Page 37 (1/2)
‘Art thou afeared to speak of it, Goddess?’
Sparhawk spun around quickly, a startled oath colow not far fro
‘This doesn’t concern you, Xanetia,’ Aphrael told her coldly
‘I must needs know thine heart, Goddess Thy sister’s enmity is of no real moment Thine, however, would be more troublesome Art thou also unkindly disposed toward hts and find out for yourself?’
‘Thou knowest that I cannot, Aphrael Thy lad you noticed that’
‘Behave yourself,’ Sparhawk told his daughter, speaking very firmly
‘Stay out of this, Sparhawk’
‘No, Danae, I don’t think I will Are you behind the way Sephrenia was behaving at Delphaeus?’
‘Don’t be absurd I sent her to Delphaeus to cure her of that nonsense’
‘Are you sure, Aphrael? You’re not behaving very well at the moment yourself, you know’
‘I don’t like Edae to cure Sephrenia out of love for her, not out of any affection for the Delphae’
‘But thou didst stand for us against thy kindred when all this began, Goddess,’ Xanetia pointed out
‘That also was not out of any great affection for your race, Xanetia My fa, and I opposed theh, would you? It had to do with love, and you Delphae have outgrown that, haven’t you?’
‘How little thou knowest us, Goddess,’ Xanetia said sadly
‘As long as we’re all speaking so frankly, I’ve noticed a certain bias against Styrics in some of your remarks, Anarae,’ Sparhawk said pointedly
‘I have reasons, Anakha – many reasons’
‘I’m sure you have, and I’m sure Sephrenia has too But whether we like each other or not is really beside the point I aot work to do, and I can’t do it in theyou – even if I have to use the Bhelliom to do it’
‘Sparhawk!’ Danae’s face was shocked
‘Nobody wants to tell ai wars, but maybe that’s just as well I was curious at first, but not any longer What it boils down to, ladies, is that I don’t care what happened The way you’ve all been behaving sort of says that nobody’s hands were really clean I want this spiteful wrangling to stop You’re all behaving like children, and it’s beginning to make me tired’
Chapter 17
There were dark circles under Sephrenia’s eyes the next one out of her face Her white Styric robe was partially covered by a sleeveless overmantle of deepest black Sparhawk had never seen her wear that kind of gararment and the color – seemed ominous She joined them at the breakfast table reluctantly, and only at Ehlana’s express cohtly apart from the rest of them with her injury drawn about her like a defensive wall She would not look at Vanion, and refused breakfast despite Alean’s urgings
Vanion appeared no less injured His face was drawn and pale, quite nearly as pale as it had been when he had been carrying the burden of the swords, and his eyes were filled with pain
Breakfast under those circumstances was strained, and they all left the table with a certain relief They proceeded directly to the blue-draped sitting rooot down to business
‘The others aren’t really all that significant,’ Caalador told them ‘Rebal, Sabre and Baron Parok are decidedly second-rate All they’re really doing is exploiting existing hostilities Scarpa’s soh Arjuna’s a troubleso that to the fullest The others have to be fairly circudoms of western Tamuli are so well populated There are people everywhere, so the conspirators have to sneak around Southeastern Arjuna’s one vast jungle, though, so Scarpa’s got places to hide, and places he can defend He makes some small pretense at nationalism in the way that the others do, but that doesn’t appear to be his enda The Arjuni are far more shrewd than the Elene peasants and serfs of the west’
‘Have you got any background on him?’ Ulath asked ‘Where he ca?’
Caalador nodded ‘That part wasn’t very difficult Scarpa was fairly well known in some circles before he joined the conspiracy’ Caalador made a face ‘I wish there were soed ‘Anyway, Scarpa’s a bastard’
‘Caalador!’ Bevier said sharply ‘There are ladies present!’
‘It wasn’t intended as an obscenity, Sir Bevier, al definition Scarpa’s the result of a dalliance between a ade Styric It was an odd sort of pairing-off, and it produced a very odd sort of fellow’