‘But I do, father. I’ve devoted hundreds of years to Sephrenia, and all that time Zalasta’s been sneaking around behind my back trying to steal her from me.’
‘Aphrael,’ he said gently, ‘you’re an Elene in this particular incarnation, so you’re going to have to stop thinking like a Styric. There are certain things that decent Elenes don’t do, and you’re doing one of them right now. Sephrenia belongs to herself – not to you, not to Zalasta, not even to Vanion. Her soul’s her own.’
‘But I love her!’ It was almost a wail.
‘I’m not built right for this,’ Sparhawk muttered to himself. ‘How can any human hope to be the father of a Goddess?’
‘Don’t you love me, father?’ Her voice was tiny.
‘Of course I do.’
‘Then you belong to me too. Why are you arguing with me about it?’
‘You’re a primitive.’
‘Of course I am. We’re supposed to be primitive. All these years Zalasta’s been pretending to love me – smiling at me, kissing me, holding me while I slept. That wretch! That lying wretch! I’ll have his heart for supper for this!’
‘No, as a matter of fact, you won’t. I’m not raising a cannibal. You won’t eat pork, so don’t start developing a taste for people.’
‘I’m sorry,’ she said contritely. ‘I got excited.’
‘Besides, I think Vanion’s got first claim on Zalasta’s tripes.’
‘Oh dear. I completely forgot about Vanion. That poor, poor man.’ Two great tears welled up in her eyes. ‘I’ll spend the rest of his life making this up to him.’
‘Why don’t we let Sephrenia take care of that? Just heal the breach between them. That’s the only thing he really wants.’ Then Sparhawk thought of something. ‘It won’t wash, Xanetia. Zalasta could very well be in love with Sephrenia, but he hasn’t gone over to Cyrgon. When we encountered those Trolls in the mountains of Atan, he was the one who saved us from them – and it wasn’t just the Trolls. There were worse things there as well.’
‘The Trolls do not loom large in Cyrgon’s plans, Anakha. The deaths of a hundred of them were of little moment. All else was illusion – illusion wrought by Zalasta himself to allay certain suspicions in the minds of diverse of thy companions. He sought to win thy trust by destroying those shadows of his own making.’
‘It does fit,’ Sparhawk said in a troubled voice. ‘Would you ladies excuse me for a moment? I think Vanion should hear this. It concerns him too, and I’d like his advice before I start making decisions.’ He paused. ‘Will you two be all right here – together, I mean? Without someone here to keep you from each other’s throats?’
‘All will be well, Anakha,’ Xanetia assured him. ‘Divine Aphrael and I have something to discuss.’
‘All right,’ he said, ‘but no hitting – and don’t start screaming at each other. You’ll wake up the whole castle.’ He crossed the parapet to the door and went back down the stairs.
The meeting in the royal apartment had adjourned for a time, and Sparhawk found his friend sitting with his face in his hands in a room quite some distance from the one he normally shared with Sephrenia.
‘I need some help, my friend,’ Sparhawk said to him. ‘There’s something you need to know, and we’re going to have to decide what to do about it.’
Vanion raised his grief-ravaged face. ‘More trouble?’ he asked.
‘Probably. Xanetia just told me about something we should deal with. I’ll let her tell you about it herself. She and Danae are up at the top of the tower. I think we’ll want to keep this private – at least until we decide what steps to take.’
Vanion nodded and rose to his feet. The two of them went back out into the corridor and started up the stairs. ‘Where’s Zalasta?’ Sparhawk asked.
‘He’s with Sephrenia. She needs him right now.’
Sparhawk grunted, not really trusting himself to speak.
They found Xanetia and Danae at the battlements looking out over the city. The sun was moving down the intensely blue autumn sky toward the craggy western horizon, and the breeze coming in off the Tamul Sea had a salt tang mingled with the ripe odor of autumn. ‘All right, go ahead and tell him, Xanetia,’ Sparhawk said. ‘Then we’ll decide what to do.’
To Sparhawk’s surprise, Vanion didn’t waste much time on incredulous exclamation. ‘You’re sure, Anarae?’ he asked after Xanetia had told him of Zalasta’s duplicity.
She nodded. ‘I have seen his heart, my Lord. He hath played thee false.’
‘You don’t seem very surprised, Vanion,’ Sparhawk said.
