a supporting army out there some place, I wouldn’t bring them in until the
last minute.’ Caalador turned and looked pointedly at the harbour. ‘That’s
our weakness right there, Sparhawk. There could be a fleet hiding in coves
and inlets along the coast. We’d never see them coming until they showed up
on the horizon. I’ve got pirates and smugglers scouring the coasts, but -‘
He spread his hands. ‘There’s not very much we can do about it, I’m
afraid,’ Sparhawk said. ‘We’ve got an army of Atans close at hand though,
and they’ll be inside the city soon after the uprising starts. Do your
people have the hiding places of these assorted visitors fairly
well-pinpointed? if things go well, I’d like to sweep them all up at once
if possible.’
‘They don’t seem to have lighted in specific places yet, Sparhawk. They’re
all moving around quite a bit. I’ve got people following them. We could
pick them up early, if you’d like.: ‘Let’s not expose our preparations; If
we can catch them on the day of the uprising, fine. If not, we can chase
them down later. I’m not going to endanger our counter-measures just for
the pleasure of their company. Your people are doing very well, Caalador.’
Their performance is a bit forced, my friend)’ Caalador admitted ruefully.
‘I’ve had to gather a large number of burly ruffians with clubs to keep
reminding the Tamul criminals that we’re all working together in this
affair.’
‘Whatever it takes.
%’Her Majesty’s suggestion has some advantages, Lord Vanion,’ Bevier said
after giving it some thought. ‘It’s what the fosse was designed for
originally anyway. It’s supposed to be a moat, not just a grassy ditch.’
‘It completely exposes the fact that we’re preparing to defend the castle,
Bevier,’ Vanion objected. ‘if we start pumping the moat full of water,
everybody in Matherion will know about it within the hour.’
‘You didn’t listen to the whole plan, Vanion,’ Ehlana said patiently.
‘We’ve been attending balls and banquets and various other entertainments
ever since we arrived here. It’s only proper that I respond to all those
kindnesses, so I’m planning a grand entertainment to pay my social
obligations. It’s not my fault that it’s going to take place on the night
of the uprising, is it? We have an Elene castle, so we’ll have an Elene
party. We’ll have an orchestra on the battlements, coloured lanterns and
buntings on the walls and festive barges in the moat complete ‘with
canopies and banquet tables. I’ll invite the emperor and his whole court.)
‘That would be extremely convenient, Lord Vanion,’ Tynian said. ‘We’d have
everybody we want to protect right close at hand. We wouldn’t have to go
looking for them, and we wouldn’t alert anybody to what we’re doing by
chasing cabinet ministers across the lawns.’ Sparhawk’s squire was shaking
his head. ‘What is it, Khalad?’ Ehlana asked him. ‘The bottom of the ditch
hasn’t been prepared to hold water, your Majesty. We don’t know how porous
the sub-soil is. There’s a very good chance that the water you pump in will
just seep into the ground. Your moat could be empty again a few hours after
you fill it.’
‘Oh, bother!’ ~Ehlana fretted. ‘I didn’t think of that.’
‘I’ll take care of it, Ehlana,’ Sephrenia smiled. ‘A good plan shouldn’t
be abandoned just because it violates a few natural laws.’
‘Would you have to do that before we started to fill the moat, Sephrenia?’
Stragen asked her. ‘It’s easier that way.’ He frowned. ‘What’s the
problem?’ she asked. ‘There are those three tunnels that lead under the
fosse to connect with the hidden passageways and listening posts inside the
castle.’
‘Three that we know about, anyway,’ Ulath added. ‘Exactly my point.
Wouldn’t we all feel more secure if all those tunnels – the ones we know
about and the ones we don’t – are flooded before the fighting starts?’
‘Good point,’ Sparhawk said. ‘I can wait to seal the bottom of the moat
until after you’ve flooded the tunnels,’ Sephrenia told them. what do you
think, Vanion?’ Emban asked. ‘The preparations for the queen’s party would
cover a lot of activity,’ Vanion conceded. ‘It’s a very good plan.’
‘I like all of it except the barges,’ Sparhawk said. ‘i’m sorry, Ehlana,
but those barges would just give the mob access to our walls. They’d defeat
the whole purpose the moat was designed for in the first place.’
