Vanion?’ Emban asked. ‘Talk to Sparhawk, Emban. He’s in charge. ‘I wish you
wouldn’t keep doing that, Vanion,’ Sparhawk objected. He thought for a
moment. ‘Atan Engessa,’ he said then, ‘how hard was it to persuade your
warriors that it’s not really unnatural to fight on horseback? Can we
persuade any more of them?’
‘When I tell them that this Krager-drunkard called them a race Of freaks,
they’ll listen to me, SparhawkKnight.’
‘Good. Krager may have helped us more than he thought then. Are you
convinced that it’s best to attack Trolls with warhorses and lances, my
friend?’
‘it was most effective, Sparhawk-Knight. We haven’t encountered the
Troll-beasts before. They’re bigger than we are. That may be difficult for
my people to accept, but once they do, they’ll be willing to try horses if
you can find enough of those big-ones.’
‘Did Krager happen to’make any references to the fact that we’ve been
using thieves and beggars as our eyes and ears?’ Stragen asked. ‘Not in so
many words, Milord,’ Khalad replied. ‘That puts an unknown into our
equation then,’ Stragen mused. ‘Please don’t do that, Stragen,’ Kalten
pleaded. ‘I absolutely hate mathematics.’
‘Sorry. We don’t know for certain whether Krager’s aware that we’ve been
using the criminals of Matherion as spies. If he is aware of it, he could
use it to feed us false information.’
‘That spell they used sort of hints that they know, Stragen,’ Caalador
noted. ‘That explains how it was that we saw the leaders of the conspiracy
go into a house and never come out. They used illusions. They wouldn’t have
done that if they hadn’t known we were watching.’ Stragen stuck out his
hand and wobbled it from side to side a bit dubiously. ‘It’s not set in
stone yet, Caalador,’ he said. ‘He may not know just exactly how
wellorganised we are.’ Beviers expression was profoundly disgusted. ‘We’ve
been had, my friends,’ he said. ‘This was all an elaborate ruse – armies
from the past, resurrected heroes,vampires and ghouls – all of it. It was a
trick with no other purpose than to get us to come here without the entire
body of the Church Knights at our backs.’
‘Then why have they turned round and told us to go home, Sir Bevier?’
Talen asked him. ‘Maybe they found out that we were a little more effective
than they thought we’d be,’ Ulath rumbled.”I don’t think they really
expected us to break up that Cyrgai assault or exterminate a hundred Trolls
or break the back of this coup-attempt the way we did. It’s altogether
possible that we surprised them and even upset them more than a little.
Krager’s visit could have been sheer bravado, you know. We might not want
to get over-confident, but I don’t think we should get under-confident
either. We’re professionals, after all, and we’ve won every encounter so
far. Let’s not give up the game and run away just because of a few windy
threats by a known drunkard.’
‘Well said,’ Tynian murmured.
we don’t have any choice, Aphrael,’ Sparhawk told his daughter later when
they were alone with Sephrenia and Vanion in a small room several floors
above the royal apartments. ‘It’s going to take Emban and Tynian at least
three months to get back to Chyrellos and then nine months for the Church
Knights to come overland to Daresia. Even then, they’ll still be present
only in the western kingdoms.’
‘Why can’t they come by boat?’ The princess sounded a bit sulky, and she
was holding Rollo tightly to her chest. ‘There are a hundred thousand
Church Knights, Aphrael,’ Vanion reminded her, ‘twenty-five thousand in
each of the four orders. I don’t think there are enough ships in ,the world
to transport that many men and horses. We can bring in some – ten thousand
perhaps,by ship, but the bulk of them will have to come overland. We won’t
be able to count on even that ten thousand for at least six months – the
time it’s going to take Emban and Tynian to reach Chyrellos and then come
back by ship with the knights and their horses. Until they arrive, we’re
all alone here.’
‘With your breeches down,’ she added. ‘Watch your tongue, young lady,’
Sparhawk scolded her. She shrugged that off. ‘My instincts all tell me that
it’s a very bad idea,’ she told them. ‘I went to a lot of trouble to find a
safe place for Bhelliom, and the first time there’s a little rain-shower,
you all want to run to retrieve it. Are you sure you’re not exaggerating
the danger? Ulath might have been right, you know. Everything Krager said
to you could have been sheer bluster. I still think you can handle it
without Bhelliom.’
‘I disagree,’ Sephrenia told her. ‘I know Elenes better than you do,
Aphrael. It’s not in their nature to exaggerate dangers. Quite the reverse,
actually.’
‘The whole point here is that your mother may be in danger,’ Sparhawk told
his daughter. ‘Until Tynian and Emban bring the Church Knights to Tamuli,
we’re seriously over-matched. Even as stupid as they are, it was only the
Bhelliom that gave us any advantage over the Troll-Gods last time. You
couldn’t even deal with them, as I recall.’
‘That’s a hateful thing to say, Sparhawk,’ she flared. ‘i’m just trying to
get you to look at this realistically, Aphrael. Without the Bhelliom, we’re
all in seriOUS danger here – and I’m not just talking about your mother and
all our friends. If Krager was telling the truth and We are matched up
against Cyrgon, He’s at least as dangerous as Azash was.’
‘Are you sure all of these flimsy excuses aren’t coming into your head
because you want to get your hands on Bhelliom again, Sparhawk?’ she asked
him. ‘Nobody’s really immune to its seduction, you know. There’s a great
deal of satisfaction to be had in wielding unlimited power.’
‘You know me better than that, Aphrael,’ he said reproachfully. ‘I don’t
go out of my way looking for power.’
‘if it is Cyrgon, His first step would be to exterminate the Styrics, you
know,’ Sephrenia ‘ reminded the little Goddess. ‘He hates us for what we
did to His Cyrgai.’ why are you all joining forces to bully me?’ Aphrael
demanded. ‘Because you’re being stubborn,’ Sparhawk replied. ‘Throwing
Bhelliom into the sea was a very good idea when we did it, but the
situation’s changed now. I know that it’s not in your nature to admit that
you made a mistake, but you did, you know.’
‘Bite your tongue!’
‘We have a new situation here, Aphrael,’ Sephrenia said patiently. ‘You’ve
told me again and again that you can’t fully see the future, so you
couldn’t really have foreseen all of what’s happening here in Tamuli. You
didn’t really make a mistake, baby sister, but you have to be flexible. You
can’t let the world fly all to pieces just because you want to maintain a
reputation for infallibility.’
‘Oh, all right!’ ~APhrael gave in, flinging herself into a chair and
starting’ng to suck her thumb as she glared at them. ‘Don’t do that,’
Sparhawk and Sephrenia told her in unison. She ignored them. ‘I want all
three of you to know that I’m really very put out with you for this. You’ve
been very impolite and very inconsiderate of my feelings. I’m ashamed of
you. Go ahead. I don’t care. Go ahead and get the Bhelliom if you think you
absolutely have to have it.’
‘Ah – Aphrael,’ Sparhawk said mildly, ‘we don’t know where it is,
remember?’
‘That’s not my fault,’ she replied in a sulky little voice. ‘Yes, actually
it is. You were very careful to make sure that we didn’t know where we were
when we threw it into the sea.’
‘That’s a spiteful thing to say, father.’ A horrible thought suddenly
occurred to Sparhawk ‘You do know where it is, don’t you?’ he asked her
anxiously. ‘Oh, Sparhawk, don’t be silly! Of course I know where it is. You
didn’t think I’d let you put it someplace where I couldn’t find it, did
you?’