‘I’ve seen them training in the courtyard outside their barracks, Vanion,’ Dolmant said patiently. ‘I still remember enough of my own training to recognize professionals when I see them.’

‘How many of them are there, Your Grace?’ Sparhawk asked.

‘Three hundred,’ the Patriarch replied. ‘As the Archprelate’s personal guard, they’re wholly committed to the defence of the Basilica.’ Dolmant leaned back in his chair, tapping his fingertips together. ‘I don’t see that we have much choice, Vanion,’ he said. His lean, ascetic face seemed almost to glow in the candlelight. ‘must have some evidence of the collusion between Annias and Martel. If we can do that, we turn it around. The burning of the palaces becomes Annias’s fault instead of ours.’ He looked at Sephrenia then. ‘I’m going to have to ask you to do something, little mother,’ he said.

‘Of course, Dolmant.’ She smiled at him fondly.

‘I can’t even ask you officially,’ he said with a rueful smile, ‘because it has to do with things I’m not supposed to believe in any more.’

‘Ask me as a former Pandion, dear one,’ she suggested. ‘That way we can both ignore the fact that you’ve fallen in with evil companions.’

‘Thank you,’ he said dryly. ‘Is there some way you can collapse that aqueduct without actually being in the cellar?’

‘I can take care of that, your Grace,’ Sparhawk offered. ‘I can use Bhelliom.’

‘No, actually you can’t,’ Sephrenia reminded him. ‘You don’t have both rings.’ She looked back at Dolmant. ‘I can do what you ask,’ she told him, ‘but Sparhawk will have to be in the cellar. I can channel the spell through him.’

‘Better and better, actually,’ Dolmant said. ‘Vanion, see what you think of this. You and I talk with Colonel Delada, the commander of the Archprelate’s guard. We put his guardsmen in the cellar under the command of somebody reliable.’

‘Kurik?’ Sparhawk suggested.

‘The very man,’ Dolmant approved. ‘I suspect that I’d still obey automatically if Kurik barked an order at me.’ Dolmant paused. ‘Why didn’t you ever knight him, Vanion?’

‘Because of his class prejudices, Dolmant,’ Vanion laughed. ‘Kurik believes that knights are frivolous, empty-headed men. Sometimes I almost think he’s right.’

‘All right then,’ Dolmant continued. ‘We put Kurik and the guardsmen in the cellar to wait for Martel – well out of sight of course. What’s likely to be the first sign that Martel’s main assault on our walls is starting?’

‘Boulders dropping out of the sky, I’d say, wouldn’t you, Sparhawk? That’ll be the sign that his mangonels are in place. He won’t start his attack until he’s sure that they’re working properly.’

‘And that would be the most probable time for him to start through the aqueduct, wouldn’t it?’