The Shining Ones (28 page)

‘I’d guess that it’s very close to being fully dark in Matherion by now, Sparhawk,’ Vanion said. ‘Maybe we’d better wait until morning.’

‘I’m not so sure,’ Sparhawk disagreed. ‘The time’s going to come sooner or later when we’re going to have to make one of these jumps after the sun goes down. There’s nothing urgent in the wind right now, so it’s a good time for us to answer this question once and for all.’

‘Ah – Sparhawk?’ Khalad said.

‘Yes?’

‘If you’ve got a question, why not ask? Now that you and Bhelliom are on speaking terms, wouldn’t it be simpler – and safer – to just ask it first?
Before
you start experimenting? Matherion’s on the coast, as I recall, and I’d rather not come down about a hundred leagues out to sea.’

Sparhawk felt just a little foolish. He took out the small golden box and opened the lid. He paused momentarily, casting his question in antique Elenic. ‘I must needs have thine advice on a certain matter, Blue Rose,’ he said.

‘Say thy question, Anakha.’ This time the voice came from Khalad’s lips.

That’s a relief,’ Kalten said to Ulath. ‘I almost chewed up my tongue with all the “thee”s and “thou”s last time.’

‘Can we safely go from one place to another when the pall of darkness hath covered the earth?’ Sparhawk asked.

‘There
is
no darkness for me, Anakha.’

‘I did not know that.’

‘Thou hadst but to ask.’

‘Yes. I do perceive that now. Mine understanding doth grow with each passing hour. On the eastern coast of far-flung Tamuli there doth lie a road which doth proceed southward to fire-domed Matherion.’

‘Yes.’

‘When my companions and I first beheld Matherion, we came in sight of it when we did crest a long hill.’

‘Yes. I share thy memory of the place.’

‘Couldst thou take us there, e’en though darkness doth cover the face of the earth?’

‘Yes.’

Sparhawk started to reach into the box for his wife’s ring. Then he stopped. ‘We share a common purpose and thus are comrades. It is not meet that I should compel thee and whip thee into compliance with the power of Ghwerig’s rings. Thus I do not command thee, but request instead. Wilt thou take us to this place we both know out of comradeship and common purpose?’

‘I will, Anakha.’

The blur that surrounded them momentarily was that same featureless gray, no darker than it had been when Bhelliom had transported them in daylight. Night and day appeared to be irrelevant. Sparhawk dimly perceived that Bhelliom took them through some different place, a colorless emptiness that adjoined all other places – a kind of doorway to everywhere.

‘You were right, my Lord,’ Kalten said to Vanion, looking up at the star-studded night sky. ‘It
is
later here, isn’t it?’ He looked sharply at Xanetia, who swayed slightly in her saddle. ‘Are you unwell, Lady?’ he asked her.

‘It is of no moment, Sir Knight. A slight giddiness, nothing more.’

‘You get used to it. The first few times are a little unsettling, but that wears off.’

Khalad held out the box, and Sparhawk put Bhelliom back inside. ‘I do not do this to imprison thee,’ he told the jewel. ‘Our enemies can sense thy presence when thou art exposed, and this receptacle doth conceal thee from their search.’

The Bhelliom pulsed slightly in acknowledgement.

Sparhawk closed the cap over his ring, took the box from his squire, and closed it. Then he tucked it back into its usual place inside his tunic.

Matherion, ruddy with torchlight, lay below, and the pale path of light from the newly risen moon stretched from the horizon across the waters of the Tamul Sea to her doorstep, yet another of the innumerable roads
leading to the city the Tamuls called the center of the world.

‘Are you open to a suggestion, Sparhawk?’ Talen asked.

‘You sound just like Tynian.’

‘I know. I’m sort of filling in for him while he’s away. We’ve been out of Matherion for a while, so we don’t know what’s really been going on here. Suppose I slip into town and have a look – ask a few questions, find out what we’re riding into – the usual sort of thing.’

