Sparhawk started to swear. ‘We’ve got to get to Cimmura,’ he said. ‘It’s getting close to the time when another of the twelve knights is going to die, and I don’t know how much more of the weight Sephrenia can carry. Think, Kurik. You’re always better at tactics than I am.’

‘That’s because I don’t wear armour. The sense of invincibility does funny things to a man’s brains.’

‘Thanks,’ Sparhawk said dryly.

Kurik knit his brows in thought.

‘Well?’ Sparhawk said impatiently.

‘I’m working on it. Don’t rush me.’

‘We’re getting closer to the wharf, Kurik.’

‘I can see that. Can you tell if they’re searching any of the ships?’

Sparhawk raised his head and peered over the top of the deckhouse ‘They don’t seem to be.’

‘Good. That means we won’t have to make any spur-of-the-moment decisions. We can go below and work this out.’

‘Any ideas at all?’

‘You’re pushing, Sparhawk,’ Kurik said disapprovingly. ‘That’s one of your failings, you know You always want to dash into the middle of things before you’ve thought your way completely through what you’re going to do.’

Their ship hove to beside a tar-smeared wharf, and the sailors cast lines to the longshoremen clustered there. Then they ran out the gangway and began to carry boxes and bales down to the wharf.

There was a clattering sound from the hold, and Faran trotted up on deck. Sparhawk stared at his war horse in amazement. Flute sat cross-legged on the big roan’s broad back playing her pipes. The melody she played was a peculiarly drowsy one, almost like a lullaby. Before Sparhawk and Kurik could run to intercept her, she tapped Faran’s back with the side of her foot, and he placidly walked down the gangway to the wharf.

‘What is she doing?’ Kurik exclaimed.

‘I can’t even begin to guess. Get Sephrenia – fast!’

On the wharf, Flute rode directly towards the squad of church soldiers stationed at the far end. The soldiers had been closely examining every disembarking passenger and sailor, but they paid no attention to Flute and the roan horse She impudently rode back and forth in front of them several times, then turned. She seemed to be looking directly at Sparhawk and, still playing her pipes, she raised one little hand and motioned to him.

He stared at her.

She made a little face and then quite deliberately rode directly through the soldiers’ ranks. They absently stepped aside for her, but not one of them so much as looked at her.

‘What’s going on down there?’ he demanded as Sephrenia and Kurik joined him behind the deckhouse.

‘I’m not altogether sure,’ Sephrenia replied, frowning.

‘Why aren’t the soldiers paying any attention to her?’ Kurik asked as Flute rode through the ranks of red tunics once again.

‘I don’t think they can see her.’