It continued to rain gravel for several minutes, and the two
‘young men, battered and shaken, lay tensely clenched, endurIng
the cataclysmic results of Khalad’s experiment.
Gradually, the stinging rain subsided.
‘You idiot!’ Berit screamed. ‘You could have killed us both.’
‘I must have miscalculated just a little,’ Khalad conceded,
shaking the dirt out of his hair. ‘i’ll have to work on it a bit
before we try it again.’
‘Try it again? What are you talking about?’
‘It does work, Berit,’ Khalad said in his most reasonable tone
of voice.
‘All I have to do is fine-tune it a little bit. Every experiment’s
got a few rough places around the edges.’ He stood up,
thumping the side of his head with the heel of his hand to shake
the ringing out of his ears. ‘i’ll get it perfected, my lord,’ he
promised, helping Berit to his feet. ‘The next time won’t be
nearly so bad. Now, why don’t you ask Aphrael to take us back
to camp? We’re probably being watched, so let’s not arouse any
suspicions. ‘
ChApTER 28
‘We’re inside the city, Aphrael,’ Sparhawk announced silently
after he had cast the spell.
‘How did you manage that?’ She sounded surprised.
‘It’s a long story. Tell Khalad that I’ve marked the passageway
that leads into the valley. He’ll know what to look for.’
‘Have you found out where they’re keeping Mother yet?’
‘Speculatively. ‘
There was a long pause. ‘i’d better come there,’ she decided.
‘How will you find us?’
‘i’ll use you as a beacon. Just keep talking to me.’
‘I don’t think it’s a good idea. We’re right in Cyrgon’s lap
here. Won’t he be able to sense you?’
‘Xanetia’s there, isn’t she?’
‘Yes.’
‘Then Cyrgon won’t feel a thing. That’s why I sent her along.
She paused again. ‘Who came up with a way to get you inside
the city?’
‘It was Talen’s idea.’
‘You see? And you wanted to argue with me about taking him
with you. When will you learn to trust me, Father? Keep talking.
I’ve almost got you located. Tell me how Talen managed to get
you inside the walls of Cyrga.’
He described the subterfuge at some length.
‘All right,’ she said from just behind him. ‘That’s enough. I
get the general drift.’ He turned and saw her in Xanetia’s arms.
She looked around. ‘I see that the Cyrgai haven’t discovered fire
yet. It’s darker than the inside of an old boot here. Exactly where
are we?’
‘in the outer city, Divine One,’ Bevier said softly. ‘I suppose
you could call it the commercial district. The slave-pens are here
and various warehouses. It’s guarded by Cynesgans and they’re
not particularly alert.’
‘Good. Let’s get out of the street.’
Talen groped his way along one of the barn-like storehouses
until he found a door. ‘Over here,’ he whispered.
‘isn’t it locked?’ Kalten asked.
‘Not any more.’
They joined him and went inside.
‘Would you mind, dear?’ Aphrael asked Xanetia. ‘I can’t see
a thing in this place.’
Xanetia’s face began to glow, a soft light that faintly illumimated
the area around them.
‘What do they keep in here?’ Kalten asked, peering into the
dimness. ‘Food maybe?’ His tone was hopeful. ‘That slop they
fed us in the slave-pens wasn’t very filling.’
‘I don’t think it’s a food warehouse,’ Talen told him. ‘It doesn’t
smell quite right.’
‘You can go exploring some other time,’ Aphrael told him
crisply. ‘We have other things to do now.’
‘How are the others making out?’ SParhawk asked her.
‘Bergsten’s captured Cynestra,” she reported, ‘and he’s
coming south with the Church Knights. Ulath and Tynian took
the Trolls to Zhubay, and the Trolls ate about half of the Cymesgan
cavalry. Betuana and Engessa are marching southwest with
the Atans. Vanion and Sephrenia are out in the desert laying
down false hints that you’re with them. Kring and Tikume are
allowing themselves to be chased all over the desert west of
Sama by Cyrgai, Cynesgan cavalry, and klael’s overgrown soldiers although
I don’t think those brutes are going to be a
problem for much longer. Khalad’s devised a way to neutralize them.’
‘All by himself?’ Talen sounded surPrised.
‘klael outsmarted himself. He found caves where his soldiers
could breathe, and they were hiding in the caves and then
coming out to attack us. Khalad’s come up with a way to set
the caves on fire. The results are fairly noisy.’
‘That’s my brother for you,’ Talen said proudly.
