trouble, so I’ve learned to get along without thinking. I just
trust my feelings instead. They don’t lead me off in the wrong
direction too often. Sephrenia knows me, and she knows I
couldn’t deceive her even if I tried.’
“it’s called sincerity, my friend,’ Sparhawk smiled.
‘That’s as good a word for it as any, I suppose,’ Kalten
shrugged. ‘I’ll just nip on down to her room and smother her
with sincerity. That ought to make her feel better.’
“it’s me, Sephrenia – Kalten. Unlock the door.’
‘Go away.’ Her voice was muffled.
‘This is important.’
‘Leave me alone.’
Kalten sighed. It was going to be one of those days. ‘please
little mother,’ he tried again.
‘Just go away.’
If you don’t open the door, I’ll have to use magic on it.’
‘Magic? You?.?’ She laughed scornfuly.
Kalten leaned back, raised his right leg and drove his booted
heel against the latch. He kicked it twice more, and the door
splintered and burst open.
‘What are you doing?’ she screamed at him.
‘haven’t you ever seen Elene magic before, little mother?’ he
asked her mildly. ‘We use it all the time. You don’t mind if I
come in, do you?’ He stepped through the splinter-littered
doorway. ‘We thought you might be a little lonesome and that
maybe you needed somebody to yell at. Vanion wanted to come,
but I wouldn’t let him.’
‘You? Since when have you started ordering Vanion around?’
‘i’m bigger than he is -‘and younger.’
‘You get out of my room!’
‘i’m sorry, but I can’t do that.’ He glanced toward her window.
‘You’ve got a nice view from here. You can see all the way down
to the harbor. Shall we get started? Screaming and hitting are
all right, but please don’t turn me into a toad. Alcan wouldn’t
like that.’
‘Who sent you here, Kalten?’
“I already told you. It was my own idea. I wouldn’t let Vanion
come because you’re upset right now. You might say something
to him that you’d both regret later. You can say anything you
want to me, Sephrenia. You can’t hurt my feelings.’
‘Go away!’
‘No, I won’t do that. Would you like to have me make you a
nice cup of tea?’
‘Just leave me alone!
“I already told you no.’ Then he took her by the shoulders
and enfolded her in a huge bear-hug. She struggled against him,
but he was absolutely immovable. ‘Your hair smells nice,’ he
noted.
She began to pound on his shoulders with her fiSts. “I hate
YOU!’
‘No, you don’t,’ he replied calmly. ‘You couldn’t hate me even
if you wanted to.’ He continued to hold her. “it’s been very mild
this autumn, hasn’t it?’
‘Please leave me alone, Kalten.’
“No.”
She started to cry, clutching at his doublet and burying her
face in his chest. ‘I’m so ashamed.’ she wept.
‘Of what? You didn’t do anything wrong. Zalasta tricked you,
that’s all. He tricked the rest of us as well, so you’re no more
to blame than we are.’
‘I’ve broken Vanion’s heart!’
“Oh, I don’t think so – not really. You know Vanion. He can
endure almost anything.’
The storm of her weeping continued – which was more or
less what Kalten had in mind. He pulled a handkerchief out Of
the sleeve of his doublet and gave it to her, still not relaxing his
embrace.
‘I’ll never be able to face them again,’ she wailed.
‘Who? You mean the others? Of course you will. You
made a fool of yourself, that’s all. Everybody does that now
and then.’
‘How dare you!’ She began to pound on him again.
Kalten really wished she’d get past that part of it. “it’s true
though, isn’t it?’ he said gently. ‘Nobody’s blaming you for it,
but it’s true all the same. You did what you thought was right,
but it turned out to be wrong. Everybody’s wrong sometimes,
you know. There aren’t any perfect people.’
‘i’m so ashamed!’
‘You already said that. Are you sure you wouldn’t like a nice
cup of tea?’
‘You should rest now, Anarae,’ Sarabian said solicitously. “I
hadn’t realized how exhausting this would be for you.’
She smiled at him. ‘Thou art kind, Sarabian of Tamuli, but I
am not so fragile as that. Let us proceed. It had been in the
mind of Zalasta that he might by diverse inducements corrupt
Anakha in his youth and thus gain access to Bhelliom without
the need for perilous confrontation, but Sephrenia and Aphrael
did closely attend the childhood and youth of Bhelliom’s champion,
once again and all unknowingly thwarting Zalasta’s
design.
