Krager laughed again. ‘Only an idiot would carry that kind of message. He’d have a dozen knives in him as soon as he finished talking.’

‘You are suspicious, aren’t you, Krager?’

‘Better suspicious than dead, and the people Martel will hire are likely all to feel pretty much the same way. You’d better tell me a little more about this scheme, Harparin.’

‘You don’t need to know any more.’

‘Martel will. He won’t be a cat’s-paw for anybody.’

Harparin muttered an oath. ‘All right then. The Pandions have been interfering with the primate’s activities. This atrocity will give him an excuse to confine them in their motherhouse at Demos again. Then he will personally carry a report of the affair to Chyrellos to lay before the Church Hierocracy and the Archprelate himself. They will have no choice but to disband the Pandion Order. The leaders – Vanion, Sparhawk, and the others – will be imprisoned in the dungeons beneath the Basilica of Chyrellos. No man has ever come out of those dungeons alive.’

‘Martel will like that idea.’

‘Annias thought that he might. The Styric woman, Sephrenia, will be burned as a witch, of course.’

‘We’ll be well rid of her.’ There was another pause. ‘There’s more, isn’t there?’ Krager added.

Harparin did not answer.

‘Don’t be coy, Harparin,’ Krager told him. ‘If I can see through all this, you can be sure that Martel will, too. Let’s have the rest of it.’

‘All right.’ Harparin’s voice was sullen. ‘The Pandions are likely to resist confinement and they’ll certainly try to protect their leaders. At that point, the army will move against them. That will give Annias and the Royal Council an excuse to declare a state of emergency and to suspend certain laws.’

‘Which laws are those?’

‘The ones having to do with the succession to the throne. Elenia will technically be in a state of war, and Ehlana is obviously in no condition to deal with that. She’ll abdicate in favour of her cousin, the Prince Regent Lycheas.’

‘Arissa’s bastard – the sniveller?’

‘Legitimacy can be bestowed by a decree of the council, and I’d really watch what I say about Lycheas, Krager. Disrespect for the King is high treason, and it can be made retroactive, you know.’

There was an apprehensive silence. ‘Wait a minute,’ Krager said then. ‘I’ve heard that Ehlana’s unconscious – and sealed in some kind of crystal.’

‘That’s no particular problem.’

‘How can she sign the instrument of abdication?’

Harparin laughed. ‘There’s a monk at the monastery near Lenda. He’s been practising the Queen’s signature for a month now. He’s very good.’

‘Clever. What happens to her after she abdicates?’

‘As soon as Lycheas is crowned King, we’ll give her a splendid funeral.’

‘But she’s still alive, isn’t she?’

‘So? If need be, we’ll entomb her throne and all.’