The Sapphire Rose

Sparhawk felt a sudden chill. He looked around. Though he could not see it, he knew that the shadowy watcher which had followed him from Ghwerig’s cave was somewhere here in the room. Could it possibly be that merely the mention of Bhelliom’s name was enough to summon it?

‘But how do we know that Sparhawk will be able to follow us?’ Annias was asking. ‘He doesn’t know about our arrangement with Otha, so he won’t have the faintest idea of where we’re going.’

‘You are naive, aren’t you, Annias?’ Martel laughed. ‘Sephrenia can listen in on a conversation from at least five miles away, and she can arrange to have everyone in the room with her hear it as well. Not only that, there are hundreds of places in this cellar that are within earshot of this room. Believe me, Annias, one way or another, Sparhawk’s listening to us at this very moment.’ He paused. ‘Aren’t you, Sparhawk?’ he added.

Chapter 15

Martel’s question hung in the musty dimness. ‘Stay here,’ Sparhawk whispered bleakly to Delada. He reached for his sword.

‘Not very likely,’ the colonel replied, his tone just as grim. He also drew his sword.

It was really neither the time nor the place for arguments. ‘All right, but be careful. I’ll take Martel. You grab Annias.’

The two of them stepped out of their place of concealment and walked towards the single candle guttering on the table.

‘Why, if it isn’t my dear brother Sparhawk,’ Martel drawled. ‘So awfully good to see you again, old boy.’

‘Look quickly, Martel. You aren’t going to be seeing much of anything for very long.’

‘I’d love to oblige you, Sparhawk, but I’m afraid we’ll have to postpone it again. Pressing business, you understand.’ Martel took Annias by the shoulder and pushed him towards the door. ‘Move!’ he snapped. The two of them went quickly out as Sparhawk and Delada rushed forward, swords in hand.

‘Stop!’ Sparhawk snapped to his companion.

‘They’re getting away, Sparhawk!’ Delada objected.

‘They already have.’ Sparhawk said it with a hot disappointment souring his mouth. ‘Martel’s got a hundred men out there in those corridors. We need you alive, Colonel.’ Sparhawk whistled shrilly even as he heard the rush of many feet in the corridor outside. ‘We’ll have to defend the door until Kurik and the guardsmen get here.’

The two of them went quickly to the rotting door and took their places, one on either side of it. At the last moment, Sparhawk stepped out into plain view a few feet back from the arched opening in the massive stone wall. His position gave his sword full play, but the soldiers rushing through the entrance were hampered in their swings by the rocks of the sides and top of the archway.

Martel’s mercenaries discovered very quickly what a bad idea it was to rush up on Sparhawk when he was angry, and Sparhawk was very angry at that point. The bodies piled up in the doorway as he savagely vented his rage on the scruffy-looking soldiers.

Then Kurik was there with Delada’s guardsmen, and Martel’s men fell back, defending the passageway leading towards the opening of the aqueduct into which Martel and Annias had already fled. ‘Are you all right?’ the squire asked quickly, looking in through the doorway.

‘Yes,’ Sparhawk replied. Then he reached out and caught Delada’s arm as the colonel started to push past him.

‘Let me go, Sparhawk,’ Delada said from between tight lips.

‘No, Colonel. Do you remember what I told you a while ago about your being the most important man in Chyrellos for a while?’

‘Yes.’ Delada’s tone was sullen.

‘That particular eminence started just a few minutes ago, and I‘m not going to let you get yourself killed just because you’re feeling pugnacious at the moment. I’ll take you to your quarters now and post a guard outside your door.’

Delada rammed his sword back into its sheath. ‘You’re right, of course,’ he said. ‘It’s just that –’

‘I know, Delada. I feel the same way myself.’

After he had seen to the colonel’s safety, Sparhawk returned to the cellar. The guardsmen under Kurik’s command were in the process of mopping up and flushing out any mercenaries who were trying to hide. Kurik came back through the torchlit darkness. ‘I’m afraid Martel and Annias got completely away, Sparhawk,’ he reported.

‘He was ready for us, Kurik,’ Sparhawk said glumly. ‘Somehow he knew we’d either be down here or that Sephrenia could work a spell so that we could hear him. He was saying a lot of things for my benefit.’

‘Oh?’

‘The army coming in from the west is Wargun’s.’

‘It’s about time he got here.’ Kurik suddenly grinned.

‘Martel also announced which way he’s going. He wants us to follow him.’

‘I’ll be overjoyed to oblige him. Did we get what we want, though?’

Sparhawk nodded. ‘When Delada’s done with his report, Annias won’t get a single vote.’

‘That’s something anyway.’

‘Put some captain in charge of these guardsmen, and let’s go and find Vanion.’

The Preceptors of the four orders were standing atop the walls near the gates looking with some puzzlement out at the now-retreating mercenaries. ‘They just broke off the attack for no reason,’ Vanion said as Sparhawk and Kurik joined them.

‘They had a reason, right enough,’ Sparhawk replied. ‘That’s Wargun over there across the river.’

‘Thank God!’ Vanion exclaimed. ‘Word must have reached him after all. How did things go in the cellar?’

‘Colonel Delada heard a very interesting conversation. Martel and Annias got away, though. They’re going to make a run for Zemoch to seek Otha’s protection. Martel’s going to send his Rendors out to destroy the bridges to give the rest of his mercenaries time to deploy. He doesn’t have much hope that they’ll be able to do much more than inconvenience Wargun. All he’s really hoping for is enough delay to give him time to get away.’

‘I think we’d better go and talk with Dolmant,’ Preceptor Darellon said. ‘The situation has changed a bit. Why don’t you round up your friends, Sir Sparhawk, and we’ll go back to the chapterhouse.’

‘Pass the word, Kurik,’ Sparhawk told his squire. ‘Let all our friends know that King Wargun’s come to our rescue.’