[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
safest just giving us the note and staying out of all this."
"Well . . ." A ghost of a smile kissed her lips, and I wouldn't have minded
joining it. "If you think so. I
would have preferred to enlist his help, despite the danger, but . . ."
We were out of there, the paper in hand, within two minutes.
* * *
The note was written in the blocky printing that Andrea used to teach at her
school in Home, for both
English and Erendra.
The Warrior Lives
it said, in big brown Erendra letters, now flaking. And below, in English,
just:
Don't try to find me. Please. I'm getting closer.
"No, dammit, there's nothing I can do with it. He just dashed it off, and
while he used blood, it isn't his blood. I can't use things he's only casually
interacted with for a location spell, or I'd be able to track anybody,
anywhere, just by sorting through a few quadrillion oxygen molecules to find
one that the quarry breathed."
Andrea was not happy.
Neither was I, as I stood next to the window, trying to fan the fumes outside.
Andrea's attempt to see if the note could be used to trace Mikyn had involved
some odorous compounds, and I didn't need for any of the inn's servitors to
smell the sulfur and hellfire of a magician's preparations.
Below, the horses were saddled, and the others waited. We didn't absolutely
have to get out of town right now, but in whatever direction he was traveling,
Mikyn was heading away from us as time went by, and we wouldn't be able to
catch him by standing still.
Wait for word of another Warrior killing? That was possible, of course, but
dangerous. Why would some travelers ones with suspiciously too much money in
their kip be hanging around Fenevar? A
good question so best to be sure it wasn't asked. Much better to move along
the coast in either direction, and see if a farrier named Alezyn had been
through, and when.
We took the back stairs down to the alley, and to the horses.
Tennetty had brought a fairly broad selection, from a dull, listless gray
gelding pony for Ahira who never liked a horse to have a lot of spirit or
speed; I think he would have preferred a lame one, really to a prancing pinto
mare for herself.
I checked the cinch strap, then swung to the broad back of my chestnut
gelding, his torn right ear suggesting that he'd lost out to a stallion at
some point before he'd lost out to the gelder's knives and irons. He wanted to
move faster than I was interested in, but, thankfully, Tennetty had equipped
him with a vicious twisted-wire bit, and we quickly agreed that we'd proceed
at my pace, not his.
"So?" Jason asked, coming abreast of the dwarf as we started off in a slow
walk, down the main street toward the coastal road through the swamp, maybe a
mile ahead. "Where are we going?"
Ahira shrugged. "Tromodec is about two days that way, Brae three the other
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ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
way. What we have to decide what I have to decide is if we let the search for
Mikyn trump looking into the Ehvenor matter."
Ahira was, by common consent, including mine, in charge strategically and
that's in part because he didn't make decisions arbitrarily. "Anybody got any
advice?"
"Brae," Andrea said. "It's one step closer to Ehvenor." At that moment a cloud
passed in front of the sun, so that a shadow quite literally fell across her
face. There was something in her expression, something I couldn't quite name.
Obsession, perhaps? Compulsion, maybe? I dunno.
"Tromodec," I said. "A couple days probably won't make much difference, we can
catch up with Mikyn quickly. Tromodec is closer; it means knowing something
sooner. By at least a day." And we'd be two days farther away from Ehvenor and
Faerie. We could probably find out all that was known about the things coming
out of Faerie anywhere along the coast, and I had little preference for
examining the buzz-saw close up.
Besides, if Ehvenor was all that important, there were likely other folks than
us, other wizards than Andy looking into it. Let them get in the way of the
axe for once.
"Brae," she said. "The matter of Ehvenor is more important. Didn't you hear
the rumors of a village that had been wiped out?"
"I never believe rumors. I've started too many myself. Tromodec."
"
Brae, " she said, her petulance only partly an act. There was more than
insistence in her manner;
perhaps a touch of fear?
"Tromodec." I smiled my most charming smile, no doubt dazzling her from scalp
to crotch. "Wanna wrestle over it?"
"Later, maybe." She returned the smile like she meant it, earning both of us a
glare from Jason.
I wasn't any too pleased with him, either; it had occurred to me more than
once that if it wasn't for his presence, I'd likely be bunking with Andy
instead of Ahira. I could have stood consoling the widow a couple of times.
Ahira turned to Jason. "Baron?"
Jason's chuckle sounded forced. "Oh, you mean me?" He was irritated with me;
no doubt he'd side with his mother. "I favor Tromodec," he said.
Well, you could have knocked me over with a quarterstaff I wouldn't have
thought to duck. I should have thought it through, though Jason was more
interested in the search for Mikyn than the investigation of Ehvenor, which
put us on the same side.
"If it works right," he went on, "we're closer to Mikyn; if it's wrong, we've
only lost four days instead of six, the way it would be if we wrongly go to
Brae." [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
zanotowane.pl doc.pisz.pl pdf.pisz.pl fopke.keep.pl
safest just giving us the note and staying out of all this."
