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  Eddings, David - Elenium 2 - The Ruby Knight.txt

  the ruby knight

  David Eddings

  the Ellenium

  book 2

  Ehlana, Queen of Elenia, has been poisoned. A deep enchantment

  sustains her life, but it will end soon. Then Sparhawk, Knight of the

  Queen's Champion, learns where to get to cure for the poison. He and

  his companions set forth on a dangerous quest to find the antidote

  e

  before the queen should perish and the peace ends....

  Prologue

  A history of the House of Sparhawk

  From the Chronicles of the Pandion Brotherhood

  It was in the twenty-fifth century when the hordes of

  Otha of Zemoch invaded the Elene kingdoms of western

  Eosia and swept all before them with fire and sword in

  their march to the west. Otha appeared invincible until

  his forces were met on the great,' smoke-shrouded

  battlefield at Lake Randera by the combined armies of the

  western kingdoms and the concerted might of the

  Knights of the Church. The battle there in central

  Lamorkand is said to have raged for weeks before the

  invading Zemochs were finally pushed back and turned

  to flee for their own borders.

  The victory of the Elenes was thus complete, but fully

  half of the Church Knights lay slain upon the battlefield,

  and the armies of the Elene kings numbered their dead

  by the scores of thousands. When the victorious but

  exhausted survivors returned to their homes, they faced

  an even grimmer foe - the famine which is one of the

  common results of war.

  The famine in Eosia endured for generations, threatening

  at times to depopulate the continent. Inevitably,

  social organization began to break down, and political

  chaos reigned in the Elene kingdoms. Rogue barons paid

  only lip service to their oaths of fealty to their kings.

  Private disputes often resulted in ugly little wars, and

  open banditry was common. These conditions generally

  prevailed until well into the early years of the twenty-seventh

  century.

  It was in this time of turmoil that an acolyte appeared at

  the gates of our Mother-house at Demos expressing an

  earnest desire to become a member of our order. As his

  training began, our Preceptor soon realized that this

  young postulant, Sparhawk by name, was no ordinary

  man. He quickly outstripped his fellow novices and even

  mastered seasoned Pandions on the practice field. It was

  not merely his physical prowess, however, which so

  distinguished him, since his intellectual gifts were also

  towering. His aptitude for the secrets of Styricum was the

  delight of his tutor in those arts, and the aged Styric

  instructor guided his pupil into areas of magic far beyond

  those customarily taught the Pandion Knights. The

  Patriarch of Demos was no less enthusiastic about the

  intellect of this novice, and by the time Sir Sparhawk had

  won his spurs, he was also skilled in the intricacies of

  philosophy and theological disputation.

  It was at about the time that Sir Sparhawk was

  knighted that the youthful King Antor ascended the

  Elenian throne in Cimmura, and the lives of the two

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  young men soon became intricately intertwined. King

  Antor was a rash, even foolhardy youth, and an outbreak

  of banditry along his northern border enraged him to the

  point where he threw caution to the winds and mounted

  a punitive expedition into that portion of his kingdom

  with a woefully inadequate force. When word of this

  reached Demos, the Preceptor of the Pandion Knights

  dispatched a relief column to the north to the King's aid,

  and among the knights in that column was Sir Sparhawk.

  King Antor was soon far out of his depth. Although no

  one can dispute his personal bravery, his lack of experience

  often led him into serious tactical and strategic

  blunders. Since he was oblivious to the alliances between

  the various bandit barons of the northern marches, he

  oft-times led his men against one of them without giving

  thought to the fact that another was very likely to come to

  the aid of his ally. because of This, King Antor's already seriously

  outnumbered force was steadily whittled down by surprise

  attacks directed at the rear of his army. The barons

  of the north gleefully outflanked him again and again as

  he charged blindly forward, and they steadily decimated

  his reserves.

  And so it stood when Sparhawk and the other Pandion

  Knights arrived in the war-zone. The armies which had

  been so sorely pressing the young king were largely

  untrained, a rabble recruited from local robber-bands.

  The barons who led them fell back to take stock of the

  situation. Although their numbers were still overwhelming,

  the reputed skill of the Pandions on the battlefield

  was something to be taken into account. A few of their

  number, made rash by their previous successes, urged

  their allies to press the attack, but older and wiser men

  advised caution. It is certain that a fair number of the

  barons, young and old alike, saw the way to the throne of

  Elenia opening before them. Should King Antor fall in

  battle, his crown might easily become the property of any

  man strong enough to wrest it from his companions.

