was able to hobble on and win. The Council’s going to at least think about
some military training for the young men.’ He glanced at Sparhawk’s squire.
‘Hello, Khalad,’ he said. ‘How are your mothers?’
‘Quite well, my Lord. We stopped by to see them when we were taking the
queen to Chyrellos so that she could turn the Archprelate over her knee and
spank him.’
‘Khalad.’ Ehlana protested. ‘Wasn’t I supposed to say that, your Majesty?
We all thought that’s what you had in mind when we left Cimmura.’
‘Well – sort of, I guess – but you’re not supposed to come right out and
say it like that.’
‘Oh, I didn’t know that. I thought it was sort of a good idea, myself. Our
Holy Mother needs to have something to worry about now and then. It keeps
her out of mischief.’
‘Astonishing, Khalad,’ Patriarch Emban murmured dryly. ‘You’ve managed to
insult both Church and State in under a minute.’
‘What’s been going on in Eosia since I left?’ Vanion demanded. ‘It was
just a small misunderstanding between Sarathi and me, my Lord Vanion,’
Ehlana replied. ‘Khalad was exaggerating. He does that quite often – when
he’s not busy insulting the Church and State at the same time.’
‘We may just have another Sparhawk coming uP here,’ Vanion grinned. ‘God
defend the Church,’ Emban said. ‘And the crown,’ Ehlana added. Princess
Danae pushed her way through to Vanion. She was carrying Mmrr, her hand
wrapped around the kitten’s middle. Mmrr, had a resigned expression on her
harry face, and her legs dangled ungr’ acefully. ‘Hello, Vanion,’ Danae
said, climbing up into his lap and giving him an offhand sort of kiss.
‘You’ve grown, Princess,’ he smiled.
‘Did you expect me to shrink?’
‘Danae.’ Ehlana scolded. ‘Oh, mother, Vanion and I are old friends. He
used to hold me when I was a baby.’ Sparhawk looked carefully at his
friend, trying to decide whether or not Vanion knew about the little
princess. Vanion’s face, however, revealed nothing. ‘I’ve missed you,)
Princess,’ he said to her. ‘I know. Everybody misses me when I’m not
around. Have you met Mmrr yet? She’s my cat.’ Talen gave her to me. Wasn’t
that nice of him?’
‘Very nice, Danae.’
‘I thought so myself. Father’s going to put him in training when we get
home. It’s probably just as well to get that all done while I’m still a
little girl.’
‘Oh? Why’s that, Princess?’
‘Because I’m going to marry him when I grow up, and I’d like to have all
that training nonsense out of the way. Would you like to hold my cat?’
Talen blushed and laughed a bit nervously, trying to pass off Danae’s
announcement as some sort of little-girl whim. His eyes looked a bit wild,
however. you should never warn them like that, Princess,’ baroness Melidere
advised. ‘You’re supposed to wait and tell them at the last possible
minute.’
‘Oh. Is that the way it’s done?’ Danae looked at Talen. ‘Why don’t you
forget what I just said then?’ she sugGested. ‘i’m not going to do anything
about it for the next ten or twelve years anyway.’ She paused. ‘Or eight,
maybe. There’s no real point in wasting time, is there?’ Talen was staring
at her with the first faint hints of terror in his eyes. ‘She’s only
teasing you, Talen,’ Kalten assured the boy. ‘And even if she isn’t, I’m
sure she’ll change her mind’before she gets to the dangerous age.’
‘Never happen, Kalten,’ Danae told him in a voice like steel.
That evening, after arrangements had been made and the crowd had been
mostly dispersed to nearby houses, Sparhawk sat in the cool garden at the
centre of the house with Sephrenia and Vanion. Princess Danae sat on the
ledge surrounding the fountain watching her kitten. Mmrr had discovered
that there were goldfish swimming in the pool, and she sat with her tail
twitching and her eyes wide with dreadful intent. ‘I need to know something
before I start,’ Sparhawk said, looking directly at Sephrenia. ‘How much
does he know?’ He pointed at Vanion. just about everything, I’d say. I have
no secrets from
him.’
‘That’s not too specific, Sephrenia.’ Sparhawk groped for a way to ask the
question without revealing too much. ‘Oh, do get to the point, Sparhawk,’
Danae told him. ‘Vanion knows who I am. He had a little trouble with it at
first, but he’s more or less reconciled to the idea now.’
‘That’s not entirely true,’ Vanion disagreed. ‘You’re the one with the
really serious problems though, Sparhawk. How are you managing the
situation?’
