her just yet.’
‘Did you get that spoon of hers away from her?’ Talen asked.
Kring’s eyes went wide. ‘Oh, God!’ he exclaimed, bolting for
the door.
‘if he’d only yell at us or bang his fist against the wall or something,’
Berit murmured to Khalad the next morning when they
gathered once again in the blue-draped sitting-room. ‘All he
does is sit there.’
‘Sparhawk keeps his feelings to himself,’ Khalad replied.
‘it’s his wife we’re talking about, Khalad He sits there like a
lump. Doesn’t he have any feelings at all?’
‘Of course he does, but he’s not going to take them out and
wave them around for us to look at. Right now it’s more important
for him to think than to feel. He’s listening and putting
things together. He’s saving up his feelings for when he gets
his hands on Scarpa.’
Sparhawk sat in his chair with his daughter in his lap. He
seemed to be studying the floor, and he was absently stroking
Princess Danae’s cat.
Lord Vanion was telling the Emperor and the others about
Klael and about their strategic disposition of forces: the Trolls to
the Tamul mountains in south-central Tamul Proper, the Atans
to Sarna and Tikume’s Peloi to Samar.
Flute was sitting quietly on Sephrenia’s lap. Berit noticed
something that hadn’t occurred to him before. He glanced first
at Princess Danae and then at the Child Goddess. They appeared
to be about the same age, and their bearing and manner seemed
very much alike for some reason.
The presence of the Child Goddess was having a peculiar
effect on Emperor Sarabian. The brilliant, erratic ruler of the
continent seemed dumbfounded by her presence and he sat gazing
wide-eyed at her. His face was pale, and he was obviously
not hearing a word Lord Vanion was saying.
Aphrael finally twisted round and returned his gaze. Then
she slowly crossed her eyes at him.
The Emperor started back violently.
‘Didn’t your mother ever tell you that it’s not polite to stare,
Sarabian?’ she asked him.
‘Mind your manners,’ Sephrenia chided.
‘He’s supposed to be listening. If I want adoration, I’ll get
myself a puppy.’
‘Forgive me, Goddess Aphrael,’ the Emperor apologized. ‘I
seldom have divine visitors.’ He looked at her rather closely. ‘I
hope you don’t mind my saying so, but you rather resemble
Prince Sparhawk’s daughter. Have you ever met her Royal
Highness?’ Sparhawk’s head came up sharply, and there was a strange,
almost wild look in his eyes.
‘Now that you mention it, I don’t think I have,’ Flute said.
She looked across the room at the Princess. Berit noticed that
Sephrenia’s eyes were also just a bit wild as Flute slid down out
of her lap and went across the room to Sparhawk’s chair. ‘Hullo,
Danae,’ the Child Goddess said in an offhand sort of way.
‘Hullo, Aphrael,’ the Princess replied in almost exactly the
same tone. ‘Are you going to do something to get my mother
back home?’
‘i’m working on it. Try to keep your father from getting too
excited about this. He’s no good to any of us when he flies all
to pieces and we have to gather him up and put him back
together again.’
‘I know. I’ll do what I can with him. Would you like to hold
my cat?’ Flute glanced at Mmrr, whose eyes were filled with a look of
absolute horror. ‘I don’t think she likes me,’ she declined.
‘I’ll take care of my father,’ Danae assured the little Goddess.
“you deal with these others.’
‘All right.’ Aphrael paused. ‘I think we’ll get on well together,’
she said. ‘You wouldn’t mind if I stopped by from time to time,
would you?’
‘Any time, Aphrael.’
Something very peculiar was going on. Berit saw nothing
unusual in the conversation between the two little girls, but
Sparhawk’s face – and Sephrenia’s – clearly showed that they
were both very disturbed. Berit kept his expression casual and
looked around. Everyone else had faintly indulgent smiles on
their faces as they watched the exchange – all except Lord
Vanion and Anarae Xanetia. Their faces were no less strained
than Sparhawk’s and Sephrenia’s. Evidently something titanic
had just happened, but for the life of him, Berit could not fathom
out what it might have been.
‘I don’t think we should discount the possibility,’ Oscagne said
gravely. ‘Baroness Melidere has demonstrated again and again
the fact that she has a very penetrating mind.’
‘Thank you, your Excellency,’ Melidere said sweetly.
