the least, your Grace,’ Kalten replied gaily. ‘It’s just that we’re dealing
with an idiot.’ He turned his head slightly. ‘Bevier,’ he called, ‘he’s
forming up his troops on the roDd to march them into place.’
‘You’re not serious!’. ‘May all of my toenails fall out if I’m not.’
Bevier barked a number of commands, and his knights swung the catapults
around to bring them to bear on the unseen avenue leading toward the road.
‘Give the word, Sparhawk,’ the young Cyrinic called. ‘We’re going on down
now,’ Sparhawk called back. You can start as soon as we reach the bottom.
We’ll wait so that you can pound them for a while, and then we’ll charge.
We’d take it as a kindness if you’d stop about then.’ Bevier grinned at
him. ‘Look after my wife while I’m gone.’
‘Naturally.’ Sparhawk and the other warriors began to climb down the hill.
‘I’ll break my men into two groups, friend Sparhawk,’ Kring said. ‘We’ll
circle around and come up onto the road about a half mile behind them on
either side. We’ll wait )for your signal there.’
‘Don’t kill all of them.’ Engessa cautioned. ‘My Atans grow sulky if
there’s fighting and they aren’t allowed to participate. ‘ They reached the
bottom of the hill, and Bevier’s catapults began to thud, launching large
rocks this time. There were sounds from off in the direction of the road
indicating that the Cyrinic Knights had found the proper range. ‘Luck,
Sparhawk,’ Kring said tersely and melted off
into the shadows. ‘Be careful, Sir Knights,’ Khalad cautioned them. ‘Those
tree-stumps out there are dangerous in the dark.’
‘It won’t be dark when we charge, Khalad,’ Sparhawk assured him. ‘I’ve
made some arrangements.’ Engessa slipped quietly through an opening in the
palisade to join his warriors out in the forest. ‘is it just my
imagination, or does it seem to the rest of you that we’re dealing with
someone who’s not really very sophisticated?’ Tynian said. ‘He doesn’t seem
to have any conception of modern warfare or modern technology.’
‘I think the word you’re groping for is ‘stupid’, Tynian,’ Kalten
chuckled. ‘i’m not so sure,’ Tynian frowned. ‘It was too dark for me to
make out very much from the hilltop, but it looked almost as if he were
forming up his troops into a phalanx. Nobody’s done that in the west for
over a thousand years.’
‘It wouldn’t be very effective against mounted knights, would it?’ Kalten
asked. ‘i’m not so sure. It would depend on how long his spears are and the
size of those overlapping shields. He could give us trouble.’
‘Berit,’ Sparhawk said, ‘go back up the hill and tell Bevier to shift his
catapults a bit. I’d like the enemy formation broken up.’
‘Right.’ The young knight turned and scrambled back on up the hill. ‘if he
is using a phalanx formation,’ Tynian continued, ‘it means that he’s never
come up against mounted troops before and that he’s used to fighting in
open country.’ Bevier’s catapults began to hurl boulders at the shadowy
formation at the far end of the cleared avenue. ‘Let’s get started,’
Sparhawk decided. ‘I was going to wait a while, but let’s see what we’re up
against.’ He hauled himself up onto Faran’s back and led the knights to a
position outside the palisade. Then he drew in a deep breath. ‘We could use
a bit of light now, Divine One.’ He cast the thought out without even
bothering to frame it in StyriCk. ‘That’s really improper, Sparhawk,’
Aphrael’s voice in his ear was tart. ‘You know I’m not supposed to respond
to prayers in Elenic.’
‘You know both languages. What difference does it make?’
‘It’s a question of style, Sparhawk.’
‘I’ll try to do better next time.’
‘i’d really appreciate it. How’s this?’ It’ began as a kind of pulsating
lavender glow along the northern horizon. Then long streaks of pure,
multicoloured light spread upward in seething, curtain-like sheets,
wavering, undulating like a vast curtain shimmering against the night sky.
‘What is it?’ Khalad exclaimed. The northern lights,’ Ulath grunted. ‘I’ve
never seen them this far south – or quite so bright. I’m impressed,
Sparhawk.’ The shimmering curtain of light, rising and falling, crept up
and up into the darkness, erasing the stars and filling the night with
rainbow light. A huge groan of consternation and awe rose from the army
massing near the road. Sparhawk looked intently down the stump-dotted
avenue. The soldiers facing them wore antique armour – breastplates,
horse-hair crested helmets and large, round shields. They wore short’
swords and carried twelve-foot spears. Their front rank had evidently been
formed with overlapping shields and advanced spears. Bevier’s catapults,
however, had broken those tightly-packed ranks, and the rain of boulders
continued to smash down among men so jammed together they could not flee.
