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‘You’ve met Sparhawk?’ Emban asked as they all took chairs before an open here the breeze billowed the black drapes

‘Briefly,’ Monsel replied ‘How are you today, your Highness?’

‘Well And you, your Grace?’

‘Curious,in private consultations?’

‘We’re all clergymen, your Grace,’ Emban pointed out ‘Sparhaears a cassock y We’ve co that probably concerns you as h to know that you’ve got a practical side that’s not going to get sidetracked by the fact that you think we genuflect wrong’

‘What’s this?’ Sparhawk asked

‘We kneel on our right knee,’ Ehted heathens kneel on the left’

‘Shocking,’ Sparhawk murmured ‘Do you think we should coht?’

‘You see?’ Emban said to the Archi about You should fall to your knees and thank God that you’re not saddled with Church Knights, Monsel I think er Gods, your Grace,’ Sparhawk said mildly ‘We’ve had our differences with the Elder Gods’

‘He says it so casually,’ Monsel shuddered ‘If you think we’ve exhausted the conversational potential of genuflectory variation, Eet to the point?’

‘This is in strictest confidence, your Grace, but our mission here to Tamuli’s not entirely what it seems It was Queen Ehlana’s idea, of course She’s not the sort to go anywhere just because somebody tells her to – but all of this elaborate fol-de-rol was just a subterfuge to hide our real purpose, which was to put Sparhawk on the Daresian Continent The world’s co apart at the seaht that was God’s job’

‘God’s busy just now, and He’s got complete confidence in Sparhawk All sorts of Gods feel that way about him, I understand’

Monsel’s eyes widened, and his beard bristled

‘Relax, Monsel,’ Emban told him ‘We of the Church are not required to believe in other Gods All we have to do is make a few allowances for their speculative existence’

‘Oh, that’s different If this is speculation, I suppose it’s all right’

‘There’s one thing that isn’t speculation, your Grace,’ Sparhawk said ‘You’ve got trouble here in Astel’