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Just let her board the ship. She'd go below, and stay below until they passed
beyond the reach of Byzantium's harbor guards.
Up ahead was their ship.
But fanned out in front of it was an armed guard drawn from one of her
brother's most aristocratic regiments. At the center of the crescent formed by
men and horses, conspicuous on his white horse, was her brother, not the wan
figure whose blindness she had cured, but a tanned, able man in the purple and
armor of an Emperor.
Alexandra dropped her bundle. Now that she had been discovered, she felt
outrage, not fear. "I
bribed that eunuch well!" she complained.
"Sister, remember that I taught you to buy spies!
I bought that one first, then passed him on to you," said the
Emperor. "Together, we have made him a rich man."
Alexandra caret snorted. Then her brother's guards moved in. She glanced
anxiously at
Haraldr. Thank God: His axe was nowhere in sight.
She held her hands away from her sword and moved cautiously toward her
brother. He dismounted, and she fell to her knees.
"Most Sacred Majesty," she said, and bent her head. "I beg you to believe that
I mean no harm to you, that all I want is to leave here in peace."
Her brother raised her and drew her away from his soldiers, who were as
curiously faceless in their armor and helmets as the figures that had pursued
her out of
Ch'in. "Is it Shambhala?" he asked.
Alexandra took a deep breath. If the truth were the wrong answer, then she was
probably dead. She let out the breath, then decided not to speak. If her voice
broke, she would die of shame before they could execute her.
"I thought so. I told you, Alexandra, that if you returned, there might be
little future here for you. And
I heard the longing in your voice when you spoke of
Shambhala."
"Your ministers," Alexandra cried softly. "They would force ..."
"I sometimes think that Emperors come and Emperors go, but the civil service
goes on and on.
Yes, some of them are insisting that I put you out of harm's way. But thanks
to you, I
am
Emperor. That means they still have to obey me."
He held out his hand to her. She kissed it and pressed it to her brow. Again,
Michael raised her, this time drawing her into a brotherly hug. "I can either
see you off on this ship-which looks seaworthy enough, I suppose-or send you
out the gates in triumph as befits a prince, or princess, who has saved the
City. My own recommendation-was He smiled at her, then looked at Haraldr, and
shook his head.
"Sister, I will never understand women. I remember how fiercely you refused a
Prankish king. And now, I find you offering me as brother-in-law one of my own
former Guard."
Haraldr bristled, took one step forward, then thought better of it.
"In his own land, he is a prince!" Alexandra protested.
"They all are," sighed her brother. "I make no protest. I merely observe. But
I do suggest that you return to the palace, at least long enough to kneel with
your chosen Northern "prince" before a priest."
Alexandra held out her hand, and Haraldr joined them. "A priest?" he said.
"Your Majesty honors me.
Susan Shwartz
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But our way lies through Persia, and there is a priest inf Nisibis-was
"Father Basil!" Alexandra laughed.
"A Nestorian heretic?" Her brother raised eyebrows, then shrugged. "But then,
I suppose that you have your own Orthodoxy . . . Alexandra, go with
God Who created the tides, which, as I can see from the shipmaster's face,
wait on no man, Emperor or not. But accept this" from me."
The Emperor reached into the breast of his clothing and brought out a narrow
golden circlet. "The crown of a
Basilissa," he said. "You have earned it."
She knelt, and he placed it on her brow.
"Wherever you go," he whispered, "think of us."
Alexandra smiled and inclined her head. In
Shambhala she would be able to watch, and to study, and to protect her City
should it need it. The crown tingled. The last token of an initiate along the
Diamond Path was a crown. She could feel the circlet tingle on her brow, feel
power collect and rush throughout her body until she felt the same well-being
she had known in Shambhala.
The shipmaster gestured wildly. At a nod from the
Emperor, he sent sailors down to take
Alexandra's and Haraldr's gear. Alexandra threw herself into her brother's
arms, then rushed on board. Slowly, the ship moved into the Horn.
Light shone down on her brother, who held up a hand in farewell. His figure
grew smaller and smaller. When she could no longer see him, she
turned her eyes and dreams eastward.
***"
"V:.cccaret *@lcaret caret A,.
Epilogue
The mountains loomed up before them, wreathed with the first hints of the
deadly winter storms. When the way grew too steep to ride, Alexandra, muffled
in sheepskins, walked at Haraldr's side, gazing into her crystal as he
steadied her with an arm about her shoulders.
They climbed higher and higher. Now the sky was a deep, rich blue, arching up
toward indigo. The sun shone down on the peaks and made them cast impossibly
sharp shadows. Within those shadows, it was fiercely cold; outside them,
almost as warm as spring.
"We are almost there," Alexandra whispered.
Behind her, Haraldr was ordering the bearers and guides to return to the
previous night's camp, to wait three days there, and only then come in search
of them.
She wondered if they would bother to search at all.
Hillmen accepted miracles as a part of life.
The first time these men had seen her sword, they had all but abased
themselves before her, muttering prayers in which she
Susan Shwar caught the name of Shambhala. They had been bearer not guides;
from the moment in her bedchamber that si had seen Shambhala glow in her
crystal, she had know how to find it, and where.
"Just a little farther," Alexandra told Haraldr, anl took his hand.
They walked between two rock spires. Even this earl; in the autumn, ice
glinted upon them. Beyond ther stretched a flat space, large enough, perhaps,
for a sma band of horsemen. Beyond that lay only the abyss.
Alexandra's gem kindled in the afternoon sun. Al column of fire shot up from
it into the sky.
"This is the place," she whispered. She could almost bar see the gleaming ice
of the peaks that hid
Shambhala J from the world, hear the cries of waterfowl in the clear] pools
near its heart, feel the fine silk cushions of the i palace.
Haraldr's hands grasped her shoulders, and he turned her to face him.
"Alexandra, if we do not find Shambhala, you must not fear," he said urgently.
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"We can always go to Kashgar. Prince Bryennius' friends would welcome a man
with a strong back and a princess with a brave heart for their own sakes, as
much as for his."
She reached up and kissed his face. He was as eager as she to regain the land
they had had to renounce, but
Alexandra knew that if he could spare her pain by turning his back upon it
once again, he would.
"The last time we traveled these roads, I left despair behind me,", she
whispered. "I cannot believe that we will be disappointed."
He embraced her fiercely. Then, as if reminding
himself of his usual notions of how fragile she was, he started to ease his
hold. She flung her arms about him, welcoming the surge of love and desire
that heated her blood. For an instant, she toyed with delaying their search to
enjoy this moment, then put the thought aside without regret. There would be
time, in
Shambhala, time for them to delight in one another and to learn the paths on
which their love might guide them.
t caret at greater-than from .
silk roads and shadows337
They clung together for a moment longer. Then Alexandra laid her hands against
Haraldr's chest and very gently pushed him away.
"I think we should try now," she said.
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