Ilbei Spadebreaker and the Harpy's Wild

by John Daulton

  He went out with a bucket filled with fresh water and brought a few of the handiest cups along. He found Mags and Kaige both on their feet and for the most part looking none the worse for wear. Meggins and Jasper were still out, lying there like a pair of logs.

  “What happened?” Kaige asked, gratefully taking the cup that Ilbei proffered.

  “I think Jasper’s spell backfired,” Ilbei replied. “Then it seems Major and some locals come along.”

  “And why do you think that is?” Mags asked, dipping her cup into the bucket for a second round. “Did you get a look out there at the carnage they made coming in?”

  Ilbei shook his head, indicating that he hadn’t, then went to the front of the cave for a look. The sun was well over the trees now, and Ilbei saw three men lying dead outside the cave, two with long, black-shafted arrows in their chests. Ilbei could hear the major speaking to someone around the edge of the cave mouth, but he thought it might be best if he didn’t go bothering him just yet. He returned and crouched beside Jasper instead.

  With a gentle shake, he called to him a few times. Shortly after, Jasper’s eyes fluttered open and filled with surprise.

  “Easy, son,” Ilbei said, preempting the question. “You’re fine. Everybody’s fine.”

  Jasper blinked a few times more, and Ilbei helped him sit up. Mags brought him water, while Kaige tried to wake Meggins up. “What happened?” Jasper asked. “Did my spell fail?” He rubbed his temples, grimacing. “I think it must have.”

  “Yeah, I expect it didn’t work like ya had it wrote down,” Ilbei said. He even managed to laugh. “But it done well enough with some luck. Ya took that big bastard down, so that was all right, but ya got the rest of us too. The major come along before the wrong folks woke up, so it’s all right in the end.”

  “I did?” Jasper perked up at that. “I got the big one?”

  “Well, like I said, ya got everyone, but yeah, ya got him too.”

  Jasper looked up at Mags and grinned broadly. “Then it worked?”

  Ilbei sighed in Mags’ direction, tilting his head toward Jasper, indicating that Mags should tend to him. Then he went to where Kaige was hauling Meggins to his feet.

  “A man ought to at least get the wine and the women the night before if he’s going to have the hangover next day,” Meggins said as Ilbei approached.

  “Aye, he should,” Ilbei answered, clapping Meggins on the shoulder. “I seen it the same when I come round.”

  With his people all on their feet and in relatively good shape, Ilbei braced himself for his next encounter with the major. There would be orders coming soon. He glanced to the cave entrance, then summoned his group together with a low sound.

  “Now listen up, quick,” he said. “I done told the major we sent them coin-makin tiles off to Hast with the corporal. And before ya go askin what fer or why, don’t. Far as you’re concerned, they went off just like I said. Got it?”

  Nods from everyone.

  “Right. Now, I’m gonna go see what’s next. Kaige, come on out with me and see if’n ya can find that packhorse we had. Don’t bother with the major, just look fer the horse and get on over to it. See if our gear is nearby. If it ain’t, ya come on back inside casual like.”

  “What if it is out there?”

  “Then get it and bring it in.” Ilbei had to stifle a sigh.

  They went together outside, Ilbei pausing long enough to survey the area. There were two more bodies he hadn’t noticed before, down the slope a dozen paces and both pierced by the long black arrows. A glance to his left showed yet another man, impaled and stuck to a tree, the morning light glinting silver off the long shaft that pinned him there like a bug in a collector’s box. Ilbei frowned and looked to the major. Cavendis was engaged in conversation with Locke Verity, who leaned casually upon his fancy black bow.

  To the right and tied to a tree not far beyond the cave was the packhorse they’d been using since their first encounter with Gad Pander at Camp Chaparral. Ilbei saw that their gear was lying on the ground not far away, all of it open and rifled through. The chest in which Jasper kept his scrolls and enchanting implements had been dumped, and there were scrolls lying about and leaves of blank parchment everywhere. Many had been blown several spans away, whisked along the steppe or down into the trees. Ilbei frowned at that too, but pointed Kaige to it with a movement of his head. “Gather up Jasper’s stuff and put it back in his box,” he said. “Then get the rest.”

