in Vanion’s voice. “I would not hurt my daughter, for I do love
her. She is a wayward and whimsical child at times, much given
to tantrums and sweet, innocent vanity. Behold how she doth
adorn herself with spring and mantle her shoulders with the
white gown of winter. The stresses and tensions which I did
relieve in raising the wall had, in truth, been causing her some
discomfort.
indeed doth she take some pleasure in her new adornment, for,
as I say, she is a trifle vain.’
‘Where’s Kring?’ Mirtai asked suddenly.
‘We left him, Engessa and Khalad back at the escarpment,’
Sparhawk told her. ‘Bhelliom’s excellent wall keeps the Trolls
from getting at us, but it also keeps us from getting at them. We
have to work out some way to get the Troll-Gods past it to steal
back their Trolls.’
‘You’ve got Bhelliom, Sparhawk,’ Stragen said. ‘Just jump
over it.’
Sparhawk shook his head. ‘Bhelliom says that we’d better not.
The ground’s still a little touchy near the wall right now. If we
jump around too much in that general vicinity, we might set off
more earthquakes.’
‘God.’ Sarabian cried. ‘Don’t do that! You’ll shake the whole
continent apart.’
‘We’re trying to avoid that, your Majesty. Engessa, Kring and
Khalad are working on something. If we can’t go down the
escarpment, we may have to use Tynian’s fleet and sail around
the eastern end of it.’
‘We want to think about that for a while, though,’ Vanion
added. ‘Sparhawk and I are still debating the issue. I still think
we’ll want to make some show of marching north. If we leave
here in about a week with banners flying and five thousand
knights added to the forces we’ve gathered in this general area,
we’ll have Zalasta’s full attention. If we go out to sea, he won’t
know we’re coming, and that might give him the leisure to sniff
out some details of Stragen’s plans for our special celebration of
the Harvest Festival. Both ideas have an element of surprise
involved. We’re quibbling about which surprise would disrupt
Zalasta’s plans the most.’
The training of Tamul horses began immediately. Tynian’s
knights, of course, complained bitterly. The riding-horses favored
by the Tamul gentry were too small and delicate to carry
armored men, and the oversized plow horses used by Tamul
farmers were too slow and docile to make good war-horses.
They were always rushed now. Caalador had given the order,
and it was irrevocable. The murders would take place during the
Harvest Festival, whether their other plans were fully in place
or not, and every minute brought the holiday that much closer.
It was five days following the return of Sparhawk and his
friends from northern Atan when a runner reached Matherion
with a message from Khalad. Mirtai admitted the weary Atan
to the sitting room, where Sparhawk and Vanion were still arguing
the relative merits of their opposing plans. Wordlessly, the
messenger handed Khalad’s note to Sparhawk.
‘My Lord,’ he read the characteristically abrupt note aloud.
‘The earthquake has jumbled the northeast coast. Don’t rely on
any charts of the area. You’re going to have to come by sea,
however. There’s no way we can climb down the wall – particularly
not with Trolls waiting for us at the bottom. Engessa, Kring
and I will be waiting with the Atans and Tikume’s Peloi a couple
of leagues south of where the wall dives into the Tamul Sea.
Don’t take too long to get here. The other side is up to
something. ‘
‘That throws both your plans out the window, doesn’t it,’
Emperor Sarabian noted. ‘You won’t be able to go by land,
because you can’t climb down the wall, and you can’t go by sea,
because the sea’s filled with uncharted reefs.’
‘And to make matters worse, we’ve only got about two days
to make the decision.” Itagne added. ‘The forces we’re sending
to the north are going to have to start moving at least a week
before the Festival if they’re going to reach the North Cape in
time to spring our second surprise on Zalasta.’
‘i’d better go have a talk with Captain Sorgi,’ Sparhawk said,
rising to his feet.
‘He and Caalador are down in the main pantry,’ Stragen
advised him. ‘They’re both Cammorians, and Cammorians like
to be close to food and drink.’
Sparhawk nodded, and he and Vanion quickly left the room.
