tell your mother about this, you know.’
‘No, actually you’re not. You heard Melidere. Mother wouldn’t’
be able to do anything about it, and all you’d do is worry her.’
‘They’re stealing millions, Aphrael.’
‘They’re not stealing anything, Sparhawk. What they’re going
to do in no way changes the value of money. When you get
right down to it, they’re actually creating wealth. The whole
world will be better for it.’
“I don’t entirely follow the logic of that.’
‘You don’t have to, father,’ she said sweetly. ‘Just take my
word for it.’ She pointed. ‘We want to go over there next.’
‘Over there’ was beside the moat, where Sephrenia and Vanion
walked side by side along the grassy bank. Sparhawk was growing
accustomed to his de facto invisibility by now, but it was still
strange to have one of his friends look directly at him without
acknowledging his presence.
“it would depend entirely on what kind of fish were locally
available,’ Vanion was explaining. Sparhawk could tell that’t
Vanion was explaining because he was using his ‘explaining’
voice, which was quite a bit like his ‘preaching’ voice. Vanion
had put whole generations of Pandion novices to sleep – both
in the lecture-hall and in chapel.
‘Why is he talking like that?’ Danae asked.
‘Because he’s afraid,’ Sparhawk sighed.
‘Of Sephrenia? Vanion isn’t afraid of anything – least of all
Sephrenia. He loves her.’
‘That’s what’s making him afraid. he doesn’t know what to
say. If he says the wrong thing, it could all fall apart again.
‘Now,’ Vanion continued to lecture, ‘there are warm-water
fish and cold-water fish. Carp like the water to be warm, and
trout like it colder.’
Sephrenia’s eyes were starting to glaze over.
‘The water in the moat has been standing for quite a while,
so it’s fairly warm. That would sort of rule out trout, wouldn’t
you say?’
“I suppose so,’ she sighed.
‘But that doesn’t mean that you couldn’t plant some other
kind of fish in there. A really good cook can do wonders with
carp – and they do help to keep the water clean. There’s nothing
like a school of carp to keep standing water from turning
stagnant.’
‘No,’ she sighed. ‘i’m sure there isn’t.’
‘What on earth is he doing?’ Danae exploded.
“it’s called “walking on eggshells”,’ Sparhawk explained. ‘He
probably talks a great deal about the weather, too.’
‘They’ll never get back together if he doesn’t talk directly to
her about something that matters.’
‘He probably won’t do that, Aphrael. I think Sephrenia’s going
to have to take the first step.’
“I found her!’ Talen’s shout came across the lawn. ‘She’s up
in this tree!’
‘Oh, bother!’ Danae said irritably. ‘he wasn’t supposed to find
her yet – and what’s she doing up a tree? She wasn’t supposed
to climb any trees.’
‘We may as well go on over,’ Sparhawk told her. ‘Everybody’s
drifting in that direction. You’d better turn off your spell.’
‘What about Vanion and Sephrenia?’
‘Why don’t we just let them work it out for themselves?’
‘Because he’ll go on talking about fish for the next ten years,
that’s why.’
‘Sephrenia will only listen to lectures about fish for just so
long, Danae, then she’ll get to the point. Vanion isn’t really talking
about fish. He’s telling her that he’s ready to make peace if
she is.’
‘He didn’t say anything about that. He was just about to start
giving her recipes for boiled carp.’
‘That’s what you heard him saying, but that wasn’t what he
was really saying. You’ve got to learn to listen with both ears,
Danae.’
‘Elenes.’ she said, rolling her eyes upward.
Then they heard Kalten shout, ‘Look out!’
Sparhawk looked sharply toward the spot where the others
were gathered around a tall maple tree. Talen was up among
the topmost branches, inching his way slowly out on a very
slender limb toward the wild-eyed Mmrr. Things weren’t
going well. The limb was sturdy enough to support Mmrr,
but Talen was too heavy. The limb was bending ominously,
and there were unpleasant cracking sounds coming from its
base.
‘Talen,’ Kalten shouted again, ‘get back.’
