‘It means ten times ten times ten – sort of. We had quite an argument with
one of my cousins about it. He had a pet crocodile, and it had bitten off
one of his fingers. He always had trouble counting after that. He wanted us
to be AgerBlican – nine times nine times nine, but we explained to him that
there were already more of us than that, and that if we wanted to be
AgerBlican, some of us would have to be obliterated. We asked him if he’d
care to volunteer to be one of them, and he dropped the idea.’.’Why would
anyone want to have a pet crocodile?’
‘It’s one of the things we do. We like to make pets of animals you humans
can’t control. Crocodiles aren’t so bad. At least you don’t have to feed
them.’
‘No, but you have to count the children every morning. Now I understand
why the question of whales keeps coming up.’
‘You’re really very stubborn about that, Sparhawk. I could really impress
my family if I had a whale.’
‘I think we’re getting a little far afield,’ Vanion said. ‘Sephrenia tells
me you’ve got some fairly exotic suspicions.’
‘I’ve been trying to explain something I can’t completely see yet, Vanion.
It’s like trying to describe a horse when all you’ve to work with is his
tail. I’ve got a lot of bits and pieces and not too much more. I’m positive
that everything that we’ve seen so far – and probably a lot of things we
haven’t – are all hooked together, and that there’s one intelligence
guiding it all. I think it’s a God, Vanion – or Gods.’
‘Are you sure your encounter with Azash didn’t make you start seeing
hostile divinities under beds and in dark closets?’
‘I have it on the very best authority that only a God could raise an
entire army out of the past. The authority who told me was quite smug about
it.’
‘Be nice, father,’ Danae said primly. ‘It’s too complex, Vanion,’ she
explained. ‘When you raise an army, you have to raise each individual
soldier, and you have to know everything about him when you do that. It’s
the details that defeat human magicians when they try it.’
‘Any ideas?’ Vanion asked his friend. ‘Several,’ Sparhawk grunted, ‘and
none of them very pleasant. Do you remember that shadow I told you about?
The one that was following me all over Eosia after I killed Ghwerig?’
Vanion nodded. ‘We’ve been seeing it again, and this time everybody can see
it.’
‘That doesn’t sound too good.’
‘No, it doesn’t. Last time, that shadow was the Troll-Gods. ‘ Vanion
shuddered, and then the both of them looked at Sephrenia. ‘isn’t it nice to
be needed?’ Danae said to her sister. ‘I’ll talk with Zalasta,’ Sephrenia
sighed. ‘He’s been keeping abreast of things here in Sarsos for the
emperor. He probably knows a great deal about this, so I’ll have him stop
by tomorrow.’ There was a loud splash. ‘I told you that was going to
happen, Mmrr,’ Danae said smugly to the wild-eyed kitten struggling to stay
afloat in the fountain. Mmrr’s problems were multiplied by the fact that
the goldfish were ferociously defending their domain by bumping her paws
and tummy with their noses. ‘Fish her out, Danae,’ Sparhawk told her.
‘She’ll get me all wet, father, and then mother will scold me. Mmrr got
herself into that fix. Now let her get herself out.’
‘She’ll drown.’
‘Oh, of course she won’t, Sparhawk. She knows how to swim. Look at her.
She’s cat-paddling for all she’s worth. ‘
‘She’s what?’
‘Cat-paddling. You couldn’t really call it dogpaddling, could you? She’s
not a dog, after all. We Styrics talk about cat-paddling all the time,
don’t we, Sephrenia?’
‘I never have,’ Sephrenia murmured.
CHAPTER 17
A large part of the fun came from the fact that her parents could not
anticipate the Princess Danae’s earlymorning visits. They were certainly
not a daily occurrence, and there were times when a whole week would go by
without one. This morning’s visit was, of course, the same as all the
rest. Consistency is one of the more important divine attributes. The door
banged open, and the princess, her black hair flying and her eyes filled
with glee, dashed into the room and joined her parents in bed with a
great, whooping leap. The leap was followed, ‘ as always, by a great deal
of squirming and burrowing until Danae was firmly nestled between her
parents. She never paid these visits alone. RHollo had never really been a
problem. Rollo was a well-mannered toy, anxious to please and almost never
intrusive. Mmrr, on the other hand, could be a pest. She was quite fond of
Sparhawk and she was a genius at burrowing. Having a sharp-clawed kitten
climb up the side of one’s bare leg before one is fully awake is a
startling experience. Sparhawk gritted his teeth and endured. ‘The birds
are awake.’ Danae announced it almost accusingly. ‘i’m so happy for them,’
Sparhawk said, wincing as the kitten lurking beneath the covers began to
rhythmically flex her claws in his hip. ‘You’re grumpy this morning,
father.’
