Ehlana and Sarabian had gone to the top of the central tower of the glowing castle, ostensibly to admire the sunset.  Despite the fact that the castle was firmly in Elene hands, there were still enough Tamuls inside the walls to require a certain amount of care when the two wanted to speak privately.

"It all comes down to the question of power, Sarabian," Ehlana told the emperor in a pensive voice.  "The fact that it's there has to be the central fact of our lives.  We can either take it into our own hands, or leave it lying around unused; but if we choose not to use it, we can be sure that someone else will."  Her tone was subdued and her pale young face almost somber.

"You're in a melancholy humor today, Ehlana," Sarabian noted.

"I don't like being separated from Sparhawk.  There were too many years of that after Aldreas exiled him.  The point I was getting at is that you're going to have to be very firm so that the people in your government will understand that things have changed.  What you'll really be doing here is seizing power.  That's an act of revolution, you know."  She esimied faintly.  "You're almost too civilized to be a revolutionary, Sarabian.  Areyou sure you want to overthrow the government?"

"Good God, Ehlana, it's my government, and the power was mine in the first place."

"But you didn't use it.  You were lazy and self-indulgent, and you let it slip away.  Your ministers have filched your authority bit by bit.  Now you're going to have to wrest it back from them.  People don't willingly give up power, so you'll probably have to kill some of your ministers in order to prove to the rest that you're serious."

"Kill!"

"That's the ultimate expression of power, Sarabian, and your situation here requires a certain ruthlessness.  You're going to have to spill some blood in order to get your government's attention."

"I don't think I can do that," Sarabian said in a troubled tone.  "Oh, I know I've blustered and made threats a few times, but I couldn't actually order someone killed."

"That's up to you, but you'll lose if you don't, and that means that they'll kill you."  She considered it.  "They'll probably kill you anyway," she added, "but at least you'll die for something important.  Knowing that they're going to kill you in the end might help you make some unpleasant decisions at the outset.  Once you get past your first couple of killings, it grows easier.  I speak from a certain amount of experience on the subject, since almost exactly the same thing happened to me.  Primate Annias completely controlled my government when I came to the throne, and I had to try to take my power back from him."

"You're the one who's been talking so freely about killing, Ehlana.  Why didn't you kill Annias?"

She laughed a brittle, chilling little laugh.  "It wasn't because I didn't want to, believe me, but I was too weak.  Annias had very carefully stripped the crown of all its authority.  I had some help from Lord Vanion and his Pandion Knights, but Annias had control of the army and the Church soldiers.  I killed a few of his underlings, but I couldn't get to him.  He knew I was trying, though, and that's why he poisoned me.  Annias was really a very good politician.  He knew exactly when the time for killing had arrived."

"You sound almost as if you admired him."

"I hated him, but he was very good."

"Well, I haven't killed anybody yet, so I can still step back from this."