"That's a cheery thought. At least we found out where the mound is located. Let's go see if we can find Kalten's camp before it gets dark."

Kalten had set up for the night in a copse of beech trees a mile or so back from the lake, and he had built a large fire at the edge of the grove. He was standing beside it when Sparhawk and Kurik rode in. "Well?" he asked.

"We got directions to the mound," Sparhawk replied, climbing down from his saddle. "It's not very far. Let's go talk with Tynian."

The heavily armoured Alcione was standing by the fire, talking with Ulath.

Sparhawk related the information Kurik had obtained from the villager, then looked at Tynian. "How are you feeling?" he asked directly.

"I'm fine. Why? Am I looking unwell?"

"Not really. I was just wondering if you felt up to necromancy again. The last time took quite a bit out of you, as I recall."

"I'm up to it, Sparhawk," Tynian a.s.sured him, "provided you don't want me to raise whole regiments."

"No, just one. We need to talk with King Sarak before we dig him up. He'll probably know what happened to his crown, and I want to be sure he's not going to object to being taken back to Thalesia. I don't want an angry ghost trailing along behind us."

"Truly," Tynian agreed fervently.

They rose before dawn the next morning and waited impatiently for the first sign of daylight along the horizon to the east. When it came, they were ready, and they set out across the still-dark fields.

"I think we should have waited for more light, Sparhawk," Kalten grumbled. "We're likely to run around in circles out here."

"We're going east, Kalten. That's where the sun comes up. All we have to do is ride towards the lightest part of the sky." Kalten muttered something to himself.

"I didn't quite catch that," Sparhawk said.

"I wasn't talking to you."

"Oh. Sorry."

The pale pre-dawn light gradually increased, and Sparhawk looked around to get his bearings. That's the village over there," he said, pointing. The lane we want to follow is on the far side of it."

"Let's not rush too much," Sephrenia cautioned, drawing her white robe about Flute. "I want the sun to be up when we reach the mound. The talk of haunting may be just a local superst.i.tion, but let's not take any chances."

Sparhawk curbed his impatience with some difficulty.

They rode through the silent village at a walk and entered the lane the surly villager had pointed out.

Sparhawk nudged Faran into a trot. "It's not all that fast, Sephrenia," he said in response to her disapproving expression. "The sun will be well up by the time we get there."

The lane was lined on both sides by low field-stone walls, and like all country lanes, it wandered. Farmers, by and large, take little interest in straight lines, and will usually follow the path of least resistance. Sparhawk's impatience grew greater with each pa.s.sing mile.

"There it is," Ulath said finally, pointing ahead. "I've seen hundreds like it in Thalesia."

"Let's wait until the sun gets a little higher," Tynian said, squinting at the sunrise. "I don't want any shadows around when I do this. Where's the king likely to be buried?"

"In the centre," Ulath replied, "with his feet pointed towards the west. His retainers will be in ranks on either side of him."

"It helps to know that."

"Lets ride around it," Sparhawk said. "I want to see if anybody's been digging, and I definitely want to make sure that n.o.body's around. This is the sort of thing we want lots of privacy for." They cantered around the mound. It was quite high, and it was perhaps a hundred feet long and twenty wide. Its sides were covered with gra.s.s, and it was smoothly symmetrical. There were no signs of any excavations.

"I'm going up on top," Kurik said when they returned to the road. "That's the highest point around here. If anybody's in the area, I should be able to see them from up there."

"You would actually walk on a grave?" Bevier's tone was shocked.

"We're all going to be walking on it in a little while, Bevier," Tynian said. "I'll need to be fairly close to where King Sarak's buried to raise his ghost."

Kurik clambered up the side of the mound and stood atop it, peering around. "I don't see anybody," he called down, "but there are some trees off to the south. It might not hurt to have a look before we get started."

Sparhawk ground his teeth together, but he had to admit to himself that his squire was probably right.

Kurik slid down the gra.s.sy side of the mound and remounted. "Sephrenia," Sparhawk said, "why don't you stay here with the children?"

"No, Sparhawk," she refused. "If there are people hiding in those trees, we don't want them to know that we have any particular interest in this mound."

"Good point," he agreed. "Let's just ride on down to those trees as if we intended to keep going south."

They moved out, following the winding country lane across the fields. "Sparhawk," Sephrenia said quietly as they approached the edge of the trees, "there are people in those woods, and they aren't friendly."

"How many?"

"A dozen at least."

"Hold back a little bit with Talen and Flute," he told her.

"All right, gentlemen," he said to the others, "you know what to do." But before they could enter the woods, a group of poorly armed peasants dashed out from under the trees. They had that vacant look that immediately identified them. Sparhawk lowered his lance and charged with his companions thundering along at either side of him.

The fight did not last for very long. The peasants were unskilled with their weapons, and they were on foot. It was all over in a few minutes.

"Nicely done, Sssir Knightsss," a chillingly metallic voice said sardonically from the shadows back under the trees. Then the robed and hooded Seeker rode out into the morning sunlight. "But no matter," it continued. "I know where ye are now."

Sparhawk handed his lance to Kurik and drew Aldreas's spear out from under his saddle skirt. "And we know where you are as well, Seeker," he said in an ominously quiet voice.

"Do not be foolisssh, SSSir SSSparhawk," it hissed. Thou art no match for me."

"Why don't we try it and find out?"

The hooded figure's hidden face began to glow green.

