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‘No Sohed and nestled against her sister ‘Please don’t be angry withto like what’s coh No matter how much it upsets you, always remember that I love you’ She sat up and held her hands out to Sparhawk ‘I need to talk with you,’ she said to hiirl needs secrets, Talen You’ll learn oes on Let’s ride off a ways, Sparhawk’

They rode away from the road for several hundred yards, and thenpace with the others Faran’s steel-shod hooves clattered on the rusty sun-baked gravel of the desert floor

‘We’ll be going on toward the Tamul border,’ Flute said as they rode ‘This event that’s ahead of us will happen there, and I’ll have to leave you before it does’

‘Leave?’ He was startled

‘You’ll be able to e without me for a while I can’t be present when this event takes place There’s a propriety involved I ested, but I do have goodpart in this affair and he’d be insulted if I were present He and I have had so to each other at the mothy ht or ten thousand years, actually He’s doing so I don’t really approve of – of course, he’s never fully explained it to ot a terribly superior attitude He always behaves as if the rest of us are too stupid to understand what he’s doing – but I understand very well He’s breaking one of the cardinal rules’ She waved her hand as if brushing it aside ‘That’s between hi to have a very difficult tiet sick, is she?’

‘She’d probably prefer that’ The Child Goddess sighed ‘I wish there were soo through it if she’s going to continue to grow’

‘Aphrael, she’s over three hundred years old’

‘What’s that got to do with it? I’ She has to do the same I’m lovable, Sparhawk, but I never pro to be terribly painful to her, but she’ll beany sense, you know’

‘I don’t have to es of my situation’

They made the journey fro at a leisurely pace from oasis to oasis Sparhawk could not be positive, but it see She and Vanion spent a great deal of tiravel of eastern Cynesga grew shorter and shorter, and their stays at the oases longer As they neared the border, their pace slowed even more, and , plodding their way eastward through the interminable empty miles without any resort to Bhellio very precise,’ Itagne was saying on the afternoon of their fourth day out fros have been made by desert noh to speak with theth There have been the usual wild stories about vampires and olves and harpies and the like, but I rather iine that an authorities laugh norant people who drink too much and spend too s of the Shining Ones very seriously, however’

‘All right, Itagne,’ Kalten said irritably, ‘we’ve been hearing about these "Shining Ones" ever since we came to Daresia People turn all treot you way out here in the desert where you can’t run away, so why don’t you tell us just who – or what – they are’

‘It’s really quite grotesque, Sir Kalten,’ Itagne told hi stomach Are they some kind of ?’

‘No Actually they’re supposed to look like ordinary humans’

‘Why are they called by that peculiar name?’ Berit asked

‘Why don’t you let me ask the questions, Berit?’ Kalten said bluntly Kalten, it appeared, still had problems where Berit was concerned

‘Excusejust a bit startled and slightly hurt

‘Well?’ Kalten said to Oscagne’s brother ‘What does it low like fireflies, Sir Kalten’ Itagne shrugged

‘That’s all?’ Kalten asked incredulously ‘The whole continent collapses in terror just because solow in the dark?’

‘Of course not The fact that they glow is just a warning Everybody in Tamuli knows that when he sees so toward him, he’d better turn round and run for his life’

‘What are these monsters supposed to be able to do?’ Talen asked ‘Do they eat people alive or tear thene replied soend has it that their merest touch is death’

‘Sort of like poisonous snakes?’ Khalad suggested

‘Much worse than that, young sir The touch of the Shining Ones rots a rave, and the victim isn’t dead when it happens The descriptions froiven pictures of people standing stock-still, shrieking in agony and horror as their faces and limbs dissolve into sliraphic picture’ Ulath shuddered ‘I’d i norne s the ures in Taht into the perversity of our host stories?’ Talen asked him ‘Some people like those, I’ve heard’

‘Delphaeic literature is far more complex than that’

‘Delphaeic? What does thatOnes as the Delphae,’ Itagne replied, ‘and the mythic city where they live is called Delphaeus’

‘It’s a pretty name’

‘I think that’s part of the problem Tamuls tend to be sentimentalists, and the musical quality of the word fills the eyes of our lesser poets with tears and their brains with end and present the Delphae as a sirossly misunderstood For seven centuries they’ve inflicted aboues on us They’ve pictured the Delphae as lyric shepherds, glowing like fireflies andthe pangs of unrequited love and pondering – ponderously, of course – the banalities of their supposed religion The acadeard Delphaeic literature as a bad joke perpetuated far too long’

‘It’s an abomination!’ Sephrenia declared with uncharacteristic heat

‘Your critical perception does you credit, dear lady,’ Itagne senre I’d characterize Delphaeic literature as adolescent sentih to grow indignant about it’

‘Delphaeic literature is a otry!’ she said in tones she usually reserved for ultimatums

Vanion appeared to be as baffled by her sudden outburst as Sparhawk and the rest He looked around, obviously seeking so on toward sunset,’ Kalten noted, stepping in to lend a hand Kalten’s perceptiveness sometimes surprised Sparhawk ‘Flute,’ he said, ‘did you plan to put us down beside another one of those water-holes for the night?’

‘Oasis, Kalten,’ Vanion corrected him ‘They call it an oasis, not a water-hole’

‘That’s up to them They can call it whatever they want, but I knoater-hole when I see one If we’re going to do this the old-fashioned e’re going to have to start looking for a place to camp, and there’s a ruin of some kind on that hilltop over there to the north Sephrenia can squeeze water out of the air for us, and if we stay in those ruins on’t have to put up with the sht the e usually do e cas, Sir Kalten,’ Itagne laughed

‘I wouldn’t swear to that without an honest count of all the dogs in one of their villages – both before and after supper’

‘Sparhawk!’ It was Khalad, and he was roughly shaking his lord into wakefulness There are people out there!’

Sparhawk threw his blankets to one side and rolled to his feet, reaching for his sword ‘How many?’ he asked quietly

‘I’ve seen a dozen or so They’re creeping around a those boulders down by the road’