The Red wolf conspiracy

A Betrayal Ended

5 Teala 941

83rd day from Etherhorde

Moonlight. No sound of a battle.

Was he sleeping on the bottom of the sea?

No, he could not breathe water anymore. If he were under the waves it meant he was dead, and that seemed likely enough. But if he had drowned his lips could not be parched, nor his scalp tickled by what felt suspiciously like a flea.

"Well," said a man's deep voice, "the last time it was you who waited on me. Now I can return the favor. Care to sit up and drink something?"

Pazel's head ached terribly. He was in a small, neat cabin without lamp or candle. And seated on the corner of the bed was Ignus Chadfallow.

"You're here!"

"And so, more surprisingly, are you. Don't jump up! You took a flying plank to the back of the head-a blow that would have split a coconut. Fortunately your skull is rather harder."

He smiled-the first smile Pazel had seen on his face in years. But Pazel found he could not return it: Chadfallow had played him one trick too many. The doctor's smile faded, and it was then that Pazel noticed how tired he looked. There were lines of care on his face that had not been there in Sorrophran, and his eyes were grim.

A memory suddenly blossomed in Pazel's head. "My father was here!" he said. "I heard him-was it just a few minutes ago? I heard him talking about me."

Chadfallow lowered his eyes. "You have been asleep for twenty hours, Pazel."

For a moment Pazel refused to believe it: the voice had been so real, so close. But of course it had been a dream; his father could not have been there. And yet-

"Where are we?"

"Two leagues from Ormael City, I should say. We'll be docking within the hour."

"Ormael! How did we get here? What ship is this?"

"The brig Hemeddrin. A Volpek warship, but we have found her a better flag. Rise carefully, if you can rise at all, and put these on." He handed Pazel a shirt and pair of breeches. "They are the smallest I could find. Volpeks do not keep tarboys."

Pazel got to his feet, wincing. Every muscle in his body hurt. As he dressed, Chadfallow bent over a sack at his feet and withdrew a glass bottle. Pulling the stopper, he decanted a few ounces into a mug and held it out to Pazel.

"Drink."

Pazel just looked at him. No other word could have done more to remind him of his distrust of Ignus Chadfallow. The doctor took in his expression and smiled sadly.

"It's medicine, my boy. A powerful but entirely unmagical sort, and the very thing for one in your condition. Go on, drink it down."

Pazel shut his eyes. He drank. And retched. "It tastes like something dead."

"Oil of grubroot," said Chadfallow. "The caviar of emetics. Here you are." He handed Pazel a brass dish.

"What's this for?"

Chadfallow said nothing; he appeared to be counting seconds. All at once Pazel doubled over, vomiting copiously into the dish. Chad-fallow studied his expulsions with interest.

"No ulcranous pills!" he said. "You're lucky; but then Arunis didn't have you in his keeping long. The other divers coughed up a number of tiny pills, which were perhaps embedded in their biscuits. Awful weapons: they are coated with a lacquer that dissolves over the course of ten days. After that the beads shatter, filling the stomach with powdered glass. Death follows-slowly."

"He was going to kill us!"

"After you brought him the Wolf. He wanted no one left alive to tell tales."

"Have you given the others that grubroot stuff?"

"Of course. Now, can you walk? People are waiting to see you."

Chadfallow opened the door, and they stepped out into a small wardroom.

"Pazel!"

Thasha jumped up so fast she nearly overturned the table where she was sitting with Neeps, Marila and Mintu. She had cut her hair as short as a tarboy's-hacked it off with a knife, by the look of it. She and Neeps ran to embrace him.

"You choose the worst times to have those fits," Thasha laughed.

"There's no good time," said Pazel, grinning too.

"You old dog!" said Neeps. "You really fixed Arunis! Last I saw he was floundering in the water, screaming about a scarlet ray. Did your murth-girl send that ray?"

Pazel's smile faded. His murth-girl. Why had she vanished? Was that how her people died? Or could murths only be seen when you were under their spell-or when they were under yours?

He gave his chest a quick pinch. The shell was still there.

"It must have been Klyst," he said. "But what happened? Thasha, was that really you in the boat? You and-"

He whirled around. There by the masthead stood Hercуl. The Tholjassan smiled warmly.

"Yes, Pazel, I too am alive-thanks to you. Had you not alerted my brethren I should have died in Uturphe, just as my old master intended."

