The Shining Ones (19 page)

‘On what charge?’

‘I’m a foreign-service man, Kanzad, so I’m not really up on all these legal terms. I suppose “High Treason” will have to do. That’s the crime they arrested Interior Minister Kolata for, anyway, and I used it again when I had Taubel picked up. It’s an impressive sort of charge, and I’m sure that a man of your standing would be insulted if I had you arrested for loitering or spitting in the street. Atana, love,
do
be a dear and have this criminal taken back to Cynestra and thrown in his own dungeon.’

‘At once, Itagne-ambassador,’ she replied.

‘Darling child,’ he murmured.

‘You favor your brother, your Excellency,’ Vanion said to the smiling Itagne, ‘not only in physical appearance, but also in temperament.’

‘How
is
the old rascal?’

‘He was well, the last time we saw him.’ Vanion frowned. ‘It might have been helpful if he’d told us that he was sending you here, though.’

‘That’s my brother for you. Sometimes I think he tries to keep secrets from himself.’

‘Exactly what happened here, your Excellency?’ Sparhawk asked him.

‘You would be Sir Sparhawk,’ Itagne guessed. ‘Your nose is really famous, you know.’

‘Thank you,’ Kalten said modestly.

Itagne looked puzzled.

‘I broke it for him, your Excellency – when we were children. I knew it was a good idea when I did it. He wears it like a badge. I’m a little disappointed in the fact that he’s never once considered thanking me for the service I did him.’

Itagne smiled. ‘As you’ve probably gathered, gentlemen, Oscagne sent me to Cynestra to look into the rather peculiar situation here. The chain of command in the outer corners of the Empire’s always been a little cloudy. The Foreign Office takes the position that the Elene kingdoms of the west, as well as Valesia, Arjuna and Cynesga, are essentially foreign nations subservient to Tamul proper. This would make the ambassadors to those kingdoms the ultimate authority. Interior has always maintained that those kingdoms are integral parts of metropolitan Tamuli, and that puts
them
in charge. Oscagne and Kolata have been quibbling about it for years now. Ambassador Taubel’s a political hack, and his stunning ability to reach a working accommodation with Interior sort of surprised my brother. That’s why he pulled me out of the university – where I was quite happily putting down roots – and sent me here in the guise of an undersecretary to investigate.’ He laughed. ‘I’ll make sure that he regrets it as much
this
time as he did both other times.’

‘That one escaped me, I’m afraid,’ Sparhawk conceded.

‘This is the third time Oscagne’s wrenched me out of
private life to put out fires for him. I don’t really like being wrenched, so I think I’ll teach him a lesson this time. Maybe if I replace him as Foreign Minister for a while he’ll get the point – if I ever decide to let him have his office back again.’

‘Are you really that good, Itagne?’ Sephrenia asked him.

‘Oh, good God, yes, dear lady. I’m at least twice as good as Oscagne – and he knows it. That’s why my appointments are always temporary. Where was I? Oh, yes. I came to Cynestra, set up a functional apparatus, and found out in fairly short order that Taubel and Kanzad were eating from the same plate. Then I intercepted the instructions Matherion sent to Taubel after the disturbances there. I decided not to trouble him with the distressing news, so I went to the Atan garrison and personally took care of advising our towering friends that the Ministry of the Interior was no longer relevant. They were quite pleased about it, actually. The Atans dislike policemen intensely for some reason. I think it has to do with their national character. I was about ready to move on Kanzad and Taubel when one of my spies brought me word of your impending arrival, so I decided to wait until you got here before I upended things. I must say, Sparhawk, you
really
upset the people in the local office of the Interior Ministry.’

‘Oh?’

‘They were running through the halls screaming, “Sparhawk is coming! Sparhawk is coming!”’

‘He has that effect on people sometimes,’ Flute told him. She looked around at the others. ‘This is the one,’ she told them. ‘We can leave here now.’

Itagne looked baffled.

‘In a moment,’ Sephrenia said to her sister. ‘Itagne, how did Interior find out that we were coming?’

He shrugged. ‘I didn’t really look into that too deeply.
There are all sorts of disgusting people who work for the Interior Ministry. One of them probably flogged four or five horses to death to bring the news.’

‘Quite impossible,’ she said. ‘No one could have gotten here ahead of us by normal means. Could the news have been brought by a Styric?’

‘There aren’t any Styrics in Cynesga, dear lady. The hatred between Cynesgans and Styrics predates history.’

