for the next new emperor to decree a further extension, wing or colonnade, often involving the clearance of several blocks of valuable City real estate, and the demolition of other parts of the palace complex already completed or still under construction. Only when Rheo III achieved the throne and decreed that no alteration to the design would be considered until the walls and gates were completely finished did the palace take on its final shape; which proved to be a rambling, ugly and wildly inconvenient assembly of hopelessly heterogeneous styles and forms, in which a man could walk for three hours, climb well over a thousand stairs, and only cover half a mile. Tapheon IV loathed the palace so much that he decided to abandon Bohec completely and relocate the seat of empire to a new site on the southern shores of the Mare’s Head, and it was only his untimely death that prevented the move. Eventually, after nearly four centuries of scaffolding and hoardings, the palace was declared finished by Eucreon II, and there was a magnificent, if slightly ridiculous, opening ceremony. It’s one of history’s prettiest ironies that Eucreon’s death led directly to the civil war, the partition of the empire and the establishment of another capital city, with another New Palace, on the other side of the Gulf of Sinoa.
Legend has it that it was among the blacksmiths employed for generations on the manufacture of hinges, nails, railings and the like for the New Palace project that the Order first came into being. As thousands of decorative-ironwork specialists from all over the empire travelled or were drafted to Bohec, they formed a trade guild – necessarily clandestine, since guilds were outlawed on government works – to protect their interests and safeguard the trade secrets on which their value to the project depended. As senior guildsmen evolved from mere artisans into artists and project managers, so the guild increasingly extended its interests and activities into areas rather more refined and socially acceptable than the shaping of hot iron; in particular (inevitably, during the successive waves of religious fervour that accompanied and followed the troubled Interregnum after the fall of the Fifth dynasty), guild members found themselves attracted to spiritual and philosophical issues, the pursuit of esoteric learning and religious arcana. At this point it became fashionable in Society to be a craftsman, and the lodge achieved the unique place in the established order which it enjoys to this day.
All the guards on the Sixth level knew Senza by sight. They should do; they were all distinguished veterans of his campaigns, assigned to the palace guards on his personal recommendation. Accordingly, there was a bizarre class reunion feel about walking from the Lion Gate to the foot of the Barbican tower. Every face he passed was familiar, someone he’d once known well and not seen for ages; instead of grinning, shaking hands and asking after wives, sons and old comrades, however, he had to march briskly across the endless marble floor (that rather nauseating shade of sunburn pink) without catching any eyes or saying a single word to his old friends, for fear of breaching the most sacred laws of protocol. The guards themselves knew the score, of course. By now, they were masters of silent communication and perfectly capable of conveying
hello, sir, how are you, great to see you again, best of luck
without making a sound or moving a muscle.
Once he was past the threshold of the Dice Chamber, however, it was all quite different. Beyond that was the territory of the Household, recruited exclusively from the Northern and Eastern savages, whose only loyalty was to the emperor who paid them such a very large amount of money. Even if he’d been allowed to talk to them, it wouldn’t have done him any good, since they wouldn’t have understood a word. It was treason punishable by death to learn their languages or possess a relevant
Legend has it that it was among the blacksmiths employed for generations on the manufacture of hinges, nails, railings and the like for the New Palace project that the Order first came into being. As thousands of decorative-ironwork specialists from all over the empire travelled or were drafted to Bohec, they formed a trade guild – necessarily clandestine, since guilds were outlawed on government works – to protect their interests and safeguard the trade secrets on which their value to the project depended. As senior guildsmen evolved from mere artisans into artists and project managers, so the guild increasingly extended its interests and activities into areas rather more refined and socially acceptable than the shaping of hot iron; in particular (inevitably, during the successive waves of religious fervour that accompanied and followed the troubled Interregnum after the fall of the Fifth dynasty), guild members found themselves attracted to spiritual and philosophical issues, the pursuit of esoteric learning and religious arcana. At this point it became fashionable in Society to be a craftsman, and the lodge achieved the unique place in the established order which it enjoys to this day.
All the guards on the Sixth level knew Senza by sight. They should do; they were all distinguished veterans of his campaigns, assigned to the palace guards on his personal recommendation. Accordingly, there was a bizarre class reunion feel about walking from the Lion Gate to the foot of the Barbican tower. Every face he passed was familiar, someone he’d once known well and not seen for ages; instead of grinning, shaking hands and asking after wives, sons and old comrades, however, he had to march briskly across the endless marble floor (that rather nauseating shade of sunburn pink) without catching any eyes or saying a single word to his old friends, for fear of breaching the most sacred laws of protocol. The guards themselves knew the score, of course. By now, they were masters of silent communication and perfectly capable of conveying
hello, sir, how are you, great to see you again, best of luck
without making a sound or moving a muscle.
Once he was past the threshold of the Dice Chamber, however, it was all quite different. Beyond that was the territory of the Household, recruited exclusively from the Northern and Eastern savages, whose only loyalty was to the emperor who paid them such a very large amount of money. Even if he’d been allowed to talk to them, it wouldn’t have done him any good, since they wouldn’t have understood a word. It was treason punishable by death to learn their languages or possess a relevant
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