Sparhawk nodded. ‘All right,’ he said.

‘That’s all? Just “all right”? No protests? No objections? No hour-long lectures about being careful? I’m disappointed in you, Sparhawk.’

‘Would you listen to me if I objected or delivered a lecture?’

‘No, not really.’

‘Why waste the time, then? You know what you’re doing and how to do it. Just don’t take all night.’

Talen swung down from his horse and opened his saddle-bags. He took out a rough, patched smock and pulled it on over his other clothes. Then he bent, rubbed his hand in the dirt of the road, and artfully smudged his face. He stirred up his hair and sifted a handful of straw from the roadside onto it. ‘What do you think?’ he asked Sparhawk.

‘You’ll do.’ Sparhawk shrugged.

‘Spoil-sport,’ Talen grumbled, climbing back on his horse. ‘Khalad, come along. You can watch my horse for me while I sniff around.’

Khalad grunted, and the two rode on down the hill.

‘Is the child truly so gifted?’ Xanetia asked.

‘He’d be offended if you called him a child, Lady,’ Kalten replied, ‘and he can come closer to being invisible than anybody I know.’

They drew back some distance from the road and waited.

It was an hour later when Talen and his brother returned.

‘Things are still more or less the way they were when we left,’ the boy reported.

‘No open fighting in the streets, you mean?’ Ulath laughed.

‘Not yet. Things are a little hectic at the palace, though. It’s got something to do with documents of some kind. The whole government’s in an uproar. None of the people I talked with knew all that much about it. The Church Knights and the Atans are still in control, though, so it’s safe to jump from here to the courtyard of Ehlana’s castle if we want.’

Sparhawk shook his head. ‘Let’s ride in. I’m sure there are still Tamuls inside the walls, and probably half of them are spies. Let’s not give away any secrets if we don’t have to. Is Sarabian still staying in the castle?’

Talen nodded. ‘Your wife’s probably been teaching him a few tricks – “roll over”, “play dead”, “sit up and beg” – that sort of thing.’

‘
Talen
!’ Itagne exclaimed.

‘You haven’t met our queen yet, have you, your Excellency?’ Talen grinned. ‘I’d say that you’re in for a whole new experience, then.’

‘It has to do with setting up the new filing system, my Lord,’ the young Pandion at the drawbridge explained in reply to Vanion’s question. ‘We needed room to rearrange things, so we spread all the government files out on the lawn.’

‘What if it rains?’

‘That would probably simplify the job a great deal, my Lord.’

They dismounted in the courtyard and went up the
broad stairs to the ornately carved main door, paused briefly to put on the cushioned shoes that protected the brittle floor-covering, and went inside.

Queen Ehlana had been advised of their arrival, and she was waiting for them at the door to the throne-room. Sparhawk’s heart caught in his throat as he looked at his lovely young wife. ‘So nice of you to stop by, Sir Sparhawk,’ she said tartly before she threw her arms about his neck.

‘Sorry we’re so late, dear,’ he apologized after they had exchanged a brief, formal sort of kiss. ‘Our travel plans got a little skewed.’ He was painfully conscious of the half-dozen or so Tamuls lingering nearby trying to look very hard as if they weren’t listening. ‘Why don’t we go on upstairs, my Queen? We’ve got quite a bit to tell you, and I’d like to get out of this mail-shirt before it permanently embeds itself into my skin.’

‘You are
not
going to wear that stinking thing into
my
bedroom, Sparhawk. As I remember, the baths lie in that general direction. Why don’t you take your fragrant friends and go make use of them? The ladies can come with me. I’ll round up the others, and we’ll all meet you in the royal quarters in about an hour. I’m sure your explanation of your tardiness will be absolutely fascinating.’

Sparhawk felt much better after he had bathed and changed into the conventional doublet and hose. He and his friends trooped on up the stairs that mounted into the central tower where the royal apartments were located.

