Читать книгу The Shining Ones - David Eddings - Страница 11

Ehlana and Sarabian had gone to the top of the central tower of the glowing castle, ostensibly to admire the sunset. Despite the fact that the castle was firmly in Elene hands, there were still enough Tamuls inside the walls to require a certain amount of care when the two wanted to speak privately.

‘It all comes down to the question of power, Sarabian,’ Ehlana told the Emperor in a pensive voice. ‘The fact that it’s there has to be the central fact of our lives. We can either take it into our own hands, or leave it lying around unused, but if we choose not to use it, we can be sure that someone else will.’ Her tone was subdued and her pale young face almost somber.

‘You’re in a melancholy humor today, Ehlana,’ Sarabian noted.

‘I don’t like being separated from Sparhawk. There were too many years of that after Aldreas exiled him. The point I was getting at is that you’re going to have to be very firm so that the people in your government will understand that things have changed. What you’ll really be doing here is seizing power. That’s an act of revolution, you know.’ She smiled faintly. ‘You’re almost too civilized to be a revolutionary, Sarabian. Are you really sure you want to overthrow the government?’

‘Good God, Ehlana, it’s my government, and the power was mine in the first place.’

‘But you didn’t use it. You were lazy and self-indulgent, and you let it slip away. Your ministers have filched your authority bit by bit. Now you’re going to have to wrest it back from them. People don’t willingly give up power, so you’ll probably have to kill some of your ministers in order to prove to the rest that you’re serious.’

‘Kill!’

‘That’s the ultimate expression of power, Sarabian, and your situation here requires a certain ruthlessness. You’re going to have to spill some blood in order to get your government’s attention.’

‘I don’t think I can do that,’ Sarabian said in a troubled tone. ‘Oh, I know I’ve blustered and made threats a few times, but I couldn’t actually order someone killed.’

‘That’s up to you, but you’ll lose if you don’t, and that means that they’ll kill you.’ She considered it. They’ll probably kill you anyway,’ she added, ‘but at least you’ll die for something important. Knowing that they’re going to kill you in the end might help you make some unpleasant decisions at the outset. Once you get past your first couple of killings, it grows easier. I speak from a certain amount of experience on the subject, since almost exactly the same thing happened to me. Primate Annias completely controlled my government when I came to the throne, and I had to try to take my power back from him.’

‘You’re the one who’s been talking so freely about killing, Ehlana. Why didn’t you kill Annias?’

She laughed a brittle, chilling little laugh. ‘It wasn’t because I didn’t want to, believe me, but I was too weak. Annias had very carefully stripped the crown of all its authority. I had some help from Lord Vanion and his Pandion Knights, but Annias had control of the army and the church soldiers. I killed a few of his underlings, but I couldn’t get to him. He knew I was trying, though, and that’s why he poisoned me. Annias was really a very good politician. He knew exactly when the time for killing had arrived.’

‘You sound almost as if you admired him.’

‘I hated him, but he was very good.’

‘Well, I haven’t killed anybody yet, so I can still step back from this.’

‘You’re wrong there. You’ve already drawn your dagger, so you’re going to have to use it. You crushed that uprising, and you’ve imprisoned the Minister of the Interior. That’s the same thing as a declaration of war, you know.’

‘You did those things,’ he accused her.

‘Yes, but I was acting on your behalf, so it’s the same thing – at least in the eyes of your enemies. You’re in a great deal of danger now, you know. You’ve let your government know that you’re going to seize back the power you let slip away. If you don’t start killing people – and very, very soon – you probably won’t live out the month. You’d be dead already if it weren’t for the fact that you’ve taken refuge in this castle.’

‘You’re starting to frighten me, Ehlana.’

‘God knows I’ve been trying. Like it or not, Sarabian, you’re committed now.’ She looked around. The sun was sinking into the cloud-bank building up over the mountains lying to the west, and its ruddy glow was reflecting from the mother-of-pearl domes of Matherion. ‘Look at your city, Sarabian,’ she told him, ‘and contemplate the reality of politics. Before you’re done, that red splashed all over the domes won’t just be the reflection of the sunset.’