"Your old master?"

"Sandor Ott," said Hercуl.

"What?" cried Pazel.

"I couldn't believe it either," said Thasha, smiling slyly. "I knew someone had made a monster out of him, but-"

"Ott did not make me a warrior," said Hercуl quickly, and with no hint of an answering smile. "He snatched me, rather, from a Tholjassan fighting school. Half-trained, and wholly trusting. But this is not the time to discuss my dark years with the Secret Fist."

"But you were dying in Uturphe!" said Pazel. "How in Pitfire did you get Aere?"

It had all begun with those two riders, Hercуl explained. They had alerted the Tholjassan Consul, who had sprung into action when he learned of Hercуl's plight, and located him the next morning in a poorhouse, his knife wound already inflamed. The Consul saw that the wound was properly cleaned and dressed. Soon Hercуl woke, and begged his fellow Tholjassan to search the city for Pazel.

"He put nine men on the task," said Hercуl, "and soon enough the trail led to the false inn on Blackwell Street, and to the Flikker-men. They fled my brethren down their holes and sewers, but a Tholjassan does not turn easily from his prize. Of course, you and Neeps had already been taken inland, to the flesh market. But my brethren recovered these."

Hercуl held out his palm, and to Pazel's astonishment, there lay his parents' gifts, the knife and the ivory whale.

"Thank you, Hercуl," he said, humbled, and pressed them to his chest.

Of course Pazel wished to know what had happened to them all. They tried to explain, but with so many tellers the tale became a patchwork of details and anecdotes, and he had to stop them time and again with simple questions. At last the picture emerged: how Hercуl had subjected his wound to the lightning-fast cures of a Slugdra ghost-doctor (and survived them). How he had hunted Ott's men through the low places of Uturphe, killing three and frightening all, for these lesser spies had never crossed wits or swords with one trained to serve the Secret Fist. How he learned that Chadfallow too was marked for death, and so met his ship and persuaded him not to pass a single night in Uturphe. How together the men had boarded a Simja-bound ship full of cooks, seamstresses, masons, balladeers, dog-catchers and specialists in the elimination of wasps, all claiming some connection to Thasha's wedding. How they disembarked at Ormael to find Chathrand already docked and the city in an uproar, for Thasha had run away in the night.

Ott's spies were scouring Ormael City. But Hercуl had turned again, as Tholjassans will in a crisis, to his kindred. As it happened, several Tholjassans were preparing to ride north toward the Crab Fens, responding to an emergency letter. Apparently a Volpek brig-this very Hemeddrin-had been raiding the coast for a fortnight, landing men in defenseless villages and kidnapping boys and girls in their teens. The ship had last been spotted running straight for the Haunted Coast.

"Ott wasn't interested in Tholjassan youths," said Hercуl, "but I was. And when I learned that Mr. Ket, the soap merchant with a knack for turning up at odd times, had left the Chathrand and was also headed north, I knew the coincidence was too great. The doctor and I set off with my countrymen on horseback. We caught up with Arunis and his wagon-team at the edge of the Fens. But we were five men against fifty Volpeks and a mage-and we saw no sign of Thasha, hidden as she was. The best we could do was slow Arunis down."

"So it was you who blocked the road with trees," Pazel asked.

Hercуl nodded. "With a little help from the freebooters."

"Freebooters? You mean smugglers, men like Mr. Druffle?"

"I do," said Hercуl. "But Mr. Druffle had best not show his face among the freebooters of Chereste again, after helping Arunis raid their territory. They are wise enough never to seek treasure among the shipwrecks of the Haunted Coast. And they appear to have made peace with the murths and spirits there. No living men know that country better."

He seemed about to say more, but then changed his mind. Pazel saw Neeps and Thasha look quickly away. Confused, Pazel glanced from face to face. No one met his eye.

Hercуl cleared his throat. "Others of my kinfolk met us in the dunes. All told we were but fifteen strong. The freebooters were not many, either: another dozen at the most. They were brave, though, and they had boats hidden in a secret lodge in the North Fens. They were quite eager to help us drive the Volpeks out."

"As the Mzithrinis might have been," put in Chadfallow, "if only-"

"Mzithrinis}" Pazel nearly jumped from the bench. "What Mzithrinis? Where did they come from?"

