even taller than ulath. 'And is this the meeting thou hast
promised, Azash?"she demanded contemptuously. 'if
so, then I am ready.'
'Ssso, Sssephrenia,' the hateful voice said, 'we meet
again and all unexsspectedly. Thisss may be thy lassst
day of life.'
'Or thine, Azash,' she replied with calm courage.
'Thou canssst not dessstroy me.' The laugh was
hideous.
'Bhelliom can,' she told the thing, 'and we will deny
Bhelliom unto thee and turn it to our own ends. Flee,
Azash, if thou wouldst cling to thy life. Pull the rocks of
this world over thine head and cower in fear before the
wrath of the Younger Gods.'
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'isn't she pushing this a little?' Talen said in a strangled
voice.
'They're up to something,' Sparhawk murmured, '
"who?"
"Sephrenia and Flute. They're deliberately goading that
thing into doing something rash.'
'Not while I have breath!' Bevier declared fervently,
couching his lance.
'Hold your ground, Bevier!' Kurik barked. 'They know
what they're doing! God knows, none of the rest of us
do.'
'And art thou ssstill continuing thine unwholesssome
dalliencsse with these Elene children, Sssephrenia?' the
voice of Azash said. 'if thine appetite isss ssso vassst,
come thou unto me, and I ssshall give thee sssurfeit.'
'That is no longer within thy power, Azash, or hast
thou forgotten thy unmanning? Thou art an abomination
in the sight of all the Gods, and that is why they cast thee
out, emasculated thee and confined thee in thy place of
eternal torment and regret.'
The thing on the exhausted horse hissed in fury, and
Sephrenia nodded calmly to Flute. The little girl lifted her
pipes to her lips and began to play. Her melody was
rapid, a series of skittering, discordant notes, and the
Seeker seemed to shrink back. "It ssshall avail thee not,
Sssephrenia,' Azash declared in a shrill voice. 'There isss
yet time.'
Thinkest thou so, mighty Azash?' she said in a
taunting voice. 'Then thy endless centuries of confinement
have bereft thee of thy wits as well as thy
manhood.'
The Seeker's shriek was one of sheer rage.
'impotent godling,' Sephrenia continued her goading,
'return to foul Zemoch and gnaw upon thy soul in vain
regret for the delights now eternally denied thee.'
Azash howled, and Flute's song grew even faster.
Something was happening to the Seeker. Its body
seemed to be writhing under its black robe, and terrible,
inarticulate noises came out from under its hood. With an
awful jerking motion it clambered down from its dying
horse. It half staggered forward, its scorpion claws
extended.
Instinctively, the Church Knights moved to protect
Sephrenia and the little girl.
'Stay back!' Sephrenia snapped. "It cannot stop what is
happening now.'
The Seeker fell squirming to the road, tearing off the
black robe. Sparhawk suppressed a powerful urge to
retch. The Seeker had an elongated body divided in the
middle by a waist like that of a wasp, and it glistened with
a pus-like greyish slime. Its spindly limbs were jointed in
many places, and it did not have what one could really
call a face, but only two bulging eyes and a gaping maw
surrounded by a series of sharp-pointed, fang-like
appendages.
Azash shrieked something at Flute. Sparhawk recognized
the inflections as Styric, but - and he was forever
grateful for the fact - he recognized none of the words.
And then the Seeker began to split apart with an awful
riPPing sound. There was something inside it, something
that squirmed and wriggled, trying to break free.
The rip in the Seeker's body grew wider, and that which
was inside began to emerge. It was shiny black and wet.
Translucent wings hung from its shoulders. It had two
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huge protruding eyes, delicate antennae and no mouth.
It shuddered and struggled, pulling itself free of the
now-shrunken husk of the Seeker. Then, finally fully
emerging, it crouched in the dirt of the road, rapidly
fanning its insect wings to dry them. When the wings
were dry and flushed with something that might even
have been blood, they began to whir, moving so rapidly
now that they seemed to blur, and the creature that had
been so hideously born before their eyes rose into the air
and flew off towards the east.
'Stop it!' Bevier shouted. 'Don't let it get away."
"It's harmless now,' Flute told him calmly, lowering
her pipes.
'What did you do?' he asked in awe.
The spell simply speeded up its maturing,' she
replied. 'My sister was right when she taught me that
spell. It's an adult now, and all of its instincts are bent on
breeding. Not even Azash can override its desperate
search for a mate.'
'What was the purpose of that little exchange of
insults?' Kalten asked Sephrenia.
'Azash had to be so enraged that He would begin to
lose his control of the Seeker so that Flute's spell would
work,' she explained. That's why I threw certain unpleasant
realities in His face.'
'Wasn't that a little dangerous?'
