‘Annias found out what we’d done here, of course. There are members of the Hierocracy who are loyal to him, and they all have their own troops. He borrowed some of those men and sent them here. They freed Lycheas and imprisoned the Earl of Lenda. They control the city at the moment.’

‘We ought to do something about that.’

Vanion nodded. ‘We were on our way to Demos with the other orders when we chanced to find out what was happening here. The other orders went on to Demos to be in position to move on Chyrellos and we came here to Cimmura. We only arrived late last night. The knights were all eager to go into the city as soon as we got here, but we’ve been campaigning hard, and they’re all tired. I want them to be a little better rested before we correct things inside the walls.’

‘Are we likely to have any problems?’

‘I doubt it. Those church soldiers aren’t Annias’s men. They’re on loan from the other Patriarchs, and their loyalties are a little vague. I think a show of force is probably about all it’s going to take to make them capitulate.’

‘Are the remaining six knights who were involved in the spell in the throne-room among your hundred?’ Sephrenia asked him.

‘Yes,’ Vanion replied a little wanly. ‘We’re all here.’ He looked at the Pandion sword she was carrying. ‘Do you want to give me that?’ he asked.

‘No,’ she said firmly. ‘You’re carrying enough already. It isn’t going to be much longer anyway.’

‘You’re going to reverse the spell?’ Tynian asked, ‘– before you use Bhelliom to cure the queen, I mean?’

‘We have to,’ she told him. ‘Bhelliom has to touch her skin in order to cure her.’

Kalten went to the window. ‘It’s late afternoon now,’ he said. ‘If we’re going to do this today, we’d better get started.’

‘Let’s wait until morning,’ Vanion decided. ‘If the soldiers try to resist, it might take a while to subdue them, and I don’t want any of those people slipping away in the dark to warn Annias until we’ve had time to get reinforcements here.’

‘How many soldiers are at the palace?’ Sparhawk asked.

‘My spies report a couple of hundred,’ Vanion replied, ‘hardly enough to cause us any problems.’

‘We’re going to have to come up with a way to seal the city for a few days if we don’t want to see a relief column wearing red tunics coming up the river,’ Ulath said.

‘I can take care of that,’ Talen told him. ‘I’ll slip into town just before dark and go and talk to Platime. He’ll seal the gates for us.’

‘Can he be trusted?’ Vanion asked.

‘Platime? Of course not, but I think he’ll do that much for us. He hates Annias.’