"We have all been asking that question," said Chadfallow. "Perhaps they were outlaws, enemies of the Five Kings driven into exile. But it is just as likely they were spies. The Mzithrinis surely knew that something odd was brewing in the Gulf of Thуl. One does not bring three ships and a hundred Volpeks that close to the Pentarchy and escape unnoticed. My guess is that they were dispatched to find out what Arunis was up to, and stumbled on Thasha quite by accident. Unfortunately-or perhaps very fortunately-they are all dead. If they were agents of the Five Kings, it would hardly do for them to turn up at Thasha's wedding and identify her."

"I wish they would," said Thasha. "If Prince Falmurqat knew what I looked like then, blood leaking down my chin and all, he'd be the one running away from this marriage."

"Hear our mistress of peace," sighed Chadfallow. "In any case, those six will make no report. But they did not walk to the Haunted Coast. Somewhere they had a boat, and few are the boats that would cross the Gulf of Thуl with a crew of six. Others may have watched your fight from a dune-top, Hercуl."

"What is done cannot be undone," said Hercуl. "And Thasha had no better choice-indeed, she did what I would have done myself under the circumstances."

"At last a kind word," said Thasha. "Hercуl cut off my hair with a knife, Pazel, and dipped me in swamp-muck, and made me go and surrender to that Druffle of yours. And Druffle actually believed I was a Tholjassan sponge-diver who'd given up trying to escape."

"You don't look a bit Tholjassan," said Marila. "Druffle must be a fool."

"He was enchanted," said Chadfallow. "Magically enslaved by Arunis, Rin knows for how long. We have never seen the real man."

"I can live without that pleasure," said Neeps. "But if only you'd caught us still ashore! If Pazel hadn't been sent underwater, and talked with the sea-murths, Arunis never would have found the Wolf at all."

There was a brief silence.

"I only wanted him to leave," said Pazel. "Klyst told me that when men disturb the Haunted Coast, it destroys the ripestiy, the magic that keeps them alive. It's not right for men to do that. Her people have lived there for thousands of years."

"You have learned things no human ever knew," said Chadfallow quietly.

"Well, I don't want to learn another language like hers," Pazel said, so fiercely that they all looked up. "Klyst called me land-boy-do you want to know why? Because the word for 'human' is striglyffn-chik, that's why. I'll have to know that forever. But I'm not making sense. I'll be quiet. Striglyffn-chik. Sorry."

This time the silence was longer. The others had winced at the screeching noise: sea-murth syllables torn from a human throat. Marila and Mintu gaped like fish. "He's got the hiccups," whispered the small boy.

"Pazel," said Thasha slowly, "what will you have to know forever?"

"That word," he said. "It's the only word they have for 'human.' But it means 'the beasts who will kill us all.' That's how they see us. I wish I didn't know."

When no one resumed the tale, Pazel took a deep breath. "What I do want to know is how you beat so many Volpeks. You were outnumbered, what? Three to one?"

"Closer to four," said Dr. Chadfallow. "We owe our success to Tholjassan tactics."

"And unnaturally good luck," Hercуl added. "The mist that rolled off the Fens allowed us to move unseen, and within it sounds were deadened, too. First it blanketed Arunis' shore compound, and we fell on the Volpeks there and slew them almost in silence. Then the mist moved out to sea like a great wall, and we followed. Was it the work of Coast spirits, or the murths you befriended, Pazel? I do not know. But within that uncanny fog we stole aboard the cargo ship, and though some of our people fell we took her, too, and still Arunis suspected nothing."

"I saw your handiwork," said Pazel grimly, recalling the dead Volpek he had feared was Neeps.

"Afterward we launched her boats and sailed west into the main current, where we could fall upon the Hemeddrin from behind. It was vital to take her next. Her guns could have blown the sea barge to matchsticks."

"We noticed," said Neeps.

"That was the freebooters' doing," said Hercуl. "A bit too eager to kill Volpeks, as it happened. We Tholjassans never planned to fire a shot. Yet there was a danger that the Volpeks would harm their captives if they learned that we had taken their fighting ship. What if they sank the sphere with captives still inside her? That is why I sent Thasha out with the last cage full of divers. And that is why four of us slipped from our boats as we passed the sea barge, and trod water in the mists and kelp, awaiting her signal that you were all safely out of the sphere."

"Only I couldn't signal," said Thasha, "because you were still missing."

"And then the freebooters fired the cannons?"

