Domes of Fire Part 44

'Why should I do that, Sparhawk?' she asked. 'I think Sir Kalten's come up with a very appropriate course of action.'

'You're a savage, little mother,' he accused.

'So?'

Later that afternoon, Sparhawk and Kalten had joined the other knights in the gleaming great hall of the counterfeit Elene castle. The knights had put aside their formal armour and now wore doublets and hose.

'It wouldn't take very much,' Sir Bevier was saying. 'The walls are really very st.u.r.dy, and the fosse is already in place. The drawbridge is functional, though the capstans that raise it need some grease. All we really need to finish it off are sharpened stakes in the fosse.'

'And a few barrels of pitch?' Ulath suggested. 'I know how much you Arcians enjoy pouring boiling pitch on people.'

'Gentlemen,' Vanion said disapprovingly, 'if you start reinforcing the defences of this place, our hosts may take it the wrong way.' He thought about it for a moment. 'It might not hurt to quietly lay in a goodly supply of stakes, though,' he added, 'and maybe a number of barrels of lamp-oil. It's not quite as good as pitch, but it won't attract so much attention when we bring it inside. I think we might also want to start un.o.btrusively bringing in provisions. There are quite a lot of us, so concealing the fact that we're filling storerooms shouldn't be too hard. Let's keep it all fairly low-key, though.'

'What are you contemplating, Vanion?' Emban asked.

'Just a few simple precautions, your Grace. Things are unstable here in Tamuli, and we have no way of knowing what might happen. Since we've got a perfectly good castle, we might just as well give it a few finis.h.i.+ng touches-just in case.'

'Is it just my imagination, or does it seem to anybody else that this is a very, very long summer,' Tynian asked suddenly.

Sparhawk became very alert. Someone had been bound to notice that eventually, and if they really pursued the matter and started counting days, they'd be certain to uncover the fact that someone had been tampering with time. 'It's a different part of the world, Tynian,' he said easily. 'The climate's bound to be different.'

'Summer is summer, Sparhawk, and it's not supposed to last forever.'

'You can never tell about climate,' Ulath disagreed, 'particularly along a sea-coast. There's a warm current that runs up the west coast of Thalesia. It can be the dead of winter in Yosut on the east coast, and only mid-autumn in Horset.'

Good old Ulath, Sparhawk thought with some relief.

'It still seems a little strange to me,' Tynian said dubiously.

'Lots of things seem strange to you, my friend,' Ulath smiled. 'You've turned down any number of invitations I've sent you to go Ogre-hunting with me.'

'Why kill them if you're not going to eat them?' Tynian shrugged.

'You didn't eat any of those Zemochs you killed.'

'I didn't have a good recipe for cooking them.'

They all laughed and let the subject drop, and Sparhawk breathed a bit easier. Talen came into the hall then. As usual, he had almost routinely shaken off the agents of the prime minister that morning and gone out into the city.

'Surprise, surprise,' he said dryly. 'Krager's finally made it to Matherion. I was starting to worry about him.'

'That does it!' Sparhawk burst out, slamming his fist down on the arm of his chair. 'That man's starting to make me very tired.'

'We didn't really have the time to chase him down before, my Lord,' Khalad pointed out.

'Maybe we should have taken the time. I was sure of that when we saw him back in Sarsos. We're settled in now, though, so let's devote a little time and energy to rooting him out. Draw some pictures of him, Talen. Spread them around and promise a reward.'

'I know how to go about it, Sparhawk.'

'Do it then. I want to put my hands on that drunken little weasel. There's all kinds of information inside that sodden skin of his, and I'm going to wring him out until I've got the very last drop of it.'

'Testy, isn't he?' Tynian said mildly to Kalten.

'He's been having a bad day,' Kalten shrugged. 'He discovered a streak of brutality in his women-folk, and it upset him.'

'Oh?'

'There's a n.o.bleman in Cimura who needs killing. When I get home, I'm going to slice off his ears before I butcher him. The ladies all thought it was a wonderful idea. Their approval shattered a number of Sparhawk's illusions.'

'What's the fellow done?'

'It's a private matter.'

'Oh. Well, at least Sephrenia agreed with him.'

'No, as a matter of fact, she was even more bloodthirsty than the rest. She went so far as to offer some suggestions later on that even made Mirtai turn pale.'

'The fellow really must have done something awful.'

'He did indeed, my friend, and I'm going to give him hours and hours to regret it.' Kalten's blue eyes were like ice, and his nostrils were white and pinched with suppressed fury.

'I didn't do it, Kalten,' Tynian told him, 'so don't start looking at me like that.'

'Sorry,' Kalten apologised. 'Just thinking about it makes my blood boil.'

'Don't think about it then.'

Their accents were still rough, Sephrenia had seen to that, but their understanding of the Tamul language was very nearly perfect. 'Are we ready?' Sparhawk asked his tutor one evening.