  Kaige moved off to comply, while Ilbei went to address the major and Locke Verity.

  “Mornin, Master Verity,” he said, adding a nod for courtesy. “I expect them black shafts are the work of you and that fine bow?” He tipped his head back toward the bodies lying about.

  “They are. It seems we came along just in time,” he said with a pleasant grin.

  “It seems indeed,” Ilbei agreed. “I must say, that’s some fine shootin. And damn powerful too. Never seen a man pinned up like that one in the tree line there. That there weapon must have one mean pull.”

  “It does,” Verity agreed. His smile was easy, and he wore an effortless sort of confidence.

  Ilbei watched him for signs of duplicity, but detected nothing. Verity accepted the question and gave answer readily. Ilbei looked to the major, who was looking back, watching Ilbei with cat eyes as if the sergeant were a rat.

  “So, Major, what now? We off to find the rest?”

  “The rest of what?”

  “Well, I don’t see Ergo the Skewer lyin here, so I take it he got away.”

  The cat might have growled at the rat, the eyes narrowing even further for a flash of time. He glanced to Verity, who only maintained his pleasant smile, and then back to Ilbei. “What are you talking about, Spadebreaker?”

  “Ergo, the Skewer. Ya know, that feller what done the thievin and brung us all out here. I’m seein he was here, but I don’t see him lyin nowhere. Lest he run off and died somewhere down in the woods there.” Ilbei only said the last to give the major an out. He didn’t want to corner the animal lurking behind the predator’s eyes.

  The major stared down at Ilbei for a long while, then stared past him, surveying the prior night’s battlefield. His eyes widened at one point, briefly, barely a flicker, but enough that Ilbei saw.

  “He’s not dead. He ran off.”

  “Mmm,” Ilbei hummed, sounding disappointed but resigned to that bad bit of luck. He changed the subject some. “So how come nobody told us he was counterfeitin coins? We might have been on the lookout for em as we come through the camps. Maybe asked around.”

  “That’s exactly why we didn’t tell you. We had an operation underway to find them, which was why they sent me.”

  Confusion set Ilbei’s eyebrows to contortions for a time. “I don’t take yer meanin, sar.”

  “I came here to sample their coins, Spadebreaker. With ruffs. To find the counterfeits and the counterfeiters. It’s why they sent me.”

  “Oh.” Ilbei hadn’t considered that before. He blinked a few times, then frowned, then twitched up one corner of his mouth, glancing to Locke Verity, who smiled a patient smile. Ilbei returned his attention to the major. “Well, ya might have said somethin, then. I could have served in like capacity.”

  “No, Spadebreaker, you couldn’t. I played with you, remember?” The major’s tone was dismissive and annoyed. “When I saw how your game was, well … we didn’t tell you because you didn’t need to know.”

  Ilbei looked once more to Verity, who was cleaning his fingernails with the point of an arrow. “Hmmph,” Ilbei relented. “So what now?”

  The major drew a long breath, his jawline tight as he considered it. He didn’t look happy about the decision at first, but then he visibly relaxed. He let go the breath. “Well, my primary mission is accomplished well enough for now. We’ve found our counterfeiter—with, I suppose, some small thanks to you—and the Skewer is on the run. He’s wounded too, so he won’t get far. Besides your man shooting him a few days
ago, he got another arrow in him by our friend Verity just before sunrise. He’s routed, and I have people on his tail. All that’s left is to get those molds in there to Hast—as you already had the foresight to have done with the obverse halves.”

  “The what?”

  “The front-half molds, you imbecile. The ones you sent to Hanswicket.”

  “Right, sar. Of course.” Ilbei remained silent, waiting to see what the major would do. The major surprised him thoroughly.

  “Go get those others, and load them on that horse you took from Pander. Then you and your people get them to Hast as fast as you can. I’ll be taking Pander back to Twee with me.”

