couldn’t really get away with it. ‘Bandage your ears,’ Ulath suggested.
‘Does he have to do that?’ Ehlana complained to Sparhawk. ‘It’s only a
suggestion, your Majesty,’ Ulath shrugged. ‘Pretend to be deaf and have
some people around to wiggle their fingers at you as if they were
translating. ‘ She stared at him. ‘That’s absurd, Ulath. Do you) have any
idea of how awkward and inconvenient that would be?’
‘I just said it was’a suggestion, your Majesty,’ he said mildly. ‘I didn’t
say it was a good one.’
Following a formal farewell which was once again primarily for Mirtai’s
benefit, the queen and her party rode eastward out of Atana along the Lebas
road. Once they were clear of the city, Oscagne, who had insisted on riding
a horse that day, suggested to Sparhawk, Stragen and Vanion that they ride
forward to confer with the other knights. They found them near the’ head of
the column. Tynian was entertaining them with a muchembellished account of
a probably imaginary amorous adventure. ‘What’s afoot?’ Kalten asked when
Sparhawk and the others joined them. ‘Sparhawk and I conferred with
Sephrenia and Zalasta last night,’ Vanion replied. ‘We thought we might
share the fruits of our discussions – out of Ehlana’s hearing.’
‘that sounds ominous,’ the blond Pandion observed. ‘Not entirely,’ Vanion
smiled. ‘Our conclusions are a bit tenuous, and there’s no point in
alarming the .queen until we’re a bit more certain.’ :’ Then there is
something to be alarmed about, isn’t there,’Lord Vanion?’ Talen asked.
‘There’s always something to be alarmed about,’ Khalad told his brother.
‘We’ve sort of concluded that we’re facing a God,’ Vanion told them. ‘i’m
sure you’ve all more or less worked that out for yourselves.’
‘Did you really have to invite me to come along this time, Sparhawk?’
Kalten complained. ‘i’m not very good at dealing with Gods.’
‘Who is?’
‘You weren’t so bad at Zemoch.’
‘Luck, probably.’
‘This is the way our reasoning went,’ Vanion continued. ‘You’ve been
seeing that shadow again, and the cloud. On the surface at least, they seem
to be divine manifestations, and these armies out of the past – the Lamorks
and the Cyrgai – couldn’t have been raised by a mortal. Zalasta told us
that he’d tried it once and that it all fell apart on him. If he can’t do
it, we can be fairly sure that nobody else can either.’
‘Logical,’ Bevier approved. ‘Thank you. Now then, the Trolls all left
Thalesia a while back, and they’ve started to show up here in Atan. We more
or less agreed that they wouldn’t have done that unless they’d been
commanded to by someone they’d obey. Couple that fact with the shadow, and
it seems to point at the Troll-Gods. Sephrenia’s not positive that they’re
permanently locked inside Bhelliom, so we more or less have to accept the
fact that they’ve somehow managed to escape.’ This isn’t going to be one of
the good stories, I gather,’
Talen said glumly. ‘It is a bit gloomy, isn’t it?’ Tynian agreed.
Vanion raised one hand. ‘It gets worse,’ he told them. ‘We sort of agreed
that all of this plotting involving ancient heroes, rabid nationalism and
the like is somewhat beyond the capability of the Troll-Gods. It’s not
likely that they’d have a very sophisticated concept of politics, so I
think we’ll have to consider the possibility of an alliance of some kind.
Someone – either human or immortal – is taking care of the politics, and
the TrollGods are providing the muscle. They command the Trolls, and they
can raise these figures from the grave.’
‘They’re being used?’ Ulath suggested. ‘So it would seem.’
‘It doesn’t wash, Lord Vanion,’ the Thalesian said bluntly. ‘How so?’
‘What’s in it for the Trolls? Why would the Troll-Gods ally themselves with
somebody else if there weren’t any benefits to the Trolls to come out of
the arrangement? The Trolls can’t rule the world, because they can’t come
down out of the mountains.’
‘Why not?’ Berit asked’d him. Their fur – and those thick hides of theirs.
They have to stay where it’s cool. If you put a Troll out in the summer sun
for two days, he’ll die. Their bodies are built to keep the heat in, not to
get rid of it.’ That is a fairly serious flaw in your theory, Lord Vanion,’
Oscagne agreed. ‘I think I might be able to’suggest a solution,’ Stragen
told them. ‘Our enemy – or enemies – want to re-arrange the world right?’.
