Domes of Fire Part 35

King Androl's face was grave, even stern as Oscagne described what they had discovered in Astel. Queen Betuana's expression was somewhat softer, largely because Danae was sitting in her lap. Sparhawk had seen his daughter do that many times. Whenever there was a potential for tension in a situation, Danae started looking for laps. People invariably responded to her unspoken appeals to be held without even thinking about it.

'She does that on purpose, doesn't she?' he whispered to Sephrenia.

'That went by a little fast, Sparhawk.'

'Aphrael. She climbs into people's Androl, and Oscagne retired to the Elene side of the room to perform the same service. The Tamuls had perfected the tedious but necessary business of translation to make it as smooth and un.o.btrusive as possible. King Androl pondered the matter for a few moments. Then he smiled at Ehlana and spoke to her in Tamul. His voice was very soft.

'Thus says the King,' Norkan began his translation. 'Gladly do we greet Ehlana-Queen once more, for her presence is like the suns.h.i.+ne come at last after a long winter.'

'Oh, that's very nice,' Sephrenia murmured. 'We always seem to forget the poetic side of the Atan nature.'

'Moreover,' Norkan continued his translation, 'glad are we to welcome the fabled warriors of the west and the wise-man of Chyrellos-Church.' Norkan was obviously translating verbatim. Emban politely inclined his head.

'Clearly we see our common concern in the matter at hand, and staunchly will we join with the West-warriors in such acts as are needful.' Androl spoke again, pausing from time to time for translation. 'Our minds have been unquiet in seasons past, for we have failed in tasks set for us by our Matherion-masters. This troubles us, for we are not accustomed to failure.'

His expression was slightly nortified as he made that admission. 'I am sure, Ehlana-Queen, that Oscagne-Emperor-Speaker has told you of our difficulties in parts of Tamuli beyond our own borders. Shamed are we that he has spoken truly.'

Queen Betuana said something briefly to her husband. 'She told him to get on with it,' Sephrenia murmured to Sparhawk. 'It appears that his tendency to be flowery irritates her-at least that was the impression I got.'

Androl said something to Norkan in an apologetic tone. 'That's a surprise,' Norkan said, obviously speaking for himself now. 'The King just admitted that he's been keeping secrets from me. He doesn't usually do that.' Androl spoke again, and Norkan's translation became more colloquial as the Atan king seemed to lay formality aside. 'He says that there have been incidents here in Atan itself. It's an internal matter, so he technically wasn't obliged to tell me about it. He says they've encountered creatures he calls 'the s.h.a.ggy ones'. As I understand it, the creatures are even bigger than the tallest Atans.'

'Long arms?' Ulath asked intently. 'Flat noses and big bones in the face? Pointed teeth?' Norkan translated into Tamul, and King Androl looked at Ulath with some surprise. Then he nodded.

'Trolls!' Ulath said. 'Ask him how many his people have seen at any one time.'

'Fifty or more,' came the reply. Ulath shook his head. 'That's very unlikely,' he said flatly. 'You might find a single family of Trolls walking together, but never fifty all at once.'

'He wouldn't lie,' Norkan insisted.

'I didn't say he did, but Trolls have never behaved that way before. If they had, they'd have driven us out of Thalesia.'

'It seems that the rules have changed, Ulath,' Tynian noted. 'Have there been any other incidents, your Excellency? Things that didn't involve Trolls?'

Norkan spoke to the king and then translated the reply. 'They've had encounters with warriors in strange armour and with strange equipment.'

'Ask him if they might have been Cyrgai,' Bevier suggested.

'Horse-hair-crested helmets? Big round s.h.i.+elds? Long spears?' Norkan posed the question, though his expression was baffled. It was with some amazement that he translated the reply. 'They were!' he exclaimed. 'They were Cyrgai! How's that possible?'

'We'll explain later,' Sparhawk said tersely. 'Were there any others?'

Norkan asked the questions quickly now, obviously excited by these revelations. Queen Betuana leaned forward slightly and took over for her husband.

'Arjuni,' Norkan said tersely. 'They were heavily armed and made no attempt to hide the way they usually do. And once there was an army of Elenes-mostly serfs.'

Then his eyes went wide with astonishment. That's totally impossible-that's only a myth!'

'My colleague's losing his grip,' Oscagne told them. 'The queen says that once they encountered the s.h.i.+ning Ones.'

'Who are they?' Stragen asked.

'Norkan's right,' Oscagne replied. 'The s.h.i.+ning Ones are mythical creatures. It's another of those things I told you about back in Chyrellos. Our enemy's been sifting through folk-lore for horrors. The s.h.i.+ning Ones are like vampires, werewolves and Ogres. Would your Majesty object if Norkan and I pursued this and then gave you a summary?' he asked Ehlana.