‘i’m getting to that, Sparhawk. Doesn’t naphtha float on top of water?’
‘Yes, but what’s that got to do with it?’
‘A barge isn’t just a floating platform, you know. It’s got a hold under
the deck. Now, suppose we fill the holds with casks of naphtha. Then, when
the trouble starts, we throw boulders down from the battlements and crack
the barges open like eggshells. The naphtha will spread out over the water
in the moat, we set fire to it and surround the castle with a wall of
flame. Wouldn’t that sort of inconvenience people trying to attack the
castle?’
‘You’re a genius, my Queen!’ ~Kalten exclaimed. ‘How nice of you to have
noticed that, Sir Kalten,’ she replied smugly. ‘And the beautiful part
about the whole thing is that we can make all of our preparations right out
in the open without sneaking around at night and losing all that sleep.
This grand party gives us the perfect excuse to do almost anything to the
castle in the name of decoration.’ Mirtai suddenly embraced her owner and
kissed her. ‘i’m proud of you, my mother,’ she said. ‘i’m glad you approve,
my daughter,’ Ehlana said modestly, ‘but you really ought to be more
reserved, you know. Remember what you told me about girls kissing girls.’
‘We found two more tunnels, Sparhawk,’ Khalad reported as his lord joined
him on the parapet. Khalad was wearing a canvas smock over his black
leather vest. Sparhawk looked out at the moat where a gang of workmen were
driving long steel rods into the soft earth at the bottom of the ditch.
‘isn’t that a little obvious?’ he asked. ‘We have to have mooring stakes
for the barges, don’t we? The tunnels are all about five feet below the
surface. Most of the workmen with the sledge-hammers don’t know what
they’re really looking for, but I’ve got a fair number of knights down in
the ditch with them. The ceilings of those tunnels will be very leaky when
we start to fill the moat.’ Khalad looked out across the lawn. Then he
cupped his hands around his mouth. ‘Be careful with that barge!’ he
bellowed in Tamul. ‘if you spring her seams, she’ll leak!’ The foreman ‘of
the Tamul work-crew laboriously pulling the broad-beamed barge across the
lawn on rollers looked up. ‘It’s very heavy, honoured sir, he called back.
‘What have you got inside of it?’
‘Ballast, you idiot!’ Khalad called back. ‘There are going to be’ a lot of
people on that deck tomorrow night. If the barge capsizes and the emperor
falls in the moat, we’ll all be in trouble.’ Sparhawk looked inquiringly at
his squire. ‘We’re putting the naphtha casks in the barges inside the
construction sheds,’ Khalad explained. ‘We decided to do that more or less
in private.’ He looked at his lord. ‘You don’t necessarily have to tell
your wife I said this, Sparhawk,’ he said, but there were a few gaps in her
plan. The naphtha was a good idea – as far as it went, but we’ve added some
pitch as well, just to make sure it catches on fire when we want it to.
Naphtha casks are also very tight. They won’t do us much good if they just
sink to the bottom of the moat when we break open the barges. ,i’m going to
put a couple of Kring’s Peloi in the hold of each barge. They’ll take axes
to the casks at the last minute.’
‘You think of everything, Khalad.’
‘Somebody has to be practical in this group.’
‘Now you sound like your father.’
‘There is one thing though, Sparhawk. Your partygoers are going to have to
be very, very careful. There’ll be lanterns – and probably candles as well
– on those barges.,.One little accident could start the fire quite a bit
sooner than we’d planned, and – ah, actually, we’re a bit ahead of
schedule, your Highness,’ he said in Tamul for the benefit of the half
dozen labourers who were pulling a two-wheeled cart along the parapet. The
cart was filled with lanterns which the labourers were hanging from the
battlements. ‘No, no, no!’ Khalad chided them. ‘You can’t put two green
ones side by side like that. I’ve told you a thousand times – white, green,
red, blue. Do it the way I told you to do it. Be creative in your own
time.’ He sighed exaggeratedly. ‘It’s so hard to get good help these days,
your Highness,’ he said. ‘You’re overacting, Khalad,’ Sparhawk muttered. ‘I
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