in view of the fact that some of the accused are going to
be members of the great families of Tamuli proper.’
‘You might as well go ahead and tell them all of it, Stragen,’
Sparhawk suggested. ‘You’re going to carry out your plan anyway,
and they’ll worry over legal niceties for weeks if you don’t
tell them.’
Stragen winced. “I really wish you hadn’t brought it up, old
boy,’ he said in a pained voice. ‘Their Majesties are official personages,
and they’re more or less obliged to observe the strict
letter of the law. They’d both be much more comfortable if they
didn’t know too many details.’
‘i’m sure they would, but all this fretting about building ironclad
court cases is wasting time we should be spending on other
problems.’
‘What’s this?’
Sarabian asked.
‘Milord Stragen and Master Caalador are contemplating something
along the lines of what you might call legal short-cuts,
your Majesty – in the interests of expediency. Do you want to
tell them, Stragen? Or do you want me to do it?’
‘You go ahead. It might sound better coming from you.’
Stragen leaned back, still brooding over his two gold coins.
‘Their plan’s very simple, your Majesty,’ Sparhawk told the
Emperor. ‘They propose that instead of rounding up all these
conspirators, spies, informers and the like, we just have them
murdered.’
‘What.?’ Sarabian exclaimed.
‘That was a very blunt way to put it, Sparhawk,’ Stragen complained.
‘i’m a blunt man.’ Sparhawk shrugged. ‘Actually, your Majesty,
I sort of approve of the notion. Vanion’s having a little
trouble choking it down, though.’ He leaned back in his chair.
‘justice is a funny thing,’ he observed. ‘She’s only partly interested
in punishing the guilty. What she’s really interested in is
deterrence. The idea is to frighten people into avoiding crime
by doing unpleasant things – publicly – to the criminals who get
caught. But as Stragen pointed out, most criminals know that
they probably won’t get caught, so all the police and the courts
are really doing is justifying their continued employment. He
suggests that we by-pass the police and the courts and send
out the murderers some night very soon. The next morning,
everybody even remotely connected with Zalasta and his renegade
Styrics would be found with his throat cut. If we want a
deterrent, that would really be the most effective one. There
wouldn’t be any acquittals or appeals or imperial pardons to
confuse the issue. If we do it that way, everybody in all of
Tamuli will have nightmares about the fruits of treason for years
afterward. I approve of the idea for tactical reasons, though. I’ll
leave justice to the courts – or the Gods. I like the idea because
of the damage it would do to Zalasta. he’s a Styric, and Styrics
usually try to get what they want by deception and misdirection.
Zalasta’s set up a very elaborate apparatus to gain his ends without
a direct confrontation. Stragen’s plan would destroy that
apparatus in a single night, and only madmen would be willing
to join Zalasta after that. Once the apparatus is gone, he’ll have
to come out in the open and fight. He’s not good at that, but
we are. This would give us the chance to fight this war on our
own terms, and that’s always an enormous tactical advantage.’
‘And we can pick our own time,’ Caalador added. ‘The timing
would be very important.’
‘They wouldn’t be expecting it, that’s one thing,’ Itagne noted.
‘There are rules, Itagne,’ his brother objected. ‘Civilization’s
based on rules. If we break the rules, how can we expect others
to follow them?’
‘That’s the whole point, Oscagne. Right now, the rules are
protecting the criminals, not society as a whole. We can wriggle
around and come up with some kind of legalistic justification
for it afterward. About the only real objection I have is that these
ah – agents of government policy, shall we say, won’t have
any official standing.’ He frowned for a moment. “I suppose we
could solve that problem by appointing Milord Stragen to the
post of Minister of the Interior and Master Caalador to that of
Director of the Secret Police.’
‘real secret, your Excellency,’ Caalador laughed. “I don’t even
know who most of the murderers are.’
Itagne smiled. ‘Those are the best kind, I suppose.’ He looked
at the Emperor. ‘That would put a slight stain of legality on the
whole business, your Majesty – in the event that you decide to
go ahead with it.’
Sarabian leaned thoughtfully back in his chair. ‘i’m tempted,’
he said. ‘A blood-bath like this would insure domestic tranquility
in Tamuli for at least a century.’ He shook off his expression of
wistful yearning and sat up. “It’s just too uncivilized. I couldn’t
approve of something like that with Lady Sephrenia and Anarae
Xanetia watching me and sitting in judgement.’
