The Diamond Throne (48 page)

‘You may if it’s going to make you happy, Doctor,’ she replied, taking the chair and removing her arm from the sling. She pulled back the sleeve of her robe to reveal a surprisingly girlish arm.

The doctor looked a bit hesitantly at Sparhawk. ‘You understand, of course, that I’m not being forward with your sister’s person, but I must examine her’

‘I understand the procedure, Doctor.’

Tanjin took a deep breath and then bent Sephrenia’s wrist back and forth several times. Then he gently ran his fingers up her forearm and bent her elbow. He swallowed hard and probed at her upper arm. Then he moved her arm up and down with his fingers lightly touching her shoulder. His close-set eyes narrowed. ‘There’s nothing wrong with this arm,’ he accused.

‘How kind you are to say so,’ she murmured, removing her veil.

‘Madame!’ he said in a shocked voice ‘Cover yourself!’

‘Oh, do be serious, Doctor,’ she told him. ‘We’re not here to talk about arms and legs.’

‘You’re spies!’ he gasped.

‘In a manner of speaking, yes,’ she replied calmly ‘But even spies have reason to consult with physicians once in a while’

‘Leave at once,’ he ordered.

‘We’ve just got here,’ Sparhawk said, pushing back his hood. ‘Go ahead, sister dear,’ he said to Sephrenia. ‘Tell him why we’re here’

‘Tell me, Tanjin,’ she said, ‘does the word “Darestim” mean anything to you?’

He started guiltily and looked at the curtained doorway, backing away from her.

‘Don’t be modest, Doctor,’ Sparhawk told him. ‘Word’s been going about that you cured the king’s brother and several of his nephews after they’d been poisoned with Darestim.’

‘There’s no proof of that.’

‘I don’t need proof. I need a cure. A friend of ours has the same condition.’

‘There’s no antidote or cure for Darestim.’

‘Then how is it that the king’s brother still lives?’

‘You’re working with them,’ the doctor accused, pointing vaguely out towards the square. ‘You’re trying to trick me into a confession.’

‘Them who?’ Sparhawk asked.

‘The fanatics who follow Arasham. They’re trying to prove that I use witchcraft in my practice.’

‘Do you?’

The doctor shrank back. ‘Please leave,’ he begged. ‘You’re putting my life in terrible danger.’

‘As you’ve probably noticed, Doctor,’ Sephrenia said, ‘we are not Rendorish. We do not share the prejudices of your countrymen, so magic does not offend us. It’s quite routine in the place we come from.’

He blinked at her uncertainly

‘This friend of ours – the one I mentioned before – is very dear to us,’ Sparhawk told him, ‘and we’ll go to any lengths to find a cure for this poison.’ To emphasize his point, he opened his robe. ‘Any lengths at all.’

The doctor gaped at his mail-coat and sheathed sword.

‘There’s no need to threaten the doctor, brother dear,’ Sephrenia said. ‘I’m sure he’ll be more than happy to describe the cure he’s found. He is a healer, after all.’

‘Madame, I don’t know what you’re talking about,’ Tanjin said desperately. ‘There is no cure for Darestim. I don’t know where you heard all these rumours, but I can assure you that they’re absolutely false. I do
not
use witchcraft in my practice.’ He threw another quick, nervous glance at the curtained doorway.

‘But Doctor Voldi in Cippria told us that you
did,
in fact, cure members of the king’s family.’

‘Well yes, I suppose I did, but the poison wasn’t Darestim.’

‘What was it then?’

‘Uh Porgutta – I think.’ He was obviously lying.

‘Then why was it that the king sent for you, Doctor?’ she pressed. ‘A simple purge will cleanse the body of Porgutta. An apprentice physician knows that. Surely it couldn’t have been so mild a poison.’

‘Uh – well, maybe it was something else. I forget, exactly’

‘I think, dear brother,’ Sephrenia said then to Sparhawk, ‘that the good doctor needs some reassurance – some positive proof that he can trust us and that we are what we say we are.’ She looked at the irritating bumblebee still stubbornly trying to break its way out through the window. ‘Have you ever wondered why you never see a bumblebee at night, Doctor?’ she asked the frightened physician.

‘I’ve never given it any thought.’

‘Perhaps you should.’ She began to murmur in Styric as her fingers wove the designs of the spell.

‘What are you doing?’ Tanjin exclaimed. ‘Stop that!’ He started to move towards her with one hand outstretched, but Sparhawk stopped him.

‘Don’t interfere,’ the big knight said.

