The Hidden City by David Eddings

I had to wager anything on it, i’d say that the main battle’s

going to take place there. Scarpa will move north out of Natayos.

Probably the southern Cynesgans are planning to capture Samar

and then swing around the north shore of the Sea of Arjun to

join him somewhere in the vicinity of the Tamul Mountains.

From there the combined army can march up the west shore of

the Gulf of Micae to Toea.’ He smiled faintly. ‘Of course, there’s

a very nasty surprise waiting for them in the Tamul Mountains.

I’d imagine that before this is over, Cyrgon will wish that he’d

never heard of the Trolls.’

‘I will send an army out of northern Atan to Toea, VanionPreceptor,’

Betuana said, ‘but I’ll leave enough of my people

along the southern and eastern borders to tie up half of the

Cynesgans. ‘

‘In the meantime I think we can disrupt their preparations,’

Engessa added. ‘Raids in force across that border will delay their

main attack.’

‘And that’s all we really need,’ Vanion chuckled. ‘if we can

delay them long enough, Cyrgon’s going to have a hundred

thousand Church KNights swarming across his western frontier.

I think he’ll forget about Toea at that point.’

‘Don’t worry about him, From,’ Stragen told Sparhawk. ‘He can

take care of himself.’

‘I think we sometimes forget that he’s only a boy, Vymer. He

doesn’t even shave regularly yet.’

‘Reldin stopped being a boy before his voice started to

change.’ Stragen leaned back on his bed reflectively. ‘Those of

us in our particular line of work tend to lose our childhoods,’ he

said. ‘it might have been nice to roll hoops and catch polliwogs,

but…’ He shrugged.

‘What are you going to do when this is all over?’ Sparhawk

asked him. ‘Assuming that we survive?’

‘There’s a certain lady of our acquaintance who proposed marriage

to me a while back. It’s part of a business arrangement

that’s very attractive. The notion of marriage never really

appealed to me, but the business proposition’s just too good to

pass up.’

‘There’s more, too, isn’t there?’

‘Yes,’ Stragen admitted. ‘After what she did back in Matherion

that night, I’m not about to let her get away from me. She’s one

of the coolest and most courageous people I’ve ever met.’

‘Pretty, too.’

‘You noticed.’ Stragen sighed. ‘i’m afraid I’m going to end up

being at least semi-respectable, my friend.’

‘Shocking. ‘

‘isn’t it? First, though, there’s this other little matter I

want to deal with. I think I’ll present my beloved with the head of a

certain Astellian poet of our acquaintance. If I can find a good

taxidermist, I may even have it stuffed and mounted for her.’

‘it’s the kind of wedding present every girl dreams of.

‘Maybe not every girl,’ Stragen grinned, ‘but I’m in love with

a very special lady.’

‘But there are so many of them, U-lat,’ Bhlokw said plaintively.

‘They would not miss just one, would they?’

‘I am certain they would, Bhlokw,’ Ulath told the huge,

brown-furred Troll. ‘The man-things are not like the deer. They

pay very close attention to the other members of the herd. If

you eat one of them, they will know that we are here. Catch

and eat one of their dogs instead.’

‘is dog good-to-eat?’

‘I am not sure. Eat one and tell me if it is good.’

Bhlokw grumbled and squatted down on his haunches.

The process Ghnomb had called ‘breaking the moments in

two pieces’ produced some rather strange effects. The brightness

of noon was dimmed to twilight, for one thing, and the citizeNS

of Sepal seemed to walk about their town with a fast, jerky

kind of movement, for another. The God of Eat had assured

them that because they were present in only a small part of each

instant, they had been rendered effectively invisible. Ulath could

see a rather large logical flaw in the explanation, but the belief

that the spell worked seemed to override logic.

Tynian came back up the street shaking his head. ‘it’s impossible

to understand them,’ he reported. ‘I can pick up a word or

two now and then, but the rest is pure gibberish.’

‘it is talking in bird-noises again,’ Bhlokw complained.

‘You’d better speak in Trollish, Tynian,’ Ulath said. ‘You’re

making Bhlokw nervous.’

‘I forgot,’ Tynian admitted, reverting to the hideous language

of the Trolls. ‘I am -‘ he groped. ‘What is the word that means

that you want it that you had not done something?’ he asked

their shaggy companion.