‘That’s blunt enough,’ he said, his jaw taking on an unfamiliar set. ‘All right, how many people do I have to kill in order to ensure my own safety?’

‘You don’t have that many knives, my friend. Even if you butcher everybody in Matherion, you’ll still be in danger. You might as well accept the fact that you’re going to be in danger for the rest of your life.’ She smiled at him. ‘Actually, it’s kind of exciting – once you get used to it.’

‘Well, sir, yer Queenship,’ Caalador drawled, ‘it’s all purty much th’ way we wuz a-thankin’ it wuz. That thar Krager feller, he wuz a-tellin’ ol’ Sporhawk th’ ak-chool truth. Me’n Stragen, we bin a-twistin’ the arms an’ a-settin’ fahr t’ the feet o’ them fellers ez wuz picked up durin’ the koop …’ He stopped. ‘Would your Majesty be too disappointed if I spoke like a human being for a while? That dialect’s starting to dislocate my jaw.’

‘Not to mention the violence it’s doing to the mother tongue,’ Stragen murmured.

The three of them had gathered together in a small, blue-draped room adjoining the royal apartment later that same evening. Ehlana and Stragen were still dressed for dinner, she in crimson velvet and he in white satin. Caalador wore the sober brown of a businessman. The room had been carefully checked several times to be sure that no hidden listening posts lurked behind the walls, and Mirtai grimly stood watch outside the door.

‘With the exception of Interior Minister Kolata, we didn’t scoop up anybody of any significance,’ Caalador continued, ‘and none of our other prisoners really knows very much. I’m afraid we don’t have much choice, your Majesty. We’re going to have to go to work on Kolata if we want anything useful.’

Ehlana shook her head. ‘You won’t get anything out of him either, Caalador. He’ll be killed as soon as he opens his mouth.’

‘We don’t know that for certain, my Queen,’ Stragen disagreed. ‘It’s entirely possible that our subterfuge has worked, you know. I really don’t believe that the other side knows that he’s a prisoner here. His policemen are still getting their orders from him.’

‘He’s too valuable to risk,’ she said. ‘Once he’s been torn to pieces, he’ll be very hard to put back together again.’

‘If that’s the way you want it, your Majesty,’ Caalador shrugged. ‘Anyway, it’s growing increasingly obvious that this uprising was a pure hoax. Its only purpose was to compel us to reveal our strength. What concerns me the most is the fact that Krager and his friends obviously knew that we were using the criminals of Matherion as our eyes and ears. I’m sorry, Stragen, but it’s the truth.’

‘It was such a good idea,’ Stragen sighed.

‘It was all right at first, but the trouble with it was that Krager’s seen it before. Talen told me that your friend Platime used to have whole crowds of beggars, whores and pick-pockets following Krager around. The best idea in the world wears a little thin if you over-use it.’

Stragen rose to his feet muttering curses, and began to pace up and down in the small room with his white satin doublet gleaming in the candlelight. ‘It looks as if I’ve failed you, my Queen,’ he admitted. ‘I let a good idea run away with me. You couldn’t really trust my judgement after a blunder like that, so I’ll make arrangements to go back to Emsat.’

‘Oh, don’t be an ass, Stragen,’ she told him. ‘And do sit down. I can’t think while you’re clumping around the room like that.’

‘She shore knows how t’ put a feller in his place, don’t she, Stragen?’ Caalador laughed.

Ehlana sat tapping one finger thoughtfully against her chin. ‘First of all, let’s keep this in the family. Sarabian’s already getting a bit wild-eyed. Politically, he’s an infant. I’m trying to raise him as quickly as I can, but I can only move him just so fast.’ She made a sour face. ‘I have to stop every so often to burp him.’

