The Complete Legends of the Riftwar Trilogy
Page 102
Coe laughed. ‘Fare thee well, youngster!’
They both stared after him for a long time, as the hooves faded into the distance, beating a tune that echoed back from cliffs to sea. ‘Do you think he’ll get home safely?’ asked Coe.
Flora laughed. ‘And with gold in his pockets, too, I’ll guarantee.’
‘Gold?’
Urging the horse forward, she grinned. ‘He’ll dodge Bram and Lorrie and the kids in the wagon, circle around through the woods, then revisit the manor on his way back home. If Bram returns to find a silver candlestick or any of Lady Elaine’s jewels still there, then I don’t know Jimmy.’
Jarvis Coe laughed and moved his horse in beside the cart. ‘I hope that boy finds a different calling in life. It would be a shame to see him end his days at the end of a rope.’
Flora laughed again. ‘That’ll never happen, Master Coe. I don’t know what will happen to him, but I’ll wager my life that no hangman will ever get his rope around the neck of Jimmy the Hand!’
They rode on.
• Epilogue •
Krondor
THE DAYMASTER LOOKED UP.
A half-sized door – one which most members of the Mockers didn’t know about – swung open. It was hidden in the stonework, disguised by the dark edges and the dim light, one had to know it was there to find it.
A small figure loomed up out of the darkness. The corner of the huge basement under the brothel known as Mother’s or Mocker’s Rest was reserved for the Daymaster or Nightmaster and their immediate subordinates and given wide berth by most other Mockers until they were called in.
The Daymaster suppressed a chuckle. ‘Well, young Jimmy the Hand,’ he observed, ‘back so soon?’
‘I had cause,’ Jimmy said. ‘Enough time has passed, hasn’t it?’ he added, taking a wooden chair across the table from the Daymaster.
‘That depends,’ said the Daymaster. ‘There’s still a swarm of crushers out and about looking to find out who did what over at the castle. Duke Guy is back in triumph from routing the Keshians in the Vale of Dreams, and no one has heard of the crew of the Royal Griffin, so must be thinking ol’ Jocko Radburn got himself drowned, if that’s not a pipe-dream. Del Garza has managed to shift most of the blame for everything on to Radburn.’ He lowered his voice, as if not wishing to be overheard, which was somewhat theatrical, since they were alone deep in the bowels of Mother’s. ‘Rumour is Prince Erland lies dying and Guy was fit to be tied learning that the Prince had been tossed in the dungeon, but del Garza laid that one at Jocko’s feet, too, so it looks as if no one will suffer much for it. Except the Prince, of course. So, things are a bit quieter, but you’d still better have something for the Upright Man to salve his anger, given all the trouble you caused at the castle.’
Jimmy reached into his tunic and pulled out a small pouch. ‘Two hundred gold sovereigns,’ he said nonchalantly. ‘Will that help?’
The Daymaster nodded so that his jowls jiggled as he spoke. ‘That’s a right good start. It’ll keep him from tossing you in the bay, I suspect, but you’d better have something more to add to the kitty else you’re still going to the Bashers for coming back early.’
Jimmy sat back in the wooden chair and beamed.
The Daymaster couldn’t help but return the infectious grin. ‘There’s something up that sleeve of yours, young Jimmy, I have no doubt. Let’s have it.’
‘Remember Gerem the Snake?’
‘Gerem Benton? For certs. What about him?’
‘He was running a gang of thief-catchers for the old Baron of Land’s End.’
The Daymaster sat back. ‘Thought old Gerem was dead.’
Jimmy said, ‘I think he wanted it that way when he left Krondor. Had his own little operation down there, and his thief-catchers were pretty much running things. They arrested anyone dodgy who came to Land’s End, but ran their own dodges on the side, so the Baron’s men thought they needed to keep Gerem around. I tumbled the new Baron to the scam and he rewarded me with the gold. So, I just put him and his mob out of business.’
