The Ruby Knight (11 page)

‘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 numb-looking. 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 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 that 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 fully 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 fringe of the forest from time to time to scout out the movements of the numb-faced men out in the open fields. ‘They seem to be ignoring these 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 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 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 terrific. 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 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.