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

by Joel Rosenberg

  "The point isn't to keep doing what you've been doing until you get too old for it, but to keep making yourself useful. I'm starting to slow down, and while I'm more than a match for most, I'm not a match for all. 'Tho' much is taken, much abides'—I'm going to have to leave this jumping out of windows and fighting in alleyways for the younger folks sooner or later, and I'd better get used to the idea that that's a good thing, not a bad thing. There's other things I can do, and not necessarily boring ones, either."

  Doria smiled. "Still a little fight in the old boy, eh?"

  "Maybe." I shrugged.

  You up for a night flight tomorrow night? I asked Ellegon.

  *Depends where, I suppose. Oh, sure. Why not? What have you got in mind?*

  Job interview.

  Bren looked over at me, and tilted his head to one side. "You want some company?"

  I nodded. "I was sort of counting on it."

  17

  Job Interview

  It is not enough to be busy; so are the ants. The question is: What are we busy about?

  —Henry David Thoreau

  While it doesn't get the good press that hard work and industry get, laziness is a talent to be cultivated, like any other.

  —Walter Slovotsky

  The room was dark, almost completely dark, lit only by shreds of distant lantern light leaking in under the door to the hallway outside. Enough for me, mind; my night vision has always been good, and I'd taken the precaution of blindfolding myself on the trip over to give my eyes plenty of time to adapt to the dark. Ellegon had dropped us off on the roof of the donjon quite silently before more noisily arriving in the courtyard, and it had hardly been any trouble at all to work our way down from the top and into the room.

  He lay alone in his massive bed, which made things simpler. I mean, we could have handled it if he had company, but I liked it this way.

  Bren Adahan grinned wolfishly as he drew his sword and lightly, gently touched the sleeping Emperor on the chest.

  Give him credit: Thomen came awake instantly, and neither cried out nor reached for the hidden flintlock pistol that had been tucked under his mattress, but now was displayed quite prominently in my belt.

  "Good evening, Your Majesty," Bren said, striking a match and lighting Thomen's bedside lantern. Golden light flared, casting shadows all about the room, lighting Bren's face demonically from below.

  Thomen's head jerked around, first toward him, and then toward me. His beard was all crushed and his mustache kind of askew, as though he'd been sleeping, which seemed reasonable, since he'd been sleeping. I would have offered him a comb, a brush, and a few minutes to get himself together, but that would have ruined the effect.

  "We've come about a couple of jobs," I said. "I think you need a pair of special representatives, for difficult political problems. Care to review my qualifications?"

  Sometime or another, Thomen had learned to be a politician; I couldn't tell anything by the expression on his face. "I had thought I'd offered you such a position, not too long ago."

  I shook my head. "No. I'm not talking about running around playing catch every time your mother finds something that likes to throw spears. We may have other projects in the fire, every now and then."

  "Seems likely. When things quiet down in Pandathaway, I intend to kill whoever it is that sent assassins after Kirah and her daughters," Bren said, without heat, in the quiet way that a death sentence is passed.

  "Make that 'we intend'—but save the details for later," I said to shut him up, then turned back to Thomen. "We'll work for you, not your mother; and that means we report to you, and not to your mother."

  "Whenever we want to," Bren put in. "Even in the middle of the night."

  Thomen's smile was crooked. "You seem to have arranged that part of it already."

  I rubbed at the small of my back. "I'm starting to get too old to be jumping in and out of windows. Next time I get to walk in, through the door. Any time, night or day. That's for a starter."

  "And?"

  "And, him." I jerked my thumb at Bren. "He sits in for you when you're taking some time off."

  "The Biemish barons will love that," Thomen said, sarcastically.

  I smiled. "I've been thinking about that, and I've got a few ideas about how to make them like it better."

  "You do?"

  "I do."

  In fact, with the idea properly sold, the Biemish barons would like it better if it were a Holt occupying the office, as there was no possibility of a Holt seizing permanent power. The Furnael dynasty wasn't even a generation old, and the Biemish barons were certainly nervous about other Biemish barons taking the throne. But I'd save that for later.

  "In any case," I went on, "you do take some time off—all work and no play makes Thomen a dull Emperor. You need to spend more time with your butt in a saddle and less with it on a throne. Bren will keep the throne warm for you."

  "And you?"

  "I'll run important errands for you, with Bren when he's available, but with whatever support I think necessary: a few bodyguards, a troop from the House Guard, or a baronial army. And a nice title—Imperial Proctor, maybe. Something that suggests it'd be real unhandy if anything were to happen to me."

