Part 49 (1/2)

'We'll sweep those hiding-places again.'

'Good idea, and this time let's do a bit more than reprimand the people we catch for bad manners. A spy can't creep through hidden pa.s.sages very well with two broken legs.' The blond Pandion's face was grim. 'I get to do the breaking,' he added. 'I want to be sure that there aren't any miraculous recoveries. A broken s.h.i.+nbone heals in a couple of months, but if you take a sledge-hammer to a man's knees, you'll put him out of action for much, much longer.'

Bevier, who led the survivors of his detachment back into Matherion two days later, took Kalten's suggestion a step further. His notion involved amputations at the hip. The devout Cyrinic Knight was very angry about being ambushed and he used language Sparhawk had never heard from him before. When he had calmed himself finally, though, he contritely sought absolution from Patriarch Emban. Emban not only forgave him, but granted an indulgence as well-just in case he happened across some new swear-words.

A thorough search of the opalescent castle turned up no hidden listeners, and they all gathered to confer with Emperor Sarabian and Foreign Minister Oscagne the day after Sir Bevier's return. They met high in the central tower to be on the safe side, and Sephrenia added a spell to further ensure that their discussions private.

'I'm not accusing anyone,' Vanion said, 'so don't take this personally. Word of our plans is somehow leaking out, so I think we should all pledge that no hint of what we discuss here should leave this room.'

'An oath of silence, Lord Vanion?' Kalten seemed surprised. That Pandion tradition had fallen into disuse in the past century.

'Well,' Vanion amended, 'something on that order, I suppose, but we're not all Pandion Knights here, you know.' He looked around. 'All right then, let's summarise the situation. The plot here in Matherion quite obviously goes beyond simple espionage. I think we'd better face up to the probability of an armed insurrection directed at the imperial compound. Our enemy seems to be growing impatient.'

'Or fearful,' Oscagne added. 'The presence of Church Knights-and Prince Sparhawk-here in Matherion poses some kind of threat. His campaign of random terror, civil disturbance and incipient insurrection in the subject kingdoms was working fairly well, but it appears that something's come up that makes that process too slow. He has to strike at the centre of imperial authority now. '

'And directly at me, I gather,' Emperor Sarabian added.

'That's unthinkable, your Majesty,' Oscagne objected. 'In all the history of the empire, no one ever directly confronted the emperor.'

'Please, Oscagne,' Sarabian said, 'don't treat me like an idiot. Any number of my predecessors have met with ”accidents” or fallen fatally ill under peculiar circ.u.mstances. Inconvenient emperors have been removed.'

'But never right out in the open, your Majesty. That's terribly impolite.'

Sarabian laughed. 'I'm sure that the three government-haters who threw my great-great-grandfather from the top of the highest tower in the compound were all exquisitely courteous about it, Oscagne. We're going to have an armed mob in the streets then, all enthusiastically howling for my blood?'

'I wouldn't discount the possibility, your majesty.' Vanion conceded.

'I hate this.' Ulath said sourly.

'Hate what?' Kalten asked him.

'Isn't it obvious? We've got an Elene castle here. It might not be quite as good as one that Bevier would have designed, but it's still the strongest building in Matherion. We've got three days until the streets are going to be filled with armed civilians. We don't have much choice. We have to pull back inside these walls and fort up until the Atans can restore order. I detest sieges.'

'I'm sure we won't have to go that far, Sir Ulath,' Oscagne protested. 'As soon as I heard about that message Master Caalador unearthed, I sent word to Norkan in Atana. There are ten thousand Atans ma.s.sed twenty leagues from here. The conspirators aren't going to move until after dark on the appointed day. I can have the streets awash with seven-foot tall Atans before noon of that same day. The attempted coup will fail before it ever gets started.'

'And miss the chance to round them all up?' Ulath said. 'Very poor military thinking, your Excellency. We've got a defensible castle here. Bevier could hold this place for two years at least.'

'Five,' Bevier corrected. 'There's a well inside the walls. That adds three years.'

'Even better,' Ulath said. 'We work on our fortifications here very quietly, and mostly at night. We bring in barrels of pitch and naphtha. Bevier builds siege engines. Then just before the sun goes down, we move the entire government and the Atan garrison inside the castle. The mob will storm the imperial compound and rage through the halls of all those impressive buildings here in the grounds. They won't encounter any resistence-until they come here. They'll try to storm our walls, and they'll be over-confident because n.o.body will have tried to fight them in any of the other buildings. They won't really be expecting a hail-storm of large boulders or sheets of boiling pitch dumped in their faces. Add to that the fact that their crossbows won't work cause Khalad's been breaking the triggers in that Dacite warehouse for the last two nights, and you've got a large group of people with a serious problem. They'll mill around out there in confusion and chant, and then, probably about midnight, the Atans will enter the city, come to the imperial compound and grind the whole lot of them right into the ground.'

