Part 8 (2/2)

He moved one step away and just waited, as though expecting me to jump to it as fast as I could, desperate to

keep from finding the awftu, hovering doom he'd prom- ised for disobedience. I let my eyes move down his rust- colored leather to his boots and then back up to his thick black hair, then deliberately turned to look at Su.

”We haven't had our ale yet, have we?” I remembered aloud, seeing the instant amus.e.m.e.nt in her brown eyes before she lowered her gaze to inspect the back of her left hand. ”I think we'd better get to it fast, to keep the others from being impatient. I'm sure they're eager to be back on me road.”

Rikkan Addis seemed to have forgotten that / was the only one who could get behind me fence to the horses, but apparently me others hadn't. They stirred where they stood and exchanged quick glances, and for the most part looked everywhere but at the man who was playing leader. In actual fact I was even more anxious than he was to take up the trail again, but considering what we had ahead of us, ten minutes wasn't likely to make that much of a differ- ence, and the man had to be taught where he stood with me. Su hesitated, not quite sure what to say, but good old Rik took care of that for her,

”You can either walk back to the horses now on your own, or get carried there over my shoulder,” he stated, me words surprisingly mild in view of his previous anger. ”If I'm leader of this expedition I'm leader over everyone, which includes you, girl. I don't know why the wizard wants you in on something as important as this, but if he thinks we'll need a bad-tempered, ill-mannered trouble- maker, it's my job to see that she goes with us. You have your choice, now make it.”

The flat challenge hung in the air behind my left shoul- der, just about where mat stupid man stood, and everyone was silent again, waiting to see what I'd do. What I wanted to do was something cla.s.sical but tacky, like turn- ing him into a toad or making him three inches high and then doing a stomp-dance around him, but I couldn't afford to forget about Graythor and that obedience spell he'd promised to use. Challenge-answering would have to wait until we pa.s.sed through the first gate, but that didn't mean I had to put up with nonsense. Without even glanc- ing at me man I put both hands out between Su and

70 .

myself, palms upward and fingers slightly bent, then said the proper word. When the two pewter mugs of ale appeared I handed one to a startled Su, then took the other by the grip and turned part way back to Rikkan Addis.

”At your service, master, anything you say, master, yessir, boss,” I acknowledged, raising my mug to him in salute before taking a good swallow from it. The ale was delicious, dark and cold and just right for the heat of the day, and after I'd had my swallow I began leading the way out of the alley- The rest of them came after me without comment, a silence that lasted all the way back to the horses. Rikkan Addis should have been thrilled that he'd gotten his way, but from the last glimpse I'd had of his expression, I didn't think he was.

CHAPTER 3.

Beyond the town there were more fields, and beyond the fields there were stands of woods, some open gra.s.sland, one stretch of flats, and occasional solitary farms with neat rows of plantings and fenced in pastures right in the mid- dle of nothing else. The horses had been satisfied with the rest and me gra.s.s they'd found inside their fence, and moved along as strongly and evenly as they had that morning. It took at least an hour before the general silence was broken, and then only to a certain degree. Su rode out ahead again with Rikkan Addis not far behind her, Kadrim had begun a conversation with Soffann Dra, and that left Zail T'Zannis with something of a problem. He clearly wanted to talk to somebody, but Su was busy studying the road, Soffann Dra was exchanging low-voiced chatter with an absorbed, redheaded boy, and as far as our still-silent leader went, if the expression on his face meant anything he probably would have shredded anyone who dared to approach him. That left only me, but it took the curly- haired man a minute or two to decide to chance it. The way he made an effort to ease back without bringing himself to Rikkan Addis' attention showed he knew how popular anyone in my company was likely to be with our leader. Bravely and deftly he did it anyway, though, and men his black was moving beside my gray where 1 brought up the rear of our company.

”I wanted to tell you that that ale looked better than

*7I.

72.

what we had,” he offered, grinning widely with an amuse- ment he didn't seem able to hold down any longer. ”I must say, though, that you giris deserved it. There wasn't anything left for us men to do.”

”It was a lucky thing Su is that good with a sword,” I said, unbending a little at his att.i.tude. ”That was just about the worst time for something like that to happen, but kidnappers don't usually stop to make convenient appoint- ments. It also would have been easier if they hadn't been warded against spells.”

”Well, they certainly had good taste when it came to picking victims,” he said, his gray eyes laughing, and then a more sobering thought came to him. ”What do you mean, they were warded against spells? Does that mean you couldn't use magic against them?”

”Exactly,” I answered with a nod, wondering why they all seemed to know so little about magic. ”If you're going into the kidnapping business, your best bet is to get some gold acc.u.mulated first, and then go to an apprentice sor- cerer or sorceress and have a warding spell put on you.

Most apprentices can't yet see gold or silver in fine enough detail to reproduce it, but warding is simple enough for just about anybody to do. And a lot of honest people, like those who deal in jewels or precious metals, pay to be warded against dishonest magic. If you can manage to look upright enough, the apprentice will pay more atten- tion to the fee than the reason you want to be warded, and you're in business.”

”The kidnapping business,” he said, distaste briefly wrinkling his expression. ”What makes these warding spells so simple?”

”The fact that they're nothing more than invisible re- flecting surfaces,” 1 said, this time wondering if I ought to set up a general lecture series. ”What the speH does is put a thin, undetectable mirror bubble around the person, one specifically designed to reflect back magic, but the minor details make it hard to crack. The bubble doesn't necessar- ily have to be round, and its thickness can also vaiy.

which means no one who doesn't know its exact shape and thickness can dissolve it. In order to have power over it 73.

<script>