to defend his homeland and his faith from a brutal Church policy
long since abandoned. Sparhawk had no real quarrel with him.
Ayachin bellowed his defiance and swung his sword at Sparhawk.
He showed some proficiency with the weapon, but he was no
real match for the black-armored Pandion he faced. Sparhawk
%caught the sword-stroke with his shield again, and st
a chopping blow at his opponent’s shoulder. ‘Run away
Ayachin!’ he barked. “I don’t want to kill you! You’ve been
duped by an alien God and brought thousands of years into the
future. this isn’t your fight! Take your people and go.’
It was too late, though. Sparhawk saw the madness in his
opponent’s eyes, and he had been in too many fights not to
recognize it. He sighed, crowded Faran in against the other
horse, and began a series of strokes he had used so many times
in the past that, once it began, the succeeding blows were
automatic.
The ancient fought bravely, struggling to respond with
unwieldy equipment, but the outcome was inevitable. Sparhawk’s
progressive strokes bit him deeper and deeper,
chunks of his armor flew from each savage cut.
Then, altering his last stroke to avoid a grotesque maim
Sparhawk thrust instead of delivering the customary overhand
stroke that would have split his opponent’s head. His swordpoint
crunched through the ancient and ineffective armor and
smoothly ran through Ayachin’s chest.
The fire went out of that ancient face, and the hero Aga
stiffened and toppled slowly from his saddle.
Sparhawk raised his sword-hilt to his face in a sad salute.
A great cry went up from the Astellian serfs as Ayachin’s army
vanished. A burly serf at the water’s edge bawled contradictory
orders, gyrating his arms like a windmill. Berit leaned over in
his saddle and brought the flat side of his axe-blade down on
top of the man’s head, felling him instantly.
There were a few pockets of ineffective and half-hearted resistance,
but the serfs for the most part fled. Queen Betuana and
her Atans drove the panicky workers from the pier, and the
knights and the Peloi parted ranks to permit them to flee into
the forest. Sparhawk rose up in his stirrups and looked to the
north. The knights who had disembarked from Sorgi’s ships
were also driving the misguided serfs on the far side of the pier
back into the trees.
The battle, such as it had been, was over.
The Queen of the Atans came ashore with a look of discontent
on her golden face. “It was not much of a fight, SparhawkKnight,’
she accused.
‘i’m very sorry, your Majesty,’ he apologized. “I did the best
I could with what I had to work with. I’ll try to do better next
time.
She suddenly grinned at him. “I was teasing you, SparhawkKnight.
Good planning reduces the need for fighting, and you
plan very well.’
‘Your Majesty is very kind to say so.’
‘How long will it take that Cammorian sailor to bring the rest
of our army to this side of the wall?’
‘The rest of today and most of tomorrow, I’d imagine.’
‘Can we afford to wait that long? We should go to Tzada
before the Troll-beasts start to march.’
‘I’ll talk with Aphrael and Bhelliom, your Majesty,’ he said.
‘They’ll be able to tell us what the Trolls are doing – and delay
them if necessary.’
Khalad rode up. ‘We couldn’t find any sign of Elron, Sparhawk,’
he reported. ‘We captured a few of those serfs, and they
told us that he wasn’t here.’
‘Who was in charge, then?’
‘That husky fellow Berit put to sleep with the flat of his axe
seems to have been the one giving all the orders.’
‘Wake him up and see what you can get out of him. Don’t
twist him too hard, though. If he decides to be stubborn, we’ll
wait until Xanetia gets here. She can find out everything he
knows without hurting him.’
‘Yes, my Lord.’ Khalad wheeled his mount and went looking
for Berit.
‘You have a kindly disposition for a warrior, SparhawkKnight,’
Betuana observed.
‘These serfs aren’t really our enemies, Betuana-Queen.
I’ll show you the other side of my nature after we catch
Zalasta.’
‘His name is Torbik,’ Khalad reported when he joined them in
the pavilion they had erected for the ladies. ‘He was one of
Sabre’s first followers. I think he’s a serf from Baron Kotyk’s
estate. He wouldn’t say so, but I’m fairly sure he knows that
Elron is Sabre.’