‘Then did Zalasta conclude that he had no choice but to
approach Anakha as an enemy rather than a convert, and consulted
he with Ogerajin and with Otha and went he even to
Cimmura to seek allies to assist him. In furtherance of this did
he pose as one of the numerous Zemoch Styrics Otha had sent
into the Elene kingdoms to sow dissension and turmoil.’
‘There were plenty of those, all right,’ Ulath said. ‘Rumor had
it that a Zemoch Styric could give an Elene anything he wanted
– provided that the Elene wasn’t too attached to his soul.’
‘The blandishments such Styrics offered were many,’ Xanetia
agreed, ‘but the understanding of Otha’s agents was limited.’
‘Profoundly limited,’ Vanion agreed.
‘Truly. Zalasta, however, was more subtle, and far more
patient. He did find an apt pupil in the person of the young
chaplain to the royal house of Elenia, a priest named Annias.’
‘Annias.?’ Ehlana exclaimed. “I didn’t know that he was ever
the royal chaplain.’
“it was before you were born,’ Sparhawk told her.
‘That would explain why he had so much control over my
father. Are you saying that Zalasta was behind all that, Anarae?’
Xanetia nodded.
“it isn’t really all that easy to corrupt a young priest,’ Bevier
objected. ‘They’re usually filled with zeal and idealism.’
‘And Annias was no exception,’ Xanetia replied. ‘He was
ambitious, but in his youth was he ever true to the ideals of his
Church. That idealism stood in Zalasta’s path until he found
means to wear it away.’ She paused, flushing slightly. “I would
not offend thee, majesty,’ she apologized to Ehlana, ‘but thine
aunt was ever lustful and wanton.’
“it doesn’t offend me in the slightest, Anarae,’ Ehlana replied.
‘Arissa’s appetites were legendary in Cimmura, and I was never
really all that fond of her in the first place.’
‘There was some connection, then?’ Melidere asked.
‘indeed, Baroness,’ Xanetia replied. ‘Princess Arissa was the
means whereby Zalasta recruited Annias to his cause. Well
schooled by the voluptuary Ogerajin, did Zalasta introduce the
wanton princess to…’ She broke off, blushing furiously.
‘You needn’t go into detail, Xanetia,’ Ehlana told her. ‘We all
knew Arissa, and we knew that there was nothing she wouldn’t
do.’
‘in truth was she an apt pupil,’ Xanetia agreed. ‘now Zalasta
concluded that Annias would be useful to him by reason of his
position as advisor to thy father. Thus did he implant the firm
belief in the mind of thy corrupt aunt that no act could be so
vile as the seduction of a young priest, and that notion, once
implanted, did obsess Arissa, and ‘ere long it bore fruit. In her
twelfth year did Arissa steal away the dubious virtue of thy
father’s chaplain.’
‘At the age of twelve?’ Melidere murmured. ‘She was precocious,
wasn’t she?’
‘Then Annias was consumed with remorse,’ Xanetia continued.
‘Annias?’ Ehlana scoffed. ‘He didn’t know what the word
meant.’
‘You may be wrong there, my Queen,’ Vanion disagreed. “I
knew Annias when he was a young man. He was totally committed
to the principles of the Church. It wasn’t until later that he
began to change. Sparhawk’s father and I always wondered
what had happened to him.’
‘Evidently Arissa happened,’ Ehlana said dryly. She pursed
her lips. ‘Then Zalasta gained access to Annias by means of my
aunt?’ she guessed.
Xanetia nodded. ‘The young priest, after much prayer and
meditation, did resolve to renounce his vows and to wed the
tarnished princess.’
‘A marriage made in heaven,’ Ulath noted sardonically.
‘Arissa, however, would have none of such union, for so
insatiable was her nature that she soon grew tired of her ecclesiastical
paramour and did taunt him by reason of his waning
prowess and stamina. At Zalasta’s insinuating suggestion, however,
did she bring her exhausted convert to a certain house in
Cimmura, and there did Zalasta hint that he might restore the
waning vigor of Annias by means of Styric enchantments. Thus
did he secure a firm grip on the soul of him who would become
Primate of Cimmura.’
‘We knew that Annias was getting help from one of Otha’s
Styrics,’ Sparhawk said. ‘We had no idea it was Zalasta, though.
He had a hand in virtually everything, didn’t he?’
‘He is most clever, Anakha. Patiently did he instruct his two
ever more willing pupils in that depravity which he himself had