abandon these caste bariers and start talking to each other. If they’re
going to be of any use, they’re going to have to be willing to pass
information to one central collecting point. If we have to contact the head
of each guild, information would be stale long before we’ got our hands on
it.’
‘I see. Correct me if I’m wrong, Milord Stragen. What you want me to do is
to organise the criminals of Matherion so that they can prey on honest
citizens more effectively in exchange for unspecified information they may
or may not be able to pick up in the ‘street. Is that it? Stragen winced.
‘I was afraid your Majesty might look at it that way,’ he said. ‘you
needn’t be fearful, Milord Stragen. I’ll be happy to have a chat with these
loyal criminals. The gravity of the current crisis over-rides my natural
revulsion for having dealings with knaves and rogues. Tell me, Milord, are
you a good thief?’
‘I Guess I’ve underestimated your Majesty,’ Stragen sighed. ‘Yes, actually
I’m a very good thief. I hate to sound immodest, but I’m probably the best
thief in the world.’
‘How’s business?’
‘Not so good lately) Emperor Sarabian. Times of termoil are very bad for
crime. Honest men grow nervous and start protecting their valuables. Oh,
one thing, your Majesty. The criminals you’ll be addressing will all be
masked. They respect you enormously, but they’ll probably want to hide
their faces from you.’
‘I can understand that I suppose. I’m rather looking forward to speaking
with your friends, Stragen. We’ll put our heads together and come up with
ways to circumvent the authorities.’
‘That’s not really a good idea, your Majesty,’ Talen told him. ‘Never let
a thief get within ten feet of you. He raised his hand to show Sarabian a
jeweLed bracelet. The startled emperor looked quickly at his naked right
wrist. ‘Merely a demonstration, your Majesty,’ Talen grinned. ‘I wasn’t
really going to keep it.’
‘Give him back the rest as well, Talen,’ Stragen told the boy. Talen
sighed. ‘Your eyes are unwholesomely sharp) Stragen.’ He reached inside his
doublet and took out several other jewels. ‘The best plan is not to have
anything of value on your person when you talk with thieves, your Majesty,’
he advised. ‘You’re very good, Master Talen,’ Sarabian complimented the
boy. ‘It’s all in the wrist,’ Talen shrugged. ‘I absolutely love you
Elenes,’ Sarabian said. ‘Tamuls
are a dull, boring people, but you’re full of surprises.’ He smiled archly
at Melidere. ‘And what startling revelations do you have for me, Baroness?’
he asked her. ‘Nothing really very startling, your Majesty,’ she smiled.
‘The swishing back and forth through the corridors has earned me several
fairly predictable offers and a fair number of pinches. Tamuls pinch more
than Elenes, don’t they? I’ve learned to keep my back to the wall, though.
A pinch or two in the spirit of good clean fun is all right, I suppose, but
the bruises take a long time to fade.’ Then they all looked at Berit. The
young Pandion Knight blushed furiously. ‘I haven’t really got anything to
report, my Lords and Ladies,’ he mumbled. ‘Berit,’ Ehlana said gently,
‘it’s not nice to lie like that, you know.’
‘It wasn’t really anything, your Majesty,’ he protested. ‘It was all a
misunderstanding, I’m sure – probably because I don’t speak Tamul very
well.’
‘What happened, my young friend?’ Sarabian asked him.. well, your Majesty,
it was your wife, the empress elysoun – the one with the unusual costume.’
‘yes, I’m acquainted with her.’ well, your Majesty, she approached me in
one of the corridors and said that I was looking a bit tired – perhaps
because I was keeping my eyes closed.’
‘why were you doing that?’
‘Ah – well, her costume, you understand, your Majesty. I thought it might
be impolite to stare.’
‘In Elysoun’s case, it’s impolite not to. She’s very
proud of her attributes, and she likes to share them with people.’
‘.-Berits blush deepened. ‘Anyway,’ he floundered on, :.she said I looked
tired and told me that she had a very comfortable bed in her quarters that
I could use if I ~wanted to get some rest.’ Kalten was gazing at the
youthful knight with openmouthed envy. ‘What did you say?’ he asked almost
breathlessly. ‘Well, I thanked her, of course, but I told her that I wasn’t
really sleepy.’ Kalten buried his face in his hands and groaned. ‘There,
there,’ Ulath said patting his shoulder comfortingly.
