sometimes.’
‘Where did you ever learn so much about manipulating royalty?’
‘i’m not manipulating royalty, Sparhawk. I’m manipulating a woman, and I’m
an expert at that. Women are born negotiators. They love these little
trades. If you go to a woman and say, ‘I’ll do this for you if you do that
for me,’ she’ll almost always be willing to talk about it at least. Women
always want to talk about things. If you keep your eye on what you really
want, you’ll almost always come out on top.’ He paused. ‘Metaphorically
speaking of course,’ he added.
‘What are you up to, Sparhawk?’ Mirtai asked him suspiciously when he
approached the suite of rooms Dolmant had provided for Ehlana and her
personal retinue. Sparhawk carefully let the smug expression slide from his
face and assumed one of grave concern instead. ‘Don’t try to be clever,
Sparhawk,’ she told him. ‘if you hurt her, I’ll have to kill you, you
know.’
‘i’m not going to hurt her, Mirtai. I’m not even going to yell at her.’
‘You’re up to something, aren’t you?’
‘Of course I am. After you lock me inside, put your ear to the door and
listen.’ He gave her a sidelong look. ‘But you do that all the time anyway,
don’t you?’ She actually blushed. She jerked the door open. ‘just get in
there, Sparhawk!’ she commanded, her face like a thundercloud. ‘my, aren’t
we testy tonight?’
‘gO!’
‘yes, ma’am.’ Ehlana was ready for him, that much was fairly obvious. She
was wearing a dressing-gown of a pale rose that made her look particularly
appealing, and she had done things with her hair. There was a barely
noticeable tightness about her eyes, though. ‘Good evening, love,’ Sparhawk
said calmly. ‘Tedious day, wasn’t it? Conferences can be so exhausting at
times.’ He crossed the room, pausing to kiss her almost perfunctorily in
passing, and poured himself a glass of Wine. I know what you’re going to
say, Sparhawk.’ she said. ‘Oh?’ He gave her an innocent look. ‘you’re angry
with me, aren’t you?’
‘No. Not really. What made you think I’d be angry?’ She looked a bit less
sure of herself. ‘You mean you’re not? I thought you’d be raging by now about
my decision to pay a state visit to Tamuli, I mean.’
‘No, actually it’s a very good idea. Of course we’ll have to take a few
precautions to ensure your safety, but we always have to do that, so we’re
sort of used to it, aren’t we?’
‘What kind of precautions are we talking about here?’ Her tone was
suspicious. ‘Nothing all that extreme, dear. I don’t think you should go
walking in the forest alone or visiting thieves’ dens without some sort of
escort. I’m not talking about anything out of the ordinary, and you’re used
to certain restrictions on your movements already. We’ll be in a strange
country, and we don’t know the people. I know that you’ll trust me to sort
of nose things out, and that you won’t argue with me if I tell you that
something’s too dangerous. We can all live with that, I’m sure. You pay me
to protect you, after all, so we won’t have any silly little squabbles
about security measures, now will we?’ He kept his tone mild and sweetly
reasonable, giving her no reason to raise any questions about exactly what
he had in mind when he spoke of ‘security measures.’
‘You know much more about that sort of thing than I do, my love,’ she
conceded, ‘so I’ll leave all that entirely in your hands. If a girl has a
champion who just happens to be the greatest knight in the world, she’d be
foolish not to pay attention to him, now wouldn’t she?’
‘My feelings exactly,’ he agreed. It was a small victory, to be sure, but
when one is dealing with a queen, victOries of any kind are hard to come
by. ‘Well,’ she said, rising to her feet, ‘since we’re not going to fight,
why don’t we go to bed?’
‘Good idea.’
