The Sworn Knight, Robert Ryan [good beach reads .txt] 📗

moved away a little bit and sat down cross-legged. Theothers remained quiet, and gave her the peace she needed.

Slowly she breathed, focusing on the har-harat point beneathher navel. It was the center of meditation, and she felt the world slip awayfrom her. There was just her, her slow and deep breaths and the har-harat pointwhere the energy of her body and the magic she commanded swirled together.

After some time, she shifted the focus of her meditation.Now, she raised it to the olek-nas point between her eyebrows, what Aranlothhad called the third eye.

Nothing disturbed her now, and her mind was clear as amountain lake. No ripples moved across it. Nothing perturbed it. There wasneither fear nor desire, but merely an acceptance that the world was the way itwas.

Slowly, she drew her perception upward, above her body. Therewas a resistance, like trying to lift an object that was too heavy, butsuddenly her spirit shrugged off the chains of the flesh and was weightless.

She hovered above herself, invisible and free. She had doneit, and for a moment she studied her two companions. They looked not at her butat her body beneath.

It all felt strange, and doubt nagged at her. She did notreally know what she was doing, but she calmed herself and set about her task.

She knew, more or less, where Savanest was, and she willedherself there. The world went dark, and there was a sensation of movement. Itwas disturbing, but when she stilled she could see again, despite it beingnight. She could see better than during the day, but all the colors seemed tobe washed away from the world.

None of that mattered though. She was in Savanest’s camp,and she could study it.

Nothing she saw made her feel good. Of Savanest himself,there was no sign. Why was he not here? What was he doing?

There were some fifty men. They looked hard, and there wouldbe no mercy from them if she and her companions were caught. They seemed to herto look more like mercenaries than soldiers.

She floated above them, looking down. They were unaware ofher. But there was a hound on the edge of the camp, and it growled deep in itsthroat and looked at her. Strange, she thought.

The beast was huge. She had never seen a dog like it before.It was thick-furred, but lean of body. Muscles rippled beneath its coat, andthen there was a flash of something about its neck.

She eased closer, and the hound growled louder. The menlooked at it, but said nothing. They grew uneasy though.

Surprise filled her. Around the dog’s neck was a necklace.This was passingly strange, and she had never seen the like before. Tentatively,she reached out with her thought, and then instantly recoiled.

Aranloth had taught about such artifacts. A great evil hecalled them, and she knew now that he was right. It was a were-stone. It was atalisman of ancient magic, and it turned a man into a beast.

Swiftly she looked around, knowing what she would see. Allthe men wore a similar necklace. And the magic of their stones had beeninvoked. Already she sensed signs of the transformation that was to come, and itsickened her.

Savanest would wear a stone too. It would control theothers. He was responsible for this, and that he could do such a thing wasreprehensible. Few things were more evil.

She eased herself back to where the great hound stoodrigidly, its legs stiff, its hackles raised and the deep growl in its throat aconstant thrumming.

The truth was clear now, and with it came a sense of calm.Savanest was using the hound to track her, and that was critical to know. Thebeast had scented her out, and it explained why the enemy had never lost hertrail despite her many tricks. She had assumed there would be a tracker, andthat he must be good. But she knew better now, and that was both good and bad.

It was nearly impossible to elude a hound that tracked byscent. But at least by knowing what she was up against, she could try.

She had learned what she needed to, but she lingered, staringat the dog. Why could it sense her presence?

Strangely, the hound stepped back and whimpered. Why was it nowafraid of her?

Too late she realized that it was not afraid of her at all.She made to flee back to her body, but something caught her around the legs andheld her. Even as she struggled more bonds, chains of cold fire forged ofsorcery, wrapped around her arms.

In a moment, unwitting and careless, she had been captured.Another chain wrapped around her neck, and then she was jerked around to lookat her captor. There would be no escape now, and Savanest, a sprit figure justas herself, hovered near and smiled.

That smile was colder than the sorcery that bound her, andit sent a chill through her like ice.

“Foolish girl,” Savanest said. “Did you not think I wouldhave wards established to sense the likes of you? Did you not think that Iguessed you might try such a thing?”

16. Do You Dare?

Caludreth sat on his bed. It was clear that he had anidea how to take advantage of the mood in the city that had grown since word ofhis rescue had spread.

It was equally clear that Menendil would not like it. Butthat did not mean the idea was not good, still less that it was not necessary.

There was a knock on the door, and they both tensedinstantly. The fear of discovery was on them, for they worried that at any timethe king’s soldiers would raid the inn having somehow learned where Caludrethwas being hidden.

But there were no soldiers. It was only his old friend,Norgril, one of the very few who knew who it was hiding in the inn, and one ofthe very few Menendil would dare trust with that information.

Norgril caught the tension in the air. “Sorry. Only me,” hesaid. “All is quiet downstairs.”

“Pull up a chair and join us, master Norgril,” Caludrethsaid.

The white-haired man did so, turning it around to sit in thesoldier’s way. His friend was no youngster anymore, but Menendil was suddenly takenback