CHAPTER 6

The sky remained overcast, but as luck had it, it had not yet rained. The stiff wind coming in off the Gulf of Micae was raw, however, and they rode with their cloaks wrapped tightly about them.

Despite Khalad’s belief that it was to their advantage to move slowly, Berit was consumed with impatience. He knew that what they were doing was only a small part of the over-all strategy, but the confrontation they all knew was coming loomed ahead, and he desperately wanted to get on with it.

‘How can you be so patient?’ he asked Khalad about midafternoon one day when the onshore wind was particularly chill and damp.

I’m a farmer, Sparhawk,’ Khalad replied, scratching at his short black beard. ‘waiting for things to grow teaches you not to expect changes overnight.’

‘I suppose I’ve never really thought about what it must be like just sitting still waiting for things to sprout.’

‘There’s not much sitting still when you’re a farmer,’ Khalad told him. ‘There are always more things to do than there are hours in the day, and if you get bored, you can always keep a close watch on the sky. A whole year’s work can be lost in a dry-spell or a sudden hailstorm.’

‘I hadn’t thought about that either.’ Berit mulled it over. That’s what makes you so good at predicting the weather, isn’t it?’

‘It helps. There’s more to it than that, though.’

‘You always seem to know about everything that’s going on around you. When we were on that log-boom, you knew instantly when there was the slightest change in the way it was moving.’

‘It’s called “‘paying attention”, my Lord. The world around you is screaming at you all the time, but most people can’t seem to hear it. That really baffles me. I can’t understand how you can miss so many things.’

Berit was just slightly offended by that. ‘All right, what’s the world screaming at you right now that I can’t hear?’

‘It’s telling me that we’re going to need some fairly substantial shelter tonight. We’ve got bad weather coming.’

‘How did you arrive at that?’

Khalad pointed. ‘You see those seagulls?’ he asked.

‘Yes. What’s that got to do with it?’

Khalad sighed. ‘What do seagulls eat, my Lord?’

‘Just about everything - fish mostly, I suppose.’

‘Then why are they flying inland? They aren’t going to find very many fish on dry land, are they? They’ve seen something they don’t like out there in the gulf and they’re running away from it. Just about the only thing that frightens a seagull is wind - and the high seas that go with it. There’s a storm out to sea, and it’s coming this way. That’s what the world’s screaming at me right now.’

‘It’s just common sense then, isn’t it?’

‘Most things are, Sparhawk - common sense and experience.’ Khalad smiled slightly. ‘I can still feel Krager’s Styric out there watching us. If he isn’t paying any more attention than you were just now, he’s probably going to spend a very miserable night.’

Berit grinned just a bit viciously. ‘Somehow that information fails to disquiet me,’ he said.

It was more than a village, but not quite a town. It had three streets, for one thing, and at least six buildings of more than one story, for another. The streets were muddy, and pigs roamed freely. The buildings were made primarily of wood and they were roofed with thatch. There was an inn on what purported to be the main street. It was a substantial-looking building, and there were a pair of rickety wagons with dispirited mules in their traces out front. Ulath reined in the weary old horse he had bought in the fishing village.

‘What do you think?’ he said to his friend.

‘I thought you’d never ask,’ Tynian replied.

‘Let’s go ahead and take a room as well,’ Ulath suggested. ‘The afternoon’s wearing on anyway, and I’m getting tired of sleeping on the ground. Besides, I’m a little overdue for a bath.’

Tynian looked toward the starkly outlined peaks of the Tamul Mountains lying some leagues to the west.

‘I’d really hate to keep the Trolls waiting, Ulath,’ he said with mock seriousness. ‘It’s not as if we had a definite appointment with them. Trolls wouldn’t notice anyway. They’ve got a very imprecise notion of time.’

They rode on into the innyard, tied their horses to a rail outside the stable and went on into the inn.

‘We need a room,’ Ulath told the innkeeper in heavily accented Tamul. The innkeeper was a small, furtive-looking man. He gave them a quick, appraising glance, noting the bits and pieces of army uniform that made up most of their dress. His expression hardened with distaste. Soldiers are frequently unwelcome in rural communities for any number of very good reasons.