"At the sea barge," said Hercуl, with a nod.

"On top of us, in other words," said Marila.

"You were very lucky, Pazel," said Neeps. "Mintu here saw you just as you were starting to sink. You were out cold."

"I owe you one, mate," said Pazel. Mintu smiled and looked at his toes.

Hercуl smiled at the brother and sister. "Our countrymen will see you all safely home to your villages, once you have rested a bit in Ormael. Fasundri, fearless ones: that is how you shall be known."

He touched his closed fist to his forehead, the very gesture Thasha had seen him make on the bridge in Gallows Park in Ether-horde, and the Tholjassan boy and girl did the same. Pazel looked at Marila, and saw that Neeps was doing the same. They would miss her, strange cold fish that she was.

"And that is nearly the end of the story," said Chadfallow. "The Tholjassans took the ship, and paid the freebooters a tidy sum for their trouble. All the artifacts stolen from the Lythra they wisely returned to the sea. Many Volpeks died, along with some who fought them. But no divers perished, except the two boys killed by the sea-murths. I cannot say whether Arunis died, but at least his plans have been thwarted."

"And the Red Wolf?" said Pazel. "What became of it?"

Chadfallow and Hercуl exchanged a look. The doctor closed the wardroom door.

"It is here," he said, "in the hold. Do not speak of it to anyone. When Chathrand sails back to Etherhorde I shall gather the best minds in the Empire: we shall try to learn why Arunis wanted it so badly."

"You should start with Ramachni," said Thasha, sullen, as if this were a point made before. Chadfallow did not even look at her.

"My great fear, Pazel, was that Arunis sought the Nilstone, a cursed thing of horrible power. It was in the keeping of the Mzithrin Kings, and vanished during the last war. The Shaggat Ness craved it to the point of madness, and one rumor placed it in his hands at the moment the Lythra sank. No doubt Arunis also dreams of possessing the Nilstone-and if it were here, I cannot imagine him spending his time on anything else. Still, I sense a powerful spell on this Wolf: perhaps it too is a weapon of some kind."

"Do you think he wanted it for the Shaggat Ness?" asked Pazel.

The doctor turned him a sharp look. "What do you mean, for him?"

Before Pazel could answer, a cry went up on the topdeck: "Port stations! Ormael City! Clew up, boys! Furl those Volpek rags!"

Everyone jumped to their feet.

"We can discuss this later," said Hercуl. "Now we must act. Thasha, you know your part?"

A gleam appeared in Thasha's eye. "Know it? I can't wait for it."

"Very good," said Hercуl. "Then listen well, Pazel Pathkendle, for we shall need your help as well. We have dealt with one conspirator, but two more await us."

The Imperial Governor of His Supremacy's Territories of Ormael and the Trothe of Chereste was having a bad evening. The sword-fish was off. His cook had the measles. He hated this wing of Ormael Palace (the evening sun through the famous round, red window behind him slowly cooked the back of his neck), but where else could he entertain? The formal dining hall was still roofless and derelict, five years after the Rescue. The repair funds-like most of those promised for the city-had mysteriously evaporated. In truth such a theft of Imperial gold did not bother him half as much as not being invited to participate.

His subjects loathed him, an Etherhorder sent to rule Ormael in the name of a violent conqueror. And for the first time since his reign began five years ago: cannon fire along the Coast! Were they pirates, freebooters, Mzithrini? He hardly dared imagine.

It was the third straight dinner with his Chathrand guests, and they had long since run out of pleasantries. Uskins and Fiffengurt, two officers brought along tonight to make conversation, did nothing but glower at each other across the table. Each time Ambassador Isiq looked at him, the governor heard a silent accusation. Why are you eating dinner? Why did you sneeze? Why aren't you out there looking for her?

For of course nothing mattered beside the grand catastrophe hanging over him. The Isiq daughter, gone. Six hundred vessels descending on Simja for a wedding that could not occur. Day by day they were drifting toward an embarrassment that would sting for centuries. And he would be at its epicenter: the fool in Ormael who lost the Treaty Bride.

"This wine is splendid, Governor," said Syrarys.

Bless her, thought the governor. She does try to help.

"Jasbrea Vineyards," mumbled Captain Rose, frowning at his fish. "On Fulne."

"Right you are, Captain!" said the governor. "You're a connoisseur."

"I'm a drinker."

