Guardians of The Flame: To Home And Ehvenor (The Guardians of the Flame #06-07)

by Joel Rosenberg

  Where the road swung north to give a wide berth to Benai Hill, a path into the forest broke through the plowed ground and met the road.

  The path was well-maintained, even after it entered the forest—overhead branches were hacked off, some brush cleared by the side. I wouldn't have wanted to gallop down it in the dark, or even canter in the light, but it was perfectly fine for a nice, quick walk.

  Kind of pleasant, really: stately oaks and elms arching high above, keeping things all cool and green and musty, even though the day was already heating up. My hearing's awfully good, for a human, but I couldn't hear any animal sounds over the clopping of the horses' hooves.

  A nice quiet day.

  Something rustled in the bush toward the side of the road.

  I had a throwing knife in my left hand and a cocked pistol in my right as a rabbit scampered across the path, losing itself in the woods.

  Tennetty was only a little slower with a flintlock; Jason was third, his revolver, one of the only two that existed, carefully pointed toward the sky.

  "What—?"

  "Ta havath," Tennetty said. Take it easy. "Just a rabbit." Tennetty glared at me as she carefully holstered her pistol and slipped her rapier back into its sheath. "What was that about?"

  I shrugged an apology as I reholstered my own pistol and slipped my throwing knife back into its sheath. "Sorry."

  The two of them were kind enough to let the matter drop.

  It was a nice day, so why was I coming close to jumping out of my skin at every sound? Yes, there were those rumors of things coming out of Faerie, but we were solidly in the Middle Lands, far from Faerie.

  Not good enough. I mean, it was true, but it wasn't an excuse.

  I could have argued that Tennetty and Jason were just as jumpy as I was, but that would have been just for the sake of arguing—the two of them were operating under the sound principle that when somebody quickly draws a weapon, he's got a good reason. Which I hadn't. A rabbit within shooting range is a good reason to draw a hunting weapon slowly, carefully, without alarming the rest of your party. It is not a reason to suggest by word or action that the shit's about to hit the fan.

  We rode in silence and I kept my jumpiness under control as we followed the path in for maybe half an hour—remember, every step you take in has to be taken out—until we came to a small clearing, where I called for a break.

  I dismounted, more stiffly than I liked, and rubbed at the base of my spine.

  Getting a bit older every year, Walter.

  Tennetty either didn't hurt or didn't want to show it. I wouldn't have bet either way.

  "Leave the horses?" she asked, sliding out of the saddle as she did.

  "Sure." I uncinched the saddle and set it on the spread-out horse blanket, slipped the bridle, and tied the horse to a tree, just the rope and hackamore to hold him there. Jason did the same.

  Tennetty just slipped the bridle and dropped the reins. "Stay," she said. I guess that if her horse couldn't stay ground-hitched, she was willing for it to be her problem.

  I slipped into my shooting gloves and leathers—I'll cut my fingers and scrape my arm when it's for real, but not when it's practice, thank you very much—then strung my bow, a fine Therranji composite that had cost me more than I like to think about. I'd have to show this to Lou; I doubted even he could have improved on it. Nicely, elegantly recurved, it was made from three pieces of almost black wood, a long strip of reddened horn sinew-bound to its belly, the whole thing covered with a smooth lacquer. The grip was soft, thick leather, gradually molding itself to my fingers with each use. About a fifty-pound pull—which is plenty, really.

  "I've always seen you favor a crossbow," Jason said, stringing his own longbow. He slung his quiver over his head, then hitched at his swordbelt. He thought about it for a moment, then unhooked the swordbelt, leaving it around the pommel of his saddle.

  I nodded. "Usually do," I said. "Hey, Jason?"

  "Yes?"

  "What would you say," I said, quietly, "if I told you that there's six Holtish rebels hiding behind those trees over there and that they're about to jump us?"

  He started to edge toward his horse.

  Tennetty snickered. "What you should say is, 'I'm sorry, Holtish rebels, let me drop my pants and bend over for you, so you can stick my sword up my backside,' that's what you should say." She jerked a thumb toward his horse. "Wear the sword."