‘Now that’s a picture for you,’ Caalador grinned. ‘What’s he choking on, your Majesty?’

‘Murder, primarily,’ she shrugged. ‘He doesn’t seem to have the stomach for it.’

Caalador blinked. ‘Not many do.’

‘Politicians can’t afford that kind of delicacy. All right, if Krager and his friends know about our spy network, it won’t be long until they try something in the way of penetration, will it?’

‘You’re quick,’ he said admiringly.

‘Quick people live longer. Start thinking, gentlemen. We’ve got an exploitable situation here, and it won’t last for very long. How can we use it to our greatest advantage?’

‘We might be able to identify real conspirators instead of dupes, your Majesty,’ Stragen mused. ‘If they do try penetration, they’re going to have to subvert some of our people. Let’s say that we start passing out assorted fairy-tales – this story to some pick-pocket, another to some beggar or whore. Then we sit back to see which of those fraudulent schemes the other side attempts to counter. That will identify the turncoats in our own ranks, and we can squeeze useful names out of them.’

‘Surely we can get something a little better than that,’ she fretted.

‘We’ll work on it, your Majesty,’ Caalador promised. ‘If it’s all right with you, I’d like to follow up on something else as well. We know that Krager’s been busy here in Matherion, but we don’t know how much information about our methods he’s passed on to his friends in other kingdoms. We might as well get what use we can out of our makeshift intelligence service before it becomes totally useless. I’ll pass the word to the criminals down in Arjuna. I’d like to find out one way or the other if that silly scholar at the university has blundered across the real truth or if he’s just weaving a theory out of moonbeams. I think we might all find a complete biography of the fellow known as Scarpa really fascinating reading. If nothing else, whether or not our spies in Arjuna succeed will tell us how much Krager really knows about the scope of our operations. If he thinks it’s only localized, our apparatus hasn’t been too severely compromised.’

‘Go after the others as well,’ Ehlana told him. ‘See what you can find out about Baron Parok, Rebal and Sabre. Let’s try to attach names to Rebal and Sabre at the very least.’

‘We’ll do ’er jist th’ way yer Majesty commands.’

‘I’d be happier’n a pig in mud iffn y’would, Caalador,’ she replied.

Caalador collapsed in helpless laughter.

‘It’s probably the change in the weather, your Majesty,’ Alean said. ‘It’s definitely getting chillier at night, and the days aren’t nearly as warm as they were just a few weeks ago.’

‘She grew up in Cimmura, Alean,’ Ehlana disagreed, ‘and the weather changes there much more markedly than it does here in Matherion.’

‘It’s a different part of the world though, my Queen,’ Baroness Melidere pointed out. ‘We’re right on the sea-coast for one thing. That could be what’s causing the problem. Sometimes children react more strongly to things like that than adults.’

‘You’re both making too much out of it,’ Mirtai told them. ‘All she needs is a tonic. She’s not really sick, she’s just moping around.’

‘But she sleeps all the time,’ Ehlana fretted. ‘She even falls asleep when she’s playing.’

‘She’s probably growing,’ the giantess shrugged. ‘I used to do the same sort of thing when I was a little girl. Growing is very hard work, I guess.’

The object of their discussions lay drowsing on a divan near the window with Rollo loosely clasped in her arms. Rollo had survived two generations of intense affection. He had been dragged about by one hind leg. He had been laid upon, crammed into tight places and ignored at times for weeks on end. A shift in his stuffings had given him a slightly worried expression. Queen Ehlana viewed that as a bad sign. Rollo had never looked worried when he had been her toy. Mmrr, on the other hand, seemed quite content. An owner who didn’t move around very much suited Mmrr right down to the ground. When Princess Danae was dozing, she was not dreaming up ridiculous things to do to her cat. Mmrr secretly felt that any day that did not involve being dressed up in dolls’ clothing was a good day. She lay on her little mistress’s hip with her front paws sedately folded under her chest, her eyes closed and a soft, contented purr coming from her throat. So long as nothing disturbed her naps, Mmrr was perfectly at peace with the world.

