Checuti suddenly leaned forward, reaching past the monkey to take up a cup from the table. He sipped from it delicately. There was no other cup within reach, and he did not ask Thrid to fetch one. Hyry had let her hands fall into her lap. Now, under cover of the tabletop, she moved to take the hilt of her dagger in her right hand.
She had no immediate intention of drawing the weapon, but she let her palm rest upon it anyway. It made her feel better.
While she waited for Checuti to finish his appraisal she glanced around the room. It was drab and sparsely furnished, but the furniture was in very good condition and the crockery arrayed on the shelves was of more than reasonable quality.
"What do you want with me, Checuti?" she asked abruptly.
"Everything I have that's worth stealing is at the inn, with half a hundred guardians at hand."
Checuti sighed, but the sigh seemed in authentic
"Everyone suspects me of wanting to rob them," he observed sadly. ") have a terrible reputation, it seems- and reputation always precedes disaster in my line of work. How right I was to think that the time had come for me to bid farewell to Xandria."
"Your reputation seems to be thoroughly deserved," Hyry said archly.
"Or do you deny that you were behind the plundering of the royal treasury?"
"Behind it!" Checuti exclaimed, teasing her with an expression of mock horror.
"Indeed I do deny that I was behind it. I was in the van, my dear, leading my troops into battle like one of the hero princes of olden times. I am, after all, supposed to be a prince of thieves. When they began to call me that, I knew my days in Xandria were numbered- fame is to be avoided, if one is to live outside the law- but I felt that I owed it to my admirers to measure up to their claims. So many people in public life let us down, do they not? I decided to retire in style. Mine is, I believe, a crime unprecedented in a hundred generations although I sometimes 169
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suspect that
those ^hose lot in life it is to remember precedents routinely increase the number of generations over which their memories claim dominion."
Hyry looked at the man with open astonishment. This was not what she had expected.
Checuti smiled, and reached out to pat the monkey lightly on the head as it spat out the plum stone cleaned of every vestige of flesh.
"Everything went perfectly," he said, 'or very nearly so. It was glorious.
Indeed, one might almost say that it went a little too well.
My grandiose gesture became more grandiose than I intended, and I stole even more than I planned. "
"How much more?" Hyry asked in bewilderment.
"My men placed a small firework by the door of the central tower by way of diversion," he said.
"It was supposed to spread alarm and confusion, and indeed it did but I had not anticipated that princesses would swarm out of the tower like angry honeybees from a threatened hive, nor that they would leap at my carts like hungry night cloaks
"What in the world are you talking about?" Hyry asked impatiently. It was still dark outside, and would be fora while yet, but she wanted to be on her way by daybreak if it were still possible. "I'm talking about Princess iLucrezia," the thief master told her equably.
"She must have seen or heard my men before the firework went off. One of the giants came to investigate, but I had dark landers with blowpipes posted to take care of that possibility. She took her time to fall but when she fell she fell heavily. Unfortunately, the princess followed the giant and tried to climb aboard one of my carts. The driver was in a hurry. He Struck out at the invader, without even wondering who she might be, and she fell. He never gave her another thought thereafter, his mind being on the infinitely more urgent matter of loading the coin and getting through the City Gate.
Indeed, it wasn't until we came to unload the coin at a secret rendezvous that we discovered her, still lying in the cart. " She regained consciousness as soon as she was couched- and very soon afterwards told us who she was. We could hardly let her go, as we were very anxious just then that our whereabouts should not be made known. She had seen very little, but there were those
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present who felt that she had already seen far too much-not all of those involved in our conspiracy intended to leave Xandria, you see, and some of the coin had to stay behind in order that the usual disbursements might be made . but I don't want to bore you with details.
Suffice it to say that the only practicable alternatives before me were to murder the girl, or to bring her with me. I brought her with me.
"Some of my followers think this was the wrong decision, but I will candidly admit that I am a squeamish man. In any case, I decided from the very start that my grand farewell to Xandria should be marred by as few fatalities as was humanly possible. A prince of thieves can easily be reckoned a hero by common folk, but common murderers tend to be held in much lower esteem. If I'm to pass safely and invisibly through the byways of the empire, and find a resting-place where I might live for ten or twenty more years in relative comfort, I shall need the goodwill of a great many people. I have a reputation for gentleness which I would not like to put at risk."
Hyry stared at the thief master almost at a loss for words.
"What do you intend co do with the princess, then?" she asked, when it seemed obvious that Checuti was waiting for some such prompt.
"Will you hold her to ransom?"
"Those of my men who are anxious about what she has already seen wouldn't approve of that," he said, 'and the risks involved in trying to collect a ransom from her father are far too great to tempt me. I confess that the problem of what to do vexed me considerably until I explained the difficulty to the princess herself. She was quick to propose a solution which has a certain neat elegance. "
"Oh," said Hyry, as some suspicion dawned of what might be coming.
