Eddings David - Tamuli - 01 - Domes of Fire Page 6

  horse, don't you, brother?' he warned the man.

  'He's a legend, Sparhawk,'

  the porter replied. 'The things you wanted are in the room at the top of

  the stairs.'

  'How's the crowd in' the tavern tonight?'

  'Loud, smelly and mostly drunk.'

  'There's nothing new about that. What I meant, though, was

  how many of them are there?'

  'Fifteen or twenty. There are three of our

  men in there who know what to do.'

  'Good. Thank you, Sir Knight.'

  'You're welcome, Sir knight.' Sparhawk led Talen and Stragen up the stairs.

  'This inn, I gather, isn't altogether what it seems,' Stragen observed.

  'The Pandions own it,' Talen told him. 'They come here when they don't want

  to attract attention.'

  'There's a little more to it than that,' Sparhawk told

  him. He opened the door at the top oF the stairs, and the three of them

  entered. Stragen looked at the workmen's smocks hanging on pegs near the

  door. 'We're going to resort to subterfuge, I see.'

  'It's fairly standard practice,' Sparhawk shrugged.

  'Lets get changed. I'd sort of like

  to get back to the palace before my wife sends out search parties.' The

  smocks were of blue canvas, worn and patched and with a few

  artfully-placed smudges on them. There were woollen leggings as well and

  thick-soled workmen's boots. The caps were baggy affairs, designed more to

  keep off weather than they were for appearance. 'You're going to have to

  leave that here,' Sparhawk said, pointing at Stragen's rapier. 'It's a

  little obvious.' The big Pandion tucked a heavy dagger under his belt.

  'You know that there are people watching the gate of the inn, don't you,

  Sparhawk?' talen said.

  'I hope they enjoy their evening. We aren't going

  out through the gate, though.'.' Sparhawk led them back down to the inn

  yard, crossed to a narrow door in a side wall and opened it. The warm air

  that boiled out through the doorway smelled of stale beer .and unwashed

  bodies. The three of them went inside and closed the door behind them.

  They seemed to be in a small storeroom. The straw on the floor was mouldy.

  'Where are we?' Talen whisPered. 'In a tavern,' Sparhawk replied softly.

  'There's going to be a fight in just a few minutes. We'll slip out into

  the main room during the confusion.' He went to the curtained doorway

  leading out into the tavern and twitched the curtain several times. 'All

  right,' he whispered. 'We'll mingle with the crowd during the fight, and

  after a while, we'll leave. Behave as if you're slightly drunk, but don't

  over-do it.'

  'i'm impressed,' Stragen said.

  'i'm more than impressed,'

  Talen added. 'Not even Platime knows that there's more than one way out of

  that inn.' The fight began not long after that. It was noisy, involving a

  great deal of shouting and pushing and finally a few blows. Two totally

  uninvolved and evidently innocent by-standers were knocked senseless

  during the course of the altercation. Sparhawk and his friends smoothly

  insinuated themselves into the crowd, and after ten minutes or so, they

  reeled out through the door. 'A little unprofessional,' Stragen sniffed.

  'A staged fight shouldn't involve the spectators that way.'

  'It should when the spectators might be looking for something other than a

  few tankards of ale,' Sparhawk disagreed. 'The two who fell asleep weren't

  regular patrons in the tavern. They might have been completely innocent,

  but then again, they might not. This way, we don't have to worry about them

  trailing along behind US.'

  'There's more to being a Pandion Knight than I thought,' Talen noted. 'I

  may like it after all.'

  They walked through the foggy streets towards the rundown quarter near the

  west gate, a maze of interconnecting lanes and unpaved alleys. They

  entered one of those alleys and went through it to a flight of muddy stone

  stairs leading down. A thick-bodied man lounged against the stone wall

  beside the stairs. 'You're late,' he said to Talen in a flat voice.

  'We had to make sure we weren't being followed,' the boy' shrugged.

