Part 3 (1/2)

”That's Rikka,” Cricket said with a grin. ”She thought you were avoiding her because she is Turin's favorite.”

”Ah. Well... that was not the only reason.”

Cricket giggled. ”So what happened with your human man?”

”He was not similarly disposed, I fear,” said Edric. ”Last I heard, he married a tavernkeeper's daughter. It was a tragic case of unrequited love. I was very young and foolish in those days, and given to grand and hopeless pa.s.sions. Such are the things that make a bard. What of you? Has there never been a grand pa.s.sion in your life? I can't believe there have not been ample opportunities.”

”Not the sort of opportunities I sought,” she said. ”I am still waiting.”

Edric looked surprised. ”Do you mean to say you've never...?”

Cricket shook her head. ”No. Never.”

”Well, I would not have guessed,” he said. ”From the sultry way you dance, I would have thought you were well versed in the arts of love.”

”That is what most men would a.s.sume,” Cricket replied wryly. ”But it takes no great skill for a girl to be seductive, especially if she is pretty. One merely learns from watching the way men react.”

”Hmmm. Do the others know?” asked Edric.

”That I am a virgin?” Cricket shook her head. ”I think they would be even more surprised than you. They think I'm merely stuck up. At first, they thought perhaps I might prefer women, but they soon discovered I was not so disposed, to borrow your rather diplomatic phrase.”

”Why do you stay here? You could make a great deal more by dancing in a city, or even in a larger town. Why here, in a small dwarven village on a distant caravan route?”

”It was where fortune took me,” she replied. ”But it is not where I intend to stay.”

”Oh? You have plans, then?”

”I have been saving my money ever since I started here,” said Cricket. ”Or as much as I could, save, after I had paid for food and clothes and lodging. Prices are inflated here, and when you're known as one of Turin's dancers, the price always goes up. Still, I almost have enough put aside to purchase first-cla.s.s pa.s.sage in a caravan. After tonight, with any luck, I should have more than I need.”

”And then?”

”And then I will be quit of this pestilential hole,” she said, with an intensity that surprised the bard. ”I have already made inquiries. In two days time, the caravan departs for Altaruk, and I'll go with it.” As if suddenly realizing she might have said too much, she glanced at Edric sharply and added, ”I trust I can depend on your discretion. Turin would try to keep me here if he knew my plans.”

”You may depend upon my silence,” Edric said.

”I am willing to pay for it,” said Cricket cautiously.

Edric looked offended. ”My dear girl,” he said, in an affronted tone, ”do you truly think that I would sell you out?”

”There are those who would, if they were in your place,” she replied.

”Then they have no honor,” Edric said. ”As it happens, I have already booked pa.s.sage with the caravan, myself. Not first cla.s.s, I fear, since I shall be singing for my supper, but I was going to say that I was looking forward to your company upon the journey. Now, I think perhaps you might scorn it.”

Cricket sighed and looked down with a rueful grimace. ”Never,” she replied. ”Forgive me, Edric. I did not mean to insult you. It is just that I do not trust easily. I am not used to having friends.”

”There is an old elven proverb,” Edric said with a smile. ”It is better to have a score of friends than a score of coppers. Then you can ask each friend for a loan of two two coppers, and you be well ahead.” coppers, and you be well ahead.”

Cricket chuckled. ”I like you, Edric. You make me laugh. And I do not laugh very often these days.”

”Well, we shall have to see to it that you are more frequently amused,” he replied. ”Frown lines would look bad on such a pretty face as yours.”

The beaded curtain was flung aside and Turin stuck his head in. ”Get ready, Cricket. You are up next,” he said, then disappeared.

Edric frowned. ”You don't suppose he heard?”

Cricket shook her head. ”I do not think so. But it makes no difference. When the caravan leaves South Ledopolus two days from now, I am leaving with it, and nothing anyone can say or do will stop me.”

”That's the spirit,” Edric said, as Cricket got up and adjusted her clinging black gown. ”Now go out there and dance up a storm.”

”Yes,” she said. ”That I can do.”

CHAPTER THREE.

The village of North Ledopolus was even more una.s.suming than Sorak had expected. It was little more than a scattering of small, flat-roofed, one-story adobe buildings cl.u.s.tered along a few narrow, dirt streets. The village was situated on a bend in the Estuary of the Forked Tongue, separated from its sister village, South Ledopolus, by about ten miles of ugly brown silt. In the middle of the estuary rose the craggy, volcanic peaks of Ledo Island, dominating the view for miles around.

North Ledopolus was smaller than its sister village, which had grown because of its position on a caravan route. The northern village was smaller in another way, too: it had been built by dwarves and for dwarves. South Ledopolus, on the other hand, had many structures built to human scale to accommodate caravan crews.

