Knight.” Xanetia told him.
‘We could swing around the sides of the basin and get closer,
Kalten suggested. ‘The trees would hide us. The ground around
the lake doesn’t offer much concealment.’
‘We’ve got some time,’ Sparhawk said. ‘Let’s get away from
the mouth of this tunnel. If it’s the only way in or out of the
valley, there’s bound to be traffic going through here. I can see
people working in those fields down there – slaves, most likely.
There’ll be Cyrgai watching them, and there may be patrols as
well. Let’s see if we can pick up some kind of routine before we
blunder into anything.’
Berit and Khalad made a dry camp in another cluster of jumbled
boulders two days west of the place where they had seen the
strange soldiers. They watered their horses sparingly, built no
fire, and ate cold rations. Khalad spoke very little, but sat instead
staring moodily out at the desert.
“Quit worrying at it, Khalad,’ Berit told him.
‘It’s right in front of my face, Berit. I know it is, but I just
can’t put my finger on it.’
‘Do you want to talk it out? Neither one of us is going to get
any sleep if you spend the whole night wrestling with it.’
‘I can brood quietly.’
‘No, actually you can’t. We’ve been together too long, my
friend. I can hear you thinking.’
Khalad smiled faintly. ‘It has to do with those creatures,’ he
said. ‘Really? I never would have guessed. That’s all you’ve been
thinking about for the past two days. What did you want to
know about them – aside from the fact that they’re big, ugly,
savage, and they’ve got yellow blood?’
‘That’s the part that’s nagging at me – that yellow blood.
Aphrael says that it’s because they breathe with their livers.
They do that because what they’re used to breathing isn’t air.
They can get along here for a little while, but when they start
exerting themselves, they start to fall apart. The ones we saw
the other day weren’t just running around aimlessly out there
in the desert. They had a specific destination in mind.’
‘That cave? You think it might be a haven for them?’
‘Now we’re starting to get somewhere,’ Khalad said, his face
growing intent. ‘The Peloi are probably the best light cavalry in
the world, but klael’s soldiers are almost as big as Trolls, and
they seem to be able to ignore wounds that would kill one of
us. I don’t think they’re running from the Peloi.’
‘No. They’re trying to run away from the air.’
Khalad snapped his fingers. ‘That’s it!’ he exclaimed. ‘That’s
why they break off and run back to those caves. They aren’t
hiding from the Peloi. They’re hiding from the air.’
‘Air is air, Khalad – whether it’s out in the open or inside a
cave. ‘
‘I don’t think so, Berit. I think Klael has filled that cave with
the kind of air his soldiers are used to breathing. He can’t change
all the air on the whole world, because it would kill the Cyrgai
as well as all the rest of us, and Cyrgon won’t let him do that.
He can’fill the cave with that other kind of air, though. It’d be
the perfect place. It’s closed-in and more or less air-tight. It gives
those monsters a place to go when they start to get winded.
They can rest up in there and then come back out and fight
some more. You’d better pass this on, Berit. Aphrael can let the
others know that klael’s soldiers are hiding out in caves because
they can breathe there.’
‘I’ll tell her,’ Berit said dubiously. ‘i’m not sure what good it’s
going to do us, but I’ll tell her.’
Khalad leaned back on his elbows with a broad grin. ‘You’re
not thinking, Berit. If something’s giving you problems, and it’s
hiding out in a cave, you don’t have to go in after it. All you
have to do is collapse the entrance. Once it’s trapped inside,
you can forget about it. Why don’t you pass this on to Aphrael?
Suggest that she tell the others to collapse every cave they come
across. She won’t even have to do it herself.’ Then he frowned
again.
“What’s wrong now?’
That was too easy,’ Khalad told him, ‘and it doesn’t really
help all that much. As big as those beasts are, you could collapse
a whole mountain on them, and they could still dig their way
out. There’s something else that hasn’t quite come together yet
He held up one hand. ‘i’ll get it,’ he promised. ‘i’ll get it if
it takes me all night.’
