“Yes,” Hanna nodded. “They’re after a deserter from the Imperial Army.” She looked up and smiled at Bruno, who caught her eye and smiled back. “He sounds like a nasty piece of work, but Bruno says they should catch him without too much trouble.”
“You’ve been talking to Bruno a lot then,” Rudi said, not quite sure why the idea should bother him so much. “Did he tell you why we got into trouble at the inn?” To his astonishment Hanna laughed.
“Yes. But you have to admit it is pretty funny.”
“Hilarious,” Rudi said flatly. But he felt relieved as well. Last night he hadn’t had the nerve to ask who the adventurers were after, he was too afraid that it would be a pair of heretics from Kohlstadt. But if it was someone else entirely they should be safe enough in their company for a while. At least until they made it back to civilisation, and the others had a chance to find out about the arrest warrant with their names on it. After Shenk’s double-dealing he had no doubt that they’d seize on the chance to claim the reward for them too. He lowered his voice. “I think we should carry on pretending to be brother and sister for a while. Just in case they hear the news about us from somewhere.”
“All right.” Hanna nodded. She collected his empty bowl and wandered over to join Bruno. After a moment or two they were laughing over some shared jest.
“Don’t worry.” Conrad came over to join him as he struggled to his feet. “I know what you’re thinking, she’ll be fine.”
“Will she?” Rudi wasn’t quite sure what he meant. Conrad nodded.
“He likes to pretend he’s a great heartbreaker, but the closest he ever gets is a bit of flirting. Your sister’s virtue’s as safe as if she was still at home.”
“I’m glad to hear it,” Rudi said, rather more vehemently than he’d intended.
“I’m sure you are.” Conrad looked at him a little strangely before going on. “Theo says its time to divide the spoils from last night. There isn’t much, but you’re both entitled to shares.”
“Oh. Right.” Relived at the change of subject, Rudi rolled up his blanket and followed the archer.
“There you are. Good.” The mercenary captain looked up as Rudi and Conrad joined the others around the campfire. Hanna was already there, sitting between Bruno and Alwyn, and Bodun was leaning on the haft of his axe, looking down at the small pile of loot. “I was just explaining how this works to Hanna. If you fight, you get an equal share of the spoils. That’s how we’ve always done things.”
“Saves a lot of arguments,” Bodun said. “And a good thing too. I’ve seen parties like this slitting one other’s throats over claims to trinkets a tavern whore would turn her nose up at.”
“Quite,” Theo said, fixing the dwarf with a steely glare. Bodun cleared his throat and went quiet. “So, to return to business, the coinage is easy. It comes to three shillings and sevenpence ha’penny apiece.” He handed small piles of chinking silver and copper to each of them in turn, including Rudi and Hanna.
Rudi closed his hand around his share with a quiet sense of satisfaction. This more than made up for the purse full of coppers he’d lost at the Jolly Friar. He glanced across at Hanna as she accepted her due, and smiled. With over seven shillings between them, life would be a lot easier once they resumed their travels.
“The bounty on the rats’ tails will have to wait until we get somewhere we can claim it,” Theo went on.
“Assuming they last that long,” Bruno put in.
“If they start to go off we can always make stew with them,” Bodun suggested, and glanced at the faces of his companions. “What? Oh for Grungni’s sake, don’t any of you manlings have a sense of humour?”
“Not where money’s concerned,” Theo said. “Which brings us to the rest of the stuff. Normally we draw lots and take it in turns to pick something until it’s all gone. But since you two have so little to start with, we’ll kit you out first. Any objections?”
There weren’t, or if there were they went unvoiced. Theo nodded, and motioned Rudi and Hanna forwards. They glanced at the pile of weapons and other equipment.
“A tinderbox!” Rudi pounced on it. “I’ll have this.”
“Shouldn’t think you’d need one with a pyromancer in the family,” Alwyn said, and everyone laughed.
“It’s not a trick I like to demonstrate too much,” Hanna said, and the red-headed sorcerer nodded.
“I take your point.”
“You’ll need weapons,” Conrad pointed out. “This isn’t exactly a safe place to be wandering around unarmed.”