"It seems," Checuti said, 'that Princess Lucrezia has no particular desire to return to the safety of King Belin's Inner Sanctum. Indeed, she says- and I believe her that she would far rather go south.
It seems that her head has been filled with wild dreams of adventure in the fabled lands of the Navel of the World. She has, after all, been educated as a witch, and her imagination has been further stimulated by . . "
"All right," said Hyry curtly.
"I get the picture. What do you want me to do?" i? i file:///G|/Program%20Files/eMule/Incoming/Brian%20Stableford%20-%20Serpents%20Blood.TXT (174 of 495) [11/1/2004 12:26:20 AM]
"It's not what I^ant
you to do that matters," said Checuti mildly. He caught the monkey as it leapt nimbly from his lap to his shoulder.
"It's what the princess wants you to do. In this particular matter, however ironic it may seem, I'm simply acting as a loyal subject, obedient to the orders of a daughter of the king. I'm sure that when you've given the matter careful consideration, you'll want to do the same. I ought to warn you, though, that if you were to decide to defy the princess and take her back to Xandria -- at considerable inconvenience to your own mission- certain people would probably take steps to prevent your doing so. Personally, I'm going south with all possible speed, but those of my co conspirators whose intention was to remain in Xandria really are anxious about what the princess saw."
"But if I take her with me," Hyry said, 'and the king ever finds out, I'll never be able to set foot in Xandria again myself. "
"It's only because my people understand that," Checuti said, 'that they can be persuaded to trust my judgment in this matter. Please don't blame me for putting you in this situation- it was the princess who suggested it. She's the one who's now asking you to choose between Belin and her, between your expedition and your home.
I'm taking a risk simply Iby putting it to you- a ris
k of which poor Burdam doesn't entirely approve. "
Hyry glanced sideways ajt Thrid, whose glum expression confirmed that his approval was indeed muted.
"This is crazy," she said.
"Completely crazy." ; "Yes it is," Checuti agreed.
"Oddly enough, that's one of the things which rather recommends it to me. I don't like things to be too simple and straightforward- it takes all the savour out of life. I can't allow you to go back to the inn, I'm afraid- but I can contrive to have all of your goods brought out here, for a relatively small fee. Then I can have you taken to the princess. After chat, you'd be free to continue your journey discreetly of course. Once you're in so deep that you can't back out without putting yourself in considerable danger, you'll be left alone; I can promise you that much. Now, what do you say?"
Hyry realised that there was no scope whatsoever for polite refusal or, indeed, any kind of refusal. She had been in too deep from the moment Burdam Thrid had grabbed her at the well. The simple fact that she'd talked to the man who'd hijacked the
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contents of the royal treasury would be enough to foul up her life for a long time if she were unwise enough to tell anyone.
All her own plans were already in ruins . . . unless she could expand them to take the princess aboard.
The royal fool! she thought bitterly. The rotting little idiot! Why in the world did she have to involve me in her madness? But she was wise enough to know, even as she silently vented her spleen, that she had brought this on herself. She had fed Lucrezia's appetite for wonders by way of cultivating a good customer, and now she was reaping the full reward of her salesmanship.
"Funny old world, isn't it?" said Checuti, seemingly having read her mind.
"Personally, I like it that way." i? 3
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A s the sun set behind ribbons of
thick cloud it stained the air above the western horizon a deep crimson colour which Lucrezia had never seen before. To the south, the dark canopy of the unearthly trees of the Forest of Absolute Night was just visible, giving the lie to the forest's name by shining iridescently purple in the strange light. In the east, a dozen flame stars were already visible.
For once, it seemed, they would be able to keep going long into the night.
Lucrezia turned in the saddle to look back the way they had come, scanning the horizon anxiously. There was no obvious sign of anyone following, but there were so many stands of trees that a small group of riders might very easily have been screened from view. g Lucrezia called Hyry Keshyara's attention to the remarkable colour of the sky, but the tradpr was sourly dismissive.
"The air in these parts is still and humid," he said grudgingly.
"When the wind blows from the east it picks up dust in the Spangled Desert, but when it blows from the west or the north it brings clouds from the Slithery Sea. When the cloud and dust meet up^ as they sometimes do, that red colour stains the sunsets."
"And the bright purple glow?" the princess persisted, determined not to be silenced by the other's brusque manner.
"The foliage of the trees in the forest ranges in colour from dark green through blue to violet, highness," Hyry said dully.
"The purples catch the light better. Once we're underneath the canopy it won't seem bright at all- although absolute night's an exaggeration, even when the sky's as dark as it ever gets." For a moment she seemed to be on the point of elaborating further, but then she decided against it. Her closed mouth set into the familiar grim line. It seemed to Lucrezia that Hyry had not smiled once since they
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had come together. Now the trader was
trying to urge her horse forward again, so that the princess would not be able to talk while they rode. Lucrezia made her own mount walk a little faster, to keep pace.
