The Ruby Knight

cautious.’ He scratched at his cheek. ‘There was an Ogress once who developed an unreasoning passion for one of the brothers at Heid,’ he said. ‘She wasn’t too bad-looking – for an Ogress. She kept her fur fairly clean and her horns shiny. She even used to polish her fangs. They chew granite to do that, you know. Anyhow, as I was saying, she was wildly in love with this knight at Heid. She used to lurk in the woods and sing to him – most awful sound you ever heard. She could sing all the needles off a pine tree at a hundred paces. The knight finally couldn’t stand it any more, and he entered a monastery. She just pined away after that.’
    ‘Ulath, I know you’re pulling my leg now.’
    ‘Why, Sparhawk,’ Ulath protested mildly.
    ‘Then the best way to get Ghwerig out of the way is to stand back and shoot him full of arrows?’
    ‘For a start. We’ll still have to get in close though. Trolls have very tough hide and thick fur. Arrows don’t usually penetrate very deep, and trying to do it in the dark is going to make it very tricky.’
    ‘Flute says she can make enough light for us.’
    ‘She’s a very strange person, isn’t she? – even for a Styric?’
    ‘That she is, my friend.’
    ‘How old do you think she really is?’
    ‘I have no idea. Sephrenia won’t even give me a clue. I do know that she’s much, much older than she appears to be, and much wiser than any of us can guess.’
    ‘After the way she got that Seeker off our backs, I don’t think it would hurt us to do as she says for a while.’
    ‘I’d agree to that,’ Sparhawk said.
    ‘Sparhawk,’ the little girl called sharply, ‘come here.’
    ‘I just wish she wouldn’t be so imperious all the time,’ Sparhawk muttered, turning around to answer the summons.
    ‘Ghwerig’s doing something I don’t understand,’ she said when he rejoined her.
    ‘What’s that?’
    ‘He’s moving out onto the lake.’
    ‘He must have found a boat,’ Sparhawk said. ‘Ulath tells us that he can’t swim. Which way’s he going?’
    She closed her eyes in concentration. ‘More or less to the north-west. He’ll miss the city of Venne and come out on the west side of the lake. We’re going to have to ride on down there if we’re going to intercept him.’
    ‘I’ll tell the others,’ Sparhawk said. ‘How fast is he moving?’
    ‘Very slowly right now. I don’t think he knows how to row a boat very well.’
    ‘That might give us a little time to get there before he does.’
    They broke their minimal encampment and rode south on the Alaris road along the west side of Lake Venne as twilight settled over western Pelosia.
    ‘Will you be able to pinpoint his approximate landing place from the sense you’re picking up from Bhelliom?’ Sparhawk asked Flute, who rode in Sephrenia’s arms.
    ‘To within a half-mile or so,’ she replied. ‘It gets more precise as he gets closer to shore. There are currents and winds and that sort of thing, you understand.’
    ‘Is he still moving slowly?’
    ‘Even more so. Ghwerig has certain difficulties with his shoulders and hips. It makes rowing very difficult for him.’
    ‘Can you make any kind of guess about when he’ll make it to shore here on the west side of the lake?’
    ‘In his present condition, not until well after daybreak tomorrow. At this point he’s fishing. He needs food.’
    ‘With his hands?’
    ‘Trolls are very, very fast with their hands. The lake-surface confuses him. Most of the time, he’s not even sure which way he’s going. Trolls have a very poor sense of direction – except for north. They can feel the pull of the pole through the earth. On water, though, they’re almost helpless.’
    ‘We’ve got him then.’
    ‘Don’t plan the victory celebration until after you’ve won the fight, Sparhawk,’ she said tartly.
    ‘You’re a very disagreeable little girl, Flute. Do you know that?’
    ‘But you do love me, don’t you?’ she said with disarming ingenuousness.
    ‘What can you do?’ he asked Sephrenia, helplessly. ‘She’s impossible.’
    ‘Answer her question, Sparhawk,’ his tutor suggested. ‘It’s more important than you realize.’
    ‘Yes, God help me,’ he said to Flute, ‘I do. There are times when I want to spank you, but I do love you.’
    ‘That’s all that’s important,’ she sighed. Then she snuggled up in Sephrenia’s protective robe and went promptly to sleep.
    They patrolled a long stretch of the western