It was a small group of soldiers, no doubt one of the detachments that had been trying to lure the knights into side passages. Sparhawk went towards them purposefully. It was good to be fighting. Fighting demanded every bit of a man’s attention and pushed everything else from his mind. Sparhawk moved deftly against the half-dozen Zemochs. There was a certain obscure justice working now. Kurik had taught him every move, every technical nuance he was bringing to bear, and those skills were supplemented by a towering rage over his friend’s death. In a very real sense, Kurik had made Sparhawk invincible. Even Kalten seemed shocked at his friend’s sheer savagery. It was the work of no more than a few moments to kill five of the soldiers facing him. The last turned to flee, but Sparhawk passed his sword quickly to his shield-hand, bent and picked up a Zemoch spear. ‘Take this with you,’ he called after the fleeing man. Then he made a long, practised cast. The spear took the soldier squarely between the shoulder blades.

‘Good throw,’ Kalten said.

‘Let’s go and help Tynian and Ulath.’ Sparhawk still felt a powerful need to kill people. He led his friend back towards the turn in the corridor where the Alcione Knight and his Genidian comrade were holding back the soldiers who had rushed into the maze from the throne-room in response to Adus’s bellowed command.

‘I’ll take care of this,’ Sparhawk said flatly.

‘Kurik?’ Ulath asked.

Sparhawk shook his head and began killing Zemochs again. He waded on, leaving the maimed behind him for his companions to dispatch.

‘Sparhawk!’ Ulath shouted. ‘Stop! They’re running!’

‘Hurry!’ Sparhawk yelled back. ‘We can still catch them!’

‘Let them go!’

‘No!’

‘You’re keeping Martel waiting, Sparhawk,’ Kalten said sharply. Kalten sometimes made a show of being stupid, but Sparhawk saw immediately just how smoothly his blond friend had brought him up short. Killing relatively innocent soldiers was no more than an idle pastime when compared to dealing once and for all with the white-haired renegade. He stopped. ‘All right,’ he panted, nearly exhausted from his exertions, ‘let’s go back. We’ve got to get past that sliding wall before the soldiers come back anyway.’

‘Are you feeling any better?’ Tynian asked as they started back towards the alcove.

‘Not really,’ Sparhawk said.

They passed Adus’s body. ‘Go on ahead,’ Kalten told them. ‘I’ll be right along.’

Berit and Bevier awaited them at the entrance to the alcove.

‘Did you chase them off?’ Bevier asked.

‘Sparhawk did,’ Ulath grunted. ‘He was very convincing.’

‘Aren’t they likely to gather reinforcements and come back?’

‘Not unless their officers have very large whips, they won’t.’