The Ruby Knight

far with this?’
    ‘It was a start,’ Sparhawk replied. ‘Wat may not look very bright, but he’s really very shrewd. The plan of going from storyteller to storyteller is about the best we’ve come up with so far.’
    ‘It’s going to take a while, you know.’
    ‘Not as long a while as some of the other notions we’ve had.’
    ‘The trip wasn’t wasted then.’
    ‘We’ll know better after we talk with that tanner in Paler.’
    Ulath and Berit had strung a rope near the fire and were hanging wet clothes over it when Sparhawk and the boy returned to camp. ‘Any luck?’ Ulath asked.
    ‘Some, I hope,’ Sparhawk replied. ‘It’s fairly certain that King Sarak didn’t get this far south. It seems that there was a lot more fighting up in Pelosia and Deira than Bevier read about.’
    ‘What next, then?’
    ‘We go to the town of Paler up in Pelosia and talk to a tanner named Berd. If he hasn’t heard about Sarak, he can probably send us on to someone who has. How’s Tynian?’
    ‘He’s still asleep. Bevier’s awake, though, and Sephrenia got him to drink some soup.’
    ‘That’s a good sign. Let’s go inside and talk with her. Now that the weather’s clearing, I think it’s safe to move on.’
    They trooped into the tent, and Sparhawk repeated the gist of what Wat had said.
    ‘The plan has merit, Sparhawk,’ Sephrenia approved. ‘How far is it to Paler?’
    ‘Talen, go and get my map, would you?’
    ‘Why me?’
    ‘Because I asked you to.’
    ‘Oh. All right.’
    ‘Just the map, Talen,’ Sparhawk added. ‘Don’t take anything else out of the pack.’
    The boy returned after a few moments, and Sparhawk unfolded the map. ‘All right,’ he said. ‘Paler’s up here at the north end of the lake-just across the Pelosian border. I make it about ten leagues.’
    ‘That wagon won’t move very fast,’ Kurik told him, ‘and we don’t want to jolt these men around. It’s probably going to take at least two days.’
    ‘At least once we get them to Paler we should be able to find a physician for them,’ Sephrenia said.
    ‘We really don’t have to use the wagon,’ Bevier objected. His face was pale, and he was sweating profusely. ‘Tynian is much better, and Kalten and I aren’t hurt that badly. We can ride.’
    ‘Not while I’m giving the orders, you can’t,’ Sparhawk told him. ‘I’m not going to gamble your lives just to save a few hours.’ He went to the door of the tent and looked out. ‘It’s coming on to evening,’ he noted. ‘We’ll all get a good night’s sleep and start out first thing in the morning.’
    Kalten grunted and sat up painfully. ‘Good,’ he said. ‘Now that that’s settled, what’s for supper?’
    After they had eaten, Sparhawk went out and sat by the fire. He was staring morosely into the flames when Sephrenia joined him. ‘What is it, dear one?’ she asked him.
    ‘Now that I’ve had time to think about it, this is a really far-fetched notion, isn’t it? We could wander around Pelosia and Deira for the next twenty years listening to old men tell stories.’
    ‘I don’t really think so, Sparhawk,’ she disagreed. ‘Sometimes I get hunches – little flashes of the future. Somehow I feel that we’re on the right course.’
    ‘Hunches, Sephrenia?’ he said with some amusement.
    ‘Maybe a little stronger than that, but it’s a word that Elenes wouldn’t understand.’
    ‘Are you trying to say you can actually see into the future?’
    She laughed. ‘Oh, no,’ she replied. ‘Only the Gods can do that, and even they’re imperfect at it. About all I can really perceive is when something’s right and when it isn’t. This somehow feels right. There’s one other thing, too,’ she added. ‘The ghost of Aldreas told you that the time has come for Bhelliom to emerge again. I know what Bhelliom is capable of. It can control things in ways we can’t even imagine. If it wants us to be the ones who find it, nothing on earth will be able to stop us. I think you might find that the storytellers up there in Pelosia and Deira will tell us things they’ve thought they’ve forgotten, and even things they never knew.’
    ‘Isn’t that just a little mystic?’
    ‘Styrics are mystics, Sparhawk. I thought you knew that.’

Chapter 11

    They slept late the following morning. Sparhawk awoke before daybreak, but decided to let his companions rest. They had been long on the road, and the horror of the previous day had taken its toll.