‘Well,’ he replied in a whining, sing-song sort of voice, ‘I don’t know.

It’s our busy season -‘

‘Late autumn?’ Tynian broke in skeptically. ‘That’s your busy season?’

‘Well - there are all the wagoneers who can come by at any time, you know.’

Ulath looked beyond the innkeeper’s shoulder into the low, smoky taproom. ‘I count three,’ he said flatly.

‘There are bound to be more along shortly,’ the fellow replied just a bit too quickly.

‘Of course there are,’ Tynian said sarcastically. ‘But we’re here now, and we’ve got money. Are you going to gamble a sure thing against the remote possibility that some wagon might stop here along about midnight?’

‘He doesn’t want to do business with a couple of pensioned-off veterans, Corporal,’ Ulath said. ‘Let’s go talk with the local commissioner. I’m sure he’ll be very interested in the way this fellow treats his Imperial Majesty’s soldiers.’

‘I’m his Imperial Majesty’s loyal subject,’ the innkeeper said quickly ‘and I’ll be honored to have brave veterans of his army under my roof.’

‘How much?’ Tynian cut him off.

‘A half-crown?’

‘He doesn’t seem very certain. does he, Sergeant?’ Tynian asked his friend.

‘I think you misunderstood,’ he said then to the nervous innkeeper. ‘We don’t want to buy the room. We just want to rent it for one night.’

Ulath was staring hard at the now-frightened little Tamul.

‘Eight pence,’ he countered with a note of finality.

‘Eight?’ the innkeeper objected in a shrill voice.

‘Take it or leave it - and don’t be all day about it. We’ll need a little daylight to find the Commissioner.’

‘You’re a hard man, Sergeant.’

‘Nobody ever promised you that life would be easy, did they?’ Ulath counted out some coins and jingled them in his hand. ‘Do you want these or not?’

After a moment of agonized indecision, the innkeeper reluctantly took the coins. ‘You took all the fun out of that, you know,’ Tynian complained as the two went back out to the stable to see to their horses. ‘I’m thirsty,’ Ulath shrugged. ‘Besides, a couple of ex-soldiers would know in advance exactly how much they were willing to pay, wouldn’t they?’ He scratched at his face. ‘I wonder if Sir Gerda would mind if I shaved off his beard,’ he mused. ‘This thing itches.’

‘It’s not really his face, Ulath. It’s still yours. You’ve just been modified to look like him.’

‘Yes, but when the ladies switch our faces back, they’ll use this one as a model for Gerda, and when they’re done, he’ll be standing there with a naked face. He might object.’ They unsaddled their horses put them into stalls and went on into the taproom. Tamul drinking establishments were arranged differently from those owned by Elenes. The tables were much lower, for one thing, and here the room was heated by a porcelain stove rather than a fireplace. The stove smoked as badly as a fireplace, though. Wine was served in delicate little cups and ale in cheap tin tankards. The smell was much the same, however. They were just starting on their second tankard of ale when an officious-looking Tamul in a food-spotted wool mantle came into the room and walked directly to their table.

‘I’ll have a look ‘at your release papers, if you don’t mind,’ he told them in a loftily superior tone.

‘And if we do?’ Ulath asked.

The official blinked. ‘What?’

‘You said if we don’t mind. What if we do mind?’

‘I have the authority to demand to see those documents.’

‘Why did you ask, then?’ Ulath reached inside his red uniform jacket and took out a dog-eared sheet of paper. ‘In our old regiment, men in authority never asked.’ The Tamul read through the documents Oscagne had provided them as a part of their disguise.

‘These seem to be in order,’ he said in a more conciliatory tone. ‘Sorry I was so abrupt. We’ve been told to keep our eyes out for deserters - all the turmoil, you understand. I guess the army looks a lot less attractive when there’s fighting in the wind.’ He looked at them a bit wistfully. ‘I see you were stationed in Matherion.’

Tynian nodded.