'Go right ahead, your Excellency,' she agreed.

The two Tamuls began to speak more rapidly now, and Queen Betuana replied firmly. Sparhawk got the distinct impression that she was far more intelligent and forceful than her husband. Still holding Princess Danae in her lap, she answered the questions incisively, and her eyes were very intent.

'Our enemy seems to be doing the same things here in Atan that he's been doing elsewhere,' Oscagne told them finally, 'and he's been adding a few twists besides. The forces from antiquity behave the same as your antique Lamorks did back in Eosia and the way those Cyrgai and their Cynesgan allies did in the forest west of Sarsos. They attack, there's a fight, and then they vanish when their leader gets killed. Only their dead remain. The Trolls don't vanish. They all have to be killed.'

'What about these 's.h.i.+ning Ones'?' Kalten asked.

'There's no way to be sure about those,' Oscagne replied. 'The Atans flee from them.'

'They what?' Stragen's voice was startled.

'Everybody's afraid of the s.h.i.+ning Ones, Milord,' Oscagne told him. 'The stories about them make tales of vampires and werewolves and Ogres sound like bedtime stories.'

'Could you accept a slight amendment, your Excellency?' Ulath asked mildly. 'I don't want to alarm you, but Ogres are real. We see them all the time in Thalesia.'

'You're joking, Sir Ulath.'

'No, not really.' Ulath took off his horned helmet. 'These are Ogre-horn,' he said tapping the curved appurtenances on his headgear.

'Maybe what you have in Thalesia's just a creature you call an Ogre,' Oscagne said dubiously.

'Twelve feet tall? Horns? Fangs? Claws for fingers? That's an Ogre, isn't it?'

'Well-'

'That's what we've got in Thalesia. If they aren't Ogres, we'll settle for them until you can find us some real ones.' Oscagne stared at him. 'They aren't all that bad, your Excellency. The Trolls give us more trouble probably because they're meat eaters. Ogres eat anything. Actually, they prefer trees for dinner over people. They're particularly fond of maple trees for some reason-probably because they're sweet. A hungry Ogre will kick his way right through your house to get at a maple tree you've got growing in your backyard.'

'Is he actually serious?' Oscagne appealed to the others. Ulath sometimes had that effect on people.

Tynian reached over and rapped the Ogre-horn on Ulath's helmet with his knuckles. 'These feel fairly serious to me, your Excellency,' he said. 'And that raises some other questions. If Ogres are real, we might want to re-think our positions on vampires, werewolves and these s.h.i.+ning Ones as well. Under the circ.u.mstances, we might consider discarding the word "impossible" for the time being.'

'But you are, Mirtai,' Princess Danae insisted.

'It's a different kind of thing, Danae,' the Atana told her. 'It's symbolic in my case.'

'Everything's symbolic, Mirtai,' Danae told her. 'Everything we do means something else. There are symbols all around us. No matter how you want to look at it, though, we have the same mother, and that makes us sisters.'

It seemed very important to her for some reason. Sparhawk was sitting with Sephrenia in the corner of a large room of King Androl's house. His daughter was busy a.s.serting her kins.h.i.+p with Mirtai as Baroness Melidere and Ehlana's maid looked on.

Mirtai smiled gently. 'All right, Danae,' she gave in, 'if you want to think so, we're sisters.' Danae gave a little squeal of delight, jumped into Mirtai's arms and smothered her with kisses.

'Isn't she a little darling?' Baroness Melidere laughed.

'Yes, Baroness,' Alcan murmured. Then a small frown creased the girl's brow. 'I'll never understand that,' she said. 'No matter how closely I watch her, she always manages to get her feet dirty.' She pointed at Danae's gra.s.s-stained feet. 'Sometimes I almost think she's got a boxful of gra.s.s hidden among her toys, and she shuffles her feet in it when my back's turned just to torment me.'

Melidere smiled. 'She just likes to run barefoot, Alcan,' she said. 'Don't you ever want to take off your shoes and run through the gra.s.s?'

Alcan sighed. 'I'm in service, Baroness,' she replied. 'I'm not supposed to give in to that sort of whim.'

'You're so very proper, Alcan,' the honey-eyed Baroness said. 'If a girl doesn't give in to her whims now and then, she'll never have any fun.'

'I'm not here to have fun, Baroness. I'm here to serve. My first employer made that very clear to me.' She crossed the room to the two 'sisters' and touched Danae's shoulder. 'Time for your bath, Princess,' she said.

