Part 11 (1/2)

”Why would anyone joke about something like that?” I asked, shaking my head at him. ”When you say you can fight, there's usually someone around who decides to make you prove it.

Especially when you don't have bulging muscles and room-width shoulders.”

”Oh, there's no doubt about you being able to fight, Aelana,” another voice chimed in, and then Ranander was sitting down with us. ”They were so afraid of you that the one who didn't run fought like a madman. For a moment I was afraid you'd need my help, but you did just fine without it.”

”We all did just fine,” Garam put in as Ranander grinned, settling himself with a plate. ”At first I thought Fearin was crazy, wasting three blades to protect those females when we were so badly outnumbered, but it worked out just fine. None of us had any trouble.”

”Those girls must be even more important than we've been told,” Talasin said, chewing his food thoughtfully. ”I know Fearin knows how good with a blade we all are, but he was cutting down our chances by cutting down our numbers. And speaking about those girls, Ranander, why aren't they here for breakfast, giving everyone a hard time? You haven't done anything foolish, have you?”

”If I'd had to go near them again I'd definitely have been tempted,” Ranander answered with alaugh, his face open and friendly. ”Luckily for me, though, the High Master decided they'd be better off staying in their apartment until we have some idea about who sent those attackers.

He also said something about not wanting to risk our lives again to protect theirs.”

”That's definitely why he did it, then,” Garam said with a nod, his brow furrowed. ”Those females are important enough for him to risk our lives, and his own as well. I don't think we need to ask who put that kind of a value on the girls, but there's another question needing an answer. Who could possibly have sent those attackers?”

”Couldn't it have been some element in the city, trying to rid themselves of conquerors?” I asked when no one else offered any sort of suggestion. ”I mean, it would stand to reason. Who else would know we're here, and who else would benefit if we were killed?”

”Your guess may sound reasonable, but it just isn't possible,” Garam denied with a shake of his head. ”There was power and planning behind that attack, but no one is left in this city capable of either. We made sure of them all the night we attacked, both administrators and military leaders, with only a few having escaped us. The rest we took care of yesterday, before they could have had a chance to arrange anything like that attack.”

”And don't forget they were protected from Fearin's Power,” Lokkel added to what Garam had said. ”That would take someone with a good deal of Power of his own, but Fearin checked the city thoroughly before we attacked. There was no one here with that kind of Power.”

”Is that supposed to mean no one sent the attackers?” I countered, looking back and forth between the two leaders of our army. ”Those men simply got together because they were bored, and for that same reason decided to try their luck with us? Of course that would mean they weren't protected against Fearin's Power, he just thought they were. He made a mistake because he was tired after a long day and they were in a position to take advantage of his weariness. Well, now that that's settled we can forget about it.”

”You're right, it isn't settled and we can't forget about it,” Fearin himself said, coming over to stand near our circle of chairs. ”We'll all have to keep our eyes and ears open to see if we can learn anything, but answering the question won't be our first priority. It's more important that we finish up with this city, then continue on our way.”

”Things will go faster now that it's stopped raining,” Talasin told him. ”No matter how willing men are to keep going, they don't get very far slogging through knee-deep mud.”

”That's part of the problem my men have had,” Garam agreed. ”There's nothing but stragglers left for us to round up, but the rain made it harder to dig them out. If the girl really can find Brangol, the rest should be in our hands by sundown.”

”They have to be,” Fearin said, his expression determined. ”Since you'll be leaving tomorrow with the advance guard, today is the last chance you'll have. Lokkel, I'll need our talents today, and yours as well, Ranander. Talasin, you'll oversee the rest. Finish your meals, now, and then we'll get to it.”

He turned away from us to go to the table of food, and the others began to eat just a little faster. Fearin's energy and hurry always seemed to rub off on those around him, that and some of his other feelings as well. I silently scoffed at myself for thinking of that, then turned my attention to my own food.

We all finished at just about the same time, and Talasin left first. Lokkel went directly over to Fearin, but Ranander paused to tell me he'd see me later before doing the same. Garam looked as though he wanted to comment on that, but he had already s.h.i.+fted too far over to the business at hand to waste time with teasing.

”Okay, where do we start?” Garam asked me, still looking the least bit skeptical. ”I have my special squad waiting, so what do you want them to do first?”

”The first thing I need is something our quarry wore recently, preferably unwashed,” I said as I walked back to the food table. ”Tell whoever you send for it to wrap it in something without touching it. We don't need a lot of different scents confusing the issue.”

”You expect to use dogs?” he asked as he watched me. ”That wouldn't be a bad idea, exceptthat we don't have trained dogs. And what do you need all that food for? Are you afraid of missing the noon meal?”

”You can't expect to get the answers you want without doing a little bribing,” I returned, giving him something of a smile as I wrapped my plunder in a large cloth. ”All right, I'm ready to leave now.”

”If you expect me to ask who you intend to bribe with food - ” he began, then cut off the vocal annoyance with a snap. He did want to ask, and didn't care to look like a fool by saying he wouldn't and then doing it anyway. We both turned toward the door to the corridor, Garam stomping along for a few steps in silence, then he decided to try to return the annoyance I'd given him.

”I'll bet you can't wait until later,” he said, glancing down at me sideways. ”Being in the middle of a war is hard, but I've heard it said that waiting makes it sweeter.”

