‘And what will you learn if you go up the street and chop the house and everyone in it to pieces? Sit down. Watch and learn.’
‘I’m obliged, Sephrenia. It’s part of the oath. It has been for five centuries.’
‘Bother the oath,’ she snapped. ‘This is more important.’
He sank back into his chair, troubled and uncertain. ‘What are they doing?’ he asked.
‘I told you. They’re raising the spirit of Azash. That can only mean that they’re Zemochs.’
‘What are the Elenes doing in there, then? The Cammorian, the Lamork, and that Pelosian woman?’
‘Receiving instruction, I think. The Zemochs didn’t come here to learn, but to teach. This is serious, Sparhawk – more deadly serious than you could ever imagine.’
‘What do we do?’
‘For the moment, nothing. We sit here and watch.’
Again Sparhawk felt that oppressive weight at the base of his skull, and then a fiery tingling that seemed to run through all his veins.
‘Azash has answered the summons,’ Sephrenia said quietly. ‘It’s very important to sit quietly now and for both of us to keep our thoughts neutral. Azash can sense hostility directed at him.’
‘Why would Elenes participate in the rites of Azash?’
‘Probably for the rewards he will give them for worshipping him. The Elder Gods have always been most lavish with their rewards – when it suits them to be.’
‘What kind of reward could possibly pay for the loss of one’s soul?’
She shrugged, a barely perceptible motion in the growing darkness. ‘Longevity, perhaps. Wealth, power and in the case of the woman – beauty. It could even be other things – things I don’t care to think about. Azash is twisted, and he soon twists those who worship him.’
In the street below, a workman with a handcart and a torch clattered along over the cobblestones. He took an unlighted torch from the cart, set it in an iron ring protruding from the shop-front below, and ignited it. Then he rattled on.
‘Good,’ Sephrenia murmured. ‘Now we’ll be able to see them when they come out.’
‘We’ve already seen them.’
‘They’ll be different, I’m afraid.’
The door to the Styric house opened, and the silk-robed Cammorian emerged. As he passed through the circle of torchlight below, Sparhawk saw that his face was very pale, and his eyes were wide with horror.
‘That one will not return,’ Sephrenia said quietly. ‘Most likely he’ll spend the rest of his life trying to atone for his venture into the darkness.’
A few minutes later, the booted Lamork came out into the street. His eyes burned, and his face was twisted into an expression of savage cruelty. His impassive crossbow-men marched along behind him.
‘Lost,’ Sephrenia sighed.
‘What?’
‘The Lamork is lost. Azash has him.’
Then the Pelosian lady emerged from the house. Her purple robe was carelessly open at the front, and beneath it she was naked. As she came into the torchlight, Sparhawk could see that her eyes were glazed and that her nude body was splattered with blood. Her hulking attendant made some effort to close the front of her robe, but she hissed at him, thrusting his hand away, and went off down the street shamelessly flaunting her body.
‘And that one is more than lost,’ Sephrenia said. ‘She will be dangerous now. Azash rewarded her with powers.’ She frowned. ‘I’m tempted to suggest that we follow her and kill her.’
‘I’m not sure that I could kill a woman, Sephrenia.’
‘She’s not even a woman any more, but we’d have to behead her, and that could cause some outrage in Chyrellos.’
‘Do what?’
‘Behead her. It’s the only way to be certain that she’s really dead. I think we’ve seen enough here, Sparhawk. Let’s go back to the chapterhouse and talk with Nashan. Tomorrow I think we should report this to Dolmant. The Church has ways to deal with this sort of thing.’ She rose to her feet.
‘Let me carry the sword for you.’
‘No, Sparhawk. It’s my burden. I must carry it.’ She tucked Lakus’ sword inside her robe and led the way towards the door.
They went downstairs again, and the shopkeeper came out of the back of his establishment rubbing his hands together. ‘Well?’ he said eagerly. ‘Will you be taking the rooms?’
‘Totally unsuitable,’ Sephrenia sniffed. ‘I wouldn’t keep my master’s dog in a place like that.’ Her face was very pale, and she was visibly trembling.
‘But –’
‘Just unlock the door, neighbour,’ Sparhawk said, ‘and we’ll be on our way.’
‘What took you so long, then?’
Sparhawk gave him a flat, cold stare, and the shopkeeper swallowed hard and went to the door, fishing in his tunic pocket for the key.
Outside, Faran was standing protectively beside Sephrenia’s palfrey. There was a torn scrap of rough cloth on the cobblestones under his hooves.
‘Trouble?’ Sparhawk asked him.
Faran snorted derisively.
‘I see,’ Sparhawk said.
‘What was that about?’ Sephrenia asked wearily as Sparhawk helped her to mount.
‘Someone tried to steal your horse,’ he shrugged. ‘Faran persuaded him not to.’
‘Can you really communicate with him?’
‘I more or less know what he’s thinking. We’ve been together for a long time.’ He hauled himself up into his saddle, and the two of them rode off down the street in the direction of the Pandion chapterhouse.
They had gone perhaps half a mile when Sparhawk had a momentary premonition. He reacted instantly, driving Faran’s shoulder against the white palfrey. The smaller horse lurched to one side, even as a crossbow bolt buzzed spitefully through the space where Sephrenia had been an instant before. ‘Ride, Sephrenia!’ he barked as the bolt clashed against the stones of a house fronting the street. He looked back, drawing his sword. But Sephrenia had already thumped her heels to the white horse’s flanks and plunged off down the street at a clattering gallop with Sparhawk closely behind her, shielding her body with his own.
After they had crossed several streets, Sephrenia slowed her pace. ‘Did you see him?’ she asked. She had Lakus’ sword in her hand now.
‘I didn’t have to see him. A crossbow means a Lamork. Nobody else uses them.’
