The Shining Ones

‘I hated him, but he was very good.’

‘Well, I haven’t killed anybody yet, so I can still step back from this.’

‘You’re wrong there. You’ve already drawn your dagger, so you’re going to have to use it. You crushed that uprising, and you’ve imprisoned the Minister of the Interior. That’s the same thing as a declaration of war, you know.’

‘You did those things,’ he accused her.

‘Yes, but I was acting on your behalf, so it’s the same thing – at least in the eyes of your enemies. You’re in a great deal of danger now, you know. You’ve let your government know that you’re going to seize back the power you let slip away. If you don’t start killing people – and very, very soon – you probably won’t live out the month. You’d be dead already if it weren’t for the fact that you’ve taken refuge in this castle.’

‘You’re starting to frighten me, Ehlana.’

‘God knows I’ve been trying. Like it or not, Sarabian, you’re committed now.’ She looked around. The sun was sinking into the cloud-bank building up over the mountains lying to the west, and its ruddy glow was reflecting from the mother-of-pearl domes of Matherion. ‘Look at your city, Sarabian,’ she told him, ‘and contemplate the reality of politics. Before you’re done, that red splashed all over the domes won’t just be the reflection of the sunset.’

‘That’s blunt enough,’ he said, his jaw taking on an unfamiliar set. ‘All right, how many people do I have to kill in order to ensure my own safety?’

‘You don’t have that many knives, my friend. Even if you butcher everybody in Matherion, you’ll still be in danger. You might as well accept the fact that you’re going to be in danger for the rest of your life.’ She smiled at him. ‘Actually, it’s kind of exciting – once you get used to it.’

‘Well, sir, yer Queenship,’ Caalador drawled, ‘it’s all purty much th’ way we wuz a-thankin’ it wuz. That thar Krager feller, he wuz a-tellin’ ol’ Sporhawk th’ ak-chool truth. Me’n Stragen, we bin a-twistin’ the arms an’ a-settin’ fahr t’ the feet o’ them fellers ez wuz picked up durin’ the koop …’ He stopped. ‘Would your Majesty be too disappointed if I spoke like a human being for a while? That dialect’s starting to dislocate my jaw.’

‘Not to mention the violence it’s doing to the mother tongue,’ Stragen murmured.

The three of them had gathered together in a small, blue-draped room adjoining the royal apartment later that same evening. Ehlana and Stragen were still dressed for dinner, she in crimson velvet and he in white satin. Caalador wore the sober brown of a businessman. The room had been carefully checked several times to be sure that no hidden listening posts lurked behind the walls, and Mirtai grimly stood watch outside the door.

‘With the exception of Interior Minister Kolata, we didn’t scoop up anybody of any significance,’ Caalador continued, ‘and none of our other prisoners really knows very much. I’m afraid we don’t have much choice, your Majesty. We’re going to have to go to work on Kolata if we want anything useful.’

Ehlana shook her head. ‘You won’t get anything out of him either, Caalador. He’ll be killed as soon as he opens his mouth.’

‘We don’t know that for certain, my Queen,’ Stragen disagreed. ‘It’s entirely possible that our subterfuge has worked, you know. I really don’t believe that the other side knows that he’s a prisoner here. His policemen are still getting their orders from him.’

‘He’s too valuable to risk,’ she said. ‘Once he’s been torn to pieces, he’ll be very hard to put back together again.’

‘If that’s the way you want it, your Majesty,’ Caalador shrugged. ‘Anyway, it’s growing increasingly obvious that this uprising was a pure hoax. Its only purpose was to compel us to reveal our strength. What concerns me the most is the fact that Krager and his friends obviously knew that we were using the criminals of Matherion as our eyes and ears. I’m sorry, Stragen, but it’s the truth.’

‘It was such a good idea,’ Stragen sighed.

‘It was all right at first, but the trouble with it was that Krager’s seen it before. Talen told me that your friend Platime used to have whole crowds of beggars, whores and pick-pockets following Krager around. The best idea in the world wears a little thin if you over-use it.’

Stragen rose to his feet muttering curses, and began to pace up and down in the small room with his white satin doublet gleaming in the candlelight. ‘It looks as if I’ve failed you, my Queen,’ he admitted. ‘I let a good idea run away with me. You couldn’t really trust my judgement after a blunder like that, so I’ll make arrangements to go back to Emsat.’

‘Oh, don’t be an ass, Stragen,’ she told him. ‘And do sit down. I can’t think while you’re clumping around the room like that.’

‘She shore knows how t’ put a feller in his place, don’t she, Stragen?’ Caalador laughed.

Ehlana sat tapping one finger thoughtfully against her chin. ‘First of all, let’s keep this in the family. Sarabian’s already getting a bit wild-eyed. Politically, he’s an infant. I’m trying to raise him as quickly as I can, but I can only move him just so fast.’ She made a sour face. ‘I have to stop every so often to burp him.’

‘Now that’s a picture for you,’ Caalador grinned. ‘What’s he choking on, your Majesty?’

‘Murder, primarily,’ she shrugged. ‘He doesn’t seem to have the stomach for it.’

Caalador blinked. ‘Not many do.’