‘
‘Well, at least the top part of it,’ Tynian amended. ‘Nobody I know of has
ever suggested turning it all the way upside down and putting the peasantry
in charge.’
‘maybe that comes later,’ Stragen smiled. ‘Our friend out there wants to
change the world, but he doesn’t have quite enough power to pull it off by
himself, He needs the power of the Troll-Gods to make it work. but what
could he offer the Trolls in exchange for ”~ help? What do the Trolls
really want?’
‘thalesia.’ Ulath replied moodily.”’precisely. Wouldn’t the Troll-Gods
leap at an opportunity to wipe out the Elenes and Styrics in Thalesia and
return total possession of the peninsula to the Trolls? If someone’s come
up with a way to expel the Younger
Styric Gods – or at least claims he has – wouldn’t that be fairly enticing
to the Troll-Gods? it was the Younger Gods who dispossessed them in the
first place, and that’s why they had to go hide. This is pure speculation,
of course, but let’s say this friend of ours came up with a way to free the
Troll-Gods. Then he offered an alliance, promising to drive the Elenes and
Styrics out of Thalesia and possibly the north coasts of both continents as
well – in exchange for the help he needs. The Trolls get the north, and our
friend gets the rest of the world. If I were a Troll, that would sound like
a very attractive bargain, wouldn’t you say?’
‘He may have hit on it,’ Ulath conceded. ‘His solution certainly answers
my objection to the idea,’ Bevier concurred. ‘It may not be the precise
arrangement between our friend and the Troll-Gods, but it’s a clear hint
that something could have been worked out. What’s our course, then?’
‘We have to break up the alliance,’ Sparhawk replied. ‘That’s a neat trick
when you don’t know who one of the allies is,’ Kalten told him. ‘We do sort
of know about one part of it, so we’ll have to concentrate on that. Your
theory narrows my options, Vanion. I guess I will have to declare war on
the Trolls after all.’
‘I don’t quite understand,’ Oscagne confessed. The Gods derive their
strength from their worshippers, your Excellency,’ Bevier explained. ‘The
more worshippers, the stronger the God. If Sparhawk starts killing Trolls,
the Troll-Gods will notice it. If he kills enough of them, they’ll withdraw
from the alliance. They won’t have any choice if they want to survive, and
we found out at Zemoch that they’re very interested in surviving, they went
all to pieces when Sparhawk threatened to destroy Bhelliom and them along
with it. ‘They became very co-operative at that point,’ Sparhawk said. ‘You
gentlemen have a real treat in store for you,’ Ulath told them. ‘Fighting
Trolls is very, very exhilarating.’ They set up their night’s encampment
that evening in a meadow beside a turbulent mountain stream that had carved
a deep gorge in the mountains. The lower walls of the gorge were
tree-covered, and they angled up steeply to the sheer cliffs rising a
hundred or more feet to the rim of the cut. It was a good defensive
position, Sparhawk noted as he surveyed the camp. Evening came early in
these canyons, and the cooking fires flared yellow in the gathering dusk,
their smoke drifting blue and tenuous downstream in the night breeze. ‘A
word with you, Prince Sparhawk?’ It was Zalasta, and his white Styric robe
gleamed in the half-light. ‘Of course, learned one.’
‘i’m afraid your wife doesn’t like me,’ the magician observed. ‘She tries
to be polite, but her distaste is fairly obvious. Have I offended her in
some way?’
‘I don’t think so, Zalasta.’ A faintly bitter smile touched the Styric’s
lips. ‘It’s what my people call ‘the Elene complaint’, then.’
‘I rather doubt that. I more or less raised her, and I made her understand
that the common Elene prejudice was without foundation. Her attitude sort
of derives from mine, and the Church Knights are actually quite fond of
Styrics – the Pandions particularly so, since Sephrenia was our tutor. We
love her very much.’
‘Yes. I’ve observed that.’ The magician smiled. ‘We ourselves are not
without our failings in that area. Our prejudice against Elenes is quite
nearly as irrational as yours against us. Your wife’s disapproval of me
must come from something else, then.’
‘It may be something as simple as your accent, learned one. My wife’s a