‘The conservatives won’t like that.’
‘They never do. Conservatives wouldn’t even change their underwear if they didn’t have to.’
‘That’s extremely questionable from a legal standpoint, your Majesty,’ Oscagne said. ‘I’m not personally questioning your word, Anarae,’ he added quickly, ‘but I think we can all see the problem here. All we’ll have in the way of evidence is Xanetia’s unsubstantiated testimony about what somebody’s thinking. Even the most pliable of judges is likely to choke a bit on that. These are going to be very difficult cases to prosecute – particularly in view of the fact that some of the accused are going to be members of the great families of Tamuli proper.’
‘You might as well go ahead and tell them all of it, Stragen,’ Sparhawk suggested. ‘You’re going to carry out your plan anyway, and they’ll worry over legal niceties for weeks if you don’t tell them.’
Stragen winced. ‘I really wish you hadn’t brought it up, old boy,’ he said in a pained voice. ‘Their Majesties are official personages, and they’re more or less obliged to observe the strict letter of the law. They’d both be much more comfortable if they didn’t know too many details.’
‘I’m sure they would, but all this fretting about building iron-clad court cases is wasting time we should be spending on other problems.’
‘What’s this?’ Sarabian asked.
‘Milord Stragen and Master Caalador are contemplating something along the lines of what you might call legal shortcuts, your Majesty – in the interests of expediency. Do you want to tell them, Stragen? Or do you want me to do it?’
‘You go ahead. It might sound better coming from you.’ Stragen leaned back, still brooding over his two gold coins.
‘Their plan’s very simple, your Majesty,’ Sparhawk told the Emperor. ‘They propose that instead of rounding up all these conspirators, spies, informers and the like, we just have them murdered.’
‘What?’ Sarabian exclaimed.
‘That was a very blunt way to put it, Sparhawk,’ Stragen complained.
‘I’m a blunt man.’ Sparhawk shrugged. ‘Actually, your Majesty, I sort of approve of the notion. Vanion’s having a little trouble choking it down, though.’ He leaned back in his chair. ‘Justice is a funny thing,’ he observed. ‘She’s only partly interested in punishing the guilty. What she’s really interested in is deterrence. The idea is to frighten people into avoiding crime by doing unpleasant things – publicly – to the criminals who get caught. But as Stragen pointed out, most criminals know that they probably won’t get caught, so all the police and the courts are really doing is justifying their continued employment. He suggests that we bypass the police and the courts and send out the murderers some night very soon. The next morning, everybody even remotely connected with Zalasta and his renegade Styrics would be found with his throat cut. If we want a deterrent, that would really be the most effective one. There wouldn’t be any acquittals or appeals or imperial pardons to confuse the issue. If we do it that way, everybody in all of Tamuli will have nightmares about the fruits of treason for years afterward. I approve of the idea for tactical reasons, though. I’ll leave justice to the courts – or the Gods. I like the idea because of the damage it would do to Zalasta. He’s a Styric, and Styrics usually try to get what they want by deception and misdirection. Zalasta’s set up a very elaborate apparatus to gain his ends without a direct confrontation. Stragen’s plan would destroy that apparatus in a single night, and only madmen would be willing to join Zalasta after that. Once the apparatus is gone, he’ll have to come out in the open and fight. He’s not good at that, but we are. This would give us the chance to fight this war on our own terms, and that’s always an enormous tactical advantage.’
‘And we can pick our own time,’ Caalador added. ‘The timing would be very important.’
‘They wouldn’t be expecting it; that’s one thing,’ Itagne noted.
‘There are rules, Itagne,’ his brother objected. ‘Civilization’s based on rules. If we break the rules, how can we expect others to follow them?’
‘That’s the whole point, Oscagne. Right now, the rules are protecting the criminals, not society as a whole. We can wriggle around and come up with some kind of legalistic justification for it afterward. About the only real objection I have is that these – ah – agents of government policy, shall we say, won’t have any official standing.’ He frowned for a moment. ‘I suppose we could solve that problem by appointing Milord Stragen to the post of Minister of the Interior and Master Caalador to that of Director of the Secret Police.’
‘Real secret, your Excellency,’ Caalador laughed. ‘I don’t even know who most of the murderers are.’
