Part 50 (1/2)

'I'm afraid we won't find that out until tomorrow night,' Khalad conceded. 'I disabled about six hundred of those things. If twelve hundred crossbowmen come into the palace grounds we'll know that half of their weapons are going to work. We'll have to take cover at that point. You there!' he shouted suddenly, looking upward. 'Drape that bunting! Don't stretch it tight that way.' He shook his fist at the workman leaning precariously out of a window high up in one of the towers.

Although he was obviously quite young, the scholar Bevier escorted into Ehlana's presence was almost totally bald. He was very nervous, but his eyes had that burning glaze to them that announced him to be a fanatic. He prostrated himself before Ehlana's thronelike chair and banged his forehead on the floor.

'Don't do that, man,' Ulath rumbled at him. 'It offends the queen. Besides, you'll crack the floor tiles.'

The scholar scrambled to his feet, his eyes fearful. 'This is Emuda,' Bevier introduced him. 'He's the scholar I told you about-the one with the interesting theory about Scarpa of Arjuna.'

'Oh, yes,' Ehlana said in Tamul. 'Welcome, Master Emuda. Sir Bevier has spoken highly of you.'

Actually, Bevier had not, but a queen is allowed to take certain liberties with the truth. Emuda gave her a fawning sort of look. Sparhawk moved in quickly to cut off a lengthy, rambling preamble.

'Correct me if I'm wrong about this, Master Emuda,' he said, but our understanding of your theory is that you think that Scarpa's behind all these disturbances in Tamuli.'

'That's a slight over-simplification, Sir?' Emuda looked inquiringly at the tall Pandion Knight.

'Sparhawk,' Ulath supplied. Emuda's face went white, and he began to tremble violently.

'I'm a simple sort of man, neighbour,' Sparhawk told him. 'Please don't confuse me with complications. What sort of evidence do you have that lays everything at Scarpa's door?'

'It's quite involved, Sir Sparhawk,' Emuda apologised.

'Un-involve it. Summarise, man. I'm busy.'

Emuda swallowed very hard. 'Well, uh-' he faltered. 'We know-that is, we're fairly certain-that Scarpa was the first of the spokesmen for these so-called ”heroes from the past.”'

'Why do you say 'so-called', Master Emuda?' Tynian asked him. Sir Tynian still had his right arm in a sling.

'Isn't it obvious, Sir Knight?' Emuda's tone was just slightly condescending. 'The notion of resurrecting the dead is an absurdity. It's all quite obviously a hoax. Some henchman is dressed in ancient clothing, appears in a flash of light-which any country-fair charlatan can contrive-and then starts babbling gibberish, which the ”spokesman” identifies as an ancient language. Yes, it's clearly a hoax.'

'How clever of you to have unmasked it,' Sephrenia murmured. 'We all thought it was magic of some kind.'

'There's no such thing as magic, madame.'

'Really?' she replied mildly. 'What an amazing thing.'

'I'd stake my reputation on that.'

'How courageous of you.'

'You say that Scarpa was the first of these revolutionaries to appear?' Vanion asked him.

'By more than a year, Sir Knight. The first reports of his activities began to appear in diplomatic dispatches from the capital at Arjuna just over four years ago. The next to emerge was Baron Parok of Daconia, and I have a sworn statement from a s.h.i.+p-captain that Scarpa sailed from Kaftal in southwestern Arjuna to Alar in Daconia. Alar is Baron Parok's home, and he began his activities about three years ago. The connection is obvious.'

'It would seem so, wouldn't it?' Sparhawk mused.

'From Alar I have doc.u.mented evidence of the travels of the two. Parok went into Edam, where he actually stayed in the home town of Rebal-that connection gave me a bit of trouble, since Rebal isn't using his real name. We've identified his home district, though, and the town Parok visited is the district capital. I think I'm safe in a.s.suming that a meeting took' place during Parok's visit. While Parok was in Edam, Scarpa travelled all the way up into Astel. I can't exactly pinpoint his travels there, but I know he moved around quite a bit just to the north of the marches on the Edomish-Astellian border, and that's the region where Sabre makes his headquarters. The disturbances in Edam and Astel began some time after Scarpa and Parok had journeyed into those kingdoms. The evidence of connection between the four men is all very conclusive.'

'What about these reports of supernatural events?' Tynian asked.

'More hoaxes, Sir Knight.' Emuda's expression was offensively superior. 'Pure charlatanism. You may have noticed that they always occur out in the countryside where the only witnesses are superst.i.tious peasants and ignorant serfs. Civilised people would not be fooled by such obvious trickery.'

'I wondered about that,' Sparhawk said. 'Are you sure about this timetable of yours? Scarpa was the first to start stirring things up?'

'Definitely, Sir Sparhawk.'

'Then he contacted the others and enlisted them? Perhaps a year and a half later?' Emuda nodded. 'Where did he go when he left Astel after recruiting Sabre?'

