an extended romp through the desert, why don’t we just let the
Trolls have klael’s soldiers for breakfast?’
Sir Anosian looked a little shaken as he rode forward to speak
with Kring and Tikume.
‘What’s the matter, friend Anosian?’ Tikume asked the blackarmored
Pandion. ‘You look as if you just saw a ghost.’
‘Worse, friend Tikume,’ Anosian replied. ‘I’vejust been reprimanded
by a God. Most men don’t survive that experience.’
‘Aphrael again?’ Kring guessed.
‘No, friend Kring. This time it was her cousin Hanka. He’s
very abrupt. The Genidian Knights rely on him for assistance
with their spells.’
‘He was unhappy with you?’ Tikume asked. ‘What did you
do this time?’
Anosian made a sour face. ‘Sometimes my spells are a little
sloppy,’ he admitted. ‘Aphrael’s generous enough to forgive
me. Her cousin isn’t.’ He shuddered. ‘Divine Hanka’s going to
hurry us along just a bit.’
‘Oh?’
“We have to be at the gates of Cyrga by morning.’
‘How far is it?’ Kring asked him.
‘I have no idea,’ Anosian admitted, ‘and under the circumStances,
I didn’t think it would be prudent to ask. Hanka wants
Us to ride west from here.’
Tikume frowned. ‘if we don’t know how far it is, how can we
be sure we’ll get there by morning?’
‘Oh, we’ll get there all right, friend Tikume,’ Anosian assured
him. ‘I think we’d better start moving, though. Divine Hanka’s
notoriously short-tempered. If we don’t start riding west very
soon, he might just decide to pick us up and throw us from here
to Cyrga. ‘
The Temple Guardsman assumed a warlike posture – a rather
stiff, formalized pose such as one occasionally sees on a frieze
carved by an indifferently talented sculptor. Kalten brushed the
man’s sword aside and slammed his fist against the side of his
helmet. The guardsman reeled away and fell heavily onto the
cobblestones. He was struggling to rise again when Kalten
kicked him solidly in the face.
“Quietly, Kalten!’ Sparhawk said in a hoarse whisper.
‘Sorry. I guess i got carried away.’ Kalten bent and peeled
back the fallen guardsman’s eyelid. ‘He’ll sleep till noon,’ he
said. He straightened and looked around. ‘is that all of them?’
‘That was the last,’ Bevier whispered. ‘Let’s get them out of
the middle of the street. The moon’s finally starting to come up
down in this basin, and it’ll soon be as bright as day here.’
It had been a short, ugly little fight. Sparhawk and his friends
had rushed out of a dark side-street and had fallen on the detachment
from the rear. Surprise had accounted for much of their
success, and what surprise had not accomplished had been more
than made up for by the ineptitude of the ceremonial troops.
Sparhawk concluded that the Cyrgai looked impressive, but that
their training over the centuries had become so formalized and
detached from reality that it had almost turned into a form of
dance instead of a preparation for real combat. Since the Cyrgai
could not cross the Styric curse-line, they had not been involved
in any real fights for ten thousand years, and so they were
hopelessly unprepared for all the nasty little tricks that crop up
from time to time in close, hand-to-hand fighting.
‘I still don’t see how we’re going to pull this off,’ Talen puffed
as he dragged an inert guardsman back into the shadows. ‘One
look will tell the gate-guards that we’re not Cyrgai.’
‘We’ve already discussed that while you were out scouting,
Sparhawk told him. ‘Xanetia and Aphrael are going to mix
spells again – the way the Anarae and Sephrenia did back in
Matherion. We’ll look enough like Cyrgai to get us through the
gate – particularly if the rest of the Cyrgai are as much afraid of
these Temple Guardsmen as Xanetia says they are.’
‘As long as the subject’s come up,’ Kalten said, ‘after we’ve
bluffed our way past those gate-guards, I want my own face
back. We stand a fair chance of getting killed tonight, and I’d
like to have my own name on my tombstone. Besides, even if
by some chance we succeed, I don’t want to startle Alcan by
coming at her with a stranger’s face. After what she’s been
through, she’s entitled to see the real me.’
‘I don’t have any problem with that,’ Sparhawk agreed.
CHAPTER 30
Captain Jodral returned just after dark, his loose robe flapping
and his eyes wide as he desperately flogged at his horse. ‘We’re
doomed, my General!’ he shrieked.