Then Sephrenia pointed her finger and released the spell.

The buzzing sound of insect wings was suddenly joined by a tiny, piping voice that sang joyously in a tongue unknown to man. Sparhawk looked quickly at the dust-clouded window. The bumblebee was gone, and in its place there hovered a tiny female figure directly out of folklore. Her pale hair cascaded down her back between rapidly beating gossamer wings. Her little nude body was perfectly formed, and her minuscule face was so lovely as to stop the breath.

That is how bumblebees think of themselves,’ Sephrenia said quite calmly, ‘and perhaps that is what they truly are – by day a common insect, but by night a creature of wonder.’

Tanjin had fallen back on his shabby couch with his eyes wide and his mouth agape.

‘Come here, little sister,’ Sephrenia crooned to the fairy, extending one hand.

The fairy swooped about the room, her transparent wings buzzing and her tiny voice soaring. Then she delicately settled on Sephrenia’s outstretched palm with her wings still fanning at the air. Sephrenia turned and stretched her hand out to the shaking physician. ‘Isn’t she beautiful?’ she asked. ‘You may hold her if you like – but be wary of her sting.’ She pointed at the tiny rapier in the fairy’s hand.

Tanjin shrank away with his hands behind his back. ‘How did you do that?’ he asked in a trembling voice.

‘Do you mean that you can’t? The charges against you
must
be false then. This is a very simple spell – quite rudimentary, actually.’

‘As you can see, Doctor,’ Sparhawk said, ‘we have no qualms about magic. You can speak freely to us with no fear of being denounced to Arasham or his fanatic followers.’

Tanjin tightly clamped his lips shut, continuing to
stare at the fairy seated sedately on Sephrenia’s palm with fluttering wings.

‘Don’t be tiresome, Doctor,’ Sephrenia said. ‘Just tell us how you cured the king’s brother, and we’ll be on our way.’

Tanjin began to edge away from her.

‘I think, dear brother, that we’re wasting our time here,’ she said to Sparhawk. ‘The good doctor refuses to co-operate.’ She raised her hand. ‘Fly, little sister,’ she told the fairy, and the tiny creature soared once again into the air. ‘We’ll be going now, Tanjin,’ she said.

Sparhawk started to object, but she laid one restraining hand on his arm and started towards the door.

‘What are you going to do about that?’ Tanjin cried, pointing at the circling fairy

‘Do?’ Sephrenia said, ‘why nothing, Doctor She’s quite happy here. Feed her sugar from time to time, and put out a small dish of water for her. In return, she’ll sing for you. Don’t try to catch her, though. That would make her very angry’

‘You can’t leave her here!’ he exclaimed in anguish. ‘If anyone sees her here, I’ll be burned at the stake for witchcraft.’

‘He sees directly to the central point, doesn’t he?’ Sephrenia said to Sparhawk.

The scientific mind is noted for that.’ Sparhawk grinned. ‘Shall we go, then?’

‘Wait!’ Tanjin cried.

‘Was there something you wanted to tell us, Doctor?’ Sephrenia asked mildly

‘All right. All right. But you must swear to keep it a secret that I told you this.’

‘Of course. Our lips are sealed.’

Tanjin drew in a deep breath and scurried to the curtained doorway to make certain that no one was
listening outside. Then he turned and motioned them into a far corner where he spoke in
a
hoarse whisper. ‘Darestim is so virulent that there’s no natural remedy or antidote,’ he began.

‘That’s what Voldi told us,’ Sparhawk said.

‘You’ll note that I said no
natural
remedy or antidote,’ Tanjin continued. ‘Some years ago in the course of my studies, I came across a very old and curious book. It predated Eshand’s time, and it had been written before his prohibitions came into effect. It seems that the primitive healers here in Rendor routinely utilized magic in treating their patients. Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn’t- but they effected some astonishing cures. The practice had one common element. There are a number of objects in the world which have enormous power. The physicians of antiquity used that sort of thing to cure their patients.’

‘I see,’ Sephrenia said. ‘Styric healers sometimes resort to the same desperate measure’

‘The practice is quite common in the Tamul Empire on the Daresian continent,’ Tanjin went on, ‘but it’s fallen into disfavour here in Eosia. Eosian physicians prefer scientific techniques. They’re more reliable, for one thing, and Elenes have always been suspicious of magic But Darestim is so potent that none of the customary antidotes have any effect. Magical objects are the only possible cure’

‘And what did you use to cure the king’s brother and nephews?’ Sephrenia asked.

