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They heard the sound of a heavy blow and curses spat out in archaic Elenic
‘That’s one of Ayachin’s men,’ Khalad whispered
‘Ayachin himself wouldn’t be here, would he?’ Berit asked
‘Incetes was, so I wouldn’t discount the possibility’
‘If Ayachin is here, I want you two to go looking for Elron,’ Sparhawk instructed ‘We lost Aet the saet away – or get himself killed’
‘Three feet!’ Kalten announced in a triuht of them now’
The rafts inched closer, and the voices ahead were ,’ Khalad said, pointing at a di into the white blankness ahead
‘Maybe thirty paces’
Then Sparhaand heard the sound of h shalloater ‘Mount up!’ he conal the other rafts’
They pulled the careful not to ht, Ulath,’ Sparhawk said aloud, ‘let everybody know that we’re starting’
Ulath grinned and lifted the curled Ogre-horn to his lips
Chapter 30
It wasout of nowhere, bending the evergreens and tearing the last of the leaves fro streamed away in the leaf-speckled blast
The crests of the shalloaves were suddenly whipped to froth, and the water ran against a shoreline that was not sand, nor gravel nor rock, but grass and half-subhly dressed serfs laboring in a field of tree stue of the water screamed He wore crude bits and pieces of ancient are force of mounted ale tore the fog away
Ulath’s horn continued its barbaric call, and Tikued off the rafts, their reat sheets of water out to either side, als
‘What must we do, noble Ayachin?’ the crudely armored man shrieked to a lean fellow astride a white horse The h his armor was an archaic blend of steel plate and bronze chain-ht – for Astel and our holy faith!’
Sparhaed Faran’s reins round and charged directly at the resurrected Astellian hero, his sword aloft and his shield in front of his body
Ayachin’s heluard protruding down over half his face There was a quick intelligence in that face and a burning zeal The eyes, however, were the eyes of a fanatic He set himself, raised his heavy sword, and spurred his white e
The two horses crashed together, and the white er horse, and he was skilled at fighting He slareat chunks froht the ancient hero’s sword-stroke with his shield and countered with a heavy overhand stroke of his own, clashing his blade down on the hastily raised and bulky shield
‘Heretic!’ Ayachin snarled ‘Spawn of hell! Foul sorcerer!’
‘Give it up!’ Sparhawk snapped ‘You’re out of your class!’ He found that he had no real wish to kill thisto defend his ho since abandoned Sparhawk had no real quarrel with hiain He showed some proficiency with the weapon, but he was no real ht the sword-stroke with his shield again, and struck a chopping blow at his opponent’s shoulder ‘Run away, Ayachin!’ he barked ‘I don’t want to kill you! You’ve been duped by an alien God and brought thousands of years into the future! This isn’t your fight! Take your people and go!’
It was too late, though Sparha the madness in his opponent’s eyes, and he had been in too hed, crowded Faran in against the white horse, and began a series of strokes he had used sobloere auto to respond with his unwieldy equipressive strokes bit him deeper and deeper, and chunks of his ar his last stroke to avoid a grotesquethe customary overhand stroke that would have split his opponent’s head His sword-point crunched through the ancient and ineffective arh Ayachin’s chest
The fire went out of that ancient face, and the hero Ayachin stiffened and toppled slowly from his saddle
Sparhawk raised his sword-hilt to his face in a sad salute
A great cry went up from the Astellian serfs as Ayachin’s are bawled contradictory orders, gyrating his arht the flat side of his axe-blade down on top of thehim instantly
There were a few pockets of ineffective and halfhearted resistance, but the serfs for the most part fled Queen Betuana and her Atans drove the panicky workers frohts and the Peloi parted ranks to permit them to flee into the forest Sparhawk rose up in his stirrups and looked to the north The knights who had diseuided serfs on the far side of the pier back into the trees
The battle, such as it had been, was over
The Queen of the Atans caolden face ‘It was not ht,’ she accused
‘I’ized ‘I did the best I could hat I had to ith I’ll try to do better next ti you, Sparhawk-Knight Good planning reduces the need for fighting, and you plan very well’
‘Your Majesty is very kind to say so’
‘How long will it take that Ca the rest of our army to this side of the wall?’
‘The rest of today and ine’
‘Can we afford to wait that long? We should go to Tzada before the Troll-beasts start to march’
‘I’ll talk with Aphrael and Bhelliom, your Majesty,’ he said ‘They’ll be able to tell us what the Trolls are doing – and delay then of Elron, Sparhawk,’ he reported ‘We captured a few of those serfs, and they told us that he wasn’t here’