Sparhawk watched grimly for a few moments. ‘All right, Ulath,’ he said at
last, ‘sing the Ogre’s song for them.’ Ulath grinned and lifted his curled
Ogre-horn to his lips and blew a single, deep-toned blast. The massed
foot-troops, their ranks broken by the catapults and their minds filled
with wonder and dismay by the sudden brilliant light covering half the sky,
were in no way prepared to meet the awesome charge of the armoured knights
and their massive horses. There was a resounding crash, and the front ranks
of the massed foot-soldiers fell beneath the churning hooves of the
war-horses. The knights discarded their lances, drew their swords and axes
and fell to work, carving great swathes through the tightly-packed ranks.
‘Ulath!’ Sparhawk bellowed. ‘Turn loose the Peloi!’ Sir Ulath blew his
Ogre-horn again – twice this time. The Peloi war-cries were shrill and
ululating. Sparhawk glanced quickly along the road. The warriors Kring’s
Peloi were attacking were not the same as the ones facing the knights.
Sparhawk had led a charge against infantry, men in breastplates and
horse-hair crested helmets who fought on foot. Kring was attacking mounted
men, men wearing flowing robes and cloth head-coverings, all armed with
curved swords much like the Peloi sabres. Quite obviously, the attacking
force was comprised of two different elements. There would be time later to
ponder those differences. Right now, they were all very busy. Sparhawk
swung his heavy broadsword rhythmically in huge overhead strokes that
sheared down into the sea of horsehair-crested helmets surrounding him. He
continued for several minutes until the sounds from along the road
indicated that the Peloi were fully engaged. ‘Sir Ulath’ he roared. ‘Ask
the Atans to join US!’ The Ogre-horn sang again – ‘and again – and yet once
again. Sounds of fighting erupted back among the trees. Enemy soldiers who
had fled the charge of the knights and the slashing attack of the Peloi
found no sanctuary in the woods. Engessa’s Atans, ‘ silent and deadly,
moved through the eerie, multi-coloured light streaming down from the
pulsating sky, seeking and destroying. ‘Sparhawk!’ Kalten shouted. ‘Look!’
Sparhawk jerked his head around, and his heart froze. ‘I thought that thing
was dead!’ Kalten exclaimed. The figure was robed and hooded all in black,
and it was astride a gaunt horse. A kind of greenish nimbus surrounded it,
and waves of implacable hatred seemed to shimmer out from it. Sparhawk
looked a bit more closely and then let out his breath relieved. ‘It’s not a
Seeker,’ he told Kalten. ‘It’s got human hands. It’s probably the one we’ve
been fighting, though.’ Then another man in black rode out from farther
back in the trees. This one wore exaggeratedly dramatic clothing. He had on
a black, wide-brimmed hat and wore a black bag with ragged eye-holes over
his head. ‘Has this all been some sort of joke?’ Tynian demanded. ‘is that
who I think it is?’
‘i’d guess that it’s the one in the robe who’s been in charge,’ Ulath
said. ‘I doubt that Sabre could successfully herd goats.’
‘Savour thine empty victory, Anakha,’ the hooded figure called in a
hollow, strangely metallic voice. ‘I did but test thee that I might discern
thy strength – and thy weaknesses. Go thy ways now. I have learned what I
needed to learn. I will trouble thee no further – for now. But mistake me
not, oh man without destiny, we will meet anon, and in our next meeting
shall I try thee more significantly.’ Then Sabre and his hooded companion
wavered and vanished. The wailing and groaning of the wounded enemies all
around them suddenly broke off. Sparhawk looked around quickly. The
strangely-armoured foot-troops he and his friends had been fighting were
all gone. Only the dead remained. Back along the road in either direction,
Kring’s Peloi were reining in their horses In amazement. The troops they
had engaged had vanished as well, and startled exclamations from back among
the trees indicated that the Atans had also been bereft of enemies.
”What’s going on here?’ Kalten exclaimed. ‘i’m not sure,’ Sparhawk
replied, ‘but I am sure that I don’t like it very much.’ He swung down from