Then the light flickered and faded. "Thou ha.s.sst the ringsss!" it hissed, seeming much less sure of itself now.

"I thought you already knew that."

Then Sephrenia joined them.

"It ha.s.ss been quite sssome time, SSSephrenia," the thing said in its hissing voice.

"Not nearly long enough to suit me," she replied coldly.

"I will ssspare thy life if thou wilt fall down and worssship me."

"No, Azash. Never. I will remain faithful to my G.o.ddess."

Sparhawk stared at her and then at the Seeker in astonishment.

"Thinkessst thou that Aphrael canssst protect thee if I decide that thy life ssservesss no further purpossse?"

"You've decided that before without much noticeable effect. I will still serve Aphrael."

"a.s.ss thou ssseessst fit, SSSephrenia." Sparhawk moved Faran forwards at a walk, sliding his ringed hand up the shaft of the spear until it rested on the metal shank. Once again he felt that enormous surge of power. "The game isss almossst played out, and itsss conclusssion isss foregone.

We will meet once again, SSSephrenia, and for the la.s.sst time." Then the hooded creature wheeled its horse and fled from Sparhawk's menacing approach.

PART THREE - The Troll Cave

Chapter 18.

Was that really Azash?" Kalten asked in awe.

"His voice," Sephrenia replied.

"Does He really talk like that? All that hissing?"

"Not really. The Seeker's mouth-parts distort things."

"I gather that you've met Him before," Tynian said shifting the shoulder plates of his bulky armour.

"Once," she said shortly, "a very long time ago."

Sparhawk " got the distinct impression that she didn't really want to talk about it. "We may as well go back to the mound," she added. "Let's get what we came for and leave before the Seeker comes back with reinforcements."

"They turned their horses and rode back along the winding lane. The sun had fully risen by now, but Sparhawk nonetheless felt cold. The encounter with the Elder G.o.d, even though by proxy, had chilled his blood and seemed to have dulled even the sun.

When they reached the mound, Tynian took his coil of rope and laboriously led the way up the steep side. Again he laid out the peculiar pattern on the ground.

"Are you sure you won't raise one of the king's retainers by mistake?" Kalten asked him.

Tynian shook his head. "I'll call Sarak by name." He began the incantation, and concluded it by clapping his hands sharply together.

At first nothing seemed to happen, and then the ghost of the long dead King Sarak began to emerge from the mound. His chain-mail armour was archaic and showed huge rents in it from sword and axe. His shield had been battered, and his ancient sword was nicked and scarred.

He was enormous, but he wore no crown. "Who art thou?" the ghost demanded in a hollow voice.

"I am Tynian, Your Majesty, an Alcione Knight from Deira."

King Sarak stared sternly at him with hollow eyes.

"This is unseemly, Sir Tynian. Return me at once to the place where I sleep, lest I grow wroth."

"Pray forgive me, Your Majesty," Tynian apologized.

"We would not have disturbed thy rest but for a matter of desperate urgency."

"Nothing hath sufficient urgency to concern the dead."

Sparhawk stepped forward. "My name is Sparhawk, Your Majesty," he said.

"A Pandion, judging from thine armour."

"Yes, Your Majesty. The Queen of Elenia is gravely ill, and only Bh.e.l.liom can heal her. We have come to entreat thee to permit us to use the jewel to restore her health. We will return it to thy grave when we have completed our task."

"Return it or keep it, Sir Sparhawk," the ghost said indifferently.

"Thou shalt not find it in my grave, however."

Sparhawk felt as if he had been struck a sharp blow to the pit of the stomach.

"This queen of thine, what malady hath she so grave that only Bh.e.l.liom can heal it?" there was only the faintest hint of curiosity in the ghosts voice.

"She was poisoned, Your Majesty, by those who would seize her throne."

Sarak's expression, which had been blankly indifferent, suddenly became angry. "A treasonous act, Sir Sparhawk," he said harshly. "Knowest thou the perpetrators?"

"I do."

"And hast thou punished them?"

"Not as yet, Your Majesty."

"They still have their heads? Have the Pandions become weaklings over the centuries?"

"We thought it best to return the queen to health, Your Majesty, so that she might have the pleasure of p.r.o.nouncing their doom upon them."

Sarak seemed to consider that. "It is fitting," he approved finally. "Very well then, Sir Sparhawk, I will aid thee. Despair not that Bh.e.l.liom is not in the place where I lay, for I can direct thee to the place where it lies hidden. When I fell upon this field, my kinsman, the Earl of Heid, seized up my crown and fled with it to keep it out of the hands of our foes. Hard was he pressed and gravely wounded. He reached the sh.o.r.es of yon lake ere he died, and he hath sworn to me in the House of the dead that with his dying breath, he cast the crown into the murky waters, and that our foes found it not. Seek ye, therefore, in that lake, for doubtless Bh.e.l.liom still lies there."

"Thank you, Your Majesty," Sparhawk replied with profound grat.i.tude.

Then Ulath pushed forward. "I am Ulath of Thalesia," he declared, "and I claim distant kinship with thee, My King. It is unseemly that thy final resting place be in foreign soil. As G.o.d gives me strength, I vow to thee that with thy permission I will return thy bones to our homeland and lay thee to rest in the royal sepulcher at Emsat."

Sarak regarded the braided Genidian with some approval. "Let it be so then, my kinsman, for in truth, my sleep hath been unquiet in this rude place."