"All you have to do is ask. Have you got any ideas?"

"A few. Our first problem is Ortzel, though. If he bows his neck on this, we'll never get him out of the castle."

"Suppose I just hit him on the head before we leave and tie him across his saddle until we're safely away?"

"Sparhawk," she chided him.

"It was a thought," he shrugged. "What about Flute here?"

"What about her?"

"She made those soldiers on the docks at Vardenais "and the spies outside the chapterhouse ignore us.

"Couldn't she do that here too?"

"Do you realize how large that army outside the gate is, Sparhawk? She's just a little girl, after all."

"Oh. I didn't know that would make a difference."

"Of course it does."

"Couldn't you put Ortzel to sleep?" Talen asked her "you know, sort of wiggle your fingers at him until he drops off?"

"It's possible, I suppose."

"Then he won't know you used magic to get us out of here until he wakes up."

"Interesting notion, " she conceded. "How did you come up with it?"

"I'm a thief, Sephrenia," he grinned impudently. "I wouldn't be very good at it if I couldn't think faster than the other fellow."

"However we manage Ortzel is beside the point," Sparhawk said. "Our main concern is getting Alstrom's co-operation. He might be a little reluctant to risk his brothers life on something he doesn't understand. I'll talk with him in the morning."

"Be very persuasive, Sparhawk," Sephrenia said.

"I'll try. Come along, Talen. Let the ladies get some sleep. Kalten and I have a spare bed in our room. You can sleep there. Sephrenia, don't be afraid to call on me and the others if you need help with any spells."

"I'm never afraid, Sparhawk - not when I have you to protect me."

"Stop that," he told her. Then he smiled. "Sleep well Sephrenia."

"You too, dear one."

"Good night, Flute," he added.

She blew him a little trill on her pipes.

The following morning, Sparhawk rose early and went back into the main part of the castle. As chance had it, he encountered Sir Enmann in the long, torch lit corridor.

"How do things stand?" he asked the Lamork knight.

Enmann's face was grey with fatigue. He had obviously been up all night. "We've had some successes, Sir Sparhawk," he replied. "We repelled a fairly serious a.s.sault on the castle's main gate about midnight, and we're moving our own engines into place. We should be able to begin destroying Gerich's siege machines - and his ships - before noon."

"Will he pull back at that point?"

Enmann shook his head. "More likely, he'll begin digging earthwork fortifications. It's probable that the siege will be protracted."

Sparhawk nodded. "I thought that might be the case," he agreed. "Have you any idea where I might find Baron Alstrom? I need to talk with him - out of the hearing of his brother."

"My Lord Alstrom is atop the battlements at the front of the castle, Sir Sparhawk. He wants Gerich to be able to see him. That may goad the count into some rash move. He's alone there. His brother is customarily in chapel at this hour."

"Good. I'll go talk with the baron then."

It was windy atop the battlements. Sparhawk had drawn his cloak about his armour to conceal it, and the wind whipped it around his legs.

"Ah, good morning, Sir Sparhawk," Baron Alstrom said. His voice was weary. He wore a full suit of armour, and the visor of his helmet had that peculiar pointed construction common in Lamorkand.

"Good morning, My" Lord," Sparhawk replied, staying back from the battlements. "Is there somewhere back out of sight where we can talk? I'm not sure it's a good idea to let Gerich know that there are Church Knights inside your walls just yet, and I'm sure he has a number of sharp-eyed men watching You."

"the tower there above the gate," Alstrom suggested.

"Come along, Sir Sparhawk." And he led the way along the parapet.

The room inside the tower was grimly functional. A dozen crossbowmen stood at the narrow embrasures along its front, unloosing their bolts at the troops below.

"You men," Alstrom commanded, "I have need of this room. Go shoot from the battlements for a while."

The soldiers filed out, their metal-shod feet clinking on the stone floor.

"We have a problem, My Lord," Sparhawk said when the two of them were alone.

"I noticed that," Alstrom said drily, glancing out of one of the embrasures at the troops ma.s.sed before his walls.

Sparhawk grinned at this rare flash of humour in a usually dour race. "That particular problem is yours, My Lord," he said. "Our mutual one is what we're going to do about your brother. Sephrenia got directly to the point last night. No purely natural effort is going to effect his escape from this siege. We have no choice. We have to use magic - and His Grace appears to be unalterably against it."

"I would not presume to instruct Ortzel in theology."

"Nor would I, My Lord. Might I point out, however, that should His Grace ascend to the Archprelacy, he's going to have to modify his position - or at least learn to look the other way when this sort of thing happens. The four orders are the military arm of the Church, and we routinely utilize the secrets of Styric.u.m in completing our tasks."

"I'm aware of that, Sir Sparhawk. My brother, however, is a rigid man and unlikely to change his views."

Sparhawk began to pace up and down, thinking fast. "Very well, then," he said carefully. "What we'll have to do to get your brother out of the castle will seem unnatural to you, but I a.s.sure you that it will be very effective. Sephrenia is highly skilled in the secrets. I've seen her do things that verge on the miraculous. You have my guarantee that she will in no way endanger your brother."

"I understand, Sir Sparhawk."

"Good. I was afraid that you might object. Most people are reluctant to rely on things they don't understand. Now, then, His Grace will in no way partic.i.p.ate in what we may have to do. To put it bluntly, he'd just be in the way. All he's going to do is take advantage of it. He will in no way be personally involved in what he considers a sin."

"Understand me, Sir Sparhawk, I am not opposed to you in this. I will try reason with my brother. Sometimes he listens to me."

"Let's hope this is one of those times." Sparhawk glanced out of the window and swore.

"What is it, Sir Sparhawk?"