  He buckled the sword on with good grace. I've known people who take direction worse than Jason. Lots of them. I've seen one of them in a mirror, every now and then.

  I fitted a practice arrow to the bowstring—I don't waste killing broadheads on trees.

  Now, I like crossbows. You can fire them with one hand, from the saddle, or from a prone position, three things that you can't do with a longbow. You can do two out of those three things with a short bow, but you give up range and striking power. Not a good compromise. A longbow has greater range than any crossbow without a good winding gear, and a much greater rate of fire.

  The only trouble is that it takes a lot of practice to get good at it, and more practice to stay good at it.

  Across the meadow, maybe, twenty yards away, an oily crow sat on a limb, considering the silly humans below.

  Well, let's see if I can still do zen archery. The trouble with being a stranger in a strange land is that you have to be your own zen master. I brought the bow up, keeping my form perfect, not aiming with my eyes, not exactly, and visualized the release, the string leaving my finger in perfect form—smoothly, evenly, instantly, not with a plucking loose.

  I let go, and in less than a heartbeat, the arrow was quivering in the limb, a full three feet to the right of where the crow had taken flight.

  Jason snickered. "Off by a full arrow's-length. Not too good, Uncle Walter."

  Tennetty caught my eye; the corners of her lips were turned up. If it had been anybody else, I'd call the expression a smile. "See how close you can come to his arrow, Jason Cullinane. I'm curious."

  Jason brought up his bow and loosed too soon, the string loud against his leathers. The arrow disappeared into the forest.

  Tennetty laughed out loud, and Jason started to bristle, but caught himself.

  "Well," he said, "let's say we start hunting in that direction."

  "After," I said. "Let's fire some more practice arrows first."

  * * *

  Hunting, like fishing—and sex, for that matter—is one of those things where you really have to be there to understand it.

  Except for the killing part, I like it, a lot. At least the way we did it. You stalk across the floor of the dark forest, the comforting rot of leaves and humus in your nostrils, listening, watching intently—and without worrying about somebody jumping out from behind a tree and killing you. It's a good thing.

  At my side were people I trusted, because I don't go hunting with people I don't trust.

  There are other ways to do it. One of the best ways to actually catch food involves finding a good spot and waiting for the game to pass by. You sit, conserving energy, and wait. Eventually, if you've picked your spot right, your rabbit comes into view, or your deer, or antelope or whatever. But that's survival hunting.

  This was more fun. Back on the Other Side, I never could move this quietly. I'm not complaining, mind, but being one of the big guys isn't all that it's cracked up to be. Trust me.

  Besides, we weren't really hunting. What we were doing was relaxing, and by the time we'd worked our way into the forest, firing a few practice shots here and there, I'd managed to get rid of my jumpiness. For now.

  Just as well. "Jason, you see that stump over there?" I asked, pointing to one about forty yards away.

  "The one just behind that fallen tree?"

  "Right. Bet I can put an arrow into that root, the one that bends up to the right."

  He shrugged. "So can I."

  "From here?" I raised an eyebrow. "A silver mark to who gets closer?"

  He nodded. "S
ure."

  "Tennetty?"

  "No, I don't need to donate to the cause," she said.

  "No. We need a referee and judge."

  "Yeah, sure." She took up a drill instructor's stance. "Awright. Nock your arrows. Draw your bows. Three. Two. One. Loose."

  It was a tricky shot, trickier than it looked, if I was right—the leaves from a lower branch of an old oak blocked the top of the parabolic flight of the arrow. You have to remember that your shot does not travel in a straight line, but in an arc. The trick was to aim so that the arrow's flight would take it through a gap in the leaves . . .

  I released, smoothly. I was a bit off, but more lucky than off: it barely nicked a couple of leaves, not slowing it enough to make it miss. It thwoked comfortably into the root, while Jason's arrow buried itself in the ground, easily a foot short.

  "Pay me," I said.

  "Put it on account," he said.

  "Sure."

  I retrieved my arrow, and nocked it, looking for another target.

