‘How many?’ he asked, his tone suddenly all business.
‘We can’t be certain. The scouts didn’t want to be seen. There are soldiers of some kind out there, and they seem to be waiting for us.’
‘Berit,’ Sparhawk said to the young knight, ‘why don’t you ride on ahead and ask Kalten and the others to join us? Don’t run. Try to make it look casual.’
‘Right.’ Berit rode forward at a trot.
‘Mirtai,’ the big knight said, trying to keep his voice calm, ‘is there any kind of defensible position nearby?’
‘I was just coming to that,’ she replied. ‘There’s a kind of hill about a quarter of a mile ahead. It sort of juts up from the floor of the forest – boulders mostly. They’re covered over with moss.’
‘Could we get the carriage up there?’
She shook her head.
‘You get to walk then, my Queen,’ he said to his wife.
‘We don’t know that they’re hostile, Sparhawk,’ Ehlana objected.
‘That’s true,’ he conceded, ‘but we don’t know that they aren’t either, and that’s far more important.’
Kalten and the others came back along the column with Kring and Engessa.
‘Are they doing anything at all, Atan Engessa?’ Sparhawk asked.
‘Just watching, Sparhawk-Knight. There are more of them than we thought at first – a thousand at least – probably a lot more.’
‘It’s going to be tricky with all these trees,’ Kalten pointed out.
‘I know,’ Sparhawk grunted. ‘Khalad, how close is it to noon?’
‘About another hour, my Lord,’ Khalad replied from the carriage driver’s seat.
‘Close enough then. There’s a hill just up ahead. We’ll ride on to it and make some show of stopping for our midday meal. Our friends here in the carriage will sort of stroll up to the top. The rest of us will spread out around the base of the hill. We’ll build fires and rattle pots and pans together. Ehlana, be silly. I want you and the baroness to do a lot of laughing up there on that hilltop. Stragen, take some men and erect a pavilion of some kind up there. Try to make it look festive. Move some rocks out of your way and sort of pile them up around the hilltop.
‘A siege again, Sparhawk?’ Ulath said disapprovingly.
‘Have you got a better idea?’
‘Not really, but you know how I feel about sieges.’
‘Nobody said you had to like it, Ulath,’ Tynian told him.
‘Spread the word,’ Sparhawk told them, ‘and let’s try to make it all look very casual.’
They were tense as they proceeded along the road at a leisurely-appearing pace. When they rounded a bend and Sparhawk saw the hill, he immediately approved of its strategic potential. It was one of those rock-piles that inexplicably rear up out of forests the world over. It was a conical heap of rounded boulders perhaps forty feet high, green with moss and totally devoid of trees or brush. It stood about two hundred yards to the left of the road. Talen rode to its base, dismounted, scampered up to the top and looked around. ‘It’s perfect, my Queen,’ he shouted back down. ‘You can see for miles up here. It’s just what you were looking for.’
‘That’s a nice touch,’ Bevier noted, ‘assuming that our friends out there speak Elenic, of course.’
Stragen came forward from the line of pack-horses carrying a lute. ‘A little finishing touch, my Queen,’ he smiled to Ehlana.
‘Do you play, Milord?’ she asked him.
‘Any gentleman plays, your Majesty.’
‘Sparhawk doesn’t.’
‘We’re still working on a definition of Sparhawk, Queen Ehlana,’ Stragen replied lightly. ‘We’re not altogether certain that “gentleman” really fits him – no offence intended of course, old boy,’ he hastily assured the black-armoured Pandion.
‘A suggestion, Sparhawk?’ Tynian said.
‘Go ahead.’
‘We don’t know anything about those people out there, but they don’t know anything about us either – or at the most, very, very little.’
‘That’s probably true.’
‘Just because they’re watching doesn’t mean they’re planning an immediate attack – if they’re even planning to attack at all. If they are, they could just sit and wait until we’re back on the road again.’
‘All right.’
‘But we’re travelling with some giddy noblewomen – begging your Majesty’s pardon – and noblewomen don’t really need reasons for the things they do.’
‘Your popularity isn’t growing in certain quarters, Sir Tynian,’ Ehlana said ominously.
‘I’m crushed, but couldn’t your Majesty decide – on a whim – that you absolutely adore this place and that you’re bored with riding in a carriage? Under those circumstances, wouldn’t it be natural for you to order a halt for the day?’
‘It’s not bad, Sparhawk,’ Kalten said. ‘While we’re all lunching, we can sort of unobtrusively fortify that hill a little better. Then, after a few hours, when it’s obvious that we aren’t going any further today, we can set up the usual evening camp – field fortifications and the like. We’re not on any specific timetable, so a half a day lost isn’t going to put us behind any sort of schedule. The queen’s safety’s a lot more important than speed right now, wouldn’t you say?’
‘You know how I’m going to answer that, Kalten.’
‘I was sure I could count on you.’
‘It’s good, Sparhawk-Knight,’ Engessa approved. ‘Give my scouts one whole night to work with, and we’ll not only know how many are out there, but their names as well.’
‘Break a wheel,’ Ulath added.
‘What was that, Sir Knight?’ Ambassador Oscagne asked, looking perplexed.
‘That would give us another excuse for stopping,’ the Thalesian replied. ‘If the carriage broke down, we’d have to stop.’
‘Can you fix a wheel, Sir Ulath?’
‘No, but we can rig some kind of a skid to get us by until we can find a blacksmith.’
‘Wouldn’t a skid make the carriage jolt and bump around a great deal?’ Patriarch Emban asked with a pained look.
‘Probably,’ Ulath shrugged.
‘I’m almost certain we can find some other reason to stop, Sir Knight. Have you any idea of how uncomfortable that would be?’