The Hidden City

Betuana are bringing Engessa in on a litter.’
    ‘Do you mean there’s somebody in this world big enough to hurt Engessa?’
    ‘Perhaps not in this world, Itagne,’ Aphrael told him. ‘Klael’s brought in an army from someplace else. They’re very strange. Vanion and Betuana should get here this afternoon. Then Betuana has to go to Atan. How far is that?’
    Itagne looked at the map. ‘Fifteen leagues.’
    ‘Good. It shouldn’t take her long, then. She has to get her God’s permission for me to take Engessa to the island. The side of his head’s been bashed in, and I can’t fix that here.’
    ‘Good God!’ Itagne exclaimed.
    ‘How nice of you to notice.’
    He smiled faintly. ‘What else is going on?’ he asked.
    ‘Quite a bit,’ Sparhawk told him. ‘Zalasta tried to kill Sephrenia.’
    ‘You’re not serious!’
    ‘I’m afraid so. We had to use Bhelliom to save her life.’
    ‘Sparhawk!’ Itagne’s eyes widened.
    ‘It’s all right, Itagne,’ Aphrael assured him, going across the room to him and holding out her hands.
    ‘Didn’t that endanger Queen Ehlana?’ he asked, lifting her into his lap.
    Sparhawk shook his head. ‘Xanetia can muffle those telltale noises, I guess. Ehlana’s still safe—or so Bhelliom tells me.’ His face, however, was worried.
    ‘Thank God!’
    ‘You’re welcome,’ Aphrael said, ‘but it was really Bhelliom’s idea. We still have some problems, though. Vanion’s encounter with Klael’s army cost him about half of his knights.’
    ‘That’s disastrous! We won’t be able to hold Samar without those knights!’
    ‘Don’t be quite so sure, Itagne,’ she said. ‘I just received a garbled message from a Pandion named Anosian. He’s in Samar, and Kring and Tikume have discovered something about Klael’s soldiers. I’ll run down there and find out what’s going on.’
    ‘Ulath’s keeping an eye on Berit and Khalad,’ Sparhawk continued. ‘They saw him while they were crossing the Sea of Arjun.’ He rubbed at the side of his face. ‘Can you think of anything else, Aphrael?’
    ‘Lots of things,’ she replied, ‘but they don’t have anything to do with what we’re doing here.’ She kissed Itagne and slipped down out of his lap. ‘I shouldn’t be too long,’ she told them. ‘If Vanion gets here before I come back, break the news about Sephrenia to him gently and tell him that she’s all right now. Keep a grip on him, gentlemen. It’s wintertime, and you need the roof on this building.’ She went to the door, opened it, and vanished as she stepped through.
    Tiara lay on the north shore of the large lake known as the Sea of Arjun. It was a bustling Tamul town with an extensive harbor. As soon as the scruffy lake-freighter docked, Berit and Khalad led their horses ashore and mounted. ‘What was the name of that inn again?’ Khalad asked.
    ‘The White Gull,’ Berit replied.
    ‘oehc,’ Khalad noted.
    ‘The other names had probably already been used up. You can only have so many lions and dragons and boars in one town before people start to get confused.’
    ‘Krager’s starting to give us more specific instructions in those notes,’ Khalad said. ‘When he sent us to Sepal, he just gave us the name of the town. Now he’s picking our accommodations for us. That might mean that we’re getting closer to the end of this little excursion.’
    ‘Sir Ulath said that they’re going to send us to Arjuna from here.’
    ‘If I’d known we were going to spend so much time wandering around this lake, I’d have brought a fishing line.’
    ‘I’m not really all that fond of fish, myself.’
    ‘Who is? It’s an excuse to get out of the house is about all. My brothers and I found that if we laid around the house too long, our mothers started finding things for us to do.’
    ‘You’ve got a strange family, Khalad. Most men only have one mother.’
    ‘It was Father’s idea. There’s the White Gull.’ Khalad pointed up the street.
    The inn was surprisingly clean and substantial. It had a well-maintained stable, and the rooms were neat almost to the point of fussiness. The two young men saw to their horses, dropped their saddlebags off in their room, and took advantage of the bath-house adjoining the rear of the inn. Then, feeling much improved, they adjourned to the taproom to pass the time until supper. Khalad rose and closely examined the porcelain stove.
    ‘It’s an interesting idea,’ he told Berit. ‘I wonder if it’d