‘We can talk about it some other time, Mirtai,’ Ehlana said. ‘Now we have to pacify my champion.’ She looked Sparhawk full in the face. ‘You have no reason to be angry with Platime, Stragen or Mirtai, my beloved,’ she told him. ‘They did everything they could to keep me in Cimmura. Your quarrel is with me and with me alone. Why don’t we excuse them so that we can scream at each other privately?’

‘I’ll go along with them,’ Sephrenia said. ‘I’m sure you’ll both be able to speak more freely if you’re alone.’ She followed the two thieves and the bronze giantess from the room. She paused at the door. ‘One last thing, children,’ she added. ‘Scream all you want, but no hitting – and I don’t want either of you to come out of here until you’ve resolved this.’ She went out and closed the door behind her.

‘Well?’ Ehlana said.

‘You’re stubborn,’ Sparhawk said flatly.

‘It’s called being strong-willed, Sparhawk. That’s considered to be a virtue in kings and queens.’

‘What on earth possessed you to come to a city under siege?’

‘You forget something, Sparhawk,’ she said. ‘I’m not really a woman.’

He looked her slowly up and down until she blushed furiously – he owed her that, he felt. ‘Oh?’ He knew he was going to lose this fight anyway.

‘Stop that,’ she said. ‘I’m a queen – a reigning monarch. That means that I sometimes have to do things that an ordinary woman wouldn’t be allowed to do. I’m already at a disadvantage because I’m a woman. If I hide behind my own skirts, none of the other kings will take me seriously, and if they don’t take me seriously, they won’t take Elenia seriously either. I had to come here, Sparhawk. You understand that, don’t you?’

He sighed. ‘I don’t like it, Ehlana, but I can’t argue with your reasoning.’

‘Besides,’ she added softly, ‘I was lonesome for you.’

‘You win,’ he laughed.

‘Oh good,’ she exclaimed, clapping her hands together delightedly. ‘I just adore winning. Now, why don’t we move right on into the kissing and making up?’

They did that for a while. ‘I’ve missed you, my stern-faced champion,’ she sighed. Then she banged her knuckles on his cuirass. ‘I didn’t miss this though,’ she added. She gave him an odd look. ‘Why did you have such a strange expression on your face when that Ick fellow –’

‘Eck,’ he corrected.

‘Sorry – when he was talking about the little girl who guided him through Arcium to King Wargun?’

‘Because the little girl was Aphrael.’

‘A Goddess? She actually appears before ordinary people? Are you absolutely sure?’

He nodded. ‘Absolutely,’ he told her. ‘She made him more or less invisible, and she compressed a ten-day journey into three. She did the same things for us on a number of occasions.’

‘How remarkable.’ She stood, idly drumming her fingertips on his armour.

‘Please don’t do that, Ehlana,’ he said. ‘It makes me feel like a bell with legs.’

‘Sorry. Sparhawk, are we really sure we want Patriarch Ortzel on the Archprelate’s throne? Isn’t he awfully cold and stern?’

‘Ortzel’s rigid, right enough, and his Archprelacy’s going to cause the militant orders some difficulty. He’s violently opposed to our using magic, for one thing.’

‘What earthly good is a Church Knight if he can’t use magic?’

‘We do have other resources as well, Ehlana. Ortzel wouldn’t have been my first choice, I’ll admit, but he holds strictly to the teachings of the Church. No one like Annias will ever get into a position of any kind of authority if Ortzel’s in charge. He’s rigid, but he follows Church doctrine to the letter.’

‘Couldn’t we find somebody else – somebody we like a little more?’

‘We don’t select Archprelates because we’re fond of them, Ehlana,’ he chided. ‘The Hierocracy tries to select the man who’ll be best for the Church.’

‘Well, of course it does, Sparhawk. Everybody knows that.’ She turned sharply. ‘There it is again,’ she said with exasperation.

‘There what is?’ he asked her.

‘You wouldn’t be able to see it, love,’ she told him. ‘Nobody can see it but me. At first I thought that everyone around me was going blind. It’s a sort of shadow or something. I can’t really see it – not clearly, anyway – but it sort of hovers around behind my back where I can only catch very brief glimpses of it. It always makes me very cold for some reason.’

Sparhawk half-turned, being careful to make it look casual. The shadow appeared to have grown larger and darker, and its malevolence was more pronounced. Why should it have been following Ehlana, though? She had not even touched the Bhelliom. ‘It should go away in time,’ he said carefully, not wanting to alarm her. ‘Don’t forget that Annias gave you a very rare and powerful poison. There are bound to be some lingering after-effects.’

‘I suppose that’s it.’

Then he understood. It was her ring, of course. Sparhawk silently berated himself for not having thought of that possibility earlier. Whatever it was that was behind the shadow would certainly want to keep an eye on both rings.

‘I thought we were making up,’ Ehlana said.

‘We are.’

‘Why aren’t you kissing me then?’

He was attending to that when Kalten came in.

‘Didn’t you ever learn how to knock?’ Sparhawk asked him sourly.

‘Sorry,’ Kalten said. ‘I thought Vanion was in here. I’ll see if I can find him somewhere else. Oh, by the way, here’s something to brighten your day a little more, though – if it really needs it – Tynian and I were out with Wargun’s soldiers flushing deserters out of the houses. We found an old friend hiding in the cellar of a wine shop.’

‘Oh?’

‘For some reason, Martel left Krager behind. We’ll all get together with him for a nice chat – just as soon as he sobers up – and after you two have finished whatever it is you’re doing here.’ He paused. ‘Would you like me to lock the door for you?’ he asked. ‘Or maybe stand guard outside?’