First Mate Uskins laughed: a sound like a sheep poked with a dagger. The governor's wife tut-tutted and made the sign of the Tree.

"'Drink is bottled woe, I shall abandon it,'" she said. "The twenty-first Rule of Rin. Don't you find, Captain, that…"

Across the table, Lady Oggosk raised her milky eyes and studied the governor's wife coldly. The woman let her voice trail away.

A servant entered. By his look of nausea it was clear he bore bad news. Keep it to yourself, the governor thought. But he let the man whisper in his ear.

In fact the news was anything but bad. The governor jumped to his feet.

"She is found!"

"Found?" cried Eberzam Isiq. "Thasha, found? Where is she?"

"I'm right here, Prahba."

And there she was at the door! Unharmed, even tranquil. She did not run to her father but merely walked, slowly and calmly, and put a hand on his.

"My child!" he said, choking on emotion or swordfish. "Where did you-"

"Wicked girl!" shrieked Syrarys, embracing her. "I've worried myself sick! I haven't slept, do you know that?"

"I expect you pace the castle all night," said a voice at the main door.

Everyone but Thasha gasped. Dr. Ignus Chadfallow stepped into the room, followed by a bruised-looking boy.

The ambassador stood up, too. "Ignus! Pathkendle! What on earth has brought you here?"

"A Volpek ship, Your Excellency, but that is a long story. At the moment what I most recall is the horrors of their galley. Is there no hope of dinner, Governor?"

"Hello, Mr. Uskins," said Pazel quietly, looking straight at the first mate. Then he turned and smiled with great affection at Fiffengurt.

"You rascal!" said Fiffengurt, beaming.

Stuttering, the governor called for two additional plates.

"Make it four," said Chadfallow.

"You three and who else, sir?" asked Uskins.

"Hard to say, isn't it?"

The new arrivals took their seats. Thasha sat beside Syrarys, facing her father.

"Where did you go, my star?" asked Isiq bluntly.

"North," she said, "to the Haunted Coast." Then she looked at Syrarys. "I'm parched. May I taste your wine?"

Syrarys pushed it at her. "You've scared us out of our minds! We thought you were dead!"

"And that, of course, would not do at all," said Chadfallow.

"Doctor!" said Isiq furiously. "You and I are the oldest of friends, but I cannot excuse this tone! You're addressing my lady and consort!"

"It is my sad duty to inform you," said Chadfallow, "that I was addressing your poisoner."

Screams and bellows. One of the servants seemed to think Chad-fallow was referring to the fish and began to cry. Syrarys wept loudly. Isiq threw down his napkin and looked ready to challenge the physician to a duel. Lady Oggosk nibbled bread.

"You're jealous!" cried Syrarys. "You never wanted Eberzam to love me!"

"On the contrary," said Chadfallow. "I wanted it a great deal. So much so that I ignored the signs of treachery until they stared me in the face."

"What the devil are you talking about, man?" shouted Isiq.

"You would know, sir, if my letters had reached you. Ah! Here's another guest for dinner."

Outside the doorway, still as death, stood Sandor Ott.

Isiq gestured sharply. "Come in, Nagan! Why do you wait?"

Ott did indeed seem reluctant to enter the room. Syrarys looked at him fixedly At last he seemed to make up his mind, crossed the room and knelt at Thasha's side.

"Lady Thasha!" he said. "Thank all the Gods! I have hunted day and night-"

"I'll bet you have," said Pazel.

"Chadfallow," said Isiq, "are you mad? You seat this insolent boy beside my daughter, you accuse my lady of wishing me dead-"

"Oh!" cried Syrarys.

"She looks faint!" said Uskins. "Give her some wine!"

"Give her silence!" roared Isiq, and everyone obeyed.

Syrarys clung to his arm, sobbing. Then she groped for her wine and drank deeply.

"Syrarys, darling," said Thasha, "the doctor's upset you."

"He lies! He hates me!"

"You look ill," said Thasha.

"Send her away from me! Oh, Eberzam, I wish I were dead!"

Thasha reached for her hand. "You need something to calm yourself. What about a few of Prahba's special drops?"

Syrarys froze. Her wet eyes turned slowly in Thasha's direction. "If only I had them," she said. "They're in my cabin."

"No, they're not." From under the table Thasha produced a small blue vial. "I had to stop at the Chathrand before dinner," she said. "Really, I looked a fright. And something told me this might come in handy. A harmless tonic to soothe the nerves-isn't that what you called it? So I put a few drops in your wine."

