The Ruby Knight

led them up the stairs and down a long corridor towards the rooms he had prepared. As they approached the chambers, they heard the shrieks of the madwoman once again. Bevier suppressed a sob. ‘She’s suffering,’ he said in an anguished voice.
    ‘No, Sir Knight,’ Occuda disagreed. ‘She’s completely insane, and people in her condition cannot comprehend their circumstances.’
    ‘I’d be interested to know how a servant came to be such an expert in diseases of the mind.’
    ‘That’s enough, Bevier,’ Sparhawk said again.
    ‘No, Sir Knight,’ Occuda said. ‘Your friend’s question is pertinent.’ He turned towards Bevier. ‘In my youth, I was a monk,’ he said. ‘My order devoted itself to caring for the infirm. One of our abbeys had been converted into a hospice for the deranged, and that’s where I served. I have had much experience with the insane. Believe me when I tell you that Lady Bellina is hopelessly mad.’
    Bevier looked a little less certain of himself, but then his face hardened again. ‘I don’t believe you,’ he snapped.
    ‘That’s entirely up to you, Sir Knight,’ Occuda said. ‘This will be your chamber.’ He opened a door. ‘Sleep well.’
    Bevier went into the room and slammed the door behind him.
    ‘You know that as soon as the house grows quiet, he’ll go in search of the count’s sister, don’t you?’ Sephrenia murmured.
    ‘You’re probably right,’ Sparhawk agreed. ‘Occuda, is there some way you can lock that door?’
    The huge Pelosian nodded. ‘I can chain it shut, My Lord,’ he said.
    ‘You’d better do it then. We don’t want Bevier wandering around the halls in the middle of the night.’ Sparhawk thought a moment. ‘We’d better post a guard outside his door as well,’ he told the others. ‘He’s got his lochaber axe with him, and if he gets desperate enough, he might try to chop the door down.’
    ‘That could get a little tricky, Sparhawk,’ Kalten said dubiously. ‘We don’t want to hurt him, but we don’t want him coming at us with that gruesome axe of his either.’
    ‘If he tries to get out, we’ll just have to overpower him,’ Sparhawk said.
    Occuda showed the others to their rooms, and Sparhawk’s was the last. ‘Will that be all, Sir Knight?’ the servant asked politely as they entered.
    ‘Stay a moment, Occuda,’ Sparhawk said.
    ‘Yes, My Lord.’
    ‘I’ve seen you before, you know.’
    ‘Me, My Lord?’
    ‘I was in Chyrellos some time ago, and Sephrenia and I were watching a house belonging to some Styrics. We saw you accompany a woman into that house. Was that Lady Bellina?’
    Occuda sighed and nodded.
    ‘It was what happened in that house that drove her mad, you know.’
    ‘I’d guessed as much.’
    ‘Can you tell me the whole story? I don’t want to bother the count with painful questions, but we’ve got to rid Sir Bevier of his obsession.’
    ‘I understand, My Lord. My first loyalty is to the count, but perhaps you should know the details. At least that way you may be able to protect yourselves from that madwoman.’ Occuda sat down, his rugged face mournful. ‘The count is a scholarly man, Sir Knight, and he’s frequently away from home for long periods pursuing the stories he’s been collecting for decades. His sister, Lady Bellina, is – or was – a plain, rather dumpy woman of middle years with very little prospects of ever catching a husband. This is a remote and isolated house, and Bellina suffered from loneliness and boredom. Last winter, she begged the count to permit her to visit friends in Chyrellos, and he gave her his consent, provided that I accompany her.’
    ‘I’d wondered how she got there,’ Sparhawk said, sitting on the edge of the bed.
    ‘Anyway,’ Occuda continued, ‘Bellina’s friends in Chyrellos are giddy, senseless ladies, and they filled her ears with stories about a Styric house where a woman’s youth and beauty could be restored by magic. Bellina became inflamed with a wild desire to go to the house. Women do things for strange reasons sometimes.’
    ‘Did she in fact grow younger?’
    ‘I wasn’t permitted to accompany her into the room where the Styric magician was, so I can’t say what happened in there, but when she came out, I scarcely recognized her. She had the body and face of a sixteen-year-old, but her eyes were dreadful. As I told your friend, I’ve worked with the insane before, so I recognize the signs. I bundled her up and brought her