‘Will you be able to hold out here until the Church Knights arrive, Vanion?’ Emban asked.
‘Talk to Sparhawk, Emban. He’s in charge.’
‘I wish you wouldn’t keep doing that, Vanion,’ Sparhawk objected. He thought for a moment. ‘Atan Engessa,’ he said then, ‘how hard was it to persuade your warriors that it’s not really unnatural to fight on horseback? Can we persuade any more of them?’
‘When I tell them that this Krager-drunkard called them a race of freaks, they’ll listen to me, Sparhawk-Knight.’
‘Good. Krager may have helped us more than he thought then. Are you convinced that it’s best to attack Trolls with warhorses and lances, my friend?’
‘It was most effective, Sparhawk-Knight. We haven’t encountered the Troll-beasts before. They’re bigger than we are. That may be difficult for my people to accept, but once they do, they’ll be willing to try horses – if you can find enough of those big ones.’
‘Did Krager happen to make any references to the fact that we’ve been using thieves and beggars as our eyes and ears?’ Stragen asked.
‘Not in so many words, Milord,’ Khalad replied.
‘That puts an unknown into our equation then,’ Stragen mused.
‘Please don’t do that, Stragen,’ Kalten pleaded. ‘I absolutely hate mathematics.’
‘Sorry. We don’t know for certain whether Krager’s aware that we’ve been using the criminals of Matherion as spies. If he is aware of it, he could use it to feed us false information.’
‘That spell they used sort of hints that they know, Stragen,’ Caalador noted. ‘That explains how it was that we saw the leaders of the conspiracy go into a house and never come out. They used illusions. They wouldn’t have done that if they hadn’t known we were watching.’
Stragen stuck out his hand and wobbled it from side to side a bit dubiously. ‘It’s not set in stone yet, Caalador,’ he said. ‘He may not know just exactly how wellorganised we are.’
Bevier’s expression was profoundly disgusted. ‘We’ve been had, my friends,’ he said. ‘This was all an elaborate ruse – armies from the past, resurrected heroes, vampires and ghouls – all of it. It was a trick with no other purpose than to get us to come here without the entire body of the Church Knights at our backs.’
‘Then why have they turned round and told us to go home, Sir Bevier?’ Talen asked him.
‘Maybe they found out that we were a little more effective than they thought we’d be,’ Ulath rumbled. ‘I don’t think they really expected us to break up that Cyrgai assault or exterminate a hundred Trolls or break the back of this coup-attempt the way we did. It’s altogether possible that we surprised them and even upset them more than a little. Krager’s visit could have been sheer bravado, you know. We might not want to get over-confident, but I don’t think we should get under-confident either. We’re professionals, after all, and we’ve won every encounter so far. Let’s not give up the game and run away just because of a few windy threats by a known drunkard.’
‘Well said,’ Tynian murmured.
‘We don’t have any choice, Aphrael,’ Sparhawk told his daughter later when they were alone with Sephrenia and Vanion in a small room several floors above the royal apartments. ‘It’s going to take Emban and Tynian at least three months to get back to Chyrellos and then nine months for the Church Knights to come overland to Daresia. Even then, they’ll still be present only in the western kingdoms.’
‘Why can’t they come by boat?’ The princess sounded a bit sulky, and she was holding Rollo tightly to her chest.
‘There are a hundred thousand Church Knights, Aphrael,’ Vanion reminded her, ‘twenty-five thousand in each of the four orders. I don’t think there are enough ships in the world to transport that many men and horses. We can bring in some – ten thousand perhaps – by ship, but the bulk of them will have to come overland. We won’t be able to count on even that ten thousand for at least six months – the time it’s going to take Emban and Tynian to reach Chyrellos and then come back by ship with the knights and their horses. Until they arrive, we’re all alone here.’
‘With your breeches down,’ she added.
‘Watch your tongue, young lady,’ Sparhawk scolded her.
She shrugged that off. ‘My instincts all tell me that it’s a very bad idea,’ she told them. ‘I went to a lot of trouble to find a safe place for Bhelliom, and the first time there’s a little rain-shower, you all want to run to retrieve it. Are you sure you’re not exaggerating the danger? Ulath might have been right, you know. Everything Krager said to you could have been sheer bluster. I still think you can handle it without Bhelliom.’
‘I disagree,’ Sephrenia told her. ‘I know Elenes better than you do, Aphrael. It’s not in their nature to exaggerate dangers. Quite the reverse, actually.’