Sorak could see little reason for a village to be situated on the north sh.o.r.e of the estuary. There were no trade routes running past, no natural resources there. North Ledopolus stood completely isolated, bounded by the estuary on one side and the Great Ivory Plain on the other.

Its only reason for existence was the causeway the dwarves sought to build across the estuary. If they could complete the project and successfully defend it from the giants who lived on Ledo Island, it would open a new trade route, connecting Balic to Gulg and Nibenay. There was also the possibility of a second trade route, northeast to the gambling city of Salt View.

Though far removed from major trade routes, Salt View was a popular destination for adventurers and pleasure seekers. Situated in the southern slopes of the Mekillot Mountains, it was a freewheeling gambling mecca where virtually any sort of entertainment could be found-for a price. Those who sought its expensive, libertine diversions paid handsome fees to join small, well-protected caravans from Gulg or Nibenay to Salt View. Such a trip was not without its hazards, however. Aside from the dangers of the harsh and inhospitable terrain, there was the added risk of an attack by marauders, who lived in the foothills of the Mekillots and preyed on travelers and raided the caravan routes to the west.

A trade route from North Ledopolus could skirt the southern edge of the crystal plain and run across the desert to the oasis where they had camped the previous night. From there, it could continue around the great silt basins to the east, following their sh.o.r.es before turning north, toward the Mekillots, crossing the salt plain at its narrowest point. It would make for a much easier and safer journey to Salt View then approaching it from Nibenay or Gulg.

If the bridge across the estuary could be completed, Sorak was sure the governing council of Salt View would share the expense of establis.h.i.+ng the new trade routes, and North Ledopolus would quickly grow from a small village to a large and thriving caravan town. Knowing this, the dwarves had labored ceaselessly for years to bridge the estuary, carrying the burden of the elaborate construction and doing battle with the giants.

The merchant houses of Altaruk could easily have supported the dwarven venture with additional construction crews and mercenaries. For that matter, Sorak thought, any of the great houses could have raised an expeditionary force to drive the giants out of Ledo Island. However, for undertaking such a costly enterprise, they would doubtless expect a proprietary share in the causeway, and that would reduce the potential profits to the dwarves.

It seemed to Sorak that the dwarves were going about it the hard way. If they had cut one of the merchant houses in for a proprietary share of the causeway, the estuary would have been bridged by now, and any losses the dwarves might have sustained from a merchant house taking a percentage of the tolls would have been offset by the increased revenues.

But dwarves were uncommonly stubborn, and once they had determined their focus, nothing would deflect them from it. They wanted full owners.h.i.+p of the causeway and would settle for nothing less. As a result, nothing nothing was exactly what they had, even after years of struggling to complete the project. was exactly what they had, even after years of struggling to complete the project.

Well, not quite nothing, perhaps. They had clearly made some progress. The construction that extended into the estuary from South Ledopolus reached almost halfway out to Ledo Island. From North Ledopolus, another section of the causeway stretched across the silt, extending about two miles from the sh.o.r.e.

The giants could not wade out from the island to attack the bridge at just any point. In some places, the silt would rise over their heads and drown them, so they could destroy only whatever sections they could reach. This meant the dwarves made progress with one section while the giants attacked another. Then the silt would s.h.i.+ft along the estuary bottom and the situation would be reversed.

Where the sections of the bridge began, near either sh.o.r.e, the dwarves had widened the causeway considerably, not only to allow for the eventual pa.s.sage of large caravan vehicles, but also to accommodate defensive fortifications, including catapult emplacements and towers for archers.

Those recently constructed sections of the causeway that extended farther out across the estuary were narrower and not yet fortified. Consequently, they were more vulnerable to attack.

For the dwarves, the trick was to take advantage of the estuary's s.h.i.+fting depth, extending new construction as quickly as possible when the giants could not reach it and gambling that there would be time enough to widen and fortify those sections before the giants could wade out to destroy them. Little by little, the dwarves made headway, but progress was excruciatingly slow, and one successful attack by the giants could undo months of work.

Apparently, that was exactly what had happened recently, for a large section of the bridge extending out from North Ledopolus was newly wrecked, and dwarven work crews labored to repair the damage.

With each new catapult emplacement and each new defensive tower built along the causeway, the giants' a.s.sault retreated. But before those works could be extended, more pilings had to be driven down into the silt and reinforced, and new sections of the span constructed. More effort was expended in widening and fortifying the causeway than extending it. The dwarves had learned the hard way that it was pointless to extend the causeway beyond the protective reach of the catapults and towers. As a result, the bridge was slowly taking on the appearance of an elongated fortress, complete with battlements and crenelated towers constructed from thick adobe brick. Eventually, both sections would reach the island in the middle, and then the giants would find themselves under siege. The dwarves were already grimly preparing for that final battle.