"I hear the usual," said Hornkast.

"Wait."

He listened. He heard the string of syllables that meant Lord Malibor—the Pontifex had forgotten Malibor's two successors, and thought Malibor was Coronal still—and then a skein of other royal names, Prestimion, Confalume, Dekkeret. Malibor again. The word for sleep. The name of Ossier, who had been Pontifex before Tyeveras. The name of Kinniken, who had preceded Ossier.

"He rambles in the remote past, as he often does. For this you called me down here with such urgent—"

"Wait."

In growing irritation Hornkast turned his attention again to the inchoate monolog of the Pontifex, and was stunned to hear, for the first time in many years, a perfectly enunciated, completely recognizable word:

"Life."

"You heard?" Sepulthrove asked.

Hornkast nodded. "When did this start?"

"Two hours ago, two and a half."

"Majesty."

"We have made a record of all of this," said Dilifon.

"What else has he said that you can understand?"

"Seven or eight words," Sepulthrove replied. "Perhaps there are others that only you can recognize."

Hornkast looked toward Narrameer. "Is he awake or dreaming?"

"I think it is wrong to use either of those terms in connection with the Pontifex," she said. "He lives in both states at once."

"Come. Rise. Walk."

"He's said those before, several times," Dilifon murmured.

There was silence. The Pontifex seemed to have lapsed into sleep, though his eyes were still open.

Hornkast stared grimly. When Tyeveras first had become ill, early in the reign of Lord Valentine, it had seemed only logical to sustain the old Pontifex's life in this way, and Hornkast had been one of the most enthusiastic supporters of the scheme that Sepulthrove had proposed. It had never happened before that a Pontifex had outlived two Coronals, so that the third Coronal of the reign came into power when the Pontifex was already in extreme old age. That had distorted the dynamics of the imperial system. Hornkast himself had pointed out at that time that Lord Valentine, young and untried, barely in command of the duties of the Coronal, could not be sent on to the Labyrinth so soon. By general agreement it was essential that the Pontifex remain on his throne a few more years, if he could be kept alive. Sepulthrove had found the means to keep him alive, though quickly it was apparent that Tyeveras had lapsed into senility and dwelled in hopeless lunatic death-in-life.

But then had come the episode of the usurpation, and then the difficult years of restoration, when all the Coronal's energies were needed to repair the chaos of the upheaval. Tyeveras had had to remain in his cage year after year. Though the continued life of the Pontifex meant Hornkast's own continuance in power, and the power he had amassed by default of the Pontifex by now was extraordinary, nevertheless it was a repellent thing to watch, this cruel suspension of a life long since deserving of a termination. Yet Lord Valentine asked for time, and more time, and yet more time still, to finish his work as Coronal. Eight years, now: was that not time enough? With surprise Hornkast found himself almost ready now to pray for Tyeveras's deliverance from this captivity. If only it were possible to let him sleep!