L. Sprague De Camp - The Emperor's Fan

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THE EMPEROR'S FAN

IN THE FIFTEENTH year of his reign, Tsotuga the Fourth, Emperor of

Kuromon, sat in the Forbidden Chamber of his Proscribed Palace, in

his imperial city of Chingun. He played a game of Sachi with his

crony, Reiro the beggar.

The pieces on one side were carved from single emeralds; those

on the other, from single rubies. The board was of squares of onyx

and gold. The many shelves and taborets in the room were crowded with

small art objects. There were knickknacks of gold and silver, of

ivory and ebony, of porcelain and pewter, of jasper and jade, of

chrysoprase and chalcedony.

In a silken robe embroidered with lilies in silver thread and

lotuses in golden thread, Tsotuga sat on a semithrone-a chair of

gilded mahogany, the arms of which were carved in the form of

diamond-eyed dragons. The Emperor was plainly well fed, and within

the hour he had been bathed and perfumed. Yet, although he had just

won a game, Emperor Tsotuga was not happy.

"The trouble with you, chum," said Reiro the beggar, "is that,

not having enough real dangers to worry about, you make up imaginary

ones."The Emperor took no offense. The purpose of the Forbidden

Chamber was to afford him a place where he could treat and be treated

by his crony as if they were ordinary human beings, without the

court's stifling formality.

Nor was it an accident that Reiro was a beggar. As such, he

would never try to intrigue against or murder his imperial friend in

order to seize the throne.

Although a fairly competent ruler, Tsotuga was not a man of

much personal charm. He was in fact rather dull save when, as some-

times happened, he lost his temper. Then he might visit dire dooms on

those about him. After he had calmed down, Tsotuga would regret his

injustice and might even pension the victim's dependents. He honestly

tried to be just but lacked the self-control and objectivity to do

so. Reiro got along with the Emperor well enough. While the beggar

cared nothing for art, save when he could filch and sell a piece of

it, he was glad to listen to the Emperor's endless tales of his

collection in return for the sumptuous repasts he enjoyed. Reiro had

gained twenty pounds since he had become intimate with the Emperor.

"Oh, yes?" said Tsotuga. "That is easy for you to say. You are

not nightly haunted by your father's ghost, threatening dreadful

doom."Reiro shrugged. "You knew the risk when you had the old man

poisoned. It is all in the game, pal. For your pay, I would

cheerfully submit to any number of nightmares. How does old Haryo

look in these dreams?"

"The same old tyrant. I had to slay him-you know that-crc he

ruined the Empire. But have a care with that flapping tongue."

"Nought I hear here goes beyond these walls. Anyway, if you

think Haryo's fate be not widely known, you do but befool yourself."

"I daresay it is suspected. But then, foul play is always

suspected when an emperor dies. As said Dauhai to the timorous bird,

every twig is a serpent.

"Still," continued the Emperor, "that solves not my problem. I

wear mail beneath my robe. I sleep on a mattress floating in a pool

of quicksilver. I have given up futtering my women, lest whilst I lie

in their arms, some conspirator steal up and dagger me. The Empress,

I can tell you, mislikes this abstinence. But still Haryo threatens

and prophesies, and the warnings of a ghost are not to be flouted. I

need some impregnable magical defense. That idiot Koxima does nought

but frimigate and exorcise, which may drive out the demons but fails

to blunt the steel of human foes. Have you any counsel, Ragbag?"

Reiro scratched. "There is a dark, beak-nosed, round-eyed old

hewitch, hight Ajendra, lately come to Chingun from Mulvari. He gains

a scanty living by selling love potions and finding lost bangles in

trances. He claims to have a magical weapon of such power that none

can stand against it."

"What is its nature?"

"He will not say."

"If he have so puissant a device, why is he not a king?"

"How could he make himself ruler? He is too old to lead an army

in battle. Besides, he says that the holy order to which he belongs-

all Mulvanian wizards call themselves holy men, be they never such

rascals-forbids the use of this armament save in self-defense."

"Has anybody seen it?"

"Nay, chum, but rumor whispers that Ajendra has used it."

"Yes? And then what?"

"Know you a police spy named Nanka?"

The Emperor frowned. "Meseems-there was something about such a

man who disappeared. It is supposed that the low company he kept at

last learnt of his occupation and did him in."

The beggar chuckled. "Close, but not in the gold. This Nanka

was a scoundrel of deepest dye, who supplemented his earnings as an

informer by robbery and extortion. He skated into Ajendra's hut with

the simple, wholesome intention of breaking the old man's neck and

seizing Ajendra's rumored weapon."

"Hm. Well?"

"Well, Nanka never came out. A patrolman of the regular police

found Ajendra sitting cross-legged in meditation and no sign of the

erstwhile spy. Since Nanka was large and the hovel small, the corpse

could not have been hidden. As it is said, the digger of pitfalls

shall at last fall into one of his own."

"Hm," said Tsotuga. "I must look into this. Enough Sachi for

the nonce. You must let me show you my latest acquisition!"

Reiro groaned inside and braced himself for an hour's lecture

on the history and beauty of some antique bibelot. The thought of the

palatial cookery, however, stiffened his resolve.

"Now, where did I put that little widget?" said Tsotuga,

tapping his forehead with his folded fan.

"V/hat is it, chum?" asked the beggar.

"A topaz statuette of the goddess Amarasupi, from the Jumbon

Dynasty. Oh, curse my bowels with ulcers! I grow more absentminded

day by day."

"Good thing your head is permanently affixed to the rest of

you! As the wise Ashuziri said, hope is a charlatan, sense a bungler,

and memory a traitor."

"I distinctly remember," muttered the Emperor, "telling myself

to put it in a special place where I should be sure to remember it.

But now I cannot recall the special place."

"The Proscribed Palace must have ten thousand special places,"

said Reiro. "That is the advantage of being poor. One has so few

possessions that one need never wonder where they are."

"Almost you tempt me to change places with you, but my duty

forbids. Damn, damn, what did I with that silly thing? Oh, well, let

us play another game instead. You take the red this time, I the

green."

Two days later, Emperor Tsotuga sat on his throne of audience,

wearing his towering crown of state. This plumed and winged headgear,

bedight with peacock feathers and precious stones, weighed over ten

pounds. It even had a secret compartment. Because of its weight,

Tsotuga avoided wearing it whenever he felt that he decently could.

The usher led in Ajendra. The Mulvanian magician was a tall,

gaunt, bent old man, who supported himself on a stick. Save for the

long white beard flowing down from his wrinkled, mahogany-hued face,

he was brown all over, from dirty brown bulbous turban and dirty

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摘要：

THEEMPEROR'SFANINTHEFIFTEENTHyearofhisreign,TsotugatheFourth,EmperorofKuromon,satintheForbiddenChamberofhisProscribedPalace,inhisimperialcityofChingun.HeplayedagameofSachiwithhiscrony,Reirothebeggar.Thepiecesononesidewerecarvedfromsingleemeralds;thoseontheother,fromsinglerubies.Theboardwasofsquareso...

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L. Sprague De Camp - The Emperor's Fan

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