“It’s a start,’ he muttered. ‘What now?’
‘Now it’s my turn,’ she replied. ‘Relax, Sparhawk. Let me into
your mind.’
It was a strange sort of process. Sparhawk felt almost as if his
own will had been suspended as the Child Goddess gently, even
lovingly, took his mind into her two small hands. The voice that
came from his lips was strangely soft, and the language it spoke
was hauntingly familiar, skirting the very outer edges of his
understanding.
Then the world seemed to blur around him and faded momentarily
into a kind of luminous twilight. Then the blur was gone,
and the sun was shining. It was no longer raining, and the wind
had dropped to a gentle breeze.
‘What an astonishing idea!’ APhrael exclaimed. “I never even
thought of that. put the Bhelliom away, Sparhawk. quickly.’
Sparhawk put the jewel and Ehlana’s ring back into the box
and snapped down the cover on his own ring. Then he turned
and looked toward the south. There was an intensely dark line
of cloud low on the horizon. Then he looked north again and
saw a fair-sized town at the bottom of the hill, a pleasant-looking
town with red-tile roofs glowing in the autumn sunshine. ‘is
that Korvan?’ he asked tentatively.
‘Well, of course it is,’ Flute replied with an airy little toss of
her head. ‘isn’t that where you said you wanted to go?’
‘We made good time,’ Ulath observed blandly.
Sephrenia suddenly laughed. ‘We wanted to test our friend’s
stamina,’ she said. ‘Now we’ll find out just how much endurance
he has. If he wants to keep chasing us, he’s going to have
to pick up his hurricane and run along behind us just as fast as
he possibly can.’
‘Oh, this is going to be fun.’ Flute exclaimed, clapping her
hands together delightedly. ‘i’d never have believed we could
jump so far.’
Kalten squinted up toward the bright autumn sun. “I make it
just a little before noon. Why don’t we ride on down into Korvan
and have an early lunch? I worked up quite an appetite back
there. ‘
“It might not be a bad idea, Sparhawk,’ Vanion agreed. ‘The
situation’s changed now, so we might want to think our plans
through and see if we want to modify them.’
Sparhawk nodded. He bumped Faran’s flanks with his heels,
and they started down the hill toward Korvan. ‘You seemed
surprised,’ he murmured into Flute’s ear.
“Surprised? I was stunned.’
‘What did it do?’
‘You wouldn’t really understand, father. Do you remember
how the Troll-God Ghnomb moved you across northern
Pelosia?’
‘He sort of froze time, didn’t he?’
She nodded. ‘i’ve always done it a different way, but I’m more
sophisticated than Ghnomb is. Bhelliom does it in still another
way – much simpler, actually. Ghnomb and I are different, but
we’re both part of this world, so the terrain’s very important to
us. It gives us a sense of permanence and location. Bhelliom
doesn’t appear to need reference points. It seems to just think
of another place, and it’s there.’
‘Could you do it like that?’
She pursed her lips. “I don’t think so.’ She sighed. “It’s a little
humiliating to admit it, but Bhelliom’s far wiser than I am.’
‘But not nearly as lovable.’
‘Thank you, kind sir.’
Sparhawk suddenly thought of something. ‘is Danae at
Matherion?
‘Of course.’
‘How’s your mother?’
“She’s well. She and the thieves are very busy trying to get
their hands on some documents that are hidden somewhere in
the Ministry of the Interior.’
‘Are things still under control there?’
‘For the moment, yes. I know I’ve teased you about it a few
times, but it’s very hard to be in two places at the same time.
Danae’s sleeping a great deal, so I’m missing a lot of what’s
going on there. Mother’s a little worried. She thinks Danae
might be sick.’
‘Don’t worry her too much.’
“I won’t, father.’
They rode into Korvan and found a respectable-looking inn.
Ulath had a word or two with the innkeeper, and they were all
escorted into a private dining room in the back where the golden
sunlight streamed in through the windows to set the oaken
tables and benches to glowing. ‘Can you keep anyone who
might be curious from eavesdropping on us, little mother?’ Sparhawk
asked.
