‘What happened to him?’ Makova gasped.
“I’m told that he was accidentally beheaded during the changeover of administrations in Cimmura. Regrettable, ~perhaPs, but that sort of thing happens now and then.’
‘Harparin?’ Annias gasped in dismay.
“He made the mistake of offending Preceptor Vanion,’
Sparhawk murmured in his ear, ‘and you know how short-tempered Vanion can be at times. He was very sorry afterwards, of course, but by then Harparin was lying in two separate places. He absolutely destroyed the carpeting in the council chamber – all that blood, you know. ‘
“Who else are you chasing, Sparhawk?’ Annias demanded.
‘I don’t have the list with me at the moment, Annias, but there are a number of prominent names on it – names I’m sure you’d recognize.’
There was a stir at the door, and two frightened-looking Patriarchs crept into the hall and then scurried to places ‘.
on the red-cushioned benches. Kalten stood grinning at The door for a moment, then left again.
“well?” Sparhawk whispered to Talen.
“those two bring the total up to one hundred and ‘
nineteen,’ Talen whispered back. ‘We’ve got forty-five, And annius still has sixty-five. He needs seventy-two now instead of seventy-one. We’re getting closer, Sparhawk.’
It took the secretary of the Primate of Cimmura some while longer to complete his computations. Annias scribbled a one-word note to Makova. Sparhawk, watching over the Primate’s shoulder read the single word, ‘vote’.
The issue Makova put to the vote was a pure absurdity.
Everyone knew that. The only question the vote was designed to answer was upon which side the nine neutral Patriarchs clustered in a now-frightened group near the door would come down. After the tally, Makova announced the results in a tone of dismay. The nine had voted in a block against the Primate of Cimmura.
The huge door opened again, and three black-robed monks entered. Their cowls were raised, and their pace was ritualistically slow. When they reached the dais, one of their number removed a folded black cover from beneath his robe, and the three solemnly spread it over the throne to announce that the Archprelate Cluvonus had finally died.
*Chapter 9
‘How long will the city be in mourning?’ Tynian asked Dolmant that afternoon when they had gathered once more in the Patriarch’s study.
‘A week,’ Dolmant replied. ‘The funeral takes place then. ‘
‘And nothing happens during that period?’ the bluecloaked Alcione Knight asked. ‘No sessions of the Hierocracy or anything?’
Dolmant shook his head. ‘No. We’re supposed to spend the period in prayer and meditation.’
‘It’s a breathing-space,’ Vanion said, “and it should give Wargun time to get here.’ He frowned. “We still have a problem, though. Annias doesn’t have any more money, and that means that his hold on his majority grows shakier every day. He’s probably growing desperate by now, and desperate men do rash things.’
‘He’s right,’ Komier agreed. “I expect Annias will take to the streets at this point. He’ll hold his own votes by terror, and try to reduce the number voting by eliminating Patriarchs loyal to us until he gets the number down to the point where he has a substantive majority. I think it’s time to fort up, gentlemen. We’d better get our friends all together behind some good stout walls where we can protect them.’
‘I’ll certainly agree,’ Abriel concurred. ‘Our position is vulnerable at this moment.’
“Which of your chapterhouses is closest to the Basilica?’
Patriarch Emban asked them. ‘Our friends are going to have to file back and forth through the streets to participate in deliberations. Let’s not expose them to any more danger than we have to.’
.Our house is closest,’ Vanion told him, ‘and it has its own well. After what happened this morning, I don’t want to give Annias access to our drinking water. ‘
‘Supplies?’ Darellon asked.
“We keep enough on hand to withstand a six-month siege,’ Vanion replied. ‘Soldiers’ rations, I’m afraid, Your Grace,’ he apologized to the corpulent Emban.
Emban sighed. ‘Oh, well,’ he said, “I’ve’been meaning to lose some weight anyway. ‘
‘It’s a good plan,’ the white-cloaked Preceptor Abriel said, ‘but it does have a drawback. If we’re all In one chapterhouse, the church soldiers can surround us. We’ll be penned up inside with no way to get to the Basilica at all.’
‘Then we’ll fight our way through,’ Komier said, cramming his ogre-horned helmet on his head irritably.