The Royal Princess Danae dozed, her mind far more involved with the conversation Flute was holding with Sparhawk and his friends on the Isle of Tega than with her mother’s concern over her health here in Matherion. Danae yawned and nestled down with toy and with cat and drifted off to sleep.

‘Dearest,’ the letter began. ‘We’ve reached Tega, and we’ll be going out into the countryside for a while to see what’s afoot. I’ll be out of touch for a bit, so I thought it might be a good idea to let you know that we’ve arrived safely. Don’t be too concerned if you don’t hear from me for quite some time. I’m not entirely sure how long we’ll be submerged in the population here.

‘The others are growing impatient to get started. There’s no real point to this letter – except to tell you that I love you – but that’s probably the most important point of all, isn’t it? Kiss Danae for me.

‘All my love, Sparhawk.’

‘Oh, that’s nice,’ Ehlana murmured, lowering the note from her husband. They were all sitting in the blue-draped sitting room in the queen’s apartments, and the arrival of Caalador with Sparhawk’s letter had interrupted a serious discussion about what they were going to do about the Interior Ministry.

Caalador, dressed again in sober brown and carrying a grotesque porcelain figurine from twelfth-century Arjuna, was frowning. ‘I think you might want to remind the people at the gates of the compound that they’re supposed to let me in, your Majesty. I had a bit of an argument again.’

‘What’s this?’ Emperor Sarabian asked.

‘Master Caalador’s serving as my “procurer of antiquities”,’ Ehlana explained. ‘It gives him an excuse to come and go without interference. I’ve gathered a whole roomful of assorted bric-a-brac since I’ve arrived here.’

‘That brings us right back to the issue we were discussing before you got here, Caalador,’ Stragen said. Stragen wore black today, and Ehlana privately felt that the color didn’t really suit him. He rose and began to pace up and down, a habit the Queen of Elenia found irritating. ‘The Interior Ministry’s beginning to flex its muscles for some reason. We’re sitting on the Minister himself, so this onset of burliness is probably coming from some underling.’

‘Interior has always liked to throw its weight around,’ Oscagne told them. The Foreign Minister was wearing western-style clothes again, and he looked distinctly uncomfortable in them.

‘I think that reinforces the point I was trying to make earlier, Ehlana,’ Sarabian said. ‘Are you sure we shouldn’t dissolve the Interior Ministry right now?’

‘Absolutely,’ Ehlana replied. ‘We’ve got Kolata buttoned up inside the castle here, and we’ve given the world a perfectly legitimate reason for his presence. He’s still functioning – under our control – and that’s of enormous value to us. We’re playing for time, Sarabian. We’re terribly vulnerable until Tynian and Emban come back from Chyrellos with the Church Knights – or at the very least until all the Atan commanders have been advised that they aren’t supposed to obey the orders of the Interior Ministry any more. We definitely don’t want the Atans fighting on both sides if trouble breaks out.’

‘I guess I hadn’t thought of that,’ he admitted.

‘Not only that, your Majesty,’ Oscagne added gently. ‘It’s entirely possible that Interior would simply ignore a proclamation disbanding them. They have almost total power, you know. Queen Ehlana’s right. We can’t move against them until we’re sure of the Atans.’

Stragen had continued his pacing. ‘Nobody can subvert an entire branch of government,’ he declared. ‘There are just too many people involved, and all it would take would be one honest policeman to expose the entire scheme.’

‘There’s no such thing as an honest policeman, Stragen,’ Caalador said with a cynical laugh. ‘It’s a contradiction in terms.’

‘You know what I mean.’ Stragen shrugged that off. ‘We know that Kolata has dirty hands, but we can’t be sure just how far that disloyalty goes. It could be very widespread, or it could be confined to just a few in the higher councils of the ministry.’