  'Go on down,' the man told them. 'Platime's waiting. '

  The cellar hadn't changed. It was still smoky and dim, and it was filled

  with a babble of coarse voices coming from the thieves,' whores and

  cutthroats who lived there. 'I don't know how Platime can stand this

  place,' Stragen shuddered. Platime sat enthroned on a large chair on the

  other side of a smoky fire burning in an open pit. He heaved himself to

  his feet when he saw Sparhawk. 'Where have you been?' he bellowed in a

  thunderous voice. 'Making sure that we weren't followed,' Sparhawk

  replied. The fat man grunted. 'He's back here,' he said; leading them

  toward the rear of the cellar. 'He's very interested in his health at the

  moment, so I'm keeping him more or less out of sight.' He pushed his way

  into a small, closet-like chamber where a man sat on a stool nursing a

  tankard of watery beer. The man was a small,' nervous-looking fellow with

  thinning hair and a cringing manner. 'This is Polk,' Platime said. 'He's a

  sneak-thief. I sent him to Cardos to have a look around and to see what he

  could find out about some people we're interested in. Tell him what you

  found out, Polk.'

  'Well sir, good masters,' the weedy man began, 'it tuk

  me a goodly while to git close to them fellers, I'll tell the world, but I

  made myself useful, an' they finally sort of assepted me. They was all

  sorts of rigimarole I had to go thee - swearin' oaths an' gettin'

  blindFolded the first couple times they tuk me to their camp an all, but

  after a while, they kinda let down then guard, an' I come an' went putty

  much as I pleased. Like Platime prob'ly tole you, we figgered a't first

  they wuz gist a buncha amachooms what didn't know nothin' about the way

  things is supposed to be did. We sees that sorta thing all the time, don't

  we, Platime? Them's the kind as gits thenselves caught an' hung.'

  'And good riddance to them,' Platime growled.

  'Well sir,' Polk continued, 'like

  I say, me'n Platime we figgered as how them fellers in the mountings was

  gist a buncha them amachoors I tole you about - fellers what'd took up

  cuttin' th'oats fer fun an' profit, don't y'know. As she turns out,

  howsomever, they was more'n that. Then leaders was six er seven noblemen

  as was real disappointed 'bout the way the big plans of the Primate Annias

  fell on then faces, an' they was powerful unhappy 'bout what the queen had

  writ down on the warrants she put out fer 'em - nobles not bein'

  accustomed to bein' called them sorta names. 'Well sir, t' short it up

  some, these here noblemen all run off into the mountings 'bout one jump

  ahead of the hangman, an' they go t' robbin' travellers t' make ends meet

  an' spent the resta then time thinkin' up nasty names t' call the queen.'

  'Get to the point, Polk,' Platime told him wearily.

  'Yessir, I wuz gist about to. Well now, it went on like that fer a spell,

  an' then this here Krager feller, he come into camp, an' some of them there

  nobles, they knowed him. He tole 'em as how he knowed some furriners as'd

  help 'em out iffn they'd raise enough fuss here 'in Elenia t' keep the

  queen an' her folks from gittin' too curious 'bout some stuff what's goin'

  on off in Lamorkand. This here Krager feller, he sez as how this stuff in

  Lamorkand might just could be a way fer 'em all t' change the way then

  forchunes bin goin' since ol' Annias got hisself kilt. Well, sir, them

  dukes an' earls an' such got real innerested at that point, an' they tole

  us all t' go talk t' the local peasants an' t' start runnin' down the

  tax-collectors an' t' say as how it ain't natural fer no country t' be run

  by no woman an' the like. We wuz'supposed t' stir up them peasants an' t'

  git 'em t' talkin' among themselves ,'bout how the people oughtta all git

  together an' thaw the queen out an' the like, an' then them nobles, they

  caught a few tax collectors an' hung 'em an' give the money back t' the

  folks it'd been stole from in the first place, an' them peasants, they wuz

  all happy as pigs in mud 'bout that.' Polk scratched at his head. 'Well

  sir, I guess I've said m'piece now. At's the way she stands in the

  mountings now. This here Krager feller, he's got some money with 'im, an'

  he's mighty free with it, so them nobles what's bin on short rations is

  gettin' downright fond of 'im.