  "Er, Uncle Walter?" Jason frowned as he examined the head of his arrow, but I didn't think he was frowning at it.

  "Yeah?"

  "How come I get the feeling that we're not really after deer?"

  Tennetty chuckled. "Maybe because we're too busy shooting up the trees?"

  "There's a perfectly good archery range behind the barracks," Jason said.

  "If you know anything more boring than spending a morning firing arrows at a bull's-eye, you be sure and don't let me know."

  Me, I'd much rather pretend to go hunting and shoot up a few trees. I never really practice with my throwing knives—I just use them, every once in a long while, to assure me that I still have the Talent for it. But that's deeply imprinted. I don't have to practice that any more than a fish has to practice his scales.

  My learned skills are different; if I don't put in at least a few hours with the longbow every tenday or so, I start to go real sour, and there have been more than a few times that would have been unfortunate. Unfortunate in the sense of Stash and Emma Slovotsky's baby boy getting himself dead. As Woody Allen would say, death is one of the worst things that can happen to somebody in our line of work, and many of us simply prefer to pay a small fine.

  So I practice. I've spent far too much of my life practicing at how to shoot with some things and cut with some others, but there you have it. Part of the dues.

  But you don't tell anybody everything.

  "I like this better," I said. "Out on a nice day with some good company, clean air, maybe the chance of making a few marks . . ."

  " . . . off some sucker," Tennetty said, with a smile.

  But it wasn't a nice smile, and it almost ruined the morning.

  CHAPTER TWO

  In Which I Discuss Some Family Matters

  Chi fa ingiuria no perdona mai. (He never forgives those he injures.)

  —ITALIAN PROVERB

  Most of the time, things go from bad to worse, but every now and then the human universe shifts for the better: it's clear that something bad's going to happen, but then something else entirely does, something gentler.

  Sometimes it's nice; sometimes it's just something bad that declines to happen. Either is just fine with me.

  The first time I remember it, I was about seven, I guess. My parents had gone out for the evening, and my brother, Steven, had a date, so they'd hired a baby-sitter. Mrs. Kleinman, her name was; she lived on some sort of widow's pension in a set of funny-smelling rooms in the red brick apartment building down the block from our house. Ugly old biddy, who really didn't like kids. Never wanted to play, or talk; all she wanted to do was turn on the television, take off her shoes, and fall asleep on the couch with one hand in a bowl of potato chips.

  Well? What would you do? I'd done the obvious thing, and there had been trouble when Stash and Emma got home. Whenever old Stash—it's an old Polish nickname, okay?—got angry, there was this tic in his right cheek; it would twitch with every pulsebeat.

  He came into my room, the light in the hall casting half his face into shadow, his fists unclenching. Stash was a short, broad man, but he had huge hands, and they made huge fists.

  He wouldn't have punched me, but he was going to spank me. His face was so red from the chin to the top of his balding that I thought he was going to blow up, and the tic was pulsing two to the second, the speed of a fast walk. I was worried about him more than me, I swear, as he loomed over my bed.

  "Walter . . ." he always called me Cricket, except when he was angry at me, and he was furious.

  And then he swept me up in his huge arms. I could smell the whiskey on his breath. Gales of laughter rocked me. His laughter.

  "God, Cricket, I guess that old biddy did deserve to have her shoes nailed to the floor."

  I guess that's why the smell of whiskey on somebody's breath doesn't bother me.

  * * *

  I was currying the mare when I heard Bren's footsteps behind me. The cleaning stalls at Castle Furnael—Castle Cullinane, that is—were well designed, with a low, calf-high open wooden box in the center of the stall. You stand the horse in the box, which inhibits it from moving around, and prevents you from getting kicked.

  I wasn't worried about being kicked. There wasn't any good reason to be concerned about anything at all. One of the stableboys and two of the horse soldiers were just outside, reshoeing a stubborn gelding; the other stableboy was across the way, working on Jason's horse, and the house guard was within a quick shout. If we were going to have a problem, it wasn't going to be here.