  The barons' first attacks on the combined forces of the

  Pandions and King Antor's troops were tentative, more

  .in the nature of tests of the strength and resolve of the

  Church Knights and their allies. When it became evident

  that the response was in large measure defensive, these

  assaults grew more serious, and ultimately there was a

  pitched battle not far from the Pelosian border. As soon

  as it became evident that the barons were committing

  their full forces to the struggle, the Pandions reacted with

  their customary savagery. The defensive posture they

  had adopted during the first probing attacks had been

  clearly a ruse designed to lure the barons into an all-out

  confrontation.

  The battle raged for the better part of a spring day, and

  late in the afternoon when bright sunlight flooded the field,

  King Antor became separated from the troops of his

  household guard. He found himself horseless and hardpressed,

  and he resolved to sell his life as dearly as possible.

  It was at this point that Sir Sparhawk entered the fray. He

  quickly cut his way through to the king's side, and, in the

  fashion as old as the history of warfare, the two stood back

  to back, holding off their foes. The combination of Antor's

  headstrong bravery and Sparhawk's skill was convincing

  enough to hold their enemies at bay until,
by mischance,

  Sparhawk's sword was broken. With triumphant shouts

  the force encircling the two rushed in for the kill. This

  proved to be a fatal error.

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  Snatching a short, broad-bladed battle-spear from one

  of the fallen, Sparhawk decimated the ranks of the

  charging troops. The culmination of the struggle came

  when the swarthy-faced baron who had been leading the

  attack rushed in to slay the sorely wounded Antor and

  died with Sparhawk's spear in his vitals. The baron's fall

  demoralized his men. They fell back and ultimately fled

  the scene.

  Antor's wounds were grave, and Sparhawk's only

  slightly less so. Exhausted, the two sank side by side to

  the ground as evening settled over the field. It is

  impossible to reconstruct the conversation of the two

  wounded men there on that bloody field during the early

  hours of the night, since in later years neither would

  reveal what had passed between them. What is known,

  however, is that at some point during their discussions,

  they traded weapons. Antor bestowed the royal sword of

  Elenia upon Sir Sparhawk and took in exchange the

  battle-spear with which Sir Sparhawk had saved his life.

  The king was to cherish that rude weapon to the end of

  his days.

  It was nearly midnight when the two injured men saw

  a torch approaching through the darkness, and, not

  knowing if the torch-bearer was friend or foe, they

  struggled to their feet and weakly prepared to defend

  themselves. The one who approached, however, was not

  an Elene, but was rather a white-robed and hooded Styric

  woman. Wordlessly, she tended their wounds. Then she

  spoke to them briefly in a lilting voice and gave them the

  pair of rings which have come to symbolize their lifelong

  friendship. Tradition has it that the oval stones set in the

  rings were as pale as diamond when the two received

  them, but that their mingled blood permanently stained

  the stones, and they appear to this day to be deep red

  rubies. Once she had done this, the mysterious Styric

  woman turned without a further word and walked off

  into the night, her white robe glowing in the moonlight.

  As misty dawn lightened the field, the troops of

  Antars household guard and a number of Sparhawk's

  fellow Pandions found the two wounded men at last, and

  they were borne on litters to our Mother-house here at

  Demos. Their recovery consumed months, and by the

  time they were well enough to travel, they were fast

  friends. They went by easy stages to Antor's capital at

  Cimmura, and there the king made a startling announcement.

  He declared that henceforth the Pandion

  Sparhawk would be his champion and that so long as

  both their families survived, the descendants of

  Sparhawk would serve the rulers of Elenia in that

  capacity.

  As inevitably happens, the king's court at Cimmura

  was filled with intrigues. The various factions, however,

  were taken aback somewhat by the appearance at court

  of the grim-faced Sir Sparhawk. After a few tentative

  attempts to enlist his support for this or that faction had

  been sternly rebuffed, the courtiers uncomfortably

  concluded that the King's Champion was incorruptible.

  Moreover, the friendship between the king and

  Sparhawk made the Pandion Knight the King's confidant

  and closest adviser. Since Sparhawk, as we have pointed

  out, had a towering intellect, he easily saw through the

  oft-times petty scheming of the various officials at court

  and brought them to the attention of his less-gifted

  friend. Within a year, the 'court of King Antor had

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  become remarkably free of coruption as Sparhawk

  imposed his own rigid morality upon those around him.