  'Polk,' Sparhawk told him, 'you're a treasure.' he gave the

  man several coins, and then' he and his friends left the cubicle. 'What

  are we going to do about it, Sparhawk?' Platime asked.

  'We're going to take steps,' Sparhawk replied. 'How many of these

  'liberators' are there?'

  'A hundred or so.

  'i'll need a couple dozen of your men who know the country.'

  Platime nodded.

  'Are you going to bring in the army?'

  'I don't think so. I think a troop of Pandions might make a more lasting

  impression on people who think they have grievances against our queen,

  don't you?'

  'isn't that just a bit extreme?' Stragen asked him.

  'I want to make a statement, Stragen. I want everybody in Elenia to know

  just how much I disapprove of people who start plotting against my wife. I

  don't want to have to do it again, so I'm going to do it right the first

  time.'

  'He didn't actually talk like that, did he, Sparhawk?' Ehlana asked

  incredulously. 'That's fairly close,' Sparhawk told her. 'Stragen's got a

  very good ear for dialect.'

  'It's almost hypnotic, isn't it?' she

  marvelled, 'and it goes on and on and on.' She suddenly grinned impishly.

  'Write down 'happy as pigs in mud', Lenda. I may want to find a way to

  work that into some official communication. '

  'As you wish, your Majesty.' Lenda's tone was neutral, but Sparhawk knew

  that the old courtier disapproved. 'What are we going to do about this?'

  the queen asked. 'Sparhawk said that he was going to take steps, your

  Majesty,' Talen told her. 'You might not want to know too many details.'

  'Sparhawk and I don't keep secrets from each other, Talen.' 'i'm not

  talking about secrets, your Majesty,' the boy replied innocently. 'i'm just

  talking about boring unimportant little things you shouldn't really waste

  your time on.' He made it sound very plausible, but Ehlana looked more than

  a little suspicious.

  'Don't embarrass me, Sparhawk' she warned.

  'Of course not,' he replied blandly.

  The campaign was brief. Since Polk knew the precise location of the camp

  of the dissidents, and Platime's men knew all the other hiding places in

  the surrounding mountains, there was no real place for the bandits to run,

  and they were certainly no match for the thirty black-armoured Pandions

  Sparhawk, Kalten and Ulath led against them. The surviving nobles were

  held for the queen's justice and the rest of the outlaws were turned over

  to the local sheriff for disposition. 'Well, my Lord of Bolton,' Sparhawk

  said to an) earl crouched before him on a log, with a blood-stained

  bandage around his head and his hands bound behind him. 'Things didn't

  turn out so well, did they?'

  'Curse you, Sparhawk.' Bolton' spat,

  squinting uP against the afternoon's brightness. 'How did you find out

  where we were?'

  'My dear Bolton,' Sparhawk laughed, 'you didn't really

  think you could hide from my wife, did you? She takes a very personal

  interest in her kingdom. She knows every tree, every town and village and

  all of the peasants. It's even rumoured that she knows most of the deer by

  their first names.'

  'Why didn't you come after us earlier then?' Bolton

  sneered. The queen was busy. She finally found the time to make some

  decisions about you and your friends. I don't imagine you'll care much for

  these decisions, old boy. What I'm really interested in is any information

  you might have about Krager. He and I haven't seen each other for quite

  some time, and I find myself yearning for his company again.' Bolton's

  eyes grew frightened. 'You won't get anything from me, Sparhawk,' he

  blustered. 'How much would you care to wager on that?' Kalten asked him.

  'You'd save yourself a great deal of unpleasantness if you told Sparhawk

  what he wants to know, and Krager's not so loveable that you'd really want

  to go through that in order to protect him.'

  'just talk, Bolton,' Sparhawk insisted implacably.

  'I - I can't!' Bolton's sneering bravado crumbled.

