‘Yes,’ Stragen admitted.

‘Then you’re going to have them all taken to the palace compound, where they’re absolutely forbidden to go.’

‘Yes.’

‘Then you’re going to ask the emperor to make a speech to a group of people whose very existence he’s not even supposed to know about.’

‘That’s more or less what I had in mind.’

‘And the emperor’s going to command them to suspend aeons-old custom and tradition and start co-operating with each other?’

‘Is there some problem with that?’

‘No, not really. I just wanted to be sure I had it all down straight in my mind, that’s all.’

‘See to it, would you, old boy?’ Stragen asked. ‘I’d probably better go talk with the emperor.’

Sephrenia sighed. ‘You’re being childish, you know,’ she said.

Salla’s eyes bulged. ‘How dare you?’ he almost screamed. The Styric elder’s face had gone white.

‘You forget yourself, Elder Salla,’ Zalasta told the outraged man. ‘Councillor Sephrenia speaks for the Thousand. Will you defy them? And the Gods they represent?’

‘The Thousand are misguided!’ Salla blustered. ‘There can never be an accommodation between Styricum and the pig-eaters!’

‘That’s for the Thousand to decide,’ Zalasta told him in a flinty tone.

‘But look at what the Elene barbarians have done to us,’ Salla said, his voice choked with outrage.

‘You’ve lived out your whole life here in the Styric quarter in Matherion, Elder Salla,’ Zalasta said. ‘You’ve probably never even seen an Elene.’

‘I can read, Zalasta.’

‘I’m delighted to hear it. We’re not really here for discussion, however. The High Priestess of Aphrael is conveying the instruction of the Thousand. Like it or not, you’re compelled to obey.’

Salla’s eyes filled with tears. ‘They’ve murdered us!’ he choked.

‘You seem to be in remarkably good condition for a man who’s been murdered, Salla,’ Sephrenia told him. ‘Tell me, was it painful?’

‘You know what I mean, Priestess.’

‘Ah, yes,’ she said, ‘that tiresome Styric compulsion to expropriate pain. Someone on the far side of the world stabs a Styric, and you start to bleed. You sit here in Matherion in protected luxury feeling sorry for yourself and secretly consumed with a gnawing envy that you’re being denied martyrdom. Well, if you want to be a martyr so badly, Salla, I can arrange it for you.’ Sephrenia was coldly angry with this babbling fool. ‘The Thousand has made its decision,’ she said flatly. ‘I don’t really have to explain it to you, but I will – so that you can convey the decision to your followers – and you will explain it, Salla. You’ll be very convincing about it, or I’ll replace you.’

‘I hold my position for life,’ he declared defiantly.

‘Precisely my point.’ Her tone was ominous.

He stared at her. ‘You wouldn’t!’ he gasped.

‘Try me.’ Sephrenia had wanted to say that to someone for years. She found it quite satisfying. ‘It goes like this, Salla – feel free to stop me if I start going too fast for you. The Elenes are savages who are looking for an excuse to kill every Styric they see. If we don’t assist them in this crisis, we’ll be handing them that excuse on a velvet cushion. We will assist them, because if we don’t, they’ll slaughter every Styric on the Eosian continent. We don’t want them to do that, do we?’

‘But –’

‘Salla, if you say “but” to me one more time, I’ll obliterate you.’ She was startled to discover just how enjoyable it was to behave like an Elene. ‘I’ve given you the instruction of the Thousand, and the Thousand speaks for the Gods. The matter is not open for discussion, so quit trying to snivel or wriggle your way out of this. You will obey, or you will die. Those are your options. Choose quickly. I’m in a bit of a hurry.’

Even Zalasta seemed shocked at that.

‘Your Goddess is cruel, councillor Sephrenia,’ Salla accused.

She hit him before she even thought about it, her hand and arm seeming to move all on their own. She had spent generations with the Pandion Knights, and she knew how to get her shoulder behind the blow. It was more than an ineffectual slap. She caught him solidly on the point of the chin with the heel of her hand, and he reeled back, his eyes glazed.

Sephrenia began to intone the words of the deadly incantation, her hands moving quite openly in the accompanying gestures.

‘I won’t do that, Sephrenia!’ Aphrael’s voice rang sharply in her mind.

‘I know,’ Sephrenia threw back the thought. ‘I’m just trying to get his attention, that’s all.’

Salla gasped as he realised what she was doing. Then he screamed and fell to his knees, blubbering and begging for mercy.

‘Will you do as I have commanded you to do?’ she snapped.

‘Yes, Priestess! Yes! Please don’t kill me!’

‘I have suspended the spell, but I have not cancelled it. I can finish it at any time. Your heart lies in my fist, Salla. Keep that firmly in mind the next time you feel an urge to insult my Goddess. Now get up and go do as you’re told. Come along, Zalasta. The smell of self-pity in here nauseates me.’

‘You’ve grown hard, Sephrenia,’ Zalasta accused when they were back out in the narrow streets of the Styric quarter.

‘I was bluffing, my old friend,’ she told him. ‘Aphrael would never have responded to the spell.’ She touched her forearm gingerly. ‘Do you happen to know where I might find a good physician, Zalasta? I think I’ve just sprained my wrist.’

‘Not very impressive, are they?’ Ulath suggested as he, Tynian and Kring walked back across the neatlytrimmed grounds of the imperial compound toward the Elene castle.

‘Truly,’ Kring agreed. ‘They seem to spend all their time thinking about parades.’ The three of them were returning from their meeting with the Imperial High Command. ‘They’re all show,’ the Domi concluded. ‘There’s no substance to them.’

‘Uniformed courtiers,’ Ulath dismissed the Tamul general staff.

‘I’ll agree,’ Tynian concurred. ‘The Atans are the real military force in Tamuli. Decisions are made by the government, and the general staff simply passes those decisions on to the Atan commanders. I began to have some doubts about the effectiveness of the imperial army when they told me that rank is hereditary. I wouldn’t want to rely on them in the event of an emergency.’