  Ilbei couldn’t believe it. He looked to Verity to see if there was some indication of surprise, but Verity was still working on his hunter’s manicure.

  “Yes, sar,” Ilbei said, unable to hide his surprise. He watched the major’s eyes for a time longer, but the man merely stared back at him impatiently.

  “Is there something else, Sergeant?” the major asked at length.

  “No, sar. Sorry, sar. We’ll be right on it, then.”

  “Good. Get moving.”

  With his mind awhirl, Ilbei turned back and went inside the cave. He wondered if maybe he’d been imagining things all the while. The only thing he knew for certain was that it had been a long time since he’d felt as foolish as he did just then.

  Chapter 22

  “But why?” Meggins asked as they marched along the stone wall of the steppe, heading northeast along it and following the trickling brook that ran out of the ettin cave. They were once more moving toward Harpy Creek and now several hours out of earshot of the major and Locke Verity, far enough for Ilbei to have told them what had transpired. “And,” Meggins went on, “why would Major want to game real money to win fake coins? Her Majesty doesn’t shine too kindly on fake money, and she’ll hang a man for having it, even a nobleman.”

  “Well, that’s what he said he done, and it weren’t fer spendin hisself that he done it. He done it to flush it out. I reckon it makes sense to do it that way, as a man will get reckless tryin to reclaim what he’s lost.”

  Meggins stepped over the brook, which had once again meandered in their direct line of travel, the others following suit. “I suppose that seems reasonable. Maybe that’s how he got to be a major so young, and it does explain why the army sent a cheat up here.”

  “Did ya see him cheatin?” Ilbei asked. “Or are ya speculatin?” He hadn’t wanted to suggest such a thing about a superior officer to his men, but he’d had the thoughts sure enough himself.

  “No, I never saw him do it, but he was. He whipped us like we were wearing mirror-shined breastplates and he was seeing every card. Not to mention, nobody gets cards as bad as we did and as good as those two got every time. Nobody.”

  “I seen it the same,” Ilbei said. “A man could love up Lady Luck and do it real nice, take her like Anvilwrath hisself, and never get so much of her favor in return.” Meggins nodded that he agreed.

  They continued along, working their way down the slope, following the angle of the rock as it gradually became less cliff face and more precipitous decline. The little brook turned and dropped down a declivity too narrow to follow, so they left it behind, staying with the upper steppe until eventually it turned them east and more directly downslope. Down and down they went, and as the sun grew hot and cumbersome in the sky, and the trees grew scarcer and stingier with their shade, the company found themselves once again winding through the low scrub and brushy dryness of the high foothills. Eventually, they caught sight of the little brook again, and followed it along until the occasional apple tree began to appear, indicating they were once more nearing Harpy Creek.

  “Well,” Ilbei asked of Mags when they finally found the creek, “ya sure ya want to go on back there alone?” They’d promised to escort her downstream to Camp Chaparral before they cut across the bottom edge of the Sandsea on their way back to Hast.

  “I suppose so,” she said. “With the bandits gone, maybe people will return. It’s not much to look at as a town goes, but this country is beautiful. Maybe I’ll get serious about my winemaking, maybe even enter it in the big apple festival they have every year in Hast. I’ve been meaning to do something like that anyway. Besides, I really don’t have anywhere else to go.”

  “This country is hotter than the deepest places in a dragon’s arse,” Meggins said, wiping his forehead with his sleeve. “You couldn’t pay me to live here. It’s only ten degrees better than the desert, I bet.”

  She smiled. “It is hot in summer, I’ll grant that, but the evenings are wonderful at the end of the day, and come springtime, there is no more spectacular place to be. It explodes with color.”

  “Oh, something explodes all right,” Meggins said. “It’s called the sun. No thanks.”

  “Home sets in on folks like that, Meggins,” Ilbei said. “Don’t matter where it is.”

  “What about the craze?” Meggins asked. “Won’t that keep people away? Home isn’t nearly as appealing when everyone’s dying all the time.”

  She grimaced at that. “I don’t know what to do about that. But there’s nobody left to contract it from but me, so maybe it finally played itself out with poor Candalin.”

