The emperor’s greed, like his forefathers’, was for power and domination, not grandeur. Thus his palace, including its associated buildings and grounds, was rather modest by antiquity’s standards for emperor’s palaces. Still, it was by far the most beautiful building, amidst the most impressive set of buildings and grounds, in the empire. Occupying the top of a broad hill, it overlooked the imperial city, still growing three generations after its founding.
On three sides were other hills, forested with a variety of broadleafed and coniferous tree species. And the emperor, Songtsan Gampo, was not insensitive to nature. When he wished to leave his desk, and the reports that tended to pile up on it, he’d step out on his office balcony to sit in the open air and contemplate the view.
It was not an ordinary balcony. Four meters deep and twelve wide, it was supported by inverted buttresses of stone, floored and furnished with elegant hardwoods, decorated in ivory and gold, and in summer green with plants.
Sometimes he received a visitor there, one not brought to be intimidated, and for whom formality was no advantage. Mostly these were members of the ruling race, a people whose ancestors had migrated from their high harsh land some three thousand kilometers southeastward. On this day he received on his balcony the master of his Circle of Power, Tenzin Geshe.
He did not require that the geshe prostrate himself or even kneel; abasements were primarily for supplicants, the newly conquered, and those accused of something ill. It was enough that the geshe bow low from the waist.
“What is it you wished to see me about, geshe?”
“Your Magnificence may recall my telling you, some weeks past, of a man whom your Circle saw while questing.”
The imperial gaze did not change. “I remember.”
“We have felt a disturbance in the Tao, a possible portent of danger approaching from the west. It is distant yet, very distant, and hasn’t the vibration of an army. It is a man, the man we saw.”
The eyes reflected sharpened interest. “And you say he may be dangerous to us. You had no vision this time?’
“None, Your Magnificence.”
“A barbarian from far away, without an army. But perhaps a threat.” The high brown brows drew down in thought. “Send a demon to watch for this man and destroy him. If it cannot, then we will take further interest.”
Tenzin Geshe walked back to the gomba, the imperial monastery known as the House of Power, thinking about what the emperor had said. He had not read his lord’s thoughts; they’d been screened. But he had sensed a growing interest, or perhaps curiosity was the better word.
Send a demon? His Magnificence was sensitive to the field, but his experience was limited to reading men’s thoughts. He didn’t know demons, and beyond that was given to looseness in terminology and even concept. Demons were unreliable and capricious, and their power was primarily over the suggestible. Anyone aware enough to sense the Circle so calmly and at a distance would likely ignore a demon or send it packing. Nor were demons suitable for scouting or spying. They were disinterested in activities with so little involvement.
No, he told himself, I will gather an elemental. They are somewhat unintelligent, but it can probably hunt the barbarian down. And if it finds him, it will be powerful enough to do something about him.