'Unless you plan to make speeches, Prince Sparhawk,' Emperor Sarabian, who was paying them another of those whirlwind visits, said. 'Your accent is really vile, you know.'

'I'm going out there to listen, your Majesty,' Sparhawk told him, 'not to talk. Sephrenia and Zalasta are hiding our proficiency behind the accents.'

'I wish you'd told me you could do this, Zalasta,' Sarabian said just a bit wistfully. 'You could have saved me months of time when I was studying languages, you know.'

'Your Majesty was keeping your studies a secret,' Zalasta reminded him. 'I didn't know you wanted to learn other tongues.'

'Caught by my own cleverness then,' Sarabian shrugged. 'Oh, well. What precisely are we planning?'

'We're going to winnow through your court, your Majesty,' Vanion told him. 'Your government's compartmentalised, and your ministers keep secrets from each other. That means that no one really has a grasp of the whole picture. We're going to fan out through the various compartments and gather up everything we can find. When we put it all together, we might be able to see some patterns starting to emerge.'

Sarabian made a sour face. 'It's my own fault,' he confessed.

'Please don't be cryptic, Sarabian,' Ehlana told him. The two monarchs were good friends by now, largely because the emperor had simply pushed all formalities aside and had spoken directly and had insisted that Ehlana do the same.

'I blundered, Ehlana,' he said ruefully. 'Tamuli's never faced a real crisis before. Our bureaucrats are more clever than the subject peoples, and they have the Atans to back them up. The imperial family's always been more afraid of its own government than of outsiders. We don't encourage co-operation between the various ministries. I seem to be reaping the fruit of a misguided policy. When this is all over, I think I'll fix it.'

'My government doesn't keep secrets from me,' Ehlana told him smugly.

'Please don't rub it in,' he said. 'What exactly are we looking for, Lord Vanion?'

'We observed a number of phenomena on our way to Matherion. Our guess is that we're facing an alliance of some sort. We know-or at least we have good evidence-about who one of the parties is. We need to concentrate on the other now. We're at a distinct disadvantage until we can identify him. If it's all right with you, your Majesty, Queen Ehlana and Prince Sparhawk will be spending a great deal of time with you. That means that you're going to have to have a long talk with your prime minister, I'm afraid. Pondia Subat's starting to be inconvenient.'

Sarabian raised one eyebrow questioningly. 'He's done everything he possibly can to make you inaccessible to us, Sarabian,' Ehlana explained.

'He was told not to do that,' Sarabian said bleakly.

'Apparently he didn't listen, your Majesty,' Sparhawk said. 'We have to wade through his people whenever we get near the main palace, and every time one of us so much as sticks his head out of a window, whole platoons of spies start to form up to follow us. Your prime minister doesn't approve of us, I gather.'

'It rather looks as if I'm going to have to explain some things to the esteemed Pondia Subat,' Sarabian said. 'I think he's forgotten the fact that his office isn't hereditary and that his head's not so firmly attached that I can't have it removed if it starts to inconvenience me.'

What charges would you bring against him, Sarabian?' Ehlana asked curiously.

'Charges? What on earth are you talking about, Ehlana? This is Tamuli. I don't need charges. I can have his head chopped off if I decide that I don't like his harrcut. I'll take care of Pondia Subat, my friends. I can promise his complete co-operation from now on-either his or that of his successor. Please continue, Lord Vanion.'

Vanion pushed on. 'Patriarch Emban will concentrate his attention on the prime minister,' he said, 'whoever he happens to be. Sir Bevier will spend his time with the faculty of the university. Scholars pick up a great deal of information, and governments tend to ignore their findings-until it's too late. Ulath, Kring and Tynian will observe the general staff of the army-the Tamul high command rather than the Atans. Atan Engessa will cover his own people. Milord Stragen and Talen will serve as liaison with the thieves of Matherion, and Alcan and Khalad will circulate among the palace servants. Sephrenia and Zalasta will talk with the local Styric community and Melidere and Sir Berit will charm all the courtiers. '

'Isn't Sir Berit just a bit young?' Sarabian asked. 'My courtiers are a very sophisticated group of people.'

'Sir Berit has some special qualifications, your Majesty.' Melidere smiled. 'The younger women of your court-and some not quite so young-will do almost anything for him. He may have to sacrifice his virtue a few times, but he's a very dedicated young man, so I'm sure we can count on him.'

Berit blushed. 'Why do you always have to say things like that, Baroness?' he asked plaintively.

'I'm only teasing', Berit,' she said fondly.

'It's something that men don't understand, your Majesty,' Kalten told the emperor. 'Berit has a strange effect on young women for some reason.'

'Kalten and Mirtai will attend Sparhawk and the queen,' Vanion continued. 'We don't know exactly how far our opponents might be willing to go, so they'll provide you with some additional protection.'