“How about this one?” Theo selected one of the swords, and handed it to Rudi. He took it awkwardly, unsure how to hold it.
“No. Like this.” Bruno corrected his grip with swift precision, and Rudi fought down a brief spasm of resentment at the youth’s interference. Somehow the blade felt right in his hand now, the way the bow had after he’d learned the trick of not trying too hard to hit the mark. “How does that feel?”
“Good,” Rudi admitted, surprised. He tried a couple of cuts with it, prompting a general shuffling backwards among the bystanders. Theo smiled.
“Don’t worry. We’ll show you how to use it before you take your own thumb off.” He handed Rudi the sheath, and after a bit of fumbling Rudi managed to put it away. “And what about you?” He turned to Hanna.
“I wouldn’t have a clue how to fight,” Hanna said.
“After what I saw last night, you shouldn’t have to.” Alwyn bent down, and selected a dagger. As she drew it from its sheath the blade caught the early morning light, shining bright, its edge and tip razor sharp. “But you can’t always rely on magic to solve your problems.”
“Rather the reverse, it seems,” Hanna said grimly.
“Quite.” Alwyn handed her the weapon. “And in my experience, no matter how subtle the wizard, six inches of steel in the kidneys does tend to cramp his style.”
“I’ll bear that in mind,” Hanna said, tucking the blade inside her bodice.
“I can show you some tricks with that,” Bruno offered, ignoring the good-natured chaffing of his friends. Hanna smiled.
“I’d like that. Thank you.”
“You’ll need a knife too,” Theo said, handing one to Rudi. It was a simple, utilitarian one, like the blade he’d lost on the boat, and he took it without comment. “Anything else you need?”
“Nothing I can see here,” Rudi said.
“Good.” Theo concealed a bundle of five straws in his hand, all different lengths, and turned to his companions. “You know how this works. Pick in order of size, longest straw first.” Everyone pulled one out of his fist, compared them, and cracked jokes about Alwyn getting the first turn, which was something they all pretended seemed to happen more often than pure chance would account for.
“What do you expect with a shadowmancer in the party?” Bruno asked, and Alwyn raised an eyebrow in his direction.
“I don’t hear you complaining about having second pick,” she said, and made a great show of considering the throwing knives he coveted before settling on a short sword. “This looks like it’s worth a shilling or two.”
“Or a couple of coppers for scrap.” Bruno fell on the magnins with a whoop of delight, rolling up his shirtsleeves to strap the sheaths to his forearms. He already had a knife concealed up his right sleeve, Rudi noted with some surprise. He relocated it to the top of his boot to make room for his new acquisition. Conrad noticed the direction of his gaze, and smiled.
“You don’t always want everything you’ve got to be visible,” he said quietly. “Although Bruno does tend to take it to extremes.” Intrigued, Rudi eyed the others in the party, wondering if they too carried concealed weapons. Following Bruno’s example he took another dagger himself when his next turn to pick came along. He tucked it into his own boot though it felt surprisingly uncomfortable at first, until Conrad showed him how to position it. After a short while he almost forgot it was there.
“What’s this?” Hanna asked,
rooting through a jumble of small items and coming out with a leather pouch. Bodun shrugged.
“Dunno. The big ugly one had it.”
“I think you should leave it,” Rudi said, a tingle of foreboding rising in the back of his mind. His perceptions seemed subtly distorted as he looked at the thing. It reminded him of the time he’d found the thorn bush in the forest which had so changed Hans Katzenjammer, and when he walked the unseen paths in Altman’s field. Hanna looked up at him in surprise.
“I thought it was my choice.”
“It is.” Theo looked at Rudi. “That’s how we do things. With no interference from anyone else.”
“Then I’ll take it,” Hanna said, scooping up the small object. She glared at Rudi as though daring him to contradict her.
“You don’t even know what it is,” Conrad pointed out mildly. “You might want to look inside before you commit yourself.”
“No. It’s fine.” Hanna moved away from the diminished pile of loot, her prize cupped in her hand, and turned to Alwyn. “Your turn again.”