CHAPTER 27
Well sir, yet Queenship,’ Caalador was saying in his broad, colloquial
drawl, ‘these yore trinkets is putty thangs, I’ll tell the world, but they
ain’t got no real practicle use to ’em.’ He offered Ehlana a pair of carved
ivory figurines. ~’they’re gorgeous, Caalador,’ she gushed. is that guard
gone?’ Caalador muttered to Sparhawk. Sparhawk nodded. ‘Mirtai just shoved
him out the door.’ I thought he was planning to stay all day.’ did you have
any trouble getting on the grounds? Ehlana asked him. ‘Not a bit, your
Majesty.’
‘I should hope not – not after the fuss I made.’ She looked more closely
at the figurines. ‘These are really lovely, Caalador,’ she said. ‘Where did
you get them?’ I ‘had ‘them stolen from the museum at the university,’ he
shrugged. ‘They’re ninth century Tegan – very fine and very valuable.’ He
grinned at her impishly. ‘if’n yet queenshiP’s got this yore Passion fer
anhkits, y might’s well git th’ real thangs.’
‘I love to listen to this man talk,’ Ehlana said.
Barroness Melidere escorted the others into the royal
-~,quarters. ‘any problems?’ Stragen asked his brother thief.
~-”~”’::”:)’)’~ in slicker’n a weasel burrowin’ into a hen-roost.’
‘please, Caalador, spare me.’ Caladar was serving the Queen of Elenia in
the roll of ‘procurer of antiquities,’ and by her orders ~Was to be granted
immediate access to her at any time. One or the other of the knights had
escorted him onto the grounds several times during the past several weeks
in order to familiarize the guards at the gates with his face, but this was
the first time he had tried to gain entrry by himself. Their assorted
subterfuges were growing more and more subtle. ‘Has anything meaningful
turned up, Master Caalador?’ Zalasta asked. ‘i’m not entirely sure, learned
one,’ Caalador frowned. ‘We keep running into something a little peculiar.’
‘Oh?’
‘All sorts of people are talking about something called ‘the Hidden City’.
They’re the very people we’ve been watching, so we thought it might have
some significance.’
‘It is a’bit unusual,’ Zalasta agreed. ‘It’s not the sort of thing you’d
expect to hear noised about on the streets.’
‘It actually means something then?’ Zalasta nodded. ‘It’s an old Tamul
platitude that has to do with the life of the mind. Are they saying, ‘The
way to the Hidden City is long, but the rewards to be found there are
treasures beyond price?”
‘That’s it exactly, learned one. Two people meet on the street, one of
them recites the first half, and the other recites the second.’ Zalasta
nodded. ‘The platitude’s supposed to refer to the rewards of the search for
knowledge and enlightenment. I’d suspect some other significance in this
case, however. Are your people hearing it from anybody other than Tamuls?’
Caalador nodded. ‘A couple of Elene merchants greeted each other with it on
a street-corner just yesterday.’
‘It sounds very much like a sign and countersign,’
Vanion mused. ‘i’d hate to concentrate all our efforts on something like
that to the exclusion of everything else, ‘ Zalasta said cautiously. ‘Ain,
‘taint no big thang, yet sorcerership,’ Caalador assured him. ‘i’m up t’ m’
ears in beggars an’ whores an’ sneak thieves an’ sick. I got what y’ might
call a embarrassment o’ riches in that deportment.’ Zalasta looked puzzled.
‘He says he’s got more than enough people at his disposal, Zalasta,’
Sephrenia translated. ‘It’s a colourful dialect, isn’t it?’ Zalasta
observed mildly. Ulath was frowning. ‘i’m not entirely positive,’ he said,
‘but it seemed to me that I heard two of the palace guards talking about
‘the Hidden City’ a few days ago. There might be more people involved than
we thought.’ Vanion nodded. ‘It may not lead anywhere,’ he said, but it
won’t hurt anything if we all keep our ears open. If Caalador has stumbled
across the password of the other side, it could help us to identify
conspirators we might otherwise miss. Let’s compile a sort of a list. Let’s
gather the names of all these people who hunger and thirst for the hidden
city of the mind. If this is a sign and countersign, and if it’s in any way
connected to what we’re looking for, let’s have a group of names to work
with.’
‘you’re starting to sound very much like a policeman, Lord Vanion,’ Talen
said, half accusingly. ‘Can you ever forgive me?’
‘Oh, by the way, I saw an old friend at the university,’ Bevier told them