You have a beautiful city.
With some not-so-beautiful people living in it. What am I going to do for a police force after I dissolve the Ministry of the Interior?
Youll probably have to declare martial law.
He winced. The Atans wont make me very many friends, Im afraid. They tend to have a very simplified concept of justice.
We dont have to stand for re-election, Sarabian. Thats why we can do unpopular things.
Only up to a point, he disagreed. I have to live with the great houses of Tamul proper, and Im still getting letters of protest from many of them about sons and brothers who were killed or maimed while the Atans were putting down the coup.
They were traitors, werent they?
No, he sighed, probably not. We Tamuls pamper our children, and the noble houses carry that to extremes. Matherions a political city, and when young Tamuls enter the university, theyre expected to get involved in politicsusually of the most radical sort. The rank and position of their families protect them from the consequences of excessive juvenile enthusiasm. I was an anarchist when I was a student. I even led a few demonstrations against my fathers government. He smiled faintly. I used to get arrested on an average of once a week. They never would throw me in the dungeon, though, no matter what kind of names I called my father. I tried very hard to get thrown into the dungeon, but the police wouldnt cooperate.
Why on earth did you want to spend time in a dungeon? she laughed.
Young Tamul noblewomen are terribly impressed by political martyrs. Id have cut a wide track if I could have gotten myself imprisoned for a few days.
I thought you got married when you were a baby, she said. Isnt it sort of inappropriate for a married man to be thinking about how wide a track he can cut among the ladies?
My first wife and I stopped speaking to each other for about ten years when we were young, and the fact that I was required by tradition to have eight other wives made the notion of fidelity a sort of laughable concept. A thought came to him. I wonder if Caalador would consider taking a post in my government, he mused.
You could do worse. I have a man named Platime in my government, and hes an even bigger thief than Caalador. Ehlana looked on down the battlements and saw Mirtai approaching. Any luck? she asked.
Its hard to say, the giantess shrugged. We got inside easily enough, but we didnt find what we were looking for. Stragen and Caalador are going out to the university to talk with some of the scholars there.
Are they suddenly hungering and thirsting after knowledge? Sarabian asked her lightly.
Taint hardly likely, dorlin, Mirtai replied.
Darling? he asked her incredulously.
But you are, Sarabian, the golden giantess replied, gently touching his cheek. I discovered tonight that conspirators and thieves and other scoundrels are supposed to be very affectionate with each other. Youre conspiring with us to overthrow the police, so youre a member of the family now. Stragen wants to talk with some specialists in architecture. He suspects that there might be some secret rooms in the Interior Ministry. Hes hoping that the original plans for the building might be in some library. She gave the Emperor a sly, sidelong glance. Thats what it iz that theyre a-doin, dorlin, she added.
Are you really sure you want Caalador in your government, Sarabian? Ehlana asked him. That dialect of his seems to rub off on people. Give him a year or two, and everybody in the imperial compound will be calling you dorlin.
That might be preferable to some of the other names Ive been called lately.
9
Sparhawk and his friends left Cyton early the next morning and rode eastward through vast golden fields of ripening wheat. The rolling countryside sloped gradually downward into the broad valley where the Pela and Edek rivers joined on the border between Edam and Cynesga.
Sparhawk rode in the lead with Flute nestled in his arms. The little girl seemed unusually quiet this morning, and after they had been on the road for a couple of hours, Sparhawk leaned to one side and looked at her face. Her eyes were fixed, vacant, and her face expressionless.
That might be preferable to some of the other names Ive been called lately.
9
Sparhawk and his friends left Cyton early the next morning and rode eastward through vast golden fields of ripening wheat. The rolling countryside sloped gradually downward into the broad valley where the Pela and Edek rivers joined on the border between Edam and Cynesga.
Sparhawk rode in the lead with Flute nestled in his arms. The little girl seemed unusually quiet this morning, and after they had been on the road for a couple of hours, Sparhawk leaned to one side and looked at her face. Her eyes were fixed, vacant, and her face expressionless.
Whats the matter? he asked.
Not now, Sparhawk, she told him crossly. Im busy.
Aphrael, were coming up on the border. Shouldnt we ... ?
Leave me alone. She burrowed her forehead into his chest with a discontented little sound.
What is it, Sparhawk? Sephrenia asked, pulling Chiel in beside Faran.
Aphrael wont talk to me.
Sephrenia leaned forward and looked critically at Flutes face. Ah, she said.
