The tears were streaming openly down Sparhawk’s face, and Sephrenia gently enfolded his head in her arms, holding him to her. ‘It is not easy, Sparhawk,’ she comforted him. ‘To look thus into the fire opens the heart and allows what we really are to emerge You are gentler far than you would have us believe.’

He wiped at his eyes with the back of his hand. ‘How long will the crystal sustain her?’ he asked.

‘For as long as the thirteen of us who were there continue to live,’ Sephrenia replied. ‘A year at most, as you Elenes measure time.’

He stared at her

‘It is our life force that keeps her heart alive As the seasons turn, we will one by one drop away, and one of us who was there will then have to assume the burden of the fallen. Eventually when we have each and every one given all we can – your Queen will die’

‘No!’ he said fiercely He looked at Vanion. ‘Were you there, too?’

Vanion nodded.

‘Who else?’

‘It wouldn’t serve any purpose for you to know that, Sparhawk. We all went willingly and we knew what was involved.’

‘Who’s going to take up the burden you mentioned?’ Sparhawk asked Sephrenia. ‘I will.’

‘We’re still arguing that point,’ Vanion disagreed. ‘Any one of us who were there can do it, actually.’

‘Not unless we modify the spell, Vanion,’ she told him just a bit smugly. ‘We’ll see,’ he said.

‘But what good does it do?’ Sparhawk demanded. ‘All you’ve done is to give her a year more of life at a dreadful cost – and she doesn’t even know.’

‘If we can isolate the cause of her illness and find a cure, the spell can be reversed,’ Sephrenia replied. ‘We have suspended her life to give us time.’

‘Are we making any progress?’

‘I’ve got every physician in Elenia working on it,’ Vanion said, ‘and I’ve summoned others from various parts of Eosia. Sephrenia’s looking into the possibility that the illness may not be of natural origin. We’ve encountered some resistance, though. The court physicians refuse to co-operate.’

‘I’ll go back to the palace then,’ Sparhawk said bleakly. ‘Perhaps I can persuade them to be more helpful.’

‘We thought of that already, but Annias has them all closely guarded.’

‘What is Annias up to?’ Sparhawk burst out angrily ‘All we want to do is to restore Ehlana. Why is he putting all these stumbling blocks in our path? Does he want the throne for himself?’

‘I think he has his eyes on a bigger throne,’ Vanion said. ‘The Archprelate Cluvonus is old and in poor health. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if Annias believed that the mitre of the Archprelacy might fit him.’

‘Annias? Archprelate? Vanion, that’s an absurdity.’