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made a mistake, nobody warned him about it. This time, Park didn't think he
was making a mistake.
"Thank you, Radiance," he said, bowing. "I might add that the Emir Hussein did
not think you would do this. In fact, we had a sort of " he had to ask
Ankowaljuu how to say "wager" in Ketjwa " on it."
"Trust a Muslim to guess wrong about what we will do." Tjiimpuu's chuckle had
a bitter edge. "They've been doing it since their state first touched ours,
almost three hundred years ago."
Maita Kapak picked up something that went by his foreign minister. That made
sense, Park thought:
since no one spoke straight out to the Son of the Sun, for his own sake he'd
better be alert to tone. Now he asked: "Why do you mention this wager, Judge
Scoglund? What were its terms?"
"To let me settle the dispute between the Emirate of the Dar al-Harb and
Tawantiinsuuju, and to accept
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the settlement I set down. Will you also agree to that, Radiance, or will this
useless war go on?"
"Anyone would know you are not one of my subjects, Judge Scoglund," Maita
Kapak said. Fortunately, he sounded more amused than angry. Park wondered just
how close he'd come to lèse majesté pretty close, by the expressions on the
Tawantiinsuujans' faces. The Son of the Sun said, "Let me think"; then, after
a pause, "First tell me the terms you propose."
"No," Park said. Boldness had got him this far, and suited him in any case. He
went on, "You and
Hussein agreed to put yourselves under the authority of the International
Court when you summoned me.
If you didn't mean it, keep fighting and send me home."
"I tried that," Tjiimpuu said. "It didn't seem to work."
Park grinned at him. "No, it didn't, did it?" He worried a little when he saw
the look the foreign minister was giving Ankowaljuu. If Maita Kapak went
along, though, the tukuuii riikook couldn't be in too much hot water. If . . .
The Son of the Sun had screened out the byplay. He was like Allister Park in
that: when he was thinking, he let nothing interfere. Finally he said, "Very
well, Judge Scoglund. If the Emir thinks you have terms that will satisfy both
him and me, I too will put myself in your hands. How shall we become friends?"
"I doubt you will," Park said. "Being able to live next to each other is
something else again. Your becoming People of the Book will go a long way
toward solving that, as the Muslims will lose their ritual need to persecute
you out of existence."
"What about our need to show them the truth of our religion?" Kwiismankuu
said.
Park scowled; he'd forgotten that Patjakamak had his holy terrorists too.
After some thought, he said, "I
do not know, sir, if you have heard that, before I became a judge, I was a
Christian bishop, a senior priest. I am not trying to change your religion you
and the Muslims have both had enough of that, I
think. But I will tell you one of the things we Christians try to live by. We
call it the Rule of Gold: do to others what you want them to do to you." For
once, he thought, the real Ib Scoglund would have been proud of him.
"There are worse ways to live than that, perhaps," Maita Kapak said. "So. Have
we heard all your terms of peace? If we have, I tell you I am well pleased."
"Not quite all," Park said. "I was summoned togive my judgment on where the
border should lie between
Tawantiinsuuju and the Dar al-Harb, especially in this disputed sector. My
judgment is that the best line between you is the Ooriinookoo River." He
walked over to a map, ran his finger along the river, and waited for hell to
break loose.
The Tawantiinsuujans did not keep him waiting long. "You thief!" Tjiimpuu
cried. "Did you bother to notice that we are east of the Ooriinookoo now, and
in territory that has been ours for a generation?"
"Yes, I noticed that," Park said. "I "
"It cannot be, Judge Scoglund," Maita Kapak interrupted. "Were this land I
myself had won in war, I
might think of yielding it. But I would be forfeiting my inheritance from my
father Waskar if I gave it up.
That Patjakamak would never suffer me to do."
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When the Son of the Sun said it cannot be, his subjects heard and obeyed. He
turned back in astonishment when Allister Park kept arguing: "Radiance, I have
good reasons for proposing the
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Ooriinookoo as a border."
"What possible reasons can there be for giving up a third of what Waskar won?"
Maita Kapak said in a voice like ice.
"I'm glad you asked," Park said, pretending not to notice the Son of the Sun's
tone. "For one thing, the [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]