‘Sparhawk!’ Itagne’s eyes widened.
‘It’s all right Itagne,’ Aphrael assured him, going across the
room to him and holding out her hands.
‘didn’t that endanger Queen Ehlana?’ he asked, lifting her
Into his lap.
Sparhawk shook his head. ‘Xanetia can muffle those telltale
noises, I guess. Ehlana’s still safe – or so Bhelliom tells me.’ His
face, however, was worried.
Thank God!’
“you’re welcome,’ Aphrael said, ‘but it was really Bhelliom’s
idea. We still have some problems, though. Vanion’s encounter
with klael’s army cost him about half of his knights.’
That’s disastrous! We won’t be able to hold Samar without
those knights!’
‘Don’t be quite so sure, Itagne,’ she said. ‘I just received a
garbled message from a Pandion named Anosian. He’s in Samar,
and Kring and Tikume have discovered something about Klael’s
soldiers. I’ll run down there and find out what’s going on.’
‘ulath’s keeping an eye on Berit and Khalad,’ Sparhawk continued.
‘They saw him while they were crossing the Sea of
Arjun.’ He rubbed at the side of his face. ‘Can you think of
anything else, Aphrael?’
‘Lots of things,’ she replied, ‘but they don’t have anything to
do with what we’re doing here.’ She kissed Itagne and slipped
down out of his lap. ‘I shouldn’t be too long,’ she told them. ‘if
Vanion gets here before I come back, break the news about
Sephrenia to him gently and tell him that she’s all right now.
Keep a grip on him, gentlemen. It’s wintertime, and you need
the roof on this building.’ She went to the door, opened it, and
vanished as she stepped through.
Tiara lay on the north shore of the large lake known as the Sea
of Arjun. It was a bustling Tamul town with an extensive harbor.
As soon as the scruffy lake-freighter docked, Berit and Khalad
led their horses ashore and mounted. ‘What was the name of
that inn again?’ Khalad asked.
The White Gull,’ Berit replied.
%”oehc,’ Khalad noted.
The other names had probably already been used up. You
can only have so many lions and dragons and boars in one town
before people start to get confused.’
‘Krager’s starting to give us more specific instructions in those
notes,’ Khalad said. ‘When he sent us to Sepal, he just gave us
the name of the town. Now he’s picking our accommodations
for us. That might mean that we’re getting closer to the end of
this little excursion.’
‘Sir Ulath said that they’re going to send us to Arjuna from
here.’
‘if I’d known we were going to spend so much time wandering
around this lake, I’d have brought a fishing line.’
‘i’m not really all that fond of fish, myself.’
‘Who is? It’s an excuse to get out of the house is about all.
My brothers and I found that if we laid around the house too
long, our mothers started finding things for us to do.’
‘You’ve got a strange family, Khalad. Most men only have
one mother.’
‘It was Father’s idea. There’s the White Gull.’ Khalad pointed
up the street.
The inn was surprisingly clean and substantial. It had a wellmaintained
stable, and the rooms were neat almost to the point
of fussiness. The two young men saw to their horses, dropped
their saddlebags off in their room, and took advantage of the
bath-house adjoining the rear of the inn. Then, feeling much
improved, they adjourned to the taproom to pass the time until
supper. Khalad rose and closely examined the porcelain stove.
‘It’s an interesting idea,’ he told Berit. ‘I wonder if it’d catch on
in Eosia.’
‘I sort of like looking at the fire myself,’ Berit replied.
‘You can stare at the candles, if that’s all you want. A fireplace
isn’t very efficient, and it makes an awful mess. A stove’s a lot
more practical – and you can cook on it. When we get home, I
think I’ll build one for my mothers.’
Berit laughed. ‘if you start tearing up their kitchen, they’ll
take their brooms to you.’
‘I don’t think so. The notion of a stew that doesn’t have cinders
floating in it might appeal to them.’
The man who approached their table wore a hooded smock,
and the hood partially concealed his face. ‘You don’t mind If I
join you, do you?’ he asked, sitting down and pushing the hood
back slightly.
It was the same Styric they had last seen on the shore of the
Gulf of Micae.
