Prologue

'Well, you'll recall that I was on a ship?'

'Yes, sir. On the Woebringer.'

'That's right. We'd just broken the siege at Reysquele, and what was left of the Joquien pirates were scattering to the sea winds. The Woebringer was badly damaged, but so were a lot of ships, and no dearth of them ahead of us for repairs at Reysquele. The weather was calm, so we reckoned we could make Copenwis, where fewer ships go for dry-dock.' He shook his head. 'We didn't make it to Copenwis, though. A squall came up, and only the favor of Saint Lier brought us to a small island none of us knew, somewhere near the Sorrows. We made land in a longboat and gave offering to Saint Lier and Saint Vri-ente, then sent out parties to search for habitants.'

'Did you find any?'

'In a manner of speaking. Half the pirate fleet was camped on the leeward side of the island.'

'Oh. That must have been trouble.'

'Indeed. Our ship was too badly damaged for us to leave, and too big to hide. It was a matter of little time before we were discovered.'

'What did you do?'

'I marched over to the pirate camp and challenged their leader to a duel of honor.'

'He accepted?'

'He had to. Pirate chieftains must appear to be strong, or their men will not follow them. If he had refused me, the next day he would have had to fight ten of his own lieutenants. As it was, I relieved him of that worry by killing him.'

'And then what?'

'I challenged the second-in-command. And then the next, and so on.'

Ehawk grinned. 'Did you kill them all?'

'No. While I fought, my men took possession of one of their ships and sailed away.'

'Without you?'

'Yes. I'd ordered them to.'

'And so what happened?'

'When the pirates discovered what had happened, they took me prisoner, of course, and the dueling stopped. But I convinced them the Church would pay my ransom, and so they treated me pretty well.'

'Did the Church pay?'

'They might have'I didn't wait to see. I had a chance for escape, later, and took it.'

'Tell me about that,' Ehawk pleaded.

The knight nodded. 'In time, lad. But you tell me now'you grew up in these parts. The elders at your village told many strange tales of greffyns, manticores'fabulous monsters, never seen for a thousand years, now suddenly everywhere. What do you make of that, Ehawk, m' lad? Do you credit such talk?'

Ehawk considered his words carefully. 'I've seen strange tracks and smelled weird spore. My cousin Owel says he saw a beast like a lion, but scaled, and with the head of an eagle. Owel don't lie, and he's not like to scare or see things wrong.'

'So you do believe these tales?'

'Yah.'

'Where do these monsters come from?'

'They've been't'sleep, they say'like how a bear sleeps the winter, or the cicada sleeps in the ground for seventeen year before comin'

out.'

'And why do you think they wake now?'

Ehawk hesitated again.

'Come, m' lad,' the knight said softly. 'Your elders were tight-lipped, I know, I suspect for fear of being labeled heretics. If that's your fear, you've no worry about me. The mysteries of the saints are all around us, and without the Church to guide, folk think odd things. But you live here, lad'you know things I don't. Stories. The ancient

songs.'

'Yah,' Ehawk said unhappily. He glanced at Gavrel, wondering if he, too, had keener hearing than a normal man.

Sir Oneu caught the look. 'This expedition is my charge,' he said, softly still.

'I give you my word as a knight, no harm will come to you