‘I think you’re completely mad, Sparhawk. I still love you, but your mind seems to be slipping. You can’t make an army out of hod-carriers and clod-hoppers.’

‘Really? Where do you suppose the common soldiers in your army come from, Ehlana? Aren’t they recruited from the streets and farms?’

She frowned. ‘I hadn’t thought of that, I suppose,’ she conceded, ‘but without generals, I’m not going to have much of an army, you know.’

‘That’s what the two men I just mentioned are coming here to discuss with you, Your Majesty.’

‘Why is it that “Your Majesty” always sounds so cold and distant when you say it, Sparhawk?’

‘Don’t change the subject. You’ll agree to withhold judgement, then?’

‘If you say so, but I’m still a little dubious about this. I wish you could stay here.’

‘So do I, but –’ He spread his hands helplessly.

‘When will there ever be time for just us?’

‘It won’t be much longer, Ehlana, but we have to beat Annias. You understand that, don’t you?’

She sighed. ‘I suppose so.’

Talen and Berit returned not long afterwards with Platime and Stragen. Sparhawk met them in the sitting-room while Ehlana attended to those minute details that are always involved in making a woman ‘presentable’.

Stragen was at his elegant best, but the waddling, black-bearded Platime, chief of beggars, thieves, cut-throats and whores, looked distinctly out of place. ‘Ho, Sparhawk!’ the fat man bellowed. He had forgone his food-spotted orange doublet in favour of one in blue velvet that didn’t fit him very well.

‘Platime,’ Sparhawk replied gravely. ‘You’re looking quite natty this evening.’

‘Do you like it?’ Platime plucked at the front of his doublet with a pleased expression. He turned a full circle, and Sparhawk noted several knife holes in the back of the thief’s finery. ‘I’ve had my eye on it for several months now. I finally persuaded the former owner to part with it.’

‘Milord.’ Sparhawk bowed to Stragen.

‘Sir Knight,’ Stragen responded, also bowing.

‘All right, what’s this all about, Sparhawk?’ Platime demanded. ‘Talen was babbling some nonsense about forming up a home guard of some kind.’

‘Home guard. That’s a good term,’ Sparhawk approved. ‘The Earl of Lenda will be along in a few moments, and then I’m sure Her Majesty will make her entrance from that room over there – where she’s probably listening at the door right now.’

From the queen’s bed-chamber came the stamp of an angry foot.

‘How’s business been?’ Sparhawk asked the gross leader of the underside of Cimmura.

‘Quite good, actually,’ the fat man beamed. ‘Those foreign church soldiers the Primate sent to prop up the bastard Lycheas were very innocent. We robbed them blind.’

‘Good. I always like to see friends get on in the world.’

The door opened, and the ancient Earl of Lenda shuffled into the room. ‘Sorry to be late, Sparhawk,’ he apologized. ‘I’m not very good at running any more.’

‘Quite all right, My Lord of Lenda,’ Sparhawk replied. ‘Gentlemen,’ he said to the two thieves, ‘I have the honour to present the Earl of Lenda, head of Her Majesty’s council of advisers. My Lord, these are the two men who will lead your home guard. This is Platime, and this, Milord Stragen from Emsat.’

They all bowed – at least Platime tried to bow. ‘Milord?’ Lenda asked Stragen curiously.

‘An affectation, My Lord of Lenda,’ Stragen smiled ironically. ‘It’s a carry-over from a misspent youth.’

‘Stragen’s one of the best,’ Platime put in. ‘He’s got some strange ideas, but he does very well – better even than me some weeks.’

‘You’re too kind, Platime,’ Stragen murmured with a bow.

Sparhawk crossed the room to the door to the queen’s bed-chamber. ‘We’re all assembled, My Queen,’ he said through the panel.

There was a pause, and then Ehlana, wearing a pale blue satin gown and a discreet diamond tiara, entered. She stopped, looking around with a queenly bearing. ‘Your Majesty,’ Sparhawk said formally, ‘may I present Platime and Stragen, your generals?’

‘Gentlemen,’ she said with a brief inclination of her head.

Platime tried to bow again, badly, but Stragen more than made up for it.

‘Pretty little thing, isn’t she?’ Platime observed to his blond companion.

Stragen winced.

Ehlana looked a bit startled. To cover the moment, she looked around the room. ‘But where are our other friends?’ she asked.

‘They’ve returned to the chapterhouse, My Queen,’ Sparhawk informed her. ‘They have preparations to make. Sephrenia promised to come back later, though.’ He extended his arm and escorted her to a rather ornate chair by the window. She sat and carefully arranged the folds of her gown.

‘May I?’ Stragen said to Sparhawk.

Sparhawk looked puzzled.

Stragen went to the window, nodding to Ehlana as he passed, and drew the heavy drapes. She stared at him. ‘It’s most imprudent to sit with one’s back to an open window in a world where there are crossbows, Your Majesty,’ he explained with another bow. ‘You have many enemies, you know.’

‘The palace is totally secure, Milord Stragen,’ Lenda objected.

‘Do you want to tell him?’ Stragen wearily asked Platime.

‘My Lord of Lenda,’ the fat man said politely, ‘I could get thirty men inside the palace grounds in about ten minutes. Knights are all very well on a battlefield, I suppose, but it’s hard to look up when you’re wearing a helmet. In my youth, I studied the art of burglary. A good burglar is as much at home on a rooftop as he is on a street.’ He sighed. ‘Those were the days,’ he reminisced. ‘There’s nothing like a nice neat burglary to set the pulse to racing.’

‘But it might be a bit difficult for a man weighing twenty-one stone,’ Stragen added. ‘Even a slate roof can only hold so much weight.’

‘I’m not really all that fat, Stragen.’

‘Of course not.’

Ehlana looked genuinely alarmed. ‘What are you doing to me, Sparhawk?’ she asked.

‘Protecting you, My Queen,’ he replied. ‘Annias wants you dead. He’s already proved that. As soon as he finds out about your recovery, he’ll try again. The men he sends to kill you won’t be gentlemen. They won’t leave their cards with the footman at the door when they come to call. Between them, Platime and Milord Stragen know just about everything there is to know about slipping into places unobserved, and they’ll be able to take the proper steps.’