‘The whole point here is that your mother may be in danger,’ Sparhawk told his daughter. ‘Until Tynian and Emban bring the Church Knights to Tamuli, we’re seriously over-matched. Even as stupid as they are, it was only the Bhelliom that gave us any advantage over the Troll-Gods last time. You couldn’t even deal with them, as I recall.’
‘That’s a hateful thing to say, Sparhawk,’ she flared.
‘I’m just trying to get you to look at this realistically, Aphrael. Without the Bhelliom, we’re all in serious danger here – and I’m not just talking about your mother and all our friends. If Krager was telling the truth and we are matched up against Cyrgon, He’s at least as dangerous as Azash was.’
‘Are you sure all of these flimsy excuses aren’t coming into your head because you want to get your hands on Bhelliom again, Sparhawk?’ she asked him. ‘Nobody’s really immune to its seduction, you know. There’s a great deal of satisfaction to be had in wielding unlimited power.’
‘You know me better than that, Aphrael,’ he said reproachfully. ‘I don’t go out of my way looking for power.’
‘If it is Cyrgon, His first step would be to exterminate the Styrics, you know,’ Sephrenia reminded the little Goddess. ‘He hates us for what we did to His Cyrgai.’
‘Why are you all joining forces to bully me?’ Aphrael demanded.
‘Because you’re being stubborn,’ Sparhawk replied. ‘Throwing Bhelliom into the sea was a very good idea when we did it, but the situation’s changed now. I know that it’s not in your nature to admit that you made a mistake, but you did, you know.’
‘Bite your tongue!’
‘We have a new situation here, Aphrael,’ Sephrenia said patiently. ‘You’ve told me again and again that you can’t fully see the future, so you couldn’t really have foreseen all of what’s happening here in Tamuli. You didn’t really make a mistake, baby sister, but you have to be flexible. You can’t let the world fly all to pieces just because you want to maintain a reputation for infallibility.’
‘Oh, all right!’ Aphrael gave in, flinging herself into a chair and starting to suck her thumb as she glared at them.
‘Don’t do that,’ Sparhawk and Sephrenia told her in unison.
She ignored them. ‘I want all three of you to know that I’m really very put out with you for this. You’ve been very impolite and very inconsiderate of my feelings. I’m ashamed of you. Go ahead. I don’t care. Go ahead and get the Bhelliom if you think you absolutely have to have it.’
‘Ah – Aphrael,’ Sparhawk said mildly, ‘we don’t know where it is, remember?’
‘That’s not my fault,’ she replied in a sulky little voice.
‘Yes, actually it is. You were very careful to make sure that we didn’t know where we were when we threw it into the sea.’
‘That’s a spiteful thing to say, father.’
A horrible thought suddenly occurred to Sparhawk. ‘You do know where it is, don’t you?’ he asked her anxiously.
‘Oh, Sparhawk, don’t be silly! Of course I know where it is. You didn’t think I’d let you put it someplace where I couldn’t find it, did you?’
About the Auth
or
DOMES OF FIRE
David Eddings was born in Washington State and grew up near Seattle. He graduated from the University of Washington and went on to serve in the United States Army. Subsequently, he worked as a buyer for the Boeing Company, and taught college-level English. His first novel, High Hunt, was a contemporary adventure story, but he soon began a spectacular career as a fantasy writer with his best-selling series The Belgariad. He consolidated his immediate success with three further enormously popular series, The Malloreon, The Elenium and The Tamuli. Writing with his wife Leigh, three final volumes rounded off the Belgariad: Belgarath the Sorcerer, Polgara the Sorceress and The Rivan Codex. These were followed by the epic standalone fantasy The Redemption of Althalus, and his latest series of books, The Dreamers.
For automatic updates on David and Leigh Eddings visit www.voyager-books.co.uk/Eddings and register for Author Tracker.
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By David Eddings
THE ELENIUM
Book One: The Diamond Throne
Book Two: The Ruby Knight
Book Three: The Sapphire Rose
THE TAMULI
Book One: Domes of Fire
Book Two: The Shining Ones
Book Three: The Hidden City
By David and Leigh Eddings
Belgarath the Sorcerer
Polgara the Sorceress
The Rivan Codex
The Redemption of Althalus
THE DREAMERS
Book One: The Elder Gods
Book Two: The Treasured One
Book Three: Crystal Gorge
Copyright
Voyager
An Imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers
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This paperback edition 2006
FIRST EDITION
Previously published in paperback by Grafton 1993 and by Voyager 1996, reprinted sixteen times.
First published in Great Britain by Grafton Books 1992
Copyright © David Eddings 1992
The Author asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work
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EPub Edition © FEBRUARY 2010 ISBN: 978-0-007-36803-7
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David Eddings, Domes of Fire
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