The Shining Ones Read Online Free PDF Page A

that a child wouldn’t be able to see through. Ehlana’s not stupid, you know.’
    ‘No, that she isn’t.’
    ‘Aphrael won’t say anything definite, but I get the strong feeling that she wants us to sail on the same ship with Emban and Tynian, and I’m starting to run out of excuses to keep delaying their departure. Any ideas?’
    ‘Ask Oscagne to help you,’ Vanion shrugged. ‘He’s a diplomat, so lying comes second nature to him.’
    ‘Nice idea, but I can’t really tell him where we’re going and what we’re going to do when we get there, can I?’
    ‘ Don’t tell him, then. Just tell him that you need a reason to be out of town for a while. Put on a gravely mysterious face and let it go at that. Oscagne’s been around for long enough to recognize the symptoms of official reticence when he sees them.’
    ‘Why didn’t I think of that?’
    ‘Probably because your oath keeps getting in your way. I know that you’ve sworn to tell the truth, but that doesn’t mean that you have to tell the whole truth. You can leave things out, you know. Leaving things out is one of the perquisites of the office of Preceptor.’
    Sparhawk sighed. ‘Back to school, I see. I think I’m doomed to spend my whole life getting instructions from you – and being made to feel inadequate in the process.’
    ‘That’s what friends are for, Sparhawk.’
    ‘You’re not going to tell me, are you?’ Sparhawk tried very hard to keep it from sounding like an accusation.
    ‘Not yet, no,’ Princess Danae replied, carefully tying a doll’s bonnet on her cat’s head. Mmrr did not appearto care for the idea, but she endured her mistress’s little game with a look of resignation.
    ‘Why not?’ Sparhawk asked his daughter, flopping down into one of the blue armchairs in the royal apartment.
    ‘Because something might still come up to make it unnecessary. You’re not going to find Bhelliom until I decide to let you find it, father.’
    ‘You want us to sail with Tynian and Emban, though?’
    ‘Yes.’
    ‘How far?’
    ‘It doesn’t really matter. I just need Tynian with us when we first set out, that’s all.’
    ‘Then you don’t really have any set destination in mind – with that ship, I mean?’
    ‘Of course not. I just need Tynian to be along for a couple of days. We can go out to sea for a couple of leagues and then sail around in circles for two days if you want. It’s all the same to me.’
    ‘Thanks,’ he said acidly.
    ‘No charge. There.’ She held up the cat. ‘Isn’t she darling in her new bonnet?’
    ‘Adorable.’
    Mmrr gave Sparhawk a flat look of pure hatred.
    ‘I can’t tell you why at the moment, your Excellency,’ Sparhawk said to Oscagne later that same day when they were alone in one of the hallways. ‘All I can say is that I need a reason to be away from Matherion with a group of nine or ten of my friends for an indeterminate period of time – several weeks or so. It has to be significant enough to convince my wife that it’s necessary, but not so serious as to worry her, and I have to sail on the same ship with Emban and Tynian.’
    ‘All right,’ Oscagne agreed. ‘How good an actor are you, Prince Sparhawk?’
    ‘I don’t think anybody’d pay money to watch me perform.’
    Oscagne let that pass. ‘I gather that this ploy is primarily intended for your wife’s benefit?’
    ‘Yes.’
    ‘Then it might be best if the idea of sending you off someplace came from her. I’ll maneuver her into ordering you off on some inconsequential errand, and you can take it from there.’
    ‘I’d really like to see you try to maneuver Ehlana.’
    ‘Trust me, old boy. Trust me.’
    ‘Tega?’ Sarabian asked his foreign minister incredulously. ‘The only superstition they have on the Isle of Tega is the one that says that it’s bad luck not to raise the price of sea-shells every year.’
    ‘They’ve never mentioned it to us in the past because they were probably afraid we’d think they