THE DAY AFTER HIS VICTORY, the emperor sent Sirdah over with a complicated mission.
Talou, who combined the functions of religious leader and sovereign, was to crown himself king of Drelchkaff, a privilege to which his latest triumph entitled him.
The monarch thought he might heighten the prestige of his eminent decree by having it coincide with the Incomparables’ gala.
Seeking to impress his subjects, he also asked after some grandiose tradition that was customary among whites.
Juillard immediately thought of the Holy Ampulla and offered to provide all the relevant details on how to administer the sacred unction. Meanwhile, Chènevillot volunteered to build a small altar on the north side of Trophy Square.
This first question settled, Sirdah continued her list of demands.
As Yaour IX had no relatives directly descended from Yaour I, his death marked the definitive extinction of his bloodline.
To embellish the coronation ceremony and affirm the incontestable rights of the Talous, the emperor wished to exhibit a kind of genealogical record which, taking Suann as starting point, would underscore once and for all the annihilation of the rival branch.
Very proud of his European origins, the emperor expected the document to showcase the ancient portrait, piously handed down from father to son in the Talou lineage, that depicted the two Spanish sisters who had married Suann.
Juillard gladly assumed the task of drawing up this proclamation, which would decorate the altar that Chènevillot had already built in his mind.
Alongside these various details, a curious minor role was to be played by the actual body of the unfortunate Yaour.
The tip of the lance on which the emperor had impaled the late king was, like many Ponukelean weapons, coated with a virulent poison that not only caused certain death but also possessed the strange property of retarding putrefaction of the bodily tissues.
The corpse of the illustrious nemesis could therefore, even after an extended delay, be displayed for the ceremony beneath the wilted rubber tree formerly dedicated to the race of Yaours.
As the emperor saw it, this humiliation imposed on the cursed plant demanded, by contrast, a glorious decoration for the palm tree that Talou IV had later planted.
The painter Toresse was chosen to create a commemorative sign recalling the now-distant restoration, which fell on exactly the same date as the tree’s original planting.
Sirdah further informed us that the day of the coronation would also see the deaths of all the convicts, with Rao as executioner.
Gaiz-duh, whose request for a sumptuous reward had been met only by this reply from the emperor: “You are a traitor, and you shall be punished as a traitor,” was to be beheaded with an axe; its blade, made of a special wood as hard as steel, could prevent blood from spattering.
The soles of Mossem’s feet would be seared with a red-hot poker, which would etch one by one the mendacious characters that he himself had inscribed on Sirdah’s death certificate.
Rul would perish speared by the long golden needles that for so many years had ornamented her hair; their tips would pierce her flesh through the eyelets in the red corset, now reduced to rags by excess wear.
For Jizme, the emperor, whose imagination had run dry, asked us to suggest some torture common in our country. Chènevillot then had a thought that both spared the condemned woman any suffering and had the added advantage of possibly staying the execution for a very long time. Among his supplies, the architect had a late-model lightning rod, which he’d intended for the castle of Baron Ballesteros. It would be a simple matter, at the next severe electrical storm, to connect Jizme to the conducting wire of the apparatus and let her be electrocuted by the clouds. Now, since inclement weather was a rare occurrence in Ejur, it was not unlikely that some unforeseen event might deliver the poor unfortunate before the next bolt of lightning struck.
The industrious Nair’s life would be spared because of the snares he constructed and their usefulness in killing mosquitoes. But, for the author of the illuminated love note addressed to Jizme, simple imprisonment without torture apparently constituted too gentle a punishment. Talou wanted to build at the edge of Trophy Square a kind of pedestal to which they’d attach the snare Seil-kor had set one certain evening. Condemned to perpetual immobility and barely allowed room to stretch out for sleep, Nair, his foot collared by the noose that had already proven fatal to him once before, would labor without respite to fashion his delicate traps. To add emotional torment to the exasperating physical constraint, the bowler hat, suede glove, and illustrated letter, the true instruments of his ridiculous misadventure, would be placed forever within his sight.
To round out the roster of those attending the coronation, Talou demanded that a prison be built, from which the convicts, the living proof of his absolute power, might witness his triumph.
After delivering this sinister news, Sirdah related a happier event scheduled for the day of the gala. This was her own cure by the sorcerer Bashkou, who was now under Talou’s authority. In his impatience, the emperor had wanted to bring his daughter to the skillful healer immediately following the Battle of the Tez. But Sirdah had refused to regain her sight on a day stained by so much bloodshed. She preferred to keep this additional joy for the coronation day, already blessed by her father’s dazzling glorification.
A few words concerning the Montalescots concluded Sirdah’s mandate.
In the emperor’s eyes, Louise deserved the supreme punishment merely because of her amorous liaison with his mortal enemy, every trace of whom had to be eradicated. Talou went so far as to include the inoffensive Norbert in the hatred inspired by everything that, directly or indirectly, had enjoyed Yaour’s favor. But Sirdah had adroitly piqued her father’s curiosity by describing the great discovery that haunted the young woman; eager to see the planned apparatus function, Talou had decided to suspend judgment of the student, who remained free to pursue her labors.
A week was all Chènevillot needed to complete his new projects.
At the north of Trophy Square rose a small altar with several steps preceding it; opposite, on the south side, stretched a prison intended for the convicts and, not far from the Incomparables’ theater, rose a wooden pedestal, furnished with all the requisite accessories, on which Nair was immediately placed.
Especially taken with the idea of having Jizme die by celestial fire, Talou had fully approved Chènevillot’s plan. Learning the nature of the execution awaiting her, the unfortunate had obtained two supreme favors from the emperor: to die on the decorated white mattress that her lover had once given her, and to wear around her neck, at the fatal instant, a chart showing three lunar phases; a remnant of the days when she held her dazzling receptions, it would relieve her hour of distress with memories of her once-omnipotent splendor.
Chènevillot lined the mattress in question with an electrocution device that lightning alone would activate.