They had gone perhaps another mile when they found Stragen sitting under a tree. ‘I thought perhaps you’d got lost,’ the slender thief drawled, rising to his feet.
‘Do I sense a volunteer here?’ Tynian suggested.
‘Hardly, old boy,’ Stragen said. ‘I’ve never had occasion to visit Zemoch, and I think I want to keep it that way. Actually, I’m here as the queen’s messenger, and her personal envoy. I’ll ride along with you as far as the Zemoch border, if I may, and then I’ll return to Cimmura to give her my report.’
‘Aren’t you spending a great deal of time away from your own business?’ Kurik asked him.
‘My business in Emsat sort of runs itself. Tel’s looking out for my interests there. I need a vacation anyway.’ He patted at his doublet in various places. ‘Oh yes, here it is.’ He drew out a folded sheet of parchment. ‘A letter for you from your bride, Sparhawk,’ he said, handing it over. ‘It’s the first of several I’m supposed to give you when the occasion dictates.’
Sparhawk moved Faran away from the others and broke the seal on Ehlana’s note.
‘Beloved,’ it read. ‘You’ve been gone for only a few hours, and I already miss you desperately. Stragen is carrying other messages for you – messages which I hope will inspire you when things aren’t going well. They will also convey to you my unbending love and faith in you. I love you, my Sparhawk. Ehlana.’
‘How did you get ahead of us?’ Kalten was asking when Sparhawk rejoined them.
‘You’re wearing armour, Sir Kalten,’ Stragen replied, ‘and I’m not. You’d be amazed at how fast a horse can run when he’s not burdened with all that excess iron.’
‘Well?’ Ulath asked Sparhawk, ‘do we send him back to Chyrellos?’
Sparhawk shook his head. ‘He’s acting under orders from the queen. There’s an implicit command to me involved in that as well. He comes along.’
‘Remind me never to become a royal champion,’ the Genidian Knight said. ‘It seems to involve all sorts of politics and complications.’
The weather turned cloudy as they rode northeastwards along the Kadach road, although it did not rain as it had the last time they had been there. The southeastern border country of Lamorkand was more Pelosian in character than it was Lamork, and there were few castles atop the surrounding hills. Because of its proximity to Chyrellos, however, the landscape was dotted with monasteries and cloisters, and the sound of bells echoed mournfully across the fields.
‘The clouds are moving in the wrong direction,’ Kurik said as they were saddling their horses on the second morning out from Chyrellos. ‘An east wind in mid-autumn is very bad news. I’m afraid we’re in for a hard winter, and that’s not going to be pleasant for the troops campaigning on the plains of central Lamorkand.’
They mounted and rode on towards the northeast. About mid-morning, Kring and Stragen rode forward to join Sparhawk at the head of the column. ‘Friend Stragen here has been telling me some things about that Tamul woman, Mirtai,’ Kring said. ‘Did you ever get the chance to talk to her about me?’
‘I sort of broke the ice on the subject,’ Sparhawk said.
‘I was afraid of that. Some of the things Stragen told me are giving me some second thoughts about the whole notion.’
‘Oh?’
‘Did you know that she has knives strapped to her knees and elbows?’
‘Yes.’
‘I understand that they stick out whenever she bends one of her arms or legs.’
‘I think that’s the idea, yes.’
‘Stragen tells me that once when she was young, three ruffians set upon her. She bent an elbow and slashed one across the throat, drove her knee into the second one’s crotch, knocked the third down with her fist and knifed him in the heart. I’m not entirely sure that I want a woman like that for a wife. What did she say? When you told her about me, I mean?’
‘She laughed, I’m afraid.’
‘Laughed?’ Kring sounded shocked.
‘I sort of gather that you’re not exactly to her taste.’
‘Laughed? At me?’
‘I think your decision’s wise, though, friend Kring,’ Sparhawk said. ‘I don’t think you two would get along very well.’
Kring’s eyes, however, were bulging. ‘Laughed at me, did she?’ he said indignantly. ‘Well, we’ll just see about that!’ And he whirled his horse and rode back to join his men.