"Is that Gerich standing on top of that knoll at the rear of his troops?"

The Baron looked out of the embrasure. "It is."

"You might recognize the man standing beside him. That's Adus, Martel's underling. It seems that Martel's been playing both sides in this affair. The one that concerns me, though, is that figure standing off to one side - the tall one in the black robe."

"I don't think it poses much of a threat, Sir Sparhawk. It seems to be hardly more than a skeleton."

"You notice how its face seems to glow?"

"Now that you mention it, yes, I do. Isn't that odd?"

"Its more than odd, Baron Alstrom. I think I'd better go and talk with Sephrenia. She needs to know about this immediately."

Sephrenia sat beside the fire in her room with her ever-present teacup in her hands. Flute sat cross-legged on the bed, weaving a cat's cradle of such complexity that Sparhawk pulled his eyes away from it lest his entire mind become lost in trying to trace out the individual strands. "we've got trouble," he told his tutor.

"I noticed that," she replied.

"It's a little more serious than we'd thought. Adus is out there with Count Gerich, and Krager's probably lurking around somewhere in the background."

"Martel's beginning to make me very tired."

"Adus and Krager don't add that much to the problems we've already got, but that thing, the Seeker, is out there too."

"Are you sure?" She came quickly to her feet.

"It's the right size and shape, and that same glow is coming out from under its hood. How many humans can it take over at any one time?"

"I don't think there are any limits, Sparhawk, not when Azash is controlling it."

"Do you remember those ambushers back near the Pelosian border? How they just kept coming even though we were cutting them to pieces?"

"Yes."

"If the Seeker can gain control of Gerich's whole army, he'll mount an a.s.sault that Baron Alstrom's forces won't be able to withstand. We'd better get out of here in a hurry, Sephrenia. Have you come up with anything yet?"

"There are a few possibilities," she replied. "The presence of the Seeker complicates things a bit, but I think I know a way to get around it."

"I hope so. Let's go and talk with the others.

It was perhaps a half-hour later when they all gathered again in the room where they had first met the previous day. "Very well, gentlemen," Sephrenia said to them. "We are in great danger."

"The castle is quite secure, Madame," Alstrom a.s.sured her.

"In five hundred years it has never once fallen to sieges."

"I'm afraid things are different this time. A besieging army usually a.s.saults the walls, doesn't it?"

"That's the common practice, once the siege engines have weakened the fortifications."

"After the a.s.saulting force has taken heavy casualties, they normally fall back, don't they?"

"That's been my experience."

"Gerich's men will not fall back. They will continue their attack until they overwhelm the castle."

"how can you be so sure?"

"You remember the figure in the black robe I pointed out to you, My Lord?" Sparhawk said.

"Yes. It seemed to cause you some concern."

"With good reason, My Lord. That's the creature that's been pursuing us. It's called a Seeker. It's not human, it's subject to Azash."

"Beware of what you say, Sir Sparhawk," Patriarch Ortzel said ominously. The Church does not recognize the existence of the Styric G.o.ds. You are treading very close to the brink of heresy."

"Just for the purposes of this discussion, let's a.s.sume that I know what I'm talking about," Sparhawk replied. "Setting Azash aside for the moment, it's important for you and your brother to understand just how dangerous that thing out there really is. It will be able to control Gerich's troops completely, and it will hurl them against this castle until they succeed in taking it."

"Not only that," Bevier added bleakly, "they will pay no attention to wounds that would incapacitate a normal man. The only way to stop them is to kill them. We've met men under the Seeker's control before, and we had to kill every last one of them."

"Sir Sparhawk," Alstrom said, "Count Gerich is my mortal enemy, but he's still an honourable man and a faithful son of the Church. He would not consort with a creature of darkness."

"It's entirely possible that the count doesn't even know it's there," Sephrenia said. "The whole point here, however, is that we're all in deadly peril."

"Why would that creature join forces with Gerich?" Alstrom asked.

"As Sparhawk said, it's been pursuing us. For some reason, Azash looks upon Sparhawk as a threat. The Elder G.o.ds have some ability to see into the future, and its possible that Azash has caught a glimpse of something he wants to prevent. He's already made several attempts on Sparhawk's life. It's my belief that the Seeker is here for the express purpose of killing Sparhawk - or at the very least preventing his recovering Bh.e.l.liom. We must leave, My Lord, and quickly." She turned to Ortzel. "I'm afraid, Your Grace, that we have no choice. We're compelled to resort to the Arts of Styric.u.m."

"I will not be a party to that," he said stiffly. "I know that you are Styric, Madame, and therefore ignorant of the dictates of the true faith, but how dare you propose to "practise your black arts in my presence? I am a Churchman, after all."

"I think that in time you may be obliged to modify your views, Your Grace," Ulath said calmly. "The militant orders are the arm of the Church. We receive instruction in the secrets so that we may better serve her. This practice has been approved by every Archprelate for nine hundred years."

"Indeed," Sephrenia added, "no Styric will consent to teach the Knights until approval is given by each new Archprelate."

"Should it come to pa.s.s that I ascend the throne in Chyrellos, that practice shall cease."

"Then the west will surely be doomed," she predicted, "for without these Arts, the Church Knights will be helpless against Azash, and without the Knights, the west will fall before the hordes of Otha."

"We have no evidence that Otha is coming."

"We have no evidence that summer is coming either," she said drily. She looked at Alstrom. "I believe I have a plan that may effect our escape, My Lord, but first I'll need to go to your kitchen and talk with your cook."

He looked puzzled. "The plan involves certain ingredients normally found in kitchens. I need to be certain they're available."

"There's a guard at the door, Madame," he said. "He Will escort you to the kitchen."