Part 11 (2/2)

Aidan had no choice but to identify himself and pray for the best. He could run if he had to; he knew every nook and cranny of Tambluff. And he had no cause to fear on Dobro's account. The wily feechie could take care of himself. Aidan leaned down toward Southporter so the old gatekeeper could see his face under the hood. ”I am Aidan Errolson,” he whispered.

Southporter's face paled, and he staggered back a step. ”Aidan,” he whispered. Then, after a quick glance at the armed guards, he opened his arms in a gesture of welcome to Aidan and Dobro. ”Simon!” he said heartily. ”Thurston! What took you so long? Come in! Come in!”

He turned back to the gate guards. ”Can you keep an eye on things until I get my friends settled? It will only take a minute.” He herded Aidan and Dobro into the gatehouse and sat them down on a bench he used for questioning suspicious strangers (and sometimes used for taking afternoon naps).

”Aidan, what are you doing in Tambluff?” he whispered, his voice full of genuine concern. ”This is the most dangerous place you could possibly be!”

”I've come to-” Aidan began, but Southporter was at it again.

”And who is this with you?” Southporter threw back Dobro's hood and squinted at him, trying to remember if he had ever seen him, or even anybody like him, before.

”Southporter, this is Dobro Turtlebane,” Aidan began.

Southporter nodded his head and pointed at Dobro. ”I know what you are,” he said. ”Yes.” He kept looking at Dobro, kept nodding. Then he looked back at Aidan. ”So it's true. I thought it was just another wild rumor, you traipsing around the countryside with a feechie, but here he is, setting right here in my gate-house.” He stared another moment at Dobro. ”He is a feechie, ain't he?”

Aidan nodded.

”You've brung some astonis.h.i.+ng things to this gatehouse,” Southporter said. ”Six years ago, you brung the biggest alligator I ever seen before or since. And today, you have brung a feechie in the flesh.” He slapped his thighs. ”I don't know how you gonna top this one, Aidan!”

Dobro gave Southporter a greenish grin. Southporter shook his head in amazement. Then he grew suddenly serious. ”Aidan, there's another rumor about you, and every time I hear it I tell folks it's a filthy lie.” He lowered his voice to a whisper. ”Folks say you and your pap's training a rebel army down in Sinking Canyons. And I tell them, 'That's a filthy lie, and I don't care who knows it! Ain't n.o.body,' I tell them, 'ain't n.o.body truer to the House of Darrow than Lord Errol and his boys.' I still call him 'lord,' even if King Darrow don't. And I tell them, 'Anybody cares to contradict me can have my pikestaff right across his skull bone.'”

Southporter had plenty more to say on that subject, and he meant to go on at some length, but he noticed a strange expression on Aidan's face. Southporter tried to soldier on. ”It's like I tell them ...” He broke off. ”Aidan, why ain't you looking at my eyes? Aidan? Oh, dear me, no! Aidan? You are training a army in Sinking Canyons!”

”Southporter, it's not what you think!”

Southporter's face crumpled and tears stood in his eyes. ”Traitor?” His tone of voice was halfway between an accusation and a question. ”Aidan Errolson a traitor?” He put his hand on the bell pull that would summon the armed guards.

”No! Never!” Aidan looked into Southporter's eyes, resisting the temptation to look at his hand on the bell pull. ”Believe me, Southporter. Errol and his sons are no traitors. Yes, we are training an army, an army to place at the service of the House of Darrow. These men insist on following me, Southporter. I will lead them in service to Corenwald.”

Southporter was silent for a moment. He looked at his hand on the bell pull, then back at Aidan. ”Why should I believe you?”

Aidan blinked slowly and said, ”Do you even have to ask that?”

Southporter took his hand off the bell pull. He looked a little ashamed of himself. He also looked relieved. ”No, Aidan, of course I don't. But you have to admit it looks suspicious. The king outlaws a n.o.bleman and his sons. The n.o.bleman and his sons train an army of malcontents.”

”Father says we may be the only army Corenwald has.”

