‘As a matter of fact, I have,’ Abriel said, ‘and that’s exactly what I’m talking about. As Sir Sparhawk told us yesterday, this Martel couldn’t believe that we’d abandon the outer city without a fight, so he didn’t take it into account when he made his plans. He made no attempt to keep his scouts out of the city, and those scouts are just the forerunners of the main body of looters. As soon as his scouts found that the city was unprotected, they rushed in to loot the houses and most of the rest of the army followed. Martel’s completely lost control of his forces now, and he won’t regain it until the outer city is picked clean. Not only that, as soon as his soldiers have as much as they can carry, they’ll begin to desert.’

‘I cannot encourage theft,’ Patriarch Ortzel said rigidly, ‘but under the circumstances –’ A faint, almost sly smile touched his thin lips.

‘Wealth needs to be redistributed from time to time, Ortzel,’ Emban pontificated. ‘People with too much money have too much time to think up assorted sins to commit. Perhaps this is God’s way of restoring the filthy rich to a condition of wholesome poverty.’

‘I wonder if you’d feel the same way if your own house were being looted.’

‘That might influence my opinion, all right,’ Emban conceded.

‘God’s ways are mysterious,’ Bevier said devoutly. ‘We had no choice but to abandon the outer city, and that may be the one thing that will save us.’

‘I don’t think we can count on enough desertions from Martel’s ranks to grow complacent, gentlemen,’ Vanion said. ‘The rampage of his troops will gain us some time, I’ll grant you.’ He looked around at the other Preceptors. ‘A week, perhaps?’ he asked.

‘At the very most,’ Komier said. ‘There are a lot of men out there, and they’re very busy. It’s not going to take them all that long to strip the city.’

‘And that’s when the killing’s going to start,’ Kalten said. ‘As you said, Lord Komier, there are a lot of men out there, and I’m fairly sure that not all of them got into the city. The ones who are still outside are just as greedy as the ones who got here first. It’s going to be chaotic for a while, I think, and it’s going to take Martel quite a bit longer to regain control. ’

‘He’s probably right,’ Komier grunted. ‘Either way, we’ve got some time. There are four gates into the inner city here, and most of them aren’t much better than the ones in the outer wall. One gate’s easier to defend than four, so why don’t we fix it that way?’