An almost immediate friendship had sprung up between
Caalador and Sorgi. They were, as Stragen had pointed out,
both Cammorians, and they even looked much alike. Both had
curly hair, though Sorgi’s was nearly silver by now, and they
were both burly men with heavy shoulders and powerful hands.
‘Well, Master Cluff,’ Sorgi said expansively as Sparhawk and
Vanion entered the large, airy kitchen store-room, ‘have you
solved all the world’s problems yet?’ Captain Sorgi always called
Sparhawk by the alias he had used the first time they had met.
‘Hardly, Sorgi. We’ve got one that maybe you can solve for
us, though.’
‘Get the money part settled first, Sorgi,’ Caalador recommended.
‘ol’ Sporhawk here, he gets a little vague when th’
time comes t’ settle up.’
Sorgi smiled. “I haven’t heard that dialect since I left home,’
he told Sparhawk. “I could sit and listen to Caalador talk by the
hour. Let’s not worry about money yet. The advice is free. It
starts costing you money when I lift my anchor up off the
bottom.’
‘We have to go to a place where there’s been an earthquake
recently,’ Sparhawk told him. ‘Kurik’s son just sent me a message.
The earthquake has changed things so much that all the
old maps are useless.’
‘Happens all the time,’ Sorgi told him. ‘The estuary that runs
on up to Vardenais changes her bottom every winter.’
‘How do you deal with that?’
Sorgi shrugged. ‘We put out a small boat with a strong sailor
to do the rowing and a clever one to heave the sounding-line.
They lead us through.’
‘isn’t that sort of slow?’
‘Not nearly as slow as trying to steer a sinking ship. How big
an area got churned up by the earthquake?’
“It’s sort of hard to say.”
‘Guess, Master Cluff. Tell me exactly what happened, and
give me a guess about how big the danger-spot is.’
Sparhawk glossed over the cause of the sudden change in the
coastline and described the emergence of the escarpment.
‘No problem,’ Sorgi assured him.
‘How did you arrive at that conclusion, Captain?’ Vanion
asked him.
‘We won’t have to worry about any reefs to the north of your
cliff, my Lord. I saw something like that happen on the west
coast of Render one time. You see, what’s happened is that the
cliff keeps on going. It runs on out to sea – under the water so
once you get to the north of it, the water’s going to be a
thousand feet deep. Not too many ships I know of draw that
much water. i’ll just take along some of the old charts. We’ll go
out about ten leagues and sail north. I’ll take my bearings every
so often, and when we get six or eight leagues north of this new
cliff of yours, we’ll turn west and run straight for the beach. I’ll
put your men ashore up there with no trouble at all.’
‘And that’s the problem with your plan, Sparhawk,’ Vanion
said. ‘You’ve only got a hundred ships. If you take both the
knights and their horses, you’ll only be able to take fifteen hundred
up there to face the Trolls.’
‘is a-winnin’ this yore arg-u-ment real important t’ you two?’
Caalador asked.
‘We’re just looking for the best way, Caalador,’ Sparhawk
replied.
‘Then why not combine the two plans? Have Sorgi start north
first thing in the morning, and you mount up your armies and
ride on up that way as soon as you get things organized. When
Sorgi gets to a place ten leagues or so south of the wall, he can
feel his way in to shore. You meet him there, and he starts
ferrying your army on around the reef and puts you down on
the beach north of the wall. Then you can go looking for Trolls,
and Sorgi can drop his anchor and spend his time fishing.’
Sparhawk and Vanion looked at each other sheepishly.
“It’s like I wuz a-sayin’, Sorgi,’ Caalador grinned. ‘The gentry
ain’t got hardly no common sense a-tall. I b’leeve it’s ’cause they
ain’t got room in then heads fer more’n one i’dee at a time.’
Inevitably, the day arrived when the relief column was scheduled
to depart for Atan. It was before dawn when Mirtai came
into the bedroom of the Queen of Elenia and her Prince Consort.
‘Time to get up,’ the giantess announced.
‘Don’t you know how to knock?’ Sparhawk asked, sitting up
in bed.
‘Did I interrupt something?’
‘Never mind, Mirtai,’ he sighed. “It’s a custom, that’s all.”