and I don’t think they were human. That shadow that just passed through
here felt exactly the same. ‘ “I wish there was some way we could talk
with Sephrenia,’ Ulath muttered. Sparhawk was fairly certain that there
was a way, but he was not free to reveal it to any of them. ‘Do’ we tell
anybody else about this?’ Stragen asked. ‘Let’s not start a panic until we
find out some more about it,’ Sparhawk decided. ‘Right,”Stragen agreed.
‘There’s always plenty of time for panic later – plenty of reason too, I
think.’ The weather cleared over the next few days, and that fact alone
lifted spirits in the palace. Sparhawk spent some time closeted with
Platime and Stragen, and then the two thieves sent men into Lamorkand to
investigate the situation there. ‘That’s what I should have done in the
first place,’ Sparhawk said, ‘but Sarathi wouldn’t give me the chance. Our
revered Archprelate has a few blind spots. He can’t seem to get it through
his head that official investigators aren’t going to ever really get to
the bottom of things.’ ‘Typical aristocratic ineptitude,’ Stragen drawled.
“It’s one of the things that makes life easier for people like Platime and
me.’ Sparhawk didn’t argue with him about that. ‘just tell your men to be
careful,’ he cautioned them. ‘Lamorks tend to try to solve all their
problems with daggers, and dead spion don’t bring home very much useful
infornation.’
‘Astonishing insight there, old boy,’ Stragen said, his rich
voice dripping with irony. “It’s absolutely amazing that Platime and I
never thought of that.’
‘All right,’ Sparhawk admitted, ‘maybe I was being just a little obvious.’
‘We saw that too, didn’t we, Platime?’ Platime
grunted. ‘Tell Ehlana that I’m going to be away from the palace for a few
days, Sparhawk.’
‘Where are you going?’
‘None of your business. There’s something I want to take care of.’
‘All right, but keep in touch.’
‘You’re being obvious again, Sparhawk.’ The fat man scratched his paunch. ‘i’ll
talk with Talen. He’ll know how to get in touch with me if the queen
really needs me for something.’ He groaned as he hauled himself to his
feet. ‘i’m going to have to lose some weight,’ he said half to himself.
Then he waddled to the door with that peculiarly spraddle-legged gait of
the grossly obese. ‘He’s in a charming humour today,’ Sparhawk noted.
‘He’s got a lot on his mind just now,’ Stragen shrugged. ‘How
well-connected are you in the palace at Emsat, Stragen?’
“I have some contacts there. What do you need?’
‘i’d like to put some stumbling blocks in the way of this accommodation
between Avin and Count Gerich. Gerich’s beginning to get a little too much
influence in northern Eosia. Maybe you ought to get word to Meland in Acie
as well. Gerrich’s making alliances in Pelosia and Thalesia already. It
doesn’t seem reasonable that he’d overlook Deira, and Deira’s a little
chaotic right now. Ask Meland to keep his eyes open.’
‘This Gerrich’s really got you concerned, hasn’t he?’
‘There are some things going on in Lamorkand that I don’t understand,
Stragen, and I don’t want Gerrich to get too far ahead of me while I’m
trying to sort them out.’
‘That makes sense – I suppose.’
Khalad came to his feet with his eyes slightly unfocused and with a thin
dribble of blood coming out of his nose. ‘You see? You over-extended
again,’ Mirtai told him. ‘How’ did you do that?’ Sparhawk’s squire asked
her. ‘i’ll show you. Kalten, come here,’
‘Not me,’ the blond Pandion refused, backing away.
‘Don’t be foolish. I’m not going to hurt you.’
‘isn’t that what you told Khalad before you bounced him off the
flagstones?’
‘You might as well do as I tell you, Kalten,’ she said.
‘You’ll wind up doing it in the end anyway, and it won’t be nearly as
painful for you if you don’t argue with me. Take out your sword and stab
me in the heart with it.’
“I don’t want to hurt you, Mirtai.’
‘you? Hurt me?’ )Her laugh was sardonic.
