LITMIR.BIZ

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It keeps her out of mischief.’

      ‘Astonishing, Khalad,’ Patriarch Emban murmured dryly. ‘You’ve managed to insult both Church and State in under a minute.’

      ‘What’s been going on in Eosia since I left?’ Vanion demanded.

      ‘It was just a small misunderstanding between Sarathi and me, my Lord Vanion,’ Ehlana replied. ‘Khalad was exaggerating. He does that quite often – when he’s not busy insulting the Church and State at the same time.’

      ‘We may just have another Sparhawk coming up here,’ Vanion grinned.

      ‘God defend the Church,’ Emban said.

      ‘And the crown,’ Ehlana added.

      Princess Danae pushed her way through to Vanion. She was carrying Mmrr, her hand wrapped around the kitten’s middle. Mmrr, had a resigned expression on her furry face, and her legs dangled ungracefully. ‘Hello, Vanion,’ Danae said, climbing up into his lap and giving him an offhand sort of kiss.

      ‘You’ve grown, Princess,’ he smiled.

      ‘Did you expect me to shrink?’

      ‘Danae’ Ehlana scolded.

      ‘Oh, mother, Vanion and I are old friends. He used to hold me when I was a baby.’

      Sparhawk looked carefully at his friend, trying to decide whether or not Vanion knew about the little princess. Vanion’s face, however, revealed nothing. ‘I’ve missed you, Princess,’ he said to her.

      ‘I know. Everybody misses me when I’m not around. Have you met Mmrr yet? She’s my cat. Talen gave her to me. Wasn’t that nice of him?’

      ‘Very nice, Danae.’

      ‘I thought so myself. Father’s going to put him in training when we get home. It’s probably just as well to get that all done while I’m still a little girl.’

      ‘Oh? Why’s that, Princess?’

      ‘Because I’m going to marry him when I grow up, and I’d like to have all that training nonsense out of the way. Would you like to hold my cat?’

      Talen blushed and laughed a bit nervously, trying to pass off Danae’s announcement as some sort of little-girl whim. His eyes looked a bit wild, however.

      ‘You should never warn them like that, Princess,’ Baroness Melidere advised. ‘You’re supposed to wait and tell them at the last possible minute.’

      ‘Oh. Is that the way it’s done?’ Danae looked at Talen. ‘Why don’t you forget what I just said then?’ she suggested. ‘I’m not going to do anything about it for the next ten or twelve years anyway.’ She paused. ‘Or eight, maybe. There’s no real point in wasting time, is there?’

      Talen was staring at her with the first faint hints of terror in his eyes.

      ‘She’s only teasing you, Talen,’ Kalten assured the boy. ‘And even if she isn’t, I’m sure she’ll change her mind before she gets to the dangerous age.’

      ‘Never happen, Kalten,’ Danae told him in a voice like steel.

      That evening, after arrangements had been made and the crowd had been mostly dispersed to nearby houses, Sparhawk sat in the cool garden at the centre of the house with Sephrenia and Vanion. Princess Danae sat on the ledge surrounding the fountain watching her kitten. Mmrr had discovered that there were goldfish swimming in the pool, and she sat with her tail twitching and her eyes wide with dreadful intent.

      ‘I need to know something before I start,’ Sparhawk said, looking directly at Sephrenia. ‘How much does he know?’ He pointed at Vanion.

      ‘Just about everything, I’d say. I have no secrets from him.’

      ‘That’s not too specific, Sephrenia.’ Sparhawk groped for a way to ask the question without revealing too much.

      ‘Oh, do get to the point, Sparhawk,’ Danae told him. ‘Vanion knows who I am. He had a little trouble with it at first, but he’s more or less reconciled to the idea now.’

      ‘That’s not entirely true,’ Vanion disagreed. ‘You’re the one with the really serious problems though, Sparhawk. How are you managing the situation?’

      ‘Badly,’ Danae sniffed. ‘He keeps asking questions, even though he knows he won’t understand the answers.’

      ‘Does Ehlana suspect?’ Vanion asked seriously.

      ‘Of course she doesn’t,’ the Child Goddess replied. ‘Sparhawk and I decided that right at the beginning. Tell them what’s been happening, Sparhawk – and don’t be all night about it. Mirtai’s bound to come looking for me soon.’

      ‘It must be pure hell,’ Vanion said sympathetically to his friend.

      ‘Not entirely. I have to watch her, though. Once she had a swarm of fairies pollinating all the flowers in the palace garden.’

      ‘The bees are too slow,’ she shrugged.

      ‘Maybe so, but people expect the bees to do it. If you turn the job over to the fairies, there’s bound to be talk.’ Sparhawk leaned back and looked at Vanion. ‘Sephrenia’s told you about the Lamorks and Drychtnath, hasn’t she?’

      ‘Yes. It’s not just wild stories, is it?’

      Sparhawk shook his head. ‘No. We encountered some bronze-age Lamorks outside of Demos. After Ulath brained their leader, they all vanished – except for the dead. Oscagne’s convinced that it’s a diversion of some kind – rather like the games Martel was playing to keep us out of Chyrellos during the election of the Archprelate. We’ve been catching glimpses of Krager, and that lends some weight to Oscagne’s theory, but you always taught us that it’s a mistake to try to fight the last war over again, so I’m not locking myself into the idea that what’s happening in Lamorkand is purely diversionary. I can’t really accept the notion that somebody would go to all that trouble to keep the Church Knights out of Tamuli – not with the Atans already here.’

      Vanion nodded. ‘You’re going to need someone to help you when you get to Matherion, Sparhawk. Tamul culture’s very subtle, and you could make some colossal blunders without even knowing it.’

      ‘Thanks, Vanion.’

      ‘You’re not the only one, though. Your companions aren’t the most diplomatic men in the world, and Ehlana tends to jump fences when she gets excited. Did she really go head to head with Dolmant?’

      ‘Oh, yes,’ Danae said. ‘I had to kiss them both into submission before I could make peace between them.’

      ‘Who’d be the best to send, Sephrenia?’ Vanion asked.

      ‘Me.’

      ‘That’s out of the question. I won’t be separated from you again.’

      ‘That’s very sweet, dear one. Why don’t you come along then?’

      He seemed to hesitate. ‘I–’

      ‘Don’t be such a goose, Vanion,’ Danae told him. ‘You won’t die the minute you leave Sarsos – any more than you did when you left my island. You’re completely cured now.’

      ‘I wasn’t worried about that,’ he told her, ‘but Sephrenia can’t leave Sarsos anyway. She’s a member of the Council of Styricum.’

      ‘I’ve been a member of the Council of Styricum for several centuries, Vanion,’ Sephrenia told him. ‘I’ve left here before – for long periods of time on occasion. The other members of the Council understand. They’ve all had to do the same thing themselves now and then.’

      ‘I’m a little vague on this ruling council,’ Sparhawk admitted. ‘I knew that Styrics kept in touch with each other, but I hadn’t realised it was quite so well-knit.’

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