‘You made good time, neighbor,’ Berit said. ‘Of course, you
knew where you were going, and we didn’t.’
‘How long did it take you to get dry?’ Khalad asked him.
‘Shall we skip the pleasantries?’ the Styric said coldly. ‘I have
further instructions for you.’
‘You mean you didn’t stop by just to renew our acquaintance?’
Khalad said. ‘i’m crushed.’
‘Very funny.’ The Styric hesitated. ‘i’m going to reach into my
pocket for the note, so don’t start drawing your knives.’
‘Wouldn’t dream of it, old boy,’ Khalad drawled.
This is for you, Sparhawk.’ The Styric handed Berit the sealed
parchment.
Berit took the parchment and broke the seal. He carefully lifted
out the identifying lock of the Queen’s hair and read aloud,
‘Sparhawk. Go overland to Arjun. You’ll receive further instructions
there. Krager.’
‘He must have been drunker than usual,’ Khalad observed.
‘He didn’t bother with all the snide little comments this time.
“Just out of curiosity, friend, why didn’t he send us straight on
to Arjun from Sepal? He could have saved everybody a great
deal of time.’
‘That’s really none of your business, Elene. Just do as you’re
told. ‘
‘i’m a peasant, Styric, so I’m used to doing that. Prince Sparhawk
here might get a little impatient, though, and that makes
him bad-tempered.’ Khalad squinted at the lumpy-faced messenger. ‘S
ince the subject’s come up anyway, I’ve got a word
of friendly advice for you, old boy. It’s about twenty days on
horseback from here to Arjun. He’s going to be very unpleasant
by the time he gets there. If you should happen to be the one
who delivers the next message, I wouldn’t get too close to him.’
‘I think we can come up with a way for him to work off his
bad temper,’ the Styric sneered. ‘You don’t have twenty days to
get to Arjun. You have fourteen.’ He stood up. ‘Don’t be late.
He turned and started toward the door.
‘Lets go,’ Khalad said.
“Where?’
‘After him.”
What for?”
Khalad sighed. ‘To shake him down, Berit,’ he explained with
exaggerated patience. ‘I want to strip him and go through his
clothes. He might just have the next message on him.’
‘Are you mad? They’ll kill the Queen if we do that.’
“Just because we rough up their messenger-boy? Don’t be silly.
They want the Bhelliom, and the Queen’s the only thing they’ve
got to trade for it. We could routinely kill every single one of
their messengers, and they wouldn’t do a thing to her. Let’s go
shake that Styric up a little bit and go through his pockets. If
we can get hold of the next message, we might be able to get
the jump on them.’
‘You know, I think you’re right. They won’t do anything to
the Queen, will they?’
‘Not a chance, my Lord. Let’s go teach that Styric some
manners. It’s exactly the sort of thing Sparhawk would do.’
‘He would, wouldn’t he?’ Berit looked closely at his friend
‘That fellow really irritates you, doesn’t he?’
‘Yes, as a matter of fact, he does. I don’t like his attitude.’
‘Well, let’s go change it, then.’
‘i’m not going to do anything foolish,’ Kalten said. ‘I just want
to have a look around.’ The three of them were sitting under
their tree in Narstil’s cluttered jungle camp. They had a fire
going, and three stolen chickens were spitted over it, dripping
grease into the flames.
‘It won’t hurt,’ Caalador said to Bevier. ‘if the time ever comes
when we have to go in there, we should probably know the lay
of the land.’
‘Are you sure you can keep a handle on your temper?’ Bevier
asked Kalten. ‘You’ll be all alone there, you know.’
‘i’m all grown up now, Bevier,’ Kalten assured him. ‘i’m not
going to do anything noisy until after things are back the way
they should be. We may not get a chance like this again. Senga’s
invited me to go along to help him sell beer. It’s the most natural
thing in the world, and nobody’s going to recognize me. I can
pick up some very valuable information in Natayos, and if I
happen to see somebody I recognize standing in a window or
something, we’ll know for sure exactly where those two friends
of ours are located. Then the fellow with the broken nose can
have a word with his blue friend and they can lift them out
before anybody even has time to blink. Then we can all go down