his cheek.
‘How dost thou propose to transport us unto the camp of Lathan?’
he asked.
‘It’s probably better if you don’t know too many of the details,
love,’ I told him. ‘They aren’t really important, and they might upset
you. Put yourself in my hands and trust me.’
‘With my life, beloved.’
I decided not to convert him into a field-mouse as I’d done with
poor Killane that time. I didn’t want to demean him, and I wanted
him to have a clear head when he spoke with Lathan – just in case.
At my suggestion, my champion and I went outside the city to a
little grove of trees. It was shortly before midnight, but a full moon
made the night almost as bright as day. I touched my hand to my
beloved’s pale forehead and murmured, ‘Sleep.’ And he did that.
Then I gathered my Will and shrunk him.
That’s a clumsy way to put it, I know, but it is fairly precise.
Men the process was complete, my champion resembled a small
figurine about six inches tall, and he weighed no more than a few
ounces. I held him in my hand for a moment, and then I shrugged,
wrapped him in my handkerchief, and tucked him in my bodice to
keep him safe.
Don’t even think about saying something clever! And I mean it!
I used translocation again, and that’s a little tricky at night – even
with a full moon.
Baron Lathan’s army was just north of Sulturn by now, and the
watch-fires made his camp easy to find. I made my last jurnp to an
open hilltop about a half-mile from his picket-lines. Then I looked
around carefully, reached into my bodice, and retrieved my champion.
I carefully set him down on the grass, reversed the process.
that’d reduced him, and then said, ‘Wake up, dearest one.’
His eyes opened, and he wiped at his brow. ‘It seemeth to me
that I have been in some place that was quite warm,’ he noted.
‘Yes,’ I agreed. I didn’t think it was necessary to tell him exactly
where he’d spent the last half-hour. Now that I think about it, it
probably had been quite warm there.
He looked around. ‘Precisely where are we, my beloved?’ he
asked.
,Just north of Sulturn, dearest,’ I replied. ‘That’s Lathan’s camp
down there in the valley.’
,I have slept long, it would appear.’
,About a half-hour,’ I said. ‘Don’t start counting miles and
minutes, dear heart. It’ll only give you a headache. Let’s just say it
was one of “those things” and let it go at that.’
‘I shall be guided by thee in this, beloved.’
‘Good. You’ll have to identify yourself at the picket-line. Throw
your rank around if you have to. We must speak with Lathan just
as soon as possible.’
He squared his shoulders, offered me his arm, and we went on
down the hill. It only took us about ten minutes to bull our way
through the Wacite encampment to Baron Lathan’s tent. His orderly
recognized Ontrose and immediately awakened our sleeping friend.
‘Ontrose?’ Lathan said, rubbing at his eyes. ‘I had thought that thou
wert in Seline.’
‘I was there no more than an hour ago, my friend,’ Ontrose told
him. ‘I am the most fortunate of men, for I have at my disposal a
miraculous means of transport.’ He smiled fondly at me.
‘Your Grace,’ Lathan said, scrambling out of his cot.
‘Let’s just set aside formalities, Baron,’ I suggested. ‘We have a
problem which we must immediately address. Tell him, Ontrose.’
‘Of a certainty, your Grace.’ Then my champion looked at his
friend. ‘Our problem is simple to describe, Lathan,’ he said. ‘The
solution may prove more difficult. In short, our revered Lady
Polgara here hath applied her incomprehensible talent to the sometimes
tedious process of gathering information. She but recently went
forth to ascertain the precise location of the Asturian fleet.’
Lathan’s face grew wary at that point.
‘Needless to say,’ Ontrose continued, ‘she did succeed. The
location of that fleet, however, doth baffle me. Her Grace doth assure
me that Garteon’s ships do stand at anchor no more than ten leagues
to the north of Camaar.’
I was watching Lathan closely, and he didn’t really seem all that
surprised to me. I was right on the verge of sending out a probing
thought.
‘NO, Pol,’ mother’s voice interrupted me. ‘Let Ontrose do it. He has
to find this out for himself.’