Caalador shook his head. “Tain’t hordly likely, Stragen,’ he disagreed. ‘Y’ gotta have them ez y’ kin trust out thar when y’ start givin’ orders ez runs contrary t’ reg’lar policy. They’s gotta be some in th’ hinterlands ez knows whut’s whut.’

Stragen made a face. ‘I wish you wouldn’t do that,’ he complained. ‘Please don’t use that vile dialect when you’re right. It makes me feel inadequate. All right, then. We can be fairly certain that most of the higher-ranking officials in the ministry are involved, but we can’t even guess at how widespread the contamination is. I’d say that finding out gets to be a kind of priority.’

‘Shouldn’t take y’ more’n a couple hunnerd years t’ do thet, Stragen,’ Caalador noted.

‘Not necessarily,’ Baroness Melidere disagreed. She looked at Oscagne. ‘You once said that the Ministry of the Interior’s very fond of paper, your Excellency.’

‘Of course, Baroness. All government agencies adore paper. Paperwork provides full employment for our relatives. Interior goes a little farther, though. Policemen can’t function without files and dossiers. They write everything down.’

‘I rather thought that might be the case. The people over at Interior are all trained as policemen, aren’t they?’

Oscagne nodded.

‘Then they’d all be compulsive about writing reports and filing them, wouldn’t they?’

‘I suppose so,’ he said. ‘I don’t see where you’re going with this exactly, Baroness.’

‘Wake up, Oscagne,’ Sarabian said excitedly. ‘I think this wonderful girl’s just solved our problem for us. Someplace over in that rabbit warren at Interior there’s a set of files that contains the names of all the disloyal policemen and secret agents in the Empire. All we have to do is get our hands on that set of files, and we’ll know exactly which people to pick up when the time comes to move.’

‘Except for the fact that they’ll defend those files to the death,’ Ehlana observed. ‘And there’s also the fact that a move against their filing system would be the same as a frontal assault on the ministry itself.’

‘You really know how to burst bubbles, Ehlana,’ the Emperor complained.

‘There might be a way around the queen’s objections, your Majesty,’ Melidere said with a slight frown. ‘Is there a standardized filing system here in Matherion, Minister Oscagne?’

‘Good God, no, Baroness,’ he exclaimed. ‘If we all had the same filing system, anybody at all could walk into our offices and find anything he wanted. We’d never be able to keep any secrets from each other.’

‘I thought that might be the case. Now then, suppose that Queen Ehlana happened to mention to the Emperor – just in passing – that her government had standardized the filing system, and that everybody filed things the same way. Then let’s suppose that the Emperor grew very excited about the idea – the enormous savings in the cost of government and all that. Then, still supposing, he appoints an imperial commission with extraordinary powers to examine everybody’s files with an eye toward that standardization. Wouldn’t that sort of justify a thorough search of the offices at Interior?’

‘It’s got possibilities, my Queen,’ Stragen approved. ‘Something like that would hide what we’re really up to – particularly if we had people tearing up everybody else’s files at the same time.’

Oscagne’s face went absolutely white.

‘I’d sooner take pizen than insult y’, little lady,’ Caalador drawled to the baroness, ‘but yer still a-talkin’ ’bout a chore which it is that’d taken us a good twenty year ’er more t’ finish. We got us a hull buildin’ over thar t’ take aport iffn th’ Furrin Minister yere is kee-rect ’bout how miny tons o’ paper they got over t’ Interior.’

‘We can shorten that a bit, Master Caalador,’ Melidere replied. ‘All we have to do is question Interior Minister Kolata.’

‘Absolutely not,’ Ehlana said sharply. ‘I don’t want him all torn to pieces – at least not until I don’t need him any more.’

‘We wouldn’t be asking him any sensitive questions, your Majesty,’ Melidere said patiently. ‘All we want to know is how his filing system works. That wouldn’t compromise the conspiracy he’s involved in, would it?’

