Part 25 (2/2)
Hoss'k bowed and hurriedly turned to talk to the surviving members of the distillery gang.
The Baron stepped over an injured soldier. The palace midwife who had been tending the moaning man's wounds scuttled to get out of his way.
Even as he walked through the ruins, Kremer's mind was turning back to his main preoccupation-how to distribute his forces to recapture the wizard and Princess Linnora, and how simultaneously to begin his campaign against the L'Toff.
The alliance was shaping up well. A squadron of his gliders had gone on tour, impressing the gentry for a hundred miles to the east, north, and south, and cowing the restive peasantry by playing up to the traditional superst.i.tion regarding dragons.
All the great lords would be here shortly for a meeting. Kremer planned an impressive demonstration for them.
Still, the barons would not be enough. He would need mercenaries, too, and it would take more than demonstrations to acquire those!
Money, that was the key! And not this paper trash that kept its value by an artificially maintained scarcity, but real, metal money! With enough money Kremer could buy the services of free companies and bribe every great n.o.ble in the realm! No demonstrations or rumors of magical weapons could match the effect of cool, hard cas.h.!.+
And now this idiot deacon had destroyed the number one money- maker Kremer had been counting on!
”Uh, my Lord?”
Kremer turned. ”Yes, scholar?”
Hoss'k bowed once more as he caught up with the Baron. Hoss'k's black hair was coated with soot.
”My Lord, I did not intend, in experimenting with the still, to destroy it. . . . I-”
”How long will it take?” Kremer growled.
”Only a few days to begin getting small quant.i.ties-”
”I don't care about the making! How long will it take until the new still is practiced to the level of performance the old one had reached this morning?”
Hoss'k looked very pale under his sooty coating. ”Ten- twenty-”
His voice squeaked.
”Days?” Kremer winced as the twinge returned. He clutched his head, unable to speak. But he glared at Hoss'k, and it seemed that only his unspeakable headache was extending the deacon's life.
Just then a runner hurried through the palace gateway. The boy spotted the Baron, ran over, and saluted snappily.
”My Lord, the Lord Hern sends his compliments and says to tell you that the sniffers have found the fugitives' scent!”
Kremer's hands clasped each other. ”Where are they?”
”In the southwest pa.s.s, my Lord. Runners have been sent to all the camps in the foothills with the alert!”
”Excellent! We shall send cavalry, too. Go and order the commander of First Spears to gather his troopers. I will be there shortly.”
The boy saluted again and sped off.
Kremer turned back to Hoss'k, who was clearly making his peace with his G.o.ds.
”Scholar?” he said quietly.
”Y-y-yes, my Lord?”
”I need money, scholar.”
Hoss'k gulped and nodded. ”Yes, my Lord.”
Kremer smiled narrowly. ”Can you suggest a place where I can get a lot of money in a very short time?”
Hoss'k blinked, then nodded again. ”The metal house in the forest?”
Kremer grinned in spite of the ache in his head. ”Correct.”
Hoss'k had suggested, earlier, that the metal house might have some intrinsic value far beyond its huge content in metal. The foreign wizard had been very clear in insisting that it be left alone if he was to do any work for Kremer.
But Dennis Nuel had betrayed him, and Hoss'k no longer had much to say around here.
”You leave with a fast troop of cavalry at once,” he told the portly churchman. ”I want all that metal back here in five days.”
One more time, Hoss'k merely swallowed and nodded.
6 A day and a half after setting off from the Sigels' farm, Dennis had almost begun to hope they might make it through the cordon undetected.
All through that first night on the road, the small party of fugitives had pa.s.sed the flickering light of encampments in the hills- detachments of Baron Kremer's gathering western army. Arth and Dennis helped the little donkey pull, while Linnora did her part by concentrating, practicing the cart to be silent.
Once they stole nervously past a roadblock. The militiamen on duty were snoring, but in Dennis's imagination the cart was barely quieter than a banshee until they pa.s.sed beyond the next fringe of forest.
Come morning they were high in the pa.s.s. They had left behind the main units of the army poised to invade the lands of the L'Toff. There were probably only a few squads of pickets between them and the open country.
But to proceed during daylight would be madness. Dennis pulled his little group off into the thickets beside the mountain highway, and they rested through the day, alternately sleeping, talking quietly, and sampling from the picnic basket Mrs. Sigel had prepared for them.
Dennis amused Linnora by showing her some tricks on his wrist- comp. He explained that there were no living creatures inside, and demonstrated some of the wonders of numbers. Linnora caught on very quickly.
They must have been more tired than Dennis thought, for when he finally awakened, it was dark again. Two of Tatir's small moons were already high, making the forestscape eerily and dangerously bright.
He roused Arth and Linnora, who sat up quickly and stared in surprise at the darkness. They arose and loaded the little wagon once again. Dennis insisted that Linnora continue to ride in the cart.
Although her feet were better, the Princess clearly wasn't ready yet to walk very far.
The shadowy hillsides hulked around them as they set out. They pushed on silently.
Dennis recalled the last time he had been through this pa.s.s, three months ago. Back then he hadn't any idea what lay ahead. He had imagined the river valley filled with amazing alien creatures and still more amazing technology.
The truth had turned out to be even more bizarre than anything he had imagined. Even now, from time to time he felt a faint recurrence of that sense of unreality, as if it were hard really to believe that this amazing world could exist.
He thought about the probability calculations he had set up back in Zuslik. With his wrist-comp he just might be able to work out the odds of such a strange place as Tatir-and its even stranger Practice Effect-coming into being.
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