‘Politicians can’t afford that kind of delicacy. All right, if Krager and his friends know about our spy network, it won’t be long until they try something in the way of penetration, will it?’

‘You’re quick,’ he said admiringly.

‘Quick people live longer. Start thinking, gentlemen. We’ve got an exploitable situation here, and it won’t last for very long. How can we use it to our greatest advantage?’

‘We might be able to identify real conspirators instead of dupes, your Majesty,’ Stragen mused. ‘If they do try penetration, they’re going to have to subvert some of our people. Let’s say that we start passing out assorted fairy-tales – this story to some pick-pocket, another to some beggar or whore. Then we sit back to see which of those fraudulent schemes the other side attempts to counter. That will identify the turncoats in our own ranks, and we can squeeze useful names out of them.’

‘Surely we can get something a little better than that,’ she fretted.

‘We’ll work on it, your Majesty,’ Caalador promised. ‘If it’s all right with you, I’d like to follow up on something else as well. We know that Krager’s been busy here in Matherion, but we don’t know how much information about our methods he’s passed on to his friends in other kingdoms. We might as well get what use we can out of our makeshift intelligence service before it becomes totally useless. I’ll pass the word to the criminals down in Arjuna. I’d like to find out one way or the other if that silly scholar at the university has blundered across the real truth or if he’s just weaving a theory out of moonbeams. I think we might all find a complete biography of the fellow known as Scarpa really fascinating reading. If nothing else, whether or not our spies in Arjuna succeed will tell us how much Krager really knows about the scope of our operations. If he thinks it’s only localized, our apparatus hasn’t been too severely compromised.’

‘Go after the others as well,’ Ehlana told him. ‘See what you can find out about Baron Parok, Rebal and Sabre. Let’s try to attach names to Rebal and Sabre at the very least.’

‘We’ll do ’er jist th’ way yer Majesty commands.’

‘I’d be happier’n a pig in mud iffn y’would, Caalador,’ she replied.

Caalador collapsed in helpless laughter.

‘It’s probably the change in the weather, your Majesty,’ Alean said. ‘It’s definitely getting chillier at night, and the days aren’t nearly as warm as they were just a few weeks ago.’

‘She grew up in Cimmura, Alean,’ Ehlana disagreed, ‘and the weather changes there much more markedly than it does here in Matherion.’

‘It’s a different part of the world though, my Queen,’ Baroness Melidere pointed out. ‘We’re right on the sea-coast for one thing. That could be what’s causing the problem. Sometimes children react more strongly to things like that than adults.’

‘You’re both making too much out of it,’ Mirtai told them. ‘All she needs is a tonic. She’s not really sick, she’s just moping around.’

‘But she sleeps all the time,’ Ehlana fretted. ‘She even falls asleep when she’s playing.’

‘She’s probably growing,’ the giantess shrugged. ‘I used to do the same sort of thing when I was a little girl. Growing is very hard work, I guess.’

The object of their discussions lay drowsing on a divan near the window with Rollo loosely clasped in her arms. Rollo had survived two generations of intense affection. He had been dragged about by one hind leg. He had been laid upon, crammed into tight places and ignored at times for weeks on end. A shift in his stuffings had given him a slightly worried expression. Queen Ehlana viewed that as a bad sign. Rollo had never looked worried when he had been her toy. Mmrr, on the other hand, seemed quite content. An owner who didn’t move around very much suited Mmrr right down to the ground. When Princess Danae was dozing, she was not dreaming up ridiculous things to do to her cat. Mmrr secretly felt that any day that did not involve being dressed up in dolls’ clothing was a good day. She lay on her little mistress’s hip with her front paws sedately folded under her chest, her eyes closed and a soft, contented purr coming from her throat. So long as nothing disturbed her naps, Mmrr was perfectly at peace with the world.

The Royal Princess Danae dozed, her mind far more involved with the conversation Flute was holding with Sparhawk and his friends on the Isle of Tega than with her mother’s concern over her health here in Matherion. Danae yawned and nestled down with toy and with cat and drifted off to sleep.

‘Dearest,’ the letter began. ‘We’ve reached Tega, and we’ll be going out into the countryside for a while to see what’s afoot. I’ll be out of touch for a bit, so I thought it might be a good idea to let you know that we’ve arrived safely. Don’t be too concerned if you don’t hear from me for quite some time. I’m not entirely sure how long we’ll be submerged in the population here.

‘The others are growing impatient to get started. There’s no real point to this letter – except to tell you that I love you – but that’s probably the most important point of all, isn’t it? Kiss Danae for me.

‘All my love, Sparhawk.’

‘Oh, that’s nice,’ Ehlana murmured, lowering the note from her husband. They were all sitting in the blue-draped sitting room in the queen’s apartments, and the arrival of Caalador with Sparhawk’s letter had interrupted a serious discussion about what they were going to do about the Interior Ministry.

Caalador, dressed again in sober brown and carrying a grotesque porcelain figurine from twelfth-century Arjuna, was frowning. ‘I think you might want to remind the people at the gates of the compound that they’re supposed to let me in, your Majesty. I had a bit of an argument again.’

‘What’s this?’ Emperor Sarabian asked.