‘I think she’s right, Ehlana,’ Mirtai said. ‘There would almost have to be some sort of trigger – questions about certain subjects – that would make our enemies decide to kill Kolata. They wouldn’t kill him if all we did was ask him about something as ordinary as a filing system, would they?’

‘No,’ the queen agreed. They probably wouldn’t at that.’ Her expression was still doubtful, however.

‘It’s all very clever, Baroness,’ Stragen said, ‘but we’ll be sending Tamul officials into the various ministries to investigate files. How will we know that at least some of them aren’t on the other side?’

‘We wouldn’t, Milord Stragen. That’s why we’ll have to send our own people – the Church Knights – in to review those files.’

‘How would we justify that?’

‘The new filing system would be an Elene invention, Milord. We’re obviously going to have to send Elenes into the various ministries to evaluate the current methods and to instruct the officials on how to convert to the new system.’

‘Now I’ve got you, Baroness,’ he said triumphantly. This is all a fiction. We don’t have a new filing system.’

‘Then invent one, Milord Stragen,’ she suggested sweetly.

Prime Minister Subat was deeply troubled by the suggestion the Chancellor of the Exchequer had just placed before him. The two were alone together in the Prime Minister’s ornate office, a room only slightly less magnificent than one of the imperial audience chambers. ‘You’re out of your mind, Gashon,’ he declared flatly.

Chancellor of the Exchequer Gashon was a bloodless, corpse-like man with sunken cheeks and no more than a few wispy strands of hair protruding from his lumpy scalp. ‘Look at it more closely, Pondia Subat,’ he said in his hollow, rusty-sounding voice. ‘It’s only a theory, but it does explain many things that are otherwise incomprehensible.’

‘They wouldn’t have dared,’ Subat scoffed.

‘Try to lift your mind out of the fourteenth century, Subat,’ Gashon snapped. ‘You’re the Prime Minister, not the keeper of antiquities. The world is changing all around you. You can’t just sit still with your eyes firmly fixed on the past and hope to survive.’

‘I don’t like you very much, Gashon.’

‘I’m not terribly fond of you either, Subat. Let me go through it for you again. Try to stay awake this time.’

‘How dare you?’

‘I dare because I’d sort of like to keep my head where it is. First off: the Elenes of Eosia are absolute barbarians. Can we agree on that at least?’

‘All right.’

‘They haven’t caused us much trouble in the past because they were too busy fighting among themselves about religion, and because they had Otha of Zemoch to worry about. Would it surprise you too much if I told you that Otha’s dead and that the Rendorish insurgency’s been almost completely crushed?’

‘I have my own sources of information, Gashon.’

‘Have you ever considered listening to what they tell you? Now then, there was open warfare in the streets of Chyrellos preceding the elevation of this Dolmant to the Archprelacy. I’d say that’s a fair indication of the fact that he’s not universally loved. The best way I know of for a shaky ruler to consolidate his position is to contrive a foreign adventure, and the only real foreign ground for the Elenes of the Eosian Continent is Daresia – the Tamul Empire. That’s us, in case you hadn’t noticed, Pondia Subat.’

‘I know that, Gashon.’

‘I just wanted to be sure, that’s all. Are you with me so far?’

‘Get to the point, Gashon. I don’t have all day.’

‘Did you have an appointment with the headsman? All right, then. The Elenes are religious fanatics who feel that they’re called of the Lord to convert everybody in the world to their absurd faith. For all I know, they also want to convert snakes, spiders and fish. Dolmant’s their religious leader, and they’d probably try to subdue glaciers and tides if he told them to. So, we’ve got a religious leader who has an uncertain grasp on power in his own Church, and he has hordes of fanatic followers at his disposal. He can either use those followers to crush his opponents at home, or he can hurl them against a foreign power on some trumped-up excuse that will inflame the commons and stifle objections to his rule. Isn’t it a coincidence that at precisely that time we have this “state visit” by a silly female – a female Foreign Minister Oscagne assures us is the Queen of Elenia. I hope the fact that we only have Oscagne’s word for that hasn’t escaped you. This so-called queen is obviously more accustomed to doing business in bed than she is on a throne. She clearly wrestled not only that silly ass Alberen of Astel into submission but probably Androl of the Atans as well. We can only speculate about her adventures among the Peloi and the Styrics at Sarsos. Then, once she reached Matherion, she lured Emperor Sarabian to her bedchamber before the first day was out – you did know that Sarabian and Oscagne crept across the compound to that imitation Elene castle on the first night she was here, didn’t you?’

