Into The Darkness

In deference to Unkerlanter sensibilities, Hajaj had donned a cotton tunic that covered him from neck to knee. He'd never seen any sense to clothes till his first winter at the university in Trapani, before the Six Years' War broke out. He still didn't see any sense to them in Bishah climate, but reckoned them part of the price he paid for being a diplomat.

Unkerlanter soldiers stood guard outside the ministry. They wore tunics, too, dull gray ones jarringly out of place in a city of whitewash and glowing golden sandstone. Sweat stained and darkened  tunics on the men's arms and across their chests. [..T oug su ring in w at was r..] them dreadful heat, they held themselves motionless - all but their eyes, which ungrily allowed every pretty young Zuwayzi woman wing past. Hajaj laughed, but only inside where it did not show.

Kin Swemmel's minister to Zuwayzi was a dour, middle-aged man named Ansovald. Maybe he had a magic that prevented sweat, or maybe he was lust too stubborn to permit any such mere human failing.

However he managed it, his tunic and his forehead remained dry.

"In the name of my king, I greet you," he said to Hajaj after a servant had escorted the Zuwayzi foreign minister to his chamber. "That you are so punctual shows your efficiency.

"I thank you. And in the name of my king, I greet you in return,"

Hajaj replied. He and Ansovald spoke Algarvian, in which they were both fluent. Hajaj thought Swemmel would have been efficient to send to Bishah a minister who spoke Zuwayzi, but saying as much struck him as undiplomatic. He himself understood more of the Unkerlanter language than he let on. As would any Zuwayzi in sinuilar circumstances, he thought, I understand more Unkerlanter than I want.

"Well, what is the point of this meeting?" Ansovald demanded.

Abrupt as an Unkerlanter was a common Zuwayzi phrase. Had Hajaj been visiting one of his countrymen, they would have shared tea and wine and cakes and small talk before eventually getting down to business.

Had Ansovald come to the palace, Hajaj would also have gone through the leisurely rituals of hospitality, as much to annoy Swemmel's envoy as for the sake of form. Here, though, Unkerlanter rules prevailed. Hajaj sighed, not quite invisibly.

"The point of this meeting, your Excellency, is to convey my sovereign's displeasure with recent provocations along the border between our two kingdoms," Hajaj' said. King Shazli was hopping mad and scared green, both at the same time. Displeasure suggested that as diplomatically as possible.

Ansovald's massive shoulders moved up and down in a shrug. "I deny that any such provocations have taken place," he said.

Haijaj' reached into a leather case and produced a short scroll. "Your Excellency, I have here a list of Zuwayzi border guards and soldiers killed, border guards and soldiers wounded, and Zuwayzi property on Zuwayzi territory destroyed during Unkerlanter incursions this season, and

Unkerlanter buildings and encampments erected on land rightfully under the rule of King Shazli."

Ansovald read through the document - written, like most diplomatic correspondence, in classical Kaunian - and then shrugged again. "All of these alleged incidents took place on Unkerlanter soil," he said. "If any one is the provocateur here, it is Zuwayza."

"Now really, your Excellency!" Hajaj exclaimed, indignation over coming diplomacy for a moment. He pointed to the map of Zuwayza on the wall behind Ansovald. "Please look again. Some of these incidents occurred as much as ten or fifteen miles north of the border between our two kingdoms established by the Treaty of Bludenz."

"Ali, the Treaty of Bludenz." Ansovald's smile was anything but pleasant. "Kyot the traitor dickered the Treaty of Bludenz with you

Zuwayzin, thinking to be efficient: by not fighting your secession, he had more resources to use against King Swemmel. Much good it did him."

The unpleasant smile got broader. "Why should King Swemmel pay the least heed to anything the traitor did?"

Haijaj was no longer indignant. He was appalled. He briefly wondered whether Unkerlant would have been a more pleasant neighbor had Kyot won the Twinkings War. He doubted it: Unkerlanters, worse luck, were Unkerlanters. Speaking now with great care, he said, "King Swemmel has conformed to the terms of the Treaty of Bludenz since gaining sole rule over Unkerlant. You would not be here as his minister, your Excellency, did he not recognize Zuwayza as a free and independent kingdom. Would it be efficient for him to overturn a policy that has given him good results?"

Not even the phrase that seemed so magic to Unkerlanter ears swayed Swemmel's envoy. Shrugging yet again, Ansovald said, "What is efficient changes with circumstances. In any case, the protest you have conveyed from King Shazli is rejected. Have you anything more, or are we through?"