Ah what?
Leave her alone, Sparhawk. Shes someplace else right now.
The borders just ahead, Sephrenia. Can we really afford to spend half a day trying to talk our way across?
It looks as if well have to. Here, give her to me.
He lifted the semi-comatose little girl and placed her in her sisters arms. Maybe I can move us past the border without her. I know how its done now.
No, Sparhawk. Youre not ready to try it by yourself. We definitely dont want you to start experimenting on your own just yet. Well have to take our chances at the border. Theres no way of knowing how long Aphraels going to be busy.
Its not anything important, is it? I mean, is Ehlana in any kind of danger?
I dont know, and I dont want to disturb Aphrael just now to find out. Danae will take care of her mother. Youre just going to have to trust her.
This is very difficult, you know. How long does it take to adjust your thinking to the idea that there are three of herand that theyre all the same one? She gave him a puzzled look. Aphrael, Flute and Danaetheyre all the same person, but they can be in two places at once, or even three, for all I know, and doing two or three different things.
Yes, she agreed.
Doesnt that disturb you just a little?
Does it concern you that your Elene Gods supposed to know what everybody in the worlds thinking?all at the same time?
Wellno. I suppose not.
Whats the difference?
Hes God, Sephrenia.
Sos she, Sparhawk.
It doesnt seem quite the same.
It is, though. Tell the others that were going to have to make the border crossing on our own.
Theyll want to know why.
Lie to them. God will forgive youone of them will, anyway.
Youre impossible to talk to when youre like this, do you know that?
Dont talk to me, then. Right now Id prefer that you didnt anyway.
Is something wrong?
I was just a little upset when you dissolved that cloud and it started swearing at you in Styric.
I noticed that myself. He made a face. How could anyone have missed it? I gather its significant.
What language do you swear in when you stub your toe?
Elenic, of course.
Of course. Its your native tongue. Doesnt that sort of suggest that Styrics the native tongue of whoevers behind that shadow?
I hadnt thought of that. I suppose it does.
The fact disturbs me, Sparhawkmore than just a little bit. It suggests all sorts of things that I dont really want to accept.
Such as?
Theres a Styric working with our enemy, for one thing, and hes highly skilled. That shadows the result of a very complex spell. I doubt that there are more than eight or ten in all of Styricum who could have managed it, and I know all of those people. Theyre my friends. Its not a pleasant thing to contemplate. Why dont you go bother somebody else and let me work on it?
Sparhawk gave up and dropped back to talk with the others. Theres been a little change of plans, he told them. Aphraels occupied elsewhere just now, so we wont be able to avoid the border-crossing.
Whats she doing? Bevier asked.
You dont want to know. Believe me, Bevier, you, of all people, really dont want to know.
Shes doing one of those God-things? Talen guessed.
Talen, Bevier rebuked him. Theyre called miracles, not God-things.
That was the word I was looking for, Talen replied, snapping his fingers.
Vanion was frowning. Border-crossings are always tedious, he told them, but the Cynesgans have a reputation for carrying that to extremes. Theyll negotiate the suitable bribe for days on end.
Thats what axes are for, Lord Vanion, Ulath rumbled. We use them to clear away inconveniencesunderbrush, trees, obstructionist officials, that sort of thing.
We dont need an international incident, Sir Ulath, Vanion told him. We might be able to speed things up a bit, though. Ive got an imperial pass signed by Sarabian himself. It might carry enough weight to get us past the border without too much delay.
The border between Edam and Cynesga was marked by the Pela River, and at the far end of the substantial bridge there stood a solid, block-like building with a horse corral behind it. Vanion led them across the bridge to the barricade on the Cynesgan side, where a number of armed men in strange flowing robes waited. The imperial pass Vanion presented to the border guards not only failed to gain them immediate passage, but even added further complications.
How do I know that this is really his Majestys signature? the Cynesgan captain demanded suspiciously in heavily accented Tamul. He was a swarthy man in a loose-fitting black and white striped robe and with a long cloth wound intricately around his head.
Whats much more to the point, neighbor, is how do you know that it isnt? Sparhawk asked bluntly in the Tamul tongue. The Atans take a very unpleasant stance toward people who disobey the Emperors direct commands.
It means death to forge the Emperors signature, the captain said ominously.
So Ive been told, Vanion replied. It also means death to ignore his orders. Id say that one of us is in trouble.