The Ruby Knight

mate.’
    ‘What was the purpose of that little exchange of insults?’ Kalten asked Sephrenia.
    ‘Azash had to be so enraged that He would begin to lose his control of the Seeker so that Flute’s spell would work,’ she explained. ‘That’s why I threw certain unpleasant realities in His face.’
    ‘Wasn’t that a little dangerous?’
    ‘Very.’ she admitted.
    ‘Will the adult find a mate?’ Tynian asked Flute in an awed voice. ‘I’d hate to see the world crawling with seekers.’
    ‘It will find no mate,’ she told him. ‘It is the only one of its kind on the surface of the earth. It no longer has a mouth, so it can no longer feed. It will fly around in its desperate search for a week or so.’
    ‘And then?’
    ‘And then? And then it will die.’ She said it in a chillingly indifferent voice.

Chapter 20

    They dragged the husk of the Seeker off the road and returned to the trees to await Ghwerig. ‘Where is he now?’ Sparhawk asked Flute.
    ‘Not far from the north end of the lake,’ she replied. ‘He’s not moving right now. It’s my guess that now that the fog has burned off, the serfs have gone to the fields. There are probably so many people about that he has to hide.’
    ‘That means that he’s likely to come through here after nightfall, doesn’t it?’
    ‘It’s probable, yes.’
    ‘I’m really not very excited about meeting a Troll in the dark.’
    ‘I can make light, Sparhawk – enough for our purposes, anyway.’
    ‘I’d appreciate it.’ He frowned. ‘If you could do that to the Seeker, why didn’t you do it before?’
    ‘There wasn’t time. It always came on us by surprise. It takes a while to prepare oneself for that particular spell. Do you really have to talk so much, Sparhawk? I’m trying to concentrate on Bhelliom.’
    ‘Sorry. I’ll go and talk with Ulath. I want to find out exactly how to go about attacking a Troll.’
    He found the big Genidian Knight dozing under a tree. ‘What’s happening?’ Ulath said, one of his blue eyes opening.
    ‘Flute says that Ghwerig’s probably hiding right now. He’s not moving, at any rate. He’s likely to come past here sometime tonight.’
    Ulath nodded. ‘Trolls like to move around in the dark,’ he said. ‘It’s their customary hunting time.’
    ‘What’s the best way to deal with him?’
    ‘Lances might work – if we all charge him at the same time. One of us might be able to get in a lucky thrust.’
    ‘This is a little too serious to be trusting to luck.’
    ‘It’s worth a try – for a start, anyway. We’ll probably still have to fall back on swords and axes. We’ll need to be very careful, though. You have to watch out for a Troll’s arms. They’re very long, and Trolls are much more agile than they look.’
    ‘You seem to know a great deal about them. Have you ever fought one?’
    ‘A few times, yes. It’s not really the sort of thing you want to make a habit of. Has Berit still got that bow of his?’
    ‘I think so, yes.’
    ‘Good. That’s usually the best way to start on a Troll – slow him down with a few arrows and then move in to finish up.’
    ‘Will he have any weapons?’
    ‘Maybe a club. Trolls don’t really have the knack of working in iron or steel.’
    ‘How did you ever learn their language?’
    ‘We had a pet Troll in our chapterhouse at Heid. Found him when he was a cub, but Trolls are born knowing how to speak their language. He was an affectionate little rascal – at least at first. Turned mean on us later on, though. I learned the language from him while he was growing up.’
    ‘You say he turned mean?’
    ‘It wasn’t really his fault, Sparhawk. When a Troll grows up, he starts to get these urges, and we didn’t have time to hunt down a female for him. And then his appetite started to get out of hand. He’d eat a couple of cows or a horse every week.’
    ‘What finally happened to him?’
    ‘One of our brothers went out to feed him, and he attacked. The brothers couldn’t have that, so we decided that we’d have to kill him. It took five of us, and most of us had to take to our beds for a week or so afterwards.’
    ‘Ulath,’ Sparhawk said suspiciously, ‘are you pulling my leg?’
    ‘Would I do that? Trolls aren’t really too bad – as long as you’ve got plenty of armed men around you. An arrow in the belly usually makes them kind of cautious. It’s the Ogres you’ve got to watch out for. They don’t have enough brains to be