Itagne smiled. ‘Those are the best kind, I suppose.’ He looked at the Emperor. ‘That would put a slight stain of legality on the whole business, your Majesty – in the event that you decide to go ahead with it.’
Sarabian leaned thoughtfully back in his chair. ‘I’m tempted,’ he said. ‘A blood-bath like this would insure domestic tranquility in Tamuli for at least a century.’ He shook off his expression of wistful yearning and sat up. ‘It’s just too uncivilized. I couldn’t approve of something like that with Lady Sephrenia and Anarae Xanetia watching me and sitting in judgement.’
‘What are your feelings, Xanetia?’ Sephrenia asked tentatively.
‘We of the Delphae are not over-concerned with niceties and technicalities, Sephrenia.’
‘I didn’t think you would be. Good is good, and bad is bad, wouldn’t you say?’
‘It seemeth so to me.’
‘And to me as well. Zalasta’s hurt the both of us, and Stragen’s massacre would hurt him. I don’t think either of us would object too much to something that would cause him pain, would we?’
Xanetia smiled.
‘It’s your decision, then, Sarabian,’ Sephrenia said. ‘Don’t look to Xanetia and me for some excuse not to make it. We find nothing objectionable in the plan.’
‘I’m profoundly disappointed in both of you,’ he told them. ‘I was hoping you’d get me off the hook. You’re my last chance, Ehlana. Doesn’t this monstrous notion turn your blood cold?’
‘Not particularly.’ She shrugged. ‘But I’m an Elene – and a politician. As long as we don’t get caught with bloody knives in our own hands, we can always wriggle out of it.’
‘Won’t anyone help me?’ Sarabian actually looked desperate.
Oscagne gave his Emperor a penetrating look. ‘It has to be your decision, your Majesty,’ he said. ‘I personally don’t like it, but I’m not the one who has to give the order.’
‘Is it always like this, Ehlana?’ Sarabian groaned.
‘Usually,’ she replied quite calmly. ‘Sometimes it’s worse.’
The Emperor sat staring at the wall for quite some time. ‘All right, Stragen,’ he said finally. ‘Go ahead and do it.’
‘That’s mother’s darling boy,’ Ehlana said fondly.
Chapter 25
‘No, Caalador,’ Sparhawk said, ‘as a matter of fact, it won’t take three or four weeks. I have access to a faster way to get from place to place.’
‘That won’t do any good, Sparhawk,’ the ruddy-faced Cammorian objected. ‘The people in the Secret Government won’t take orders from you.’
‘I won’t be giving the orders, Caalador,’ Sparhawk told him. ‘You will.’
Caalador swallowed. ‘Are you sure it’s safe to travel that way?’ he asked doubtfully.
‘Trust me. How many people will we have to get word to?’
Caalador threw an uncomfortable glance at Sarabian. ‘I’m not at liberty to say.’
‘I won’t use the information, Caalador,’ the Emperor assured him.
‘You and I know that, your Majesty, but rules are rules. We like to keep our numbers just a little vague.’
‘Generalize, Caalador,’ Ehlana suggested. ‘A hundred? Five hundred?’
‘Not hordly that many, dorlin’,’ he laughed. ‘Ther ain’t no pie whut kin be cut into that many pieces.’ He squinted a bit anxiously at Stragen. ‘Let’s just say more than twenty and less than a hundred and let it go at that, shall we? I’d rather not get my own throat cut.’
‘That’s general enough,’ Stragen laughed. ‘I won’t turn you in for that, Caalador.’
‘Thanks.’
‘Don’t mention it.’
‘Two or three days, then,’ Sparhawk said.
‘Let’s not start passing the word around until after the Anarae pulls her net through Krager’s mind tomorrow morning,’ Stragen said.
‘Thou art fond of that particular metaphor, Milord Stragen,’ Xanetia noted in a slightly disapproving tone.
‘I’m not trying to be offensive, Anarae. I’m groping for a way to explain something I couldn’t begin to understand, that’s all.’ Stragen’s face grew bleak. ‘If Krager really knows about the Secret Government, he’s probably infiltrated it, and there’ll be some people out there we won’t want to tell about this.’
‘And whose names we’ll be adding to our list,’ Caalador added.
‘Just how long is your list, Master Caalador?’ Oscagne asked.
