His friends all recognized Flute as Aphrael, and that would eliminate
the need for extended explanations. Sparhawk sighed as
a rather melancholy thought occurred to him. He realized sadly
that he didn’t know what his daughter really looked like. That
dear little face which was engraved on his mind almost as deeply
as Ehlana’s was only one in a long line of incarnations – one of
thousands, more than likely.
Then the door to Sephrenia’s cabin opened, and the small
Styric woman emerged with a smile that made her face look like
the sun coming up, and with her little sister in her arms.
Flute, of course, was unchanged – and unchangeable. She
appeared to be no more than six years old – precisely the same
age as Danae. Sparhawk immediately rejected the possibility
of coincidence. Where Aphrael was concerned, there were no
coincidences. She wore the same short linen smock belted at the
waist and the same plaited grass headband that she had been
wearing when they had first met her. Her long hair was as black
as night, and her large eyes nearly as dark. her little bare feet
were grass-stained. She held a simple many-chambered set of
goatherd’s pipes to her bow-like lips, and her song was Styric,
set in a complex minor key.
‘What a pretty child,’ Ambassador Norkan observed, ‘but is
it really a good idea to take her along on this mysterious mission
of yours, Prince Sparhawk? I gather there might be some danger
involved.
‘Not now there won’t be, your Excellency,’ Ulath grinned.
CHAPTER 3
Ehlana and Sarabian had gone to the top of the central tower of
the glowing castle, ostensibly to admire the sunset. Despite the
fact that the castle was firmly in Elene hands, there were still
enough Tamuls inside the walls to require a certain amount of
care when the two wanted to speak privately.
“It all comes down to the question of power, Sarabian,’ Ehlana
told the Emperor in a pensive voice. ‘The fact that it’s there has
to be the central fact of our lives. We can either take it into our
own hands, or leave it lying around unused, but if we choose
not to use it, we can be sure that someone else will.’ Her tone
was subdued and her pale young face almost somber.
‘You’re in a melancholy humor today, Ehlana,’ Sarabian
noted.
“I don’t like being separated from Sparhawk. There were too
many years of that after Aldreas exiled him. The point I was
getting at is that you’re going to have to be very firm so that
the people in your government will understand that things have
changed. What you’ll really be doing here is seizing power.
That’s an act of revolution, you know.’ She smiled faintly.
‘You’re almost too civilized to be a revolutionary, Sarabian. Are
you really sure you want to overthrow the government?’
‘Good God, Ehlana, it’s my government, and the power was
mine in the first place.’
‘But you didn’t use it. You were lazy and self-indulgent, and
you let it slip away. Your ministers have filched your authority
bit by bit. Now you’re going to have to wrest it back from them.
People don’t willingly give up power, so you’ll probably have
to kill some of your ministers in order to prove to the rest that
you’re serious.’
‘That’s the ultimate expression of power, Sarabian, and your
situation here requires a certain ruthlessness. You’re going to
have to spill some blood in order to get your government’s
attention. ‘
“I don’t think I can do that,’ Sarabian said in a troubled tone.
‘Oh, I know I’ve blustered and made threats a few times, but I
couldn’t actually order someone killed.’
‘That’s up to you, but you’ll lose if you don’t, and that means
that they’ll kill you.’ She considered it. ‘They’ll probably kill you
anyway,’ she added, ‘but at least you’ll die for something important.
Knowing that they’re going to kill you in the end might
help you make some unpleasant decisions at the outset. Once
you get past your first couple of killings, it grows easier. I speak
from a certain amount of experience on the subject, since almost
exactly the same thing happened to me. Primate Annias completely
controlled my government when I came to the throne,
and I had to try to take my power back from him.’
‘You’re the one who’s been talking so freely about killing,
Ehlana. Why didn’t you kill Annias?’
