“Erak. The one they call the Oberjarl," the Arridi answered him.Impulsively, Axl took a pace forward, raising his ax threateningly.You'll have to go through the rest of us to take him!" he shouted defiantly.Well done, Axl," he said. "You've just told them I'm here.”

“Once again Erak bellowed with laughter. "Your master here went nearly the same shade of green as his cloak," he told Will. Halt raised an eyebrow."At least I found a use for that damned helmet," he said, and the smile disappeared from Erak's face."Yes. I'm not sure what I'm going to tell Gordoff about that," he said. "He made me promise I'd look after that helmet. It's his favorite-a real family heirloom.""Well it certainly has a lived in feel to it now," Halt told him, and Will noticed there was a hint of malicious pleasure in his eye.”

“You're a very amusing fellow," he told Halt. "I'd like to brain you with my ax one of these days."Erak to Halt.”

“His friends told him that nobody was interested in his goddam soul unless it was the priest and he managed to answer that no priest taking orders from no pope was going to tamper with his soul. They told him he didn't have any soul and left for the brothel.He took a long time to believe them because he wanted to believe them. All he wanted was to believe them and get rid of it once and for all, and he saw opportunity here to get rid of it without corruption, to be converted to nothing instead of to evil. The army sent him halfway around the world and forgot him. He was wounded and they remembered him long enough to take the shrapnel out of his chest - they said they took it out but they never showed it to him and he felt it still in there, rusted, and poisoning him - and then they sent him to another desert and forgot him again. He had all the time he could want to study his soul in and assure himself that it was not there. When he was thoroughly convinced, he saw that this was something that he had always known.”

“I thought told you to watch where you put your feet," he said accusingly. Erak shrugged.I did," he replied ruefully. "But while I was busy watching the ground, I hit that branch with my head. Broke it clean in two."Halt raised his eyebrows. "I assume you're not talking about your head," he muttered. Erak frowned at the suggestion.Of course not," he replied.More's the pity," Halt told him.”

“Are there bears in these mountains?" he asked.His companion nodded. "Of course. But it's a bit early in the year for them to be moving around. Why?"Halt let go a long breath. "Just a vague hope, really. There's a chance that when the Temujai here you crashing around in the trees, they might think you're a bear."Erak smiled, with his mouth only. His eyes were as cold as the snow."You're a very amusing fellow," he told Halt. "I'd like to brain you with my ax one of these days.""If you could manage to do it quietly, I'd almost welcome it," Halt said.”