‘I’m not – well, not really. There’s always been something about Zalasta that didn’t quite ring true. He had some trouble keeping his face under control when Sephrenia and I first went to Sarsos and moved into her house there. He tried to hide it, but I could tell that he wasn’t very happy with our living arrangements, and his disapproval seemed to go quite a bit further than a generalized kind of moral outrage about unorthodox relationships.’
‘That’s a delicate way to put it,’ Danae observed. ‘We’ve never understood why you humans make such a fuss about that. If two people love each other, they should do something about it, and living together is much more convenient for that sort of thing, isn’t it?’
‘There are certain ceremonies and formalities customary first,’ Sparhawk explained dryly.
‘You mean something like the way the peacock shows off his feathers to the peahen before they start building a nest?’
‘Something along those lines.’ Vanion shrugged, then sighed. ‘It seems that Sephrenia doesn’t admire my feathers any more.’
‘Not so, Lord Vanion,’ Xanetia disagreed. ‘She doth deeply love thee still, and her heart is made desolate by reason of her separation from thee.’
‘And Zalasta’s with her right now doing everything he can to make the separation permanent,’ Sparhawk added, his voice bleak. ‘How do you want us to proceed with this, Vanion? You’re the one most deeply involved here. There’s nothing any of us could say that would convince Sephrenia that Zalasta’s a traitor, you know.’
Vanion nodded. ‘She’s going to have to see it for herself,’ he agreed. ‘How far were you able to reach into his mind, Anarae?’
‘His present thought is open to me; his memories somewhat less so. Proximity and some time should provide opportunity to probe more.’
‘That’s the key, then,’ Vanion said. ‘Ehlana and Sarabian want to start tearing down the government almost immediately. Once that starts, Zalasta’s presence in our inner councils is going to be potentially disastrous. He’ll find out everything we’ve got planned.’
‘Let him,’ Danae sniffed. ‘It’s not going to do him much good after I’m done with my supper.’
‘What’s this?’ Vanion asked.
‘Our little savage here wants to eat Zalasta’s heart,’ Sparhawk explained.
‘While he watches,’ the Child Goddess added. ‘That’s the whole point of it – making him watch while I do it.’
‘Could she do that?’ Vanion asked.
‘Probably,’ Sparhawk replied. ‘I won’t let her, though.’
‘I didn’t ask you, father,’ Danae said.
‘You didn’t have to. I said no. Now let’s drop it.’
‘When did Zalasta make this arrangement with Cyrgon, Anarae?’ Vanion asked.
‘This is unclear for the nonce, my Lord,’ she replied. ‘I shall pursue it further. My sense of his thought doth suggest that their alliance dates back some years and doth involve Bhelliom in some fashion.’
Sparhawk thought about that. ‘Zalasta was very upset when he found out that we’d thrown Bhelliom into the sea,’ he recalled. ‘I could start making some educated guesses at this point, but let’s wait and see what Xanetia’s able to turn up. Right now, I think we’d better concentrate on delaying Ehlana and Sarabian until we can devise some way to make Zalasta expose his own guilt. We need to get Sephrenia out from under his influence, and she’s never going to believe that he’s a traitor until she actually sees and hears him convict himself by doing or saying something that proves his treason.’
Vanion nodded his agreement.
‘I think we’re going to have to keep this just among the four of us,’ Sparhawk continued. ‘Zalasta’s very shrewd, and Sephrenia knows all of us better than we know ourselves. If the others have any idea of what we’re doing, they’ll let something slip, and Sephrenia will know about it immediately – and Zalasta will know about five minutes after she does.’
‘I’m afraid you’re right,’ Vanion agreed.
‘Hast thou a plan, Anakha?’ Xanetia asked.
‘Sort of. I’ve still got to work out some of the details, though. It’s a little complicated.’
Danae rolled her eyes upward. ‘Elenes,’ she sighed.
‘Absolutely not,’ Ehlana said adamantly. ‘He’s too valuable. We can’t risk it.’ She was sitting near the window with the morning sun streaming in on her and setting her pale hair aglow.
‘There’s no risk involved, dear,’ Sparhawk assured her. ‘The cloud and the shadow are both gone. Bhelliom and I took care of that once and for all.’ There was the flaw. Sparhawk was not entirely positive of that.
‘He’s right, my Queen,’ Kalten agreed. ‘He tore the cloud to tatters and dissolved the shadow like salt in boiling water.’