“Aren’t you going to show us what you’ve got?” Bruno asked. Hanna shrugged. She tugged open the drawstring, and a small chip of stone fell out into her hand. It was glossy and black; it seemed to suck in the sunlight that fell on it.
“Oh.” Bruno looked a little crestfallen on her behalf. “It’s just a bit of rock. Chuck it away and try again.”
“It’s fine,” Hanna said. “I think it looks pretty.”
“Well, if you’re happy,” the youth shrugged, and returned his attention to the pile of loot.
With the division of the spoils complete, the band began a second round of haggling, which Rudi gathered was equally traditional. By the time it finished he had traded a couple of trinkets he didn’t want for a desperately needed change of clothes. Bruno was about the same size and claimed to have a spare set he didn’t need. He purchased the bedroll he’d been using from Conrad for a couple of coppers. His new tinderbox fitted snugly into his pouch, and he tucked the bedroll into the shoulder straps of a pack Theo had asked him to carry.
“You’re eating our food, so you might as well carry some of it,” he’d pointed out. That only seemed fair, so he’d nodded and picked up the burden, which turned out to be light enough. He was reminded of his lost snare lines, so he scrounged a few thin cords and passed the time on the day’s march knotting some replacements. The ground seemed firmer on this side of the ruins, and they made good time. The sword he was wearing hung awkwardly from his belt and banged into his legs from time to time.
At noon they stopped for a rest and some refreshment, and Hanna wandered over to see what he was doing.
“You’ve been busy,” she said. Rudi laid the line he’d been working on to one side, and smiled at her.
“So have you.” She’d spent the morning walking beside Alwyn, conversing intently in undertones. She nodded, but to his vague disappointment didn’t sit next to him.
“We’ve had a lot to discuss.”
“About magic and stuff,” he suggested.
“Mostly stuff.” She didn’t seem inclined to talk about it, but just when he thought she was about to wander off again, she appeared to change her mind. “She’s been trying to show me how to focus the power, so I can do that fireball trick again.” A faint, troubled frown flickered across her face. “And I think I could now.”
“Well, that’s a good thing, isn’t it?” Rudi said, puzzled by her reluctance. Hanna shrugged.
“I suppose so.” But her eyes said otherwise. “The thing is, I never learned that spell in the first place. I still don’t know how I know it.” She might have said more, but she turned away in response to a shout from Bruno, who was waiting for her. Just then Rudi caught sight of a necklace she was wearing. It seemed vaguely familiar, and after a moment he recognised it as one of the items he’d traded for his new clothes. Hanna noticed the direction of his gaze, and, to his astonishment, blushed. “Nice, isn’t it? Bruno gave it to me.”
“It suits you,” he said, wondering why the idea hadn’t occurred to him first.
“That’s what he said.” Her flush deepened. “He said he thought of me the moment he saw it. Wasn’t that sweet?”
“Very,” Rudi said. Hanna looked at him oddly.
“You don’t mind, do you?”
“Of course not,” Rudi said, a little too hastily. “Why should I?”
“No reason I can see,” Hanna said, sounding curiously irritated and went off to join Bruno. Rudi concentrated on knotting snares; he was determined not to look up every time a burst of laughter drifted across the meadow towards him.
“That’s tidy work,” Theo said, the instant a shadow fell across Rudi. Grateful for the distraction Rudi glanced up.
“They’re rabbit snares. My father was a forester, so I’ve been making these practically since I could walk.”
“Really?” Theo sounded genuinely interested. “So you’re a bit of a tracker then?”
“I’ve usually managed,” Rudi said, and the mercenary nodded.
“That might come in useful. When we move out, come up front with me.”
“All right.” Rudi tucked the completed snares back in his pouch. “Was there something you wanted?”
“We’ve a few minutes more before we leave,” Theo said. In a sudden blur of motion he drew his sword, and stabbed down at where Rudi sat. Without time to react consciously, Rudi rolled away, scrabbling for the hilt of his new sword as he rose to his feet. The treachery he’d been anticipating had come early, but by Taal they wouldn’t take him without a fight…
To his surprise he was greeted by a good-natured chorus of approbation, and, looking round, found Hanna and the rest of the warband watching him with polite interest.
