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.'
