sentiments in order to weaken the central governments – the empire in
Daresia and the Church here in Eosia. If we’re right about the source of
all of this activity being somewhere in Tamuli, that’s the logical place to
start looking for answers. Where are you right now?’ Vanion and I are at
Sarsos in eastern Astel. You’d better come here, Sparhawk. These
long-distance conversations tend to blur things.’ Sparhawk thought for a
moment, trying to remember the map of Daresia. ‘We’ll come overland then.
I’ll find some way to get the others to agree to that.’
‘Try not to take too long, Sparhawk. It’s really very important that we
talk face to face.’
‘Right. Sleep well, little mother.’
‘I wasn’t sleeping.’
‘Oh? What were you doing?’
‘Didn’t you hear what she told you before, Sparhawk?’ his daughter asked
him. ‘Which was what?’
‘She told you that it was none of your business what she was doing.’
‘What an astonishingly good idea, your Majesty,’ Oscagne said later that
morning when they had all gathered once again in Dolmant’s private
audience-chamber. ‘i’d have never thought of it in a million years. The
leaders of the subject nations of Tamuli don’t go to Matherion unless
they’re summoned by his Imperial Majesty.’
‘The rulers of Eosia are less restrained, your Excellency,’ Emban told
him. ‘They have total sovereignty.’
‘Astonishing. Has your Church no authority over their actions, your
Grace?’
‘Only in spiritual matters, I’m afraid.’
‘isn’t that inconvenient?’
‘You wouldn’t believe how much, Ambassador Oscagne,’ Dolmant sighed,
looking at Ehlana reproachfully. ‘Be nice, Sarathi,’ she murmured. ‘Then no
one is really in charge here in Eosia? No one has the absolute authority to
make final decisions?’
‘It’s a responsibility we share, your Excellency,’ Ehlana explained. ‘We
enjoy sharing things, don’t we Sarathi?’
‘Of course.’ Dolmant said it without much enthusiaSm. ‘the
rough-and-tumble, give-and-take nature of Eosian politics have a certain
utility, Your Excellency,’ Stragen drawled. ‘Consensus politics gives us
the advantage of bringing together a wide range of views.’
‘in Tamuli, we feel that having only one view is far less confusing.’ The
Emperor’s view? What happens when the emperor haPPens to be an idiot? Or a
madman?’
‘The government usually works around him,’ Oscagne admitted blandly. ‘Such
imperial misfortunes seldom live very long for some reason, however.’
‘Ah,’ Stragen said. ‘perhaps we should get down to work,’ Emban said. He
crossed the room to a large map of the known world hanging on the wall.
‘The fastest way to travel is by sea,’ he noted. ‘We could sail from Madel
in Cammoria out through the Inner Sea and then around the southern tip of
daresia and then up the east coast to Matherion.’
‘We?’ Tynian asked. ‘Oh, didn’t I tell you?’ Emban said. ‘i’ll be going
along. Ostensibly, I’ll be Queen Ehlana’s spiritual advisor. In actuality,
I’ll be the Archprelate’s personal envoy.’
‘it’s probably wiser to keep the Elenian flavour of the expedition,’
Dolmant exPlained, ‘for Public consumPtion, anyway. Let’s not complicate
things by sending two separate missions to Matherion simultaneously.’
Sparhawk had to move quickly, and he didn’t have much to work with.
‘TraveLing by ship has certain advantages,’ he conceded, ‘but I think
there’s a major drawback.’
‘Oh?’ Emban said. It satisfies the requirements of a state visit, right
enough, but it doesn’t do very much to address our real reason for going to
Tamuli. Your Excellency, what’s likely to happen when we reach Matherion?’
‘The usual,’ Oscagne shrugged. ‘Audiences, banquets, reviewing troops,
concerts, that giddy round of meaningless activity we all adore.’
‘Precisely,’ Sparhawk agreed. ‘And we won’t really get anything done, will
we?’
‘Probably not.’
‘But we aren’t going to Tamuli for a month-long carouse. What we’re really
going there for is to find out what’s behind all the upheaval. We need
information, not entertainment, and the information’s probably out in the
hinterlands, not in the capital. I think we should find some reason to go
across country.’ It was a practical suggestion, and it rather neatly
concealed Sparhawk’s real reason for wanting to go overland. Emban’s
expression was pained. ‘We’d be on the road for months that way.’
‘We can get as much done as we’ll accomplish in Matherion by staying home,
your Grace. We have to get outside the Capital.’ Emban groaned. ‘You’re
absolutely bent on making me ride a horse all the way from here to
Matherion, aren’t you,, Sparhawk?’
