“After you’ve settled up with the Patriarch Emban, Talen,’ Vanion said, “I have this burning curiosity about this secret way you’ve found to get in and out of the city. ‘
“It’s not really much of a secret, Lord Vanion,’ Talen said deprecatingly. ‘About all it really consists of are the names of a squad of enterprising church soldiers who have the night watch in one of the towers on the wall. They’ve got a nice long rope with knots tied in it to make climbing up and down easy. They’re willing to rent out the rope, and I’m willing to rent out their names and the location of the tower they’re guarding. Everybody’s making a nice profit.’
‘including the Church,’ Patriarch Emban reminded him.
‘I was sort of hoping you’d forgotten about that, Your Grace.’
‘Hope is a cardinal virtue, my son,’ Emban said piously, ‘even when it’s misplaced.’
Kurik came in carrying a Lamork crossbow. “I think we may be in luck, My Lords,’ he said. “I happened to look into the armoury of the Archprelate’s personal guard in the Basilica. They’ve got racks and racks of these down there, and barrels of bolts.’
“An eminently suitable weapon,’ Ortzel approved.
Ortzel was a Lamork, after all.
“~They’re slower than a longbow, Your Grace,’ Kurik pointed out, ‘but they do have an extraordinary range.
I think they’ll be very effective in breaking up charges against the inner city before they can pick up much momentum. ‘
“Do you know how to use this weapon, Kurik?’ Vanion asked him.
“Yes, Lord Vanion.’
‘Start training some church soldiers then.’
“Yes, My Lord.’
‘A number of things are turning our way, my friends,’
Vanion said. ‘We have a defensible position, a parity of weapons and a certain delay working for us.’
‘I’d still be happier if Wargun were here,’ Komier said.
‘So would I,’ Vanion agreed, ‘but we’ll just have to make do with what we’ve got until he gets here, I’m afraid.’
“There’s something else we need to concern ourselves with, gentlemen,’ Emban said gravely. ‘Assuming that all goes well, the Hierocracy’s going to go back into session just as soon as Martel’s been driven off. Abandoning the outer city is going to alienate a sizeable number of Patriarchs. If you let a man’s house be looted and burned, he’s not going to be very fond of you or want to vote for you. We’ve got to find some way to prove the connection between Annias and Martel. If we don’t, we’re doing all this just for the exercise. I can talk as fast as the next man, but I can’t perform miracles. I need something to work with.’
It was about midnight when Sparhawk climbed the stairs to the wall of the old city not far from the south gate, the most defensible of the four and the one it had been decided to leave unblocked. Chyrellos was burning in earnest now. A looter, upon entering a house to find it already empty, feels a certain angry frustration, and he usually vents those feelings by setting fire to the place. Such behaviour is totally predictable and, in a certain sense, quite natural. The looters, their faces more desperate now as the number of unpillaged houses diminished, ran from building to building waving torches and weapons. Kurik, always practical, had stationed the church soldiers he was training with crossbows on the walls,. and the looters provided those men with moving targets upon which to practise. There were not too many hits, but the soldiers appeared to be improving.
Then, from a narrow street at the edge of the zone of collapsed houses just beyond practical crossbow range, a sizeable number of well-armed men on horseback emerged. The man in the lead was astride a glossy black horse, and he wore embossed Deiran armour. He removed his helmet. It was Martel, and close behind him were the brutish Adus and the weasel-like Krager.
Kurik joined Sparhawk and his blond friend. “I can order the soldiers to shoot at them, if you’d like,’ the squire said to Sparhawk. “Somebody might get lucky.’
Sparhawk scratched his chin. “No, I don’t think so, Kurik,’ he said.
“You’re passing up an awfully good opportunity, Sparhawk,’ Kalten said. ‘If Martel catches a stray crossbow bolt in the eye, that whole army out there will fall apart.)
“Not just yet,’ Sparhawk said. ‘Let’s see if I can irritate him just a bit first. Martel sometimes blurts things out when he’s irritated. Let’s see if I can jolt something out of him. ‘
‘That’s a fair distance for shouting,’ Kalten said.
