2 - The Ruby Knight
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Tynian shrugged. 'Who knows why Lamorks do
anything?'
~there's nothing we can do about them tonight,'
Sparhawk said. 'Let's go back.'
Sparhawk awoke just before dawn. When he went to
rouse the others, he found that Tynian, Berit and Talen
were missing. Tynian's absence was easily explained. He
was on watch at the edge of the woods. The novice and
the boy, however, had no business being out of their
beds. Sparhawk swore and went to wake Sephrenia.
"Berit and Talen have gone off somewhere,' he told her.
She looked around at the darkness pressing in on their
well-hidden camp. 'We'll have to wait until it gets light,'
she said. 'if they're not back by then, we'll have to go and
look for them. Stir up the fire, Sparhawk, and put my
tea-kettle near the flame.'
The sky to the east was growing lighter when Berit and
Talen returned to camp. They both looked excited, and
their eyes were very bright.
"just where have you two been?' Sparhawk demanded
angrily.
'Satisfying a curiosity,' Talen replied. 'We went to pay
a visit on our neighbours.'
'Can you translate that for me, Berit?'
'We crept across the fields to have a look at the people
around those campfires out there, Sir Sparhawk.'
'Without asking me first?'
'You were asleep,' Talen explained quickly. 'We didn't
want to wake you.'
'They're Styrics, Sir Sparhawk,' Berit said seriously, 'at
least some of them are. There's a fair scattering of Lamork
peasants among them, though. The men around the
other fire are all church soldiers.'
'Could you tell if the ones you saw were western
Styrics or Zemochs?'
'I can't tell one kind of Styric from another, but the ones
out there have swords and spears.' Berit frowned. This
might have been my imagination, but all the men out there
are sort of numblooking. Do you remember how blank the
faces of that group of ambushers back in Elenia were?'
'Yes.'
'The people out there look more or less the same, and
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they're not talking to each other or even sleeping, and
they haven't posted any sentries.'
'Well, Sephrenia?' Sparhawk said. 'Could the Seeker
have recovered more quickly than you thought it would?'
'No,' she replied, frowning. 'it could have set those
men in our path before it went on to Cimmura, however.
They'd follow any instructions it might have given them,
but they wouldn't be able to respond to any new
situations without its presence.'
'They'd recognize us though, wouldn't they?'
'Yes. The Seeker would have implanted that in their
minds.'
'And they'd attack us if they saw us?
'inevitably. '
'Then I think we'd better move on,' he said. 'Those
people out there are just a little too close to make me feel
entirely comfortable. I don't like riding through strange
country before it's full~ light, but under the circumstances - '
Then he turned sternly to Berit. 'I appreciate
the information you've brought us, Berit, but you
shouldn't have gone off without telling me first, and you
most definitely should not have taken Talen along. You
and I are paid to take certain risks, but you have
absolutely no right to endanger him.'
'He didn't know I was tagging along behind him,
Sparhawk,'Talen said glibly. 'I saw him get up, and I was
curious about what he was doing, so I sneaked after him.
He didn't even know I was there until we were almost to
those campfires.'
That's not precisely true, Sir Sparhawk,' Berit disagreed
with a pained look. 'Talen woke me and suggested
that the two of us should go and have a look at those
men out there. It seemed like a very good idea at the time.
I'm sorry. I didn't even think of the fact that I was putting
him in danger.'
Talen looked at the novice with some disgust. 'Now
why did you do that?' he asked. 'I was telling him a
perfectly good lie. I could have kept you out of trouble.'
'I've taken an oath to tell the truth, Talen.'
'Well, I haven't. All you had to do was keep your
mouth shut. Sparhawk won't hit me because I'm too
little. He might decide to thrash you, though.'
'I love these little arguments about comparative
morality before breakfast,' Kalten said. 'Speaking of
which - ' He looked meaningfully towards the fire.
'It's your turn,' Ulath told him.
'What!'
"it's your turn to do the cooking.
'It surely can't be my turn again already.'
Ulath nodded. 'I've been keeping track.'
Kalten put on a pious expression. 'Sparhawk's probably
right, though. We really should move on. We can
have something to eat later.'
They broke camp quietly and saddled their horses.
Tynian came back from the edge of the woods where he
had been keeping watch. They're breaking up into small
parties,' he reported. 'I think they're going to scour the
countryside. '
'We'll want to keep to the woods then,' Sparhawk said.
'Let's ride.'
They moved cautiously, staying well back from the edge
of the trees. Tynian rode out to the edge of the forest from
time to time to scout out the movements of the num~faced
men out in the open fields. They seem to be ignoring these
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woods entirely,' he said after one such foray.
