‘A slithery sort of fellow named Podiss.’

‘I’ll talk with him. Let’s keep Salmissra advised. She’s got some resources I might need later on, so I don’t want her to be sitting in a corner someplace pouting. We’ll keep you advised, so don’t waste time putting spies on my trail.’

Then father and I went to the Cherek embassy. Late that night, Beltira’s voice reached father just as he was dropping off to sleep. He reported that Torak’s forces had marched into Algaria, and then he got down to the bad news. Uncle Beldin had advised the twins that a second Mallorean army under Urvon had massed at the Dalasian port of Dal Zerba and had already begun crossing the Sea of the East to southern Cthol Murgos. Quite clearly, the closing of the caravan routes in both the north and in the south had been ordered to keep troop movements a secret. Now we had two Angarak armies to worry about.

Father and I went back to the palace and bullied the emperor’s servants into waking him. He wasn’t too happy about the news we brought him. We suggested that he stay flexible and not commit his forces to either front, and then father and I left for Nyissa.

I’d never been in the land of the snake-people before nor met one of that interminable string of identical Salmissras. The Serpent-God, Issa, unlike the other gods, had not taken several disciples as Torak or our Master had, but had devoted all his love to one handmaiden, the original Salmissra. The notion of extending her life had evidently not occurred to the sluggish Issa, and so the Nyissans had simply replaced her when she’d died. The first qualification had been a physical resemblance to the original, and a lengthy education had imprinted the personality of the first Salmissra on all the candidates. They had good reason to study very hard, since nineteen of those candidates were put to death immediately after the selection of the new Serpent Queen. As a result, one Salmissra was virtually indistinguishable from her predecessors. As father put it, ‘If you’ve met one Salmissra, you’ve met them all.’ I had no real reason to be fond of those Salmissras, but father persuaded me that we might need the rather specialized talents of the Nyissans at some time during the course of the Angarak invasion, so I was civil – barely – when we entered that garish, snake-infested palace in Sthiss Tor.

Salmissra’s throne-room was a dimly-lighted hall that focused on the enormous statue of the Serpent-God. A dais stood in front of that statue, and Salmissra reclined on a throne that was more couch than chair upon that dais. Before her throne there knelt several dozen yellow-robed eunuchs who chanted slogans of adoration in unison. The Serpent Queen was very pale, almost chalk white. She had glossy black hair and peculiarly colorless eyes. I’ll admit that she was beautiful, and her gauze-like gown left very little to the imagination. She received our information with a reptilian indifference, not even bothering to take her eyes from her mirror. ‘Why should I involve myself in your war with the Angaraks?’ she asked.

‘It’s not just our war, Salmissra,’ I said. ‘It concerns all of us.’

‘Not me, it doesn’t. One of my predecessors discovered the folly of becoming involved in this private feud between the Alorns and the Angaraks. I’m not going to make that same mistake. Nyissa will remain neutral.’ Her pale eyes fixed themselves on my face, and I knew – without knowing how I knew – that one day the snake woman and I were going to have a confrontation, and Salmissra’s eyes clearly told me that she also knew that it was coming.

My father totally missed that silent interchange. Women have always had ways to communicate with each other that men can’t begin to comprehend. Father tried to persuade Salmissra that Urvon would obliterate Nyissa as he passed through on his way north. He was wasting his breath, of course. Salmissra didn’t care about what happened to Nyissa. Her only concern was herself. That was one of the characteristics her education had hammered into her. Her personal survival – and her personal appetites – were all that mattered to her. I realized that, even if father didn’t, so I cast my parting remarks to her on a personal level, suggesting that she might find being bent backward over a blood-soaked altar while several Grolims carved out her heart rather unpleasant.

That got her attention, even if nothing else did.

As father and I were leaving her musty-smelling palace, I asked him a question that’d been nagging at me just a bit. ‘Have the Nyissans compiled any kind of reference-works on their pharmacology?’

‘I don’t know,’ he replied with a shrug. ‘Why?’

‘They have some very interesting herbal compounds. Salmissra was absolutely awash with about six or eight that I could detect.’

‘Really?’ He seemed a bit surprised. ‘I thought that was just her natural personality.’

‘It is, but she’s taking some things that enhance it. She has some very interesting appetites. When this is all over, I might just come down here and investigate. Some of those herbs might be very useful.’

‘Most of them are poisonous, Pol.’

‘Lots of things are poisonous, father. An overdose of most of the healing herbs can be fatal. Proper dosage is the key to herbal medicine.’

‘Your reputation as a physician might start to deteriorate if you begin experimenting with poison, Pol.’

‘Experimentation is the source of all medical advances, father. You lose a few patients along the way, but you save more in the long run.’

‘Sometimes you’re as cold-blooded as Salmissra is, Pol.’

‘Are you only just beginning to realize that, father? I’m disappointed in you.’

Well of course I didn’t mean it. Sometimes I wonder about you.

Chapter 31

‘That wasn’t particularly fruitful, was it, Pol?’ father grumbled as he and I left Salmissra’s gaudy palace and walked out into the rainy streets.

‘Did you really expect her to welcome you with open arms, father?’ I asked him. ‘You’ve never been all that popular in Nyissa, you know.’

‘Well,’ he sighed, ‘at least she’s not going to welcome Urvon either. Maybe that’s the best we can hope for. Let’s go to Maragor and see if we can get Mara’s attention.’

It was winter, the rainy season in Nyissa, but the climate change which had followed Torak’s Eclipse made it a little hard to distinguish one rainy season from another. I absolutely hate flying in the rain, but we didn’t really have much choice.