The Ruby Knight

dismounted.
    ‘Sephrenia,’ Bevier said in a puzzled tone of voice, ‘if Bhelliom can destroy the Seeker with magic, couldn’t you use ordinary Styric magic to do the same thing?’
    ‘Bevier,’ she replied patiently, ‘if I could do that, don’t you think I’d have done it a long time ago?’
    ‘Oh,’ he said, sounding a bit abashed, ‘I didn’t think of that, I suppose.’
    The sun came up blearily that morning. The pervading fog from the lake and the heavy mist out of the forest to the north half-clouded the air at ground-level, although the sky above was clear. They set out watches and checked over saddles and equipment. After that, most of them dozed in the muggy heat, frequently changing watch. A man on short sleep in sultry weather is not always very alert.
    It was not long after noon when Talen woke Sparhawk. ‘Flute wants to talk to you,’ he said.
    ‘I thought she’d be asleep.’
    ‘I don’t think she ever really sleeps,’ the boy said. ‘You can’t get near her without her eyes popping open.’
    ‘Someday maybe we’ll ask her about that.’ Sparhawk threw off his blanket, rose to his feet and splashed some water from a nearby spring on his face. Then he went to where Flute cuddled comfortably next to Sephrenia.
    The little girl’s huge eyes opened immediately. ‘Where have you been?’ she asked.
    ‘It took me a moment to get fully awake.’
    ‘Stay alert, Sparhawk,’ she said. ‘The Seeker’s coming.’
    He swore and reached for his sword.
    ‘Oh, don’t do that,’ she said disgustedly. ‘It’s still a mile or so away.’
    ‘How did it get this far north so fast?’
    ‘It didn’t stop to pick up any people the way we thought it would. It’s alone, and it’s killing its horse. The poor beast is dying right now.’
    ‘And Ghwerig’s still a good distance away?’
    ‘Yes, Bhelliom’s still south of the city of Venne. I can get snatches of the Seeker’s thought.’ She shuddered. ‘It’s hideous, but it has much the same idea that we have. It’s trying to get far enough ahead of Ghwerig to set up an ambush for him. It can pick up local people to do its work for it up here. I think we’ll have to fight it.’
    ‘Without Bhelliom?’
    ‘I’m afraid so, Sparhawk. It doesn’t have any people to help it, and that might make it easier to deal with.’
    ‘Can we kill it with ordinary weapons?’
    ‘I don’t think so. There’s something that might work, though. I’ve never tried it, but my older sister told me how to do it.’
    ‘I didn’t think you had any family.’
    ‘Oh, Sparhawk,’ she laughed, ‘my family is far, far larger than you could possibly imagine. Get the others. The Seeker will be coming up that road in just a few minutes. Confront it, and I’ll bring Sephrenia. It will stop to think – which is to say that Azash will, since Azash is really its mind. But Azash is far too arrogant to avoid a chance to taunt Sephrenia, and that’s when I’ll strike at the Seeker.’
    ‘Are you going to kill it?’
    ‘Of course not. We don’t kill things, Sparhawk. We let nature do that. Now go. We don’t have much time.’
    ‘I don’t understand.’
    ‘You don’t have to. Just go and get the others.’
    They ranged out across the road at the fork, their lances set.
    ‘Does she really know what she’s talking about?’ Tynian asked dubiously.
    ‘I certainly hope so,’ Sparhawk murmured.
    And then they heard the laboured breathing of a horse very near to fatal exhaustion, the unsteady thudding of staggering hooves and the savage whistle and crack of a whip. The Seeker, black-robed and hunched in its saddle, came around the bend, flogging its dying horse unmercifully.
    ‘Stay, hound of hell,’ Bevier cried out in a ringing voice, ‘for here ends your reckless advance!’
    ‘We’re going to have to talk to that boy someday,’ Ulath muttered to Sparhawk.
    The Seeker, however, had reined in cautiously.
    Then Sephrenia, with Flute at her side, stepped out of the trees. The small Styric woman’s face was even paler than usual. Oddly enough, Sparhawk had never fully realized how tiny his teacher really was – scarcely taller than Flute herself. Her presence had always been so commanding that somehow in his mind she had seemed 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