The Ruby Knight

me.’
    ‘He’d better be reliable. He’s already got a fair idea of what’s going to happen to him if he isn’t.’
    ‘Oh, Sparhawk,’ she said reprovingly.
    ‘It’s really a very simple arrangement, little mother. He fully understands that either they get healthy, or he gets sick. That sort of encourages him to do his best.’
    Pelosian cooking, Sparhawk had noticed, leaned heavily in the direction of boiled cabbage, beets and turnips, only lightly garnished with salt pork. The latter, of course, was totally unacceptable to Sephrenia and Flute, and so the two made a meal of raw vegetables and boiled eggs. Kalten, however, ate everything in sight.
    It was after dark when Talen arrived at the inn. ‘They’re still following us, Sparhawk,’ he reported, ‘only there are a lot more of them now. I saw maybe forty of them on top of that hill just south of town, and they’re on horses now. They stopped at the hilltop and looked things over. Then they pulled back into the woods.’
    ‘That’s a little more serious than just four, isn’t it?’ Kalten said.
    ‘It is indeed,’ Sparhawk agreed. ‘Any ideas, Sephrenia?’
    She frowned. ‘We haven’t really been moving all that fast,’ she said. ‘If they’re on horseback, they could have caught up with us without much trouble. I’d guess that they’re just following us. Azash seems to know something that we don’t. He’s been trying to kill you for months, but now He sends His people out with orders to just follow us at a distance.’
    ‘Can you think of any reason for the change in tactics?’
    ‘Several, but they’re all pure speculation.’
    ‘We’ll have to be alert when we leave town,’ Kalten said.
    ‘Maybe doubly alert,’ Tynian added. ‘They might be just biding their time until we come to a deserted stretch of road where they can ambush us.’
    ‘That’s a cheerful thought,’ Kalten said wryly. ‘Well, I don’t know about the rest of you, but I’m going to bed.’
    The sun was very bright again the following morning, and a freshening breeze blew in off the lake. Sparhawk dressed in his mail-shirt, a plain tunic and woollen leggings. Then he and Sephrenia rode out from the inn towards the north gate of Paler and the tanyard of the man named Berd. The people in the street appeared for the most part to be common workmen carrying a variety of tools. They wore sober blue smocks and the tall, pointed hats.
    ‘I wonder if they realize just how silly those things look,’ Sparhawk murmured.
    ‘Which things were those?’ Sephrenia asked him.
    ‘Those hats. They look like dunce-caps.’
    ‘They’re no more ridiculous than those plumed hats the courtiers in Cimmura wear.’
    ‘I suppose you’re right.’
    The tanyard was some distance beyond the north gate, and it smelled vile. Sephrenia wrinkled her nose as they approached. ‘This is not going to be a pleasant morning,’ she predicted.
    ‘I’ll cut it as short as I can,’ Sparhawk promised.
    The tanner was a heavy-set bald man wearing a canvas apron stained with dark brown splotches. He was stirring at a large vat with a long paddle as Sparhawk and Sephrenia rode into his yard. ‘I’ll be right with you,’ he said. His voice sounded like gravel being poured across a slate. He stirred for a moment or two longer, looking critically into the vat. Then he laid aside his paddle and came towards them, wiping his hands on his apron. ‘How can I help you?’ he asked.
    Sparhawk dismounted and helped Sephrenia down from her white palfrey. ‘We were talking with a farmer named Wat down in Lamorkand,’ he told the tanner. ‘He said you might be able to help us.’
    ‘Old Wat?’ The tanner laughed. ‘Is he still alive?’
    ‘He was three days ago. You’re Berd, aren’t you?’
    ‘That’s me, My Lord. What’s this help you need?’
    ‘We’ve been going around talking to people who know stories about that big battle they had around here some years back. There are some people up in Thalesia who are distantly related to the man who was their king during that battle. They want to find out where he’s buried so they can take his bones back home.’
    ‘Never heard of no kings involved in the fights around here,’ Berd admitted. “Course that don’t mean there wasn’t a few. I don’t imagine kings go around introducin’ theirselves to common folks.’
    ‘Then there were battles up here?’ Sparhawk asked.
    ‘I don’t know as I’d call ’em battles exactly –