'Yes!' Engessa exclaimed enthusiastically.

'It's a brilliant plan, Sir Ulath,' Sarabian told the big Thalesian. 'Why are you so dissatisfied with it?'

'Because I don't like sieges, your Majesty.'

'Ulath,' Tynian said wincing slightly as he s.h.i.+fted his broken shoulder, 'don't you think it's time that you abandoned this pose? You're as quick to suggest forting up as any of the rest of us when the situation calls for it.'

'Thalesians are supposed to hate sieges, Tynian. It's a part of our national character. We're supposed to be impetuous, impatient and more inclined toward brute force than toward well-considered endurance.'

'SIr Ulath,' Bevier said, smiling slightly, 'King Wargun's father endured a siege at Heid that lasted for seventeen years. He emerged from it none the worse for wear.

'Yes, but he didn't enjoy it, Bevier. That's my point.'

'I think we're overlooking an opportunity, my friends,' Kring noted. 'The mob's going to come to the imperial compound here, right?'

'If we've guessed their intentions correctly, yes.' Tynian agreed.

'Some of them are going to be all afire with political fervor-but not really very many, I don't think. Most of them are going to be more interested in looting the various palaces.'

Sarabian's face blanched. 'h.e.l.l and night!' he swore. 'I hadn't even thought of that!'

'Don't be too concerned, friend Emperor,' the Domi told him. 'Whether it's politics or greed that brings them, they'll almost all come into the grounds. The walls around the compound are high and the gates very imposing. Why don't we let them come in-but then make sure they don't leave? I can hide men near the gate-house. After the mob's in the grounds, we'll close the gates. That should keep them all more or less on hand to greet the Atans when they arrive. The loot will bring them in, and the gates will keep them in. They'll loot, right enough, but loot isn't really yours until you've escaped with it. We'll catch them all this way, and we won't have to dig any of them out of rabbit-holes later.'

'That's got real possibilities, you know that, Kring?' Kalten said admiringly.

'I'd have expected no less of him,' Mirtai said. 'He is a brilliant warrior, after all-and my betrothed.' Kring beamed.

'One last touch perhaps,' Stragen added. 'I think we all have a burning curiosity about certain things, and we've compiled this list of the names of people who might have answers to some of our most urgent questions. Battles are chancy, and sometimes valuable people get killed. I think there are some out there in Matherion who should be removed to safety before the fighting starts.'

'Good idea, Milord Stragen,' Sarabian agreed. 'I'll send out some detachments on the morning of the big day to round up those we'd like to keep alive.'

'Ah-perhaps that might not be the best way to go at it, your Majesty. Why not let Caalador attend to it? As a group, policemen tend to be obvious when they arrest people-uniforms, chains, marching in step-that sort of thing. Professional murderers are much more un.o.btrusive. You don't have to put chains on a man when you arrest him. A dagger-point held discreetly to his side is just as effective, I've found.'

Sarabian gave him a shrewd look. 'You're speaking from experience, I gather?' he speculated.

'Murder is a crime, your Majesty,' Stragen pointed out, 'and as a leader of criminals,. I should have some experience in all branches of the field. Professionalism, you understand.'

Chapter 28.

'It was definitely Scarpa, Sparhawk,' Caalador a.s.sured the big Pandion. 'We didn't have to rely entirely on the drawing. One of the local wh.o.r.es is from Arjuna, and she's had business dealings with him in the past. She positively identified him.'

The two of them were standing atop the castle wall where they could speak privately. 'That seems to be everybody but Baron Parok of Daconia then,' Sparhawk noted. 'We've seen Krager, Gerrich, Rebal of Edam, this Scarpa from Arjuna, and Elron from Astel.'

'I thought the conspirator from Astel was called Sabre,' Caalador said.

Sparhawk silently cursed his careless tongue. 'Sabre keeps his face hidden,' he said. 'Elron's a sympathizer-more than that, probably.'

Caalador nodded. 'I've known some Astels,' he agreed, 'and some Dacites, too. I wouldn't be positive that Baron Parok's not lurking in the shadows somewhere. They're definitely all gathering here in Matherion.' He looked thoughtfully out over the gleaming nacreous battlements at the fosse below. 'Is that ditch down there going to be all that much a barrier?' he asked. 'The sides are so gently sloped that there's lawn growing on them.'

'It gets more inconvenient when it's filled with sharpened stakes,' Sparhawk replied. 'We'll do that at the last minute. Has there been any influx of strangers into Matherion? All those a.s.sorted patriots have large followings. A mob gathered off the streets is one thing. but a horde drawn from most of Tamuli would be something else entirely.'

'We haven't seen any unusual number of strangers here in town,' Caalador said, 'and there aren't any large gatherings out in the countryside-at least not within five leagues in any direction.'

'They could be holding in place farther on out,' Sparhawk said. 'If I had a supporting army out there some place, I wouldn't bring them in until the last minute.'