" Let me search him, General."

"We can't search him, DeWar, he's an ambassador." 'ZeSpiole is right, DeWar. We can't treat him as though he's some peasant supplicant."

"Of course not, DeWar," said BiLeth, who was the Protector's advisor on most matters foreign. He was a tall, thin, imperious man with long, scant hair and a short, considerable temper. He did his best to look down his very thin nose at the taller DeWar. "What sort of ruffians do you want us to appear?"

"The ambassador certainly comes with all the usual diplomatic accoutrements," UrLeyn said, striding onwards along the terrace.

"From one of the Sea Companies, sir," DeWar protested. "They're hardly an Imperial delegation of old. They have the clothes and the jewels and the chains of office, but do any of them match?"

"Match?" UrLeyn said, mystified.

"I think," ZeSpiole said, "the chief bodyguard means that all their finery is stolen."

"Ha!" BiLeth said, with a shake of his head.

"Aye, and recently, too," DeWar said.

"Nevertheless," UrLeyn said. "In fact, all the more so because of that."

"Sir?"

"All the more so?"

BiLeth looked confused for a moment, then nodded wisely.

General UrLeyn came to a sudden stop on the white and black tiles of the terrace. DeWar seemed to stop in the same instant, ZeSpiole and BiLeth a moment later. Those following them along the terrace between the private quarters and the formal court chambers — generals, aides,

s'bes and clerks, the usual attenders — bumped into each scribes other with a muffled clattering of armour, swords and writing boards as they drew to a stop behind.

"The Sea Companies may be all the more important now that the old Empire is in tatters, my friends," General UrLeyn said, turning in the sunlight to address the tall, balding figure of BiLeth, the still taller and shadow-dark bodyguard and the smaller, older man in the uniform of the palace guard. ZeSpiole — a thin, wizened man with deeply lined eyes — had been DeWar's predecessor as chief bodyguard. Now instead of being charged with the immediate protection of UrLeyn's person he was in command of the palace guard and therefore with the security of the whole palace. "The Sea Companies" knowledge," UrLeyn said, "their skills, their ships, their cannons… they have all become more important. The collapse of the Empire has brought us a surfeit of those who call themselves Emperors…"

"At least three, brother!" RuLeuin called.

"Precisely," UrLeyn said, smiling. "Three Emperors, a lot of happy Kings, or at least Kings who are happier than they were under the old Empire, and indeed a few more people calling themselves Kings who would not have dared to do so under the old regime."

"Not to mention one for whom the title King would be an insult, indeed a demotion, sir!" YetAmidous said, appearing at the General's shoulder.

UrLeyn clapped the taller man's back. "You see, DeWar, even my good friend General YetAmidous rightly numbers me with those who have benefited from the demise of the old order and reminds me that it was neither my cunning and guile nor exemplary generalship which led me to the exalted position I now hold," UrLeyn said, his eyes twinkling.

"General!" YetAmidous said, his broad, furrowed, rather doughy-looking face taking on a hurt expression. "I meant to imply no such thing!"

The Grand Aedile UrLeyn laughed and clapped his friend on the shoulder again. "I know, Yet, don't worry. But you take the point, DeWar?" he said, turning to him again, yet raising his voice to make it clear he was addressing all the rest of those present, not just his chief bodyguard. "We have been able," UrLeyn told them, "to take more control of our own affairs because we do not have the threat of Imperial interference hanging over us. The great forts are deserted, the drafts are returned home or have become aimless bands of brigands, the fleets were sunk vying with one another or left rotting, deserted.

A few of the ships had commanders who could hold them together with respect rather than fear, and some of those ships are now part of the Sea Companies. The older Companies have found a new power now that the Empire's ships no longer harry them. With that power they have a new responsibility, a new station in life. They have become the protectors, not the raptors, the guards, not the raiders."

UrLeyn looked round all the people in the group, standing blinking on the terrace of black and white tiles under the fierce glare of Xamis and Seigen at their mid.

BiLeth nodded even more wisely than before. "Indeed, sir. I have often-"

"The Empire was the parent," UrLeyn went on, "and the Kingdoms — and the Sea Companies, — to a lesser degree were the children. We were left to play amongst ourselves for much of the time, unless we made too much noise, or broke something, whereupon the adults would come and punish us. Now the father and the mother are dead, the degenerate relatives dispute the will, but it is too late, and the children have grown to young adulthood, left the nursery and taken over the house. Indeed, we have quit the tree-house to occupy the whole estate, gentlemen, and we must not show too much disrespect to those who used to play with their boats in the pond." He smiled. "The least we can do is treat their ambassadors as we would wish ours to be treated." He clapped BiLeth on the shoulder, making the taller man waver. "Don't you think?"

"Absolutely, sir," BiLeth said, with a scornful look at DeWar.

"There you are," UrLeyn said. He turned on his heel. "Come." He paced away.

DeWar was still at his side, a piece of blackness moving across the tiles. ZeSpiole had to walk fast to catch up. BiLeth took longer strides. "Delay the meeting, sir," DeWar said. "Let it be held in less formal circumstances.

Invite the ambassador to meet you… in the baths, say, then"

"In the baths, DeWar," the General scoffed.

"How ridiculous!" BiLeth said.

ZeSpiole just chuckled.

"I have seen this ambassador, sir," DeWar told the General as the doors were opened for them and they entered the coolness of the great hall, where half a hundred courtiers, officials and military men were waiting, scattered about its plain stone floor. "He does not fill me with confidence, sir," DeWar said quietly, quickly looking round. "In fact he fills me with suspicion. Especially as he has requested a private meeting."

They stopped near the doors. The General nodded to a small alcove set into the thickness of the wall where there was just enough room for two to sit. "Excuse us, BiLeth, Commander ZeSpiole," he said. ZeSpiole looked discomfited, but nodded. BiLeth drew back a little as though profoundly insulted, but then bowed gravely. UrLeyn and DeWar sat in the alcove. The General held up one hand to prevent the people approaching them from coming too close. ZeSpiole held out his arms, keeping people back.

"What do you find suspicious, DeWar?" he asked softly.

"He is like no ambassador I've ever seen. He doesn't have the look of one."

UrLeyn laughed quietly. "What, is he dressed in seaboots and a storm cape? Are there barnacles on his heels and seabird-shit on his cap? Really, DeWar…"

"I mean his face, his expression, his eyes, his whole bearing. I have seen hundreds of ambassadors, sir, and they are as various as you might expect, and more. They are unctuous, open-seeming, blustering, resigned, modest, nervous, severe… every type. But they all seem to care, sir, they all seem to have some sort of common interest in their office and function. This one…" DeWar shook his head.

UrLeyn put his hand on the other man's shoulder. "This one just feels wrong to you, is that right?"

"I confess you put it no better than I, sir."

UrLeyn laughed. "As I said, DeWar, we live in a time when values and roles and people are changing. You do not expect me to behave as other rulers have behaved, do you?"