‘Foolishness. Everybody knows what goes on in here.
‘isn’t it almost time for you and Kring to get married?’
‘Are you trying to get rid of me, Sparhawk?’
‘Of course not.’
‘Kring and I have decided to wait until after all of this is
finished up. Our weddings are going to be a little complicated.
We have to go through two ceremonies in two parts of the world.
Kring’s not very happy about all the delay.’
“I can’t for the life of me see why,’ Ehlana said innocently.
‘Men are strange.’ Mirtai shrugged.
‘They are indeed, Mirtai, but how would we amuse ourselves
without them?’
Sparhawk dressed slowly, pulling on the padded, rust-stained
underclothing with reluctance and eyeing his black-enameled
suit of steel work-clothes with active dislike.
‘Did you pack warm clothing?’ Ehlana asked him. ‘The’ nights
are getting chilly even this far south, so it’s going to be very
cold up on the North Cape.’
“I packed it,’ he grunted, ‘for all the good it’s going to do. No
amount of clothing helps when you’re wearing steel.’ He made
a sour face. “I know it’s a contradiction, but I start to sweat the
minute I put the armor on. Every knight I’ve ever known does
the same. We keep on sweating even when we’re freezing and
icicles are forming up inside the armor. Sometimes I wish I’d
gone into another line of work. Bashing people for fun and profit
starts to wear thin after a while.’
‘You’re in a gloomy mood this morning, love.’
“It’s just that it’s getting harder and harder to get started. I’ll
be all right once I’m on the road.’
‘You will be careful, won’t you, Sparhawk? I’d die if I lost
you.’
‘i’m not going to be in all that much danger, dear. I’ve got
Bhelliom, and Bhelliom could pick up the sun and break it across
its knee. It’s Cyrgon and Zalasta who’ll have to watch out.’
‘Don’t get over-confident.’
‘i’m not. I’ve got more advantages than I can count, that’s all.
We’re going to win, Ehlana, and there’s nothing in the world
that can stop us. All that’s really left is the tedious plodding
from here to the victory celebration.’
‘Why don’t you kiss me for a while now?’ she suggested.
‘Before you put on the armor. It takes weeks for the bruises to
go away after you kiss me when you’re all wrapped in steel.’
‘You know,’ he smiled, ‘that’s an awfully good idea. Why
don’t we do that?’
The column stretched for several miles, undulating across the
rounded hills on the east coast of Lake Sama. There were Church
Knights, Atans, Kring’s Peloi, and a few ornately garbed regiments
of the Tamul army.
It was a splendid day, one of those perfect autumn days with
a stiff wind aloft hurrying puffy white clouds across an intensely
blue sky, and the enormous shadows of those clouds raced
across the rolling landscape so that Sparhawk’s army rode alternately
in sunshine and in shadow. The pennons and flags were
of many hues, and they snapped and rippled in the breeze,
tugging at the lances and flag-staffs to which they were fastened.
Queen Betuana strode along at Faran’s shoulder. ‘Are you
sure, Sparhawk-Knight?’ she asked. ‘The Troll-beasts are animals,
and all animals are born knowing how to swim. Even a
cat can swim. ‘
‘Only reluctantly, Betuana-Queen,’ Sparhawk smiled, remembering
Mmrr’s ‘cat-paddling’ in Sephrenia’s fish-pond in Sarsos.
‘Ulath-Knight says that we won’t have to worry about the Trollbeasts
swimming around the end of the escarpment. They’ll
swim across rivers and lakes, but the sea terrifies them. It has
something to do with the tides, I think – or maybe it’s the salt.’
‘Must we continue at this slow pace?’ Her tone was impatient.
‘We want to be certain that Zalasta’s spies see us, your Majesty,’
Vanion told her. ‘That’s a very important part of our plan.’
‘Elene battles are very large,’ she observed.
‘We’d prefer smaller ones, Atana, but Zalasta’s schemes
stretch across the whole continent, so we have to respond.’
Sephrenia, with Flute riding in front of her, rode forward with
Xanetia. They had all watched the tentative friendship growing
between Sephrenia and Xanetia. Both were still very cautious,
and there were no great leaps in their relationship. The tennousness
now came not from defensiveness but rather from an
excess of concern about inadvertently giving offense, and Sparhawk
felt that to be a rather profound change for the good. ‘We
grew tired of all the stories,’ Sephrenia told Vanion. “I can’t be
sure which is the bigger liar, Tynian or Ulath.’