Syrarys looked pale.

"There's nothing to fear," said Thasha. "Remember how you put it? Tasteless and harmless. You could drink it by the glass."

"A few drops?" whispered Syrarys.

"Well, nineteen."

Syrarys' tears were gone. She sat perfectly still. Dr. Chadfallow opened his bag and withdrew a bottle of his own.

"May I acquaint you with oil of grubroot, Lady Syrarys? For your predicament there is really nothing like it."

Syrarys tensed all over. Then her face twisted into the look of rage Thasha had always known she was hiding.

"You damn doddering fool!" she screamed at Isiq. "Two more days with you and your Pit-spawn daughter! That's all we needed! Two days!" She snatched Chadfallow's bottle and ran for the kitchen.

"Do not let her escape, Governor," said Chadfallow quietly.

Isiq looked as if he had been struck in the face. He gave Thasha a beseeching look. His lips trembled, as if he were about to speak, but no sound came. Thasha put her arms around his neck, and propped her chin on his hairless forehead.

"You aren't ill, Prahba. You never were."

Then Fiffengurt spoke softly: "All… we needed?"

"Quartermaster," said Captain Rose, "you will return to the ship."

Fiffengurt looked at him sharply. "Oppo, Captain. As you will."

He rose and bowed to the governor's wife, who was making the sign of the Tree over anything that moved.

"But… but… but," said the governor, looking from face to face. "It's a fair q-question, isn't it? What did she mean by we?"

"She meant herself," said Chadfallow. "And her lover, Sandor Ott." He pointed at the spymaster.

Isiq turned in his chair and cried, "No!"

Rose laughed sharply. "That old tinshirt, Sandor Ott? His Supremacy's chief assassin? Why, I wouldn't trust him to assassinate a dog."

"An excess of trust will never be your burden, sir," said the doctor coldly. "But you know who this is."

"'Course I do. He's an honor guardsman. He's a butler with a sword."

"A butler deadly enough to kill everyone in this room and walk out unscathed," said Hercуl from the doorway. "Hello, old master."

Ott leaped so fast no one saw him move. Back to the wall, he drew his sword.

"Have you lost your minds, all of you?" he said. "My name is Commander Shtel Nagan. Sandor Ott is the Emperor's spy, and no one knows what he looks like!"

"That was true once," said Chadfallow. "But your ambition has proved stronger than your wisdom in recent years. I know your face, Ott, from my time as Special Envoy in this city. You came here disguised as a merchant, but you were secretly gathering information for the Rescue of Chereste."

"Invasion, you mean," said Eberzam Isiq.

Pazel looked at him with amazement.

"I recognized you," Chadfallow went on, "when I returned to Etherhorde. You were always there in the shadows. At last the Emperor introduced us properly-and swore me to secrecy. But I swore another oath long before-to defend Arqual against all enemies."

"I swore the same oath," said Ott. "I have lived by it all my life."

"Not all," said Hercуl, drawing closer. "Not, for instance, when you sent one of your men to knife me in the dark and cast my body to the waves. Nor when you killed him, after he failed, so that no one would see his broken wrist. Yet thanks to Pazel Pathkendle and my brethren from Tholjassa, I saw the poor lad. In the Uturphe morgue. And of course I know your face. How sad to meet this way! I once revered you so."

"Stop meddling, both of you," said Rose in a warning voice. "This man is a guest on the Great Ship."

Chadfallow smiled at him. "That, sir, is one of many reasons I am glad I did not sail with you. On the Chathrand you outrank us all. On dry land you outrank Fiffengurt and Uskins."

"Ambassador," said Ott, turning to Isiq, "I have watched over your family for years. Your dear first wife, your daughter, yourself."

"You have," said Isiq uncertainly. "But so has Chadfallow. And Hercуl has long been my daughter's tutor."

"The doctor did not serve you on this voyage," said Rose. "He abandoned your family out of fear. He disobeyed the Emperor himself. And now he claims that Syrarys is this man's lover. How do you know, Doctor? Have you seen them together? Has anyone?"

No one spoke for a moment.

"Diadrelu-" began Thasha. But she caught Pazel's look of alarm and fell silent.

Slowly, Rose sat up in his chair. "What sort of name is that?"