  “I’m tellin ya, that disease is in the water,” Ilbei said. “I know ya got yer cask fixin up the water with whatever that alchemy is that feller taught ya fer them little demons and all, but who’s to say folks don’t drink straight outta the creek? I done as much at most creeks I come across all my life.”

  She sighed. “Yes, I am sure you are right. I suppose it is possible that I am the only one who didn’t drink directly from it at some point. I admit I was more enamored with my big-city cask filtration system than anyone else.”

  “Well, if’n you’re gonna stay out here, let’s at least pull that nasty harpy outta the water before we part ways.”

  “I’d appreciate that,” Mags said. “Cask or not, I’d rather not have to know it was in there every time I took a drink.”

  Everyone present agreed that was the best course of action, and in short order, they made their way the short distance up the creek that got them to the small opening out of which the creek emerged. The damp line of Meggins’ rope was still dancing in the water where it came out, apparently untouched since he’d secured it previously.

  “All right, you two,” Ilbei said to Meggins and Jasper after they arrived. “Ya know what ya need to do. Get on up there and knock it loose. Holler when it’s comin through, and me and Kaige will fish it out. We’ll haul it down where it can’t wash back into the creek, bury it and be done with all of this.”

  Neither Meggins nor Jasper appeared particularly happy about their part, but Kaige looked absolutely horrified. “You mean we’re gonna touch it, Sarge?”

  “No, son, I’m gonna read me one of Jasper’s spells there so as I can levitate that carcass out with magic all by myself.”

  Kaige looked confused for a moment, then seemed as if he might laugh, except then clearly realized that he was back to his original problem. He made a face that might have accompanied a growl had he not been afraid it might stir Ilbei’s anger, so he nodded meekly, waiting for the misery to begin.

  Jasper rummaged through his satchel but could not find a levitation spell to help them get up the jumble of crumbling shale. He mumbled and muttered for some time before finally turning to Ilbei and pronouncing, “This is what happens when you let barbarians sort my scrolls.”

  “What’s the problem?”

  “I need to get the trunk down off the horse.”

  Ilbei looked to Kaige, who immediately set himself to it. After a few minutes working at the ropes—all the while Jasper bemoaning the onerous imposition of Her Majesty’s mandatory service and the injustice of having been “sent to the bottom of the sweatiest pore in the rankest part of Prosperion’s most unwashed armpit” where he’d been “cruelly bound to butchers, bumpkins and illiterates”—Kaig
e set the trunk full of spells on the ground. Jasper continued to mumble as he opened the trunk, but then he fell silent. His movements in the chest became more and more frantic, and the rustle of the scrolls grew louder and more conspicuous to the rest of the company.

  “You’ve lost them, you great, mindless mastodon,” Jasper said. “How could you be so reckless? You left most of them behind. Did you even bother to look around?”

  Kaige splayed his hands out at his sides innocently. “I looked. I swear I did. I just did what Sarge said and picked up what I saw.”

  “Well, you didn’t pick them all up. Half of them are gone. Look here, there isn’t one speaking spell, and all the long sight spells are out. I had four major levitates and five minors, and now all I’ve got are two minor ones. I don’t even have the one version of ‘Rainbow’s Beacon Spell’ we had.” He dug around some more. “All the fireballs are gone, and the lightning and ice lances as well. You’ve let them all be blown away.” He tipped the trunk toward them to illustrate his point. “Look, it’s all minor healing spells and a handful of fogs, oils and other garbage spells. What am I supposed to do in a fight?”

  Lines rippled down Ilbei’s forehead as he listened. He stepped closer to the chest and glanced in, but he didn’t know how many were in it before.

  “Well, I just don’t know how the army can employ people if they have no value for expensive equipment like this. I certainly never—”

  “Jasper, let off,” Ilbei cut in. “He done as I told him, and ya seen yerself when we left that cave that there weren’t none lyin around. I’d have got em myself if’n there had been. They been blown off, or the locals grabbed what they could. Like ya said, there’s money in those.”