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Chancellor of the Exchequer Gashon was a bloodless, corpse-like man with sunken cheeks and nofrom his lumpy scalp ‘Look at it more closely, Pondia Subat,’ he said in his hollow, rusty-sounding voice ‘It’s only a theory, but it does explain s that are otherwise incomprehensible’

‘They wouldn’t have dared,’ Subat scoffed

‘Try to lift your mind out of the fourteenth century, Subat,’ Gashon snapped ‘You’re the Priing all around you You can’t just sit still with your eyes firmly fixed on the past and hope to survive’

‘I don’t like you very much, Gashon’

‘I’h it for you again Try to stay awake this time’

‘How dare you?’

‘I dare because I’d sort of like to keep my head where it is First off: the Elenes of Eosia are absolute barbarians Can we agree on that at least?’

‘All right’

‘They haven’t caused usaion, and because they had Otha of Zemoch to worry about Would it surprise you too much if I told you that Otha’s dead and that the Rendorish insurgency’s been almost completely crushed?’

‘I have my own sources of infor to what they tell you? Now then, there was open warfare in the streets of Chyrellos preceding the elevation of this Dolmant to the Archprelacy I’d say that’s a fair indication of the fact that he’s not universally loved The best way I know of for a shaky ruler to consolidate his position is to contrive a foreign adventure, and the only real foreign ground for the Elenes of the Eosian Continent is Daresia – the Tamul Empire That’s us, in case you hadn’t noticed, Pondia Subat’

‘I know that, Gashon’

‘I just wanted to be sure, that’s all Are you with me so far?’

‘Get to the point, Gashon I don’t have all day’

‘Did you have an appointious fanatics who feel that they’re called of the Lord to convert everybody in the world to their absurd faith For all I know, they also want to convert snakes, spiders and fish Dolious leader, and they’d probably try to subdue glaciers and tides if he told therasp on power in his own Church, and he has hordes of fanatic followers at his disposal He can either use those followers to crush his opponents at hon power on some trumped-up excuse that will inflame the commons and stifle objections to his rule Isn’t it a coincidence that at precisely that time we have this "state visit" by a silly fene assures us is the Queen of Elenia I hope the fact that we only have Oscagne’s word for that hasn’t escaped you This so-called queen is obviouslybusiness in bed than she is on a throne She clearly wrestled not only that silly ass Alberen of Astel into submission but probably Androl of the Atans as well We can only speculate about her adventures a the Peloi and the Styrics at Sarsos Then, once she reached Matherion, she lured Emperor Sarabian to her bedchamber before the first day was out – you did know that Sarabian and Oscagne crept across the coht she was here, didn’t you?’

Subat started to object

‘Yes, I know,’ Gashon cut hine I’d say that the evidence strongly suggests that Oscagne has gone over to the Elenes – either for personal gain or because he’s fallen under the spell of that blonde Elene strumpet She had plenty of time to work on him while he was in Chyrellos, you know’

‘It’s all speculation, Gashon,’ Subat said, although his voice lacked conviction

‘Of course it is, Subat,’ Gashon replied with heavy sarcaset to Matherion from Chyrellos?’

‘By ship, naturally’

‘Then why did the strumpet of Cimmura choose to corapple her way across the continent? The girl’s got staive her that’

‘What about this recent coup-atteovernment would have fallen if the Elenes hadn’t been here’

‘Ah yes, the faroup of Elenes, who didn’t even speak the Tae when they arrived, were able to unearth this dire plot in about six weeks? – when the agents of the Ministry of the Interior, who’ve only been in Matherion for all of their lives, hadn’t coinary coup, Subat, and now they’ve used it as an excuse to imprison the Emperor in that cursed fortress of theirs – not only the Emperor, but Interior Minister Kolata as well, and Kolata’s the one overnment who has the resources to free our ruler I’ve talked with Teovin, Director of the Secret Police, and he assures me that no one from the ministry has been permitted to speak with Kolata privately since his incarceration Our colleague is obviously a prisoner, and the orders he’s issuing to the Interior Ministry are just as obviously coh, they’ve sent the so-called churchhts back here to "deal with the crisis" We have all the resources of Interior and whole armies of Atans at our disposal, Subat Why do we need the Church Knights? What possible reason is there to bring the most ruthless force in the entire world to Tamuli? Would the word "invasion" startle you? That’s all that the famous coup really was, you realize – an excuse for the Elene Church to invade Tamuli, and quite obviously it’s been with the Emperor’s full cooperation’

‘Why would the Eovernment?’

‘I can think of any number of reasons Maybe this so-called queen threatened to deny hi fairy-tales for hi him about the joys of absolute power That’s a common fiction in Eosia Elene rulers like to pretend that they’re the ones who doovernment to do it for the – or in our case, the Eovern more He serves as a focus for the love and loyalty of the people The iram for the past thousand years The Emperor’s Tamul wife – the one who produces the heir to the throne – is always selected for her stupidity We don’t need intelligent emperors, only docile ones Somehow Sarabian slipped past us If you’d ever really taken the trouble to pay attention to hient Kolata blundered there Sarabian should have been killed long before he ascended the throne Our revered Eer for real power, I’et at hi as he’s inside that blasted fortress’

‘You weave a convincing story, Gashon,’ the Prime Minister conceded with a troubled frown ‘I kneas a blunder to invite that Sparhawk savage to come to Matherion’

‘We all did, Subat, and you’ll recall who it ho overrode all our objections’

‘Oscagne,’ Subat spat

‘Precisely Is it beginning to fit together for you now?’