He was awakened at the end of the sermon by the voice of an angel. A young knight with hair the colour of butter and a neck like a marble column lifted his clear tenor voice in a hymn of praise. His face shone, and his eyes were filled with adoration.
‘Was I really all that boring?’ Vanion murmured, falling in beside Sparhawk as they left the chapel.
‘Probably not,’ Sparhawk replied, ‘but I’m not really in any position to judge. Did you do the one about the simple daisy being as beautiful in the eyes of God as the rose?’
‘You’ve heard it before?’
‘Frequently’
‘The old ones are the best.’
‘Who’s your tenor?’
‘Sir Parasim. He just won his spurs.’
‘I don’t want to alarm you, Vanion, but he’s too good for this world.’
‘I know.’
‘God will probably call him home very soon.’
‘That’s God’s business, isn’t it, Sparhawk?’
‘Do me a favour, Vanion. Don’t put me in a situation where I’m the one who gets him killed.’
‘That’s also God’s business. Sleep well, Sparhawk.’
‘You, too, Vanion.’
It was probably about midnight when the door to Sparhawk’s cell banged open. He rolled quickly out of his narrow cot and came to his feet with his sword in his hand.
‘Don’t do that,’ the big blond-haired man in the doorway said in disgust. He was holding a candle in one hand and a wineskin in the other.
‘Hello, Kalten,’ Sparhawk greeted his boyhood friend. ‘When did you get in?’
‘About a half-hour ago. I thought I was going to have to scale the walls there for a while.’ He looked disgusted. ‘It’s peacetime Why do they raise the drawbridge every night?’
‘Probably out of habit.’
‘Are you going to put that down?’ Kalten asked, pointing at the sword in Sparhawk’s hand, ‘or am I going to have to drink this whole thing by myself?’
‘Sorry,’ Sparhawk said. He leaned his plain sword against the wall.
Kalten set his candle on the small table in the corner, tossed the wineskin onto Sparhawk’s bed, and then caught his friend in a huge bear hug. ‘It’s good to see you,’ he declared.
‘And you, too,’ Sparhawk replied. ‘Have a seat.’ He pointed at the stool by the table and sat down on the edge of his cot. ‘How was Lamorkand?’
Kalten made an indelicate sound. ‘Cold, damp, and nervous,’ he replied. ‘Lamorks are not my favourite people in the world. How was Rendor?’
Sparhawk shrugged. ‘Hot, dry, and probably just as nervous as Lamorkand.’
‘I heard a rumour that you ran into Martel down there. Did you give him a nice funeral?’
‘He got away’
‘You’re slipping, Sparhawk.’ Kalten unfastened the collar of his cloak. A great mat of curly blond hair protruded out of the neck cf his mail coat. ‘Are you going to sit on that wineskin all night?’ he asked pointedly.
Sparhawk grunted, unstoppered the skin and lifted it to his lips. ‘Not bad,’ he said. ‘Where did you get it?’ He handed the skin to his friend.
‘I picked it up in a wayside tavern about sundown,’ he replied. ‘I remembered that all there is to drink in Pandion chapterhouses is water – or tea, if Sephrenia happens to be around. Stupid custom.’
‘We are a religious order, Kalten.’
‘There are a half-dozen patriarchs in Chyrellos who get drunk as lords every night.’ Kalten lifted the wineskin and took a long drink. Then he shook the skin. ‘I should have picked up two,’ he observed. ‘Oh, by the way, Kurik was in the tavern with some young puppy wearing your armour’
‘I should have guessed that,’ Sparhawk said wryly.
‘Anyway, Kurik told me that you were here. I was going to spend the night there, but when I heard that you’d come back from Rendor, I rode on the rest of the way’
‘I’m touched.’
Kalten laughed and handed back the wineskin.
‘Were Kurik and the novice staying out of sight?’ Sparhawk asked.
Kalten nodded. ‘They were in one of the back rooms, and the young fellow was keeping his visor down. Have you ever seen anybody try to drink through his visor? Funniest thing I ever saw. There were a couple of local whores there, too. Your young Pandion might be getting an education along about now’
‘He’s due,’ Sparhawk observed.
‘I wonder if he’ll try to do that with his visor down as well.’
‘Those girls are usually adaptable’
Kalten laughed. ‘Anyhow, Kurik told me about the situation here. Do you really believe you can sneak around Cimmura without being recognized?’
‘I was thinking along the lines of a disguise of some sort.’
‘Better come up with a false nose,’ Kalten advised.
‘That broken beak of yours makes you fairly easy to pick out of a crowd.’
‘You should know,’ Sparhawk said. ‘You’re the one who broke it.’
‘We were only playing,’ Kalten said, sounding a bit defensive
‘I’ve got used to it. We’ll talk with Sephrenia in the morning. She should be able to come up with something in the way of disguises.’
‘I’d heard that she was here. How is she?’
‘The same. Sephrenia never changes.’
‘Truly’ Kalten took another drink from the wineskin and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. ‘You know, I think I was always a big disappointment to her. No matter how hard she tried to teach me the secrets, I just couldn’t master the Styric language. Every time I tried to say “ogeragekgasek,” I almost dislocated my jaw.’
‘“Okeragukasek”,’ Sparhawk corrected him.
‘However you say it. I’ll just stick to my sword and let others play with magic ‘ He leaned forward on his stool. ‘They say that the Eshandists are on the rise again in Rendor. Is there any truth to that?’
‘It’s no particular danger.’ Sparhawk shrugged, lounging back on his cot. ‘They howl and spin around in circles out in the desert and recite slogans to each other. That’s about as far as it goes. Is anything very interesting going on in Lamorkand?’
Kalten snorted. ‘All the barons there are involved in private wars with each other,’ he reported. ‘The whole kingdom reeks with the lust for revenge. Would you believe that there’s actually a war going on over a bee sting? An earl got stung and declared war on the baron whose peasants owned the hive They’ve been fighting each other for ten years now’