‘Yes,’ the Child Goddess said critically. ‘He’s inventing
horrors at every turn. Stragen and Caalador have managed to
convince that Dacite in Beresa that we’ve got an invasion force
off the south coast and -‘ she stopped. ‘You know about all
this already, Sparhawk. Why am I wasting time describing it
to you?’
‘It’s all going according to plan, then?’ he asked her. ‘No setbacks?
No new surPrises?’
‘Not for us. Cyrgon’s not having such a good time, though.
The Delphae have almost completely dispersed Scarpa’s army,
so the danger to Matherion’s pretty much evaporated. I’ve
enlisted some of my family to lend a hand. They’re compressing
time and distance. As soon as Ehlana’s safe, I’ll pass the word,
and we’ll have whole armies knocking at the gates of Cyrga.’
‘Did you get word of Khalad’s invention to the others?’ Talen
asked her.
‘My cousin Setras is taking care of it for me. Setras is a little
vague sometimes, but I went over it with him several times. I
don’t think he’ll garble it too badly. Everything’s in place. The
others are simply waiting for word from us to start moving, so
let’s get down to business. Has anyone had a chance to look
around here at all?’
‘I have explored the outer city to some degree, Divine
Aphrael,’ Xanetia replied. ‘Anakha deemed it unwise for me to
share their captivity in the slave-pens.’
The Child Goddess handed Talen a large sheet of stiff, crackling
parchment and a pencil. ‘Here,’ she said to him,
“earn your keep.’
‘Where did you get these?’ he asked curiously.
‘I had them in one of my pockets.’
‘You don’t have any pockets, Flute.’
She gave him one of those long-suffering looks.
‘Oh,’ he said. ‘I keep forgetting that for some reason. All right,
Anarae, you describe the city, and I’ll draw it.’
The sketch that emerged was fairly detailed – as far as it went.
‘I was not able to penetrate the wall which doth encircle the inner
city,’ Xanetia apologized. ‘The gates are perpetually locked, for
the Cyrgai do hold themselves aloof from their Cynesgan hirelings
and from the slaves whose toil supports them.’
‘This should be enough to work with for now,’ Flute said,
pursing her lips as she examined Talen’s drawing. ‘All right,
bevier, you’re the expert on fortifications. Where’s the weak
spot?”
the Cyrinic studied the sketch for several minutes. ‘Did you
see any wells, Anarae?’ he asked.
‘Nay, Sir Knight.’
They’ve got a lake right outside the front gate, Bevi er,’ Kalten
reminded him.
That wouldn’t do much good if the city were under siege,’
Bevier replied. ‘There has to be some source of water inside the
walls – either a well or some kind of a cistern. A siege ends
rather quickly when the defenders run out of water.’
“siege?’ Mirtai asked. ‘Nobody’s supposed to be able to find it.’
“What makes you think that the place was built to hold off a
siege?”
the walls are a little too high and thick to be purely ornamental,
Atana. Cyrga’s a fortified city, and that means that it was
built to withstand a siege. The Cyrgai aren’t very bright, but
nobody’s stupid enough to build a fort without water inside.
That’s my best guess, Divine Aphrael. Find out how they’re
getting water – both here in the outer city and in the inner city
as well. There might be a weakness there. If not, we may have
to tunnel under the inner wall or try to scale it.’
‘Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that, Aphrael said. ‘We’re inside
the enemy city, and the longer we putter around, the more
chance there is of being discovered. If it’s in any way possible,
%” j-‘””‘) lonrudlgwXkatnrrttiuhteftrEtahteEcrhasnlma)ntoabeiannXelPAeoledbodAytlolsnrgii”ggXntt’gthltelolngs)eeXnt admnuoeuctihat rwslleeoetr)PdsE
t “go co for water. The rest of you stay here. We don’t want to
have to go looking for you when we come back.’
Are you mad, Gardas?’ Bergsten demanded of the massively
armored Alcione knight. The Thalesian Patriarch refused to look
at the pleasant-faced young man standing beside the knight.
“I’m not even supposed to admit that he exists, much less sit
down and talk with him.’
‘Aphrael said you might be tedious about this, Bergsten,’ the
man Sir Gardas had escorted into the Patriarch’s tent noted.
“would it help at all if I did something miraculous?’
Bergsten said. ‘Please don’t do that! I’m probably in
enough trouble already!’
“Dolmant had some problems when I visited him, too,’
Aphrael’s cousin observed. ‘You servants of the Elene God have