Part 36 (1/2)

'Can you make her stop doing that to me, Vanion?' Sparhawk appealed. 'She's called me both a pagan and a barbarian so far today.'

'Well, aren't you?' she said.

'Maybe, but it's not nice to come right out and say it like that.'

'It's the presence of the Trolls that has concerned me since you told me about it at Sarsos,' Zalasta told them. 'They are not drawn from the past, and they have but recently come to this part of the world from their ancestral home in Thalesia. I know little of Trolls, but it was my understanding that they are fiercely attached to their homeland. What could have provoked this migration?'

'Ulath's baffled,' Sparhawk replied. 'I gather that the Thalesians are so happy that the Trolls have left that they didn't pursue the matter.'

'Trolls don't habitually co-operate with each other,' Sephrenia told them. 'One of them might have decided on his own to leave Thalesia, but he'd never have persuaded the rest to go with him.'

'You're raising a very unpleasant possibility, love,' Vanion said. They all looked at each other. 'Is there any way they could have got out of Bh.e.l.liom?' Vanion asked Sephrenia.

'I don't know, Vanion. Sparhawk asked me the same question quite some time ago. I don't know what spell Ghwerig used to seal them inside the jewel. Troll-spells aren't the same as ours.'

'Then we don't know if they're still inside or if they've somehow managed to free themselves?'

She nodded glumly.

'The fact that the Trolls banded up and left their ancestral home all at the same time suggests that something with sufficient authority over them commanded them to leave,' Zalasta mused.

'That would be their G.o.ds, all right.' Vanion's face was as glum as Sephrenia's. 'Trolls wouldn't obey anyone else.' He sighed. 'Well, we wanted to know who was opposing us. I think we may have just found out.'

'You're all full of light and joy today, Vanion,' Sparhawk said sourly, 'but I'd like something a little more concrete before I declare war on the Trolls.'

'How did you force the Troll-G.o.ds to stop attacking you in Zemoch, Prince Sparhawk?' Zalasta asked him.

'I used the Bh.e.l.liom.'

'It rather looks as if you'll have to use it again. I don't suppose you happened to bring it with you, did you?'

Sparhawk looked quickly at Sephrenia. 'You didn't tell him?' he asked with a certain surprise.

'It wasn't necessary for him to know, dear one. Dolmant wanted us all to keep it more or less to ourselves, remember?'

'I gather that it's not with you then, Prince Sparhawk,' Zalasta surmised. 'Did you leave it in some safe place in Cimmura?'

'It's in a safe place all right, learned one,' Sparhawk replied bleakly, 'but it's not in Cimmura.'

'Where is it then?'

'After we used it to destroy Azash, we threw it into the sea.' Zalasta's face went chalk white. 'In the deepest part of the deepest ocean in the world,' Sephrenia added.

Chapter 21.

'It is along the north coast, Ehlana-Queen,' Norkan translated Queen Betuana's reply. 'These s.h.a.ggy ones you call Trolls have come across the winter ice in large groups for the past two years. At first our people thought they were bears, but it was not so. They avoided us at first, and the snow and fog of winter made it hard for our people to see them clearly. When there were more of them here, they grew bolder. It was not until one of them was killed that we realised they were not bears.'

King Androl was not present. Androl's intellectual gifts were not profound, and he much preferred to let his wife deal with state matters. The Atan King looked very impressive, but he was at his best in ceremonial situations where no surprises were likely to come up.

'Ask her if they've seen any Trolls farther south,' Sparhawk murmured to his wife.

'Why don't you ask her?'

'Let's keep things sort of formal, Ehlana. This is technically a conversation between the two of you. I don't think the rest of us are supposed to join in. Let's not take a chance of violating a propriety we don't know about.'

Ehlana posed the question, and Oscagne translated.

'No,' Norkan repeated Ehlana's answer. 'The Trolls appear to have settled in the forests along the north slopes. So far as we know, they haven't come deeper into Atan.'

'Warn her that Trolls are very good at hiding in forests,' Ulath advised.

'So are we,' the reply was translated.

'Ask her if some advice on tactics would offend her,' the Genidian Knight said then. 'We Thalesians have had many experiences with Trolls-most of them bad.'

'We are always willing to listen to the voice of experience,' came the Atan queen's reply.

'When we encounter Trolls in Thalesia, we usually stay back a ways and shoot some arrows into them,' Ulath informed Ehlana. 'It's hard to kill them with arrows, because their fur and their hides are so thick, but it's a good idea to slow them down if you can. Trolls are much, much quicker than they look, and they have very long arms. They can s.n.a.t.c.h a man out of his saddle quicker than the man can blink.' Ehlana went through the formality of repeating his words.

'What does the Troll do then?' Betuana's expression was curious.

'First he pulls off the man's head. Then he eats the rest of him. Trolls don't like to eat heads for some reason.' Ehlana choked slightly on that.

'We do not use the bow in war,' Norkan translated Betuana's flowing Tamul. 'We only use it in the hunt for creatures we intend to eat.'

'Well,' Ulath said a bit dubiously, 'you could eat a Troll if you wanted to, I guess. I won't guarantee the flavour, though.'

'I refuse to repeat that, Sir Ulath!' Ehlana exclaimed.

'Ask her if javelins would be acceptable in the Atan culture,' Tynian suggested.

'Javelins would be quite all right,' Norkan replied. 'I've seen the Atans practising with them.'

Betuana spoke to him rapidly and at some length. 'Her Majesty's asked me to translate in narrative,' Norkan told them. 'The sun is well up, and she knows you should be on the road. Oscagne tells me that you're planning to take the road leading to Lebas in Tamul proper. Atan society's organised along clan lines, and each clan has its own territory. You'll be pa.s.sed along from clan to clan as you ride east. It's a breach of etiquette for one clan to intrude on the territory of another, and breaches of etiquette are avoided at all costs here in Atan.'

'I wonder why,' Stragen murmured.

'Oscagne,' Norkan said then, 'as soon as you reach civilisation, send me a score or so of imperial messengers with fast horses. Her Majesty wants to keep in close contact with Matherion during the crisis.'

'Very good idea,' Oscagne agreed.

Then Betuana rose, towering over all of them. She affectionately embraced Ehlana and then Mirtai, clearly indicating that it was time for them to continue their journey eastward.

'I will cherish the memory of this visit, dear Betuana,' Ehlana told her.

'And I will as well, dearly-loved sister-queen, Betuana replied in almost flawless Elenic.