The Ruby Knight

wet out there.’
    Sparhawk sighed. ‘Just come here, Talen,’ he said. ‘Please don’t argue with me every time I ask you to do something.’
    Grumbling, the boy came out of the tent. He approached Sparhawk warily. ‘Well, am I in trouble again?’
    ‘Not that I know of. You said that farmer you bought the wagon from is named Wat?’
    ‘Yes.’
    ‘How far is his farm from here?’
    ‘A couple of miles.’
    ‘What does he look like?’
    ‘His eyes look off in two different directions, and he scratches a lot. Isn’t he the fellow that old man in the tap-room was telling you about?’
    ‘How did you know about that?’
    ‘I was listening outside the door.’ Talen shrugged.
    ‘Eavesdropping?’
    ‘I don’t know if I’d really put it that way. I’m a child, Sparhawk – or at least people think I am. Grown-ups don’t think they have to tell things to children. I’ve found that if I really need to know anything, I’m going to have to find it out for myself.’
    ‘He’s probably got a point, Sparhawk,’ Ulath said.
    ‘You’d better get your cloak,’ Sparhawk told the boy. ‘In just a little bit, you and I are going to pay a visit to this itchy farmer.’
    Talen looked out over the rainy field and sighed.
    From inside the tent, Flute’s pipe-song broke off, and Sephrenia ceased her incantation.
    ‘I wonder if that’s a good sign or a bad one,’ Ulath said.
    They waited tensely. Then, after a few moments, Sephrenia looked out. ‘I think he’ll be all right now. Come in and talk to him. I’ll know better once I hear how he answers.’
    Tynian was propped up on a pillow. His face was still ashy grey and his hands were trembling. His eyes, however, though still haunted, appeared rational.
    ‘How are you feeling?’ Sparhawk asked him, trying to sound casual.
    Tynian laughed weakly. ‘If you really want to know the truth, I feel as if I’d been turned inside out and then put together again backwards. Did you manage to kill that monstrosity?’
    ‘Sparhawk drove it off with that spear of his,’ Ulath told him.
    A haunted fear came into Tynian’s eyes. ‘It might come back then?’ he asked.
    ‘Not very likely,’ Ulath replied. ‘It jumped back into the burial mound and pulled the ground in after it.’
    ‘Thank God,’ Tynian said with relief.
    ‘I think you’d better sleep now,’ Sephrenia told him. ‘We can all talk more later.’
    Tynian nodded and lay back again.
    Sephrenia covered him with a blanket, motioned to Sparhawk and Ulath and led them outside. ‘I think he’s going to be all right,’ she said. ‘I felt much better when I heard him laugh. It’s going to take some time, but at least he’s on the mend.’
    ‘I’m going to take Talen and go and talk to that farmer,’ Sparhawk told them. ‘He seems to be the one the old man at the inn told us about. He might be able to give us some idea of where to go next.’
    ‘It’s worth a try, I suppose,’ Ulath said a bit doubtfully. ‘Kurik and I’ll keep an eye on things here.’
    Sparhawk nodded and went into the tent he normally shared with Kalten. He removed his armour and put on his plain mail-shirt and stout woollen leggings instead. He belted on his sword and then pulled his grey, hooded traveller’s cloak about his shoulders. He went back out to the fire. ‘Come along, Talen,’ he called.
    The boy came out of the tent with a look of resignation on his face. His still-damp cloak was wrapped tightly about him. ‘I don’t suppose I could talk you out of this,’ he said.
    ‘No.’
    ‘I hope that farmer hasn’t looked into his barn yet, then. He might be a little touchy about the missing firewood.’
    ‘I’ll pay for it if I have to.’
    Talen winced. ‘After I went to all the trouble of stealing it? Sparhawk, that’s degrading. It might even be immoral.’
    Sparhawk looked at him quizzically. ‘Someday you’re going to have to explain the morality of a thief to me.’
    ‘It’s really very simple, Sparhawk. The first rule is not to pay for anything.’
    ‘I thought it might be something like that. Let’s go.’
    The sky to the west was definitely growing lighter as Sparhawk and Talen rode towards the lake, and the rain had become no more than sporadic showers. That in itself lightened Sparhawk’s mood. It had been a bleak time. The uncertainty which had dogged his steps from the moment they had left Cimmura had proved to be fully justified, but even now the certainty that they had taken a