‘What were you thinking about?’ Aphrael demanded.
‘Pretty much what Khalad was talking about – trees, a
pond, white houses – just exactly what there is in front of us.’
‘Now what?’ Talen asked. ‘Do we go back to where we started
and try again?’
Aphrael shook her head. ‘Bhelliom and the rings are unshielded.
We don’t want to put Vanion, Sephrenia and the others in
danger by going back there too often. Let me down, Sparhawk.
I want to think about this.’
He set her down on the ground, and she walked down to the
edge of the oasis, where she stood throwing pebbles into the
water for a while. her expression was doubtful when she
returned. Sparhawk lifted her again. ‘Well?’ he asked.
‘Take us to Zhubay, Sparhawk,’ she said firmly.
‘Let me see the map again, Khalad.’
‘no,’ Aphrael said very firmly. ‘Never mind the map. Just tell
Bhelliom to take us to Zhubay.’
‘obviously.’ Khalad said, snapping his fingers. ‘Why didn’t we
think of that before?’
‘Think of what?’ Sparhawk demanded.
‘Try it, my Lord,’ Khalad grinned. “I think you might be surprised.’
‘if we wind up on the moon, you two are in trouble,’ Sparhawk
threatened.
“Just try it, Sparhawk,’ Flute told him.
‘Blue Rose, Take us to Zhubay,’ He said it without much conviction.
The air blurred again, and when it cleared they were sitting on
their horses beside another oasis. There were a number of significant
differences between this one and the one they’d just left.
‘There probably isn’t any need,” Khalad said to his brother,
‘but you might want to ask anyway, just to be sure.’
Talen rode on round the oasis and spoke with an old woman
who had just come out of one of the houses. He was grinning
when he came back. ‘Zhubay,’ he told them.
‘how could it find the place with only the name to work with?’
Sparhawk demanded. “it’s probably never even heard the name
Zhubay before.’
‘But the people who live here have, my Lord,’ Khalad
shrugged. ‘The name “Zhubay” was sort of floating around in
their minds. That’s all Bhelliom really needed to find the place.
Isn’t that more or less the way it works, Flute?’
‘That’s exactly how it works. All Sparhawk has to do is mention
the name of the place he wants to visit. Bhelliom will find it and
take us there.’
‘Are you sure?’ Talen sounded uncertain about the whole
notion. “it seems awfully simple to me.’
‘There’s one way to find out. Take us to Ahkan, Sparhawk.’
‘Where is it? What kingdom, I mean?’
“I don’t think you need to know that. Just take us there.’
Ahkan was a town in the mountains – some mountains, somewhere.
It was surrounded by dark green fir trees, and the nearby
peaks were snow-capped.
‘Better and better,’ Flute said happily.
‘Where are we?’ Talen asked, looking around. ‘This isn’t
Cynesga, that’s for certain, so where is it?’
‘What difference does it make?” Flute shrugged. ‘Torrelta,
Sparhawk.’
It was snowing in Torrelta. The wind came howling in off a
lead-gray sea driving a blizzard before it. The buildings around
them were dim and indistinct in the swirling snow-storm, but
they seemed to be constructed of rough-hewn logs.
‘There’s no limit!’ Flute exclaimed. ‘We can go anywhere!’
‘All right,’ Sparhawk said very firmly, ‘just which “anywhere’
have we come to?’
“it doesn’t matter. Let’s go back to where we started from.
‘Of course,’ he agreed pleasantly. ‘Just as soon as you tell us
where we are. ‘
‘i’m getting cold, Sparhawk. I’m not dressed for a blizzard.’
“it’s nice and warm back in Cynesga,’ he told her, ‘and we’ll
go there – just as soon as you tell me where we are.’
She said a naughty word. ‘Torrelta’s on the north coast of
Astel, Sparhawk. It’s almost winter here now.’
He looked around with feigned surprise. ‘Why, I believe you’re
right. Isn’t that amazing?’ He visualized the flat gravel plain near
the dry wash where they had set up camp the previous evening.
He groped for a name for a moment, then remembered the blunder
he had made when they had first set out. ‘Hold the box open,
Khalad,’ he instructed. ‘i’ll put Bhelliom and Ehlana’s ring inside
just as soon as we get back. ‘ He drew the picture in his mind again.
‘Take us there, Blue Rose!’ he commanded.
Where have you been?’ Sephrenia demanded. She and Vanion
had ridden out onto the gravel plain to look for them.