‘I’d really like to ask Kolata some questions, Ehlana,’ Sarabian said. ‘It doesn’t make very much sense to keep feeding him if we aren’t going to get any use out of him. This is what we’ve been waiting for, my dear – some sort of assurance that he won’t be torn to pieces the minute he opens his mouth.’
‘Are you absolutely sure, Sparhawk?’ Ehlana asked.
‘Trust me.’ Sparhawk reached inside his doublet and took out the box. ‘My blue friend here can make sure that Kolata remains intact – no matter what questions we ask.’ He looked at Zalasta. ‘I’m going to ask a favor of you, learned one,’ he said, keeping his voice casual. ‘I think Sephrenia should sit in on this. I know that she’d rather wash her hands of the lot of us right now, but maybe if she listens to Kolata’s confession, she’ll begin to take an interest in things again. It might be just the thing to bring her out of the state she’s in right now.’
Zalasta’s face was troubled, though he was obviously trying very hard to keep his expression under control. ‘I don’t think you realize how deeply she feels about this matter, Prince Sparhawk. I strongly advise you not to force her to be present when you question Kolata. It will only deepen the rift between her and her former friends.’
‘I won’t accept that, Zalasta,’ Ehlana told him. ‘Sephrenia’s a member of the royal council of Elenia. I appointed her to that position when I ascended the throne. Her personal problems are her own business, but I need her here in her official capacity. If necessary, I’ll command her presence, and I’ll send Kalten and Ulath to deliver the command and make sure that she obeys.’
Sparhawk almost felt sorry for Zalasta at that point. Their decisions and their requests were all completely reasonable, and try though he might, Zalasta could find no way to avoid agreeing. Kolata’s testimony was almost certain to be an absolute disaster for the first citizen of Styricum, but there was no way he could prevent that testimony without exposing himself as a traitor. He rose to his feet. ‘I will try to persuade her, your Majesty,’ he said, bowing to Ehlana. He turned and quietly left the blue-draped room.
‘I don’t understand why you won’t let us tell him, Sparhawk,’ Kalten said. ‘He is a friend, after all.’
‘He’s also a Styric, Kalten,’ Vanion said smoothly. ‘We don’t know how he really feels about the Delphae. He might go up in flames if he finds out that Xanetia can pick his thoughts the way Talen picks pockets.’
‘Sephrenia’s probably told him about it already, Lord Vanion,’ Bevier pointed out.
Sparhawk threw a brief questioning look at Xanetia, framing the question in his thought.
She shook her head. For some reason, Sephrenia had not told Zalasta about the Delphaeic woman’s strange capability to delve into the minds of others.
‘I don’t think so, Bevier,’ Vanion was saying. ‘He hasn’t shown any reluctance to be in the same room with the Anarae, and that’s a fair indication that he doesn’t know. Now then, who’s going to question Kolata? We should probably limit it to just one of us. If we all start throwing questions at him, his thoughts will be so jumbled that Xanetia won’t be able to make any sense of them.’
‘Itagne’s skilled at debate and disputation,’ Oscagne suggested. ‘Academics spend hours splitting hairs.’
‘We prefer to call it meticulous attention to detail, old boy,’ Itagne corrected his brother. ‘Kolata has ministerial rank.’
‘Not any more, he doesn’t,’ Sarabian said.
‘Well, he used to, your Majesty. I’d suggest that we let Oscagne conduct the interrogation. He holds the same rank as Kolata, so he’ll be able to approach him as an equal.’
‘Might I make a suggestion?’ Stragen asked.
‘Of course, Milord Stragen,’ the Emperor said.
‘Teovin’s been sneaking around out there trying his very best to subvert the other ministries of your Majesty’s government. Wouldn’t it be a good idea to make this a formal inquiry instead of a star-chamber proceeding? If all the ministers and the aides are present when we question Kolata, Teovin won’t have the chance to scramble around and mend his fences.’
‘It’s an interesting notion, isn’t it, Ehlana?’ Sarabian mused.
‘Very interesting,’ she agreed. ‘We’ll have to postpone the interrogation, though.’
‘Oh?’
‘We’ll want to give your Atan runners a head start.’ She looked at him gravely. ‘This is it, Sarabian. Up until now, it’s only been speculation. Once Kolata starts talking in front of the rest of the government, you’ll be committed. Are you really ready to go that far?’