The Ruby Knight

said. ‘If I knew where he’d landed, I’d know which districts he might have passed through. Does Thalesian tradition provide any description of the king?’
    ‘Not in very much detail,’ Ulath replied, ‘only that he was about seven feet tall.’
    ‘That helps a bit. The common people probably wouldn’t have known his name, but a man of that size would have been remembered.’ He began to leaf through his manuscript. ‘Could he possibly have landed on the north coast of Deira?’ he asked.
    ‘It’s possible, but unlikely,’ Ulath said. ‘Relations between Deira and Thalesia were a bit strained in those days. Sarak probably wouldn’t have put himself in a position to have been captured.’
    ‘Let’s begin up around the port of Apalia then. The shortest route to the east side of Lake Randera would run south from there.’ He began to leaf through the pages in front of him. He frowned. ‘There doesn’t seem to be anything useful here,’ he said. ‘How large was the King’s party?’
    ‘Not very sizeable,’ Ulath rumbled. ‘Sarak left Emsat in a hurry, and he only took a few retainers with him.’
    ‘All of the accounts I picked up in Apalia mention large bodies of Thalesian troops. Of course it could be as you suggested, Sir Ulath. King Sarak might have landed on some lonely beach and by-passed Apalia entirely. Let’s try the port of Nadera before we start combing beaches and isolated fishing villages.’ He consulted a map and then turned to a place about half-way through the manuscript and began to skim through it. ‘I think we’ve got something!’ he exclaimed with a scholar’s enthusiasm. ‘A peasant up near Nadera told me about a Thalesian ship that slipped past the city during the night early in the campaign and sailed several leagues up the river before she landed. A number of warriors disembarked, and one of them stood head and shoulders above the rest. Was there anything unusual about Sarak’s crown?’
    ‘It had a large blue jewel on top of it,’ Ulath said, his face intent.
    ‘That was him, then,’ the count said exultantly. ‘The story makes particular mention of that jewel. They say that it was the size of a man’s fist.’
    Sparhawk let out an explosive breath. ‘At least Sarak’s ship didn’t sink at sea,’ he said with relief.
    The count took a length of string and stretched it diagonally across the map. Then he dipped his pen into his inkwell and made a number of notes. ‘All right, then,’ he said crisply. ‘Assuming King Sarak took the shortest course from Nadera to the battlefield, he’d have passed through the districts on this list. I’ve done research in all of them. We’re getting closer, Sir Knights. We’ll track down this king of yours yet.’ He began to leaf through rapidly. ‘No mention of him here,’ he muttered, half to himself, ‘but there weren’t any engagements in that district.’ He read on, his lips pursed. ‘Here!’ he said, his face breaking into a smile of triumph. ‘A group of Thalesians rode through a village twenty leagues to the north of Lake Venne. Their leader was a very large man wearing a crown. We’re narrowing it down.’
    Sparhawk found that he was actually holding his breath. He had been on many missions and quests in his life, but this searching out a trail through paper had a strange excitement to it. He began to understand how a man could devote his life to scholarship with absolute contentment.
    ‘And here it is!’ the count said excitedly. ‘We’ve found him.’
    ‘Where?’ Sparhawk demanded eagerly.
    ‘I’ll read you the entire passage,’ the count replied. ‘You understand, of course, that I’ve cast the account in more gentlemanly language than that of the man who told it to me.’ He smiled. ‘The language of peasants and serfs is colourful, but hardly suitable for a scholarly work.’ He squinted at the page. ’Oh, yes. Now I remember. This fellow was a serf. His master told me that the fellow liked to tell stories. I found him breaking up clods with a mattock in a field near the east side of Lake Venne. This is what he told me:
    ‘“It was early in the campaign, and the Zemochs under Otha had penetrated the eastern border of Lamorkand and were devastating the countryside as they marched. The western Elenian kings were rushing to meet them with all the forces they could muster, and large bodies of troops were crossing into Lamorkand from the west, but they were primarily farther south