Jimmy thought it best not to mention that the ‘new Baron’ was a farm boy who hadn’t yet been approved by the King’s court in Rillanon, and that the ‘reward’ had come without Bram’s knowledge as Jimmy had pilfered quite a number of valuables from the unguarded manor house the night after everyone thought he had left Land’s End. He had taken what he could carry and easily dispose of; a brace of silver candlesticks and a handsome dagger owned by one of Bernarr’s ancestors; and he had agonized for a long time over which pieces of Lady Elaine’s jewels to lift and which to leave behind for Bram to give to Lorrie. He was still puzzled by what Coe had told him about the dead lady’s part in the events of that last night, but his sense of debt to her outweighed his greed and so he had stolen only a little from her. He had found eager buyers before reaching Krondor for the valuables, so by the time he entered the city he hadn’t had to deal with any of the local fences.
He had ridden in wearing a fancy coat and clean shirt, and the guards at the gate were far more interested in ruffians and thieves trying to leave the city than in a well-to-do lad from Land’s End arriving for a visit. He had sold the horse and saddle, so now all he had to show for his adventure was a fancy hat, coat, and another bag of gold he wasn’t sharing with the Upright Man.
The Daymaster studied Jimmy for a long moment, then said, ‘So what you’re saying is Land’s End is ripe for a well-spotted gang to move in?’
‘Exactly,’ said Jimmy, trying hard not to look too smug and failing miserably.
The Daymaster chuckled. ‘Well, I’ll speak to the Upright Man about it. Seems a good enough price for forgiveness if you brought us an entire town to run. Nicely situated, too, right there near the border with Kesh. You head out for your crib and lie low for a couple of days and if he says no, I’ll send you word on how much longer you have to hide out. Another month or two, I reckon. But if he says “good enough”, do you want to head back to Land’s End with the gang and help set it up?’
Jimmy got up out of the chair swiftly. ‘No, thanks,’ he answered. ‘I’ll stick to Krondor. Here, there are only crushers, guardsmen, soldiers and the occasional merchant with a knife to concern myself with. Child’s play. Country life is just a little too dangerous for my liking.’
With that, the boy thief turned his back on the Daymaster and returned to the sewers. Jimmy took a deep breath as he slogged down the filthy brick tunnel, and felt safely back in the place he counted as home. He knew the Upright Man would make him lay up for another week or so, just to ensure Jimmy didn’t mistake who was running the city, but he knew that there were purses to cut, and rooms to burgle and the Guild always was hungry for its cut. Sooner or later the word would arrive and Jimmy the Hand would return to his trade. He’d had enough of aiding princesses and farm girls, battling dark agents of some unknowable horror.
As he vanished into the murk, he started to whistle.
Afterword
‘Why collaborate?’ I’m often asked.
This is the third book in the Legends of the Riftwar series. For the next few years I’m going to be concentrating on my solo works, but I plan on doing more collaborations in the future if I can. My reason for wanting to do them is twofold.
First, for me, Midkemia has always been about ‘other voices’. To understand what I mean, you have to remember that the world of Midkemia was developed as a role-playing campaign by a number of very bright people over a number of years while we were students at the University of California, San Diego, in the late 1970s.
To me, the personalities of those involved in creating the world had a profound effect on how I see Midkemia, its diversity and its unique qualities. When I choose a location in the world to place my work, the nature of that locale is often something that was decided by someone else years ago.
So working with other authors is a chance to bring ‘other voices’ into play. The first three, William R Forstchen, Joel Rosenberg, and
the co-author of this book, Steve Stirling, are writers whose work I admire and enjoy. Their styles differ from mine in significant ways, but we all worked together easily.
The way we worked was remarkably similar, and very different from the way in which I worked with Janny Wurts on the Empire Trilogy. With Janny, we would pass chapters back and forth, rewriting several times until there were places I can’t tell you who wrote what.
With Bill, Joel and Steve, we agreed upon a general storyline, then I’d turn them loose. When I got their rough draft, I’d rewrite it, trying to keep their ‘voices’ intact, while I made sure the work remained consistent with the world in which we were writing. We’d e-mail one another or talk on the phone, and along the way a blended voice would emerge.
For this book, Jimmy the Hand, Steve Stirling chose this character as one of his favourites, and I was happy to do a story about Jimmy’s ‘first’ solo adventure, long before he saved Arutha from the assassin on the rooftops of Krondor. I think it safe to say that after having written many books about Jimmy/Lord James, I would have been unable to return to that character without being burdened by what I knew lay before him. Steve managed to find the boy who perked up the last four chapters of the first half of Magician and remind me who he was.