‘There is no such word, Tin-in,’ Bhlokw replied.

‘Can you ask Ghnomb to make it so that we can understand

what the man-things are saying?’ Ulath asked.

‘Why? What does it matter?’ Bhlokw’s face was puzzled.

‘if we can know what they are saying, we will know which

ones of the herd we should follow,’ Tynian explained. ‘They

will be the ones who will know about the wicked ones.’

‘They do not all know?’ Bhlokw asked with some amazement.

‘No. Only some know.’

‘The man-things are very strange. I will talk with Ghnomb.

He may understand this.’ He rose to his feet, towering over

them. ‘I will do it as soon as I come back.’

‘Where are you going?’ Tynian asked politely.

‘I am hungry. I will go eat a dog. Then I will come back and

talk with Ghnomb.’ He paused. ‘I can bring a dog back for you

as well, if you are also hungry.’

‘Ah – no, Bhlokw,’ Tynian replied. ‘I do not think I am hungry

right now. It was good of you to ask, though.’

‘We are pack-mates now,’ Bhlokw shrugged. ‘it is right to do

this.’ And he shambled off down the street.

‘its not really all that far,’ Aphrael told her sister as the two

of them rode with Xanetia up out of the valley of Delphaeus toward

the town of Dirgis in southern Atan, ‘but Edaemus is still

reluctant to help us, so I think I’d better mind my manners.

He might be offended if I start “tampering” in the home of

his children.’

‘You’ve never used that word to describe it before,’ Sephrenia

noted. ‘Sparhawk’s influence, I guess,’ the Child Goddess replied.

‘it’s a useful sort of term. It glosses over things that we don’t

want to discuss in front of strangers. After we get to Dirgis,

we’ll be well clear of the home of the Delphae. Then I’ll be able

to tamper to my heart’s content.’

‘How long dost thou think it will take us to reach Natayos,

Goddess?’ Xanetia asked. She had once again altered her coloration

and suppressed her inner radiance to conceal her racial

characteristics.

‘No more than a few hours – in real time,’ Aphrael shrugged.

‘I can’t quite jump us around the way Bhelliom does, but I can

cover a lot of ground in a hurry when there’s an emergency. If

things were really desperate, I could fly us there.’

Sephrenia shuddered. ‘it’s not that desperate, Aphrael.’

Xanetia gave her Styric sister a puzzled look.

‘it makes her queasy,’ Aphrael explained.

‘No, Aphrael,’ Sephrenia corrected, ‘not queasy – terrified

It’s a horrible experience, Xanetia. She’s done it to me about five

times in the past three hundred years. I’m an absolute wreck

for weeks afterward.’

‘I keep telling you not to look down, Sephrenia,’ Aphrael told

her. ‘if you’d just look at the clouds instead of down at the

ground, it wouldn’t bother you so much.’

‘I can’t help myself, Aphrael,’ Sephrenia told her.

‘is it truly so disturbing, sister mine?’ Xanetia asked.

‘You couldn’t even begin to imagine it, Xanetia. You skim

along with nothing but about five thousand feet of empty air

between you and the ground. It’s awful!’

‘We’ll do it the other way,’ Aphrael assured her.

‘i’ll start composing a prayer of thanksgiving immediately.’

‘We’ll stay the night in Dirgis,’ Aphrael told them, ‘and then

tomorrow morning we’ll run down to Natayos. Sephrenia and I’ll

stay out in the woods, Xanetia, and you can go into town and have

a look around. If Mother’s really being held there, we should be

able to bring this little crisis to an end in short order. Once Sparhawk

knows exactly where she is, he’ll fall on Scarpa and his

father like a vengeful mountain. Natayos won’t even be a ruin any

more when he’s done. it’ll just be a big hole in the ground.’

‘He actually saw them,’ Talen reported. ‘He described them too

well to have been making it up.’ The young thief had just

returned from his foray into the seamier parts of Beresa.

‘What sort of fellow was he?’ Sparhawk asked. ‘This is too

important for us to be taken in by random gossip.’

‘He’s a Dacite,’ Talen replied, ‘a guttersnipe from Jura. His

pollitics go about as far as his Purse. His main reason for joining

Scarpa’s army in the first place was his enthusiasm for the idea

of taking part in the looting of Matherion. We’re not talking