"Never mind!" said Pazel. His voice rang in the sudden silence.

Rose turned to him, unblinking. "It sounds like a crawly name."

"How dare you!" squeaked the governor's wife. "This is the ambassador's daughter! And you imply that she talks to… ship maggots! For shame, for shame, Captain Rose!"

Before Rose could reply, Lady Oggosk made a sound of disgust. Leaning forward on her elbows, she gestured at Ott with a butter knife.

"I saw them together-that man and Syrarys. Of course they're lovers. I caught her with him months ago, at Castle Maag. She confessed. He was tired of being a servant, she was tired of the ambassador. Once Thasha married the Sizzy prince, and peace reigned, these two would grow rich in the new world of trade between the empires. Bribes, usury, imaginary taxes. They'd be fat as sultans. The ambassador was too sick to decide much himself, she told me. Of course, I didn't know she was poisoning him."

"You treacherous cur!" said Isiq to Ott. "You'll hang!"

The governor stood up, trembling all over. "Mr. N-Nagan," he pleaded, "or whatever your name is-will you kindly lay down your sword?"

Ott stepped forward. Hercуl's eyes narrowed and his hand went to his own sword-hilt. But the spymaster merely bowed and laid his sword upon the table. A knife followed, long and white and well worn.

The governor heaved a great sigh of relief and sat down. And Ott lifted his knife again and hurled it straight at Lady Oggosk.

The next three seconds were astounding. Hercуl lunged and caught the knife in midair. Oggosk screamed. Sandor Ott leaped onto the table and ran its length. Thasha plunged her dinner fork into his leg, but Ott, never slowing, dealt her a savage blow to the face. Then, reaching the table's end, he planted a foot on the governor's head, driving it facedown into his dinner, and leaped straight at the round window behind him.

But something else flew at Ott's head in that instant: a hissing red blur. Sniraga.

A horrid noise, and a downpour of colored glass. A moment later, Hercуl reached the window.

"He's in the courtyard!" he shouted. "Drop the portcullis! You there! Drop that gate!"

Silence. Then a resounding clang. Hercуl's shoulders slumped.

Turning back to the room, he said, "The cat is safe in the gardenias, Duchess, and her claws have marked the spymaster for life. Governor, your men have sealed the palace-"

"Victory!" cried his wife.

"— one second after Ott departed it." Hercуl sighed. "You may call out your constables, your bloodhounds, the port marines. You may tear what's left of this city apart. But you won't find him."

"Do you mean to say that they had been planning this for years?" said the governor, as one servant picked swordfish from his beard and another lit his pipe.

"I'm certain of it," said Isiq, despondent. "Syrarys was always the one most eager to move to Simja. Now I know why."

"They subjected you to deathsmoke in Tressek Tarn," said Chad-fallow quietly.

"Deathsmoke!" cried Thasha, aghast. "The monsters! Thank heaven we were only there a night."

"I will have to perform some tests," Chadfallow went on, "but I am very much afraid that the droplets you've been taking were also a deathsmoke concoction."

"But you can cure him, can't you?" demanded Thasha.

The doctor lowered his eyes.

"No," said Isiq. "He cannot. There is no permanent cure. One grows stronger with the passage of years, but a deathsmoke addict craves the drug until he dies. I have seen men die for it, too, in the navy."

"You will not die," said Chadfallow. "That much I can promise you. But you may have to fight, Excellency-like a tiger, to master yourself."

"Speaking of tigers…," said Pazel.

There was a scrabble of claws, and Sniraga pulled herself in through the window. She walked primly to Lady Oggosk. Furtively, Thasha watched the old woman lift her pet. Why did you help us?

Oggosk seemed to feel her gaze. Her cloudy blue eyes rose to Thasha's own.

"Where thou goest, I follow fast," she whispered.

Those words. Where had Thasha heard them before? At first the memory refused to surface. Then she had it: the Mother Prohibitor's emerald ring. The words were inscribed about the emerald. Could Oggosk be a Lorg Sister? Did she have her own cherry tree in the Orchard? Had she prayed before dawn, kneeling on icy stones? Had she sat on Thasha's bench?

Dimly she recalled the Mother Prohibitor's words: On the path you are doomed to tread one of us at least will be near you. In dire need you may call upon her; she cannot refuse.

"If you're a friend," she whispered to Oggosk, "why did you send your cat to steal my necklace?"

