‘I can understand that, I suppose. I’m rather looking forward to speaking with your friends, Stragen. We’ll put our heads together and come up with ways to circumvent the authorities.’

‘That’s not really a good idea, your Majesty,’ Talen told him. ‘Never let a thief get within ten feet of you.’ He raised his hand to show Sarabian a jewelled bracelet.

The startled emperor looked quickly at his naked right wrist.

‘Merely a demonstration, your Majesty,’ Talen grinned. ‘I wasn’t really going to keep it.’

‘Give him back the rest as well, Talen,’ Stragen told the boy.

Talen sighed. ‘Your eyes are unwholesomely sharp, Stragen.’ He reached inside his doublet and took out several other jewels. ‘The best plan is not to have anything of value on your person when you talk with thieves, your Majesty,’ he advised.

‘You’re very good, Master Talen,’ Sarabian complimented the boy.

‘It’s all in the wrist,’ Talen shrugged.

‘I absolutely love you Elenes,’ Sarabian said. ‘Tamuls are a dull, boring people, but you’re full of surprises.’ He smiled archly at Melidere. ‘And what startling revelations do you have for me, Baroness?’ he asked her.

‘Nothing really very startling, your Majesty,’ she smiled. ‘The swishing back and forth through the corridors has earned me several fairly predictable offers – and a fair number of pinches. Tamuls pinch more than Elenes, don’t they? I’ve learned to keep my back to the wall, though. A pinch or two in the spirit of good clean fun is all right, I suppose, but the bruises take a long time to fade.’

Then they all looked at Berit. The young Pandion Knight blushed furiously. ‘I haven’t really got anything to report, my Lords and Ladies,’ he mumbled.

‘Berit,’ Ehlana said gently, ‘it’s not nice to lie like that, you know.’

‘It wasn’t really anything, your Majesty,’ he protested. ‘It was all a misunderstanding, I’m sure – probably because I don’t speak Tamul very well.’

‘What happened, my young friend?’ Sarabian asked him.

‘Well, your Majesty, it was your wife, the empress Elysoun – the one with the unusual costume.’

‘Yes, I’m acquainted with her.’

‘Well, your Majesty, she approached me in one of the corridors and said that I was looking a bit tired – perhaps because I was keeping my eyes closed.’

‘Why were you doing that?’

‘Ah – well, her costume, you understand, your Majesty. I thought it might be impolite to stare.’

‘In Elysoun’s case, it’s impolite not to. She’s very proud of her attributes, and she likes to share them with people.’

Berit’s blush deepened. ‘Anyway,’ he floundered on, ‘she said I looked tired and told me that she had a very comfortable bed in her quarters that I could use if I wanted to get some rest.’

Kalten was gazing at the youthful knight with openmouthed envy. ‘What did you say?’ he asked almost breathlessly.

‘Well, I thanked her, of course, but I told her that I wasn’t really sleepy.’

Kalten buried his face in his hands and groaned. ‘There, there,’ Ulath said, patting his shoulder comfortingly.

CHAPTER 27

‘Well sir, yer Queenship,’ Caalador was saying in his broad, colloquial drawl, ‘these yere trinkets is purty thangs, I’ll tell the world, but they ain’t got no real practical use to ‘em.’ He offered Ehlana a pair of carved ivory figurines.

‘They’re gorgeous, Caalador,’ she gushed.

‘Is that guard gone?’ Caalador muttered to Sparhawk.

Sparhawk nodded. ‘Mirtai just shoved him out the door.’

‘I thought he was planning to stay all day.’

‘Did you have any trouble getting on the grounds?’ Ehlana asked him.

‘Not a bit, your Majesty.’

‘I should hope not – not after the fuss I made.’ She looked more closely at the figurines. ‘These are really lovely Caalador,’ she said. ‘Where did you get them?’

‘I had them stolen from the museum at the university,’ he shrugged. ‘They’re ninth century Tegan – very rare and very valuable.’ He grinned at her impishly. ‘Iff’n yer Queenship’s got this yere passion fer antikities, y’ might’s well git th’ real thang.’

‘I love to listen to this man talk,’ Ehlana said.

Baroness Melidere escorted the others into the royal quarters.

‘Any problems?’ Stragen asked his brother thief.

‘Got in slicker’n a weasel burrowin’ into a hen-roost.’

‘Please, Caalador, spare me.’

Caalador was serving the Queen of Elenia in the capacity of ‘procurer of antiquities’, and by her orders he was to be granted immediate access to her at any time. One or the other of the knights had escorted him onto the grounds several times during the past several weeks in order to familiarize the guards at the gates with his face, but this was the first time he had tried to gain entry by himself. Their assorted subterfuges were growing more and more subtle. ‘Has anything meaningful turned up, Master Caalador?’ Zalasta asked.

‘I’m not entirely sure, learned one,’ Caalador frowned. ‘We keep running into something a little peculiar.’

‘Oh?’

‘All sorts of people are talking about something called “the Hidden City”. They’re the very people we’ve been watching, so we thought it might have some significance.’

‘It is a bit unusual,’ Zalasta agreed. ‘It’s not the sort of thing you’d expect to hear noised about on the streets.’

‘It actually means something then?’

Zalasta nodded. ‘It’s an old Tamul platitude that has to do with the life of the mind. Are they saying, “The way to the Hidden City is long, but the rewards to be found there are treasures beyond price”?’

‘That’s it exactly, learned one. Two people meet on the street, one of them recites the first half, and the other recites the second.’

Zalasta nodded. ‘The platitude’s supposed to refer to the rewards of the search for knowledge and enlightenment. I’d suspect some other significance in this case, however. Are your people hearing it from anybody other than Tamuls?’