They're unable to think independently,' Sephrenia
explained.
'No matter,' Kalten said. they're between us and the
lake. As long as they're patrolling those fields out there,
we can't get through. We're going to run out of woods
eventually, and then we'll be at a standstill.'
"Just exactly which ones are patrolling this section?'
Sparhawk asked Tynian.
'Church soldiers. They're riding in groups.'
'How many in each group?'
'About a dozen.'
'Are the groups staying in sight of each other?'
'They're spreading out more and more.'
'Good.' Sparhawk's face was bleak. 'Go keep an eye on
them and let me know when they're far enough apart so
they can't see each other.'
'All right.'
Sparhawk dismounted and tied Faran's reins to a
sapling.
'What have you got in your mind, Sparhawk?'
Sephrenia asked suspiciously as Berit helped her and
Flute down from her white palfrey.
'We know that the Seeker was probably sent by Otha which
means Azash.'
'Yes.'
'Azash knows that Bhelliom's about to emerge again,
right?'
'Yes.'
'The Seeker's primary task is to kill us, but if it fails to
do that, wouldn't it settle for keeping us away from Lake
Randera?'
'Elene logic again,' she said disgustedly. 'You're
transparent,
Sparhawk. I can see where you're leading with
this.'
'Even though their minds are blank, the church
soldiers would still be able to pass information to each
other, wouldn't they?'
'Yes.' She said it grudgingly.
'Then we don't have any choice in the matter. If any of
them see us, we'll have them all right behind us within an
hour.'
'I don't quite follow,' Talen said, looking puzzled.
'He's going to kill all the men in one of those patrols,'
Sephrenia said.
'To the last man,' Sparhawk said grimly, 'and just as
soon as the others are all out of sight.'
'They can't even run away, you know.'
'Good. Then I won't have to chase them.'
'You're plotting deliberate murder, Sparhawk.
'That's not precisely accurate, Sephrenia. They'll
attack as soon as they see us. What we'll be doing is
defending ourselves.'
"Sophistry,' she snapped and stalked away muttering
to herself.
'I didn't think she even knew what that word means,'
Kalten said.
'Do you know how to use a lance?' Sparhawk asked
Ulath.
'I've been trained with it,' the Thalesian replied. 'I
much prefer my axe, though.'
'With a lance you don't have to get in quite so close.
Let's not take too many chances. We should be able to
put a fair number of them down with our lances, and
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then we can finish up with our swords and axes.'
'There are only five of us, you know,' Kalten said, ' counting
Berit.'
'So?'
'I just thought I'd mention it.'
Sephrenia came back, her face pale. 'Then you're
absolutely set on this?' she demanded of Sparhawk.
'We have to get to the lake. Can you think of any
alternatives?'
'No, as a matter of fact, I can't.' Her tone was sarcastic.
"your impeccable Elene logic has completely disarmed me.
'I've been meaning to ask you something, little
mother,' Kalten said, obviously trying to head off an
argument by changing the subject. 'Exactly what does
this Seeker thing look like? It seems to go to a great deal of
trouble to keep itself hidden.'
'it's hideous,' she shuddered. 'I've never seen one, but
the Styric magician who taught me how to counter it
described it to me. Its body is segmented, very pale and
very thin. At this stage, its outer skin has not yet
completely hardened, and it oozes out a kind of ichor
from between its segments to protect the skin from
contact with the air. It has crab-like claws, and its face is
horrible beyond belief.'
'ichor? What's that?
'Slime,' she replied shortly. 'it's in its larval stage - sort
of like a caterpillar or a worm, although not quite. When
it reaches adulthood, its body hardens and darkens and
its wings emerge. Not even Azash can control an adult.
All they're concerned with at that stage is reproducing.
Set a pair of adults loose, and they'd turn the entire world
into a hive and feed every living creature on earth to their
young. Azash keeps a pair for breeding purposes in a
place from which they can't escape. When one of the
larvae he uses as Seekers approaches adulthood, he has it
killed.'
"working for Azash has its risks, doesn't it? But I've
never seen any kind of insect that looks like that.'
'Normal rules don't apply to the creatures who serve
Azash.' She looked at Sparhawk, her expression
agonized. 'Do we really have to do this?' she asked him.
'I'm afraid we do,' he replied. 'There's no other way.'
They sat on the damp forest loam, waiting for Tynian
to return. Kalten went to one of the pack saddles and cut
large slabs from a cheese and a loaf of bread with his
dagger. 'This takes care of my turn at cooking, right?' he
Said tO ulath.
'I'll think about that,' ulath grunted.