Southporter nodded his head. ”He may be right. Darrow's army was in terrible shape even before he tried to invade the Feechiefen. Since then, it's been even worse. When the Pyrthens come ...” Southporter broke off. He shook all over, as if from a sudden chill.

”So you think the Pyrthens are coming too?”

”How could they not be? The question isn't if they'll come; it's when. And why they haven't already is a mystery to me. I figured the two of you were Pyrthen spies or a.s.sa.s.sins when you rode up hooded. What are you doing in Tambluff anyway?”

”Seeing the sights,” said Dobro with admirable candor. ”I ain't never been to the city before, and I made Aidan bring me.”

”And I'm here,” Aidan began, ”to meet with Lynwood Wertenson.”

A flicker of suspicion returned to Southporter's eyes. ”The rabble-rouser?”

Aidan raised an eyebrow.

”I got no use for that man,” said Southporter, ”and I don't care who knows it. What business do you have with him?”

”I've come to tell him that I don't intend to lead his rebellion, Southporter.”

”That's my boy,” whooped Southporter. ”That's my boy!”

Aidan wrote a quick note to Lynwood expressing his wish to see the Chair of the Committee at his earliest convenience. Southporter sent the note with his most trusted messenger, then settled in to give Aidan the news from Tambluff. He said he hadn't seen King Darrow since the day he galloped home from Last Camp, after the aborted invasion of the Feechiefen.

”He come thundering through my gate on that beautiful black horse of his,” Southporter said, ”face like a wild man.” He turned to Dobro. ”No offense intended, of course.”

The wild man nodded and smiled greenly. ”None taken.”

”Galloping so hard his mounted bodyguard couldn't keep up with him. Galloped into the castle, and so far as anybody knows, he ain't come out since. Hasn't met with the Four and Twenty n.o.bles, hasn't seen anybody besides his personal servants and Prince Steren.

”The servants say he raves and rages for whole days at a time. Goes back and forth between wanting to pardon you and wanting to hunt you down and kill you. So he ends up not doing anything.” Southporter shook his head. ”I think your act of mercy-choosing not to kill him when you had the chance-got inside his mind and busted it up. He's been hating so long he can't make sense out of mercy. Sounds like he can't make sense of nothing else either. He done the same thing in the days after you brought home the frog orchid. Tore up with guilt for hating a feller who always answers good for bad, but still hating you all the more for it.”

Aidan's heart went out to his friend the prince. ”What about Steren?” he asked. ”What has he been doing?”

”He's been away for three weeks. His father sent him out looking for you.”

Aidan thought on this. ”It wouldn't take three weeks to hunt me down. Doesn't everybody in Corenwald know we're in Sinking Canyons?”

Southporter laughed. ”The children playing in the street out there know you're in Sinking Canyons. Of course, they also think you're in Sinking Canyons with an army of ten thousand feechiefolk, all foaming at the mouth and ready to tear down Tambluff brick by brick.”

Dobro managed to stifle a little smile, but he did sit up a little straighter.

”So Steren must not be trying very hard to find me,” said Aidan.

”Doesn't sound like it,” said Southporter. ”Sounds like he's protecting his old friend. Or maybe,” he added after a brief reflection, ”he's afraid of what he might find if he does track you down.”

”When Steren comes back, Southporter, would you make sure he knows what I told you? That army in Sinking Canyons is his army-Corenwald's army-not mine.”

Southporter smiled. ”I'll make sure he knows.”

By that time the messenger was back with Lynwood's reply. He requested the honor of Aidan's and Dobro's presence at his supper table that evening. The supper hour was fast approaching, so Southporter loaded Aidan and Dobro into his pony cart and covered them with a blanket. It wouldn't do for Southporter to be seen with these hooded strangers. Nor would it do for him to be seen at Lynwood's house. So when he reached the street corner where Lynwood's house stood, he stopped for a pa.s.sing wagon and made a low whistle. Aidan and Dobro tumbled out the back of the cart, and Southporter rolled on without a backward look or a wave.

Chapter Eighteen.

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