‘Not really, Vanion,’ Sephrenia disagreed. ‘Aldreas was under the thumb of the Primate, but in his heart he knew that what he was doing was wrong. Perhaps he felt that his champion might have been able to rescue his soul, but once Sparhawk was gone, Aldreas began to realize that he was totally alone. If his soul was going to be saved, he was going to have to do it himself.’

‘She might be very close to right, you know,’ Bevier marvelled. ‘Perhaps I should make some study of the ethics of Styricum. A synthesis of Elene and Styric ethical thought might be very interesting.’

‘Heresy,’ Ulath observed flatly.

‘I beg your pardon?’

‘We’re not supposed to consider the possibility that other ethics have any validity, Bevier. It’s a little shortsighted, I’ll admit, but our Church is like that sometimes.’

Bevier rose to his feet, his face flushed. ‘I will not listen to insults directed at our holy mother,’ he declared.

‘Oh, sit down, Bevier,’ Tynian told him. ‘Ulath’s only teasing you. Our Genidian brothers are much more deeply versed in theology than we give them credit for.’

‘It’s the climate,’ Ulath explained. ‘There’s not a great deal to do in Thalesia in the winter – unless you like to watch it snow. We have a lot of time for meditation and study.’

‘For whatever reason, Aldreas began to refuse some of Annias’s more outrageous demands for money,’ Vanion continued his account, ‘and Annias started to get desperate. That’s when he and Arissa decided to murder the king. Martel provided the poison, and Annias made arrangements to slip Arissa out of that cloister. He probably could have poisoned Aldreas himself, but Arissa begged him to let her do it because she wanted to kill her brother herself.’

‘Are you really sure you want to marry into that family, Sparhawk?’ Ulath asked.

‘Do I have any choice at this point?’

‘You could always run away. I’m sure you could find work in the Tamul Empire on the Daresian continent.’

‘Ulath,’ Sephrenia said, ‘hush.’

‘Yes, ma’am,’ he said.

‘Go ahead, Vanion,’ she instructed.

‘Yes, ma’am,’ he duplicated Ulath’s intonation perfectly. ‘After Arissa had killed Aldreas, Ehlana ascended the throne. She turned out to be Sparhawk’s true pupil. She absolutely denied Annias access to her treasury and she was on the verge of packing him off to a monastery. That’s when he poisoned her.’

‘Excuse me, Lord Vanion,’ Tynian interrupted. ‘My Lord of Lenda, attempted regicide is a capital offence, isn’t it?’

‘Throughout the civilized world, Sir Tynian.’

‘I thought that might be the case. Kalten, why don’t you put in an order for a bale of rope? And Ulath, you’d better send to Thalesia for a couple of spare axes.’

‘What’s this?’ Kalten asked.