any traces of Aphrael’s tampering with time and distance. The Child Goddess
was simply too skilled and her manipulations too seamless for him to detect
them. Once, when she had joined him on Faran’s back, he raised an issue
that had been troubling him. ‘i’m not trying to pry, but it seems that it’s
been about fifty days since we landed at Salesha. How long has it really
been?’
‘Quite a bit less than that, Sparhawk,’ she replied.
‘Half that long at most.’
‘I was sort of looking for an exact answer, Danae.’
‘i’m not very good with numbers, father. I know the difference between a
few and a lot, and that’s all that’s really important, isn’t it?’
‘It’s a bit imprecise, wouldn’t you say?’
‘is precision all that important to you, Sparhawk?’
‘You can’t begin to think logically without precision, Danae.’
‘Don’t think logically then. Try being intuitive for a change. You might
even find that you like it.’
‘How long, Danae?’ he insisted. ‘Three weeks,’ she shrugged. ‘That’s a
little better.’
‘Well – more or less.’ The edge of the steppes was marked by a dense
forest of pale-trunked birches, and Tikume and his tribesmen turned back
there. Since it was late in the day, the royal escort made camp on the edge
of the forest so that they might follow the shaded road leading off through
the trees in the full light of day. After they had settled down and the
cooking fires were going, Sparhawk took Kring and they went looking for
Engessa. ‘We have a peculiar situation here, gentlemen,’ he told them as
they walked together near the edge of the forest. ‘How so,
Sparhawk-Knight?’ Engessa asked. ‘We’ve got three different kinds of
warrior in this group, and I’d imagine there are three different approaches
to engagement. We should probably discuss the differences so that we won’t
be working at crosspurposes if trouble arises. The standard approach of the
Church Knights is based on our equipment. We wear ‘armour, and we ride
large horses. Whenever there’s trouble, we usually just smash the centre of
an opposing army.’
we prefer to peel an enemy like an apple,’ Kring said. we ride around his
force very fast and slice off bits and pieces as we go.’
‘We fight on foot,’ Engessa supplied. ‘We’re trained to be
self-sufficient, so we just rush the enemy and engage him hand-to-hand.’
‘Does that work very well?’ Kring asked him. ‘It always has,’ Engessa
shrugged. ‘if we happen to run into any kind of trouble, it probably
wouldn’t be a good idea for us all to dash right in,’ Sparhawk mused. ‘We’d
be stumbling all over each other. See what you think of this. If a force of
any significant size tries to attack us, Kring and his men circle around
behind them, I form up the knights and charge the centre and Atan Engessa
spreads his force out along a broad front. The enemy will sort of fold in
behind the knights after we bash a hole in their centre. They always do for
some reason. Kring’s attacks along the rear and the flanks will add to
their confusion. They’ll be disorganised and most of them will be cut off
from their leaders in one way or another. That would be a good time for
Engessa to attack. The best soldiers in the world don’t function too well
when nobody’s close enough to give orders.’
‘It’s a workable tactic,’ Engessa conceded. ‘It’s a bit surprising to find
that other people in the world know how to plan battles too.’
‘The story of man has been pretty much the story of one long battle, Atan
Engessa,’ Sparhawk told him. ‘We’re all experienced at it, so we devise
tactics that take advantage of our strengths. Do we want to do it the way I
suggested?’ Kring and Engessa looked at each other. ‘Almost any plan will
work,’ Kring shrugged, ‘as long as we all know what we’re doing.’
‘How will we know when you’re ready for us to attack?’ Engessa asked
Sparhawk. ‘My’ friend Ulath has a horn,’ Sparhawk replied. ‘When he blows
it once, my knights will charge. When he blows it twice, Kring’s men will
start peeling off the rear elements. When we’ve got the enemy’s full
attention’, I’ll have Ulath blow three times. That’s when you’ll want to
charge.’ Engessa’s eyes were alight. ‘It’s the sort of strategy that
doesn’t leave very many survivors among the enemy, Sparhawk-Knight,’ he
said. ‘That was sort of the idea, Engessa-Atan.’
The birch forest lay on a long, gradual slope rising from the steppes of
central Astel to the rugged foothills on the Atan border. The road was
broad and well-maintained, though it tended to wander a great deal.