  His face turned deathly pale, and he began to tremble violently.

  'Sparhawk. I beg of you. It means my life if I say anything.'

  'Your life isn't worth very much right now anyway,' Ulath told him

  bluntly. 'One way or another, you are going to talk.'

  'For God's sake, Sparhawk! You don't know what you're asking!'

  'i'm not asking, Bolton.' Sparhawk's face was bleak.

  Then, without any warning or reason, a deathly

  chill suddenly enveloped the woods, and the midafternoon sun darkened.

  Sparhawk glanced upward. The sky was very blue, but the sun appeared wan

  and sickly. Bolton screamed. An inky cloud seemed to spring from the

  surrounding trees, coalescing around the shrieking Prisoner. Sparhawk

  jumped back with a startled oath, his hand going to his sword-hilt.

  Bolton's voice had risen to a screech, and there were horrible sounds

  coming from the impenetrable darkness surrounding him - sounds of breaking

  bones and tearing flesh. The shrieking broke off quite suddenly, but the

  sounds continued for several eternal-seeming minutes. Then, as quickly as

  it had come, the cloud vanished. Sparhawk recoiled in revulsion. His

  prisoner had been torn to pieces. 'Good God!' Kalten gasPed. 'What

  haPPened?'

  'We both know, Kalten,' Sparhawk replied. 'We've seen it

  before. Don't try to question any of the other prisoners. I'm almost

  positive they won't be allowed to answer.'

  There were five of them, Sparhawk, Ehlana, Kalten, Ulath and Stragen. They

  had gathered in the royal apartments, and their mood was bleak. 'Was it

  the same cloud?' Stragen asked intently.

  'There were some differences,'

  Sparhawk replied. 'It was more in the way it felt rather than anything I

  could really pin down.'

  'Why would the Troll-Gods be so interested in protecting Krager?' Ehlana

  asked, her face puzzled.

  'I don't think it's Krager they're protecting,' Sparhawk replied. 'I think

  it has something to do with what's going on in Lamorkand.' He slammed his

  fist down on the arm of his chair. 'I wish Sephrenia were here!' he burst

  out with a sudden oath. 'All we're doing is groping in the dark.'

  'Would you be opposed to logic at this point?' Stragen asked him.

  'I wouldn't even be opposed to astrology just now,' Sparhawk replied

  sourly.

  'All right.' The blond Thalesian thief rose to his feet and began to pace

  up and down, his eyes thoughtful. first of all, we know that somehow the

  Troll-Gods have got out of that box.'

  'Actually, you haven't really proved that, Stragen,' ulath

  disagreed. 'Not logically, anyway.' Stragen stopped pacing. 'He's right,

  you know,' he admitted. 'We've been basing that conclusion on a guess. All

  we can say with any logical certainty is that we've encountered something

  that looks and feels like a manifestation of the Troll-Gods. Would you

  accept that, Sir Ulath?'

  'I suppose I could go that far, Milord Stragen.'

  'i'm so happy. Do we know of anything else that does the same sort of

  things?'

  'No,' Ulath replied, 'but that's not really relevant. We don't

  know about everything. There could be dozens of things we don't know about

  that take the form of shadows or clouds, tear people all to pieces and

  give humans a chilly feeling when they're around.'

  'i'm not sure that logic is really getting us anywhere, Stragen conceded.

  'There's nothing wrong with your logic, Stragen,' Ehlana told him. 'Your

  major premise is faulty, that's all.' 'You too, your Majesty?' Kalten

  groaned. 'I thought there was at least one other person in the room who

  relied on common sense rather than all this tedious logic.' 'All right

  then, Sir Kalten,' she said tartly, 'what does your common sense tell you?'

  'Well, first off, it tells me that you're all going at the problem

  backwards. The question we should be asking is what makes Krager so special

  that something supernatural would go out of its way to protect him? Does it

  really matter what the supernatural thing is at the moment?'

  'He might have something there, you know?' Ulath said. 'Krager's a