‘you don’t have to be insulting about it,’
he said in an injured tone, drawing his sword. It had ‘all begun when
Mirtai had passed through the palace courtyard while Kalten was giving
Khalad some instruction in swordsmanship. She had made a couple of highly
unflattering comments. One thing had led to another, and the end result
had been this impromptu training session, during which Kalten and Khalad
learned humility, if nothing else. ‘Stab me through the heart, Kalten,’
Mirtai said again. In Kalten’s defence it should be noted in passing that
he really did try. He made a great deal of noise when he came down on his
back on the flagstones. ‘He made the same mistake you did,’ Mirtai pointed
out to Khalad. ‘He straightened his arm too much. A straight arm is a
locked arm. Always keep your elbow slightly bent.’
‘We’re trained to thrust from the shoulder, Mirtai,’ Khalad explained.
‘There are a lot of Elenes, I suppose,’ she shrugged. “It shouldn’t be all
that hard to replace you. The thing that makes me curious is why you all
feel that it’s necessary to stick your sword all the way through somebody.
If you haven’t hit the heart with the first six inches of the blade,
another yard or so of steel going through’ the same hole won’t make much
difference, will it?’
‘Maybe it’s because it looks dramatic,’ Khalad said. ‘You kill people
for show? ThaCs contemptible, and it’s the sort of thinking that fills
graveyards. Always keep your blade free so that you’re ready for your next
enemy. People fold up when you run swords through them, and then you have
to kick the body off the blade before you can use it again.’
‘I’ll try to remember that.’
“I hope so. I rather like you, and I hate burying
friends.’ She bent, professionally peeled Kalten’s eyelid back and glanced
at his glazed eyeball. ‘You’d better throw a bucket of water on our friend
here,’ she suggested. ‘He hasn’t learned how to fall yet. We’ll go into
that next time.’
‘Next time?’
‘Of course. If you’re going to learn how to do this, you’d better learn
how to do it right.’ She gave Sparhawk a challenging look. ‘Would you like
to try?’ she asked him. ‘Ah – no, Mirtai, not right now. Thanks all the
same, though.’ She went on into the palace, looking just slightly pleased
with herself. “you know’, I don’t think I really want to be a knight after
all, Sparhawk,’ Talen said from nearby. “It looks awfully painful.’
‘Where have you been? My wife’s got people out looking for you. ‘
“yes. I saw them blundering around out in the streets. I had to go visit
Platime in the cellar.’
‘Oh?’
‘He picked up something he thought you ought to be
aware of. You know those unauthorised bandits in the hills near Cardos?’
‘Not personally, no.’
‘Funny, Sparhawk. Very funny. Platime’s found out
that somebody we know is sort of directing their activities. ‘
‘Oh? Who’s that?’
‘Can you believe that it’s Krager? You should have killed him when
you had the chance, Sparhawk.’
,Chapter 3
The fog drifted in from the river not long after the sun went down that
evening. The nights in Cimmura were always foggy in the spring when it
wasn’t raining. Sparhawk, Stragen ‘and Talen left the palace wearing plain
clothing and heavy traveller’s cloaks and rode to the southeast quarter of
town. ‘You don’t necessarily have to tell your wife I said this,
Sparhawk,’ Stragen noted, looking around with distaste, ‘but her capital’s
one of the least attractive cities in the world. You’ve got a truly
miserable climate here.’
‘It’s not so bad in the summer-time,’ Sparhawk
replied a little defensively.
‘I missed last summer,’ the blond thief said. ‘I took a short nap one
afternoon and slept right ‘through it. Where are we going?’
‘We want to see Platime.’
‘As I recall, his cellar’s near the west gate of the city. You’re taking us
in the wrong direction.’
‘We have to go to a certain inn first.’ Sparhawk looked back over his
shoulder. ‘Are we being followed, Talen?’ he asked.
‘Naturally. ‘
Sparhawk grunted. ‘That’s more or less what I expected.’ They rode on with
the thick mist swirling around the legs of their horses and making the
fronts of the nearby houses dim and hazy-looking. They reached the inn on
Rose Street, and a surly-appearing porter admitted them to the inn yard
and closed the gate behind them. ‘Anything you find out about this place
isn’t for general dissemination,’ Sparhawk told Talen and Stragen as he
dismounted. He handed Faran’s reins to the porter. ‘You know about this
horse, don’t you, brother?’ he warned the man.
‘He’s a legend, Sparhawk,’
the porter replied. ‘The things you wanted are in the room at the top of
the stairs.’