The Ruby Knight (37 page)

They made camp in a small glade in the forest, and Kurik and Talen rode out about mid-afternoon.

Sephrenia was wan, and her face was drawn-looking as she sat by the fire cradling Sir Gared's sword.

‘This is not going to be easy for you, I'm afraid,' Sparhawk said regretfully. ‘We're going to have to ride fast if we want to reach Ghwerig's cave before he seals it up. Is there any way you could give me Gared's sword?'

She shook her head. ‘No, dear one. You weren't present in the throne-room. Only one of us who was there when we cast the spell can keep Gared's sword.'

‘I was afraid that might be the case. I suppose I'd better see about some supper.'

It was nearing midnight when Kurik and Talen returned.

‘Any problems?' Sparhawk asked.

‘Nothing worth mentioning.' Talen shrugged. ‘Platime's name opens all kinds of doors. Stragen told us that the countryside north of Emsat is infested with robbers, though. He's going to provide us with an armed escort and spare horses – the horses were my father's idea.'

‘We can move faster if we change horses every hour or so,' Kurik explained. ‘Stragen's also going to send supplies along with the men who'll be riding with us.'

‘You see how nice it is to have friends, Sparhawk?' Talen asked impudently.

Sparhawk ignored that. ‘Are Stragen's men going to come here?' he asked.

‘No,' Talen replied. ‘We'll meet them a mile or so up the road that runs north out of Emsat before sunrise.' He looked around. ‘What's for supper? I'm starving.'

They rode out at first light, circled through the forest lying to the north of Emsat and stopped not far from the north road. ‘I hope this Stragen keeps his word,' Kurik muttered to Talen. ‘I've never been in Thalesia before, and I don't like the notion of riding into hostile country without knowing what's going on.'

‘We can trust Stragen, father,' Talen replied confidently. ‘Thalesian thieves have this peculiar sense of honour. It's the Cammorians you have to watch out for. They'd cheat themselves if they could figure out a way to make a profit out of it.'

‘Sir Knight,' a soft voice said from back in the trees.

Sparhawk immediately went for his sword.

‘There's no need of that, My Lord,' the voice said. ‘Stragen sent us. There are robbers out there in the foothills, and he told us to get you safely past them.'

‘Come out of the shadows then, neighbour,' Sparhawk said.

‘Neighbour!' The man laughed. ‘I like that. You have a very wide neighbourhood, neighbour.'

‘Most of the world lately,' Sparhawk admitted.

‘Welcome to Thalesia then, neighbour.' The man who rode out of the shadows had pale, flaxen hair. He was clean-shaven and roughly dressed, and he carried a brutal-looking pike and had an axe slung to his saddle. ‘Stragen says you want to go north. We're to accompany you as far as Heid.'

‘Will that work out?' Sparhawk asked Flute.

‘Perfectly,' she replied. ‘We'll be leaving the road a mile or so beyond there.'

‘You take orders from a child?' the flaxen-haired man asked.

‘She knows the way to the place where we're going.' Sparhawk shrugged. ‘Never argue with your guide.'

‘That's probably true, Sir Sparhawk. My name is Tel – if it makes any difference. I've got a dozen men and spare horses – along with the supplies your man Kurik requested.' He rubbed one hand over his face. ‘This baffles me, Sir Knight,' he admitted. ‘I've never seen Stragen so eager to accommodate a stranger.'

‘Have you ever heard of Platime?' Talen asked him.

Tel looked at the boy sharply. ‘The chief down in Cimmura?' he asked.

‘That's the one,' Talen said. ‘Stragen owes Platime some favours, and I work for Platime.'

‘Oh, that explains it, I suppose,' Tel admitted. ‘The day's wearing on, Sir Knight,' he said to Sparhawk. ‘Why don't we go to Heid?'

‘Why don't we?' Sparhawk agreed.

Tel's men were all dressed in utilitarian Thalesian peasant garb, and they all carried weapons as if they knew how to use them. They were uniformly blond and had the bleak faces of men with little concern for the politer amenities of life.

When the sun came up, they increased their pace. Sparhawk knew that having Tel and his cut-throats along might slow them considerably, but he was grateful for the additional safety they provided for Sephrenia and Flute. He had been more than a little concerned about their vulnerability in the event of an ambush in the mountains.

They passed briefly through farm country, and neat farmsteads stood here and there along the road. An attack was unlikely in such a well-populated area. The danger would come when they reached the mountains.
They rode hard that day and covered a considerable distance. They camped some way from the road and left again early the following morning.

‘I'm starting to feel a little saddle-weary,' Kurik admitted as they set out at first light.

