‘I’ll certainly listen, Ezek.’ Valash raised his head sharply as the comatose Ogerajin began to mumble in his sleep.
‘Is he all right?’ Stragen asked.
‘It’s nothing,’ Valash said shortly. ‘He does that all the time. Go ahead, Ezek.’
‘Wal, sir, she wuz a couple weeks ago, I guess, an’ I wuz hot-footin’ it across Atan, figgerin’ t’ make m’ way on across Darsos—on accounta the law bein’ hot on m’ heels an’
‘I wuz a-comin’ on down outten th’ mountings when I putt e.bort, cuz I seen more gol-darg Atans than I thought they in the hull world—I mean, they wint on fer miles. They multitudes o’ them bi rascals—all geared up fer war an real mean an’ on-friendly-like.’
‘The entire Atan army?’ Valash exclaimed.’
‘It lookt t’ me more like a gineral my-grashun of the hull darg, master Valash. Y aint’ niver seen s’ miny of ’em!’
‘Where exactly were they?’ Valash asked excitedly.
‘Waal sir, close oz I could make out, they wuz right close t’ the Synesgan border—up that close by a little town call Zhubay. Appen t’ have a map handy, I could point out th’ eggt fer ya.’ Caalador squinted at the Dacite. ‘Whut would as infermaytion’s worth, Master Valash?’
He didn’t even hesitate when he reached for his purse.
‘Strange, Domi Tikume,’ Kring told his friend as the head of their massed tribesmen out into the sort the morning after the conference on Aphrael’s island. ‘The Child Goddess said that we were all dreaming, but everything seemed so real. I could actually smell the flowers and the grass. I’ve never smelled anything in a dream before.”
Tikume looked dubious. ‘Are you sure it wasn’t heresy to go there, Domi Kring?’
Kring laughed wryly. ‘Well, if it was, I was in good company. Patriarch Emban was there, and so was Patriarch Bergsten. Anyway, you and I are supposed to continue making these raids into Cynesga. Then we’re supposed to go ahead and ride on in toward those mountains out in the middle of the desert. We’re hoping that Prince Sparhawk will have pinpointed the exact location of Cyrga by the time we get there.’
One of the scouts who had been ranging out into the burnt brown desert ahead came galloping back. ‘Domi Tikume,’ he said as he reined in. ‘We’ve found them.’
‘Where?’ Tikume demanded.
‘There’s a dry watercourse about two miles ahead, Domi. They’re crouched down in there. I’d say they’re planning to ambush us.’
‘What sort of soldiers are they?’ Kring asked.
‘There was Cynesgan cavalry and more of those big ones with the steel masks that we’ve been running to death lately. There was some other infantry as well, but I didn’t recognize them.’
‘Breastplates? Short kirtles? Helmets with high crests, and big round shields?’’
‘Those are the ones, Domi Kring.’
Kring rubbed one hand across his shaved scalp. ‘How wide is the water-course?’ he asked.
‘Fifty paces or so, Domi.’
‘Crooked? Fairly deep?’
The scout nodded.
‘It’s an ambush, all right,’ Kring said. ‘The cavalry probably intends to let us see them and then retreat into the gully. If we follow them, we’ll run right into the infantry. We’ve been running Klael’s soldiers to death in open country, so they want to get us into tight quarters.’
‘What do we do?’ Tikume asked.
‘We stay out of that stream-bed, friend Tikume. Send out flankers to cut off their cavalry after they ride out. We’ll slaughter them, and that should bring Klael’s soldiers out into the open.’
‘What about the Cyrgai? Are they more of those ones out of the past that we keep coming across?’
‘I don’t think so. This is inside the borders of Cynesga, so they’re probably live ones from Cyrga itself. ‘ Kring stopped suddenly and a slow grin crossed his face. ‘I just thought of something. Send out your flankers, friend Tikume. Give me some time to think my way through this.’
‘That’s a particularly nasty grin there, friend Kring.’
‘I’m a particularly nasty fellow sometimes, friend Tikume,’ Kring replied, his grin growing even wider.
‘Slavers,’ Mirtai said shortly after she had peered down the rocky slope toward the village clustered around the oasis. The almost instar at the column creeping slowly across the barren brown gravel WHaus change from the humidity of the Arjuni jungle to the arid Cynesgan Desert had given Sparhawk a slight headache.
‘How can you tell at this distance?’ Bevier asked her.
‘Those hooded black robes,’ she replied peering again over the boulder which concealed them. ‘Slavers wear them when they come into Cynesga so that the local authorities won’t interfere with them. Cynesga’s about the only place left where slavery’s openly legal. The other kingdoms frown on it.’
‘There’s a thought, Sparhawk,’ Bevier said. ‘If we could get our hands on some of those black robes, we’d be able to move about in the desert without attracting attention.’
‘We don’t look very much like Arjuni, Bevier,’ Kalten objected.
‘We don’t have to,’ Talen told him. ‘From what I heard back in Beresa, there are bands of raiders out in the desert who work with the caravans in order to steal the slaves, so the Arjuni always hire lots of fighting men of all races to help protect the merchandise.’
‘Oh,’ Kalten said. ‘I wonder where we could lay our hands on black robes.’
‘There’s a hundred or so of them right out there,’ Bevier said, pointing at the caravan.
‘Elenes,’ Xanetia sighed, rolling her eyes upward.
‘You’re even starting to sound like Sephrenia, Anarae,’ Sparhawk said with a faint smile. ‘What are we overlooking?’
‘Robes doubtless may be obtained in Vigayo close by. Any shade or hue will serve, Anakha,’ she explained.
‘They have to be black, Anarae,’ Bevier objected.
‘Color is an aspect of light, Sir Bevier, and I am most skilled at controlling light.’
‘Oh,’ he said. ‘I guess I didn’t think of that.’
‘I had noticed that myself—almost immediately.’
‘Be nice,’ he murmured.
Bergsten’s knights and their Peloi allies crossed the Cynesgan border on a cloudy, chill afternoon after what seemed to be several days of hard riding, and rode southeasterly toward the capital at Cynestra. Peloi scouts ranged out in front, but they encountered no resistance that day. They made camp, put out guards, and bedded down early.
It was not long after they had broken camp and set out on what was ostensibly the next morning that Daiya came riding back to join Bergsten and Heldin at the head of the column. ‘My scouts report that there are soldiers massing about a mile ahead, your Reverence,’ he reported.
‘Cynesgans?’ Bergsten asked quickly.
‘It does not appear so, your Reverence.’
‘Go have a look, Heldin,’ Bergsten ordered.
The Pandion nodded and spurred his horse to the top of a rocky hill a quarter mile to the front. His face was bleak when he returned. ‘We’ve got trouble, your Grace,’ he rumbled. ‘They’re more of those monsters we came up against in eastern Zemoch.’
Bergsten muttered a fairly savage oath. ‘I knew things were going too well.’
‘Domi Tikume has warned us about these foreign soldiers,’ Daiya said. ‘Would it offend your Reverence if I suggested that you let us deal with them? Domi Tikume and Domi Kring have devised certain tactics that seem to work.’
‘I’m not offended in the slightest, friend Daiya,’ Bergsten replied. ‘We didn’t exactly cover ourselves with glory the last time we encountered those brutes, so I’d be very interested in seeing something that’s a little more effective than our tactics were.’