‘Then no one is really in charge here in Eosia? No one has the absolute authority to make final decisions?’
‘It’s a responsibility we share, your Excellency,’ Ehlana explained. ‘We enjoy sharing things, don’t we Sarathi?’
‘Of course.’ Dolmant said it without much enthusiasm.
‘The rough-and-tumble, give-and-take nature of Eosian politics have a certain utility, your Excellency,’ Stragen drawled. ‘Consensus politics gives us the advantage of bringing together a wide range of views.’
‘In Tamuli, we feel that having only one view is far less confusing.’
‘The Emperor’s view? What happens when the emperor happens to be an idiot? Or a madman?’
‘The government usually works around him,’ Oscagne admitted blandly. ‘Such imperial misfortunes seldom live very long for some reason, however.’
‘Ah,’ Stragen said.
‘Perhaps we should get down to work,’ Emban said. He crossed the room to a large map of the known world hanging on the wall. ‘The fastest way to travel is by sea,’ he noted. ‘We could sail from Madel in Cammoria out through the Inner Sea and then around the southern tip of Daresia and then up the east coast to Matherion.’
‘We?’ Sir Tynian asked.
‘Oh, didn’t I tell you?’ Emban said. I’ll be going along. Ostensibly, I’ll be Queen Ehlana’s spiritual advisor. In actuality, I’ll be the Archprelate’s personal envoy.’
‘It’s probably wiser to keep the Elenian flavour of the expedition,’ Dolmant explained, ‘for public consumption, anyway. Let’s not complicate things by sending two separate missions to Matherion simultaneously.’
Sparhawk had to move quickly, and he didn’t have much to work with. ‘Travelling by ship has certain advantages,’ he conceded, ‘but I think there’s a major drawback.’
‘Oh?’ Emban said.
‘It satisfies the requirements of a state visit, right enough, but it doesn’t do very much to address our real reason for going to Tamuli. Your Excellency, what’s likely to happen when we reach Matherion?’
‘The usual,’ Oscagne shrugged. ‘Audiences, banquets, reviewing troops, concerts, that giddy round of meaningless activity we all adore.’
‘Precisely,’ Sparhawk agreed. ‘And we won’t really get anything done, will we?’
‘Probably not.’
‘But we aren’t going to Tamuli for a month-long carouse. What we’re really going there for is to find out what’s behind all the upheaval. We need information, not entertainment, and the information’s probably out in the hinterlands, not in the capital. I think we should find some reason to go across country.’ It was a practical suggestion, and it rather neatly concealed Sparhawk’s real reason for wanting to go overland.
Emban’s expression was pained. ‘We’d be on the road for months that way.’
‘We can get as much done as we’ll accomplish in Matherion by staying home, your Grace. We have to get outside the Capital.’
Emban groaned. ‘You’re absolutely bent on making me ride a horse all the way from here to Matherion, aren’t you, Sparhawk?’
‘You could stay home, your Grace,’ Sparhawk suggested. ‘We could always take Patriarch Bergsten instead. He’d be better in a fight anyway.’
‘That will do, Sparhawk,’ Dolmant said firmly.
‘Consensus politics are very interesting, Milord Stragen,’ Oscagne observed. ‘In Matherion, we’d have followed the course suggested by the Primate of Ucera without any further discussion. We try to avoid raising the possibility of alternatives whenever possible.’
‘Welcome to Eosia, your Excellency,’ Stragen smiled.
‘Permission to speak?’ Khalad said politely.
‘Of course,’ Dolmant replied.
Khalad rose, went to the map and began measuring distance. ‘A good horse can cover ten leagues a day, and a good ship can cover thirty – if the wind holds.’ He frowned and looked around. ‘Why is Talen never around when you need him?’ he muttered. ‘He can compute these numbers in his head. I have to count them up on my fingers.’
‘He said he had something to take care of,’ Berit told him.
Khalad grunted. ‘All we’re really interested in is what’s going on in Daresia, so there’s no need to ride across Eosia. We could sail from Madel the way Patriarch Emban suggested, go out through the Inner Sea and then up the east coast of Zemoch to –’ He looked at the map and then pointed. ‘To Salesha here. That’s nine hundred leagues – thirty days. If we were to follow the roads, it’d probably be the same distance overland, but that would take us ninety days. We’d save two months at least.’
‘Well,’ Emban conceded grudgingly, ‘that’s something, anyway.’
Sparhawk was fairly sure that they could save much more than sixty days. He looked across the room at his daughter, who was playing with her kitten under Mirtai’s watchful eye. Princess Danae was quite frequently present at conferences where she had no real business. People did not question her presence for some reason. Sparhawk knew that the Child Goddess Aphrael could tamper with the passage of time, but he was not entirely certain that she could manage it so undetectably in her present incarnation as she had when she had been Flute.
Princess Danae looked back at him and rolled her eyes upward with a resigned expression that spoke volumes about his limited understanding, and then she gravely nodded her head.
Sparhawk breathed somewhat easier after that. ‘Now we come to the question of the queen’s security,’ he continued. ‘Ambassador Oscagne, how large a retinue could my wife take with her without raising eyebrows?’
‘The conventions are a little vague on that score, Sir Sparhawk.’
Sparhawk looked around at his friends. ‘If I thought I could get away with it, I’d take the whole body of the militant orders with me,’ he said.
‘We’ve defined our trip as a visit, Sparhawk,’ Tynian said, ‘not an invasion. Would a hundred armoured knights alarm his Imperial Majesty, your Excellency?’
‘It’s a symbolic sort of number,’ Oscagne agreed after a moment’s consideration, ‘large enough for show, but not so large as to appear threatening. We’ll be going through Astel, and you can pick up an escort of Atans in the capitol at Darsas. A sizeable escort for a state visitor shouldn’t raise too many eyebrows.’
‘Twenty-five knights from each order, wouldn’t you think, Sparhawk?’ Bevier suggested. ‘The differences in our equipment and the colours of our surcoats would make the knights appear more ceremonial than utilitarian. A hundred Pandions by themselves might cause concern in some quarters.’
‘Good idea,’ Sparhawk agreed.
‘You can bring more if you want, Sparhawk,’ Mirtai told him. ‘There are Peloi on the steppes of Central Astel. They’re the descendants of Kring’s ancestors. He might just want to visit his cousins in Daresia.’
‘Ah yes,’ Oscagne said, ‘the Peloi. I’d forgotten that you had those wild-men here in Eosia too. They’re an excitable and sometimes unreliable people. Are you certain that this Kring person would be willing to accompany us?’
‘Kring would ride into fire if I asked him to,’ Mirtai replied confidently.
‘The Domi is much taken with our Mirtai, your Excellency,’ Ehlana smiled. ‘He comes to Cimmura three or four times a year to propose marriage to her.’
‘The Peloi are warriors, Atana,’ Oscagne noted. ‘You would not demean yourself in the eyes of your people were you to accept him.’
‘Husbands take their wives more or less for granted, Oscagne,’ Mirtai pointed out with a mysterious little smile. ‘A suitor, on the other hand, is much more attentive, and I rather enjoy Kring’s attentions. He writes very nice poetry. He compared me to a golden sunrise once. I thought that was rather nice.’
‘You never wrote any poetry for me, Sparhawk,’ Ehlana accused her husband.
‘The Elene language is limited, my Queen,’ he responded. ‘It has no words which could do you justice.’
‘Nice try,’ Kalten murmured.