‘I thought you'd be used to it by now,' Sparhawk said.

‘Sparhawk, we've been riding almost constantly for the last six months. I think I'm starting to wear out my saddle with my backside.'

‘I'll buy you a new one.'

‘So I can have all the entertainment of breaking it in? No thanks.'

The country became more rolling, and they could clearly see the dark green mountains to the north now. ‘If I can make a suggestion, Sparhawk,' Tel said, ‘why don't we make camp before we get up into the hills? There are robbers up there, and a night attack could cause us some inconvenience. I doubt that they'd come down onto this plain, though.'

Sparhawk had to admit that Tel was probably right, even though he chafed at the delay. The safety of Sephrenia and Flute was, after all, of far more importance than any arbitrary time limits.

They stopped for the night before the sun set and took shelter in a shallow dell. Tel's men were very good at concealment, Sparhawk had noticed.

The next morning they waited for daylight before setting out. ‘All right,' Tel said as they rode along at a trot. ‘I know some of the fellows who hide up here in the mountains, and they've got some favourite places for their ambushes. I'll let you know when we start to get close to those places. The best way to get through them is to ride at a gallop. It takes people in hiding in ambush by surprise, and they usually need a minute or two to get on their horses. We can be well past them before they can give chase.'

‘How many of them are there likely to be?' Sparhawk asked him.

‘About twenty or thirty altogether. They'll split up, though. They've got more than one place, and they'll probably want to cover them all.'

‘Your plan isn't bad, Tel,' Sparhawk said, ‘but I think I've got a better one. We ride through the ambush at a gallop the way you suggested until they start to come after us. Then we turn on them. There's no point in letting them join forces with others farther up on the trail.'

‘You're a bloodthirsty one, aren't you, Sparhawk?'

‘I've got a friend from up here in Thalesia who keeps telling me that you should never leave live enemies behind you.'

‘He may have a point there.'

‘How did you learn so much about those fellows up here?'

‘I used to be one of them, but I got tired of sleeping out of doors in bad weather. That's when I went to Emsat and started working for Stragen.'

‘How far is it from here to Heid?'

‘About fifty more leagues. We can make it by the end of the week if we hurry along.'

‘Good. Let's go then.'

They rode up into the mountains at a trot, keeping a wary eye on the trees and bushes at the side of the road.

‘Just ahead,' Tel said quietly. ‘That's one of their places. The road goes through a gap there.'

‘Then let's ride,' Sparhawk said. He led the way at the gap. They heard a startled shout from the top of the bluff on the left side of the road. A single man stood up there.

‘He's there alone,' Tel shouted, looking back over his shoulder. ‘He watches the road for travellers and then lights a fire to signal on up ahead.'

‘Not this time he won't,' one of Tel's men growled, unslinging a longbow from across his back. He stopped his horse and smoothly shot an arrow at the lookout atop the bluff. The lookout doubled over when the arrow took him in the stomach and toppled off the bluff to lie motionless in the dusty road.

‘Good shot,' Kurik said.

‘Not too bad,' the archer said modestly.

‘Do you think anyone heard him yell?' Sparhawk asked Tel.

‘That depends on how close they are. They probably won't know what it meant, but a few of them might ride down here to investigate.'

‘Let them,' the man with the bow said grimly.

‘We'd better go a little slowly along here,' Tel advised. ‘It wouldn't do to go around a corner and come face to face with them.'

‘You're very good at this, Tel,' Sparhawk said.

‘Practice, Sparhawk, and I know the ground. I lived up here for more than five years. That's why Stragen sent me instead of anybody else. You'd better let me have a look around that bend in the road just ahead.' He slipped down off his horse and took his pike. He ran ahead at a crouch, and just before he reached the bend, he eased his way into the bushes and disappeared. A moment later he reappeared and made a few obscure gestures.

‘Three of them,' the man with the bow translated in a muted voice. ‘They're coming at a trot.' He set an arrow to his bowstring and raised the bow.

Sparhawk drew his sword. ‘Guard Sephrenia,' he told Kurik.

The first man around the bend toppled out of his saddle with an arrow in his throat. Sparhawk shook his reins and Faran charged.

The two other men were staring at their fallen
companion in blank amazement. Sparhawk cut one of them out of the saddle, and the other turned to flee. Tel, however, stepped out of the bushes and drove his pike at an angle up into the man's body. The man gave a gurgling groan and fell from his horse.

‘Get the horses!' Tel barked to his men. ‘Don't let them get back to where the other brigands are hiding!'