‘It was good duty - a lot of inspections and polishing, though. Sit down, Commissioner.’ The Tamul smiled faintly. ‘Deputy-Commissioner, I’m afraid, Corporal. This backwater doesn’t rate a full Commissioner.’ He slid into a chair. ‘Where are you men bound?’

‘Home,’ Ulath said, ‘back to Verel in Daconia.’

‘You’ll forgive my saying so, Sergeant, but you don’t look all that much like a Dacite.’

Ulath shrugged. ‘I take after my mother’s family. She was an Astel before she married my father. Tell me, Deputy-Commissioner, would we save very much time if we went straight on across the Tamul Mountains to reach Sepal? We thought we’d catch a fery or some trading ship there, go across the Sea of Arjun to Tiara and then ride on down to Saras. It’s only a short way from there to Verel.’

‘I’d advise staying out of the Tamul Mountains, my friends.’

‘Bad weather?’ Tynian asked him. ‘That’s always possible at this time of year, Corporal, but there have been some disturbing reports coming out of those mountains. It seems that the bears up there have been breeding like rabbits. Every traveler who’s come through here in the past few weeks reports sighting the brutes. Fortunately they all run away.’

“Bears, you say?’ The Tamul smiled. ‘I’m translating. The ignorant peasants around here use the word

“monster”, but we all know what a large, shaggy creature who lives alone in the mountains is, don’t we?’

‘Peasants are an excitable lot, aren’t they?’ Ulath laughed, draining his tankard.

‘We were out on a training exercise once, and this peasant came running up to us claiming that he was being chased by a pack of wolves. When we went out to take a look, it turned out to be one lone fox.

The size and number of any wild animal a peasant sees seems to grow with each passing hour.’

‘Or each tankard of ale,’ Tynian added. They talked with the now-polite official for a while longer, and then the man wished them a good journey and left.

‘Well, it’s nice to know that the Trolls made it this far south,’ Ulath said. ‘I’d hate to have to go looking for them.’

‘Their Gods were guiding them, Ulath,’ Tynian pointed out.

‘You’ve never talked with the Troll-Gods, I see,’ Ulath laughed. ‘Their sense of direction is a little vague -

probably because their compass only has two directions on it.’

‘Oh?’

‘North and not-north. It makes finding places a little difficult.’

The storm was one of those short, savage gales that seem to come out of nowhere in the late autumn.

Khalad had dismissed the possibility of finding any kind of shelter in the salt marshes and had turned instead to the beach. At the head of a shallow inlet he had found the mountain of driftwood he’d been seeking. A couple of hours of fairly intense labor had produced a snug, even cozy little shelter on the leeward side of the pile. The gale struck just as the last light was fading. The wind screamed through the huge pile of driftwood. The surf crashed and thundered against the beach, and the rain sheeted horizontally across the ground in the driving wind. Khalad and Berit, however, were warm and dry. They sat with their backs against the huge, bleached-white log that formed the rear wall of their shelter and their feet stretched out toward their crackling fire.

‘You always amaze me, Khalad,’ Berit said. ‘How did you know that there’d be boards mixed in amongst all this driftwood?’

‘There always are,’ Khalad shrugged. ‘Any time you find one of these big heaps of driftwood, you’re going to find sawed lumber as well. Men make ships out of boards, and ships get wrecked. The boards float around until the wind and currents and tides push them to the same sheltered places where the sticks and the logs have been accumulating.’ He reached up and patted the ceiling. ‘Finding this hatch-cover all in one piece was a stroke of luck, though, I’ll grant you that.’ He rose to his feet and went to the front of the shelter. ‘It’s really blowing out there,’ he noted. He extended his hands toward the fire. ‘Cold, too.

The rain’s probably going to turn to sleet before midnight.’ ‘Yes,’ Berit agreed pleasantly. ‘I certainly pity anybody caught out in the open on a night like this.’ He grinned.

‘Me too,’ Khalad grinned back. He lowered his voice, although there was no real need. ‘Can you get any sense of what he’s thinking?’

‘Nothing specific,’ Berit replied. ‘He’s seriously uncomfortable, though.’

‘What a shame.’

‘There’s something else, though. He’s going to come and talk with us. He has a message of some kind for us.’