‘Badly,’ Danae sniffed. ‘He keeps asking’ questions, even though he knows
he won’t understand the answers.’
‘Does Ehlana suspect?’ Vanion asked seriously. ‘Of course she doesn’t,’
the Child Goddess replied. ‘Sparhawk and I decided that right at the
beginning. Tell them what’s been happening, Sparhawk – and don’t be all
night about it. Mirtai’s bound to come looking for me soon.’
‘It must be pure hell,’ Vanion said sympathetically to his friend. ‘Not
entirely. I have to watch her, though. Once she had a swarm of fairies
pollinating all the flowers in the palace garden.’
‘The bees are too’ slow,’ she shrugged. ‘Maybe so, but people expect the
bees to do it. If you turn the job over to the fairies, there’s bound to be
talk.’ Sparhawk leaned back and looked at Vanion. ‘Sephrenia’s told you
about the Lamorks and Drychtmath; hasn’t she?’ ,’Yes. It’s not just wild
stories, is it?’ Sparhawk shook his head. ‘No. We encountered some
bronze-age Lamorks outside of Demos. After Ulath brained their leader, they
all vanished – except for the dead. Oscagne’s convinced that it’s a
diversion of some kind – rather like the games Martel was playing to keep
us out of Chyrellos during the election of the Archprelate. We’ve been
catching glimpses of Krager, and that lends some weight to Oscagne’s
theory, but you always taught us that it’s a mistake to try to fight the
last war over again, so I’m not locking myself into the idea that what’s
happening in Lamorkand is purely diversionary. I can’t really accept the
notion that somebody would go to all that trouble to keep the Church
Knights out of Tamuli – not with the Atans already here.’ Vanion nodded.
‘You’re going to need someone to help you when you get to Matherion,
Sparhawk. Tamul culture’s very subtle, and you could make some colossal
blunders without even knowing it.’ Thanks, Vanion.’
‘You’re not the only one, though. Your companions aren’t the most
diplomatic men in the world, and Ehlana tends to jump fences when she gets
excited. Did she really go head to head with Dolmant?’
‘Oh, yes,’ Danae said. ‘I had to kiss them both into submission before I
could make peace between them.’ who’d be the best to send, Sephrenia?’
Vanion asked. ‘Me. ‘That’s out of the question. I won’t be separated from
you again.’
‘That’s very sweet, dear one. Why don’t you come along then?’ He seemed to
hesitate. ‘I -‘
‘Don’t be such a goose, Vanion,’ Danae told him. ‘You won’t die the minute
you leave Sarsos – any more than you did when you left my island. You’re
completely cured now.’
‘I wasn’t worried about that,’ he told her, ‘but Sephrenia can’t leave
Sarsos anyway. She’s a member of the Council of Styricum.’
‘I’ve been a member of the Council of Styricum for several centuries,
Vanion,’ Sephrenia told him. ‘I’ve left here before – for long periods of
time on occasion. The other members of the Council understand. They’ve all
had to do the same thing themselves now and then.’
‘i’m a little vague on this ruling council,’ Sparhawk admitted. ‘I knew
that Styrics kept in touch with each other, but I hadn’t realised it was
quite so well-knit.’
‘We don’t make an issue of it,’ Sephrenia shrugged. ‘if the Elenes knew
about it, they’d try to make some huge conspiracy out of it.’
‘Your membership on the council keeps coming up,’ Sparhawk noted. ‘is this
council really relevant, or is it just some sort of ceremonial body?’
‘Oh, no, Sparhawk,’ Vanion told him. ‘The council’s very important.
Styricum’s a Theocracy, and the council’s composed of the high priests and
prieSteSSeS – Of the Younger Gods.’
‘Being Aphrael’s priestess isn’t really a very taxing position,’ Sephrenia
smiled, looking fondly at the Child Goddess. ‘She’s not particularly
interested in asserting herself, since she usually gets what she wants in
other ways. I get certain advantages – like this house – but I have to sit
in on the meetings of the Thousand, and that can be tedious sometimes.’
‘The Thousand?’
‘It’s another name for the Council.’
‘There are a thousand Younger Gods?’ Sparhawk was a bit surprised at that.
‘Well, of course there are, Sparhawk,’ Aphrael told him. ‘Everybody knows
that.’
‘Why a thousand?’
‘It’s a nice number with a nice sound to it. In Styric it’s Age’ rBluon.’
‘i’m not familiar with the word.’