'Very.' she admitted.
will the adult find a mate?' Tynian asked flute in an
awed voice. "I'd hate to see the world crawling with
seekers.'
"It will find no mate,' she told him. "It is the only one of
its kind on the surface of the earth. It no longer has a
mouth, so it can no longer feed. It will fly around in its
desperate search for a week or so.'
'And then?'
'And then? And then it will die.' She said it in a
chillingly indifferent voice.
*Chapter20
They dragged the husk of the Seeker off the road and
returned to the trees to await Ghwerig. 'Where is he
now?' Sparhawk asked Flute.
'Not far from the north end of the lake,' she replied.
'He's not moving right now. It's my guess that now that
the fog has burned off, the serfs have gone to the fields.
There are probably so many people about that he has to
hide.'
'That means that he's likely to come through here after
nightfall, doesn't it?'
"It's probable, yes.'
"I'm really not very exCited about meeting a Troll in the
dark.'
"I can make light, Sparhawk - enough for our purposes, anyway.'
"I'd appreciate it.' He frowned. 'if you could do that to
the Seeker, why didn't you do it before?'
There wasn't time. It always came on us by surprise. It
takes a while to prepare oneself for that particular spell.
Do you really have to talk so much, Sparhawk? I'm trying
to concentrate on Bhelliom.'
'Sorry. I'll go
and talk with Ulath. I want to find out
exactly how to go about attacking a Troll.'
He found the big Genidian Knight dozing under a tree.
'What's happening?' Ulath said, one of his blue eyes
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opening.
'Flute says that Ghwerig's probably hiding right now.
He's not moving, at any rate. He's likely to come past
here sometime tonight.'
Ulath nodded. 'Trolls like to move around in the dark,'
he said. 'It's their customary hunting time.'
'What's the best way to deal with him?'
'Lances might work - if we all charge him at the same
time. One of us might be able to get in a lucky thrust.'
'This is a little too serious to be trusting to luck.'
"It's worth a try - for a start, anyway. We'll probably
still have to fall back on swords and axes. We'll need to be
very careful, though. You have to watch out for a Troll's
arms. They're very long, and Trolls are much more agile
than they look.'
'You seem to know a great deal about them. Have you
ever fought one?'
'A few times, 'yes. It's not really the sort of thing you
want to make a habit of. Has Berit still got that bow of
his?'
'i think so, yes.'
'Good. That's usually the best way to start on a Troll slow
him down with a few arrows and then move in to
finish up.'
'Wil he have any weapons?'
'Maybe a club. Trolls don't really have the knack of
working in iron or steel.'
'How did you ever learn their language?'
'We had a pet Troll in our chapterhouse at Heid. Found
him when he was a cub, but Trolls are born knowing how
to speak their language. He was an affectionate little rascal
at least at first. Turned mean on us later on, though. I
learned the language from him while he was growing up.'
'You say he turned mean?'
"It wasn't really his fault, Sparhawk. When a Troll
grows up, he starts to get these urges, and we didn't have
time to hunt down a female for him. And then his
appetite started to get out of hand. He'd eat a couple of
cows or a horse every week.'
'What finally happened to him?'
'One of our brothers went out to feed him, and he
attacked. The brothers couldn't have that, so we decided
that we'd have to kill him. It took five of us, and most of
us had to take to our beds for a week or so afterwards.'
'Ulath,' Sparhawk said suspiciously, 'are you pulling
my leg?'
"would I do that? trolls aren't really too bad - as long
as you've got plenty of armed men around you. An arrow
in the belly usually makes them kind of cautious. It's the
Ogres you've got to watch out for. They don't have
enough brains to be cautious.' He scratched at his cheek.
"there was an Ogress once who developed an unreasoning
Passion for one of the brothers at Heid,' he said. "She
wasn't too bad-looking - for an Ogress. She kept her fur
fairly clean and her horns shiny. She even used to polish
her fangs. They chew granite to do that, you know.
Anyhow, as I was saying, she was wildly in love with this
knight at Heid. She used to lurk in the woods and sing to
him - most awful sound you ever heard. She could sing
all the needles off a pine tree at a hundred paces. The
knight finally couldn't stand it any more, and he entered
a monastery. She just pined away after that.'
'Ulath, I know you're pulling my leg now.'
'Why, Sparhawk,' Ulath protested mildly.
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Then the best way to get Ghwerig out of the way is to
stand back and shoot him full of arrows?'
'For a start. We'll still have to get in close though. Trolls
have very tough hide and thick fur. Arrows don't usually
penetrate very deep, and trying to do it in the dark is
going to make it very tricky.'
'flute says she can make enough light for us.'
"She's a very strange person, isn't she? - even for a
Styric?'
