across the road there. Work your way up along the edge
of the slide and get behind them. Try not to let them
make any noise.'
The stubble-faced blond cut-throat grinned, signalled
to two of his companions and rode on ahead.
"I'd forgotten how much fun this is,' Tel said, ' - at
least in good weather. It's miserable in the winter,
though.'
They had ridden perhaps half a mile past the slide
when the three ruffians caught up with them.
'Any problems?' Tel asked.
'They were half-asleep,' one of the men chuckled.
They're all the way asleep now.'
'Good.' Tel looked around. 'We can gallop for a ways
now, Sparhawk. The roadsides are too open for
ambushes for the next few miles.'
They galloped on until almost noon, when they reached
the crest of the ridge where Tel signalled for a halt. The
next part might be tricky,' he told Sparhawk. The road
runs down a ravine, and there's no way for us to work our
way around it from this 'end. The place is one of Dorga's
favourites, so he's likely to have quite a few men there. I'd
say that the best thing for us to do is to go through it at a
dead run. An archer has a little trouble shooting downhill
at moving targets - at least I always did.'
'How far is it until we come out of the ravine?'
'About a mile.'
'And we'll be in plain sight all the way?"
'More or less, yes.'
'We don't have much choice, though, do we?'
'Not unless you want to wait until after dark, and that
would make the rest of the road to Heid twice as
dangerous. '
'All right,' Sparhawk decided. 'You know the country,
so you lead the way.' He unhooked his shield from his
saddle-horn and strapped it on his arm. 'Sephrenia, you
ride right beside me. I can cover you and Flute with the
shield. Lead on, Tel.'
Their plunging run down the ravine took the concealed
brigands by surprise. Sparhawk heard a few
startled shouts from the top of the ravine, and a single
arrow fell far behind them.
'Spread out!' Tel shouted. 'Don't ride all clustered
together!'
They plunged on. More arrows came whizzing down
into the ravine, dropping among them now. One arrow
shattered on the shield which Sparhawk was holding
protectively over Sephrenia and Flute. He heard a
muffled cry and glanced back. One of Tel's men was
swaying in his saddle, his eyes filled with pain. Then he
slumped over and fell to the ground.
'Keep going.' Tel ordered. 'We're almost clear now!'
The road ahead came out of the ravine, passed through
a stretch of trees and then curved along the side of a cliff
that dropped steeply down into a gorge.
A few more arrows arched down from the top of the
ravine, but they were falling far behind now.
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They galloped through the stretch of trees and on out
along the side of the cliff. 'Keep going.' Tel commanded
again. 'Let them think we're going to run all the way
through here.'
They galloped on along the face of the cliff. Then the
wide ledge upon which the road was built bent sharply
inward to the point where the cliff-face ended and the
road ran steeply down into the forest again. Tel reined in
his panting horse. 'This looks like a good place,' he said.
The road narrows a little way back there, so they'll only
be able to come at us a couple at a time.'
'You really think they'll try to follow us?' Kurik asked.
"I know Dorga. He may not know exactly who we are,
but he definitely doesn't want us to get to the authorities
in Heid. Dorga's very nervous about the notion of having
large groups of the sheriff's men sweeping through these
mountains. They have a very stout gallows in Heid.'
'is that forest down there safe?' Sparhawk asked,
pointing down the road.
Tel nodded. The brush is too thick to make ambushes
feasible. That ravine was the last stretch that's really
dangerous on this side of the mountains.'
'Sephrenia,' Sparhawk said, rride on down there.
Kurik, you go with her.'
Kurik's face showed that he was about to protest, but
he said nothing. He led Sephrenia and the children on
down the road towards the safety of the forest.
'They'll come fast,' Tel said. 'We went past them at a
dead run, and they'll be trying to catch up.' He looked at
the ruffian with the longbow. 'How fast can you shoot
that thing?' he asked.
"I can have three arrows in the air at the same time,' the
fellow shrugged.
,Try for four. It doesn't matter if you hit the horses.
They'll fall off the edge of the cliff and take their riders
with them. Get as many as you can, and then the rest of
us will charge. Does that sound all right, Sparhawk?'
"It's workable,' Sparhawk agreed. He shifted the shield
on his left arm and then drew his sword.
Then they heard the clatter of horses' hooves coming
fast along the rocky ledge on the other side of the sharp
curve. Tel's archer climbed down from his horse and
hung his quiver of arrows on a stunted tree at the
roadside where they would be close at hand. 'These are
going to cost you a quarter-crown apiece, Tel,' he said
calmly, drawing an arrow from the quiver and setting it
to his bowstring. 'Good arrows are expensive.'
