The Ruby Knight

from their homes.’
    They rode out of the village and back into the forest.
    ‘So the people digging up the battlefield are Zemochs,’ Tynian mused. ‘They’re creeping all over western Eosia, aren’t they?’
    ‘We have known that it’s all part of Otha’s plan for generations,’ Sephrenia said. ‘Most Elenes cannot tell the difference between western Styrics and Zemochs. Otha does not want any kind of alliance or reconciliation between western Styrics and Elenes. A few well-placed atrocities have kept the prejudices of the Elene common people inflamed, and the stories of such incidents grow with every telling. This has been the source of centuries of general oppression and random massacres.’
    ‘Why does the possibility of an alliance worry Otha so much?’ Kalten sounded puzzled. ‘There aren’t enough Styrics in the west to pose that much of a threat, and since they won’t touch steel weapons, they wouldn’t be of much use if war breaks out again, would they?’
    ‘The Styrics would fight with magic, not steel, Kalten,’ Sparhawk told him, ‘and Styric magicians know a lot more about it than the Church Knights.’
    ‘The fact that the Zemochs are at Lake Randera is promising, though,’ Tynian said.
    ‘How so?’ Kalten asked.
    ‘If they’re still digging, it means they haven’t found Bhelliom yet. It also hints at the fact that we’re going to the right place.’
    ‘I’m not so sure,’ Ulath disagreed. ‘If they’ve been looking for Bhelliom for the last five hundred years and still haven’t found it, maybe Lake Randera’s not the right place.’
    ‘Why haven’t the Zemochs tried necromancy? The way we’re going to?’ Kalten asked.
    ‘Thalesian spirits would not respond to a Zemoch necromancer,’ Ulath replied. ‘They’ll probably talk to me, but not to anybody else.’
    ‘It’s a good thing you’re along then, Ulath,’ Tynian said. ‘I’d hate to go to all the trouble of raising ghosts and then find out that they won’t talk to me.’
    ‘If you raise them, I’ll talk with them.’
    ‘You didn’t ask him about the Seeker,’ Sparhawk said to Sephrenia.
    ‘There was no need. It would only have frightened him. Besides, if those villagers had known the Seeker was in this part of the world, the village would have been abandoned.’
    ‘Maybe we should have warned him.’
    ‘No, Sparhawk. Life is hard enough for those people without turning them into vagabonds. The Seeker is looking for us . The villagers are in no danger.’
    It was late afternoon by the time they reached the edge of the woods. They halted there and peered out over seemingly deserted fields. ‘Let’s camp back here among the trees,’ Sparhawk said. ‘That’s awfully open ground out there. I’d rather not have anyone see our fire if I can avoid it.’
    They rode back among the trees a short way and set up camp for the night. Kalten walked out to the edge of the wood to keep watch. Shortly after dark, he returned. ‘You’d better hide that fire a little better,’ he told Berit. ‘You can see it from the edge of the trees.’
    ‘Right away, Sir Kalten,’ the young novice replied. He took a spade and banked more earth around their small cook-fire.
    ‘We’re not the only ones around here, Sparhawk,’ the big blond Pandion said seriously. ‘There are a couple of fires about a mile out there in those fields.’
    ‘Let’s go and have a look,’ Sparhawk said to Tynian and Ulath. ‘We’ll need to pinpoint the locations so we can slip around them in the morning. Even if the Seeker won’t be a problem for several more days, there are still other people trying to keep us away from the lake. Coming, Kalten?’
    ‘Go ahead,’ his friend said. ‘I haven’t eaten yet.’
    ‘We might need you to point the fires out to us.’
    ‘You can’t miss them,’ Kalten said, filling his wooden bowl. ‘Whoever built them wants lots of light.’
    ‘He’s very attached to his stomach, isn’t he?’ Tynian said as the three knights walked towards the edge of the wood.
    ‘He eats a great deal,’ Sparhawk admitted, ‘but he’s a big man, so it takes a lot of food to keep him going.’
    The fires far out in the open fields were clearly visible. Sparhawk carefully noted the locations. ‘We’ll swing north, I think,’ he said quietly to the others. ‘Probably we’ll want to stay in the woods until we get well past those camps out there.’
    ‘Peculiar,’ Ulath said.
    ‘What is?’ Tynian