But by then, of course, it was too late. The tree-limb did not
so much break off from the trunk as it did split at its base
and peel down the side of the tree. Talen made a desperate
grab, caught the confused and terrified cat in one hand, and
then plunged headlong down through the lower branches of
the tree.
The situation was still not irretrievable. The Church Knights
were all versed in various levels of magic, Sephrenia was there,
and Aphrael herself rode on Sparhawk’s shoulders. The problem
was that no one could actually see Talen. The maple tree had
large leaves and the boy was falling down through the limbs
and was thus totally obscured by the foliage. they could hear
him hitting limbs as he fell, a series of sharp raps and thumps
accompanied by grunts and sharp cries of pain. Then he
emerged from the lower foliage, falling limply to land with a
thud on the grass under the tree with Mmrr still loosely held in
one hand. He did not get up.
‘Talen!’ Danae screamed in horror.
Sephrenia concurred with the opinion of Sarabian’s physicians.
Talen had suffered no really serious injuries. He was bruised
and battered, and there was a large, ugly knot on his forehead
from his encounter with the unyielding tree-limb which had
knocked him senseless, but Sephrenia assured them that, aside
from a splitting headache, he would have no lasting after-effects
from his fall.
Princess Danae, however, was in no mood to be reassured.
She hovered at the bedside, reacting with little cries of alarm
each time the unconscious boy stirred or made the slightest
sound.
Finally, Sparhawk picked her up and carried her from the
room. There were people there who probably shouldn’t witness
miracles. “it got away from you, didn’t it, Aphrael?’ he observed
to the distraught Child Goddess.
‘What are you talking about?’
‘You had to tamper with things – trying to fix things that would
have fixed themselves if you’d just left them alone – and you
almost got Talen killed in the process.’
“it wasn’t my fault that he fell out of the tree.
‘Whose fault was it, then?’ He knew that logically he was
being grossly unfair, but he felt that maybe it was time for the
meddling little Goddess to be brought short. ‘You interfere too
much, Aphrael,’ he told her. ‘People have to be allowed to live
their own lives and to make their own mistakes. We can usually
fix our mistakes by ourselves, if you’ll just give us the chance.
I suppose that what it gets down to is that just because you can
do something doesn’t always mean that you should do it. You
might want to think about that.’
She stared at him for a long moment, and then she suddenly
burst into tears.
‘Tikume’s bowmen will help,’ Vanion said to Sparhawk a bit
later when the two stood together on the parapet. ‘Ulath’s right
about Trolls. You definitely want to slow them down before you
fight them.’
‘And Khalad’s idea about the crossbows isn’t bad either.’
‘Right. Thank God you brought him along.’ The Preceptor
pursed his lips. ‘i’d like to have you take personal charge of
Khalad’s training when you get him back to Cimmura, Sparhawk.
Make sure that he gets instruction in politics, diplomacy
and Church Law as well as in military skills. I think he’s going
to go a long way in our order, and I want to be sure he’s ready
for any position.’
‘Even yours?’
‘Stranger things have happened.’
Sparhawk remembered Vanion’s declamation on fish that
morning. ‘Are you making any progress at all with Sephrenia?’
he asked.
‘We’re speaking to each other, if that’s what you mean.’
“it wasn’t. Why don’t you just sit down and talk with her? about
something more significant than the weather, or how
many birds can sit on a limb, or what kind of fish can live in
the moat?’
Vanion gave him a sharp look. ‘Why don’t you mind your
own business?’
“it is my business, Vanion. She can’t function while there’s
this rift between you – and neither can you, for that matter. I
Need you – both of you – and I can’t really count on either of
you until you resolve your differences.’
‘i’m moving as fast as I dare, Sparhawk. One wrong move
here could destroy everything.’
‘So could a failure to move. She’s waiting for you to take the
first step. Don’t make her wait too long.’
Stragen came out onto the parapet. ‘He’s awake now,’ he
reported. ‘He’s not very coherent, and his eyes aren’t focused,
but he’s awake. Your daughter’s making quite a fuss over him,
Sparhawk.’
‘She’s fond of him,’ Sparhawk shrugged. ‘She tells everybody
that she’s going to marry him someday.’
‘Little girls are strange, aren’t they?’