Abriel shook his head. ‘People get killed in fights, Komier. The vote is very close. We can’t afford to lose a single Patriarch at this point.’
‘We can’t win either way,’ Tynian said.
‘I’m not so sure,’ Kalten disagreed.
.Can you see a way out of it?’
“I think so.’ Kalten looked at Dolmant. ‘I’ll need permission for this, Your Grace,’ he said.
‘I’m listening. What’s your plan?’
“If Annias decides to resort to naked force, that means that any semblance of civil order goes out of the window, doesn’t it?’
“More or less, yes.’
“Then if he’s not going to pay any attention to the rules, why should we? If we want to cut down on the number of church soldiers surrounding the Pandion chapterhouse, all we have to do is give them something more important to do.’
‘Set fire to the city again?’ Talen suggested.
“That might be a little extreme,’ Kalten said. “We can keep the notion in reserve, though. At this moment, however, the votes Annias has got are the most important things in his life. If we start peeling them off one by one, he’ll do just about anything to protect what he’s got left, won’t he?’
“I will not allow you to start butchering Patriarchs, Kalten,’ Dolmant said in a shocked voice.
‘We don’t have to kill anybody, Your Grace. All we have to do is imprison a few. Annias is fairly intelligent.
He’ll get the point after a while.’
‘You’ll need some kind of charge, ‘Sir Kalten,’ Abriel said. ‘You can’t just imprison Patriarchs of the Church for no reason at all – regardless of the circumstances.’
‘Oh, we have charges, My Lord Abriel – all sorts of charges – but ‘“Crimes against the crown of Elenia” has the nicest ring to it, wouldn’t you say?’
“I hate it when he tries to be clever,’ Sparhawk muttered to Tynian.
‘You’ll love this one, Sparhawk,’ Kalten said. He threw back his black cloak with an expression of insuHerable smugness. “How many of those arrest warrants Lenda signed for you back in Cimmura have you still got in your pocket?’
‘Eight or ten, why?’
‘Are there any of those people whose company you’d absolutely die without for the next several weeks?’
“I could probably live without most of them.’ Sparhawk thought he saw which way his friend was going.
‘All we have to do is substitute a few names then,’
Kalten said. “The documents are official, so it’s going to look legal – sort of. After we’ve picked up four or five of his bought-and-paid-for Patriarchs and dragged them off to the Alcione chapterhouse – which just happens to be way over on the far side of town won’t Annias do everything in his power to get them back? I’d sort of expect the number of soldiers gathered around the Pandion chapterhouse to diminish drastically at that point.’
“Amazing,’ Ulath said. “Kalten actually came up with a workable idea.’
‘About the only thing I can see wrong with it is the business of substituting names,’ Vanion said. ‘You can’t just scratch out one name and replace it ‘with another not on an official document.’
“I didn’t say anything about scratching out names, My Lord,’ Kalten said modestly. ‘Once, when we were novices, you gave Sparhawk and me leave to go home for a few days. You scribbled a note to get us out through the gate. We just happened to keep the note. The scribes in the scriptorium have something that totally washes out ink. They use it when they make mistakes. The date on that note of yours kept mysteriously changing. You might almost call it miraculous, mightn’t you?’ He shrugged. ‘But then, God’s always been sort of fond of me.’
‘Would it work?’ Komier bluntly asked Sparhawk.
‘It did when we were novices, My Lord,’ Sparhawk assured him.
‘You actually knighted these two, Vanion?’ Abriel asked.
“It was a slow week.’
The grins in the room were broad now.
‘Totally reprehensible, Kalten,’ Dolmant said. “I’d have to absolutely forbid it – if I thought that you were in any way serious about it. You were just speculating, weren’t you, my son?’
‘Oh, absolutely, Your Grace.’
‘I was sure that was the case.’ Dolmant smiled benignly, even piously, and then he winked.
“Oh, dear,’ Sephrenia~ sighed. “Isn’t there one honest Elene in the world? You too, Dolmant?’
“I didn’t agree to anything, little mother,’ he protested with exaggerated innocence. ‘We were only speculating, weren’t we, Sir Kalten?’
‘Certainly, Your Grace. Pure speculation. Neither of us would ever seriously consider something so reprehensible. ‘