'I've lost track of him for a time there, Sir Sparhawk. He went into the Elene Kingdoms of Western Tamuli about two and a half years ago and didn't return to Arjuna until eight or ten months later. I have no idea of where he was during that interim. Oh, one other thing. The so-called vampires began to appear in Arjuna at almost precisely the same time that Scarpa began telling the Arjuni that he'd been in contact with Sheguan, their national hero. The traditional monsters of the other kingdoms also put in their appearance at the same time these other revolutionaries began their campaigns. Believe me, your Majesty,' he said earnestly to Ehlana, if you're looking for a ringleader, Scarpa's your man.'

'We thank you for this information, Master Emuda, she said sweetly. 'Would you please provide Sir Bevier with your supporting data and describe your findings to him in greater detail? Pressing affairs necessarily limit the time we can spend with you, fascinating though we find your conclusions.'

'I shall be happy to share the entire body of my research with Sir Bevier, your Majesty.' Bevier rolled his eyes ceilingward and sighed. They watched the enthusiast lead poor Bevier from the room.

'I'd hate to have to take that case into any court-civil or ecclesiastical,' Emban snorted.

'It is a bit thin, isn't it?' Stragen agreed.

'The only thing that makes me pay any attention to him at all is that timetable of his,' Sparhawk said. 'Dolmant sent me to Lamorkand late last winter to look into the activities of Count Gerrich. While I was there, I heard all the wild stories about Drychnath. It seems that our prehistoric Lamork started making appearances at a time that coincides almost exactly with the period when our scholarly friend lost track of Scarpa. Emuda's such a complete a.s.s that I sort of hate to admit it, but he may just have hit upon the right answer.'

'But it's for all the wrong reasons, Sparhawk,' Emban objected.

'I'm only interested in his answers, your Grace,' Sparhawk replied. 'As long as they're the right answers I don't care how he got them.'

'It's just too risky to do it any earlier, Sparhawk,' Stragen said later that day.

'You two are taking a lot of chances,' Sparhawk objected.

'It's a hull lot more chancy t' start out earlier, Sparhawk,' Caalador drawled. 'If'n we want t' grab th' leaders sooner, them oz is left could gist call it all off, an' all these traps o' ourn wouldn't ketch no rabbits. We gotta wait 'till they open that warehouse an' start pa.s.sin' out them there weepons.'

Sparhawk winced. 'Weepons?'

'The word wouldn't appear in that particular dialect,' Caalador shrugged. 'I had to countrify it up-just for the sake of consistency.'

'You switch back and forth like a frog on a hot rock, my friend.'

'I know. Infuriating, isn't it? It goes like this, Sparhawk. If we pick up the conspirators any time before they start arming the mob, they'll be able to suspend operations and go to ground. They'll wait, reorganise and then pick another day-which it is that we won't know nuthin' about. On the other hand, once they pa.s.s out the weapons, it'll be too late. There'll be thousands in the streets-most of them about half-drunk. Our friends in the upper councils could no more stop them than stop the tide. The sheer momentum of this attempted coup will be working for us instead of for our shadowy friends.'

'They can still go to ground and just feed the mob to the wolves, you know.'

Caalador shook his head. 'Tamul justice is a bit abrupt, and an attack on the emperor is going to be viewed as the worst sort of bad manners. Several hundred people are going to be sent to the headsman's block. Recruitment after that will be virtually impossible. They have no choice. Once they start, they have to follow through.'

'You're talking about some very delicate timing, you know.'

'Ain, that's easy tuk care of, Sparhawk,' Caalador grinned. 'There's this yore temple right smack dab in the middle o' town. It's more'n likely all fulla cobwebs an' dust, on accounta our little yolla brothers don't take then religion none too serious-like. There's these yore priests oz sits around in there, drinkin' an' carousin' an' sick. When they gits themselves all beered-up an' boistrous-like, they usual decides t' hold services. They got this yore bell, which it is oz must weigh along 'bout twenty ton 'er so. One o' them there drunk priests, he wobbles over t' that there bell an' he takes up this yore sledge-hammer an' he whacks the bell a couple licks with it. Makes the awfullest sound you ever did hear. Sailors bin known t' hear it 'bout ten leagues out t' sea. Now, there ain't no special time set fer when they goes t' whackin' on that there bell. Folks here in Matherion don't pay no attention t' it, figgerin' that it's gist the priests enjoyin' themselves.'

Even Caalador could apparently tire of the exaggerated dialect. 'That's the beauty of it, Sparhawk,' he said, lapsing into normal speech. 'The sound of that bell is random, and n.o.body takes any special note of it. Tomorrow night, though, it's going to be profoundly significant. As soon as that warehouse opens, the bell's going to peal out its message of hope and joy. The murderers sitting almost in the laps of the people we want to talk with will take that as their orders to move. We'll have the whole lot rounded up in under a minute.'

'What if they try to resist?'

'Oh, there'll be some losses,' Caalador shrugged. 'You can't make an omelette without breaking eggs. There are several dozen people we want to pick up, so we can afford to lose a few.'