‘Is he likely to come in here tonight?’

Berit shook his head. ‘He has orders not to make contact until tomorrow morning. He’s very much afraid of whoever told him what to do and when to do it, so he’ll obey those orders to the letter. How’s that ham coming?’

Khalad drew his dagger and used its point to lift the lid of the iron pot half-buried in embers at the edge of the fire. The steam that came boiling out smelled positively delicious. ‘It’s ready. As soon as the beans are done, we can eat.’

‘If our friend out there is down-wind of us, that smell should add to his misery just a bit.’ Berit chuckled.

‘I sort of doubt it, Sparhawk. He’s a Styric, and he’s not allowed to eat pork.’

‘Oh, yes. I’d forgotten about that. He’s a renegade, though. maybe he’s discarded his dietary prejudices.’

‘We’ll find out in the morning. When he comes to us tomorrow, I’ll offer him a piece. Why don’t you saw off a few slices of that loaf of bread? I’ll toast them on the pot-lid here.’

The wind had abated somewhat the following morning, and the rain had slacked off to a few fitful spatters stuttering on the hatch-cover roof. They had more of the ham and beans for breakfast and began to get things ready to pack.

‘What do you think?’ Berit asked.

‘Let’s make him come to us. Sitting tight until the last of the rain passes wouldn’t be all that unusual.’

Khalad looked speculatively at his friend.

‘Would you be offended by a bit of advice, my Lord?’ he asked.

‘Of course not.’

‘You look like Sparhawk, but you don’t sound very much like him, and your mannerisms aren’t quite right. When the Styric comes, make your face colder and harder. Keep your eyes narrow. Sparhawk squints. You’ll also want to keep your voice low and level. Sparhawk’s voice gets very quiet when he’s angry and he calls people “neighbor” a lot. He can put all sorts of meaning into that one word.’

‘That’s right, he does call just about everybody “neighbor”, doesn’t he? I’d almost forgotten that. You’ve got my permission to correct me any time I start to lose my grip on the real Sparhawk, Khalad.’

‘Permission?’

‘Poor choice of words there, I suppose.’

‘You might say that, yes.’

‘The climate got a little too warm for us back in Matherion,’ Caalador said, leaning back in his chair. He looked directly at the hard-faced man seated across from him. ‘I’m sure you take my meaning, Order.’

The hard-faced man laughed. ‘Oh, yes,’ he replied. ‘I’ve left a few places about one jump ahead of the law a time or two myself.’

Order was an Elene from Vardenaise who ran a seedy tavern on the waterfront in Delo. He was a burly ruffian who prospered here because Elene criminals felt comfortable in the familiar surroundings of an Elene tavern and because Order was willing to buy things from them - at about a tenth of their real value

- without asking questions.

‘What we really need is a new line of work.’ Caalador gestured at Kalten and Bevier, disguised with new faces and rough, mismatched clothing.

‘A fairly high personage in the Ministry of the Interior was in charge of the group of policemen who stopped by to ask us some embarrassing questions.’ He grinned at Bevier, who wore the face of one of his brother Cyrinics, an evil-looking knight who had lost an eye in a skirmish in Render and covered the empty socket with a black patch.

‘My one-eyed friend there didn’t care for the fellow’s attitude, so he lopped his head off with that funny-looking hatchet of his.’ Order looked at the weapon Bevier had laid on the table beside his ale-tankard.

‘That’s a lochaber axe, isn’t it?’ he asked. Bevier grunted. Kalten felt that Bevier’s flair for dramatics was pushing him a little far. The black eye-patch was probably enough, but Bevier’s participation in amateur theatricals as a student made him seem to want to go to extremes. His intent was obviously to appear dangerously competent. What he was achieving, however, was the appearance of a homicidal maniac.

‘Doesn’t a lochaber usually have a longer handle?’ Order asked.

‘It wouldn’t fit under my tunic,’ Bevier growled, ‘so I sawed a couple of feet off the handle. It works well enough - if you keep chopping with it. The screaming and the blood don’t bother me all that much, so it suits me just fine.’