  Besides, Bren Adahan would hardly be here to give me a problem, eh?

  "Hello, Baron," I said, turning slowly, resting my hand on the partition separating the cleaning stalls. It's reflex—ever since my first day on This Side, I've always looked for a place to run. I've always had a reason. I haven't always had a place to run, mind, but I've always looked for one. "Where've you been keeping yourself?"

  "All over, Walter Slovotsky," he said. "I spent the morning at two of the tenant farms. Then I came in and did an inventory at the farm. Then the kennels, and now here."

  "Inventorying the baron's livestock?" A good idea, and something I should have thought of. I tended to think of the walled keep itself as being Jason's new home, although really it was the keep and the huge chunk of land it sat upon, including the livestock managed at the clump of buildings down by the pastures, a couple of miles away.

  "Somebody ought to," he said. He was in tan today, in a pale, almost snowy doeskin tunic and leggings, the effect picked up by an antler clip that held back the hair that otherwise would have fallen over his right ear.

  Very stylish, but then again, Bren, Baron Adahan was always very stylish. I've always been more fond of substance, myself. No, that's not fair. I had been out in the field with him, and he had gotten as down and dirty as the rest of us. A good man to have at your back in a fight, something both Jason and I knew from experience.

  Perhaps to remind me of that, he wore a very ordinary leather combo belt tight on his hips, his shortsword on the left, a dagger and a flintlock on the right.

  "Have you a moment?" he asked.

  "For you, Baron, I've always got a moment," I said, not meaning it.

  He smiled, as though there was no hypocrisy in his voice, or in mine. "I'll be leaving tomorrow; there are matters in my barony that need my attention."

  "Little Pittsburgh?" I said. There's always something happening in the steel town.

  "Yes. Not just that, but yes." He nodded, and then, for no reason or other, it happened: we were friends again, even if only for the moment. "Let me give you a hand." He stripped off his tunic, then unbuckled his sword and hung it on a post. I had the brush ready for him before he had his hand out.

  He stroked the harsh bristles with his thumb. "Ranella's devoting her attention to the railroad, and somebody has to take care of the administration," he said, as he ran the brush down the other side of the horse, steadying her with sure fingers in h
er mane as she whickered and pranced just a little. "Something I was trained for, no?"

  "Each to his own, Bren."

  His smile was forced. "I'm going to ask Aeia to come with me."

  "Don't blame you at all," I said. "I would, if I were you."

  He was silent for a long time. We sometimes have to live on the silences. "Maybe she'd be better off here, with the others."

  I nodded. "Maybe. She's going to have to decide for herself."

  "There is that." He dropped the subject. "I see you didn't come back with any game today. Enjoy your hunt nonetheless?" he asked, taking up a firm grip in the mare's mane with one hand while he reassuringly stroked her neck with the other.

  "It was pleasant enough."

  "The doing, not the prey, eh?"

  "Something like that." I tucked the hoof pick under my left arm, then stooped to pick up the mare's front hoof and scraped it out. It was packed full of horseshit and dirt, much like life itself. I would have liked to let it slide by—I am a lazy bastard, and there are standards to maintain—but all sorts of hoof diseases can get started if you don't clean them out properly.

  Bren held out his hand for the pick. I handed it over and steadied the horse while he did the right front hoof, then moved back to do the rear one on that side. I finished with the final hoof, then gave the horse a solid pat on the flank as I closed the stall door.

  "Leave her there, in the grooming stall, an' it please you," the stableboy called out. He was working on Tennetty's horse across the way. "I've got to muck out her own stall, and I'll do it just as soon as I finish with this horse, Walter Slovotsky."

  "She'll need some fresh straw," Bren said.

  "I'll get it, Baron—" the stableboy cut himself off; Bren was already partly up the ladder toward the loft. I swarmed up after him.

  There was a skittering at our approach, but you almost never see the rats.

  Stables are stables: bales, tied with twine, lay brick-stacked against the front wall, four rows deep. Bren hacked through the twine with a hayknife while I used the pitchfork to pitch it to the stone floor below.