‘You’re not supposed to do it that way.’
‘It worked, didn’t it?’
‘It’s a question of style, Sparhawk. I’m technically in charge here, and I don’t know what Bhelliom and the Troll-Gods are going to think of me after that.’
He laughed, and then gently put Bhelliom back into its box. ‘Nice job,’ he told it. They were going to have to work together, after all, and a little encouragement now and then never hurt. Then he firmly closed the lid. ‘It’s time for some speculation, gentlemen,’ he said to the others. ‘What can we make of this?’
‘They know where we are, for one thing,’ Talen offered.
‘It could be the rings again,’ Sephrenia noted. That’s what happened last time. The cloud – and the shadow – were concentrating on Sparhawk and Ehlana right at first because they had the rings.’
‘Bhelliom’s closed up inside the box,’ Sparhawk said, ‘and so are the Troll-Gods.’
‘Are they still inside the jewel?’ Ulath asked him.
‘Oh, yes,’ Sparhawk said. ‘I could definitely feel them when I took Bhelliom out.’ He looked at Aphrael, phrasing his next question carefully. There were still some things that needed to be concealed. ‘I’ve heard that a God can be in more than one place at the same time.’ He left it a little tentative.
‘Yes,’ she replied.
‘Does that apply to the Troll-Gods as well?’
She struggled with it. ‘I’m not sure,’ she admitted. ‘It’s a fairly complicated business, and the Troll-Gods are quite limited.’
‘Does this box confine them in the same way that chain-mail pouch did back in Zemoch?’
She shook her head. ‘It’s different. When they’re encased in gold that way, they don’t know where they are.’
‘Does that make a difference?’
‘You have to know where you are before you can go someplace else.’
‘I’ll take your word for it.’ He made a face. ‘I think we may have blundered again,’ he said sourly.
‘How so?’ Bevier asked him.
‘We don’t really have any absolute proof that the Troll-Gods are in league with our enemy. If they’re trapped inside this box with Bhelliom and can’t get out, they couldn’t be, could they?’
‘That was Ghworg in the mountains of Atan,’ Ulath insisted. ‘That means that he’s out and about at least.’
‘Are you sure, Ulath? Those peasants around the bonfire were convinced that the big fellow in the ancient armor was Incetes too, you know.’
‘All the evidence points to it, Sparhawk. Everything we’ve seen this time is just like it was last time, and it was the Troll-Gods then, wasn’t it?’
‘I’m not even positive about that any more.’
‘Well, something had to have enough authority over the Trolls to make them migrate from Thalesia to the north coast of Atan.’
‘Just how smart do you have to be in order to be a Troll? I’m not saying that it was something as crude as the hoax Rebal foisted off on those peasants, but …’ Sparhawk left it hanging.
‘That would be a fairly complex hoax, dear one,’ Sephrenia murmured.
‘But not quite impossible, little mother. I’ll drop the whole line of thought if you’ll just tell me that what I’m suggesting is impossible.’
‘Don’t throw it away just yet,’ she said, her face troubled.
‘Aphrael,’ Sparhawk said, ‘will this gold box keep our friend out there from being able to locate Bhelliom?’
She nodded. ‘The gold shields it. He can’t hear it or feel it, so he can’t just move toward the sound or the sense of it.’
‘And if I put Ehlana’s ring in there as well? Would the box shield that too?’
‘Yes, but your own ring’s still out in the open where he can feel its location.’
‘One thing at a time.’ He touched his ring to the lid of the box. ‘Open,’ he said.
The latch clicked, and the lid raised slightly.
Sparhawk removed Ehlana’s ring from his finger and put it inside the box. ‘You look after it for a while,’ he told the Bhelliom.
‘Please don’t do that, Sparhawk,’ Vanion told him with a pained look.
‘Do what?’
‘Talk to it like that. You make it sound like a real being.’
‘Sorry, Vanion. It helps a little if I think of it that way. Bhelliom definitely has its own personality.’ He closed the lid and felt the latch click.
‘Ah – Flute?’ Khalad said a bit tentatively.
‘Yes?’
‘Is it the box that keeps Bhelliom hidden? Or is it the fact that the box is made out of gold?’
‘It’s the gold, Khalad. There’s something about gold that muffles Bhelliom and hides it.’
‘And it works on Queen Ehlana’s ring as well?’
She nodded. ‘I can’t hear or feel a thing.’ She stretched her open palm out toward the box Sparhawk was holding. ‘Nothing at all,’ she confirmed. ‘I can feel his ring, though.’
‘Put a golden glove on him,’ Kalten shrugged.
‘How much money did you bring along, Sir Kalten?’ Khalad asked. ‘Gold’s expensive, you know.’ He squinted at Sparhawk’s ring. ‘I don’t have to cover his whole hand,’ he said, ‘just the ring itself.’
‘I’ll have to be able to get at it in a hurry, Khalad,’ Sparhawk cautioned.
‘Let me work on it. Does anyone have a gold florin? That would be about the right size.’
They all opened their purses.
Kalten looked around hopefully, then sighed. He reached into his purse. ‘You owe me a gold florin, Sparhawk,’ he said, handing the coin to Khalad.
‘I’m in your debt, Kalten,’ Sparhawk smiled.
‘You certainly are – one gold florin’s worth. Shall we move on? It’s starting to get chilly out here.’
The wind had come up, gusty at first, but blowing steadily stronger. They followed the trail on down the slope until they were riding along the upper edge of a long, sandy beach with the wind screaming and tearing at them and the salt spray stinging their faces.
‘This is more than just a gale!’ Ulath shouted over the screaming wind. ‘I think we’ve got a hurricane brewing!’
‘Isn’t it too early for hurricanes?’ Kalten shouted.
‘It is in Eosia,’ Ulath shouted back.
The shrieking of the wind grew louder, and they rode with their cloaks pulled tightly about them.
‘We’d better get in out of this,’ Vanion yelled. ‘There’s a ruined farmstead just ahead.’ He squinted through the driving spray. ‘It’s got stone walls, so it should give us some kind of shelter from the wind.’
They pushed their horses into a gallop and reached the ruin in a few minutes. The moldering buildings were half buried in weeds, and the windows of the unroofed structures seemed to stare down from the walls like blind