Order shuddered and looked slightly sick. ‘That’s the meanest-looking weapon I’ve ever seen,’ he confessed.

‘Maybe that’s why I like it so much,’ Bevier told him.

Order looked at Caalador. ‘What line were you and your friends thinking of taking up, Ezek?’ he asked.

‘We thought we might try our hand at highway robbery or something along those lines,’ Caalador said.

‘You know, fresh air, exercise, wholesome food, no policemen in the neighborhood that sort of thing.

We’ve got some fairly substantial prices on our heads, and now that the Emperor’s disbanded Interior, all the policing is being done by the Atans. Did you know that you can’t bribe an Atan?’

Order nodded glumly. ‘Oh, yes,’ he said. ‘It’s shocking.’

He squinted speculatively at ‘Ezek’, who appeared to be a middle-aged Deiran. ‘Why don’t you describe Caalador to me, Ezek? I’m not doubting your word, mind. It’s just that things are a little topsy-turvy right now, what with all the policemen we used to bribe either in jail or dead, so we all have to be careful.’

‘No offense taken at all, Order,’ Caalador assured him. ‘I wouldn’t trust a man who wasn’t careful these days. Caalador’s a Cammorian, and he’s got curly hair and a red face. He’s sort of blocky - you know, big shoulders, thick neck, and a little stout around the middle.’

Order’s eyes narrowed shrewdly. ‘What did he tell you? Repeat his exact words.’

‘Wal, sir,’ Caalador replied, exaggerating the dialect just a bit, ‘Ol’ Caalador, he tole us t’ come down yore t’ Delo an’ look up a feller name o’ Order - on accounta this yore Order, he’s th’ one oz knows whut’s whut in the shadowy world o’ crime herebouts.’

Order relaxed and laughed. ‘That’s Caalador, all right,’ he said. ‘I knew you were telling me the truth before you’d said three words.’

‘He certainly mangles the language,’ Caalador agreed. ‘He’s not as stupid as he sounds, though.’

Kalten covered a smile with his hand.

‘Not by a darg sight, he ain’t,’ Order agreed, imitating the dialect. ‘I think you’ll find that highway robbery isn’t very profitable around here, Ezek, mainly because there aren’t that many highways. It’s safe enough out in the jungle - not even the Atans can find anybody in all that underbrush - but pickings are slim.

Three men alone in the bush won’t be able to make ends meet. I think you’ll have to join one of the bands out there. They make a fair living robbing isolated estates and raiding various towns and villages. That takes quite a number of men, so there are always job openings.’ He sat back and tapped one finger thoughtfully against his chin. ‘Do you want to go a long way from town?’ he asked.

‘The further out the better,’ Caalador replied.

‘Narstil’s operating down by the ruins of Natayos. I can guarantee that the police won’t bother you there.

A fellow named Scarpa’s got an army stationed in the ruins. He’s a crazy revolutionary who wants to overthrow the Tamul government. Narstil has quite a few dealings with him. There’s some risk involved, but there’s a lot of profit to be made in that neighborhood. ’

‘I think you’ve found just what we’re looking for, Order,’ Caalador said eagerly. Kalten carefully let out a long sigh of relief. Order had come up with the exact answer they’d been looking for without even being prompted. If they joined this particular band of robbers, they’d be close enough to Natayos to smell the smoke from the chimneys, and that was a better stroke of luck than they’d even dared to hope for.

‘I’ll tell you what, Ezek,’ Order said, ‘why don’t I write a letter to Narstil introducing you and your friends?’

‘We’d definitely appreciate it, Order.’ ‘But before I waste all that ink and paper, why don’t we have a talk

about how much you’re going to pay me to write that letter?’

The Styric was wet and muddy and very nearly blue with the cold. He was shivering so violently that his voice quavered as he hailed their camp.

‘I have a message for you,’ he called. ‘Don’t get excited and do something foolish.’ He spoke in Elenic, and that made Berit quite thankful, since his own Styric was not all that good. It was the one major flaw in his disguise. ‘Come on in, neighbor,’ he called out to the miserable-looking fellow at the upper end of the beach. ‘Just keep your hands out in plain sight.’