‘Find what out for himself?’ I demanded silently.
‘You’ll see.’ Then she was gone.
‘Her Grace and I have struggled with this at some length,’Ontrose
was saying, ‘and, recalling that thou wert in Asturia and that it wast
thou who didst uncover this scheme, did we conclude that thou
might be best qualified to unravel this peculiar turn of events. Mine
own reasoning is somewhat pedestrian, I fear me. My best surmise
gropingly suggested that this pause can only be explained by some
grander plan. It seemeth to me that some date must have significance
in Garteon’s overall scheme.’
‘I cannot fault thy reasoning, Ontrose,’ Lathan conceded, ‘and
indeed I, whilst I was in Vo Astur, did catch some hint of just such
a fascination with the calendar. I had not the time, however, to
pursue it.’
‘Let us reason together, old friend,’ Ontrose suggested. ‘If a given
date doth have such significance that a pause is dictated, doth that
not imply that someone else is reading that self-same calendar?’
‘It doth indeed, Ontrose!’ Lathan exclaimed. I seemed to detect a
slightly false note in his enthusiasm, however.
Then Ontrose, caught up in the momentum of his own reasoning,
pursued it one step further. ‘But to whom would that calendar be of
such interest ‘ Lathan? If Garteon’s army is truly on board those ships,
who is there left in Asturia to read calendars with such interest?’
Lathan’s change of expression was so slight that I very nearly
missed it. It was no more than a slight tightening around his eyes.
‘Look out, Ontrose!’ I shouted.
Clearly, Baron Lathan was about two steps ahead of my champion,
and he knew exactly where his friend’s line of thought would take
him. He spun quickly and seized his sword from off the bench at
the foot of his cot. Then he whirled, raising his sword to strike down
my beloved.
I think, however, that Ontrose had not been quite so far behind
Lathan as he might have appeared, for even as Lathan’s sword
began its fatal descent, the sword of Ontrose came whispering out
of its sheath and caught Lathan’s in mid-stroke.
‘And now is all made clear, Lathan,’ Ontrose said sadly. ‘All
except why.’
Lathan swung his sword again, and Ontrose easily parried the
stroke. Quite obviously, my champion didn’t need any help from
me. I stepped back out of the way.
I’d hardly call what happened a fair fight. Lathan’s only chance
had been that desperate first attack. After that failed, he didn’t really
have any chance at all. Moreover, his expression quite clearly said
that he knew he was going to lose. I got the uneasy feeling that he
really preferred it that way.
It was noisy. A fight involving broadswords always is. The noise,
naturally, attracted attention. My only contribution to the affair
involved the tent where it was taking place. It still looked like a
canvas tent, but steel is quite a bit softer than that tent was after I
modified’ it. I saw to it that there wouldn’t be any interruptions.
The end of the sword fight was announced by a gush of bright
blood bursting forth from Baron Lathan’s mouth as my champion’s
sword slid smoothly through his right lung. Lathan stiffened,
dropped his sword, and then collapsed.
ontrose was weeping when he knelt at his friend’s side. ‘Why,
Lathan, why hast thou done this?’
Lathan coughed up more blood, and I knew from that visible sign
that his wound was mortal and that there was nothing I could do
to save his life. ‘It was to end my suffering, Ontrose,’ he said in a
barely audible voice.
‘Suffering?’
‘Agony, Ontrose. I confess freely, now that I am nearly free, that
I did love – and still do love – our Lady Polgara. Thou didst wrest
her from me at that accursed tourney, and my heart hath been dead
within me since that day. Now do I gladly go to endless sleep, but
I shall not sleep alone. Wacune shall die with me, and all else that
I love.’
‘What hast thou done, Lathan?’ Ontrose demanded in a horrified
voice.
Lathan coughed up more blood. ‘I have betrayed thee and all
of Wacune.’ His voice was growing weaker. ‘All unobserved did I
go into Asturia and did speak with Carteon and a foreign advisor
of his whose name I did not ask.’
‘Foreign?’ I asked sharply.
‘A Nadrak, methinks – or perchance a Murgo. He it was who