‘That might have worked out if you hadn’t told him about the laughing,’ Stragen observed. ‘Now he’ll go out of his way to pursue her. I sort of like him, and I hate to think of what Mirtai’s likely to do to him if he gets too persistent.’
‘Maybe we can talk him out of it,’ Sparhawk said.
‘I wouldn’t really count on it.’
‘What are you actually doing here, Stragen?’ Sparhawk asked the blond man. ‘In the southern kingdoms, I mean?’
Stragen looked off towards a nearby monastery, his eyes distant. ‘Do you want the real truth, Sparhawk? Or would you like to give me a moment or two to fabricate a story for you?’
‘Why don’t we start out with the truth? If I don’t like that, then you can make something up.’
Stragen flashed him a quick grin. ‘All right,’ he agreed. ‘Up in Thalesia, I’m a counterfeit aristocrat. Down here, I’m the real thing – or very close to it. I associate with kings and queens, the nobility and the higher clergy on a more or less equal footing.’ He raised one hand. ‘I’m not deluding myself, my friend, so don’t become concerned about my sanity. I know what I am – a bastard thief – and I know that my proximity to the gentry down here is only temporary and that it’s based entirely on my usefulness. I’m tolerated, not really accepted. My ego, however, is sizeable.’
‘I noticed that,’ Sparhawk said with a gentle smile.
‘Be nice, Sparhawk. Anyway, I’ll accept this temporary and superficial equality – if only for the chance of some civilized conversation. Whores and thieves aren’t really very stimulating companions, you understand, and about all they can really offer in the way of conversation is shop talk. Have you ever heard a group of whores sitting around talking shop?’
‘I can’t say that I have.’
Stragen shuddered. ‘Absolutely awful. You learn things about men – and women – that you really don’t want to know.’
‘This won’t last. You know that, don’t you, Stragen? The time will come when things will return to normal, and people will start closing their doors to you again.’
‘You’re probably right, but it’s fun to pretend for a little while. And when it’s all over, I’ll have that much more reason to despise you stinking aristocrats.’ Stragen paused. ‘I do sort of like you though, Sparhawk – for the time being, at least.’
As they rode northeastwards, they began to encounter groups of armed men. The Lamorks were never very far from full mobilization anyway, and they were able to respond to their king’s call to arms quickly. In a melancholy repetition of the events of some five centuries earlier, men from all the kingdoms of western Eosia streamed towards a battlefield in Lamorkand. Sparhawk and Ulath passed the time conversing in Troll. Sparhawk was not certain when he might have occasion to talk to a Troll, but since he had learned the language, it seemed a shame to let it slip away. They reached Kadach at the end of a gloomy day when the sunset was staining the clouds to the west with an orange glow much like that of a distant forest fire. The wind from the east was stiff, and it carried with it the first faint chill of the oncoming winter. Kadach was a walled town, stiff and grey and rigidly unlovely. In what was to become a custom, Kring bade them goodnight and led his men on through the city and out of the east gate to set up camp in the fields beyond. The Peloi were uncomfortable when confined in cities with such urban frivolities as walls, rooms and roofs. Sparhawk and the rest of his friends found a comfortable inn near the centre of town, bathed, changed clothes and gathered in the common room for a supper of boiled ham and assorted vegetables. Sephrenia, as usual
, declined the ham.
‘I’ve never understood why people would want to boil a perfectly good ham,’ Sir Bevier noted with some distaste.
‘Lamorks over-salt their hams when they cure them,’ Kalten explained. ‘You have to boil a Lamork ham for quite a while before it’s edible. They’re a strange people. They try to make everything an act of courage – even eating.’
‘Shall we go for a walk, Sparhawk?’ Kurik suggested to his lord after they had eaten.
‘I think I’ve had just about enough exercise for one day.’
‘You did want to know which way Martel went, didn’t you?’
‘That’s true, isn’t it? All right, Kurik. Let’s go nose around a bit.’
When they reached the street, Sparhawk looked around. ‘This is likely to take us half the night,’ he said.
‘Hardly,’ Kurik disagreed. ‘We’ll go to the east gate first, and if we don’t find out anything there, we’ll try the north one.’
‘We just start asking people in the street?’