Subat started to object.

‘Yes, I know,’ Gashon cut him off, ‘that brings us to Oscagne. I’d say that the evidence strongly suggests that Oscagne has gone over to the Elenes – either for personal gain or because he’s fallen under the spell of that blonde Elene strumpet. She had plenty of time to work on him while he was in Chyrellos, you know.’

‘It’s all speculation, Gashon,’ Subat said, although his voice lacked conviction.

‘Of course it is, Subat,’ Gashon replied with heavy sarcasm. ‘What would be the fastest way to get to Matherion from Chyrellos?’

‘By ship, naturally.’

‘Then why did the strumpet of Cimmura choose to come overland? Was it to look at scenery, or to grapple her way across the continent? The girl’s got stamina, I’ll give her that.’

‘What about this recent coup-attempt, Gashon? The government would have fallen if the Elenes hadn’t been here.’

‘Ah yes, the famous coup. Isn’t it astounding that a group of Elenes, who didn’t even speak the Tamul language when they arrived, were able to unearth this dire plot in about six weeks? – when the agents of the Ministry of the Interior, who’ve only been in Matherion for all of their lives, hadn’t come across a single clue about it? The Elenes crushed an imaginary coup, Subat, and now they’ve used it as an excuse to imprison the Emperor in that cursed fortress of theirs – not only the Emperor, but Interior Minister Kolata as well, and Kolata’s the one man in government who has the resources to free our ruler. I’ve talked with Teovin, Director of the Secret Police, and he assures me that no one from the ministry has been permitted to speak with Kolata privately since his incarceration. Our colleague is obviously a prisoner, and the orders he’s issuing to the Interior Ministry are just as obviously coming from the Elenes. Then, if that weren’t bad enough, they’ve sent the so-called churchman, Emban, back to Chyrellos to lead the Church Knights back here to “deal with the crisis”. We have all the resources of Interior and whole armies of Atans at our disposal, Subat. Why do we need the Church Knights? What possible reason is there to bring the most ruthless force in the entire world to Tamuli? Would the word “invasion” startle you? That’s all that the famous coup really was, you realize – an excuse for the Elene Church to invade Tamuli, and quite obviously it’s been with the Emperor’s full cooperation.’

‘Why would the Emperor conspire with the Elenes to topple his own government?’

‘I can think of any number of reasons. Maybe this so-called queen threatened to deny him her favors. Most probably, though, she’s been spinning fairy-tales for him, telling him about the joys of absolute power. That’s a common fiction in Eosia. Elene rulers like to pretend that they’re the ones who make all the decisions in their kingdoms rather than permitting the government to do it for them. We both know how ridiculous that idea is. A king – or in our case, the Emperor – only has one function. He’s a symbol of government, nothing more. He serves as a focus for the love and loyalty of the people. The imperial government’s been engaged in a selective-breeding program for the past thousand years. The Emperor’s Tamul wife – the one who produces the heir to the throne – is always selected for her stupidity. We don’t need intelligent emperors, only docile ones. Somehow Sarabian slipped past us. If you’d ever really taken the trouble to pay attention to him, you’d have discovered that he’s frighteningly intelligent. Kolata blundered there. Sarabian should have been killed long before he ascended the throne. Our revered Emperor’s beginning to hunger for real power, I’m afraid. Normally, we could deal with that, but we can’t get at him to kill him as long as he’s inside that blasted fortress.’

