David Eddings - The Ruby Knight

Voyager

Harper Voyager An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers 1 London Bridge Street London SE1 9GF

www.harpervoyagerbooks.co.uk

First published in Great Britain by HarperCollinsPublishers 1990

Copyright © David Eddings 1990.

Cover layout design © HarperCollins Publishers Ltd 2015 Cover images © Shutterstock.com

David Eddings asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work

A catalogue copy of this book is available from the British Library.

This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author's imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins.

Source ISBN: 9780007127825

EbookEdition © JUNE 2010 ISBN 9780007375073

Version: 20-03-2015

For Young Mike ‘put it in the car’

and for Peggy ‘what happened to my balloons’

Title Page Voyager

Copyright

Dedication Dedication For Young Mike ‘put it in the car’ and for Peggy ‘what happened to my balloons’

Map

Prologue

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

Part One: Lake Randera

Chapter 1

It was well after midnight, and a dense grey fog…

Chapter 2

The fog was even thicker when they gathered in the…

Chapter 3

Sephrenia was tending a large, ugly-looking bruise on Berit’s upper…

Chapter 4

The castle of Baron Alstrom was situated on a rocky…

Chapter 5

The booming crash of boulders slamming against the walls of…

Chapter 6

‘We’ll need to go to the highest point in your…

Chapter 7

The toll bridge was narrow and in some disrepair. A…

Chapter 8

The ancient battlefield at Lake Randera in north central Lamorkand…

Chapter 9

Ulath walked over to where Tynian sat on the wet…

Part Two: Ghasek

Chapter 10

The rain was slackening, and a fitful breeze was coming…

Chapter 11

They slept late the following morning. Sparhawk awoke before daybreak,…

Chapter 12

Their mood was very bleak the following morning as they…

Chapter 13

Because the road they proposed to follow was reputed to…

Chapter 14

The corridor into which the surly gate-guard led them was…

Chapter 15

‘How did she get out of that tower?’ Sparhawk asked…

Chapter 16

They removed their armour and put on the plain workmen’s…

Chapter 17

‘I am eternally in your debt, my friends,’ Ghasek said…

Part Three: The Troll Cave

Chapter 18

‘Was that really Azash?’ Kalten asked in awe.

Chapter 19

Sparhawk sat in the room he shared with Kalten, poring…

Chapter 20

They dragged the husk of the Seeker off the road…

Chapter 21

Promptly at noon, King Soros of Pelosia called a halt.

Chapter 22

It seemed that it took them two more weeks to…

Chapter 23

It was that same peculiarly drowsy melody Flute had played…

Chapter 24

They rode out at first light, circled through the forest…

Chapter 25

The cave had the musty smell of long-damp earth and…

About the Author

Author's Note

Other Books by David Eddings

About the Publisher

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 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 rush 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. Thus, 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.