Kurik sighed. ‘Use your head, Sparhawk. When people are on a journey, they usually start out first thing in the morning – about the same time that other people are going to work. A lot of workmen drink their breakfasts and so the taverns are usually open. When a tavern keeper’s waiting for the first customer of the day, he watches the street fairly closely. Believe me, Sparhawk, if Martel left Kadach in the last three days, at least half a dozen tavern keepers saw him.’
‘You’re an extraordinarily clever fellow, Kurik.’
‘Somebody in this party has to be, My Lord. As a group, knights don’t spend a great deal of their time thinking.’
‘Your class prejudices are showing, Kurik.’
‘We all have these little flaws, I guess.’
The streets of Kadach were very nearly deserted, and the few citizens abroad hurried along with their cloaks whipping around their ankles in the stiff wind. The torches set in the walls at intersections flared and streamed as the wind tore at them, casting wavering shadows that danced on the cobblestones of the streets.
The keeper of the first tavern they tried appeared to be his own best customer, and he had absolutely no idea of what time of day he normally opened his doors for business – or even what time of day it was now. The second tavern keeper was an unfriendly sort who spoke only in grunts. The third, however, proved to be a garrulous old fellow with a great fondness for conversation. ‘Well, now,’ he said, scratching at his head. ‘Lessee iff’n I kin call it t’ mind. The last three days, y’ say?’
‘About that, yes,’ Kurik told him. ‘Our friend said he’d meet us here, but we got delayed, and it looks as if he went on without us.’
‘Kin ye describe him agin?’
‘Fairly large man. He might have been wearing armour, but I couldn’t swear to that. If his head was uncovered, you’d have noticed him. He’s got white hair.’
‘Can’t seem t’ recollect nobody like that. Might could be he went out one t’ other gates.’
‘That’s possible, I suppose, but we’re fairly sure he was going east. Maybe he left town before you opened for business.’
‘Now that’s hardly likely. I opens ‘at door there when the watch opens the gate. Some of the fellers as works here in town lives on farms out yonder, an’ I usually gets some fairly brisk trade of a mornin’. Would yer friend a-bin travellin’ alone?’
‘No,’ Kurik replied. ‘He had a Churchman with him, and a lady of aristocratic background. There’d also have been a slack-jawed young fellow who looks about as stupid as a stump, and a big, burly man with a face like a gorilla.’
‘Oh,’ at bunch. You shoulda tole me ‘bout ape-face right off. They rode thoo here ‘bout daylight yestiddy mornin’. ’At ’ere gorilla ye was talkin’ about, he clumb down off’n his horse an’ he come in here bellerin’ fer ale. He don’t talk none too good, does he?’
‘It usually takes him about half a day to think up an answer when somebody says hello to him.’
The tavern keeper cackled shrilly. ‘At’s him, all right. He don’t smell none too sweet neither, does he?’
Kurik grinned at him and spun a coin across the counter to him. ‘Oh, I don’t know,’ he said. ‘He isn’t too much worse than an open cesspool. Thank you for the information, my friend.’
‘Y’ think ye’ll be able t’ ketch up with ‘em?’
‘Oh, we’ll catch them all right,’ Kurik replied fervently, ‘sooner or later. Were there any others with them?’
‘No. Jist ‘em five. ‘Ceptin’ fer the gorilla, they all had ther cloaks pulled up ‘round ther heads. ‘At’s probably how come I couldn’t see the one with the white hair. They was movin’ along at a purty good clip, though, so’s iff’n ye wants t’ ketch ‘em, yer gonna have t’ push yer horses some.’
‘We can do that, my friend. Thanks again.’ And Kurik and Sparhawk went back out into the street. ‘Was that more or less what you needed to know, My Lord?’ Kurik asked.
‘That old fellow was a gold-mine, Kurik. We’ve gained a bit of time on Martel, we know that he doesn’t have any troops with him, and we know that he’s going towards Motera.’
‘We know something else too, Sparhawk.’
‘Oh? What’s that?’
‘Adus still needs a bath.’
Sparhawk laughed. ‘Adus always needs a bath. We’ll probably have to pour about a hogshead of water on him before we bury him. Otherwise, the ground might just spit him back out again. Let’s go on back to the inn.’
