David Eddings: Domes of Fire

‘All right then,’ Emban said, pacing up and down the room with his pudgy hands clasped behind his back. ‘Now we know that this so-called uprising tonight wasn’t intended seriously.’

Sparhawk shook his head. ‘No, your Grace, we don’t know that for certain. Regardless of what he says, Krager learned much of his style from Martel, and trying to shrug a failure off by pretending that the scheme wasn’t really serious in the first place is exactly the sort of thing Martel would have done.’

‘You knew him better than I did,’ Emban shrugged. ‘Can we really be sure that Krager and the others are working for a God—Cyrgon or maybe some other one?’

‘Not really, Emban,’ Sephrenia replied. ‘The Troll-Gods are involved, and they could be doing the things we’ve encountered that are beyond the capability of a human magician. There’s a sorcerer out there, certainly, but we can’t be certain that there’s a God—other than the Troll-Gods involved as well.’

‘But it could be a God, couldn’t it?’ Emban pressed.

‘Anything’s possible, your Grace,’ she shrugged.

‘That’s what I needed to know,’ the fat little churchman said. ‘It rather looks as if I’m going to have to make a flying trip back to Chyrellos.’

‘That went by me a little fast, your Grace,’ Kalten confessed.

‘We’re going to need the Church Knights, Kalten,’ Emban said. ‘All of them.’

‘They’re committed to Render, your Grace,’ Bevier reminded him.

‘Render can wait.’

‘The Archprelate may feel differently about that, Emban,’ Vanion told him. ‘Reconciliation with the Renders has been one of our Holy Mother’s goals for over half a millennium now.’

‘She’s patient. She’ll wait. She’s going to have to wait. This is a crisis, Vanion.’

‘I’ll go with you, your Grace,’ Tynian said. ‘I won’t be of much use here in Tamuli until my shoulder heals anyway, and I’ll be able to clarify the military situation to Sarathi much better than you will. Dolmant’s had Pandion training, so he’ll understand military terminology. Right now we’re standing out in the open with our breeches down—begging your Majesty’s pardon for the crudity of that expression,’ he apologised to Ehlana.

‘It’s an interesting metaphor, Sir Tynian,’ she smiled, ‘and it conjures up an absolutely enthralling image.’

‘I’ll agree with the Patriarch of Ucera,’ Tynian went on. ‘We definitely have to have the Church Knights here in Tamuli. If we don’t get them here in a hurry, this whole situation’s going to crumble right in our hands.’

‘I’ll send word to Tikume,’ Kring volunteered. ‘He’ll send us several thousand mounted Peloi. We don’t wear armour or use magic, but we know how to fight.’

‘Will you be able to hold out here until the Church Knights arrive, Vanion?’ Emban asked.

‘Talk to Sparhawk, Emban. He’s in charge.

‘I wish you wouldn’t keep doing that, Vanion,’ Sparhawk objected. He thought for a moment. ‘Atan Engessa,’ he said then, ‘how hard was it to persuade your warriors that it’s not really unnatural to fight on horseback? Can we persuade any more of them?’

‘When I tell them that this Krager-drunkard called them a race of freaks, they’ll listen to me, SparhawkKnight.’

‘Good. Krager may have helped us more than he thought then. Are you convinced that it’s best to attack Trolls with warhorses and lances, my friend?’

‘It was most effective, Sparhawk-Knight. We haven’t encountered the Troll-beasts before. They’re bigger than we are. That may be difficult for my people to accept, but once they do, they’ll be willing to try horses if you can find enough of those big ones.’

‘Did Krager happen to make any references to the fact that we’ve been using thieves and beggars as our eyes and ears?’ Stragen asked.

‘Not in so many words, Milord,’ Khalad replied.

‘That puts an unknown into our equation then,’ Stragen mused.

‘Please don’t do that, Stragen,’ Kalten pleaded. ‘I absolutely hate mathematics.’

‘Sorry. We don’t know for certain whether Krager’s aware that we’ve been using the criminals of Matherion as spies. If he is aware of it, he could use it to feed us false information.’

‘That spell they used sort of hints that they know, Stragen,’ Caalador noted. ‘That explains how it was that we saw the leaders of the conspiracy go into a house and never come out. They used illusions. They wouldn’t have done that if they hadn’t known we were watching.’

Stragen stuck out his hand and wobbled it from side to side a bit dubiously. ‘It’s not set in stone yet, Caalador,’ he said. ‘He may not know just exactly how well-organised we are.’

Bevier’s expression was profoundly disgusted. ‘We’ve been had, my friends,’ he said. ‘This was all an elaborate ruse—armies from the past, resurrected heroes, vampires and ghouls—all of it. It was a trick with no other purpose than to get us to come here without the entire body of the Church Knights at our backs.’

‘Then why have they turned round and told us to go home, Sir Bevier?’ Talen asked him.

‘Maybe they found out that we were a little more effective than they thought we’d be,’ Ulath rumbled. ‘I don’t think they really expected us to break up that Cyrgai assault or exterminate a hundred Trolls or break the back of this coup-attempt the way we did. It’s altogether possible that we surprised them and even upset them more than a little. Krager’s visit could have been sheer bravado, you know. We might not want to get over-confident, but I don’t think we should get under-confident either. We’re professionals, after all, and we’ve won every encounter so far. Let’s not give up the game and run away just because of a few windy threats by a known drunkard.’

‘Well said,’ Tynian murmured.

‘We don’t have any choice, Aphrael,’ Sparhawk told his daughter later when they were alone with Sephrenia and Vanion in a small room several floors above the royal apartments. ‘It’s going to take Emban and Tynian at least three months to get back to Chyrellos and then nine months for the Church Knights to come overland to Daresia. Even then, they’ll still be present only in the western kingdoms.’

‘Why can’t they come by boat?’ The princess sounded a bit sulky, and she was holding Rollo tightly to her chest.

‘There are a hundred thousand Church Knights, Aphrael,’ Vanion reminded her, ‘twenty-five thousand in each of the four orders. I don’t think there are enough ships in the world to transport that many men and horses. We can bring in some, ten thousand perhaps, by ship, but the bulk of them will have to come overland. We won’t be able to count on even that ten thousand for at least six months—the time it’s going to take Emban and Tynian to reach Chyrellos and then come back by ship with the knights and their horses. Until they arrive, we’re all alone here.’

‘With your breeches down,’ she added.

‘Watch your tongue, young lady,’ Sparhawk scolded her.

She shrugged that off. ‘My instincts all tell me that it’s a very bad idea,’ she told them. ‘I went to a lot of trouble to find a safe place for Bhelliom, and the first time there’s a little rain-shower, you all want to run to retrieve it. Are you sure you’re not exaggerating the danger? Ulath might have been right, you know. Everything Krager said to you could have been sheer bluster. I still think you can handle it without Bhelliom.’

‘I disagree,’ Sephrenia told her. ‘I know Elenes better than you do, Aphrael. It’s not in their nature to exaggerate dangers. Quite the reverse, actually.’

‘The whole point here is that your mother may be in danger,’ Sparhawk told his daughter. ‘Until Tynian and Emban bring the Church Knights to Tamuli, we’re seriously over-matched. Even as stupid as they are, it was only the Bhelliom that gave us any advantage over the Troll-Gods last time. You couldn’t even deal with them, as I recall.’