The Ruby Knight

Sparhawk replied. ‘This Wat we heard about might be able to give you more precise information, but let’s try it this way first. It might save some time, and we’re starting to get short on that.’
    ‘You worry about your queen all the time, don’t you, Sparhawk?’ Bevier asked perceptively.
    ‘Of course. It’s what I’m supposed to do.’
    ‘I think, my friend, that it might go a bit deeper than that. Your affection for your queen is more than a duty.’
    ‘You’re being absurdly romantic, Bevier. She’s only a child.’ Sparhawk felt suddenly offended, and at the same time defensive. ‘Before we get started, gentlemen,’ he said brusquely, ‘let’s have a look around. I don’t want any stray Zemochs watching us, and I definitely don’t want any of the Seeker’s empty-headed soldiers creeping up behind us while we’re busy.’
    ‘We can deal with them,’ Kalten said confidently.
    ‘Probably, yes, but you’re missing the point. Every time we kill one of them, we announce our general location to the Seeker.’
    ‘Otha’s bug is beginning to irritate me,’ Kalten said. ‘All this sneaking and skulking is unnatural.’
    ‘Maybe so, but I think you’d better get used to it for a while.’
    They left Sephrenia and the children in the shelter of a propped-up sheet of canvas and scoured the general vicinity. They found no sign of anyone. Then they rode back to the burial mound.
    ‘How about that one?’ Ulath suggested to Tynian, pointing at a low earthen mound. ‘It looks sort of Thalesian.’
    ‘It looks as good as any of the others.’ Tynian shrugged.
    They dismounted again. ‘Don’t overdo this,’ Sparhawk told Tynian. ‘If you start to get too tired, back away from it.’
    ‘We need information, Sparhawk. I’ll be all right.’ Tynian removed his heavy helmet, dismounted, took his coil of rope and began to lay it out on the top of the mound in the same design as he had the previous day. Then he straightened with a slight grimace. ‘Well,’ he said, ‘here goes.’ He threw back his blue cloak and began to speak sonorously in Styric, weaving the intricate gestures of the spell with his hands as he did. Finally, he clapped his hands sharply together.
    The mound shook violently as if it had been seized by an earthquake, and what came up from the ground this time did not rise slowly. It burst from the ground roaring – and it was not human.
    ‘Tynian!’ Sephrenia shouted. ‘Send it back!’
    Tynian, however, stood transfixed, his eyes starting from his head in horror.
    The hideous creature rushed at them, bowling over the thunderstruck Tynian and falling on Bevier, clawing and biting at his armour.
    ‘Sparhawk!’ Sephrenia cried as the big Pandion drew his sword. ‘Not that! It won’t do any good! Use Aldreas’s spear instead!’
    Sparhawk spun and wrenched the short-handled spear from his saddle-skirt.
    The monstrous thing that was attacking Bevier lifted the white-cloaked knight’s armoured body as easily as a man might lift a child and smashed it to the ground with terrible force. Then it leapt at Kalten and began wrenching at his helmet. Ulath, Kurik and Berit dashed to their friend’s aid, hacking at the monster with their weapons. Astonishingly, their heavy axes and Kurik’s mace bounced off the thing in great showers of glowing sparks.
    Sparhawk dashed in, holding the spear low. Kalten was being shaken like a rag doll, and his black helmet was dented and scarred.
    Deliberately, Sparhawk drove the spear into the monster’s side with all his strength. The thing shrieked and turned on him. Again and again Sparhawk struck, and with each blow he felt a tremendous surge of power flowing through the spear. At last he saw an opening, feinted once and then sank the spear directly into the monster’s chest. The hideous mouth gaped open, but what gushed forth was not blood, but a kind of black slime. Grimly, Sparhawk twisted the spear inside the creature’s body, making the wound bigger. It shrieked again and fell back. Sparhawk jerked his spear free, and the creature fled, howling and clutching at the gaping hole in its chest. It staggered up the side of the burial mound to the place from where it had emerged from the earth and plunged back into the depths.
    Tynian was on his knees in the mud, clutching at his head and sobbing. Bevier lay motionless on the ground, and Kalten sat moaning.
    Sephrenia moved quickly to Tynian and, after a quick glance at his face, began