In Murder in LaMut, Joel and I got to ‘clone’ three of my favourite characters from his universe, changing them just a little bit to make them Midkemian, yet echoing their well-chronicled history in Joel’s Guardian of the Flames series. My original idea for that story went back years ago to a notion I once had of doing a solo book about Roald, the mercenary friend of Laurie, who was featured in Silverthorn, set in a blizzard-strangled city where murder was done. This worked out better, I think.
Bill wanted to write Xenophon’s retreat through Persia as a fantasy and I wanted to write a Sharpe’s Rifles-style story, so we came up with Honoured Enemy. Bill’s strong background in military history and his familiarity with historical figures gave me strong characters that I cherish along with those I’ve developed; but I could never have imagined them on my own.
All three authors were fun to work with, and as always I learned from getting to peek inside another author’s head. I hope my readers find these books as much of a treat as I do. I look forward to working with other talented writers in the future.
Raymond E. Feist
San Diego, CA 2003
Acknowledgments
As always, my first thanks must go to the mothers and fathers of Midkemia, who taught me the wisdom of listening to other voices.
To every fine writer who taught me how it should be done; I’m still trying.
To Jonathan Matson, again, and as always.
To Jane and Jennifer, two fine editors and better friends.
And to the usual suspects for all the love, support, humour and the richness of friendship.
And most of all, to my daughter Jessica and my son James for keeping it real.
Copyright
HarperVoyager
An Imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers
77–85 Fulham Palace Road,
Hammersmith, London W6 8JB
www.harpervoyagerbooks.com
First published in Great Britain by Voyager 2003
Copyright © Raymond E. Feist & Steve Stirling 2003
Raymond E. Feist & Steve Stirling assert the moral right to be identified as the authors of this work
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
HarperCollinsPublishers has made every reasonable effort to ensure that any picture content and written content in this ebook has been included or removed in accordance with the contractual and technological constraints in operation at the time of publication.
Source ISBN: 9780006483908
EPub Edition © AUGUST 2012 ISBN: 9780007370238
Version: 2013–09–24
Continue the Adventure …
About the Author
RAYMOND E. FEIST was born and raised in southern California. He was educated at the University of California, San Diego, where he graduated with honours in Communication Arts. He is the author of ten bestselling and critically acclaimed series: The Riftwar Saga, The Empire Trilogy (with Janny Wurts), Krondor’s Sons, The Serpantwar Saga, The Riftwar Legacy, Legends of Riftwar, Conclave of the Shadows, Darkwar Saga, Demonwar Saga and Chaoswar Saga.
Also by the Author
Magician
Silverthorn
A Darkness at Sethanon
Faerie Tale
Prince of the Blood
The King’s Buccaneer
Shadow of a Dark Queen
Rise of a Merchant Prince
Rage of a Demon King
Shards of a Broken Crown
Krondor: The Betrayal
Krondor: The Assassins
Krondor: Tear of the Gods
Jimmy and the Crawler
Talon of the Silver Hawk
King of Foxes
Exile’s Return
Flight of the Night Hawks
Into a Dark Realm
Wrath of a Mad God
Rides a Dread Legion
At the Gates of Darkness
A Kingdom Besieged
A Crown Imperilled
Magician’s End
With Janny Wurts:
Daughter of the Empire
Servant of the Empire
Mistress of the Empire
With William R. Forstchen:
Honoured Enemy
With Joel Rosenberg:
Murder in LaMut
With Steve Stirling:
Jimmy The Hand
Copyright
HarperVoyager
An Imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers
77–85 Fulham Palace Road,
Hammersmith, London W6 8JB
www.harpervoyagerbooks.com
Honoured Enemy © Raymond E. Feist & William R. Forstchen 2001
Murder in LaMut © Raymond E. Feist & Joel Rosenberg 2002
Jimmy the Hand © Raymond E. Feist & Steve Stirling 2003
Cover Layout Design © HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd.
The authors assert the moral right to be identified as the authors of this work
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
HarperCollinsPublishers has made every reasonable effort to ensure that any picture content and written content in this ebook has been included or removed in accordance with the contractual and technological constraints in operation at the time of publication.
Ebook Edition © NOVEMBER 2013 ISBN: 9780007532162
Version: 2013–10–07
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