She laughed a brittle, chilling little laugh. “It wasn’t because
I didn’t want to, believe me, but I was too weak. Annias had
very carefully stripped the crown of all its authority. I had some
help from Lord Vanion and his Pandion Knights, but Annias
had control of the army and the church soldiers. I killed a few
of his underlings, but I couldn’t get to him. He knew I was
trying, though, and that’s why he poisoned me. Annias was
really a very good politician. He knew exactly when the time
for killing had arrived.’
‘You sound almost as if you admired him.’
“I hated him, but he was very good.’
‘Well, I haven’t killed anybody yet, so I can still step back
from this.’
‘You’re wrong there. You’ve already drawn your dagger, so
you’re going to have to use it. You crushed that uprising, and
you’ve imprisoned the Minister of the Interior. That’s the same
thing as a declaration of war, you know.’
‘You did those things,’ he accused her.
‘Yes, but I was acting on your behalf, so it’s the same thing
– at least in the eyes of your enemies. You’re in a great deal of
danger now, you know. You’ve let your government know that
you’re going to seize back the power you let slip away. If you
don’t start killing people – and very, very soon – you probably
won’t live out the month. You’d be dead already if it weren’t
for the fact that you’ve taken refuge in this castle.’
‘You’re starting to frighten me, Ehlana.’
‘God knows I’ve been trying. Like it or not, Sarabian, you’re
committed now.’ She looked around. The sun was sinking into
the cloud-bank building up over the mountains lying to the west,
and its ruddy glow was reflecting from the mother-of-pearl
domes of Matherion. ‘Look at your city, Sarabian,’ she told him,
‘and contemplate the reality of politics. Before you’re done, that
red splashed all over the domes won’t just be the reflection of
the sunset.’
‘That’s blunt enough,’ he said, his jaw taking on an unfamiliar
set. ‘All right, how many people do I have to kill in order to
ensure my own safety?’
‘You don’t have that many knives, my friend. Even if you
butcher everybody in Matherion, you’ll still be in danger. You
might as well accept the fact that you’re going to be in danger
for the rest of your life.’ She smiled at him. ‘Actually, it’s kind
of exciting – once you get used to it.’
‘Well, sir, yet Queenship,’ Caalador drawled, ‘it’s all putty much
th’ way we wuz a-thankin’ it wuz. That that Krager feller, he
wuz a-tellin’ ol’ Sporhawk th’ ak-chool truth. Me’n Stragen, we
bin a-twistin’ the arms an’ a-settin’ fahr t’ the feet o’ them fellers
oz wuz picked up durin’ the coop… ‘ He stopped. ‘Would
your Majesty be too disappointed if I spoke like a human being
for a while? That dialect’s starting to dislocate my jaw.’
‘Not to mention the violence it’s doing to the mother tongue,’
Stragen murmured.
The three of them had gathered together in a small, bluedraped
room adjoining the royal apartment later that same
evening. Ehlana and Stragen were still dressed for dinner, she
in crimson velvet and he in white satin. Caalador wore the sober
brown of a businessman. The room had been carefully checked
several times to be sure that no hidden listening posts lurked
behind the walls, and Mirtai grimly stood watch outside the
door.
‘With the exception of’ Interior Minister Kolata, we didn’t
scoop up anybody of any significance,’ Caalador continued, ‘and
none of our other prisoners really knows very much. I’m afraid
we don’t have much choice, your Majesty. We’re going to have
to go to work on Kolata if we want anything useful.’
Ehlana shook her head. ‘You won’t get anything out of him
either, Caalador. he’ll be killed as soon as he opens his mouth.’
‘We don’t know that for certain, my Queen,’ Stragen disagreed.
“It’s entirely possible that our subterfuge has worked,
you know. I really don’t believe that the other side knows that
he’s a prisoner here. His policemen are still getting their orders
from him.’
‘He’s too valuable to risk,’ she said. ‘Once he’s been torn to
pieces, he’ll be very hard to put back together again.’
‘if that’s the way you want it, your Majesty,’ Caalador
shrugged. ‘Anyway, it’s growing increasingly obvious that this
uprising was a pure hoax. Its only purpose was to compel us to