‘I was doing just fine until now. Please ask your cat not to use me for a
pin-cushion.’
‘She does it because she loves you.’
‘That fills my heart. I’d still rather have her keep her claws to herself,
though.’
‘is he always like this in the morning, mother?’
‘Sometimes,’ Ehlana laughed, embracing the little girl. ‘I think it
depends on what he had for supper.’ Mmrr began to purr. Adult cats purr
with a certain decorous moderation. Kittens don’t. On this particular
morning, Danae’s small cat sounded much like an approaching thunderstorm or
a gUst-mill with an offcentre wheel. ‘I give up,’ Sparhawk said. He threw
back the covers, climbed out of bed and pulled on a robe. ‘There’s no
sleeping with the three of you around,’ he accused them. ‘Coming, Rollo?’
His wife and daughter gave him a quick, startled glance then exchanged a
worried look. Sparhawk scooped up Danae’s stuffed toy and ambled out of the
room, holding it by one hind leg. He could hear Ehlana and Danae whispering
as he left. He plumped the toy into a chair. ‘It’s absolutely impossible,
Rollo, old boy,’ he said, making sure that his women-folk could hear him.
‘I don’t know how you can stand it.’ There was a profound silence from the
bedroom. ‘I think you and I should go away for a while, my friend,’
Sparhawk went on. ‘They’re starting to treat us like pieces of furniture.’
Rollo didn’t say anything,’ but then Rollo seldom did. Sephrenia, who was
standing in the doorway, however, seemed a bit startled. ‘Aren’t you
feeling well, Sparhawk?’
‘i’m fine, little mother. Why do you ask?’ He hadn’t really expected
anyone to witness a ‘ performance intended primarily for his wife and
daughter. ‘You do realise that you’re talking to a stuffed toy, don’t you?’
Sparhawk stared at Rollo in mock surprise. ‘Why, believe you’re right,
Sephrenia. How strange that didn’t notice that. Maybe it has something to
do with being rousted out of bed at the crack of dawn.’ No matten how hard
he tried to put a good face on this, it wasn’t going to go very well. ‘What
on earth are you talking about, Sparhawk?’
‘You see, Rollo?’ Sparhawk said, trying to rescue something. ‘They just
don’t understand – any of them.’
‘Ah – Prince Sparhawk?’ It was Ehlana’s maid Alcan. She had come into the
room unnoticed, and her huge eyes were concerned. ‘Are you all right?’
Things were deteriorating all around Sparhawk. ‘It’s a long, long story,
Alcan’,’ he sighed. ‘Have you seen the princess, my Lord?’ Alcan was
looking at him strangely. ‘She’s in bed with her mother.’ There was really
not much left for him to salvage from the situation. ‘i’m going to the
bath-house – if anybody cares.’ And he stalked from the room with the
tatters of his dignity trailing along behind him.
Zalasta the Styric was an ascetic-looking man with white hair and a long,
silver beard. He had the angular, uncompleted-looking face of all Styric
men, shaggy black eyebrows and a deep rich voice. He was Sephrenia’s oldest
friend, and was generally conceded to be the wisest and most powerful
magician in Styricum. He wore a white, cowled robe and carried a staff,
which may have been an affectation, since he was quite vigorous and did not
need any aid when he walked. He spoke the Elenic language very well,
although with a heavy Styric accent. They gathered that morning in
Sephrenia’s interior garden to hear the details of what was really going on
in Tamuli. ‘We can’t be entirely positive if they’re real or not, Zalasta
was saying. ‘The sightings have been random and very fleeting.’
‘They’re definitely Trolls, though?’ Tynian asked him. Zalasta nodded. ‘No
other creature looks quite like a Troll.’