‘I wasn’t really being complimentary, Baroness,’ he replied
coolly. ‘Your intelligence is a resource to be exploited in this
situation. You’ve seen Scarpa and we haven’t. Do you really
believe he’s mad?’
‘Yes, your Excellency, quite mad. It wasn’t only his behavior
that convinced me of it. Krager and the others treated him the
way you’d treat a live cobra. They’re terrified of him.’
‘That dovetails rather neatly with some of the reports I got
from the thieves of Arjuna,’ Caalador agreed. ‘There’s always a
certain amount of exaggeration involved when people talk about
madmen, but every report that came in mentioned it.’
‘if you’re trying to make Sparhawk and me feel better, you’re
going at it in a strange way, Caalador,’ Kalten accused. ‘You’re
suggesting that the women we love are the prisoners of a crazy
man. He could do anything.’
‘it might not be as bad as it looks, Sir Kalten,’ Oscagne
said. ‘if Scarpa’s mad, couldn’t this abduction have been his
idea alone? If that’s the case, our solution becomes almost too
simple. Prince Sparhawk simply follows the instructions he
receives to the letter, and when Scarpa appears with Queen
Ehlana and Alcan, his Highness simply hands over the
Bhelliom. We all know what’ll happen to Scarpa as soon as he
touches it.’
‘You’re equating insanity with feeble-mindedness, Oscagne,’
Sarabian disagreed, ‘and that’s simply not the way it works.
Zalasta knows that the rings would protect him if he ever
managed to get his hands on Bhelliom, and if he knows, then
we have to assume that Scarpa does, too. He’ll demand the rings
before he even tries to touch the jewel.’
‘We have three possibilities then,’ Patriarch Emban summed
it all up. ‘Either Cyrgon instructed Zalasta to arrange for the
abduction, or Zalasta came up with the notion on his own, or
Scarpa’s so crazy that he thinks he can just pick up Bhelliom
and start giving it commands with no instruction or preparation
at all.’
‘There’s one more possibility, Your Grace,’ Ulath said. ‘Klael
could already be in charge, and this could be his way to force
Bhelliom to come to him for their customary contest.’
‘What difference does it make at this point?’ Sparhawk asked
suddenly. ‘We won’t know whose idea it is until we see who
shows up to make the exchange. ‘
‘We should have some plans in place, Prince Sparhawk,’
Oscagne pointed out. ‘We should try to think our way through
each situation so that we’ll know what to do.’
‘I already know what I’m going to do, your Excellency,’ Sparhawk
told him bleakly.
‘At the moment, we can’t do anything,’ Vanion said, moving
in rather quickly. ‘All we can do is wait for Krager’s next
note.’
Truly,’ Ulath agreed. ‘Krager’s going to give Sparhawk
instructions. Those instructions might give us some clues about
whose idea this really is.’
“you noticed it, too, didn’t you?’ Berit said to Khalad that
evening when the two of them were getting ready for bed.
‘Noticed what?’
“Don’t play the innocent with me, Khalad. You see everything
that’s Going on around you. Nothing gets by you. Sparhawk and
Sephrenia were behaving very peculiarly when Flute and Danae
were talking to each other.’
“yes,’ Khalad admitted calmly. ‘So what?’
‘Aren’t you curious about why?’
“has it occurred to you that “why” might not be any of our
business?’
Berit stepped round that. ‘Did you notice how much the two
girls resemble each other?’
Khalad shrugged. ‘You’re the expert on girls.’
Berit suddenly blushed and silently cursed himself for
blushing.
‘it isn’t a secret, you know,’ Khalad told him. ‘Empress Elysoun’s
fairly obvious. She doesn’t hide her feelings any more
than she ‘ hides – well, you know.’
‘She’s a good girl,’ Berit quickly came to her defense. ‘it’s just
that her people don’t pay any attention to our kind of morality.
They can’t even comprehend the notion of fidelity.’
‘i’m not throwing rocks at her. If the way she behaves doesn’t bother her
husband, it certainly doesn’t bother me. I’m a country boy, remember? We’re
more realistic about things like that. I just wouldn’t get too attached to
her, Berit. Her attention may wander in time.’
‘it already has,’ Berit replied. ‘She doesn’t want to discontinue
our friendship, though. She wants to be friendly to me and to
him – and to the half-dozen or so others she neglected to mention
earlier.’
‘The world needs more friendliness, Berit,’ Khalad grinned.
‘There wouldn’t be so many wars if people were friendlier.’