The kitten Talen had given to Princess Danae was named Mmrr, and Mmrr had
one habit that particularly irritated Sparhawk. Kittens like to have
company when they sleep, and Mmrr had found that when Sparhawk slept, he
curled up slightly and that the space just behind his knees was a perfect
place for her to nest. Sparhawk customarily slept with the covers pulled
tightly around his neck, but that was no real problem. A cold, wet nose
touched to the back of his neck caused him to flinch away violently, and
that involuntary movement would always open just enough of a gap for an
enterprising kitten. Mmrr found the whole process quite satisfactory and
even rather amusing. Sparhawk, however, did not. It was shortly before dawn
when he emerged from the bedroom, tousled, sleepy-eyed and just a bit out
of sorts. Princess Danae wandered into the large central room absently
dragging rollo behind her. ‘Have you seen my cat?’ she asked her father.
‘She’s in bed with your mother,’ he replied shortly. ‘i should have known,
I suppose. Mmrr likes the way mother smells. She told me so herself.’
Sparhawk glanced around and then carefully closed the bedroom door. ‘I need
to talk with Sephrenia again,’ he said. ‘All right.’
‘Not here, though. I’ll find someplace.’ What happened last night?’
‘We have to go to Tamuli.’ I thought you were going to do something about
drychtnath.’
‘I am – in a way. It seems that there’s something – or someone – over on
the Daresian continent that’s behind Drychtnath. I think we’ll be able to
find out more about him there than we ever would here. I’ll make
arrangements to have you taken back to Cimmura.’ She pursed her small
mouth. ‘No, I don’t think so,’ she said. ‘i’d better go along with you.’
That’s absolutely out of the question.’
‘Oh, Sparhawk, do grow up. I’m going along because you’re going to need me
when we get there.’ She negligently tossed rollo over into a corner. ‘i’m
also going because you can’t stop me. Come up with some reason for it,
Sparhawk. Otherwise you’ll have to explain to mother how it is that I
managed to get ahead of you when you all find me sitting in a tree
alongside a road somewhere. Get dressed father, and go find a place where
we can talk privately.’ Some time later, Sparhawk and his daughter climbed
a narrow, spiraLing wooden staircase that led to the cupola atop the dome
of the Basilica. There was quite probably no more private place in the
world, particularly in view of the fact that the wooden stairs leading up
to the little bell-tower did not so much creak as they did shriek when
anyone began to climb them. When they reached the unenclosed little house
high above the city, Danae spent several minutes gazing out over Chyrellos.
‘You can always see so much better from up high like this,’ she said. ‘It’s
just about the only reason I’ve ever found for flying.’
‘Can you really fly?’
‘Of course. Can’t you?’
‘You know better, Aphrael.’
‘I was only teasing you, Sparhawk,’ she laughed. ‘Let’s get started.’ She
sat down, crossed her legs and lifted her little face to sing that trilling
song she had raised back in Cimmura. Then again, her eyes closed and her
face went blank as the song died away. ‘What is it this time, Sparhawk?’
Sephrenia’s voice was a bit tart. ‘What’s the matter, little mother?’
‘Do you realise that it’s the middle of the night here?’
‘It is?’
‘Of course it is. The sun’s on your side of the world now.’
‘Astonishing – though I suppose it stands to reason if you think about it.
Did I disturb you?’
‘Yes, as a matter of fact you did.’
‘What were you doing so late at night?’
‘None of your business. What do you want?’
‘We’ll be coming to Daresia soon.’
‘What?’ The emperor asked us to come – well, he asked me actually. The
rest are sort of tagging along. Ehlana’s going to make a state visit to
Matherion to sort of give us all an excuse for being there.’
‘Have you taken leave of your senses? Tamuli’s a very dangerous place
right now.’
‘Probably not much more than Eosia is. We were attacked by ancient Lamorks
on our way here to chyrellos from Cimmura.’
‘Perhaps they were just modern-day Lamorks dressed in ancient garb.’
‘I rather doubt that, Sephrenia. They vanished when their attack began to
fail.’
‘All of them?’
‘Except for the ones who were already dead. Would ‘ a little logic offend
you?’
‘Not unless you drag it out.’
‘we’re almost positive that the attackers really were ancient Lamorks, and
Ambassador Oscagne told us that someone’s been raising antique heroes in
Daresia as well. Logic implies that this resurrection business is
originating in Tamuli and that its goal is to stir up nationalistic