‘You don’t really need to know that, your Excellency,’ Caalador replied in a tone that clearly said that he wasn’t going to discuss the matter. ‘Let’s pick a date – something that sort of stands out in people’s minds. Thieves and cutthroats aren’t all that good at reading calendars.’
‘How about the Harvest Festival?’ Itagne suggested. ‘It’s only three weeks away, and it’s celebrated in all of Tamuli.’
Caalador looked around. ‘Can we wait that long?’ he asked. ‘It would be the perfect time. Our murderers would have three nights to get the job done instead of one, and there’s lots of noise and confusion during the Harvest Festival.’
‘And lots of drinking,’ Itagne added. ‘The whole continent gets roaring drunk.’
‘It’s a general holiday, then?’ Bevier asked.
Itagne nodded. ‘Technically it’s a religious holiday. We’re supposed to thank the Gods for a bountiful harvest. Most people can get that out of the way in about a half a minute, and that leaves them three days and nights to get into trouble. The harvest crews are all paid off, they take their annual baths, and then head for the nearest town in search of mischief.’
‘It’s made to order for our purposes,’ Caalador added.
‘Will you be ready to move your forces against the Trolls in three weeks, Lord Vanion?’ Sarabian asked.
‘More than ready, your Majesty. We weren’t planning to gather them all in one place anyway. The detachments from each garrison are only platoon-sized, and a platoon can move faster than a battalion. They’re all moving toward staging areas along the Atan border.’
‘Do we want to hit them all at the same time?’ Kalten asked.
‘We could go any one of three ways on that,’ Sparhawk said. ‘We can hit the Trolls first and pull Zalasta’s attention to northern Atan, or we can murder the conspirators first and send him scurrying around the continent trying to salvage what he can of his organization, or we can do it simultaneously and see if he can be in a hundred places all at the same time.’
‘We can decide that later,’ Sarabian said. ‘Let’s get word to the murderers first. We know that we want them to go to work during the Harvest Festival. The military situation’s more fluid.’
‘Let’s make a special point of eliminating Sabre, Parok and Rebal this time,’ Stragen said to Caalador. ‘Evidently the Atans missed them in the last general round-up. Those Elene kingdoms in western Tamuli are standing between Sir Tynian and Matherion, and as long as those three trouble-makers are alive, he’s going to have rough going. Is there any way we could get Scarpa as well?’
Caalador shook his head. ‘He’s holed up in Natayos. He’s turned it into a fortress and filled it with fanatics. I couldn’t pay a murderer enough to try to kill him. The only way we’ll get Scarpa is to mount a military expedition.’
‘That’s a shame,’ Sephrenia murmured. ‘The death of his only son would definitely twist a knife in Zalasta’s belly.’
‘Savage,’ Vanion accused affectionately.
‘Zalasta killed my family, Vanion,’ she replied. ‘All I want to do is return the favor.’
‘That sounds fair to me,’ he smiled.
‘I’m still dead set against it,’ Stragen said stubbornly when he, Sparhawk and Ulath met in the hallway a bit later.
‘Be reasonable, Stragen,’ Ulath said. ‘It won’t hurt anything to see what they have to say, will it? I’m not going to just turn them loose without any restrictions at all, you know.’
‘They’ll agree to anything to get their freedom, Ulath. They might promise to pull the Trolls out of Atan – or even to help us deal with Zalasta and Cyrgon – but once they get back to Thalesia, they won’t feel obligated to honor any commitments. We’re not even members of the same species as their worshipers. We’re just animals in their eyes. Would you feel obliged to keep promises you made to a bear?’
‘That would depend on the bear, I suppose.’
‘The Troll-Gods might break promises they make to us,’ Sparhawk said, ‘but they won’t break faith with Bhelliom, because Bhelliom can re-absorb them if they try any tricks.’
‘Well,’ Stragen said doubtfully, ‘I want to be sure everybody understands that I don’t like this, but I guess it won’t hurt to hear what they have to say. I want to be present, though. I don’t altogether trust you, Ulath, so I want to hear the promises you give them.’
‘Do you understand Trollish?’
Stragen shuddered. ‘Of course not.’
‘You’re going to have a little difficulty following the conversation, then, don’t you think?’
‘Sephrenia’s going along, isn’t she? She can translate for me.’