‘You’re late, Sparhawk,’ Mirtai said bluntly when they reached the top of the stairs.

‘Yes. My wife’s already pointed that out to me. Come inside. You’ll need to hear this too.’

Ehlana and the others who had remained behind were gathered in the large, blue-draped sitting room.
Sephrenia and Danae were conspicuously absent, however.

‘Well,
finally
!’ Emperor Sarabian said as they entered. Sparhawk was startled by the change in the Emperor’s appearance. His hair was tied back from his face, and he wore tight-fitting black hose and a full-sleeved linen shirt. He looked younger for some reason, and he was holding a rapier with the kind of familiarity that spoke of much practice. ‘Now we can get on with the business of overthrowing the government.’

‘What have you been up to, Ehlana?’ Sparhawk asked.

‘Sarabian and I have been expanding our horizons.’ She shrugged.

‘I knew I shouldn’t have stayed away so long.’

‘I’m glad you brought that up. That very same thought’s been on my mind for the longest time now.’

‘Why don’t you just save yourself some time and unpleasantness, Sparhawk?’ Kalten suggested. Just show her why we had to take this little trip.’

‘Good idea.’ Sparhawk reached inside his doublet and took out the unadorned gold box. Things were beginning to get out of hand, Ehlana, so we decided to go fetch some reinforcements.’

‘I thought that’s what Tynian was doing.’

‘The situation called for something a little more significant than the Church Knights.’ Sparhawk touched the band of his ring to the lid of the box. ‘Open,’ he said. He kept the lid partially closed to conceal the fact that his wife’s ring was also inside.

‘What have you done with your ring, Sparhawk?’ she asked him, looking at the cover concealing the stone.

‘I’ll explain in a bit.’ He reached in and took out the Bhelliom. ‘
This
is why we had to leave, dear.’ He held up the stone.

She stared at it, the color draining from her face. ‘Sparhawk!’ she gasped.

‘What a magnificent jewel!’ Sarabian exclaimed, reaching his hand out toward the Sapphire Rose.

‘That might not be wise, your Majesty,’ Itagne cautioned. ‘That’s the Bhelliom. It tolerates Sparhawk, but it might pose some dangers to anyone else.’

‘Bhelliom’s a fairy-tale, Itagne.’

‘I’ve been re-assessing my position on various fairy-tales lately, your Majesty. Sparhawk destroyed Azash with Bhelliom – just by touching it to him. I don’t advise putting your hands on it, my Emperor. You’ve shown some promise in the past few months, and we’d sort of hate to lose you at this point.’

‘Itagne!’ Oscagne said sharply. ‘Mind your manners!’

‘We’re here to advise the Emperor, brother mine, not to coddle him. Oh, incidentally, Oscagne, when you sent me to Cynestra, you invested me with plenipotentiary powers, didn’t you? We can check over my commission, if you like, but I’m fairly sure I had that kind of authority – I usually do. I hope you don’t mind, old boy, but I’ve concluded a couple of alliances along the way.’ He paused. ‘Well,’ he amended, ‘Sparhawk did all the real work, but my commission put some slight stain of legality on the business.’

‘You can’t do that without consulting Matherion first, Itagne!’ Oscagne’s face was turning purple.

‘Oh, be serious, Oscagne. All I did was seize some opportunities which presented themselves, and I was hardly in a position to tell Sparhawk what he could or couldn’t do, now, was I? I had things more or less under control in Cynestra when Sparhawk and his friends dropped by. We left Cynestra, and…’

‘Details, Itagne. What did you do in Cynestra?’

Itagne sighed. ‘You can be so tedious at times, Oscagne. I found out that Ambassador Taubel was in bed with Kanzad, the Interior Ministry’s station-chief.
They had King Jaluah pretty much dancing to their tune.’

Oscagne’s face went bleak. ‘Taubel’s defected to Interior?’

