‘Of course, Dolmant.’ She smiled at him fondly.
‘I can’t even ask you officially,’ he said with a rueful smile, ‘because it has to do with things I’m not supposed to believe in any more.’
‘Ask me as a former Pandion, dear one,’ she suggested. ‘That way we can both ignore the fact that you’ve fallen in with evil companions.’
‘Thank you,’ he said dryly. ‘Is there some way you can collapse that aqueduct without actually being in the cellar?’
‘I can take care of that, your Grace,’ Sparhawk offered. ‘I can use Bhelliom.’
‘No, actually you can’t,’ Sephrenia reminded him. ‘You don’t have both rings.’ She looked back at Dolmant. ‘I can do what you ask,’ she told him, ‘but Sparhawk will have to be in the cellar. I can channel the spell through him.’
‘Better and better, actually,’ Dolmant said. ‘Vanion, see what you think of this. You and I talk with Colonel Delada, the commander of the Archprelate’s guard. We put his guardsmen in the cellar under the command of somebody reliable.’
‘Kurik?’ Sparhawk suggested.
‘The very man,’ Dolmant approved. ‘I suspect that I’d still obey automatically if Kurik barked an order at me.’ Dolmant paused. ‘Why didn’t you ever knight him, Vanion?’
‘Because of his class prejudices, Dolmant,’ Vanion laughed. ‘Kurik believes that knights are frivolous, empty-headed men. Sometimes I almost think he’s right.’
‘All right then,’ Dolmant continued. ‘We put Kurik and the guardsmen in the cellar to wait for Martel – well out of sight of course. What’s likely to be the first sign that Martel’s main assault on our walls is starting?’
‘Boulders dropping out of the sky, I’d say, wouldn’t you, Sparhawk? That’ll be the sign that his mangonels are in place. He won’t start his attack until he’s sure that they’re working properly.’
‘And that would be the most probable time for him to start through the aqueduct, wouldn’t it?’
Vanion nodded. ‘There’d be too much chance of them being discovered if they crept into the cellar any sooner.’
‘This is fitting together even more tightly.’ Dolmant seemed pleased with himself on that score. ‘We make Sparhawk and Colonel Delada wait on the walls for the first boulders. When they start crashing down, the two of them go down to the cellar to eavesdrop on the conversation between Martel and Annias. If the Archprelate’s guard can’t hold the entrance to the aqueduct, Sephrenia will collapse the tunnel. We block the secret attack, get the evidence against Annias, and we may very well capture Annias and Martel themselves. What do you think, Vanion?’
‘It’s an excellent plan, Your Grace,’ Vanion said with a straight face. Sparhawk also saw a number of gaps. The years seem to have clouded Dolmant’s strategic sense in a few areas. ‘I can only see one drawback,’ Vanion added.
‘Oh?’
‘Once those engines batter down the walls, we’re likely to have hordes of mercenaries here in the inner city with us.’
‘That would be a bit inconvenient, wouldn’t it?’ Dolmant conceded with a slight frown. ‘Let’s talk with Colonel Delada anyway. I’m sure something will turn up.’
Vanion sighed and followed the Patriarch of Demos from the room.
‘Was he always like that?’ Sparhawk asked Sephrenia.
‘Who?’
‘Dolmant. I think he’s pushing optimism about as far as it can be pushed.’
‘It’s your Elene theology, dear one,’ she smiled. ‘Dolmant’s professionally committed to the notion of Providence. Styrics look upon that as the worst form of fatalism. What’s troubling you, dear one?’
‘A perfectly good logical construction has fallen apart on me, Sephrenia. Now that we know about Perraine, I don’t have any way at all to connect that shadow with Azash.’
‘Why are you so obsessed with hard evidence, Sparhawk?’
‘I beg your pardon?’
‘Just because you can’t logically prove a connection, you’re ready to discard the whole idea. Your reasoning was fairly tenuous to begin with anyway. About all you were really doing was trying to distort things to make your logic fit your feelings – a sort of a justification for a leap of faith. You felt – you believed – that the shadow came from Azash. That’s good enough for me. I’m more comfortable with the notion of trusting your feelings than your logic anyway.’
‘Be nice,’ he chided.
She smiled. ‘I think it’s time to discard logic and start relying on those leaps of faith, Sparhawk. Sir Perraine’s confession erases any connection between that shadow you keep seeing and the attempts on your life, doesn’t it?’
‘I’m afraid so,’ he admitted, ‘and to make matters even worse, I haven’t even seen the shadow lately.’
‘Just because you haven’t seen it doesn’t mean it’s not still there. Tell me exactly what you felt each time you saw it.’
‘There was a chill,’ he replied, ‘and an overpowering sense that whatever it was hated me. I’ve been hated before, Sephrenia, but not like that. It was inhuman. ’
‘All right, we can rely on that then. It’s something supernatural. Anything else?’
‘I was afraid of it.’ He admitted it flatly.
‘You? I didn’t think you knew what the word meant.’
‘I know, all right.’
She thought about it, her tiny, perfect face creased with thought. ‘Your original theory was really quite shaky, Sparhawk,’ she told him. ‘Would it really make much sense for Azash to have some brigand kill you and then to have to chase down the brigand in order to retrieve Bhelliom from him?’
‘It’s a little cumbersome and roundabout, I suppose.’
‘Exactly, let’s look at the possibility of pure coincidence. ’
‘I’m not supposed to do that, little mother. Providence, you understand.’
‘Stop that.’
‘Yes ma’am.’
‘Suppose that Martel subverted Perraine on his own – without consulting with Annias – that’s assuming that it’s Annias who’s the one dealing with Otha and not Martel.’
‘I don’t really think Martel would go so far as to have personal dealings with Otha.’