fall prettily upon mine ear, Lady. In truth, however, thou hast
been unkind to absent thyself from us, for thou art fair, and
thine elegant mode of address would have added luster to our
court. Moreover, thine eyes and thy gentle demeanor do shine
forth from thee and would have provided instruction by
ensample for they who are about me.’
‘Thy words are artfully honeyed, Majesty,’ Xanetia said,
politely inclining her head, ‘and I do perceive that thou art a
consummate flatterer.’
‘Say not so,’ he protested. “I do assure thee that I speak truly
from mine heart.’ He was obviously enjoying himself.
She sighed. ‘Thine opinion, I do fear me, will change when
thou dost behold me in my true state. I have altered mine
appearance as necessary subterfuge to avoid affrighting thy subjects.
For, though it doth cause me grave distress to confess it,
should thy people see me in mine accustomed state, they would
flee, shrieking in terror.’
‘Canst thou truly inspire such fear, gentle maiden?’ he smiled.
“I cannot give credence to thy words. In truth, methinks,
shouldst thou appear on the streets of fire-domed Matherion,
my subjects would indeed run – but not away from thee.’
‘That thou must judge for thyself, Majesty.’
‘Ah – before we proceed, might I inquire as to the state of
your Majesty’s health?’ Itagne asked prudently.
‘i’m well, Itagne.’
‘No shortness of breath? No heaviness or twinges in your
Majesty’s chest?’
“I said that I’m healthy, Itagne,’ Sarabian snapped.
“I certainly hope so, your Majesty. May I be permitted to present
the Lady Xanetia, the Anarae of the Delphae?’
“I think your brother’s right, Itagne. I think you’ve taken leave
of – Good God!’ Sarabian was staring in open hoRRor at Xanetia.
Like the dye running out of a bolt of cheap cloth, the color was
draining from her skin and hair, and the incandescent glow that
had marked her before she had disguised it began to shine forth
again. She rose to her feet, and Kalten stood up beside her.
‘Now is the stuff of thy nightmares made flesh, Sarabian of
Tamuli,’ Xanetia said sadly. ‘This is who I am and what I am.
Thy servant Itagne hath told thee well and truly what transpired
in fabled Delphaeus. I would greet thee in manner suitable to
thy station, but like all the Delphae, I am outcast, and therefore
not subject to thee. I am here to perform those services which
devolve upon my people by reason of our pact with Anakha,
whom thou has called Sparhawk of Elenia. Fear me not, Sarahian,
for I am here to serve, not to destroy.’
Mirtai, her face deathly pale, had risen to her feet. Purposefully,
she stepped in front of her mistress and drew her sword.
‘Run, Ehlana,’ she said grimly. ‘I’ll hold her back.’
‘That is not needful, Mirtai of Atan,’ Xanetia told her. ‘As
I said, I mean no harm to any in this company. Sheathe thy
sword.’
“I will, accursed one – in your vile heart!’ Mirtai raised her
sword. Then, as if struck by some great blow, she reeled back
and fell to the floor, tumbling over and over.
Kring and Engessa reacted immediately, rushing forward and
clawing at their sword-hilts.
“I would not hurt them, Anakha,’ Xanetia warned Sparhawk,
‘but I must protect myself that I may keep faith with the pact
between thee and my people.’
‘Put up your swords!’ Vanion barked. ‘The lady is a friend.’
‘But…’ Kring protested.
“I said to put up your swords.’ Vanion’s roar was shattering, and
Kring and Engessa stopped in their tracks.
Sparhawk, however, saw another danger. Danae, her eyes
bleak and her face set, was advancing on the Delphaeic woman.
‘Ah, there you are, Danae,’ he said, moving rather more quickly
than his casual tone might have suggested. He intercepted the
vengeful little princess. ‘Aren’t you going to give your poor old
father a kiss?’ He swept her up into his arms and smothered
her indignant outburst by mashing his lips to hers.
‘Put me down, Sparhawk.’ she said, speaking directly down
his throat.
‘Not until you get a grip on your temper,’ he muttered, his
mouth still clamped to hers.
‘She hurt Mirtai!’
‘No, she didn’t. Mirtai knows how to fall without getting hurt.