  "I take it there's more."

  "Sure. Our families live in the castle, here, under your protection, when we aren't based out of Little Pittsburgh and Castle Adahan. They come and they go as they please, with Imperial troops for their security, too." I turned to Bren. "What next?"

  "Next, we need to arrange a divorce," Bren said. "And a marriage, as well. Or is it two marriages?" He looked over at me.

  "I haven't exactly asked her, yet," I said. "I sort of figured I'd have to dispose of one wife before I take on another one, eh?"

  Bren laughed.

  And, after a moment, so did Thomen. "Imperial Proctor, eh? Well, true enough, I could find some work for you."

  "Some work of noble note, eh?"

  He looked at me kind of funny. "Rather." And then he smiled. "One thing, though?"

  "Yes?"

  "I don't care where it is, or what happened to it, but I want my candelabra back. Soon."

  "Done."

  * * *

  The guards in the entranceway probably would have done something if the Emperor himself, in dressing gown and sandals, hadn't let us out of the Imperial sleeping chambers, but under the circumstances, about the only thing they could do was glare.

  And salute, once matters were properly explained to them. Imperial Proctor, eh?

  As we walked down the hall toward the long, winding staircase, Bren Adahan chuckled. "I don't know as I believe in this new, er, conservative policy of yours. Seems to me we might have wanted to have a backup plan, if the Emperor hadn't been so cooperative, or if he hadn't meant what he said."

  Well, I could have told him about how I'd asked Ellegon to monitor Thomen for honesty, and how the dragon was ready to pick us up on the roof where he'd dropped us off, but I don't like to give away all my secrets.

  *It would ruin the effect, at that.*

  Shh. "I always have a backup plan handy, Bren."

  He snorted. "Dying horribly, at length, and in great pain, is not a plan."

  I shrugged. "Well, it's not a good one." I yawned. "Any idea where I can go to get some sleep?"

  L'ENVOI I

  Home Again

  Eternal rest sounds comforting in the pulpit; well, you try it once, and see how heavy time will hang on your hands.

  —Mark Twain

  The hot bath is an art form, and one I wish I had the time to practice more assiduously.

  —Walter Slovotsky

  Even after five days back home, the best thing in the world was to sit back in the hot bath and let the almost scalding water soak the dirt out of his pores and the ache out of his bones.

  "Ahira?" Jason Cullinane called out. "It's starting to cool again."

  In a moment, the dwarf appeared, a long set of tongs holding a red-hot piece of s
crap iron, which he plunged into the water. The steam momentarily hid his face and Jason quickly kicked water at the iron to move the heat around.

  Much better. "Thanks."

  Things were settling down, for the time being. Walter and Bren were moving their families over to Biemestren within the next tenday, which was going to make things a bit quiet around here. Janie was going to stay on for a while, which was nice, although Marnea's presence probably had a lot to do with that.

  There had been rumors of some strange creatures to the south and west again. Probably some remnant of what had strayed out of Faerie; probably a good idea to go look into it.

  He said as much to the dwarf.

  Ahira nodded. "In a few weeks. I want some time with the kids before we go. Your mother's going to want to come along, you know."

  Jason shrugged. There were worse things in the world than that, although he really would have wanted a bit larger group.

  Still . . .

  Ahira flashed a broad smile, then turned to leave. "If you'll excuse me, I've got a knife I'm working on."

  "Enjoy."

  Doria poked her head in through the door. "Somebody here to see you."

  "Imperial messenger?"

  She shook her head. "Won't give a name. Tall, a bit on the skinny side, maybe. Neat beard. Kind of cute, if you like that type." She smiled. "I like that type. Says you'll want to see him."

  Toryn—"You left him alone?"

  "The hilt of his sword looked a little too well worn for that, and if it hadn't, it would have looked too new, or too perfect." She smiled. "So he's under guard, disarmed, in manacles, if you call that alone. I was wondering if you wanted to wait to see him until you got out—"

  Jason was already out of the bath, wrapping a towel about his waist and seizing up his weapons belt before following Ahira out into the day.

  Toryn was standing out near the main entrance, trying his best to look insouciant despite the iron manacles and the stern-eyed guards.

  "New style of dress?" he asked.

  "What are you doing here?"

  Toryn pursed his lips for a moment, as though considering, then shrugged. "Truth to tell, I didn't want to discuss in front of the Guildmaster how I didn't even try to kill the both of you, when you were so winded and vulnerable after the fight with Pelester, and the geas possibly broken. He wasn't likely to believe that it was impossible for me, and might have insisted on running me over to Wizard's Guildhall for a truth spell." Toryn shrugged. "And that might have been awkward. I decided to hope," he said, "that the assassins might have failed, so I decided to head this way, rather than back to Pandathaway."