'And you, Lord Vanion?' the emperor asked.

'Vanion and Oscagne are going to try to put it all together, Sarabian,' Ehlana replied. 'We'll all bring everything we find directly to them. They'll sort through it all and isolate the gaps so that we'll know where to concentrate further efforts.'

'You Elenes are a very methodical people,' Sarabian noted.

'It's an outgrowth of their dependency on logic, your Majesty,' Sephrenia told him. 'Their plodding search for corroboration is maddening sometimes, but it does get results. A well-trained Elene will spend half a day making observations before he'll allow himself to admit that it's raining.'

'Ah,' Emban said to her, 'but when an Elene says that it's raining, you can be absolutely sure that he's telling you the truth.'

'And what about you, your Highness?' Sarabian smiled down at the little girl in his lap. 'What part are you going to play in this grand scheme?'

'I'm supposed to distract you so that you don't ask too 'many questions, Sarabian,' Danae replied quite calmly. 'Your new friends are going to do things that aren't really proper, so I'm supposed to keep you from noticing.'

'Danae.' her mother exclaimed.

'Well, aren't you? You're going to lie to people and spy on them and probably kill anybody who gets in your way. Isn't that what you mean when you use the word politics?'

Sarabian laughed. 'I think she's got you there, Ehlana,' he chortled. 'Her definition of politics is a little nurrt, but it's very close to the mark. She's going to make an excellent queen.'

'Thank you, Sarabian,' Danae said sweetly, kissing his cheek.

Then Sparhawk felt that sudden chill, and even though he knew it was useless, his hand went to his sword-hilt as the flicker of darkness tugged at the very corner of his vision. He started to swear-half in Elenic and half in Tamul-as he realised that everything they had said had just been revealed to the shadowy presence that had been d.o.g.g.i.ng their steps for all these months.

Chapter 26.

'Adus used to try to sneak around and spy on people. That's why Martel had to finally hire Krager.'

'Who's Adus?' Sarabian asked.

'A fellow we used to know, your Majesty,' Kalten replied. 'He wasn't of much use as a spy. Everybody for a hundred yards in any direction knew when Adus was around. He didn't believe in bathing, so he had a distinctive fragrance.'

'Is that at all possible?' Vanion asked Sephrenia. 'Could Kalten have actually come up with the right answer?'

'Vanion.' Kalten objected.

'Sorry, Kalten. That didn't come out exactly the way I'd intended. Seriously though, Sephrenia, could our visitor be unaware of the shadow he's casting?'

'Anything's possible, I suppose, dear one.'

'A visual stink?' Ulath suggested incredulously.

'I don't know if I'd use that exact term, but-' Sephrenia looked at Zalasta. 'is it possible?'

'It would explain the phenomenon,' he replied after pondering the notion for a moment. 'The G.o.ds are remarkable-not only in the depth of their understanding, but also in their limitations. It could very well be that our visitor doesn't know that we can smell him when he pays a call-if I may borrow Sir Ulath's metaphor. He may actually believe that he's totally invisible to us-that his spying is going unnoticed.'

Bevier was shaking his head. 'We always talk about it right after it happens,' he disagreed. 'He'd have heard us, so he has to know that he's giving himself away.'

'Not necessarily, Bevier,' Kalten disagreed. 'Adus didn't know that he smelled like a cesspool, and it's not really the sort of thing one admits to oneself. Maybe this shadow's the same sort of thing-a kind of socially unacceptable offensiveness, like bad breath or poor table-manners.'

'There's a fascinating idea,' Patriarch Emban laughed. 'We could extrapolate a complete book of divine etiquette from this one single incident.'

'To what purpose, your Grace?' Oscagne asked him.

'The n.o.blest of purposes, your Excellency-the greater understanding of G.o.d. Isn't that why we're here?'

'I'm not sure that a dissertation on the table-manners of the G.o.ds would significantly advance the sum of human knowledge, Emban,' Vanion observed. 'Might we prevail on your Majesty to smooth our way into the inner circles of your government?'

'Smooth or rough, Lord Vanion,' Sarabian grinned, I'll insert you into the ministries. After I've straightened Pondia Subat out, I'll take on the other ministers, one by one or row by row. I think it's time they all found out just exactly who's in charge here.' He suddenly laughed with delight. 'I'm so glad you decided to stop by, Ehlana. You and your friends have made me realise that I've been sitting on absolute power for all these years, and yet it's never occurred to me to use it. I think it's time to pull it out, dust it off and wave it around just a bit.'

'Oh, dear,' Oscagne said, his face suddenly filled with chagrin. 'What have I done?'

'We got this yore problem, Stragen,' Caalador drawled in Elenic. 'These yore yaller brothers o' our ain't tooken eth th' notion o' steppin' cross no social boundaries.'