“Oh,’ Talen said evasively, brushing the snow off his shoulders,
‘Here and there.’
“I gather that one of the places was quite a ways off,’ Vanion
surmised, looking at the snow still clinging to the travelers.
“it’s really amazing, Sephrenia,’ Flute said happily, ‘and it’S
all so simple.’
Khalad closed the box and handed it to Sparhawk. Sparhawk
snapped the cap down over the ruby on his ring and then put
the box back inside his tunic. ‘We made a couple of false starts
right at first, though,’ he admitted.
‘How does it work?’ Vanion asked.
‘We just let Bhelliom take care of everything,’ Sparhawk
shrugged. ‘We have to do it that way, actually. It’s when we try
to help that things go wrong.’
‘Could you be just a bit more specific than that?’ Sephrenia
asked Flute.
‘Sparhawk’s really very close. All he has to do is tell Bhelliom
a name – any name – of any place at all. Bhelliom goes and finds
it, and then it takes us there.’
‘That’s all?’
‘That’s it, dear sister. Not even Sparhawk can make any mistakes
this way.’
CHAPTER 10
‘We have to pick up someone there, that’s why,’ Flute told them.
‘Who?’ Kalten asked.
“I don’t know. All I know is that someone’s supposed to’ go
with us, and we have to pick him up in Cynestra.’
‘Another one of those hunches of yours?’
‘You can call it that if you want to.’
“I don’t think we’ll want to go into the city itself until we’ve
had a chance to feel things out,’ Vanion said, looking up from
his map. ‘There’s a village just to the west of town. Let’s go
there and nose around a bit.’
‘What’s the name?’ SParhawk asked him, oPening the box
and taking out his wife’s ring.
‘Narset,’ Vanion replied, looking up from the map.
‘All right.’ Sparhawk took out the Bhelliom. He held it up
and frowned slightly. ‘May I borrow your handkerchief, little
mother?’ he asked Sephrenia.
‘Use your own,’ she told him.
“I seem to have left home without one. I’m not going to blow
my nose on it, Sephrenia. Bhelliom’s getting dusty. I wanted to
brush it off a bit.’
She gave him a peculiar look.
“it’s being very helpful. I don’t want it to think that I’m
ungrateful. ‘
‘Why should you care what it thinks?’
“She’s obviously never commanded troops,’ Sparhawk said to Vanion.
% ‘You might want to expose her to the notion of two-way toy/tv someday.’
‘if I get around to it. Do you suppose we can go to Narset as
soon as you’ve finished with your housekeeping?’
Sparhawk brushed off the glowing petals of the Saphire
Rose. ‘How’s that?’ he asked it.
“I think he’s losing his grip on his sanity,’ Kalten said to Ulath.
‘Not really,’ Sparhawk disagreed. “It’s got an awareness almost
a personality. I could use the rings like whips and drive
it, I suppose, but I think I’d prefer willing cooperation. The time
may come when that’s important.’ He gave Sephrenia back her
handkerchief. ‘hold the box open, Khalad,’ he told his squire.
‘i’ll want to put Bhelliom and Ehlana’s ring away again just as
soon as we arrive.’ He looked at Vanion again. ‘Narset?’ he
asked.
‘Narset,’ Vanion replied firmly.
‘Blue Rose,’ Sparhawk said, taking the jewel in both hands,
‘let’s go to Narset.’
The Bhelliom throbbed, and that blurred twilight came down
briefly. Then it cleared again.
Narset was a small, dusty village. The houses were hardly
more than mud huts, and they had flat roofs and animal pens
at the rear, pens that seemed largely decorative, since chickens,
pigs and goats wandered freely in the streets. There was a
fair-sized city lying to the east, and all the buildings in that
city were covered with white plaster to ward off the brutal
desert sun.
Sparhawk put Bhelliom and Ehlana’s ring away and flipped
the golden cap back down over his own ring.
‘We’ve got company coming,’ Talen warned.
A sallow-faced Tamul in a green silk robe was approaching
with a squad of Cynesgan soldiers, swarthy men in the same
flowing black and white robes and intricately wound cloth headdresses
as the guards at the border had worn. The Tamul had
hard-looking eyes, which he tried to conceal behind a contrived
expression of joviality. ‘Well met, Sir Knights,’ he greeted them
in slightly accented Elenic. ‘We’ve been expecting you. I am
Kanzad, chief of the local office of the Ministry of the Interior