‘Yes, I know. I think you may be wrong, though. I’m almost positive that at least
one
Styric passed through Cynestra just before the people at Interior went into their panic.’

‘How did you arrive at
that
conclusion, little mother?’ Vanion asked her.

‘There’s a Styric working with our enemies,’ she replied. ‘He was in that shadow Sparhawk dissolved back in Edom. Whoever was inside was screaming in Styric, at any rate.’ She frowned. ‘I still don’t understand how he got here before we did, though. He might be a renegade of some kind who has dealings with the Elder Gods. We’ve never really understood the full extent of their power.’

‘Could it be an Elder God himself?’ Bevier asked apprehensively.

‘No,’ Flute said flatly. ‘We imprisoned them all when we overthrew them – in much the same way we imprisoned Azash. The Elder Gods
don’t
move around.’

‘I seem to be missing about half of this conversation,’ Itagne observed. ‘Aren’t some introductions in order at this point?’

‘Sorry, your Excellency,’ Vanion apologized. ‘We weren’t really trying to be mysterious. The lady is obviously Styric. May I present Sephrenia, high priestess of the Goddess Aphrael?’

‘The Child Goddess?’

‘You know of her?’ Sephrenia asked him.

‘Some of my Styric colleagues at the university mentioned her to me. They didn’t really seem to approve of her. They evidently feel that she’s flighty – and a little frivolous.’

‘Flighty?’ Flute objected. ‘
Frivolous?
’

‘Don’t take it personally,’ Sparhawk told her.

‘But it is personal, Sparhawk! They’ve insulted me! When you get back to Matherion, I want you to go to the university and issue a challenge to those impious wretches! I want blood, Sparhawk! Blood!’

‘Human sacrifice, Divine One?’ he asked mildly. ‘Isn’t that a little out of character?’

‘Well…’ She hesitated. ‘Couldn’t you spank them anyway?’

Itagne was staring at them.

‘Disappointing, isn’t it?’ Talen murmured.

To say that Oscagne’s brother was shaken would be a profound understatement. He kept staring at Flute with bulging eyes as they rode eastward from Cynestra.

‘Oh,
do
stop that, Itagne,’ she told him. ‘I’m not going to sprout another head or turn into a gorgon.’

He shuddered and passed one hand across his face. ‘I should probably tell you that I don’t believe in you,’ he said. ‘I’m not trying to be offensive, mind. It’s just that I’m a confirmed skeptic in religious matters.’

‘I’ll bet I can change your mind,’ she suggested with an impish little smile.

‘Stop that,’ Sephrenia told her.

‘He’s a self-confessed agnostic, Sephrenia. That makes him fair game. Besides, I like him. I’ve never had a Tamul worshiper before, and I think I want one. Itagne will do just fine.’

‘No.’

‘I didn’t ask you to buy him for me, Sephrenia. I’ll
coax him out of the bushes all by myself, so you’re not in any way involved. It’s really none of your business, dear sister, so keep your nose out of it.’

‘Does this ever get any easier?’ Itagne plaintively asked the rest of them.

‘No,’ Kalten laughed. ‘You get numb after a while, though. I’ve found that drinking helps.’

‘That’s Kalten’s answer to everything,’ Flute said with an airy little toss of her head. ‘He tries to cure winter with a barrel of Arcian red – every year.’

‘Have we finished here in this part of the Empire?’ Sparhawk asked her.

‘No. Something else is supposed to happen.’ The Child Goddess sighed and nestled against her sister. ‘Please don’t be angry with me, Sephrenia,’ she said. ‘You’re not going to like what’s coming, I’m afraid. It’s necessary, though. No matter how much it upsets you, always remember that I love you.’ She sat up and held her hands out to Sparhawk. ‘I need to talk with you,’ she said to him. ‘…privately.’

‘Secrets?’ Talen asked her.

‘Every girl needs secrets, Talen. You’ll learn more about that as time goes on. Let’s ride off a ways, Sparhawk.’

They rode away from the road for several hundred yards, and then moved on, keeping pace with the others. Faran’s steel-shod hooves clattered on the rusty sun-baked gravel of the desert floor.

‘We’ll be going on toward the Tamul border,’ Flute said as they rode. ‘This event that’s ahead of us will happen there, and I’ll have to leave you before it does.’

‘
Leave?’
He was startled.