The sky overhead was still cloudy, and birds drowsed
among the dark green cedar boughs that filled the wood
with their fragrance. Once, a deer approached them,
stepping delicately along a forest trail. One of the horses
snorted, and the deer bounded away, his white tail
flashing and his velvet-covered antlers flaring above his
head. It was peaceful here, but Sparhawk pushed that
peace from his mind, steeling himself for the task ahead.
Tynian returned. 'There's one group of soldiers
stationed a few hundred yards north of us,' he reported
quietly. 'All the others are out of sight.'
"Good,' Sparhawk said, rising to his feet. 'We might as
well get started. Sephrenia, you stay here with Talen and
Flute.'
'What's the plan?' Tynian asked.
'No plan,' Sparhawk replied. 'We're just going to ride
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out there and eliminate that patrol. Then we'll ride on to
Lake Randera.'
'it has a certain direct charm,' Tynian agreed.
'remember, all of you,' Sparhawk went on, 'they
won't react to wounds the way normal people would.
Make sure of them so they won't come at you from
behind when you move on to the next one. Let's go.'
The fight was short and brutal. As soon as Sparhawk
and the others burst from the wood in a thundering
charge, the blank-faced church soldiers drove their
horses across the grassy field towards them, their swords
aloft. When the two parties were perhaps fifty paces
apart, SparhaWk, Kalten, Tynian and Ulath lowered their
lances and set themselves. The shock of the impact was
terific. The soldier Sparhawk struck was picked out of
his saddle by the lance that drove through his chest and
emerged from his back. Sparhawk reined Faran in
sharply to avoid breaking his lance. He pulled it free of
the body and then charged on. His lance broke off in the
body of another soldier. He discarded it and drew his
sword. He lopped an arm off a third soldier ,then drove
the point of his sword through the man's throat. Ulath
had broken his lance on the first soldier he attacked but
then had driven the broken end into the body of another.
Then the big Genidian had reverted to his axe. He
smoothly brained yet another soldier. Tynian had driven
his lance through another soldier's belly and had
finished him with his sword and moved on to another.
Kalten's lance had shattered against a soldier's shield,
and he was being hard-pressed by two others until Berit
rode in and chopped the top off one of their heads with
his axe. Kalten finished the other with a broad stroke.
The remaining soldiers were milling around in confusion,
their venom-numbed minds unable to react quickly
enough to the assault by the Knights of the Church.
Sparhawk and his companions crushed them together in
a tangle and methodically butchered them.
Kalten swung down from his saddle and walked among
the fallen soldiers lying in huddled heaps on the bloody
grass. Sparhawk turned his head away as his friend
systematically ran his sword into each body. just wanted
to be sure,' Kalten said, sheathing his sword and remounting.
'none of them are going to do any talking now.'
'Berit,' Sparhawk said, 'go and get Sephrenia and the
children. We'll keep watch here. Oh, one other thing.
You'd better cut us some new lances as well. The ones we
had seem to be all used up.'
"yes, Sir Sparhawk,' the novice said and rode back
towards the woods.
Sparhawk looked around and saw a brush-choked
draw not far away. 'Let's hide these,' he said, looking at
the bodies. 'We don't want to make it obvious that we've
come this way.'
'Did their horses all run off?' Kalten asked, looking
around.
'Yes,' ulath replied. 'Horses do that when there's
fighting.'
They dragged the mutilated corpses to the draw and
dumped them into the brush. By the time they had
finished, Berit was returning with Sephrenia, Talen and
Flute. He carried the new lances across his saddle.
Sephrenia kept her eyes averted from the blood-stained
grass where the fight had taken place.
It took but a few minutes to affix the steel points to the
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lances, and then they all remounted.
"Now I'm really hungry,' Kalten said as they set out at a
gallop. 'How can you?' Sephrenia demanded in a tone of
revulsion.
'What did I say?' Kalten asked Sparhawk.
'Never mind."
The next several days passed without incident,
although Sparhawk and the others kept wary eyes to the
rear as they galloped on. They took shelter each night in
places of concealment and built small, well-shielded
fires. And then the cloudy skies finally fulfilled their
promise. A steady drizzle began to fall as they pushed on
towards the north-east.
'Wonderful,' Kalten said sardonically, looking up at
the soggy sky.
"just pray that it rains harder,' Sephrenia told him.
'The Seeker should be moving about again by now, but it
won't be able to follow our scent if it's been washed out
by rain.'
'I suppose I hadn't thought of that,' he 'admitted.
Sparhawk periodically dismounted to cut a stick from a
particular kind of low-lying bush and to lay it carefully on
the ground pointing in the direction they were going.