The Ruby Knight

the young novice.
    ‘It’s nothing, My Lord,’ Berit said bravely, although his face was pale.
    ‘Is that the very first thing they teach you Pandions?’ Sephrenia asked acidly, ‘- to make light of your injuries? Berit’s mail-shirt stopped most of the blow, but in about an hour his arm’s going to be purple from elbow to shoulder. He’ll barely be able to use it.’
    ‘You’re in a cheerful humour this afternoon, little mother,’ Kalten said to her.
    She pointed a threatening finger at him. ‘Kalten,’ she said, ‘sit. I’ll deal with you after I’ve tended Berit’s arm.’
    Kalten sighed and slumped down onto the ground.
    Sparhawk looked around. ‘Where are Ulath, Tynian and Kurik?’ he asked.
    ‘They’re scouting around to make sure there aren’t any more ambushes laid for us, Sir Sparhawk,’ Berit replied.
    ‘Good idea.’
    ‘That creature didn’t look so very dangerous to me,’ Bevier said, ‘- a little mysterious perhaps, but not all that dangerous.’
    ‘It didn’t hit you ,’ Kalten told him. ‘It’s dangerous, all right. Take my word for it.’
    ‘It’s more dangerous than you could possibly imagine,’ Sephrenia said. ‘It can send whole armies after us.’
    ‘If it’s got the kind of power that knocked me off my horse, it doesn’t need armies.’
    ‘You keep forgetting, Kalten. Its mind is the mind of Azash. The Gods prefer to have humans do their work for them.’
    ‘The men who came down that hill were like sleepwalkers,’ Bevier said, shuddering. ‘We cut them to pieces, and they didn’t make a sound.’ He paused, frowning. ‘I didn’t think Styrics were so aggressive,’ he added. ‘I’ve never seen one with a sword in his hand before.’
    ‘Those weren’t western Styrics,’ Sephrenia said, tying off the padded bandage around Berit’s upper arm. ‘Try not to use that too much,’ she instructed. ‘Give it time to heal.’
    ‘Yes, ma’am,’ Berit replied. ‘Now that you mention it, though, it is getting a little sore.’
    She smiled and put an affectionate hand on his shoulder. ‘This one may be all right, Sparhawk. His head isn’t quite solid bone – like some I could name.’ She glanced meaningfully at Kalten.
    ‘Sephrenia,’ the blond knight protested.
    ‘Get out of the mail-shirt,’ she told him crisply. ‘I want to see if you’ve broken anything.’
    ‘You said the Styrics in that group weren’t western Styrics,’ Bevier said to her.
    ‘No. They were Zemochs. It’s more or less what we guessed at back at that inn. The Seeker will use anybody, but a western Styric is incapable of using weapons made of steel. If they’d been local people, their swords would have been bronze or copper.’ She looked critically at Kalten, who had just removed his mail-shirt. She shuddered. ‘You look like a blond rug,’ she told him.
    ‘It’s not my fault, little mother,’ he said, suddenly blushing. ‘All the men in my family have been hairy.’
    Bevier looked puzzled. ‘What finally drove that creature off?’ he asked.
    ‘Flute,’ Sparhawk replied. ‘She’s done it before. She even ran off the Damork once with her pipes.’
    ‘This tiny child?’ Bevier’s tone was incredulous.
    ‘There’s more to Flute than meets the eye,’ Sparhawk told him. He looked out across the slope of the hill. ‘Talen,’ he shouted, ‘stop that.’
    Talen, who had been busily pillaging the dead, looked up with some consternation. ‘But Sparhawk –’ he began.
    ‘Just come away from there. That’s disgusting.’
    ‘But – ’
    ‘Do as he says!’ Berit roared.
    Talen sighed and came back down the hill.
    ‘Let’s round up the horses, Bevier,’ Sparhawk said. ‘As soon as Kurik and the others get back, I think we’ll want to move on. That Seeker is still out there, and it can come at us with a whole new group of people at any time.’
    ‘It can do that at night as well as in the daylight, Sparhawk,’ Bevier said dubiously, ‘and it can follow our scent.’
    ‘I know. At this point I think speed is our only defence. We’re going to have to try to outrun that thing again.’
    Kurik, Ulath and Tynian returned as dusk was settling over the desolate landscape. ‘There doesn’t seem to be anybody else out there,’ the squire reported, swinging down from his gelding.
    ‘We’re going to have to keep going,’ Sparhawk told him.
    ‘The horses are right on the verge of exhaustion, Sparhawk,’ the squire protested. He looked at the