‘How many times do you have to ask that question before you
know the answer?’ she asked with a weary sigh.
“Just making sure, that’s all.’
They removed their cloaks, stacked their weapons in a corner,
and sat down at the table.
A squinty-eyed, slatternly serving-girl came in and told them
what the kitchen had prepared for the day.
Sephrenia shook her head. ‘Tell her, Vanion.
‘The lady and I- and the little girl – will have lamb,’ he said
firmly. ‘We don’t much care for pork.’
‘The cook ain’t fixed no lamb,’ the girl whined.
‘You’d better tell him to get started, then.’
‘He ain’t gonna like it.’
‘He doesn’t have to like it. Tell him that if we don’t get lamb,
we’ll take our money to another inn. The owner of the place
wouldn’t like that very much, would he?’
The girl’s face became set, and she stormed out.
‘That’s the Vanion we came to know and love when we were
boys,’ Kalten laughed. The fight that morning seemed to have
improved his temper.
Vanion unfolded his map. ‘We’ve got a fairly substantial road
going east,’ he said, running his finger along the line stretching
across the map. “It crosses Edam and then goes on through
Cynesga. We’ll cross the border into Tamul proper at Sama.’ He
looked at Flute. ‘How long a jump can Bhelliom make at one time?’
“Would you like to pay a visit to the moon, Lord Vanion?’ She
frowned. ‘There’s a drawback, though. Bhelliom makes a very
distinctive sound when it does something. It probably doesn’t
even know that it’s doing it, but it does sort of announce its
location. We might be able to teach it how to conceal itself, but
it’s going to take time.’
‘And that raises another point as well,’ Sephrenia added.
‘Sparhawk’s holding Bhelliom’s power, but he doesn’t know
how to use it yet.’
‘Thanks,’ Sparhawk said dryly.
‘i’m sorry, dear one, but you don’t. Every time you’ve ever
picked it up, either Aphrael or I have had to walk you through
it step by step. We’re definitely going to need some time. We
have to teach Bhelliom how to be quiet, and we have to teach
you how to use it without having someone hold your hand.’
“I love you too, Sephrenia.’
She smiled fondly. ‘You’re holding tremendous power in your
hands, Sparhawk, but it’s not of much use if all you know how
to do is wave it around like a battle-flag. I don’t think we should
rush back to Matherion immediately. That story you cooked up
for Ehlana will explain our absence for at least two or three more
weeks. We’ll want to avoid the traps and ambushes our enemies
are going to lay for us along the way, of course.’ She paused.
‘They might even be useful. They’ll give you something to practice
on.’
“Jump around,’ Ulath grunted.
‘Will you stop that, Ulath?’ she snapped at him.
‘Sorry, Sephrenia. It’s a habit of mine. After I think my way
through something, I just blurt out the conclusion. The intermediate
steps aren’t usually very interesting. Our friends out
there have been raising random disturbances to keep the Atans
running back and forth across the continent – werewolves here,
vampires there, Shining Ones off in that direction, and antique
armies in this. There’s no real purpose to all that except to confuse
the imperial authorities. We could steal a page right out
of their book, you know. They can hear and feel Bhelliom particularly
when it’s doing something noisy. I gather that
there’s no real limit to how far it can jump at one time, so let’s
just say that Sparhawk wants to see what the weather’s like in
Darsas. He has Bhelliom pick him up by the scruff of the neck
and drop him down in the square outside King Alberen’s palace.
He stays there for about a half-hour – long enough for the other
side to smell him out – then he hops across the continent to
Beresa in southern Arjuna and stays long enough to make his
presence known there. Then he goes to Sarsos, then to Jura in
southern Daconia, then back to Cimmura to say hello to Platime
all in the space of one afternoon. He’d get all sorts of practice
using Bhelliom, and by the time the sun went down, they
wouldn’t know where he was or where he was going to go next.
To make it even more fun, our mysterious friend out there
wouldn’t know which of these little jumps was the significant
one, so he’d almost have to follow along.’
‘Carrying that hurricane on his back every step of the way,’