‘There are bound to be other objects,’ Sephrenia declared. ‘We live in a world with magic all around us. In all of the aeons since the beginning of time, I’d imagine that the Gods have seen fit to create any number of things with the kind of power we’re looking for.’

‘Why not just make one?’ Kalten asked. ‘Get a group of people together and have them cast a spell on something, some jewel or stone or ring or whatever?’

‘Now I can see why you never became proficient in the secrets, Kalten.’ Sephrenia sighed. ‘You don’t even understand the basic principles. All magic comes from the Gods, not from us. They allow us to borrow if we ask them in the proper fashion – but they won’t let us make the kind of thing we’re looking for in this case. The power that’s instilled in these objects is a part of the power of the Gods themselves, and they don’t sacrifice that sort of thing lightly’

‘Oh,’ the blond man said. ‘I didn’t know that.’

‘You should have. I told you about it when you were fifteen.’

‘I must have forgotten.’

‘About all we can do is start looking,’ Vanion said. ‘I’ll send word to the other preceptors. We’ll have every Church Knight in all four orders working on it.’

‘And I’ll get word to the Styrics in the mountains,’ Sephrenia added. ‘There are many such things known only to Styricum.’

‘Did anything interesting happen in Madel?’ Sparhawk asked Kalten.

‘Not really,’ Kalten replied. ‘We caught a few glimpses of Krager, but always from a distance. By the time we got close to where he’d been, he’d given us the slip. He’s a tricky little weasel, isn’t he?’

Sparhawk nodded. ‘That’s what made me finally realize that he was being used as bait. Could you get any idea of what he was doing?’

‘No. We could never get close enough. He was up to something, though. He was scurrying around Madel like a mouse in a cheese factory’

‘Did Adus drop out of sight?’

‘More or less. Talen and Berit saw him once – when he and Krager rode out of town.’

‘Which way were they going?’ Sparhawk asked the boy

Talen shrugged. ‘They were headed back towards Borrata the last time we saw them,’ he said. ‘They might have changed direction once they got out of sight, though.’

‘The big one had some bandages on his head, Sir Sparhawk,’ Berit reported, ‘and his arm was in a sling.’

Kalten laughed. ‘It seems that you got a bigger piece of him than either one of us realized, Sparhawk,’ he said.

‘I was trying,’ Sparhawk said grimly. ‘Getting rid of Adus is one of my main goals in life.’

The door opened, and Kurik came back in carrying the wooden case containing the swords of the fallen knights.

‘You insist on doing this, Vanion?’ Sephrenia asked.