”What are you talking about?” I asked, honestly at a loss. My mind had gone to the best way to start the search, and what he'd said made absolutely no sense.

”I'm talking about the way Ranander said he would see you later,” Garam supplied, giving me the same sort of smile I'd given him. ”The boy is obviously crazy about you, which is something most girls seem to like. That's why I said - ”

”Ranander and I are friends,” I interrupted his nonsense, finding it impossible not to feel the annoyance he'd wanted me to. ”I know the concept of friends.h.i.+p is hard to understand when you've never had any friends, so you'll just have to take my word for it.”

”Friends.h.i.+p isn't what he's feeling,” Garam corrected, surprising me by not showing insult.

”He's got it bad for you, girl, and no matter what he says he's not interested in just being friends. He watches every move you make with a grin I never knew he had in him, and if he doesn't have plans already made I've never seen a man who did. If you want him that's up to you, but if you don't you'd better handle it.”

Handle it. We'd stopped just past the doorway into the corridor, and I had to keep myself from turning back to look at the man who had joined Fearin. Garam being Garam he could have been trying to give me a hard time, but I couldn't bring myself to believe that. Garam had completely changed his att.i.tude toward me, and I remembered what Ranander had said before the attack, about going to bed with me...

”I don't want to have to hurt him, so maybe I can talk him out of it,” I muttered half to myself, wondering if that would be possible. ”If he's been watching me that closely he ought to know how badly he'd do trying for an Earning.”

”What's an Earning?” Garam asked, frowning at the way I s.h.i.+fted the food bundle out of discomfort. ”The word seems to mean something I heard about, but I can't remember what.”

”It means that any man who wants a Kenoss woman has to Earn her,” I answered, still mostly distracted. ”He has to be a better fighter than she is, and he has to prove it the only way it can be proven. If Ranander ever tried to Earn me... ”

”You'd do him for good and always,” Garam finished for me with a dirty laugh, the frown completely gone. ”I know the camp women like being with him, but that's probably because he's easy to please. You just send him back to them and then everybody will be where they belong.”

For some reason Garam's att.i.tude was really rubbing me the wrong way, but before I could say anything to him the situation changed. The private conversation we'd been having abruptly became less private.

”Well, good morning,” a voice said, just about the last voice I wanted to hear. ”You don't seem to waste much time getting started with a new day.”

”Those who like to sleep late don't usually get involved with wars of conquest, Prince Ijarin,”

Garam answered, visibly s.h.i.+fting ground from something else that he would have preferred to say. Seeing Garam back down that way, certainly at Fearin's orders, added to my annoyance in a way that I didn't have to understand to feel.”Which means you might try rethinking your decision to stay while you're having breakfast,” I said, giving him one of those smiles Garam and I had been exchanging. ”If you head for home right now, you can sleep late every day without worrying that you're missing anything.”

”Oh, I never eat breakfast when I do as little as I've been doing,” the barbarian answered with the same kind of smile while Garam choked, Ijarin's light eyes brightening. ”That means I can't rethink any decisions, but it also means I'm free to join you two in whatever you're about.

That is, if you don't mind, Prince Garam.”

”Not at all, Prince Ijarin, not at all,” Garam said immediately, obviously to keep me from voicing a different opinion. All those ”princes” back and forth were making me queasy, but I doubted if either of them cared. ”Fearin said he wanted you involved as soon as possible, so the girl and I are delighted to have you. Aren't we.”

Garam nudged me with the question, none too gently or subtly, but Ijarin pretended not to notice. All he did was smile pleasantly at me, waiting for the agreement I'd been ordered to give, so I shrugged.

”If he has to, he has to,” I grudged with a sigh, briefly meeting the light blue gaze on me before looking away with indifference. ”I'll get the job done no matter how much of an audience I have, and he won't be able to hurt anything - ”

”We're going that way, Prince Ijarin,” Garam said hastily as he gestured up the hall. ”Shall we get started?”

I could feel a pair of eyes on me for a moment before the barbarian gave in to Garam's request and started off up the corridor, but I ignored whatever reaction he'd shown to my prodding.

Less easy to ignore was the shove and scowl I got from Garam, a silent dressing down behind Ijarin's back. It wasn't Fearin who wanted the man with us, I was supposed to remember, it was someone a lot more powerful. Did I want to find the sort of trouble none of my skills or talents would be able to get me out of?

The answer to that should have been obvious, but as I followed the two up the corridor, I wondered.

Garam's special squad was waiting for us at the front of the palace, and he sent two of the men ahead to find the article of used clothing I'd requested. The rest of us followed at a more sedate pace, heading for the man Brangol's house and the real start of the search.

The streets of the city were as busy as they'd always been, but the busyness was one no citizen would have recognized. Armed intruders were everywhere, most buildings and houses looked half torn apart, and as far as any citizen went, there didn't seem to be any. The fearful hid in whatever shadows there were, peering out at their conquerors like slaves, and the rest - The rest were slaves.

”There's another coffle going out now,” Garam said to Ijarin, pointing to a chained line of men being forced toward the city's gate. He'd been telling the barbarian what his forces were doing, and had gotten up to the fate of the people still alive.

”You're selling everyone in the city as slaves?” Ijarin asked, looking as though he was bothered by the idea. ”Isn't that on the unusual side?”