‘I’ve got a problem, Sparhawk,’ the boy said.

‘Oh?’

‘Some of the primate’s men found out that I’ve been helping you. They’re looking for me all over Cimmura.’

‘I told you that you were going to get in trouble,’ Kurik growled at him. Then the squire looked at Sparhawk. ‘What do we do now?’ he asked. ‘I don’t want him locked up in the cathedral dungeon.’

Sparhawk scratched his chin. ‘I guess he’ll have to go with us,’ he said, ‘at least as far as Demos.’ He grinned suddenly ‘We can leave him with Aslade and the boys.’

‘Are you insane, Sparhawk?’

‘I thought you’d be delighted at the notion, Kurik.’

‘That’s the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard in my life.’

‘Don’t you want him to get to know his brothers?’ Sparhawk looked at the boy. ‘How much did you steal from Berit here?’ he bluntly asked the young thief.

‘Not very much, really’

‘Give it all back.’

‘I’m very disappointed in you, Sparhawk.’

‘Life is filled with disappointments. Now give it back.’

Chapter 11

It was midafternoon when they rode across the drawbridge and onto the road leading to Demos and beyond. The wind still blew, but the sky was clearing. The long road stretching towards Demos was teeming with traffic. Carts and wagons rattled by, and drably dressed peasants with heavy bundles on their shoulders plodded slowly towards the market places of Cimmura. The raw winter wind bent the yellow grass at the sides of the road. Sparhawk rode a few paces in advance of the others, and the travellers on their way to Cimmura gave way to him. Faran was prancing again as they rode along at a steady trot.

‘Your horse seems restive, Sparhawk,’ the Patriarch Dolmant, wrapped in a heavy black ecclesiastical cloak over his cassock, observed.

‘He’s just showing off,’ Sparhawk replied back over his shoulder. ‘He has some notion that it impresses me.’

‘It gives him something to do while he’s waiting for the chance to bite somebody.’ Kalten laughed.

‘Is he vicious?’

‘It’s the nature of the war horse, your Grace,’ Sparhawk explained. ‘They’re bred for aggressiveness. In Faran’s case they just went too far.’

‘Has he ever bitten you?’

‘Once. Then I explained to him that I’d rather he didn’t do it any more.’

‘Explained?’

‘I used a stout stick. He got the idea almost immediately’

‘We’re not going to get too far this afternoon, Sparhawk,’ Kurik called from his position at the rear of the party where he rode with their pair of pack horses. ‘We started late. There’s an inn I know of about a league ahead. What do you think of the idea of stopping there, getting a good night’s sleep, and starting out early in the morning?’

‘It makes sense, Sparhawk,’ Kalten agreed. ‘I don’t enjoy sleeping on the ground that much any more.’