‘Oh?”
‘They’re trying to outdo each other. Ulath’s exaggerating outrageously,
and I’m sure Tynian’s doing the same thing. Each of
them is doing his level best to persuade the other that he missed
the adventure of the century. They’ll be drowning in falsehood
before long.’
“It’s a demonstration of a form of affection, little mother,’ Sparhawk
explained. ‘They’d be too embarrassed to admit that
they’re genuinely fond of each other, so they tell each other wild
stories instead.’
‘Did you understand that at all, Xanetia?’ Sephrenia smiled.
‘What reasonable person can ever understand how and why
men express their love, sister?’
‘Men aren’t really comfortable with the word “love”,’
Sparhawk told them, ‘particularly when it’s applied to other
men. ‘
“It is love, though, isn’t it, Sparhawk?’ Sephrenia asked him.
‘Well, I suppose it is, but we’re not comfortable with it all the
same.’
“I have meant to speak with thee, Anarae.’ Betuana lapsed
perhaps unconsciously into archaic Tamul.
‘Gladly will I hear thy words, Queen of Atan.
“It hath been the wont of youthful Atans to seek Delphaeus,
having it in their minds to destroy thy home and to put thy
people to the sword. I am heartily sorry that I have permitted
this.’
Xanetia smiled. “It is of no moment, Queen of Atan. This is
but an excess of adolescent enthusiasm. I must freely confess
that our fledglings do entertain themselves by deceiving and
distracting thine, leading them away from their intended goal by
rudimentary enchantments and clumsy deceptions. It cometh to
me all unbidden that thus are we both relieved of the obligation
to entertain our children, who, by virtue of their youth and
inexperience and profound inability to divert themselves, do
continually complain that there is nothing for them to do – at
least nothing worthy of what they perceive to be their enormous
gifts. ‘
Betuana laughed. ‘Do thy children have that self-same plaint,
Anarae?’
‘All children complain,’ Sephrenia assured them. “It’s one of
the things that make parents age so fast.’
‘Well said,’ Sparhawk agreed. Neither he nor Sephrenia
looked directly at Flute.
They reached Lebas in northern Tamul in about two days. Sparhawk
had spoken with the army, stressing the enormous power
of Bhelliom to explain how it would be possible for them to cover
great distances in a short period of time. In actuality, however,
Bhelliom was in no way responsible. Flute was in charge of their
travel arrangements on this particular trip.
There was another Atan runner waiting for them in Lebas
with yet another message from Khalad. It was a fairly offensive
note which suggested that the runner had been sent to guide
them to the stretch of beach where Kring and Engessa waited
with their forces, since if knights were left to their own devices
in the forest, they would inevitably get lost. Khalad’s class prejudices
were still quite firmly in place.
There was no road as such leading north from Lebas, but the
trails and paths were quite clearly marked. They reached the
southern edge of the vast forest that covered the northeastern
quadrant of the continent, and the hundred Peloi Kring had
brought with him from Eosia pulled in to ride very close to their
allies. Deep woods made the plains-dwelling western Peloi very
nervous.
“I think it has to do with the sky,’ Tynian explained to the
others.
‘You can barely see the sky when you’re in the deep woods,
Tynian,’ Kalten objected.
‘Exactly my point,’ the broad-faced Deiran replied. ‘The
western Peloi are accustomed to having the sky overhead. When
there are tree-limbs blocking their view of it, they start to get
nervous.’
They were never able to determine if the attempt was random
or was deliberately aimed at Betuana. They were a hundred
leagues or so into the forest and had set up their night’s encampment,
and the large tent for the ladies – Betuana, Sephrenia,
Xanetia and Flute – had been erected somewhat apart so that
they might have a bit of privacy.
The assassins were well concealed, and there were four of
them. They burst out of the thicket with drawn swords just
as Betuana and Xanetia were emerging from the tent. Betuana
responded instantly. Her sword whipped out of its sheath and
plunged directly into the belly of one of the attackers. Even as
she jerked the sword free, she dove to the ground, rolled and