they've been keeping you entertained. Life in the palace can be so dull.”

Crispin noticed that the Queen always spoke kindly to her maids and attendants but it appeared to him that they obeyed her as much out of fear as they did out of love. And unlike many royal matriarchs, she spent an inordinate amount of time with her children, and was even rumored to have nursed them on her own breasts while they were babes. This was certainly not the tradition in most royal households.

The Queen also seemed especially docile with the King, her husband. It seemed incredible that this was the female who had so ensnared him and that had turned him towards cruelty and violence. At her side constantly was a boorish Thamudian woman named, Aisha, who held the tip of her sword to Crispin's neck when he first approached the Queen, telling him in no uncertain terms he was not to advance any further. For this she was playfully chided by the Queen with whom she seemed to be great friends.

In short, Crispin learned almost nothing about the Queen despite his extended stay in Thamud. All she had for him was small talk and interminable discussions on food, something which was ever on the minds of the Qin people (or so he had been told). She seemed to be absolutely vacuous but he could hardly blame the woman for conforming to the intellectual tendencies of her sex.

*

Crispin had chosen to return to Ajanabha by land and was looking forward to visiting the many fine dining halls in Talos. An hour after the coachman informed him that they had crossed the Thamud-Talosian border, he fell into a deep sleep and dreamt of a sumptuous dinner of pork pie and roasted pheasant.

[Scribe’s note: The rest of the account reputedly describing Crispin’s reduction to a servant girl and Emperor Zeeshan’s plaything has been censored.

It is said that Crispin later served as a female librarian in Thamud’s Grand Library. Under a different name, no doubt.]