'Take your bil to Stragen,' Tel suggested.
'Stragen pays very slowly. I'd rather collect from you
and let you argue with him.'
'All right.' Tel's tone was slightly sulky.
'Here they come,' one of the other cut-throats said
without any particular excitement.
The first two brigands to come around the curve
probably didn't even see them. Tel's laconic archer was at
least as good as he had claimed to be. The two men fell
from their saddles, one at the side of the road and the
other vanishing into the gorge. Their horses ran on a few
yards and then pulled up when they saw Tel's mounted
men blocking the road.
The archer missed one of the next pair that came
around the sharp curve. 'He ducked,' he said. 'Let's see
him try to get out of the way of this one.' He pulled his
bow and shot again, and his arrow took the fellow in the
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forehead. The man tumbled over backwards and lay in
the road kicking.
Then the brigands came around the curve in a cluster.
The archer loosed several arrows into their midst. 'You'd
better go now, Tel,' he said. 'They're coming on a little
too fast.'
'Let's ride!' Tel shouted, settling his Pike under his arm
in a manner curiously reminiscent of that used by
armoured knights. Tel's men had a peculiar assortment
of weapons, but they handled them in a professional
manne
r.
Because Faran was by far the strongest and fastest
horse they had, Sparhawk outdistanced the others in the
fifty-pace intervening stretch of road. He crashed into the
centre of the startled group of men, swinging his sword
to the right and left in broad overhand strokes. The men
he was attacking wore no mail to protect them, and so
Sparhawk's blade bit deep into them. A couple of them
feebly tried to hold rusty swords up to ward off his
ruthless blows, but Sparhawk was a trained swordsman
who could alter his point of aim even in mid-swing, and
the two fell howling into the road, clutching at the
stumps of missing right hands.
A red-bearded man had been riding at the pack of
ambushers. He turned to flee, but Tel plunged past
Sparhawk, his blond hair flying, his pike lowered, and
the two disappeared around the curve.
Tel's men followed along behind Sparhawk, cleaning
up with brutal efficiency.
Sparhawk trotted Faran around the curve. Tel, it
appeared, had picked the red-bearded man out of the
saddle with his pike, and the fellow lay writhing on the
road with the pike protruding from his back. Tel dismounted
and squatted beside the mortally wounded
man. "It didn't turn out so well, did it, Dorga?' he said in
an almost friendly tone. "I told you a long time ago that
waylaying travellers was a risky business.' Then he
pulled the pike out of his former chieftain's back and
calmly kicked him off the edge of the cliff. Dorga's
despairing shriek faded down into the gorge.
'Well,' Tel said to Sparhawk, "I guess that takes care
of all this. Let's go on down. It's still some distance to
Heid.
Tel's men were disposing of the bodies of the dead and
wounded ambushers by casually throwing them into the
gorge. "It's safe now,' Tel told them. "Some of you stay here
and round up those people's horses. We ought to be able
to get a good price for them. The rest of you, come with
us. Coming, Sparhawk?' and he led the way on down the
road.
The days seemed to drag on as they moved through
the unpopulated mountains of central Thalesia. At one
point, Sparhawk reined Faran back to ride beside
Sephrenia and Flute. To me it seems as if we've been out
here on this road for five days at least,' he said to the little
girl. 'How long has it really been?'
She smiled and raised two fingers.
'You're playing with time again, aren't you?' he
accused. 'Of course,' she said. 'You didn't buy me that kitten the
way you promised you would, so I have to play with
something.' He gave up at that point. Nothing in the world is more
immutable than the rising and setting of the sun, but
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Flute seemed able to alter those events at will. Sparhawk
had seen Beviers consternation when she had patiently
explained the inexplicable to him. He decided that he did
not wish to experience that himself.
It seemed to be several days later - though Sparhawk
would not have taken an oath to that effect - when at
sunset the flaxen-haired Tel pulled his horse in beside
Faran. That smoke down there is coming from the
chimneys at Heid,' he said. 'My men and I'll be turning
back here. I believe there's still a price on my head in
Heid. It's all a misunderstanding, of course, but explanations
are tiresome - particularly when you're standing on
a ladder with a noose around your neck.'
'Flute,' Sparhawk said back over his shoulder, 'has
Talen done what he came here to do?'
'Yes.'
"I rather thought so. Tel, would you do me a favour and
take the boy back to Stragen? We'll pick him up on our
way back. Tie him very tightly and loop a rope about his
ankles and under his horse's belly. Jump him from
behind and be careful, he's got a knife in his belt.'
'There's a reason, I suppose,' Tel said.
Sparhawk nodded. 'Where we're going is very
dangerous. The boy's father and I would rather not
expose him to that.'