'That she is, my friend.'
'How old do you think she really is?'
"I have no idea. Sephrenia won't even give me a clue. I
do know that she's much, much older than she appears
to be, and much wiser than any of us can guess.'
'After the way she got that Seeker off our backs, I don't
think it would hurt us to do as she says for a while.'
"I'd agree to that,' Sparhawk said.
'Sparhawk,' the little girl called sharply, 'come here.'
"I just wish she wouldn't be so imperious all the time,'
Sparhawk muttered, turning around to answer the
summons.
'Ghwerig's doing something I don't understand,' she
said when he rejoined her.
'What's that?'
'He's moving out onto the lake.'
'He must have found a boat,' Sparhawk said. 'Ulath
tells us that he can't swim. Which way's he going?'
She closed her eyes in concentration. 'More or less to
the north-west. He'll miss the city of Venne and come out
on the west side of the lake. We're going to have to ride
on down there if we're going to intercept him.'
"I'll tell the others." Sparhawk said. 'How fast is he
moving?'
'Very slowly right now. I don't think he knows how to
row a boat very well.'
'That might give us a little time to get there before he
does. '
They broke their minimal encampment and rode south
on the Alaris road along the west sid
on the Alaris road along the west side of Lake Venne as
twilight settled over western Pelosia.
'Will you be able to pinpoint his approximate landing
place from the sense you're picking up from Bhelliom?'
Sparhawk asked Flute, who rode in Sephrenia's arms.
'To within a half-mile or so,' she replied. "It gets more
precise as he gets closer to shore. There are currents and
winds and that sort of thing, you understand.'
'is he still moving slowly?'
'Even more so. Ghwerig has certain difficulties with his
shoulders and hips. It makes rowing very difficult for him.'
'Can you make any kind of guess about when he'll
make it to shore here on the west side of the lake?'
'in his present condition, not until well after daybreak
tomorrow. At this point he's fishing. He needs food.'
'With his hands?'
Trolls are very, very fast with their hands. The lake surface
confuses him. Most of the time, he's not even
sure which way he's going. Trolls have a very poor sense
of direction - except for north. They can feel the pull of
the pole through the earth. On water, though, they're
almost helpless.'
'We've got him then.'
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'Don't plan the victory celebration until after you've
won the fight, Sparhawk,' she said tartly.
'You're a very disagreeable little girl, Flute. Do you
know
that?'
'But you do love me, don't you?' she said with
disarming ingenuousness.
'What can you do?' he asked Sephrenia, helplessly.
"She's impossible.'
'Answer her question, Sparhawk,' she suggested.
"It's more important than you realize.'
'Yes, God help me,' he said to Flute, "I do. There are
times when I want to spank you, but I do love you.'
'That's all that's important,' she sighed. Then she
snuggled up in Sephrenia's protective robe and went
promptly to sleep.
They patrolled a long stretch of the western shore of
Lake Venne, peering out into the darkness that had
settled over the lake. Gradually during the long night,
Flute narrowed the area of their patrol, bringing them
closer and closer together.
'How can you tell?' Kalten demanded of her a few
hours past midnight.'
'Would he understand?' Flute asked Sephrenia.
'Kalten? Probably not, but you can try to explain it, if
you'd like.' Sephrenia smiled. 'We all need a bit of
frustration in our lives from time to time.'
"It feels differently when Bhelliom's moving at a
diagonal than when it's coming at you head-on,' Flute
tried.
'Oh,' he said dubiously, 'that makes sense, I suppose.'
'See,' Flute said triumphantly to Sephrenia, "I knew
I could make him understand.'
'Only one question,' Kalten added. 'What's
diagonal?'
'Oh dear,' she said, pressing her face against
Sephrenia in a gesture of despair.
'Well, what is it?' Kalten appealed to his fellow
knights. 'Let's swing south a bit, Kalten, and keep an eye on the
lake,' Tynian said. 'I'll explain it to you as we go along.'
'You,' Sephrenia said to Ulath, who had a faint smile
on his face, 'not a word.'
"I didn't say anything.'
Sparhawk turned Faran and rode slowly back towards
the north, looking out at the dark waters.
The moon rose late that night, and it cast a long,
glittering path across the surface of the lake. Sparhawk
relaxed a bit then. Looking for a Troll in the dark had
been a very tense business. It seemed somehow almost
too easy now. All they had to do was wait for Ghwerig to
reach the lake-shore. After all the difficulties and setbacks
that had dogged them since they had set out in
search of bhelliom, the idea of just being able to sit and
wait for it to be delivered to them made Sparhawk a little
uneasy. He had an ominous suspicion that something
was going to go wrong. If all the things that had
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