Flute rolled her eyes at him, then generously held out her hands to permit him to help her down.

Chapter 24

The voyage across the mouth of the Arcian Strait passed without incident. They ran northeasterly under clear skies with a fair following breeze and with the other ships of Voren’s flotilla clustered about them protectively.

About noon on the third day out, Sparhawk came up on deck to join Sephrenia in the bow where she and Flute stood looking out over the sparkling waves. ‘Are you still cross with me?’ he asked her.

She sighed. ‘No. I suppose not.’

Sparhawk was not entirely certain how to put his vague sense of unease into words, so he approached it obliquely. ‘Sephrenia,’ he said, ‘did it seem to you that everything in Dabour went just a little too smoothly? I somehow get the feeling that I’m being led around by the nose again.’

‘How do you mean, exactly?’

‘I know you tampered with Arasham a few times that night, but did you do anything to Martel?’

‘No. He’d have felt it if I’d tried and he’d have countered me.’

‘That’s what I thought. What was wrong with him then?’

‘I’m not sure I follow you.’

‘He acted almost like a schoolboy. We both know Martel. He’s intelligent, and he thinks very fast on his feet. What I did was so obvious that he should have seen through it almost immediately, but he didn’t do a thing. He just stood there like an idiot and let me pull his whole scheme down around his ears. It was just too easy, and that worries me.’

‘He didn’t really expect to see us in Arasham’s tent, Sparhawk. Maybe the surprise threw him off balance.’

‘Martel doesn’t surprise all that easily.’

She frowned. ‘No,’ she admitted, ‘he doesn’t, does he?’ She thought about it. ‘Do you remember what Lord Darellon was saying before we left Cimmura?’

‘Not exactly, no.’

‘He said that Annias behaved like a simpleton when he presented his case to the Elene kings. He announced the death of Count Radun without even verifying the fact that the count had really died.’

‘Oh, yes, now I remember. And you said that the whole scheme – the attempt to murder the count and to lay the blame on the Pandions might have originated with a Styric magician.’