“Halt shook his head. Frankly, he'd seen sacks of potatoes that could sit a horse better than Erak”

“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.”

“Gorlog's teeth!" Erak exclaimed, stunned at the numbers. "How many are there?""Ten thousand, maybe twelve," Halt replied briefly. The Skandian let out a low whistle."Are you sure? How can you tell?" It wasn't a sensible question, but Erak was overwhelmed by the size of the horse herd and he asked the question more for something to say than for any other reason. Halt looked at him dryly."It's an old calvary trick," he said. "You count the legs and divide by four.”

“Now," said Halt, "all I have to do is work out a way of beating these horse-riding devils."Erak grinned at him. "That should be child's play," he said. "The hard part will be convincing Ragnak about it.”

“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.”

“He looked up as the party emerged and nickered a soft hello to his master, who was dressed in an unfamiliar green cloak and had dirt plastered on his face. Halt glanced at him, brow furrowed, and silently mouthed the words 'shut up'. Abelardshook his mane, which was as close as a horse could come to shruging, and turned away.'My horse recognized me,' Halt said accusingly out of the side of his mouth to Horace.Horace glanced at the small shagging horse, standing beside his own massive battlehorse.'Mine didn't,' he replied. 'So that's a fifty-fifty result.''I think I'd like odds better than that,' Halt replied.Horace suppressed a grin. 'Don't worry. He can probably smell you.''I can smell myself,' Halt replied acerbically. 'I smell of tea and soot.'Horace thought it was wiser not to reply to that.”

“You had this young man with you for... what, six years?"Halt shrugged. "Near enough," he replied."And did you ever understand a word he was saying?""Not a lot of the time, no," Halt said.Crowley shook his head in wonder. "It's just as well he didn't go into the Diplomatic Service. We'd be at war with half a dozen countries by now if he was on the loose."Will drew a deep breath to begin talking. He noticed that both men took an involuntary half step backward and he decided he'd better try to keep it as simple as possible.”