The Ruby Knight

urgent,’ Kalten said. ‘If Cluvonus dies, Annias will start to move, and at that point he won’t need the Elenian treasury any more.’
    ‘Let’s press on then,’ Sparhawk said. ‘It’s still a day or so to the lake.’
    ‘Sparhawk,’ Kurik said critically, ‘you’ve let your armour get rusty.’
    ‘Really?’ Sparhawk pulled back his sodden black cloak and looked at his red-tinged shoulder-plates with some surprise.
    ‘Couldn’t you find the oil-bottle, My Lord?’
    ‘I had my mind on other things.’
    ‘Obviously.’
    ‘I’m sorry. I’ll deal with it.’
    ‘You wouldn’t know how. Don’t fool with the armour, Sparhawk. I’ll tend to it.’
    Sparhawk looked around at his companions. ‘If anybody makes an issue of this, there’s going to be a fight,’ he said ominously.
    ‘We would sooner die than offend you, My Lord Sparhawk,’ Bevier promised with an absolutely straight face.
    ‘I appreciate that,’ Sparhawk told him and then rode resolutely off into the driving rain, his rusty armour creaking.

Chapter 8

    The ancient battlefield at Lake Randera in north central Lamorkand was even more desolate than they had been led to believe. It was a vast wasteland of turned-over earth with mounds of dirt heaped up everywhere. There were huge holes and trenches in the ground filled with muddy water, and the steady rain had turned the vast field into a quagmire.
    Kalten sat his horse beside Sparhawk, looking helplessly out at the muddy field that seemed to stretch off to the horizon. ‘Where do we start?’ he asked, sounding baffled at the enormity of the task before them.
    Sparhawk remembered something. ‘Bevier,’ he called.
    The Arcian rode forward. ‘Yes, Sparhawk?’
    ‘You said that you’d made a study of military history.’
    ‘Yes.’
    ‘Since this was the biggest battle that’s ever been fought, you probably devoted some time to it, didn’t you?’
    ‘Of course.’
    ‘Do you think you might be able to locate the general area where the Thalesians were fighting?’
    ‘Give me a few moments to orient myself.’ Bevier rode slowly out into the soggy field, looking around intently for some landmark. ‘There,’ he said finally, pointing towards a nearby hill that was half-obscured in the misty drizzle. ‘That’s where the troops of the King of Arcium made their stand against the hordes of Otha and their supernatural allies. They were hard-pressed, but they held on until the Knights of the Church reached this field.’ He squinted thoughtfully into the rain. ‘If my memory serves me correctly, the army of King Sarak of Thalesia swept down around the east side of the lake in a flanking manoeuvre. They would have fought much farther to the east.’
    ‘At least that narrows things down a little bit,’ Kalten said. ‘Would the Genidian Knights have been with Sarak’s army?’
    Bevier shook his head. ‘All the Church Knights had been engaged in the campaign in Rendor. When word reached them of Otha’s invasion, they sailed across the inner sea to Cammoria and then made a forced march to get here. They arrived on the field from the south.’
    ‘Sparhawk,’ Talen said quietly, ‘over there. Some people are trying to hide behind that big mound of dirt – the one with that tree-stump half-way up the side.’
    Sparhawk carefully avoided turning. ‘Could you get any kind of a look at them?’
    ‘I couldn’t tell what kind of people they are,’ the boy replied. ‘They’re all covered with mud.’
    ‘Did they have any kind of weapons?’
    ‘Shovels, mostly. I think a couple of them had crossbows.’
    ‘Lamorks, then,’ Kalten said. ‘Nobody else uses that weapon.’
    ‘Kurik,’ Sparhawk said to his squire, ‘what’s the effective range of a crossbow?’
    ‘Two hundred paces with any kind of accuracy. After that, you have to rely on luck.’
    Sparhawk looked around, trying to appear casual. The heaped-up mound of dirt was perhaps fifty yards away. ‘We’ll want to go on that way,’ he said in a voice loud enough to be heard by the lurking treasure-seekers. He raised one steel-gauntleted hand and pointed east. ‘How many are there, Talen?’ he asked quietly.
    ‘I saw eight or ten. There could be more.’
    ‘Keep your eyes on them, but don’t be too obvious about it. If any of them starts to raise his crossbow, warn us.’
    ‘Right.’
    Sparhawk started out at a steady trot. Faran’s hooves splashed up the semi-liquid mud. ‘Don’t look back,’ he