When Sparhawk and Kurik re-entered the low-beamed common room of the inn, however, they found that their party had expanded slightly. Talen sat all innocent-eyed at the table with a number of hard stares focused on him.
Chapter 21
‘I’m a royal messenger,’ the boy said quickly as Sparhawk and Kurik approached the table, ‘so don’t start reaching for your belts, either of you.’
‘You’re a royal what?’ Sparhawk asked him.
‘I’m carrying a message to you from the queen, Sparhawk.’
‘Let’s see the message.’
‘I committed it to memory. We really wouldn’t want messages like that falling into unfriendly hands, would we?’
‘All right. Let’s hear it then.’
‘It’s sort of private, Sparhawk.’
‘That’s all right. We’re among friends.’
‘I can’t see why you’re behaving this way. I’m just obeying the queen’s command, that’s all.’
‘The message, Talen.’
‘Well, she’s getting ready to leave for Cimmura.’
‘That’s nice.’ Sparhawk’s tone was flat.
‘And she’s very worried about you.’
‘I’m touched.’
‘She’s feeling well, though.’ The additions Talen was tacking on were growing more and more lame.
‘That’s good to know.’
‘She – um – she says that she loves you.’
‘And?’
‘Well – that’s all, really.’
‘It’s a strangely garbled message, Talen. I think maybe you’ve left something out. Why don’t you go over it again?’
‘Well – um – she was talking to Mirtai and Platime – and me, of course – and she said that she wished there was some way she could get word to you to let you know what she was doing and exactly how she felt.’
‘She said this to you?’
‘Well – I was in the room when she said it.’
‘Then we can’t really say that she ordered you to come here, can we?’
‘Well – not in so many words, I suppose, but aren’t we supposed to sort of anticipate her wishes? She is the queen, after all.’
‘May I?’ Sephrenia asked.
‘Of course,’ Sparhawk replied. ‘I’ve already found out what I want to know.’
‘Maybe,’ she said, ‘maybe not.’ She turned to the boy. ‘Talen?’
‘Yes, Sephrenia?’
‘That’s the
weakest, most clumsy and obviously false story I’ve ever heard from you. It doesn’t even make any sense, particularly in view of the fact that she’s already sent Stragen to do more or less the same thing. Is that really the best you could come up with?’
He even managed to look embarrassed. ‘It’s not a lie,’ he said. ‘The queen said exactly what I told you she did.’
‘I’m sure she did, but what was it that moved you to come galloping after us to repeat some idle comments?’
He looked a little confused.
‘Oh, dear,’ Sephrenia sighed. She began to scold Aphrael in Styric at some length.
‘I think I missed something there.’ Kalten sounded baffled.
‘I’ll explain in a moment, Kalten,’ Sephrenia said. ‘Talen, you have an enormous gift for spontaneous prevarication. What happened to it? Why didn’t you just cook up a lie that was at least a little bit plausible?’
He squirmed a bit. ‘It just wouldn’t have seemed right,’ he said sullenly.
‘You felt that you shouldn’t really he to your friends, is that it?’
‘Something like that, I guess.’
‘Praise God!’ Bevier said in stunned fervour.
‘Don’t be too quick to start offering up prayers of thanksgiving, Bevier,’ she told him. ‘Talen’s apparent conversion isn’t entirely what it seems to be. Aphrael’s involved in it, and she’s a terrible liar. Her convictions keep getting in the way.’
‘Flute?’ Kurik said. ‘Again? Why would she send Talen here to join us?’
‘Who knows?’ Sephrenia laughed. ‘Maybe she likes him. Maybe it’s part of her obsession with symmetry. Maybe it’s something else – something she wants him to do.’
‘Then it wasn’t really my fault, was it?’ Talen said quickly.
‘Probably not.’ She smiled at him.
‘That makes me feel better,’ he said. ‘I knew you wouldn’t like it if I came after you, and I almost choked on all that truth. You should have spanked her when you had the chance, Sparhawk.’
‘Do you have any idea at all of what they’re talking about?’ Stragen asked Tynian.