‘You’ll be able to manage without me for a while. I can’t be present when this event takes place. There’s a propriety involved. I may be as flighty and frivolous as Itagne suggested, but I
do
have good manners. A certain
personage will be taking part in this affair and he’d be insulted if I were present. He and I have had some disagreements in the past, and we’re not speaking to each other at the moment.’ She made a rueful little face. ‘It’s been quite a lengthy moment,’ she admitted, ‘eight or ten thousand years, actually. He’s doing something I don’t really approve of – of course, he’s never fully explained it to me. I like him well enough, but he’s got a terribly superior attitude. He always behaves as if the rest of us are too stupid to understand what he’s doing – but
I
understand very well. He’s breaking one of the cardinal rules.’ She waved her hand as if brushing it aside. ‘That’s between him and me, though. Look after my sister, Sparhawk. She’s going to have a very difficult time.’

‘She’s not going to get sick, is she?’

‘She’d probably prefer that.’ The Child Goddess sighed. ‘I wish there were some way I could spare her this, but there isn’t. She has to go through it if she’s going to continue to grow.’

‘Aphrael, she’s over three hundred years old.’

‘What’s that got to do with it? I’m a hundred times older than that, and
I’m
still growing. She has to do the same. I’m lovable, Sparhawk, but I never promised to be easy. This is going to be terribly painful to her, but she’ll be much better for having gone through it.’

‘You’re not making any sense, you know.’

‘I don’t have to make sense, father. That’s one of the advantages of my situation.’

They made the journey from Cynestra to the border west of Sarna in easy stages, moving at a leisurely pace from oasis to oasis. Sparhawk could not be positive, but it seemed Aphrael was waiting for something. She and Vanion spent a great deal of time with the map, and their jumps across the sun-baked gravel of eastern Cynesga grew shorter and shorter, and their stays at
the oases longer. As they neared the border, their pace slowed even more, and more often than not they found themselves simply riding, plodding their way eastward through the interminable empty miles without any resort to Bhelliom at all.

‘It’s difficult to get anything very precise,’ Itagne was saying on the afternoon of their fourth day out from Cynestra. ‘Most of the sightings have been made by desert nomads, and they don’t trust the authorities enough to speak with them at any length. There have been the usual wild stories about vampires and werewolves and harpies and the like, but I rather imagine that most of those flew out of the neck of a wine-skin. The Cynesgan authorities laugh most of those off as no more than the hallucinations of ignorant people who drink too much and spend too much time out in the sun. They take the reports of sightings of the Shining Ones very seriously, however.’

‘All right, Itagne,’ Kalten said irritably, ‘we’ve been hearing about these “Shining Ones” ever since we came to Daresia. People turn all trembly and white-knuckled and refuse to talk about them. We’ve got you way out here in the desert where you can’t run away, so why don’t you tell us just who – or what – they are.’

‘It’s really quite grotesque, Sir Kalten,’ Itagne told him, ‘and more than a little sickening.’

‘I’ve got a strong stomach. Are they some kind of monster? Twelve feet tall and with nine heads or something?’

‘No. Actually they’re supposed to look like ordinary humans.’

‘Why are they called by that peculiar name?’ Berit asked.

‘Why don’t you let
me
ask the questions, Berit?’ Kalten said bluntly. Kalten, it appeared, still had problems where Berit was concerned.

‘Excuse me, Sir Kalten,’ Berit replied, looking just a bit startled and slightly hurt.

‘Well?’ Kalten said to Oscagne’s brother. ‘What does it mean? Why are they called that?’

‘Because they glow like fireflies, Sir Kalten.’ Itagne shrugged.

‘That’s all?’ Kalten asked incredulously. ‘The whole continent collapses in terror just because some people glow in the dark?’

‘Of course not. The fact that they glow is just a warning. Everybody in Tamuli knows that when he sees someone who shines like the morning star coming toward him, he’d better turn round and run for his life.’

‘What are these monsters supposed to be able to do?’ Talen asked. ‘Do they eat people alive or tear them all to pieces or something?’

‘No,’ Itagne replied somberly. ‘The legend has it that their merest touch is death.’

‘Sort of like poisonous snakes?’ Khalad suggested.

‘Much worse than that, young sir. The touch of the Shining Ones rots a man’s flesh from his bones. It’s the decay of the grave, and the victim isn’t dead when it happens. The descriptions from folk-lore are very lurid. We’re given pictures of people standing stock-still, shrieking in agony and horror as their faces and limbs dissolve into slime and run like melted wax.’