‘Does he know why Elron sent him rather than coming here
himself?’ Tynian asked.
‘He hasn’t a clue – or so he says,’ Khalad replied. ‘Anarae
Xanetia can look inside his head and find out for sure.’ He
paused. ‘Excuse me, Anarae,’ he said to the Delphaeic woman.
‘We all keep groping for ways to describe what you do when
you listen to the thoughts of others. We’d probably be a lot less
offensive if you’d tell us the right word for it.’
Xanetia, who had arrived with Sephrenia, Talen and Flute on
Sorgi’s ship with the first contingent being ferried around the
reef, smiled. “I had wondered which of ye would be the first to
ask,’ she said. ‘Methinks I should have known it would be thee,
young master, for thine is the most practical mind in all this
company. We of the Delphae do refer to this modest gift as
“sharing”. We share the thoughts of others, we do not “leech”
them, nor do we scoop them like struggling minnows from the
dark waters of consciousness.’
‘Would it offend you, Sir Knights, if I pointed out that it’s
easier to ask than to grope your way through four languages
looking for the right term?’ Khalad asked rather innocently.
‘Yes,’ Vanion said, ‘as a matter of fact it would offend us.’
“I won’t point it out, then, my Lord.’ Khalad even managed
to say it with a straight face. ‘Anyway, Torbik was here primarily
to keep the Astellian serfs from talking with Ayachin’s warriors
too much. Evidently there’s a great potential for confusion in
the situation. Elron definitely didn’t want the two groups to
start comparing notes.’
‘Does he have any idea at all about where Elron is right now?’
Kalten asked.
‘He doesn’t even know where he is right now. Elron just said
a few vague things about eastern Astel and let it go at that.
Torbik wasn’t really the one in charge here – any more than
Ayachin was. There was a Styric with them, and he was the one
who was giving all the orders. He was probably one of the first
to run off into the woods when we came ashore.’
‘Could that have been Djarian?’ Bevier asked Sephrenia.
‘Zalasta’s necromancer? Somebody had to be the one who
plucked Ayachin out of the ninth century.’
“It might have been,’ Sephrenia replied doubtfully. ‘More
likely, though, it was one of Djarian’s pupils. It’s the initial
‘spell that’s difficult. Once the people from the past have been
successfully raised, a fairly simple spell can bring them back
again. I’m sure there was a Styric south of the wall calling up
Incetes and his men as well. Zalasta and Ogerajin have a large
body of renegades to draw upon.’
‘May I come in?’ Captain Sorgi asked from just outside the
tent.
‘Of course, Captain,’ Vanion replied.
The silvery-haired seaman came inside. ‘We’ll have the last
of your people ashore on this side of the reef by tomorrow
noon, my Lords,’ he reported. ‘You’ll want us to wait here,
won’t you?’
‘Yes,’ Sparhawk replied. ‘if all goes well, we’ll need to go back
around the reef after we’ve finished at Tzada.’
‘Will the warm water hold? I’d rather not get ice-bound up
here.’
‘We’ll see to it, Captain,’ Sparhawk promised.
Sorgi shook his head. ‘You’re a strange man, Master Cluff.
You can do things no one I’ve ever met can do.’ He suddenly
smiled. ‘But strange or not, you’ve thrown a lot of profit my
way since you started running away from that ugly heiress.’ He
looked at the others. ‘But I’m just interrupting things here. Do
you suppose I might have a word with you in private, Master
cluff?”
‘Of course.” Sparhawk rose and followed the sailor outside.
‘I’ll get right to the point,’ Sorgi said. ‘Do you have any further
plans for these rafts – after you use them to go back around the
reef, I mean?’
‘No, I don’t think so.
‘Would it be all right with you if I left a crew on the beach south
of the reef while I run you and your friends back to Matherion?’
“I have no objections, Captain, but I don’t quite understand.’
‘The rafts are made of very good logs, Master Cluff. After
your army uses them to get around the reef, they’ll just be lying
there. It’d be a shame to waste them. I thought I’d leave a crew
to lash them together into some kind of boom. I’ll come back