‘It was an uncut gem of a peculiar colour I think it originally came from Daresia, though I can’t really be sure. It’s my belief that the Tamul Gods infused it with their power.’

‘And where is that gem now?’ Sparhawk asked intently.

‘Gone, I’m afraid. I had to grind it to a powder and mix it with wine to cure the king’s relatives.’

‘You idiot!’ Sephrenia exploded. That is
not
the way to use such an object. You need only touch it to the patient’s body and call forth its power.’

‘I’m a trained physician, madame,’ he replied stiffly. ‘I cannot turn insects into fairies, nor levitate myself nor cast spells upon my enemies. I can only follow the normal practices of my profession, and that means that the patient must ingest the medication.’

‘You destroyed a stone that might have healed thousands for the sake of just a few!’ With some effort she controlled her anger. ‘Do you know of any other such objects?’ she asked him.

‘A few.’ He shrugged. ‘There’s a great spear in the imperial palace in Tamul, several rings in Zemoch, though I doubt that they’d be much good in healing people. It’s rumoured that there’s a jewelled bracelet in Pelosia somewhere, but that might be only a myth. The sword of the King of the Island of Mithrium was reputed to have great power, but Mithrium sank into the sea aeons ago. I’ve also heard that the Styrics have quite a few magic wands.’

‘That’s also a myth,’ she told him. ‘Wood is too fragile for that kind of power. Any others?’

‘The only one I know of is the jewel on the royal crown of Thalesia, but that’s been lost since the time of the Zemoch invasion.’ He frowned. ‘I don’t think this will help very much,’ he added, ‘but Arasham has a talisman that he claims is the most holy and powerful thing in all the world. I’ve never seen it myself, so I can’t say for sure, and Arasham’s wits aren’t so firmly set in his head that he’d be any kind of an authority You’d never be able to get it away from him in any case.’

Sephrenia reattached her veil across the lower part of
her face. ‘Thank you for your candour, Doctor Tanjin,’ she said. ‘Be assured that no one will learn of your secret from us.’ She thought a moment. ‘I think you should splint this,’ she said, holding out her arm. ‘That should prove to the curious that we had a legitimate reason for this visit, and it should protect you as well as us.’

‘That’s a very good idea, madame.’ Tanjin fetched a couple of slats and a long strip of white cloth.

‘Would you take a bit of friendly advice, Tanjin?’ Sparhawk asked him as he began to splint Sephrenia’s arm.

‘I’ll listen.’

‘Do that. If it were me, I’d gather up a few things and go to Zand. The king can protect you there. Get out of Dabour while you still can. Fanatics make the jump from suspicion to certainty very easily, and it won’t do you much good if you’re proved innocent
after
you’ve been burned at the stake.’

‘But everything I own is here.’

‘I’m sure that’ll be a great comfort to you when your toes are on fire.’

‘Do you really think I’m in that much danger?’ Tanjin asked in a weak voice, looking up from his task.

Sparhawk nodded. ‘That much and more. I’d estimate that you’ll be lucky to live out the week if you stay here in Dabour.’

The doctor began to tremble violently as Sephrenia slipped her splinted arm back into the sling. ‘Wait a minute,’ he said as they started towards the door ‘What about that?’ He pointed at the fairy swooping through the air near the window.

‘Oh,’ Sephrenia said. ‘Sorry I almost forgot about her.’ She mumbled a few words and made a vague gesture.

The bumblebee went back to batting its head against the window.

It was dark when they emerged from the apothecary’s shop into the nearly deserted square.

‘It’s not very much,’ Sparhawk said dubiously.

‘It’s more than we had before. At least we know how to cure Ehlana. All we need to do now is to find one of these objects.’

‘Would you be able to tell if Arasham’s talisman has any real power?’ ‘I think so.’

‘Good. Perraine says that Arasham preaches every night. Let’s go and find him. I’ll listen to a dozen sermons if it puts me close to a cure.’

‘How do you propose to get it away from him?’

‘I’ll think of something.’

A black-robed man suddenly blocked their path. ‘Stop right there,’ he commanded.

‘What’s your problem, neighbour?’ Sparhawk asked him.

‘Why are you not at the feet of holy Arasham?’ the robed man asked accusingly

‘We were just on our way,’ Sparhawk replied.

‘All Dabour knows that holy Arasham speaks to the multitudes at sundown. Why are you deliberately absenting yourselves?’

‘We arrived only today,’ Sparhawk explained, ‘and I had to seek medical attention for my sister’s injured arm.’