The Hidden City

mused. ‘There are messages going back and forth, so somebody here in Natayos has to know the way. Sparhawk’s right. Why don’t we let Xanetia do the poking around here, instead of the lot of us going off into the desert to dodge scorpions and snakes while we turn over pebbles and grains of sand?’
    ‘We stay here then?’ Tynian asked.
    ‘For the time being,’’ Sparhawk replied. ‘Let’s not do anything to attract attention until we find out what Xanetia can discover. That’s our best option at the moment.’
    ‘We were so close.’ Kalten fumed. ‘If we’d just gotten here a day or two earlier.”
    ‘Well, we didn’t,’ Sparhawk said flatly, forcing back his own disappointment and frustration. ‘So let’s make the best of it and salvage what we can.’
    ‘With Zalasta getting further and further away with every minute,’ Kalten added bitterly.
    ‘Don’t worry, Kalten,’ Sparhawk told him in a tone as cold as death. ‘Zalasta can’t run far enough or fast enough to get away from me when I decide to go after him.’
    ‘Are you busy, Sarabian?’ Empress Elysoun asked tentatively from the doorway of the blue-draped room.
    ‘Not really, Elysoun,’ he sighed. ‘Just brooding. I’ve had a great deal of bad news in the last day or so.’
    ‘I’ll come back some other time. You’re not much fun when you’ve got things on your mind.’
    ‘Is that all there is in the world, Elysoun?’ he asked her sadly. ‘Only fun?’
    Her sunny expression tightened slightly, and she stepped into the room. ‘That’s what you married us for in the first place, wasn’t it, Sarabian?’ She spoke in crisp Tamul that was not at all like her usual relaxed Valesian dialect. ‘Our marriages to you were to cement political alliances, so we’re here as symbols, playthings, and ornaments. We’re certainly not a part of the government.’
    He was rather startled by her perception and by the sudden change in her. It was easy to underestimate Elysoun. Her single-minded pursuit of pleasure and the aggressively revealing nature of her native dress proclaimed her to be an empty-headed sensualist, but this was a completely different Elysoun. He looked at her with new interest. ‘What have you been up to lately, my love?’ he asked her fondly.
    ‘The usual,’ she shrugged.
    He averted his eyes. ‘Please don’t do that.’
    ‘Do what?’
    ‘Bounce that way. It’s very distracting.’
    ‘It’s supposed to be. You don’t think I dress this way because I’m too lazy to put on clothes, do you?’
    ‘Is that why you came by? For fun? Or was there something more tedious?’ They had never talked this way before, and her sudden frankness intrigued him.
    ‘Let’s talk about the tedious things first,’ she said. She looked at him critically. ‘You need to get more sleep,’ she chided.
    ‘I wish I could. I’ve got too much on my mind.’
    ‘I’ll have to see what I can do about that.’ She paused. ‘There’s something going on in the Women’s Palace, Sarabian.’
    ‘Oh?’
    ‘A lot of strangers have been mingling with the assorted lapdogs and toadies that litter the halls.’
    He laughed. ‘That’s a blunt way to describe courtiers.’
    ‘Aren’t they? There’s not a real man among them. They’re in the palace to help us with our schemes. You did know that we spend our days plotting against each other, didn’t you?’
    He shrugged. ‘It gives you all something to do in your spare time.’
    ‘That’s the only kind of time we have, my husband. All of our time is spare time, Sarabian, that’s what’s wrong with us. Anyway, these strangers aren’t attached to any of the established courts.’
    ‘Are you sure?’
    Her answering smile was wicked. ‘Trust me. I’ve had dealings with all the regular ones. They’re all little more than butterflies. These strangers are wasps.’
    He gave her an amused look. ‘Have you actually winnowed your way through all the courtiers in the Women’s Palace?’
    ‘More or less.’ She shrugged again—quite deliberately, he thought. ‘Actually it was rather boring. Courtiers are a tepid lot, but it was a way to keep track of what was going on.’
    ‘Then it wasn’t entirely—?’
    ‘A little, perhaps, but I have to take steps to protect myself. Our politics are subtle, but they’re very savage.’
    ‘Are these strangers Tamuls?’
    ‘Some are. Some aren’t.’
    ‘How long has this been going on?’
    ‘Since we all moved back to the