‘I thought I just said that. You might want to run a quick evaluation of your other embassies, too. Interior Minister Kolata’s been very busy. Anyway, I threw Taubel and Kanzad – along with the entire police force and most of the embassy staff – into a dungeon, declared martial law, and put the Atan garrison in charge.’

‘You did what?’

‘I’ll write you a report about it one of these days. You know me well enough to know that I had justification.’

‘You exceeded your authority, Itagne.’

‘You didn’t impose any limitations on me, old boy. That gave me
carte blanche.
All you said was to have a look around and to do what needed to be done, so I did.’

‘How did you persuade the Atans to go along with you without written authorization?’

Itagne shrugged. ‘The commander of the Atan garrison there is a fairly young woman – quite attractive, actually, in a muscular sort of way. I seduced her. She was an enthusiastic seducee. Believe me, Oscagne, she’ll do absolutely
anything
for me.’ He paused. ‘You might want to make a note of that in my file – something about my willingness to make sacrifices for the Empire and all that. I didn’t give her
total
free rein, though. The dear child wanted to give me the heads of Taubel and Kanzad as tokens of her affection, but I declined. My rooms at the university are cluttered enough already, so I don’t really have the space for stuffed trophies on the walls. I told her to lock them up instead and to keep a firm grip on King Jaluah until Taubel’s replacement arrived. You needn’t hurry with that appointment, my brother. I have every confidence in her.’

‘You’ve set back relations with Cynesga by twenty years, Itagne.’

‘
What
relations?’ Itagne snorted. ‘The Cynesgans respond only to naked force, so that’s what I used on them.’

‘You spoke of alliances, Itagne,’ Sarabian said, flicking the tip of his rapier. ‘Just exactly to whom have you committed my undying trust and affection?’

‘I was just coming to that, your Majesty. After we left Cynestra, we went on to Delphaeus. We spoke with their chieftain, the Anari – a very old man named Cedon – and he offered his assistance. Sparhawk’s going to take care of our side of the bargain, so there’s no cost to the Empire involved.’

Oscagne shook his head. ‘It must come from our mother’s side of the family, your Majesty,’ he apologized. ‘There was an uncle of hers who was always a little strange.’

‘What are you talking about, Oscagne?’

‘My brother’s obvious insanity, your Majesty. I’m told that things like that are hereditary. Fortunately, I favor our father’s side of the family. Tell me, Itagne, are you hearing voices too? Do you have visions of purple giraffes?’

‘You can be so tiresome sometimes, Oscagne.’

‘Would
you
tell us what happened, Sparhawk?’ Sarabian asked.

‘Itagne covered it fairly well, your Majesty. I take it that you Tamuls have some reservations about the Shining Ones?’

‘No,’ Oscagne said, ‘I wouldn’t call them reservations, your Highness. How could we have any reservations about a people who don’t exist?’

‘This argument could go on all night,’ Kalten said. ‘Would you mind, Lady?’ he asked Xanetia, who sat quietly beside him with her head slightly bowed. ‘If you
don’t show them who you are, they’ll wrangle for days.’

‘An it please thee, Sir Knight,’ she replied.

‘So formal, my dear?’ Sarabian smiled. ‘Here in Matherion, we only use that mode of speech at weddings, funerals, coronations and other mournful events.’

‘We have long been isolate, Emperor Sarabian,’ she replied, ‘and unmoved by the winds of fashion and the inconstant tides of usage. I do assure thee that we find no inconvenience in what must seem to thee forced archaism, for it cometh to our lips unbidden and is our natural mode of speech – upon such rare occasions when speech among us is even needful.’

The door at the far end of the room opened, and Princess Danae, dragging Rollo behind her, entered quietly with Alean close behind her.

Xanetia’s eyes widened, and her expression became awed.

‘She fell asleep,’ the little princess reported to her mother.

‘Is she all right?’ Ehlana asked.