‘By Heaven, Dace. Have you found someone you like?’
‘He amuses me. When he ceases to do so, I will kill him,’ said Dace. Tarantio heard the lie in his voice, but said nothing.
Suddenly all the birds in the trees took flight, the leaves thrashing under their beating wings. Tarantio felt a quivering sensation under his feet. Forin stumbled into the small clearing. ‘I think we should saddle up and move out,’ he said. ‘I’m getting a bad feeling. Maybe there’s a storm coming.’
The horses were skittish, and Tarantio needed Brune’s help to saddle the gelding, who tried to buck each time the saddle was placed upon his back.
‘What in Hell’s name is happening?’ asked Forin. ‘Nothing feels right.’
The earthquake struck as Tarantio, Forin and Brune moved out onto the plain. The ground vibrating beneath them caused the horses to panic and rear. Brune, who was leading the three spare mounts, was unseated and fell heavily, his horse and the others bolting. A section of hillside close by sheared away and a huge crack, hundreds of paces long, opened up in the earth ahead of them, swallowing the fleeing animals. As suddenly as the crack had appeared, it closed, sending up a shower of dust and earth. Tarantio leapt from the saddle, holding firm to the bridle. ‘Easy, boy! Easy!’ he said soothingly, stroking the beast’s flanks. Forin’s horse fell as the ground heaved. The big man rolled clear, then scrambled up and caught hold of the reins.
The tremors continued for several minutes, then died away. Dust hung in the air in great clouds. Tarantio hobbled his mount and ran to the fallen Brune as the young man sat up, blinking rapidly. ‘Are you hurt?’ asked Tarantio.
‘Hit my head again,’ said Brune. ‘Made it bleed.’
‘Luckily your head is the thickest part of you,’ observed Forin. ‘You lost the horses, you dolt!’
‘He could have done nothing to save them,’ put in Tarantio. ‘And if we had ridden a few yards further we would have all been sucked into the abyss.’
‘Have you ever heard of such a thing in Corduin lands?’ asked Forin. ‘For I have not. Down by Loretheli the earth moves. But not up here.’
Tarantio stared down at his hands; they were trembling. ‘I think we all need to rest for a while. The horses are too skittish to ride.’ Unhobbling the gelding, he led him towards the ruined hill. Above and to the left of the sheared mound was a stand of trees. Tethering the two horses, Tarantio and Forin sat down
while Brune wandered away to empty his bursting bladder.
‘I think my heart is beginning to settle down,’ said Forin. ‘I haven’t been that scared since my wife – may she rest in peace – caught me with her sister.’
‘I have never been that scared,’ admitted Tarantio. ‘I thought the earth was shaking apart. What causes it?’
Forin shrugged. ‘My father used to talk of the giant, Premithon. The gods chained him at the centre of the earth, and every once in a while he wakes and struggles to be free. Then the mountains tremble and the earth shakes.’
‘That sounds altogether reasonable,’ said Tarantio, forcing a smile.
Brune came running up the hill. ‘Come see what I’ve found,’ he shouted. ‘Come see!’ Turning round he ambled down the ruined hill. Tarantio and Forin followed him to where the hillside had been cut in half, exposing two marble pillars and a cracked lintel stone.
‘It is an ancient tomb,’ said Forin, scrambling up over the mud which half-covered the entrance. ‘Maybe there’s gold to be found.’ Tarantio and Brune followed him, sliding over the mud and into the entrance. All three men halted before a huge statue, which stood guard over a broken stone doorway.
The sunlight shone down on the marble of the statue and Tarantio stood staring at the carving, trying to make sense of it. The statue stood almost seven feet high. On its left arm was a triangular shield, in its right hand a serrated sword. But Tarantio’s attention was not taken by the armour but by the face, which was not human. The bony ridge of its curved nose extended up and over the bald cranium, curving down the thick neck to disappear beneath the sculpted armour. The creature’s