Engessa’s unmounted Atans ranged out about a mile on each side of the road,
and for the first three days they reported no sightings of men, although
they did encounter large herds of deer. Summer had not yet dried the
lingering dampness from the forest floor, and the air in the sun-dappled
shade was cool and moist, still smelling of new growth and renewal. Since
the trees obstructed their vision, they rode cautiously. They set up their
nighttime encampments while the sun was still above the horizon, and
erected certain ‘rudimentary fortifications to prevent surprises after
dark. On the morning of their fourth day in the forest, Sparhawk rose early
and walked through the first steel-grey light of dawn to the line where the
horses were picketed. He found Khalad there. Kurik’s eldest son had snubbed
Faran’s head up close to a birch tree and was carefully inspecting the big
roan’s hooves. ‘I was just going to do that,’ Sparhawk said quietly. ‘He
seemed to be favouring his left forehoof yesterday.’
‘Stone bruise,’ Khalad said shortly. ‘You know, Sparhawk, you might want
to give some thought to putting him out to pasture when we get back home.
He’s not a colt any more, you know.’
‘Neither am I, when you get right down to it. Sleeping on the ground’s not
nearly as much fun as it used to be.’
‘You’re just getting soft.’
‘Thanks. Is this weather going to hold?’
‘As nearly as I can tell, yes.’ Khalad lowered Faran’s hoof to the ground
and took hold of the snubbing rope. ‘No biting,’ he cautioned the horse.
‘if you bite me, I’ll kick you in the ribs.’ Faran’s long face took on an
injured expression. ‘He’s an evil-tempered brute,’ Khalad noted, ‘but he’s
far and away the smartest horse I’ve ever come across. You should put him
to stud. It might be interesting to train intelligent colts for a change.
Most horses aren’t really very bright.’
‘I thought horses were among the cleverest of animals.’
‘That’s a myth, Sparhawk. If you want a smart animal, get yourself a pig.
I’ve never yet been able to build a pen that a pig couldn’t think his way
out of.’
‘They’re built a little close to the ground for riding. Let’s go see how
breakfast’s coming.’
‘Who’s cooking this morning?’
‘Kalten, I think. Ulath would know.’
‘Kalten? Maybe I’ll stay here and eat with the horses.’
‘I’m not sure that a bucketful of raw oats would taste all that good.’
‘i’d put it up against Kalten’s cooking any day, my Lord.’ They rode out
shortly after the sun ‘ rose, and proceeded through the cool, sun-speckled
forest. The birds seemed to be everywhere, and they sang enthusiastically.
Sparhawk smiled as he remembered how Sephrenia had once punctured his
illusion that’ birdsong was an expression of a love for music. ‘Actually
they’re warning other birds to stay away, dear one,’ she had said. ‘They’re
claiming possession of nesting-sites. It sounds very pretty, but all
they’re really saying is, ‘My tree. My tree. My tree.’ Mirtai came back
along the road late that morning running with an effortless stride.
‘Sparhawk,’ she said quietly when she reach’d the carriage, ‘Atan Engessa’s
scouts report that there are people up ahead.’
‘How many?’ he asked, his tone suddenly all business. ‘We can’t be
certain. The scouts didn’t want to be seen. There are soldiers of some kind
out there, and they seem to be waiting for us.’
‘Berit,’ Sparhawk said to the young knight, ‘why don’t you ride on ahead
and ask Kalten and the others to join us? Don’t run. Try to make it look
casual.’
‘Right.’ Berit rode forward at a trot. ‘Mirtai,’ the big knight said,
trying to keep his voice calm, ‘is there any kind of defensible position
nearby?’
‘I was just coming to that,’ she replied. ‘There’s a kind of hill about a
quarter of a mile ahead. It sort of juts up from the floor of the forest boulders
mostly. They’re covered over with moss.’
‘Could we get the carriage up there? She shook her head. ‘You get to walk
then, my Queen,’ he said to his wife. ‘We don’t know that they’re hostile,
Sparhawk,’ Ehlana objected. ‘That’s true,’ he conceded, ‘but we don’t know