‘Is he nearby, Your Majesty?’ Sephrenia asked the King of Thalesia, her eyes strangely intent.

‘I think so, little lady,’ Wargun belched. ‘He said something about wanting to make a report to the Patriarch of Kadach. He’s probably out there in the hall somewhere.’

‘Do you suppose we might ask him a few questions?’

‘Is it really important, Sephrenia?’ Dolmant asked her.

‘Yes, Your Grace,’ she replied, ‘I think it might be. There’s something I’d like to verify.’

‘You,’ Wargun said sharply to one of the soldiers standing at the door, ‘see if you can find that seedy-looking Lamork who’s been trailing after us. Tell him to come in here.’

‘At once, Your Majesty.’

‘Naturally “at once”. I gave an order, didn’t I? All my orders are obeyed at once.’ King Wargun was already on his fourth tankard of ale, and his grip on civility was beginning to slip. ‘Anyway,’ he went on, ‘the fellow arrived at that castle I was besieging no more than two weeks ago. After I read his message, I gathered up the army and we all came here.’

The Lamork who was escorted into the room was, as Wargun had said, a bit on the seedy-looking side. He was obviously neither a warrior nor Churchman. He had thin, lank, dun-coloured hair and a big nose.

‘Ah, Eck,’ Patriarch Ortzel said, recognizing one of his servants. ‘I should have guessed that you’d have been the one to make it through. My friends, this is one of my servants – Eck by name – a very sneaky fellow, I’ve found. He’s most useful when stealth is required.’

‘I don’t think stealth had much to do with it this time, Your Grace,’ Eck admitted. He had a nasal sort of voice that seemed to go with his face. ‘As soon as we saw your signal, we all rode off to the west as fast as our horses could run. We started to run into ambushes before we even reached the Arcian border, though. That’s when we decided to split up. We thought that one of us at least might get through. Personally, I didn’t have much hope of that. There seemed to be a man with a longbow behind every tree. Anyway, I hid out in a ruined castle near Darra to think things over. I couldn’t see any way to get your message through at all. I didn’t know where King Wargun was, and I didn’t dare ask any travellers for fear that they were some of the men who’d been killing my friends.’

‘Perilous situation,’ Darellon said.