‘Then we’ll fight our way through,’ Komier said, cramming his ogre-horned helmet on his head irritably.

Abriel shook his head. ‘People get killed in fights, Komier. The vote is very close. We can’t afford to lose a single Patriarch at this point.’

‘We can’t win either way,’ Tynian said.

‘I’m not so sure,’ Kalten disagreed.

‘Can you see a way out of it?’

‘I think so.’ Kalten looked at Dolmant. ‘I’ll need permission for this, Your Grace,’ he said.

‘I’m listening. What’s your plan?’

‘If Annias decides to resort to naked force, that means that any semblance of civil order goes out of the window, doesn’t it?’

‘More or less, yes.’

‘Then if he’s not going to pay any attention to the rules, why should we? If we want to cut down on the number of church soldiers surrounding the Pandion chapterhouse, all we have to do is give them something more important to do.’

‘Set fire to the city again?’ Talen suggested.

‘That might be a little extreme,’ Kalten said. ‘We can keep the notion in reserve, though. At this moment, however, the votes Annias has got are the most important things in his life. If we start peeling them off one by one, he’ll do just about anything to protect what he’s got left, won’t he?’

‘I will not allow you to start butchering Patriarchs, Kalten,’ Dolmant said in a shocked voice.

‘We don’t have to kill anybody, Your Grace. All we have to do is imprison a few. Annias is fairly intelligent. He’ll get the point after a while.’

‘You’ll need some kind of charge, Sir Kalten,’ Abriel said. ‘You can’t just imprison Patriarchs of the Church for no reason at all – regardless of the circumstances.’

‘Oh, we have charges, My Lord Abriel – all sorts of charges – but “crimes against the crown of Elenia” has the nicest ring to it, wouldn’t you say?’

‘I hate it when he tries to be clever,’ Sparhawk muttered to Tynian.

‘You’ll love this one, Sparhawk,’ Kalten said. He threw back his black cloak with an expression of insufferable smugness. ‘How many of those arrest warrants Lenda signed for you back in Cimmura have you still got in your pocket?’

‘Eight or ten, why?’

‘Are there any of those people whose company you’d absolutely die without for the next several weeks?’

‘I could probably live without most of them.’ Sparhawk thought he saw which way his friend was going.

‘All we have to do is substitute a few names then,’ Kalten said. “The documents are official, so it’s going to look legal – sort of. After we’ve picked up four or five of his bought-and-paid-for Patriarchs and dragged them off to the Alcione chapterhouse – which just happens to be way over on the far side of town – won’t Annias do everything in his power to get them back? I’d sort of expect the number of soldiers gathered around the Pandion chapterhouse to diminish drastically at that point.’

‘Amazing,’ Ulath said. ‘Kalten actually came up with a workable idea.’

‘About the only thing I can see wrong with it is the business of substituting names,’ Vanion said. ‘You can’t just scratch out one name and replace it with another – not on an official document.’

‘I didn’t say anything about scratching out names, My Lord,’ Kalten said modestly. ‘Once, when we were novices, you gave Sparhawk and me leave to go home for a few days. You scribbled a note to get us out through the gate. We just happened to keep the note. The scribes in the scriptorium have something that totally washes out ink. They use it when they make mistakes. The date on that note of yours kept mysteriously changing. You might almost call it miraculous, mightn’t you?’ He shrugged. ‘But then, God’s always been sort of fond of me.’

‘Would it work?’ Komier bluntly asked Sparhawk.

‘It did when we were novices, My Lord,’ Sparhawk assured him.

‘You actually knighted these two, Vanion?’ Abriel asked.

‘It was a slow week.’

The grins in the room were broad now.

‘Totally reprehensible, Kalten,’ Dolmant said. ‘I’d have to absolutely forbid it – if I thought that you were in any way serious about it. You were just speculating, weren’t you, my son?’

‘Oh, absolutely, Your Grace.’

‘I was sure that was the case.’ Dolmant smiled benignly, even piously, and then he winked.

‘Oh, dear,’ Sephrenia sighed. ‘Isn’t there one honest Elene in the world? You too, Dolmant?’

‘I didn’t agree to anything, little mother,’ he protested with exaggerated innocence. ‘We were only speculating, weren’t we, Sir Kalten?’

‘Certainly, Your Grace. Pure speculation. Neither of us would ever seriously consider something so reprehensible.’

‘My feelings exactly,’ Dolmant said. ‘There, Sephrenia, does that set your mind at rest?’

‘You were a much nicer boy when you were a Pandion novice, Dolmant,’ she reproved him.

There was a stunned silence as they all stared at the Patriarch of Demos.

‘Oh dear,’ Sephrenia said mildly, her eyes dancing and a faint smile hovering at the corners of her mouth. ‘I suppose I really shouldn’t have said that, should I have, Dolmant?’

‘Did you really have to do that, little mother?’ he asked her in a pained tone.

‘Yes, dear one, I believe I did. You’ve started to become just a little too impressed with your own cleverness. It’s my responsibility as your teacher – and your friend – to curb that whenever possible.’

Dolmant tapped one finger on the table in front of him. ‘I trust we’ll all be discreet about this, gentlemen?’

‘Wild horses couldn’t drag it out of us, Dolmant,’ Emban grinned. ‘As far as I’m concerned, I never even heard it – and that’ll probably hold true until the next time I need a favour from you.’

‘Were you any good, Your Grace?’ Kalten asked respectfully. ‘As a Pandion, I mean?’

‘He was the best, Kalten,’ Sephrenia said rather proudly. ‘He was even a match for Sparhawk’s father. We were all saddened when the Church found other duties for him. We lost a very good Pandion when he took holy orders.’