“I don’t have to shout,’ Sparhawk smiled.
‘I wish you wouldn’t do that,’ Kalten complained. ‘It always makes me feel so inadequate. ‘
‘You should have paid attention to your lessons when you were a novice then.’ Sparhawk focused his attention on the white-haired man and wove the intricate Styric spell. ‘It sort of went to pieces on you, didn’t it, Martel?’
He asked in a conversational tone.
‘Is that you, Sparhawk?’ Martel’s voice was just as conversational as he too utilized the spell they had both learned as novices. ‘So awfully good to hear your voice again, old boy. I didn’t quite follow your comment, though. Things seem to be going fairly well from where I sit. ‘
.Why don’t you see how many of your soldiers you can interest in an assault on th’ese walls about now? Take as long as you want, old boy, I’m not going anywhere.’
‘It was really very clever to desert the city, Sparhawk. I wasn’t really expecting that.’
‘We sort of liked it. It must be causing you a great deal of anguish every time you think about all the loot that’s getting away from you, though. ‘
“Who said it’s getting away? I made a few speeches to my men. Most of my army’s still under control – out there in the meadows on the other sides of those rivers. I pointed out to them that it’s much easier to let the enterprising types do all the work of looting. Then, when they come out, we take the loot away from them and put it all into a common pile. Everybody will share equally.’
“Even you?’
‘Oh, good God no, Sparhawk,’ Martel laughed. ‘I’m the general. I take my share first.’
“The lion’s share?’
“I am the lion, after all. We’ll all grow very, very wealthy once we break into the treasure vaults below the Basilica.’
‘That’s going a little far even for you, Martel.’
“Business is business, Sparhawk. You and Vanion stripped me of my honour, so now all I can do is solace myself with money – and satisfaction, of course.
I think I’ll have your head mounted when this is all over, my friend.’
‘It’s right here, Martel. All you have to do is come here and claim it. It’s going to take your soldiers a long time to loot the city, and you don’t really have much time to waste.’
‘It won’t take them all that long, Sparhawk. They’re moving along at a very good clip, you know. A man who thinks he’s working for himself is always more industrious. ‘
‘That’s only the first wave of looters. They’re the ones who are concentrating on gold. The next wave will go looking for silver. Then the third wave will start tearing houses apart looking for the hiding places where people keep valuables. I’d guess that it’s going to be a month or so before they’ve stolen everything in Chyrellos – down to the last brass candlestick. You don’t really have a month, old boy – not with Wargun wandering around out there with half the manpower in Eosia behind him.’
“Ah yes, Wargun, the drunken King of Thalesia. I’d almost forgotten him. What do you suppose happened to him? It’s so unlike him to be this tardy.’
Sparhawk broke the spell. ‘Order your soldiers to drop some arrows on him, Kurik,’ he said bleakly.
“What’s the trouble, Sparhawk?’ Kalten asked.
‘Martel’s found some way to keep Wargun away from Chyrellos. We’d better go and advise the Preceptors. I’m afraid we’re all alone here.’
*Chapter 13
‘He didn’t say it exactly, Vanion,’ Sparhawk reported.
‘You know how he is, but there was that sort of implied smirk in his voice that he knows is so irritating. We both know Martel well enough to know what he meant.’
‘What exactly did he say again, Sir Sparhawk?’ Dolmant asked.
“We were talking about Wargun, Your Grace, and he said, “What do you suppose has happened to him? It’s so unlike him to be this tardy.”’ Sparhawk did his best to imitate Martel’s intonation.
‘It does have a knowing sort of ring to it, doesn’t it?’
Dolmant agreed. “I don’t know Martel as well as the two of you do, but that has the sound of a man who’s terribly pleased with himself. ‘
‘Sparhawk’s right,’ Sephrenia told them. ‘Martel’s worked out some way to keep Wargun away. The question is how. ‘