‘That’s all right, mother,’ Ulath smiled. ‘We’ll take care of it. We’d sooner die than offend the ladies of the Church. I can assure you that the princess and her son will be unwilling to leave their cells – both of them being so engulfed in repentance, you understand. Let’s see, I’ll need a couple of lengths of chain, some stout bolts, a hammer and an anvil. I’ll close up those cells with no trouble whatsoever, and you and your good sisters won’t need to concern yourselves with politics.’ He paused and looked at Sparhawk. ‘Or did you want me just to chain them to the walls?’

Sparhawk actually considered it. ‘No,’ he decided finally, ‘probably not. They’re still members of the royal family, and certain courtesies are involved.’

‘I have no choice but to accede to your demands, Sir Knights,’ the Mother Superior said. She paused. ‘There are rumours abroad that the queen has recovered,’ she said. ‘Can that possibly be true?’

‘Yes, Mother Superior,’ Sparhawk told her. ‘The queen is well, and the government of Elenia is once again in her hands.’

‘Praise God!’ the old nun exclaimed. ‘And will you soon be removing our unwanted guests from within our walls?’

‘Soon, mother. Very soon.’

‘We shall cleanse the chambers the princess has contaminated then – and offer prayers for her soul, of course.’

‘Of course.’

‘How very, very touching,’ Arissa said sardonically, appearing to have slightly recovered. ‘If this grows any more cloying, I think I’ll vomit.’

‘You’re starting to irritate me, Arissa,’ Sparhawk said coldly. ‘I don’t recommend it. If I weren’t under the queen’s orders, I’d strike off your head here and now. I’d advise you to make your peace with God, because I’m quite sure you’ll be meeting Him face to face before long.’ He looked at her with extreme distaste. ‘Get her out of my sight,’ he told Kalten and Ulath.

About fifteen minutes later, Kalten and Ulath came back from within the cloister.

‘All secure?’ Sparhawk asked them.

‘It’d take a blacksmith an hour to open those cell-doors,’ Kalten replied. ‘Shall we go then?’

They had gone no more than a half-mile when Ulath suddenly shouted, ‘Look out, Sparhawk!’ and roughly shoved the big Pandion from his saddle.

The crossbow bolt whizzed through the empty air where Sparhawk had been an instant before and buried itself to the vanes in a tree at the roadside.

Kalten’s sword came whistling from its sheath, and he spurred his horse in the direction from which the bolt had come.

‘Are you all right?’ Ulath asked, dismounting to help Sparhawk to his feet.

‘A little bruised is all. You push very firmly, my friend.’

‘I’m sorry, Sparhawk. I got excited.’

‘Perfectly all right, Ulath. Push as hard as you like when these things happen. How did you happen to see the bolt coming?’

‘Pure luck. I happened to be looking that way, and I saw the bushes move.’

Kalten was swearing when he rode back. ‘He got away,’ he reported.