Berit groaned.
‘I have decided to go with you, Bergsten-Priest,’ Atana Mans
replied haltingly in heavily accented Elenic. She had come up
from behind their column when they were five days south of
Cynestra.
Bergsten suppressed an oath. ‘We’re an army on the move,
Atana Mans,’ he tried to explain diplomatically. ‘We wouldn’t
be able to make suitable arrangements for your comfort or safety
when we stop for the night.’
‘Arrangements?’ She looked at Neran, the translator, with a
puzzled expression.
Neran spoke at some length in Tamul, and the tall girl burst
out laughing. ‘What’s so funny, Atana?’ Bergsten asked suspiciously.
‘That you would worry about that, Bergsten-Priest. I am a
soldier. I can defend myself against any of your men who admire
me too much.’
‘Why have you decided to come along with us, Atana Mans?’
Heldin stepped in.
‘I had a thought after you left Cynestra, Heldin-Knight,’ she
replied. ‘It has been in my mind to go find Itagne-Ambassador
for much weeks now. You are going to the place where he will
be, so I will go with you.’
‘We could carry a message to him for you, Atana. You don’t
really have to go along.’ She shook her head.
‘No, Heldin-Knight. It is a personal matter
between Itagne-Ambassador and me. He was friendly to me when he was in
Cynestra. Then he had to go away, but he said
to me that he would write letters to me. He did not do that.
Now I must go find him to make sure that he is well.’ Her
eyes went hard. ‘if he is well, I must know if he does not want
to be friendly to me any more.’ She sighed. ‘I hope much
that his feelings have not changed. I would not want to have
to kill him.’
‘I want no part of this,’ Gahennas said abruptly, standing up
and giving the rest of them a reproving look. ‘I was willing to
work with you if it meant tweaking Cieronna’s nose, but I’m not
going to involve myself in treason.’
“Who said anything about treason, Gahennas?’ Chacole asked
her. ‘There won’t be any real danger to our husband. We’re just
going to make it appear that there’s a plot against him – and
we’re going to plant enough evidence to lay the plot at
Ceronna’s door. If something were to happen to Sarabian, the
crown Prince would be elevated to the imperial throne, and
Cieronna would be regent. We’ll expose her plot before anything
really happens, and she’ll be totally discredited – probably
imprisoned – and we won’t have to cow-tow to her any more.’
‘I don’t care what you say, Chacole,’ the jug-eared Tegan
Empress declared flatly. ‘You’re putting something in motion
that’s treasonous, and I won’t be a party to it. I’m going to keep
an eye on you, Chacole. Dismiss your spies and drop this wild
schieme at once, because if you don’t -‘ Gahennas left it hanging
ominously in the air as she turned on her heel and stalked away.
“that was very clumsy, Chacole,’ Elysoun drawled, carefully
selecting a piece of fruit from the silver platter on the table. ‘She
might have gone along if you hadn’t gone into such detail. She
didn’t ‘have to know that you were actually going to send out
your assassins. You weren’t really sure of her yet, and you went
too fast. ‘
‘i’m running out of time, Elysoun.’ Chacole’s tone was desperate.
“I don’t see the need for all this urgency,’ Elysoun replied,
‘and how much time did you save today? That Tegan hag’s going
to be watching your every move now. You blundered, Chacole.
Now you’re going to have to kill her.’
“what?” Chacole’s face went white.
Unless you don’t mind losing your head. One word from
Gahennas can send you to the block. You aren’t really cut out
for men’s politics, dear. You talk too much.’ Elysoun rose lazily
to her feet. ‘We can discuss this later,’ she said. ‘I have an
eNthusiastic young guardsman waiting for me, and I wouldn’t
want him to cool off.’ She sauntered away.
Ellisoune’s casual attitude concealed a great deal of urgency.
chacole’s Cynesgan upbringing had made her painfully
obvious. She had drawn on the hatred of Sarabian’s other