"Well . . ." A ghost of a smile kissed her lips, and I wouldn't have minded
joining it. "If you think so. I
would have preferred to enlist his help, despite the danger, but . . ."
We were out of there, the paper in hand, within two minutes.
* * *
The note was written in the blocky printing that Andrea used to teach at her
school in Home, for both
English and Erendra.
The Warrior Lives
it said, in big brown Erendra letters, now flaking. And below, in English,
just:
Don't try to find me. Please. I'm getting closer.
"No, dammit, there's nothing I can do with it. He just dashed it off, and
while he used blood, it isn't his blood. I can't use things he's only casually
interacted with for a location spell, or I'd be able to track anybody,
anywhere, just by sorting through a few quadrillion oxygen molecules to find
one that the quarry breathed."
Andrea was not happy.
Neither was I, as I stood next to the window, trying to fan the fumes outside.
Andrea's attempt to see if the note could be used to trace Mikyn had involved
some odorous compounds, and I didn't need for any of the inn's servitors to
smell the sulfur and hellfire of a magician's preparations.
Below, the horses were saddled, and the others waited. We didn't absolutely
have to get out of town right now, but in whatever direction he was traveling,
Mikyn was heading away from us as time went by, and we wouldn't be able to
catch him by standing still.
Wait for word of another Warrior killing? That was possible, of course, but
dangerous. Why would some travelers ones with suspiciously too much money in
their kip be hanging around Fenevar? A
good question so best to be sure it wasn't asked. Much better to move along
the coast in either direction, and see if a farrier named Alezyn had been
through, and when.
We took the back stairs down to the alley, and to the horses.
Tennetty had brought a fairly broad selection, from a dull, listless gray
gelding pony for Ahira who never liked a horse to have a lot of spirit or
speed; I think he would have preferred a lame one, really to a prancing pinto
mare for herself.
I checked the cinch strap, then swung to the broad back of my chestnut
gelding, his torn right ear suggesting that he'd lost out to a stallion at
some point before he'd lost out to the gelder's knives and irons. He wanted to
move faster than I was interested in, but, thankfully, Tennetty had equipped
him with a vicious twisted-wire bit, and we quickly agreed that we'd proceed
at my pace, not his.
"So?" Jason asked, coming abreast of the dwarf as we started off in a slow
walk, down the main street toward the coastal road through the swamp, maybe a
mile ahead. "Where are we going?"
Ahira shrugged. "Tromodec is about two days that way, Brae three the other
Page 80
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
way. What we have to decide what I have to decide is if we let the search for
Mikyn trump looking into the Ehvenor matter."
Ahira was, by common consent, including mine, in charge strategically and
that's in part because he didn't make decisions arbitrarily. "Anybody got any
advice?"
"Brae," Andrea said. "It's one step closer to Ehvenor." At that moment a cloud
passed in front of the sun, so that a shadow quite literally fell across her
face. There was something in her expression, something I couldn't quite name.
Obsession, perhaps? Compulsion, maybe? I dunno.
"Tromodec," I said. "A couple days probably won't make much difference, we can
catch up with Mikyn quickly. Tromodec is closer; it means knowing something
sooner. By at least a day." And we'd be two days farther away from Ehvenor and
Faerie. We could probably find out all that was known about the things coming
out of Faerie anywhere along the coast, and I had little preference for
examining the buzz-saw close up.
Besides, if Ehvenor was all that important, there were likely other folks than
us, other wizards than Andy looking into it. Let them get in the way of the
axe for once.
"Brae," she said. "The matter of Ehvenor is more important. Didn't you hear
the rumors of a village that had been wiped out?"
"I never believe rumors. I've started too many myself. Tromodec."
"
Brae, " she said, her petulance only partly an act. There was more than
insistence in her manner;
perhaps a touch of fear?
"Tromodec." I smiled my most charming smile, no doubt dazzling her from scalp
to crotch. "Wanna wrestle over it?"
"Later, maybe." She returned the smile like she meant it, earning both of us a
glare from Jason.
I wasn't any too pleased with him, either; it had occurred to me more than
once that if it wasn't for his presence, I'd likely be bunking with Andy
instead of Ahira. I could have stood consoling the widow a couple of times.
Ahira turned to Jason. "Baron?"
Jason's chuckle sounded forced. "Oh, you mean me?" He was irritated with me;
no doubt he'd side with his mother. "I favor Tromodec," he said.
Well, you could have knocked me over with a quarterstaff I wouldn't have
thought to duck. I should have thought it through, though Jason was more
interested in the search for Mikyn than the investigation of Ehvenor, which
put us on the same side.
"If it works right," he went on, "we're closer to Mikyn; if it's wrong, we've
only lost four days instead of six, the way it would be if we wrongly go to
Brae." [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]