Don’t do anything foolish here. You knew this was going to
happen. Everything’s under control, so don’t get excited – and
don’t, for God’s sake, let your mother find out who you really
are ‘
“It doesn’t really talk.” ~Ehlana interruPted SParhawk’s account
of what had taken place in Delphaeus.
‘Not by itself, no,’ Sparhawk replied. “It spoke through Kalten
well, it did the first time, anyway.’
‘Kalten?’
“I have no idea why. Maybe it just seizes on whoever’s handy.
The language it uses is archaic and profoundly formal – thee’s and
thou’s and that sort of thing. Its speech is much like Xanetia’s, and
it wants me to respond in kind. Evidently, the mode of speech is
important.’ He rubbed one hand across his freshly shaved cheek.
“It’s very strange, but as soon as I began to speak – and think – in
twelfth-century Elenic, something seemed to open in my mind.
For the first time, I knew that I was Anakha, and I knew that Bhelliom
and I are linked together in some profoundly personal way. ‘
He smiled wryly. “It seems that you’re married to two different
people, love. I hope you’ll like Anakha. He seems a decent
enough sort – once you get used to the way he talks.’
‘Perhaps I should just go mad,’ she said. ‘That might be easier
than trying to understand what’s going on. How many other
strangers do you plan to bring to my bed tonight?’
Sparhawk looked at Vanion. ‘Should I tell them about
Sephrenia?’
‘You might as well,’ Vanion sighed. ‘They’ll find out about it
soon enough anyway. ‘
Sparhawk took his wife’s hands in his and looked into her
gray eyes. ‘You’re going to have to be a little careful when you
talk with Sephrenia, dear,’ he told her. ‘There’s an ancient
enmity between the Delphae and the Styrics, and Sephrenia
grows irrational whenever she’s around them. Xanetia has problems
with the Styrics as well, but she manages to keep it under
control better than Sephrenia does.’
‘Doth it seem so to thee, Anakha?’ Xanetia asked. She had
resumed her disguise, more for the sake of the comfort of the
others than out of any real need, Sparhawk guessed. Mirtai sat
not far from her with watchful eyes and with her hand resting
on her sword-hilt.
‘i’m not trying to be personally offensive, Anarae,’ he apologized.
‘I’m just trying to explain the situation so that they’ll
understand when you and Sephrenia try to claw each other’s
eyes out.’
‘i’m sure you’ve noticed my husband’s blinding charm,
Anarae,’ Ehlana smiled. ‘Sometimes he absolutely overwhelms
us with it.’
Xanetia actually laughed. Then she looked at Itagne. ‘These
Elenes are a complex people, are they not? I do detect great
agility of thought behind this bluff manner of theirs, and
subtleties I would not have expected from a people who tailor
steel into garments.’
Sparhawk leaned back in his chair. “I haven’t really covered
everything that happened, but that’s enough to let you know
in a general sort of way what we encountered. We can fill in
more detail tomorrow. What’s been going on here?’
‘Politics, of course.’ Ehlana shrugged.
‘Don’t you ever get tired of politics?’
‘Don’t be silly, Sparhawk. Milord Stragen, why don’t you tell
him? It shocks him when I start going into all the sordid details.’
Stragen was once again dressed in his favorite white satin
doublet. The blond thief was sunk deep in a chair with his feet
up on a table. ‘That attempted coup – or whatever it was – was
a serious blunder on the other side,’ he began. “It alerted us to
the fact that there were more mundane elements involved in
this business than hob-goblins and resurrected antiquities. We
knew that Krager was involved – and Interior Minister Kolata and
that turned it into ordinary, garden-variety politics. We
didn’t know where Krager was, so we decided to find out just
how deeply Interior was infected. Since all policemen everywhere
are compulsive about paperwork, we were fairly sure that
somewhere in that rabbit warren of a building there were a set
of files that would identify the people we wanted to talk with.
The problem was that we couldn’t just walk into the ministry
and demand to see their files without giving away the fact that
we knew what they were up to, which in turn would have let
them know that Kolata was our prisoner instead of a willing
guest. Baroness Melidere came up with the idea of a new filing
system, and that gave us access to all the files of all the ministries.’
“It was dreadful,’ Oscagne shuddered. ‘We had to disrupt the