‘Don’t order me around, Elene,’ the Styric snapped. ‘I’m the one who’s giving the orders here.’

‘Deliver your message from right there then, neighbor,’ Berit said coldly. ‘Take your time, if you want. I’m warm and dry in here, so waiting while you make up your mind won’t be all that unpleasant for me.’

‘It’s a written message,’ the man said in Styric. At least Berit thought that was what he said.

‘Friend,’ Khalad said, stepping in quickly, ‘we’ve got a slightly touchy situation here. There are all sorts of chances for misunderstandings, so don’t make me nervous by talking in a language I don’t understand. Sir Sparhawk here understands Styric, but I don’t, and my knife in your belly will kill you just as quick as his will. I’ll be very sorry afterward, of course, but you’ll still be dead.’

‘Can I come in?’ the Styric asked, speaking in Elenic.

‘Come ahead, neighbor,’ Berit told him. The lumpy-faced messenger approached the front of their shelter, looking longingly at the fire.

‘You really look uncomfortable, old boy,’ Berit noted. ‘Couldn’t you think of a spell to keep the rain off?’

The Styric ignored that. ‘I’m instructed to give you this,’ he said, reaching inside his homespun smock and drawing out an oilskin-covered packet.

‘Tell me what you’re going to do before you stick your hand inside your clothes like that, neighbor,’ Berit cautioned him in a low voice and squinting at him as he said it. ‘As my friend just pointed out, we’ve got some wonderful opportunities for misunderstandings here. Startling me when I’m this close to you isn’t a good way to keep your guts on the inside.’

The Styric swallowed hard and stepped back as soon as Berit took the packet.

‘Would you care for a slice of ham while my Lord Sparhawk reads his mail, friend?’ Khalad offered. ‘It’s nice and greasy, so it’ll lubricate your innards.’

The Styric shuddered, and his face took on a faintly nauseated look.

‘There’s nothing quite like a few gobs of oozy pork-fat to slick up a man’s gullet,’ Khalad told him cheerfully. ‘It must come from all the garbage and half-rotten swill that pigs eat.’

The Styric made a retching sound.

‘You’ve delivered your message, neighbor Berit said coldly. ‘I’m sure you have someplace important to go, and we certainly wouldn’t want to keep you.’

‘Are you sure you understand the message?’

‘I’ve read it. Elenes read very well. We’re not illiterates like you Styrics. The message didn’t make me very happy, so it’s not going to pay you to stay around.’

The Styric messenger backed away, his face apprehensive. Then he turned and fled.

‘What does it say?’ Khalad asked. Berit gently held the identifying lock of the Queen’s hair in his hand.

‘It says that there’s been a change of plans. We’re supposed to go on down past the Tamul Mountains and then turn west. They want us to go to Sepal now.’

‘You’d better get word to Aphrael.’

There was a sudden, familiar little trill of pipes. The two young men spun around quickly. The Child Goddess sat cross-legged on Khalad’s blankets, breathing a plaintive Styric melody into her many-chambered pipes.

‘Why are you staring at me?’ she asked them. ‘I told you I was going to look after you, didn’t I?’

‘Is this really wise, Divine One?’ Berit asked her. ‘That Styric’s no more than a few hundred yards away, you know, and he can probably sense your presence.’

‘Not right now, he can’t,’ Aphrael smiled. ‘Right now he’s too busy concentrating on keeping his stomach from turning inside out. All that talk about pork-fat was really cruel, Khalad.’

‘Yes. I know.’

‘Did you have to be so graphic?’

‘I didn’t know you were around. What do you want us to do?’

‘Go to Sepal the way they told you to. I’ll get word to the others.’ She paused. ‘What did you do to that ham, Khalad?’ she asked curiously. ‘You’ve actually managed to make it smell almost edible.’

‘It’s probably the cloves,’ he shrugged. ‘Nobody’s really all that fond of the taste of pork, when you get right down to it, but my mother taught me that almost anything can be made edible - if you use enough spices. You might want to keep that in mind the next time you’re thinking about serving up a goat.’

She stuck her tongue out at him, and then she vanished.