‘What are your feelings, Xanetia?’ Sephrenia asked tentatively.
‘We of the’ Delphae are not over-concerned with niceties and
technicalities, Sephrenia. ‘
“I didn’t think you would be. Good is good, and bad is bad,
wouldn’t you say?’
“It seemeth so to me.’
‘And to me as well. Zalasta’s hurt the both of us, and Stragen’s
massacre would hurt him. I don’t think either of us would object
too much to something that would cause him pain, would we?’
Xanetia smiled.
“It’s your decision, then, Sarabian,’ Sephrenia said. ‘Don’t look
to Xanetia and me for some excuse not to make it. We find nothing
objectionable in the plan.’
‘i’m profoundly disappointed in both of you,’ he told them.
“I was hoping you’d get me off the hook. You’re my last chance,
Ehlana. Doesn’t this monstrous notion turn your blood cold?’
‘Not particularly.’ She shrugged. ‘But I’m an Elene — and a
politician. As long as we don’t get caught with bloody knives
in our own hands, we can always wriggle out of it. ‘
‘Won’t anyone help me?’ Sarabian actually looked desperate.
Oscagne gave his Emperor a penetrating look. “It has to be
your decision, your Majesty,’ he said. “I personally don’t like it,
but I’m not the one who has to give the order.’
‘is it always like this, Ehlana?’ Sarabian groaned.
‘Usually,’ she replied quite calmly. ‘Sometimes it’s worse.’
The Emperor sat staring at the wall for quite some time. ‘all
right, Stragen,’ he said finally. ‘ Go ahead and do it.’
‘That’s mother’s darling boy,’ Ehlana said fondly.
CHAPTER 25
‘No, Caalador,’ Sparhawk said, ‘as a matter of fact, it won’t take
three or four weeks. I have access to a faster way to get from
place to place.’
‘That won’t do any good, Sparhawk,’ the ruddy-faced Cammorian
objected. ‘The people in the Secret Government won’t
take orders from you.’
“I won’t be giving the orders, Caalador,’ Sparhawk told him.
‘You will.’
Caalador swallowed. ‘Are you sure it’s safe to travel that way?’
he asked doubtfully.
‘Trust me. How many people will we have to get word to?’
Caalador threw an uncomfortable glance at Sarabian. ‘i’m not
at liberty to say. ‘
“I won’t use the information, Caalador,’ the Emperor assured
him.
‘You and I know that, your Majesty, but rules are rules. We
like to keep our numbers just a little vague.’
‘Generalize, Caalador,’ Ehlana suggested. ‘A hundred? Five
hundred?’
‘Not hardly that many, dorlin’,’ he laughed. ‘Then ain’t no pie
whut kin be cut into that many pieces.’ He squinted a bit anxiously
at Stragen. ‘Let’s just say more than twenty and less than
a hundred and let it go at that, shall we? I’d rather not get my
own throat cut.’
‘That’s general enough,’ Stragen laughed. “I won’t turn you
in for that, Caalador. ‘
‘Thanks.’
‘Don’t mention it.’
‘Two or three days, then,’ Sparhawk said.
‘Let’s not start passing the word around until after the Anarae
pulls her net through Krager’s mind tomorrow morning,’
Stragen said.
‘Thou art fond of that particular metaphor, Milord Stragen,’
Xanetia noted in a slightly disapproving tone.
‘i’m not trying to be offensive, Anarae. I’m groping for a way
to explain something I couldn’t begin to understand, that’s all.’
Stragen’s face grew bleak. ‘if Krager really knows about the
Secret Government, he’s probably infiltrated it, and there’ll be
some people out there we won’t want to tell about this.’
‘And whose names we’ll be adding to our list,’ Caalador
added.
“Just how long is your list, Master Caalador?’ Oscagne asked.
‘You don’t really need to know that, your Excellency,’ Caalador
replied in a tone that clearly said that he wasn’t going to
discuss the matter. ‘Let’s pick a date – something that sort of
stands out in people’s minds. Thieves and cutthroats aren’t all
that good at reading calendars.’
‘How about the Harvest Festival?’ Itagne suggested. “It’s only
three weeks away, and it’s celebrated in all of Tamuli.’
Caalador looked around. ‘Can we wait that long?’ he asked.
“It would be the perfect time. Our murderers would have three
nights to get the job done instead of one, and there’s lots of