  "And if they hadn't failed, you would have—"

  "—turned my horse around and ridden away," Toryn said, "and rather quickly, at that. But the word in all the villages is that they did fail, and I thought that under the circumstances, you might find my . . . omissions forgivable," he said, "or at the very least give me a running start." He brought his manacled hands up, as though studying his manicure. "Alternately, we could find the nearest Spider and have him attest to my truthfulness, and then we might see if there's something . . . interesting to do."

  Jason cocked his head to one side. "What makes you think we've got something on?"

  Toryn smiled. "Just a hunch."

  L'ENVOI II

  Home Again

  Home is where the heart is.

  —Pliny the Elder

  No, wherever she is, wherever my kids are, that's home. And if that sounds a bit too sentimental, well, I'll just have to live with it.

  —Walter Slovotsky

  The dreams are always different, these days. But the days have been getting kind of hectic.

  Aeia says, well—I'll tell you about it sometime.

  Trust me.

  Appendix

  By Way of an Appendix

  Since this is the poem that's running—sometimes amok—through Walter's subconscious throughout the novel, and since I couldn't quite talk Doria and Walter into reciting all of it in Chapter 16—I tried, honest, but they've got minds of their own—I thought I'd save you the trouble of looking it up.

  It's one of my favorites.

  —J.R.

  Ulysses

  —by Alfred, Lord Tennyson

  It little profits that an idle king,

  By this still hearth, among these barren crags,

  Match'd with an aged wife, I mete and dole

  Unequal laws unto a savage race,

  That hoard, and sleep, and feed, and know not me.

  I cannot rest from travel: I will drink

  Life to the lees: all times I have enjoy'd

  Greatly, have suffer'd greatly, both with those

  That loved me, and alone; on shore, and when

  Thro' scudding drifts the rainy Hyades

  Vext the dim sea: I am become a name;

  For always roaming with a hungry heart

  Much have I seen and known; cities of men

  And manners, climates, councils, governments,

  Myself not least, but honour'd of them all;

  And drunk delight of battle with my peers,

  Far on the ringing plains of windy Troy.

  I am a part of all that I have met;

  Yet all experience is an arch wherethro'

  Gleams that untravell'd world, whose margin fades

  For ever and for ever when I move.

  How dull it is to pause, to make an end,

  To rust unburnish'd, not to shine in use!

  As tho' to breathe were life. Life piled on life

  Were all too little, and of one to me

  Little remains: but every hour is saved

  From that eternal silence, something more,

  A bringer of new things; and vile it were

  For some three suns to store and hoard myself,

  And this grey spirit yearning in desire

  To follow knowledge, like a sinking star,

  Beyond the utmost bound of human thought.

  This is my son, mine own Telemachus,

  To whom I leave the sceptre and the isle—

  Well-loved of me, discerning to fulfil

  This labour, by slow prudence to make mild

  A rugged people, and thro' soft degrees

  Subdue them to the useful and the good.

  Most blameless is he, centred in the sphere

  Of common duties, decent not to fail

  In offices of tenderness, and pay

  Meet adoration to my household gods,

  When I am gone. He works his work, I mine.

  There lies the port: the vessel puffs her sail:

  There gloom the dark broad seas. My mariners,

  Souls that have toil'd, and wrought, and thought with me—

  That ever with a frolic welcome took

  The thunder and the sunshine, and opposed

  Free hearts, free foreheads—you and I are old;

  Old age hath yet his honour and his toil;

  Death closes all: but something ere the end,

  Some work of noble note, may yet be done,

  Not unbecoming men that strove with Gods.

  The lights begin to twinkle from the rocks:

  The long day wanes: the slow moon climbs: the deep

  Moans round with many voices. Come, my friends,

  'Tis not too late to seek a newer world.

  Push off, and sitting well in order smite

  The sounding furrows; for my purpose holds

  To sail beyond the sunset, and the baths

  Of all the western stars, until I die.

  It may be that the gulfs will wash us down:

  It may be we shall touch the Happy Isles,

  And see the great Achilles, whom we knew.

  Tho' much is taken, much abides; and tho'

  We are not now that strength which in old days

  Moved earth and heaven; that which we are, we are;

  One equal temper of heroic hearts,

&
nbsp; Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will

  To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.

  THE END

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