‘Get control of yourself Jodral!’ general Piras snaPPed. ‘What
did you see?’
‘There are millions of them, General!’ jodral was still on the
verge of hysteria.
‘jodral, you’ve never seen a million of anything. Now, what’s
out there?’
‘They’re coming across the Sama, General,’ Jodral replied,
trying his best to control his quavering voice. ‘The reports about
that fleet are true. I saw the ships.’
‘Where? We’re ten leagues from the coast.’
‘They’ve sailed up the River Sama, General Piras, and they’ve
lashed their ships together side by side to form bridges.’
‘Absurd. The Sarna’s five miles wide down here! Talk sense,
man!’
‘I know what I saw, General. The other scouts will be along
shortly to confirm it. Kaftal’s in flames. You can see the light of
the fire from here.’ Jodral turned and pointed south toward a
huge, flickering orange glow in the sky above the low coastal
hills standing between the Cynesgan forces and the sea.
General Piras swore. This was the third time this week that
his scouts had reported a crossing of the lower Sama or the
Verel River, and he had not thus far seen any sign of hostile
forces. Under normal circumstances, he’d have simply had his
scouts flogged or worse, but these were not normal circumstances.
% The enemy force that had been harrying the southern
was made up of the Knights of the Church of Chyrellos mers
to a man – who were quite capable of vanishing and
tb reappearing miles to his rear. Still muttering curses, he
mmmoned his adjutant. ‘Sallat!’ he snapped. ‘Wake up the
troops. Tell them to prepare themselves! If those accursed
knights are crossing the Sama here, we’ll have to engage
them before they can establish a foothold on this side of the
river.”
‘its just another ruse, my General,’ his adjutant said, looking
at Captain lodral with contempt. ‘Every time some idiot sees
%i.~’ ) Jiulaknh oxrwiil Shallyaet’mPyiTesadPiiiJedlet bthet KI nhiBgrtsogertesaPcoronsds tKihonsgee three fishermen in a boat, we get a report of a crossing.’
rivers.’ The General spread his hands helplessly. ‘What else can
I do?’ He swore again. ‘Sound the charge, Sallat. Maybe this
time we’ll find somebody real when we reach the river.’
Alcan was trembling violently when Zalasta returned the two
captives to the small but now scrupulously clean cell following
yet another of those hideous, silent interviews with the batwinged
klael, but Ehlana felt drained of all emotion. There was
a perverse seductiveness to the strangely gentle probing of that
intricate mind, and Ehlana always felt violated and befouled
when it was over.
That will be the last time, Ehlana,’ Zalasta told her apologetically.
‘If it’s any comfort to you, he’s still baffled by your husband.
He cannot understand how any creature with such power would
willingly subordinate himself to -‘ He hesitated.
To a mere woman, Zalasta?’ she suggested wearily.
‘No, Ehlana, that’s not it. Some of the worlds Klael dominates
are wholly ruled by females. Males are kept for breeding purposes
only. He simply cannot understand the relationship
between you and Sparhawk.’
“you might explain the meaning of love to him, Zalasta.’ She
paused. ‘But you don’t understand it yourself, do you?’
His face went cold. ‘Good night, your Majesty,’ he said in an
unemotional tone. Then he turned and left the cell, closing and
locking the door behind him.
Ehlana had her ear pressed to the door before the clanging
of its closing had subsided.
‘I do not fear them,’ she heard King Santheocles declare.
‘Then you’re a bigger fool than I thought,’ Zalasta told him
bluntly. ‘All of your allies have been systematically neutralized,
and your enemies have you surrounded.’
‘We are Cyrgai,’ Santheocles insisted. ‘No one can stand
against us.’
‘That may have been true ten thousand years ago when your
enemies dressed in furs and charged your lines with flint-tipped
spears. Now you face Church Knights armed with steel, you
face Atan warriors who can kill your soldiers with their fingertips,
you face Peloi who ride through your ranks like the wind,
you face Trolls, who not only kill your soldiers, but also eat
them. If that weren’t bad enough, you face Aphrael, who can
stop the sun or turn you to stone. Worst of all, you face Anakha
and Bhelliom, and that means that you face obliteration.’
‘Mighty Cyrgon will protect us.’ Santheocles’ voice was set in
a willful note of stubborn imbecility.
‘Why don’t you go talk with Otha of Zemoch, Santheocles?’