“Not bad,” Theo said, the tip of his blade a couple of inches from where Rudi’s throat would have been if he hadn’t moved. “But if I hadn’t slowed it down I’d have had you.”
“So you say,” Rudi responded, and Theo laughed.
“You’ve got a good opinion of yourself too. Good. Never go into a fight you don’t know from the outset you’re going to win.” He shrugged. “Of course once in your life you’ll be wrong, but you’ll never get the chance to feel stupid about it afterwards, so it doesn’t really count.”
“I’ll bear that in mind,” Rudi said.
“Good.” Theo nodded at the hand Rudi had on the hilt of his new sword. “Another thing to remember. If you take hold of the hilt, draw. Your opponent won’t wait, so neither should you.”
“That’s right,” Bruno nodded agreement. “Nine times out of ten, the man who gets his blade out first will win.”
“And the tenth?” Rudi asked. By way of an answer the blond youth flicked his wrist, in a subtle blur of motion Rudi wasn’t able to analyse. One of his new toys appeared quivering in the trunk of a nearby tree.
“He wasn’t paying attention to where the real threat was.”
“Very graphic,” Theo said dryly. “But hardly helpful at the moment.” He turned back to Rudi. “You remember how to hold it?”
Rudi nodded, and drew the blade. It felt surprisingly light in his hand, a testament to the skill of the swordsmith who’d crafted it. He half expected one of the others to correct his grip again, but Theo seemed satisfied, and nodded an acknowledgement.
“Stand like this, with the weight on the balls of your feet.” He moved into a guard position, his own blade held up in front of him. He moved with a fluid grace Rudi thought he would never be able to emulate. He did his best to comply, and Conrad tapped his legs and feet to adjust his position slightly. “You should be able to move in any direction from there, to attack or defend as necessary.” He moved through several cuts and parries with the grace of a dancer. Something of the awe he felt must have appeared on Rudi’s face at that point; because the mercenary smiled. “Don’t worry, I don’t expect you to learn all that today.”
“I see.” Rudi didn’t really, but he felt he ought to seem c
onfident. He wasn’t sure how well he succeeded, though, as the others still seemed to be watching with some amusement.
“Glad to hear it,” Theo said, resuming the posture he’d started out in. “Now this is a basic defence.” He moved the sword laterally across his body, and stepped sideways at the same time. He nodded to Rudi. “Now you try.”
Rudi did his best to replicate the movement. It felt awkward, the sword clumsy in his hand, and he couldn’t for the life of him see how waving it about like that would help in a fight. Theo nodded, and told him to continue, so he kept at it until the party moved off again. To his vague surprise the movement became easier as he worked at it, and the sword felt a little less clumsy by the time he’d finished.
“That was pretty amazing,” Hanna said, falling into step beside him. “You really looked as if you knew what you were doing.”
“Really?” Rudi felt a warm glow of satisfaction rise up to soothe his aching muscles.
“Actually you were moving like a ruptured duck,” Bruno chipped in, “but it’s a start.” Rudi felt his jaw clench. Hanna’s easy laughter at the remark twisted in his stomach like a dagger. He lengthened his pace, beginning to leave them behind.
“Excuse me,” he said. “Theo wants me at the front.” Behind him he heard the murmur of further conversation and a burst of feminine laughter, which blackened his mood even further.
The two of them deserved each other, he thought. Hanna had always been an arrogant little madam, and now she’d met someone as egotistical as she was. Serve them both right.
“There you are.” Theo nodded a greeting as he joined him at the front of the group. Rudi returned it, hoping his irritation didn’t show. “Anything here strike you as unusual?” Rudi scanned the ground, and the surrounding bushes, looking for some sign that anyone had passed this way before, but the only things he could see were animal tracks.
“Not really,” he said. “There’s a small herd of deer around here somewhere, maybe seven or eight of them. And I think a wild boar’s been through here, but not in the last day or so.” He pointed at the barely-visible footprints. “Looks like it’s lame in one leg.”
[Blood on the Reik 01] - Death's Messenger Page 28