"Are you going to keep this up for ever?" Lucrezia demanded. "I don't know what you mean, highness."
"For one thing, I asked you to stop calling me highness," Lucrezia said.
"I'm not a highness any more. We're in this together now. If you don't like it, that's too bad- but I thought you were my friend.
What else could I have done? Tell me that! "
"Nothing," Hyry agreed, without enthusiasm.
"Checuti gave neither of us any choice." She didn't say highness, but she didn't look at Lucrezia either, and she didn't make any comment about their being friends.
"You might not like what he did," Lucrezia told her reluctant companion angrily, 'but he did me a big favour, and I'm grateful to him. If you'd rather he'd killed me, perhaps you ought to say so, so that everything's clear between us. "
Hyry condescended to look round then.
"No, highness," she said, making an evident effort.
"I couldn't wish that. I'd far rather you were alive and here than dead somewhere else. It's just. . ."
"It's just that we've had to stay well away from the road, which has slowed us down. We have to stop more often because we're using both horses, which has slowed us down further. The rain has hardly let up in seven days, which has slowed us. down even further. To cap it all, we had Checuti's men trailing us for at least five of those days, which kept us looking anxiously around every time we stopped. I'm sorry, Hyry, but. . ."
"It's not your fault," Hyry finished for her.
"I know that, high--' She stopped herself halfway through the word which seemed to Lucrezia to be a minor victory in the unwanted contest. After a pause, Lucrezia said.
"He didn't have to do it, Hyry. The others wanted to cut my throat. Not that I could have harmed them- I didn't see anything except the inside of a big grain warehouse, and I didn't have the least idea where it was. How could I, when I'd hardly set foot outside the citadel? But they thought that I might have seen faces and heard names. They were scared. Checuti had to bring me with him, and give them his word that I wouldn't be coming back.
I75
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" He asked me himself, you know, what I'd do with me if our situations were reversed. For a moment or two I actually thought he's right; if I were him I'd cut my throat rather than take the slightest risk- but then I thought again, and I thought no- no, I really wouldn't .
. and I told him why. He listened Hyry. He really listened. " " He has a certain perverse charm," Hyry conceded.
"Rumour has it that all the thieves in Xandia queued up to be cheated by him."
"It wasn't like that," Lucrezia insisted.
"What, exactly, did you say to him?" the trader asked. That, too, seemed like a breakthrough to the princess. Hyry had been too sullen and sulky to ask before.
"I told him the truth," Lucrezia said proudly.
"I told him that if I were a man like him, I wouldn't bother with such trivialities as robbing the king's treasury, whether the crime had to be compounded by murder or not. If I were him, I said, I wouldn't just ride southwards until I thought I was safe from pursuit or betrayal, I'd keep right on going. If I were a man like him, I said, I'd want to know what lies far beyond the Forest of Absolute Night, and now that there was an opportunity to find out, maybe for the first time in a hundred generations, norning would stop me trying. If I were him, I said, I'd spend every penny of coin I'd stolen to outfit an expedition like the one you ajnd Fraxinus have put together, and I'd go looking for the garden of Idun and the Pool of Life . . . and I'd find them, or die trying. " He knew that it was all true. If he hadn't'known that, I'm not sure that he'd have passed me on to you. " He knew- and he understood what I meant."
"He's still going to hole up with his s
tolen money, though," Hyry pointed out.
"He didn't volunteer to join forces with us, did he?"
"He was tempted," Lucrezia said dererminedly. Then she relented, and put on her most winning smile.
"He's not such a bad man, but he's not like you ... or me. We're real heroes, risking everything."
"So we are," Hyry said, not as bitterly as she might have. "I'm truly sorry that you're risking rather more than you planned," Lucrezia said, 'but when you think about the dangers we might face in and beyond the forest, surely the risk of being stopped and challenged by my father's men is trivial enough? "
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Hyry said nothing to that, but she did manage a halfhearted grin. It was enough, for the time being.
"I won't be a burden," Lucrezia said.
"In fact, I'm as useful as any fighting man would be. Checuti gave me back my belt, with everything intact. There's the legacy of five years of training in witchery wrapped up in these packages. If a nightcioak were to swallow me whole it'd die in forty-three different ways. Believe me, Hyry, anyone who thinks we're an easy target because we're so far off the beaten track will get a rude shock."
Hyry seemed sceptical, but didn't challenge the claim.
"We'd better rest and eat," she said.
"Now the stars have condescended to light the night for us, we can keep going for at least another eight hours, but the horses need to be fed."
They both reined in. Lucrezia tethered the horses while Hyry unburdened the donkeys. The trader squatted down beside the packs and took out two small loaves of bread, a few slices of salted pork and some fruit that they had gathered the day before. The bread was already stale and the fruit was beginning to develop an alcoholic edge, but that only encouraged them to eat more, on the grounds that anything they left would spoil. They drank water which Hyry had boiled three days before, the last time she had been able to make a fire.
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