'And the little girl?'
"She can take care of herself - probably better than any
of the rest of us.'
'You know something, Sparhawk,' Tel said sceptically,
'when I was a boy, I always wanted to become a Church
Knight. Now I'm glad I didn't. You people don't make
any sense at all.'
"It's probably all the praying,' Sparhawk told him. "It
tends to make a man a little vague.'
'Good luck, Sparhawk,' Tel said shortly. Then he and
two of his men roughly jerked Talen from his saddle,
disarmed him and tied him on the back of his horse. The
names Talen called Sparhawk as he and his captors rode
off to the south were wide-ranging and, for the most
part, very unflattering.
"she doesn't really understand all those words, does
she?' Sparhawk asked Sephrenia, looking meaningfully at Flute.
'Will you stop talking as if I weren't here?' the little girl
snapped. 'Yes, as a matter of fact, I do know what the
words mean, but Elene is such a puny language to swear
in. Styric is more satisfying, but if you really want to
curse, try Troll.'
"You speak Troll?' He was surPrised.
'Of course. Doesn't everyone? There's no point in
going into Heid. It's a depressing place - all mud and
rotting logs and mildewed thatching. Circle it to the
west, and we'll find the valley we want to follow.'
They by-passed Heid and moved up into steeper
mountains. Flute watched intently and finally pointed
one finger. 'There,' she said, 'we turn left here.'
They stopped at the entrance to the valley and peered
with some dismay at the track to which she had directed
them. It was a path more than a road, and it seemed to
wander quite a bit.
"It doesn't look too promising,' Sparhawk said
dubiously, 'and it doesn't look as if anybody's been on it
for years.'
'People don't use it,' Flute told him. "It's a game-trail sort
of. '
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'What kind of game?'
'Look there.' She pointed.
It was a boulder with one flat side into which an image
had been crudely chiselled. The image looked very old
and weathered, and it was hideous.
'What's that?' Sparhawk asked.
"It's a warning,' she replied calmly. That's a picture of
a Troll.'
'You're taking us into Troll country?' he asked in
alarm.
'Sparhawk, Ghwerig's a Troll. Where else did you
think he'd live?'
'isn't there any other way to get to his cave?'
'No, there isn't. I can frighten off any Trolls we happen
to run across, and the Ogres don't come out in the
daytime, so they shouldn't be any problem.'
'Ogres too?'
'Of course. They always live in the same count
ry with
Trolls. Everybody knows that.'
"I didn't.'
'Well now you do. We're wasting time, Sparhawk.'
'We'll have to go in single file,' the knight told Kurik
and Sephrenia. 'Stay as close behind me as you can. Let's
not get spread out.' He started up the trail at a trot, with
the spear of Aldreas in his hand.
The valley to which Flute had led them was narrow
and gloomy. The steep walls were covered with tall fir
trees so dark as to look nearly black, and the sides of the
valley were so high that the sun seldom shone into this
murky place. A mountain river rushed down the centre
of the narrow gap, roaring and foaming. This is worse
than the road to Ghasek,' Kurik shouted over the noise of
the river.
'Tell him to be still,' Flute told SParhawk. 'Trolls have
very sharp ears.'
Sparhawk turned in his saddle and laid a finger across
his lips. Kurik nodded.
There seemed to be an inordinate number of dead
white snags dotting the dark forest, rising steeply on
either side. Sparhawk leaned forward and put his lips
close to Flute's ear. 'What's killing the trees?' he asked.
'Ogres come out at night and gnaw on the bark,' she
said. 'Eventually the tree dies.'
"I thought Ogres were meat-eaters.'
'Ogres eat anything. Can't you go any faster?'
'Not through here I can't. This is a very bad trail. Does
it get any better on up ahead?'
'After we go up out of this valley, we'll come to a flat
place in the mountains.'
'A plateau?'
'Whatever you want to call it. There are a few hils, but
we can go around those. It's all covered with grass.'
"We'll be able to make better time there. Does the
plateau stretch all the way to Ghwerig's cave?'
'Not quite. After we cross that, we'll have to go up into
the rocks.'
'Who brought you all the way up here? You said you'd
been here before.'
"I came alone. Somebody who knew the way told me
how to get to the cave.'
'Why would you want to?'
"I had something to do there. Do we really have to talk
so much? I'm trying to listen for Trolls.'
'Sorry."
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'Hush, Sparhawk.' She put her finger to his lips.
It was a day later when they reached the plateau. As
Flute had told them, it was a vast, rolling grassland with
snow-covered peaks lining the horizon on all sides.
'How long is it going to take us to get across this?'
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