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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.’
‘We don’t make an issue of it,’ Sephrenia shrugged. ‘If the Elenes knew about it, they’d try to make some huge conspiracy out of it.’
‘Your membership on the council keeps coming up.’ Sparhawk noted. ‘Is this council really relevant, or is it just some sort of ceremonial body?’
‘Oh, no, Sparhawk,’ Vanion told him. The council’s very important. Styricum’s a Theocracy, and the council’s composed of the high priests – and priestesses – of the Younger Gods.’
‘Being Aphrael’s priestess isn’t really a very taxing position,’ Sephrenia smiled, looking fondly at the Child Goddess. ‘She’s not particularly interested in asserting herself, since she usually gets what she wants in other ways. I get certain advantages – like this house – but I have to sit in on the meetings of the Thousand, and that can be tedious sometimes.’
‘The Thousand?’
‘It’s another name for the Council.’
‘There are a thousand Younger Gods?’ Sparhawk was a bit surprised at that.
‘Well, of course there are, Sparhawk,’ Aphrael told him. ‘Everybody knows that.’
‘Why a thousand?’
‘It’s a nice number with a nice sound to it. In Styric it’s Ageraluon.’
‘I’m not familiar with the word.’
‘It means ten times ten times ten – sort of. We had quite an argument with one of my cousins about it. He had a pet crocodile, and it had bitten off one of his fingers. He always had trouble counting after that. He wanted us to be Ageralican – nine times nine times nine, but we explained to him that there were already more of us than that, and that if we wanted to be Ageralican, some of us would have to be obliterated. We asked him if he’d care to volunteer to be one of them, and he dropped the idea.’
‘Why would anyone want to have a pet crocodile?’
‘It’s one of the things we do. We like to make pets of animals you humans can’t control. Crocodiles aren’t so bad. At least you don’t have to feed them.’
‘No, but you have to count the children every morning. Now I understand why the question of whales keeps coming up.’
‘You’re really very stubborn about that, Sparhawk. I could really impress my family if I had a whale.’
‘I think we’re getting a little far afield,’ Vanion said. ‘Sephrenia tells me you’ve got some fairly exotic suspicions.’
‘I’ve been trying to explain something I can’t completely see yet, Vanion. It’s like trying to describe a horse when all you’ve to work with is his tail. I’ve got a lot of bits and pieces and not too much more. I’m positive that everything that we’ve seen so far – and probably a lot of things we haven’t – are all hooked together, and that there’s one intelligence guiding it all. I think it’s a God, Vanion – or Gods.’
‘Are you sure your encounter with Azash didn’t make you start seeing hostile divinities under beds and in dark closets?’
‘I have it on the very best authority that only a God could raise an entire army out of the past. The authority who told me was quite smug about it.’
‘Be nice, father,’ Danae said primly. ‘It’s too complex, Vanion,’ she explained. ‘When you raise an army, you have to raise each individual soldier, and you have to know everything about him when you do that. It’s the details that defeat human magicians when they try it.’
‘Any ideas?’ Vanion asked his friend.
‘Several,’ Sparhawk grunted, ‘and none of them very pleasant. Do you remember that shadow I told you about? The one that was following me all over Eosia after I killed Ghwerig?’
Vanion nodded.
‘We’ve been seeing it again, and this time everybody can see it.’
‘That doesn’t sound too good.’
‘No, it doesn’t. Last time, that shadow was the Troll-Gods.’
Vanion shuddered, and then the both of them looked at Sephrenia.
‘Isn’t it nice to be needed?’ Danae said to her sister.
‘I’ll talk with Zalasta,’ Sephrenia sighed. ‘He’s been keeping abreast of things here in Sarsos for the emperor. He probably knows a great deal about this, so I’ll have him stop by tomorrow.’
There was a loud splash.
i told you that was going to happen, Mmrr,’ Danae said smugly to the wild-eyed kitten struggling to stay afloat in the fountain. Mmrr’s problems were multiplied by the fact that the goldfish were ferociously defending their domain by bumping her paws and tummy with their noses.
‘Fish her out, Danae,’ Sparhawk told her.
‘She’ll get me all wet, father, and then mother will scold me. Mmrr got herself into that fix. Now let her get herself out.’
‘She’ll drown.’
‘Oh, of course she won’t, Sparhawk. She knows how to swim. Look at her. She’s cat-paddling for all she’s worth.’
‘She’s what?’
‘Cat-paddling. You couldn’t really call it dog-paddling, could you? She’s not a dog, after all. We Styrics talk about cat-paddling all the time, don’t we, Sephrenia?’
‘I never have,’ Sephrenia murmured.
Chapter 17 (#ulink_6dcca8c4-e21f-5668-8337-3c54bbeee171)
A large part of the fun came from the fact that her parents could not anticipate the Princess Danae’s early-morning visits. They were certainly not a daily occurrence, and there were times when a whole week would go by without one. This morning’s visit was, of course, the same as all the rest. Consistency is one of the more important divine attributes. The door banged open, and the princess, her black hair flying and her eyes filled with glee, dashed into the room and joined her parents in bed with a great, whooping leap. The leap was followed, as always, by a great deal of squirming and burrowing until Danae was firmly nestled between her parents.
She never paid these visits alone. Rollo had never really been a problem. Rollo was a well-mannered toy, anxious to please and almost never intrusive. Mmrr, on the other hand, could be a pest. She was quite fond of Sparhawk and she was a genius at burrowing. Having a sharp-clawed kitten climb up the side of one’s bare leg before one is fully awake is a startling experience. Sparhawk gritted his teeth and endured.
‘The birds are awake.’ Danae announced it almost accusingly.
‘I’m so happy for them,’ Sparhawk said, wincing as the kitten lurking beneath the covers began to rhythmically flex her claws in his hip.
‘You’re grumpy this morning, father.’
‘I was doing just fine until now. Please ask your cat not to use me for a pin-cushion.’
‘She does it because she loves you.’
‘That fills my heart. I’d still rather have her keep her claws to herself, though.’
‘Is he always like this in the morning, mother?’
‘Sometimes,’ Ehlana laughed, embracing the little girl. ‘I think it depends on what he had for supper.’
Mmrr began to purr. Adult cats purr with a certain decorous moderation. Kittens don’t. On this particular morning, Danae’s small cat sounded much like an approaching thunderstorm or a grist-mill with an off-centre wheel.
‘I give up,’ Sparhawk said. He threw back the covers, climbed out of bed and pulled on a robe. ‘There’s no sleeping with the three of you around,’ he accused them. ‘Coming, Rollo?’
His wife and daughter gave him a quick, startled glance then exchanged a worried look. Sparhawk scooped up Danae’s stuffed toy and ambled out of the room, holding it by one hind leg. He could hear Ehlana and Danae whispering as he left. He plumped the toy into a chair. ‘It’s absolutely impossible, Rollo, old boy,’ he said, making sure that his women-folk could hear him. ‘I don’t know how you can stand it.’
There was a profound silence from the bedroom.
‘I think you and I should go away for a while, my friend,’ Sparhawk went on. ‘They’re starting to treat us like pieces of furniture.’
