‘You don’t want to just rap her on the head, do you? Get her tipsy, wrap her in a blanket and tie her across a saddle.’

‘Have you lost your mind? This is the queen, Kalten, not one of your blowsy barmaids.’

‘You can apologize later. The important thing is to get her to safety.’

‘It may not come to any of that,’ Vanion said. ‘Cluvonus might hang on for a while yet. He’s been on the brink of death for months now, but he’s still alive. He might even outlive Annias.’

‘That shouldn’t be too hard for him,’ Ulath said bleakly. ‘Annias doesn’t have much in the way of life expectancy just now.’

‘If I could persuade you gentlemen to curb your bloodlust for a moment,’ the Earl of Lenda interposed, ‘I think the important thing for now is to get someone to King Wargun down in Arcium and to persuade him to release the Elenian army – and enough Pandion Knights to keep the general staff in line when they get here. I’ll compose a letter to him advising in the strongest terms that we need the Elenian army back here in Cimmura just as quickly as they can get here.’

‘You’d better ask him to release the militant orders as well, My Lord,’ Vanion suggested. ‘I think we’re going to need them in Chyrellos.’

‘You might also send a letter to King Obler,’ Tynian added, ‘and to Patriarch Bergsten. Between them, they can probably prevail on Wargun. The King of Thalesia drinks too much, and he enjoys a good war, but he’s still a thoroughly political animal. He’ll see the necessity of protecting Cimmura and taking control of Chyrellos immediately – if someone explains it to him.’

Lenda nodded his agreement.

‘All this still doesn’t solve our problem, gentlemen,’ Bevier said. ‘Our messenger to Wargun could very well be no more than a day’s ride away when word reaches us that the Archprelate has died. That puts us right back into the same situation. Sparhawk will have to persuade a very reluctant queen to abandon her capital with no visible danger in view.’

‘Blow in her ear,’ Ulath said.

‘What was that?’ Sparhawk asked.

‘It usually works,’ Ulath said. ‘At least it does in Thalesia. I blew in a girl’s ear in Emsat once, and she followed me around for days.’

‘That’s disgusting!’ Sephrenia said angrily.

‘Oh, I don’t know,’ Ulath said mildly. ‘She seemed to enjoy it.’

‘Did you pat her on top of the head too, and scratch her chin – the way you’d have done if she’d been a puppy?’

‘I never thought of that,’ Ulath admitted. ‘Do you think it might have worked?’

She began to swear at him in Styric.