Geblon knocked, then pushed the door open. "What was all that about, Captain?"
Phidestros smiled. "Payback. The Count came to inform me that my cousin had died."
Geblon frowned. "Cousin?"
"You know that my father is Great King Sopharar's brother, Duke Eudocles?"
Geblon shrugged. "I've heard the rumors and the two of you look very much alike…"
"Well, they're true. Eudocles was my father, although I did not learn of it until last winter."
"Not a good father."
"He has helped my career with gifts of gold from time to time through his intermediary, Count Sestembar. The men must have wondered why the paychests were never empty."
Geblon smiled. "Yes, we did. For a while, we thought you were raking in gold rolling bones! But none of the boneshakers knew you."
Phidestros laughed. "But, I want you to keep it to yourself. That's an order."
"Yes, sir."
"I don't want this story on the streets."
"Probably a good idea, since it might give Lysandros reason to suspect your loyalty."
"Exactly. I don't want him to suspect that I'm in my father's purse!"
Geblon hooted! "That's a good one. Not after what you did to that Count and his saddlebag!"
"That would read to the Great King as subterfuge. Lysandros doesn't trust anyone because he's a backstabber and a regicide. I suspect he fears that someone might do to him what he did to his older brother, Kaiphranos. I just pray to Galzar he's not an oath-breaker, as well!"
"I haven't heard him tarred with that brush," Geblon said. "Although many a tongue in Harphax City has been wagged over how convenient the old King's death was for Lysandros… But most of the suspicions have been aimed at Styphon's House."
"Always a good target, but maybe not the right one in Kaiphranos' case…"
"Well, like Kaiphranos, young Prince Pariphon, the heir to the Ivory Throne, died a most convenient death-at least, for my father."
"You don't think…"
"Lysandros and Archpriest Anaxthenes aren't the only ones in the Five Kingdoms who know how to use little vials of poison. My father is as ambitious as Lysandros and far less squeamish!"
"Hmm."
Phidestros paused to strike sparks with his tinderbox, blew the tinder aflame, lit a pine splinter and then his pipe. "Today was independence day. I turned down my father's moneybox because I wanted him to know that I can't be bought and I'm not about to play lapdog for my father's ambitions-even if he may well be the next king of Hos-Zygros."
Geblon whistled. "Well, after your heroic defeat of Prince Eltar you certainly don't lack for willing ladies and well wishers. As Captain-General of Hos-Harphax, you don't need your father's charity, either. But what about his army?"
Phidestros shook his head. "We have no lack of bodies to throw at Kalvan's guns. And I need no further debts to my father, who only found his son when he proved useful. Besides, I had Captain Lythrax follow Sestembar the moment I learned he'd arrived in the City. Lythrax saw him meet with a suspected Hostigi intelligencer."
"Lysandros lets one of the Usurper's agents run free in Harphax City!"
"Yes, it's easier to follow a hawk in the sky than in a forest. My question is: Was this meeting my father's idea, or Count Sestembar's?"
Geblon shook his head wearily. "Things were much simpler before Kalvan came to Hostigos."
"But not so interesting, or profitable. I don't trust either Sestembar or my father; nor, I suspect, do they trust each other! When I return to Hos-Zygros, it won't be to further my father s ambitions."