His men galloped after the fleeing horses and brought them back a few minutes later.

‘A nice piece of work,' Tel said, pulling his pike free of the body lying in the road. ‘No yelling, and none of them got away.' He rolled the body over with his foot. ‘I know this one,' he said. ‘Those other two must be new. The life expectancy of a highway robber isn't really very good, so Dorga has to find new recruits every so often.'

‘Dorga?' Sparhawk asked, dismounting.

‘He's the chief of this band. I never really cared for him very much. He's a little too self-important.'

‘Let's drag these into the bushes,' Sparhawk said. ‘I'd rather not have the little girl see them.'

‘All right.'

After the bodies had been concealed, Sparhawk stepped back around the bend and signalled to Sephrenia and Kurik to come on ahead.

They rode on carefully.

‘This may be much easier than I'd thought,' Tel said. ‘I think they're splitting up into very small groups so they can watch more of the road. We should go into the woods a ways on the left side of the road just ahead. There's a rock-slide coming down on the right side, and Dorga usually has a few archers there. Once we get past them, I'll send a few men around behind them to deal with them.'

‘Is that really necessary?' Sephrenia asked.

‘I'm just following Sir Sparhawk's advice, lady,' Tel
said. ‘Don't leave live enemies behind you – particularly not ones armed with bows. I don't really need an arrow in my back, and neither do you.'

They rode into the woods before they reached the rock-slide and continued at a very careful walk. One of Tel's men crept out to the edge of the trees and rejoined them a few minutes later. ‘Two of them,' he reported quietly. ‘They're about fifty paces up the slide.'

‘Take a couple of men,' Tel instructed. ‘There's cover about two hundred paces up ahead. You'll be able to get across the road there. Work your way up along the edge of the slide and get behind them. Try not to let them make any noise.'

The stubble-faced blond cut-throat grinned, signalled to two of his companions and rode on ahead.

‘I'd forgotten how much fun this is,' Tel said, ‘- at least in good weather. It's miserable in the winter, though.'

They had ridden perhaps half a mile past the slide when the three ruffians caught up with them.

‘Any problems?' Tel asked.

‘They were half-asleep,' one of the men chuckled. ‘They're all the way asleep now.'

‘Good.' Tel looked around. ‘We can gallop for a ways now, Sparhawk. The roadsides are too open for ambushes for the next few miles.'

They galloped on until almost noon, when they reached the crest of the ridge where Tel signalled for a halt. ‘The next part might be tricky,' he told Sparhawk. ‘The road runs down a ravine, and there's no way for us to work our way around it from this end. The place is one of Dorga's favourites, so he's likely to have quite a few men there. I'd say that the best thing for us to do is to go through it at a dead run. An archer has a little trouble shooting downhill at moving targets – at least I always did.'

‘How far is it until we come out of the ravine?'

‘About a mile.'

‘And we'll be in plain sight all the way?'

‘More or less, yes.'

‘We don't have much choice, though, do we?'

‘Not unless you want to wait until after dark, and that would make the rest of the road to Heid twice as dangerous.'

‘All right,' Sparhawk decided. ‘You know the country, so you lead the way.' He unhooked his shield from his saddle-horn and strapped it on his arm. ‘Sephrenia, you ride right beside me. I can cover you and Flute with the shield. Lead on, Tel.'

Their plunging run down the ravine took the concealed brigands by surprise. Sparhawk heard a few startled shouts from the top of the ravine, and a single arrow fell far behind them.

‘Spread out!' Tel shouted. ‘Don't ride all clustered together!'

They plunged on. More arrows came whizzing down into the ravine, dropping among them now. One arrow shattered on the shield which Sparhawk was holding protectively over Sephrenia and Flute. He heard a muffled cry and glanced back. One of Tel's men was swaying in his saddle, his eyes filled with pain. Then he slumped over and fell heavily to the ground.

‘Keep going!' Tel ordered. ‘We're almost clear now!'

The road ahead came out of the ravine, passed through a stretch of trees and then curved along the side of a cliff that dropped steeply down into a gorge.

A few more arrows arched down from the top of the ravine, but they were falling far behind now.

They galloped through the stretch of trees and on out along the side of the cliff. ‘Keep going!' Tel commanded
again. ‘Let them think we're going to run all the way through here.'

They galloped on along the face of the cliff. Then the wide ledge upon which the road was built bent sharply inward to the point where the cliff-face ended and the road ran steeply down into the forest again. Tel reined in his panting horse. ‘This looks like a good place,' he said. ‘The road narrows a little way back there, so they'll only be able to come at us a couple at a time.'