Slupor Is Sent to Continue Pursuing Tiuri

Jaro’s warning reveals that Tiuri is not safe simply because one of his pursuers has relented. Another agent remains committed to finding him: Slupor, a feared spy who can change his apparent identity and may either follow Tiuri across the mountains or wait for him on the other side. The pursuit is both a practical threat and a disclosure of how far Jaro has turned from his own masters’ orders: he returns to make sure Tiuri understands the danger he himself can no longer impose.

The Warning and Its Cause

Jaro has already walked some distance away when he stops, hesitates, and comes back. He says it would be wrong to leave without telling Tiuri the truth. Tiuri owes no such explanation from Jaro’s perspective; instead, Jaro explains that he owes his own life to Tiuri. That debt makes a warning necessary, even though it means exposing the danger still surrounding the young traveler.

Jaro makes clear that he was not the only one sent after Tiuri. The pursuers had watched Tiuri’s company split. Jaro was assigned to follow Tiuri, while another agent went after the party heading west: two Grey Knights, a squire, and a youth riding a black horse. At first, Jaro and the others thought the youth was the person they needed to catch. When they saw Tiuri riding alone along The Blue River, they began to doubt that identification, and Jaro turned to follow him instead.

That change of direction does not mean the other agent has abandoned the pursuit. Jaro expects him to discover that he has been following the wrong people, but not to return or give up. He will continue looking for Tiuri, both because it is his assignment and because he wants to find him. He may travel after Tiuri, or try to cross the mountains ahead of him and lie in wait. Jaro’s warning therefore replaces the uncertainty about who is being pursued with a sharper question: how and where will the pursuit resume?

Slupor’s Reputation and Methods

The other agent’s name is not known to Jaro’s group. They call him Slupor. Jaro presents him as the most formidable spy he knows and, at the same time, the worst person he has encountered. He is cunning, persistent, and, in Jaro’s judgment, unwilling to let anyone or anything obstruct him. The danger is not merely that Slupor has been sent after Tiuri; it is that ordinary expectations about recognizing a pursuer offer little protection.

Slupor can appear as a Red Rider or as an ordinary soldier, and he is usually acting as a spy. Jaro says he can be encountered in many forms, while offering no dependable description of his build, age, hair, or coloring: he is neither notably large nor small, old nor young, blond nor dark. Only his eyes might betray him, and Jaro compares their falseness to a snake’s. The absence of a stable outward identity makes the warning unsettlingly practical. Tiuri cannot rely on a uniform or a recognizable face to tell him that Slupor is near.

Jaro’s account also conveys the effect Slupor has had on the people around him. They all feared him; at times, they feared they might become as bad as he was. The threat is thus described not only through his skill at disguise and pursuit, but through the moral dread he inspires in those who serve beside him. Jaro does not claim that Slupor has already reached Tiuri. He warns instead that the man’s persistence, adaptability, and reputation make the danger ongoing.

Jaro’s Turn and the Consequences

The disclosure follows a moment in which Tiuri nearly asks whether Jaro was among those who murdered Edwinem, but stops himself. Jaro seems to read the unspoken question in Tiuri’s eyes and turns his gaze away before acknowledging his own badness. The exchange does not establish Jaro’s part in Edwinem’s death; it does show that the history of violence shadows the warning and that Jaro understands why Tiuri might suspect him.

Jaro then admits that by returning to speak, he has not only disobeyed his masters’ orders but actively obstructed them. His choice gives the warning its cost: he is not passing on neutral information, but helping the person he was sent to pursue. Tiuri responds seriously and thanks him. He suggests that, if Jaro does not know what to do next, he should speak with Menaures, who may advise and help him. Their farewell leaves Jaro’s future open, but it makes his break with the pursuit more than a momentary change of direction.

Narrative Significance

The scene broadens the chase from a single pursuer into a continuing network of pursuit. Jaro’s decision to stop following Tiuri removes one immediate danger, yet the assignment given to Slupor ensures that Tiuri’s solitude beside The Blue River is no guarantee of safety. The westward party’s presence also matters: the pursuers’ initial uncertainty about which traveler was their target has already sent them along different paths, and Slupor’s anticipated correction will bring the danger back toward Tiuri.

Slupor remains threatening without appearing in the scene. His identity is conveyed through Jaro’s account, and the uncertainty around his face becomes part of the suspense: he may be disguised as someone Tiuri has no reason to fear. Against that concealed danger, Jaro’s act is unusually direct. He names the threat, describes the possible interception beyond the mountains, and accepts that telling Tiuri means thwarting his masters. The warning does not resolve the pursuit; it gives Tiuri the knowledge with which to recognize that it has not ended.