The Hidden City

able to make Berit look so much like Sparhawk that they’ll be able to use each other for shaving mirrors.’
    ‘As long as each of us knows exactly what the other’s doing, it’s not too difficult, Sparhawk,’ Sephrenia assured him later when he and Berit joined her, Vanion and the Anarae in the room she shared with Vanion.
    ‘Will it really work?’ he asked her dubiously.
    ‘They haven’t actually tried it yet, Sparhawk,’ Vanion told him, ‘so we’re not entirely positive.’
    ‘That doesn’t sound too promising. This isn’t much of a face, but it’s the only one I’ve got.’
    ‘There will be no danger to thee or to young Sir Berit, Anakha,’ Xanetia said. ‘In times past it hath oft been necessary for my people to leave our valley and to go abroad amongst others. This hath been our means of disguising our true identity.’
    ‘It works sort of like this, Sparhawk,’ Sephrenia explained. ‘Xanetia casts a Delphaeic spell that would normally imprint your features on her own face, but just as she releases her spell, I release a Styric one that deflects the spell to Berit instead.’
    ‘Won’t every Styric in Matherion feel it when you release your spell?’ Sparhawk asked.
    ‘That’s the beauty of it, Sparhawk,’ Aphrael told him. “The spell itself originates with Xanetia, and others can’t feel or hear a Delphaeic spell. Cyrgon himself could be in the next room and he wouldn’t hear a thing.’
    ‘You’re sure it’s going to work?’
    ‘There’s one way to find out.’
    Sparhawk, of course, did not feel a thing. He was only the model, after all. It was a bit disconcerting to watch Berit’s appearance gradually change, however. When the combined spell had been completed, Sparhawk carefully inspected his young friend. ‘Do I really look like that from the side?’ he asked Vanion, feeling a bit deflated.
    ‘I can’t tell the two of you apart.’
    ‘That nose is really crooked, isn’t it?’
    ‘We thought you knew.’
    ‘I’ve never looked at myself from the side this way before.’ Sparhawk looked critically at Berit’s eyes. ‘You should probably try to squint just a little,’ he suggested. ‘My eyes aren’t as good as they used to be. That’s one of the things you have to look forward to as you get older.’
    ‘I’ll try to remember that.’ Even Berit’s voice was different.
    ‘Do I really sound like that?’ Sparhawk was crestfallen. Vanion nodded. Sparhawk shook his head. ‘Seeing and hearing yourself as others do definitely lowers your opinion of yourself,’ he admitted.
    He looked at Berit again. ‘I didn’t feel anything, did you?’
    Berit nodded, swallowing hard.
    ‘What was it like?’
    ‘I’d really rather not talk about it.’ Berit gently explored his new face with cringing fingertips, wincing as he did.
    ‘I still can’t tell them apart,’ Kalten marveled, staring first at Berit and then at Sparhawk.
    ‘That was sort of the idea,’ Sparhawk told him.
    ‘Which one are you?’
    ‘Try to be serious, Kalten.’
    ‘Now that we know how it’s done, we can make some other changes as well,’ Sephrenia told them. ‘We’ll give you all different faces so that you’ll be able to move around freely—and we’ll put men wearing your faces here in the palace. I think we can all expect to be watched, even after the Harvest Festival, and this should nullify that particular problem.’
    ‘We can make more detailed plans later,’ Vanion said. ‘Let’s get Berit and Khalad on their way first. What’s the customary route when someone wants to go overland from here to Beresa?’ He unrolled a map and spread it out on the table.
    ‘Most travelers go by sea,’ Oscagne replied, ‘but those who don’t usually cross the peninsula to Micae and then take a ship across the gulf to the mainland.’
    ‘There don’t seem to be any roads over there,’ Vanion frowned, looking at the map.
    ‘It’s a relatively uninhabited region, Lord Vanion,’ Oscagne shrugged, ‘salt marshes and the like. What few tracks there are wouldn’t show up on the map.’
    ‘Do the best you can,’ Vanion told the two young men. ‘Once you get past the Tamul Mountains, you’ll hit that road that skirts the western side of the jungle.’
    ‘I’d make a special point of staying out of those mountains, Berit,’ Ulath advised. ‘There are Trolls there now.’
    Berit nodded.
    ‘You’d better have a talk with Faran, Sparhawk,’ Khalad suggested. ‘I don’t think