‘You weave a convincing story, Gashon,’ the Prime Minister conceded with a troubled frown. ‘I knew it was a blunder to invite that Sparhawk savage to come to Matherion.’

‘We all did, Subat, and you’ll recall who it was who overrode all our objections.’

‘Oscagne,’ Subat spat.

‘Precisely. Is it beginning to fit together for you now?’

‘Did you devise all of this by yourself, Gashon? It’s a little elaborate for a man who spends all his time counting pennies.’

‘Actually, it was Teovin, the Director of the Secret Police, who brought it to my attention. He provided me with a great deal of very concrete evidence. I’ve summarized it for you here. Interior has spies everywhere, you know. Nothing happens in the Empire that doesn’t generate a report for those famous files of theirs. Now, Pondia Subat, what does our esteemed Prime Minister propose to do about the fact that our Emperor’s being held prisoner – willingly or unwillingly – not a hundred paces from where we sit? You’re the titular head of government, Subat. You’re the one who has to make these decisions. Oh, and while you’re at it, you might want to give some thought to how we’re going to prevent the Church Knights from sweeping across the continent, marching into Matherion and forcing everyone to bow down to their ridiculous God – and butchering the entire government in the process.’

‘They’re trying to stall, your Majesties,’ Stragen reported. ‘When supper-time comes, they escort us to the door, push us outside, and lock the door behind us. The building stays locked for the rest of the night – although there are always plenty of lights moving around in there after dark. When we go back the next morning, everything’s been rearranged. The files migrate from room to room like ducks in the autumn. I wouldn’t actually swear to it, but I think they move walls as well. We found a room just this morning that I don’t really think was there last night.’

‘I’ll send in Engessa’s Atans,’ Sarabian said darkly. ‘We’ll chase everybody out and then tear the building apart brick by brick.’

‘No,’ Ehlana said, shaking her head. ‘If we make an overt move against the Ministry of the Interior, every policeman in the Empire will scurry down a rabbit-hole.’ She pursed her lips. ‘Let’s start to do inconvenient things to the other ministries as well. Don’t make it obvious that we’re concentrating all of our attention on the Ministry of the Interior.’

‘How can you possibly make things any worse than they already are, your Majesty?’ Oscagne asked in a broken voice. ‘You’ve disrupted centuries of work as it is.’

‘Can anyone think of anything?’ Sarabian asked, looking around.

‘May I speak, your Majesty?’ Alean asked in a small, timid-sounding voice.

‘Of course, dear,’ Ehlana smiled.

‘I hope you’ll all forgive my presumption,’ Alean apologized. ‘I can’t even read, so I don’t really know what files are, but aren’t we sort of letting on that we’re rearranging them?’

‘That’s what we’re telling everybody,’ Mirtai replied.

‘As I said, I can’t read, but I do know a bit about rearranging cupboards and such things. This is a little like that, isn’t it?’

‘Close enough,’ Stragen replied.

‘Well, then, when you’re rearranging a cupboard, you take everything out and spread it on the floor. Then you put all the things you want in the top drawer in one pile, the things you want in the second drawer in another, and so on. Couldn’t we do that with these files?’

‘It’s a nice i-dee, little dorlin’,’ Caalador drawled, ‘but they ain’t e-nuff floors in the hull buildin’ fer spreadin’ out all them there files.’

‘There are lots of lawns around the outside, though, aren’t there?’ Alean kept her eyes downcast as she spoke. ‘Couldn’t we just take all the files from every government building outside and spread them around on the lawns. We could tell the people who work in the buildings that we want to sort through them and put them in the proper order. They couldn’t really object, and you can’t lock the door to a lawn at night, or move things around when there are seven-foot-tall Atans standing guard over them. I know I’m just a silly servant girl, but that’s the way I’d do it.’

Oscagne was staring at her in absolute horror.