Oggosk looked at the silver chain on Thasha's neck, and gave a violent sort of squirm. "Too late for all that, too late," she muttered.

"What do you mean, too late?"

But Oggosk would no longer meet her eye.

"Such lengths the villains went to!" the governor was saying. "To play with the life of His Supremacy's ambassador, to arrange a marriage across both empires-"

"Without Thasha's wedding there would be no ambassadorship," said Chadfallow, "and thus no way for Ott and Syrarys to leave Arqual. And that was the only chance they had of a life together. His Supremacy would never let Ott retire. He was too useful to be allowed to fall in love."

"Whereas I," said Isiq, "was useful only because I fell in love."

"Then you bring us no peace!" cried the governor's wife. "This marriage was a trick, and we must go on living with Sizzy threats and raids, and fearing a third sea war!"

"Wrong, madame," said Chadfallow.

Pazel and Thasha looked up at him, startled.

"Sandor Ott twisted events for his own purposes," Chadfallow continued, "but the wedding of Thasha and Prince Falmurqat is no trick. The Mzithrini want peace, and so does the Emperor."

"What?" cried Thasha and Pazel together.

"Hush, children-"

"The Emperor doesn't want peace!" Pazel blurted. "He wants the Sizzies fighting themselves! He wants a civil war!"

Chadfallow looked at him calmly. "Don't speak of what you don't understand, Pazel."

"Well then, how do you explain what happened on the Haunted Coast?"

"The two events are unconnected," said Chadfallow. "Arunis hired the Volpeks to help him raid a treasure-wreck. Had he not kidnapped Tholjassan sons and daughters-and had Thasha not found Hercуl and the smugglers in good time-he might have succeeded. But one greedy conjurer hardly matters, weighed against the chance for an era of peace."

"One greedy conjurer?" said Thasha. "That's what you call Arunis?"

"Oh, Thasha," said the doctor. "You cannot think that we are speaking of the Arunis? That man was hanged forty years ago! This is an upstart who took the sorcerer's name, the better to frighten us with."

"Like pirates, eh?" said the governor. "There were six Billy Blacktongues."

"Just so," said the doctor. "And you see how well the tactic works? Even Thasha believed in him."

Now the young people were too afraid to shout.

"Hercуl?" said Thasha quietly.

The Tholjassan was looking very hard at Chadfallow. "I am not a statesman," he said.

"But I am," said Chadfallow. "And I hope that you will trust my judgment as ever, Hercуl. This so-called Arunis was a passenger on Chathrand, but he had nothing to do with the other criminals aboard."

"Unless you two have a… special source of information?" said Rose.

Pazel and Thasha looked at each other. They were trapped. To mention the ixchel would be to condemn Diadrelu and her kin to death.

"But they were working together," Thasha pleaded. "This is one big conspiracy!"

Chadfallow shook his head. "Two small ones, merely," he said. "And we have just dealt with both."

"You're mad!" shouted Pazel. "The Shaggat Ness is aboard the Chathrand!"

The adults-all of them except Hercуl-laughed. Even Eberzam Isiq managed to chuckle sadly.

Thasha jumped to Pazel's defense. "It's true, Prahba! You're being fooled all over again!"

"This Ormali rat-boy's filled her head with rot," growled Uskins.

Shouting, Pazel and Thasha looked from face to face.

"There's millions in gold hidden on the ship!"

"We're not going home after Simja, we're crossing the Ruling Sea!"

"Arunis never died! He's the Shaggat's own mage!"

"Governor," said Isiq, "can you not keep order at your table?"

The governor swallowed, but he clapped his hands. "Children! Hold your tongues or… or depart, yes, depart!"

In the silence that followed, Isiq said, "We will sail tomorrow morning, across the Straits. There we will bow low before Prince Falmurqat and his family, and beg their pardon for this ill-considered engagement, and swear to them we mean no insult by breaking it. Pathkendle, you will stand at my side as translator."

"Your Excellency!" said Chadfallow. "You cannot believe these claims!"

"About Shaggats and sorcerers risen from the dead? Of course not."

"Then her marriage must go through!"

"An age of peace cannot begin with a plan stained by treachery," said Isiq, "nor by the sacrifice of an innocent soul. Don't argue, Doctor! Let the Emperor condemn me if he dares. But from this moment I swear before you all: Thasha Isiq's life is no one's but her own."