Part 38 (2/2)
”Naturally,” Josquin said, and went out.
”We may not do much better than this,” Dewar murmured. ”I can look in on Golias next.” Freia sipped tea and pa.s.sed the cup to him. It was hot; welcome in his cold throat.
Freia asked, ”He's the mercenary . . . ?”
”Yes. Later, if Golias is unhelpful, we can watch Josquin play cards. He's always been an obliging gossipy fellow.” He broke the spell that bound Josquin and cast another for Golias, using the pipe. Since Dewar was the last to handle the pipe, it was more difficult to fix on Golias, but finally Dewar wrested the line of the spell's seeking away from himself and found the mercenary.
Freia gasped. ”No!” she cried.
Dewar held her down. ”Calm down and listen!”
A lean blond man stood in front of Golias, held by two of Golias's mercenaries. Around each of his eyes was a line of fresh-welling blood, seeping like tears on his cheeks. Blood ran down his neck, too, from his right ear. Golias was sitting down.
”Stake him out again,” he said.
Freia's hands were cutting off the circulation in Dewar's forearm.
”So you know him,” Dewar said, as the man was hauled out of Golias's presence.
Golias, scowling, filled a pipe and opened a bottle of wine.
”He's my fa-he's second to Prospero here. Utrachet.”
”Then we've likely found the troops,” Dewar said, ”and doubtless Golias, in his own subtle way, was trying to find out what we want to know, or something similar.”
A Sorcerer and a gentleman 325.
Freia began to say something, and stopped. Dewar politely pried her fingers loose.
She quavered, ”Sorry. I-”
”A shock,” he said, and stroked her cold hands. ”Now let's see if we can find out more from the captain here.”
”He must be an-an ogre. To hurt him . . .”
”He is.” Dewar drew the spell in closer.
Golias looked around suspiciously and paused in mid-drink. He set down the gla.s.s and waited, still tense, and then opened a brown book in front of him. A journal. Dewar recklessly narrowed the spell's focus so that Golias's pen-work was visible and leaned forward to read it.
Perendlac. Day VI here. Questioned P 's captain again, no answers. XII more hanged, of the strongest.
”What does it say?” Freia demanded, unable to see around Dewar.
”Uh, he's writing his journal,” Dewar said, thinking quickly, ”about how Utrachet isn't talking. He doesn't seem to know his name.”
”Utrachet would say nothing,” Freia said, ”not even that, and the men speak none of the language here-” She stopped and blinked.
Word comes that Otto let P slip away again. Dewar did the groundwork for the escape, getting in, killing two guards, disrupting the Bounds, and knocking a hole in the d.a.m.n tower wall. Told Otto to put the prisoner in the dungeons, he insisted on the tower. Thefool, to have cast all away. Anillday. The Marshal and Herne wait in Landucfor word of Prospero 's whereabouts. On full alert.
Dewar translated this. ”But where are they?”
”Perendlac. Perendlac. Hm. I'll need a map. It's somewhere in the river-plains. Perendlac's a famous fortress.”
326.
'Ltizabeth <wittey golias=”” sanded=”” the=”” page,=”” dried=”” it,=”” and=”” closed=”” the=”” book.=”” he=”” looked=”” around=”” him,=”” scowling=”” again,=”” and=”” got=”” up=”” and=”” took=”” his=”” cloak,=”” leaving=”” the=”” tent=”” quickly=”” without=”” a=”” light.=”” the=”” connection=”” faded=”” and=”” failed.=”” dewar=”” broke=”” the=””></wittey>< p=””>
”Perendlac,” he said again.
”We have to get them out,” Freia said.
”Prospero is probably planning to get them out himself,” Dewar said. ”We have to be there when he does it.”
”He's hurting Utrachet! How far away is it?”
”It's a good distance,” Dewar admitted. The Road or a Ley might pa.s.s nearby. He gave the cup back to her and she refilled it.
”Trixie is fast,” Freia said.
Dewar's arm was still around her. She turned, kneeling and looking into his eyes.
”We have to go there, to Perendlac,” she insisted. ”We can't leave them there! Prospero might be too late.”
”I'm trying to think how, madame.”
”You don't know where it is?” she asked.
”I do, but not in such particulars as would enable us to navigate there from here. I am thinking that, since Trixie can fly there, I can cast a spell to lead us to Golias and that may do as well as or better than a map.”
”But-”
”Of course we do not go to Golias. We stop before then, having seen with our eyes the evidence of his and his army's presence before us.”
”Ohhh. I see. Like following a scent.”
He nodded and smiled.
”How long will it take to cast this spell? How far away is it?”
”It is hundreds of miles,” he said. ”This is no over-the-hills jaunt. Moreover we must avoid being seen.”
Freia, agitated, began, ”If you had a map-”
He put two fingers on her mouth, silencing her. ”Let me think. It might be best to travel by night. Trixie is not inconspicuous. I must do some preparatory sorcery.”
”How long?”
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