'Do I have to?'

Yes.'

'It's such a bother. I'll just get dirty again, you know.'

'We're supposed to make an effort to stay ahead of it, your Highness.'

'Do as she tells you, Danae,' Mirtai said.

'Yes, sister dear,' Danae sighed.

'That was an interesting exchange, wasn't it?' Sparhawk murmured to Sephrenia.

'Yes,' the small woman agreed. 'Has she been letting things slip that way very often?'

'I didn't quite follow that.'

'She's not really supposed to talk about symbols the way she just did when she's around pagans.'

'I wish you wouldn't use that word to describe us, Sephrenia.'

'Well, aren't you?'

'It sort of depends on your perspective. What's so important about symbols that she's supposed to hide them?'

'It's not the symbols themselves Sparhawk. It's what talking about them that way reveals.'

'Oh? What's that?'

'The fact that she doesn't look at the world or think about it in the same way we do. There are meanings in the world for her that we can't even begin to comprehend.'

'I'll take your word for it. Are you and Mirtai sisters now, too? I mean, if she's Danae's sister and you are too wouldn't you almost have to be?'

'All women are sisters, Sparhawk.'

'That's a generalisation, Sephrenia.'

'How perceptive of you to have noticed.'

Vanion entered the room. 'Where's Ehlana?' he asked.

'She and Betuana are conferring,' Sparhawk replied.

'Who's translating for them?'

'One of Engessa's girls from Darsas. What did you want to talk with her about?'

'I think we'll be leaving tomorrow. Engessa, Oscagne, and I talked with King Androl. Oscagne feels that we should press on to Matherion. He doesn't want to keep the emperor waiting. Engessa's sending his legions back to Darsas. He'll be going on with us, largely because he speaks Elenic better than most Atans.'

'That doesn't disappoint me.' Mirtai said. 'He's my father now and we really ought to get to know each other better.'

'You're enjoying this, aren't you, Vanion?' Sephrenia said it half-accusingly.

'I've missed it,' he admitted. 'I've been at the centre of things for most of my life. I don't think I was meant to sit on the back shelf.'

'Weren't you happy when there were just the two of us?'

''Of course I was. I'd have been perfectly content to spend the rest of my life alone with you, but we're not alone any more. The world's intruding upon us, Sephrenia, and we both have responsibilities. We still have time for each other, though.'

'Are you sure, Vanion?'

'I'll make sure, love.'

'Would you two like to be alone?' Mirtai asked them with an arch little smile.

'Later perhaps,' Sephrenia replied quite calmly.

'Won't we be a little under-manned without Engessa's Atans?' Sparhawk asked.

'King Androl's making arrangements,' Vanion said. 'Don't worry, Sparhawk. Your wife's almost as important to the rest of us as she is to you. We're not going to let anything happen to her.'

'We can discount the possibility of exaggeration,' Sephrenia said. 'The Atan character makes that very unlikely.'

'I'll agree there,' Sparhawk concurred. 'They're warriors, and they're trained to give precise reports.' Vanion and Zalasta nodded. It was evening, and the four of them were walking together outside the city in order to discuss the situation apart from Norkan and Oscagne. It was not that they distrusted the two Tamuls. It was just that they wanted to be able to speak freely about certain things which Tamuls were culturally unprepared to accept.

'Our opponent is quite obviously a G.o.d,' Zalasta said firmly.

'He says it so casually,' Vanion noted. 'Are you so accustomed to confronting G.o.ds that you're becoming blase about it, Zalasta?'

Zalasta smiled. 'Just defining the problem, Lord Vanion. The resurrection of whole armies is beyond purely human capabilities. You can take my word for that. I tried it once and made a horrible mess of it. It took me weeks to get them all back into the ground again.'

'We've faced G.o.ds before,' Vanion shrugged. 'We stared across a border at Azash for five hundred years.'

'Now who's blase?' Sephrenia said.

'Just defining the solution, love,' he replied. 'The Church Knights were founded for just such situations. We really need to identify our enemy, though. G.o.ds have wors.h.i.+ppers, and our enemy's inevitably utilising his wors.h.i.+ppers in this plan. We have to find out who he is so that we' know who his adherents are. We can't disrupt his plans until we know whom to attack. Am I being obvious?'

'Yes,' Sparhawk told him, 'but logic always is right at first. I like the notion of attacking his wors.h.i.+ppers. If we do that, he's going to have to stop what he's doing and concentrate on protecting his own people. The strength of a G.o.d depends entirely on his wors.h.i.+ppers. If we start killing his people, we'll diminish him with every sword-stroke.'

'Barbarian,' Sephrenia accused.