‘You could stay home, your Grace,’ Sparhawk suggested. ‘We could always
take Patriarch Bergsten instead. He’d be better in a fight anyway.’
‘That will do, Sparhawk,’ Dolmant said firmly. ‘Consensus politics are
very interesting, Milord Stragen,’ Oscagne observed. ‘In Matherion, we’d
have followed the course suggested by the Primate of Ucera without any
further discussion. We try to avoid raising the possibility of alternatives
whenever possible.’
‘Welcome to Eosia, your Excellency,’ Stragen smiled. ‘Permission to
speak?’ Khalad said politely. ‘Of course,’ Dolmant replied. Khalad rose,
went to the map and began measuring distance. ‘A good horse can cover ten
leagues a day, and a good ship can cover thirty – if the wind holds.’ He
frowned and looked around. ‘Why is Talen never ‘ around when you need him?’
he muttered. ‘He can compute these numbers in his head. I have to count
them up on my fingers.’
‘He said he had something to take care of,’ Berit told him. Khalad
grunted. ‘All we’re really interested in is what’s going on in Daresia, so
there’s no need to ride across Eosia. We could sail from Madel the way
Patriarch Emban suggested, go out through the Inner Sea and then up the
east coast of Zemoch to -‘ He looked at the map and then pointed. ‘To
Salesha here. That’s nine hundred leagues – thirty days. If we were to
follow the roads, it’d probably be the same distance overland, but that
would take us ninety days. We’d save two months at least.’
‘well,’ Emban conceded grudgingly, ‘that’s something, anyway.’ Sparhawk
was fairly sure that they could save much more than sixty days. He looked
across the room at his daughter, who was playing with her kitten under
Murtai’s watchful eye. Princess Danae was quite frequently present at
conferences where she had no real business. People did not question her
presence for some reason. Sparhawk knew that the Child Goddess Aphrael
could tamper with the passage of time, but he was not entirely certain that
she could manage it so undetectably in her present incarnation as she had
when she had been flute. Princess Danae looked back at him and rolled her
eyes upward with a resigned expression that spoke volumes about his limited
understanding, and then she gravely nodded her head. Sparhawk breathed
somewhat easier after that. ‘Now we come to the question of the queen’s
security,’ he continued. ‘Ambassador Oscagne, how large a retinue could my
wife take with her without raising eyebrows?’
‘The conventions are a little vague on that score, Sir Sparhawk.’ Sparhawk
looked around at his friends. ‘if I thought I could get away with it, I’d
take the whole body of the militant orders with me,’ he said. ‘We’ve
defined our trip as a visit, Sparhawk,’ Tynian said, ‘not an invasion.
Would a hundred armoured knights alarm his Imperial Majesty, your
Excellency?’
‘It’s a symbolic sort of number,’ Oscagne agreed after a moment’s
consideration, ‘large enough for show, but not so large as to appear
threatening. We’ll be going through Astel, and you can pick up an escort of
Atans in the capital at Darsas. A sizeable escort for a state visitor
shouldn’t raise too many eyebrows.’
‘Twenty-five knights from each order, wouldn’t you think, Sparhawk?’
Bevier suggested. ‘The differences in our equipment and the colours of our
surcoats would make the knights appear more ceremonial than utilitarian. A
hundred Pandions by themselves might cause concern in some quarters.’
‘Good idea,’ Sparhawk agreed. ‘You can bring more if you want, Sparhawk,’
Mirtai told him. ‘There are Peloi on the steppes of Central Astel. They’re
the descendants of Kring’s ancestors. He might just want to visit his
cousins in Daresia.’
‘Ah yes,’ Oscagne said, ‘the Peloi. I’d forgotten that you had those
wild-men here in Eosia too. They’re an excitable and sometimes unreliable
people. Are you certain that this Kring person would be willing to
accompany us?’
‘Kring would ride into fire if I asked him to,’ Mirtai
replied confidently. The Domi is much taken with our Mirtai, your
Excellency,’ Ehlana smiled. ‘He comes to Cimmura three or four times a year
to propose marriage to her.’
‘the Peloi are warriors, Atana,’ Oscagne noted. ‘You would not demean
yourself in the eyes of your people were you to accept him.’
‘Husbands take their wives more or less for granted, Oscagne,’ Mirtai
pointed out with a mysterious little smile. ‘A suitor, on the other hand,
is much more attentive, and I rather enjoy Kring’s attentions. He writes
very nice poetry. He compared me to a golden sunrise once. I thought that
was rather nice.’