‘I didn’t really give it much thought, your Grace,’ Ulath replied blandly. ‘But then, I won’t be riding in the carriage, so it wouldn’t bother me in the slightest.’

CHAPTER 15

The addition of a dozen female Atans added to the subterfuge of a courtly gathering on the hilltop, although it was difficult to persuade the Atan girls that their faces would not break if they smiled or that the Gods had issued no commandment against laughing. Berit and a number of other youthful knights entertained the ladies while casually clearing inconvenient – and not a few convenient – bushel-basket sized rocks from the kind of natural amphitheatre at the top of the hill. The back-side of the pile of boulders was more precipitous than the front, and the rim of the hilltop on that side formed a naturally defensible wall. The young knights piled up enough rock to form a crude kind of breastwork around the other three sides. It was all very casual, but within an hour some fairly substantial fortifications had been erected.

There were many cooking-fires around the base of the hill, and their smoke laid a kind of blue haze out among the white tree trunks. There was a great deal of clanking and rattling and shouting back and forth as the oddlyassorted force made some show of preparing a meal. Engessa’s Atans gathered up large piles of firewood – mostly in ten-foot lengths – and all of the cooks stated a loud preference for wood chips for their fires rather than chunks. It was therefore necessary to chop at the ends of the birch logs, and there were soon neat piles of sharpened ten-foot poles spaced out at regular intervals around the hill, ready for use either as firewood or a palisade that could be erected in a few minutes. The knights and the Peloi tethered their horses nearby and lounged around the foot of the hill while the Atans were evenly dispersed a bit further out under the trees. Sparhawk stood at the top of the hill surveying the progress of the work below. The ladies were gathered under a broad canopy erected on poles in the centre of the depressed basin on the hilltop. Stragen was strumming his lute and singing to them in his deep rich voice.

‘How’s it going down there?’ Talen asked, coming up to where Sparhawk stood.

‘It’s about as secure as Khalad can make it without being obvious about it,’ Sparhawk replied.

‘He’s awfully good, isn’t he?’ Talen said with a certain pride.

‘Your brother? Oh, yes. Your father trained him very well.’

‘It might have been nice to grow up with my brothers.’ Talen sounded a bit wistful. He shrugged. ‘But then…’ He peered out at the forest. ‘Any word from Engessa?’

‘Our friends are still out there.’

‘They’re going to attack, aren’t they?’

‘Probably. You don’t gather that many armed men in one place without having something military in mind.’

‘I like your plan here, Sparhawk, but I think it’s got a hole in it.’

‘Oh?’

‘Once they finally realise that we aren’t going to move from this spot, they might decide to wait and then come at us after dark. Fighting at night’s a lot different from doing it in the daytime, isn’t it?’

‘Usually, yes, but we’ll cheat.’

Talen gave him a quizzical look.

‘There are a couple of spells that brighten things up when you need to see.’

‘I keep forgetting about that.’

‘You might as well get used to it, Talen,’ Sparhawk told him with a faint smile. ‘When we get back home, you’re going to start your novitiate.’

‘When did we decide that?’

‘Just now. You’re old enough, and if you keep on growing the way you have been lately, you’ll be big enough.’

‘Is magic hard to learn?’

‘You have to pay attention. It’s all done in Styric, and Styric’s a tricky language. If you use the wrong word, all sorts of things can go wrong.’

‘Thanks, Sparhawk. That’s all I need – something else to worry about.’

‘We’ll talk with Sephrenia when we get to Sarsos. Maybe she’ll agree to train you. Flute likes you, so she’ll forgive you if you make any mistakes.’

‘What’s Flute got to do with it?’

‘If Sephrenia trains you, you’ll be submitting your requests to Aphrael.’

‘Requests?’

‘That’s what magic is, Talen. You ask a God to do something for you.’

‘Praying?’ the boy asked incredulously.

‘Sort of.’

‘Does Emban know that you’re praying to a Styric Goddess?’

‘More than likely. The Church chooses to ignore the fact, though – for practical reasons.’

‘She’s a hypocrite then.’

‘I wouldn’t mention that to Emban, if I were you.’

‘Let me get this straight. If I get to be a Church Knight, I’ll be worshipping Flute?’

‘Praying to her, Talen. I didn’t say anything about worshipping.’

‘Praying, worshipping, what’s the difference?’

‘Sephrenia will explain it.’

‘She’s in Sarsos, you say?’

‘I didn’t say that.’ Sparhawk silently cursed his careless tongue.

‘Yes, as a matter of fact you did.’

‘All right, but keep it to yourself.’

‘That’s why we came overland, isn’t it?’

‘One of the reasons, yes. Haven’t you got something else to do?’

‘Not really, no.’

‘Go find something – because if you don’t, I will.’

‘You don’t have to get all huffy.’

Sparhawk gave him a steady stare.

‘All right, all right, don’t get excited. I’ll go entertain Danae and her cat.’

Sparhawk stood watching the boy as he returned to the festivities under the canopy. It was obviously time to start being a little careful around Talen. He was dangerously intelligent, and a slip of the tongue might give away things that were supposed to be kept private. The discussion had raised an issue, however. Sparhawk went back to the group gathered on the hilltop and took Berit aside. ‘Go tell the knights that if those people out there decide to wait until after dark to attack, I’ll take care of giving us light to work by. If we all try to do it at the same time, we might confuse things.’

Berit nodded.

Sparhawk considered it further. ‘And I’ll go talk with Kring and Engessa,’ he added. ‘We don’t want the Atans and the Peloi going into a panic if the sky suddenly lights up along about midnight tonight.’