  Of even greater concern to the various political factions

  in Elenia was the growing influence of the Pandion order

  in the kingdom. King Antor was profoundly grateful, not

  only to Sir Sparhawk, but also to his champion's brother

  knights. The King and his friend journeyed often to

  Demos to confer with the Preceptor of our order, and

  major policy decisions were more often made in the

  Mother-house than in the chambers of the royal council

  where courtiers had customarily dictated royal policy

  with an eye more to their own advantage than to the

  good of the kingdom.

  Sir Sparhawk married in middle life, and his wife soon

  bore him a son. At Antor's request, the child was also

  named Sparhawk, a tradition which, once established,

  has continued unbroken in the family to this very day.

  When he had reached a suitable age, the younger

  Sparhawk entered the Pandion Mother-house to begin

  the training for the position he would one day fill. To

  their fathers' delight, young Sparhawk and Antor's son,

  the crown prince, had become close friends during their

  boyhood, and the relationship between king and

  champion was thus ensured to continue unbroken.

  When Antor, filled with years and honours, lay on his

  death-bed, his last act was to bestow his ruby ring and

  the short, broad-bladed spear upon his son, and at the

  same time the elder Sparhawk passed his ring and the

  royal sword on to his son. This tradition has also

  persisted down to this very day.

  It is widely believed among the common people of

  Elenia that for so long as the friendship between the royal

  family and the house of Sparhawk persists, the kingdom

  wil prosper and that no evil can befall it. Like many

  superstitions, this one is to some degree based in fact.

  The descendants of Sparhawk have always been gifted

  men, and in addition to their Pandion training, they have

  also received special instruction in statecraft and

  diplomacy, the better to prepare them for their

  hereditary task.

  Of late, however, there has been a rift between the

  royal family and the house of Sparhawk. The weak King

  Aldreas, dominated by his ambitious sister and the

  Primate of Cimmura, rather coldly relegated the current

  Sparhawk to the lesser, even demeaning position as

  caretaker of the person of Princess Ehlana, possibly in

  the hope that the champion would be so offended that he

  would renounce his hereditary position. Sir Sparhawk,

  however, took his duties seriously and educated the

  child who would one day be queen in those areas which

  would prepare her to rule.

  When it became obvious that Sparhawk would not

  willingly give up his post, Aldreas, at the instigation of

  his sister and Primate Annias, sent the Knight Sparhawk

  into exile in the Kingdom of Rendor.

  Upon the death of King Aldreas, his daughter Ehlana

  ascended the throne as queen. Hearing this news,

  Sparhawk returned to Cimmura only to find that his
/>   young queen was gravely ill and that her life was being

  sustained only by a spell cast by the Styric sorceress

  Sephrenia - a spell, however, which could keep Ehlana

  alive for no more than a year.

  In consultation, the Preceptors of the four militant

  orders of Church Knights decided that the four orders

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  must work in concert to discover a cure for the queen's

  illness and to restore her to health and power, lest the

  corrupt Primate Annias achieve his goal, the throne of

  the Archprelacy in the basilica of Chyrellos. To that end,

  the Preceptors of the Cyrinics, the Alciones and the

  Genidians dispatched their own champions to join with

  the Pandion Sparhawk and his boyhood friend Kalten to

  seek out the cure which would not only restore Queen

  Ehlana, but also her kingdom, which suffers in her

  absence with a grave malaise.

  Thus it stands. The restoration of the queen's health is

  Vital not only to the Kingdom of Elenia, but to the other

  Elene kingdoms as well, for should the venial Primate

  Annias gain the Archprelate's throne, we may be sure

  that the Elene kingdoms will be wracked by turmoil, and

  our ancient foe, Otha of Zemoch, stands poised on our

  eastern frontier ready to exploit any divisions or chaos.

  The cure of the queen who is so near to death, however,

  may daunt even her champion and his stalwart companions.

  Pray for their success, my brothers, for should

  they fail, the whole of the Eosian continent will inevitably

  fall into general warfare, and civilisation as we know it

  will cease to exist.

  PART ONE

  Lake Randera

  *Chapter1

  It was well after midnight, and a dense grey fog had crept

  in off the Cimmura River to mingle with the pervading

  wood-smoke from a thousand chimneys to blur the

  nearly deserted streets of the city. The Pandion Knight,

  Sir Sparhawk, nonetheless moved cautiously, keeping to

  the shadows whenever possible. The streets glistened

  with moisture, and pale, rainbow-coloured haloes surrounded

  the torches trying feebly with their guttering

  light to illuminate streets into which no sensible man

  ventured at this hour. The houses lining the street

  Sparhawk was following were hardly more than looming

  black shadows. Sparhawk moved on, his ears even more

  than his eyes wary, for in this murky night sound was far

  more important than sight to warn of approaching