Alex Bledsoe - The Sword-Edged blonde

“Whoa!” a new voice said. “It’s a whole pissin’ convention!”

A young guy with short, neat hair and clothes far too stylish for Pema stood in the tavern door. “Damn, fellas, I don’t know if I can wait through this line. I gotta whiz like a racehorse.”

“Use one of the others,” Ryan said. “Or a damn tree. This is a private conversation.”

The young guy frowned and took in the five of us. “That a fact?”

“It’s a fact,” Ryan said.

“Okay, okay, I get the hint.” He turned his back to us and undid his pants, apparently intending to piss right there in the yard. When nothing happened immediately, the young man looked up sheepishly. “I think my trouser snake’s got a little stage fright. You guys mind not lookin’ at me?”

“Oh, for God’s sake,” Ryan said in exasperation, and for a moment all their attention was off me. I took the chance.

I kicked Ryan in the balls as hard as I could, the effect helped by the little metal toe cap inside my soft-looking boot. As he fell I grabbed the two men directly behind him by the hair and slammed their heads together. The thonk was satisfyingly loud, and they dropped like bags of wet sand.

Piss-boy, who’d been faking drunk, grabbed the last man and dispatched him with three quick blows in a style I instantly recognized. When he looked up from the crumpled form, I had my sword out and at the hollow of his throat. “Hey, buddy, I was just tryin’ to help,” he said nervously.

“Fasten your pants and tell me who the hell you are.” This was the well-dressed man I’d seen in Neceda, and the mugging victim I’d passed earlier, waylaid as he shadowed me.

He didn’t flinch, and his eyes held mine. “We’ve got about a minute before the princess brings the cavalry,” he said without the country accent. “Just accept that I’m on your side. We can discuss why that is, later.”

He had a point, so I sheathed the sword and followed him around the building to the row of tied horses. “You’ll need a horse, too,” he said as he leaped onto his animal.

I untied the one nearest the end. It was a big mare, and she regarded me with the same disdain I got from all females. I put my foot in the stirrup, then stopped. “My saddlebags are still in there.”

“Get some new ones,” he said as he expertly turned his horse toward the road.

“I need what’s in them. I don’t want to end up dangling from a gallows tree.”

The young man scowled. “Mount up and wait here.” He slid from his saddle and went in through the front door. When he ran back out a moment later, six of Ryan’s men were right behind him. He gave a sharp whistle, tossed my bags at me and yelled, “ Go! ”

I kicked the horse hard, and she lurched forward into a ragged trot. In a moment the young man was beside me on his own mount.

“Mike Anders,” he said, and actually offered me his hand.

“Eddie LaCrosse,” I said. “But I figure you know that.”

He glanced behind us. The rest of Ryan’s gang had mounted up and wheeled into the street as a unit. They quickly closed the distance between us. “I think we need to get out of town,” he said.

“No,” I answered. “Follow me.”

The big mare didn’t protest as we rode into the crowds just past the docks. Here we could barely move, but neither could our pursuers. Still, we stood out plainly against the mostly pedestrian traffic. People bounced off my uncertain mount like logs shooting down the swollen river. Some of our pursuers dismounted and shoved through the crowd toward us, but their progress on foot was no faster.

“We’ve gotta ditch the horses,” I said, and led us toward an alley.

“I don’t think so,” Anders protested. “Do you have any idea how long it took me to train this big guy?”

I didn’t have time to argue. I led us between two buildings and onto the next street, which was just as crowded. Worse, these people weren’t moving, but instead stood watching an open-air burlesque act. I saw the first pair of pursuers reach the far end of the alley. We were stuck, and if they started drawing swords in this crowd, innocent people would get hurt.

“Okay, now I’m open to suggestions,” I said over the show’s music and cheering.

Calmly, Anders pulled a small pouch from his saddlebag. He drew his crossbow, tied the pouch to the tip of the bolt and fired it at the pursuers. I was impressed; he shot one-handed, on a horse being jostled on all sides, and still managed to part the hair of the closest pursuer as he ran toward us. The bolt stuck hard in the wooden side of a refuse barrel, and the impact tore open the pouch. I heard the distinctive tinkle of coins hitting the ground.

The two men at the head of the gang immediately skidded to a stop, turned and ran toward the money. The men behind them converged on it at the same time, as did a bunch of bystanders.

“Damn, how much money was that?” I asked.

“Enough to keep them busy. Now you follow me for a while.”

He cut his horse in front of me and edged along between the crowd and the buildings. His mount was pretty impressive, picking carefully over fallen drunks and uncertain muddy spots, until the crowd began to thin and we reached the edge of town. The road became a highway that stretched north in the darkness. We continued on until we were far enough away we’d get plenty of warning if anyone pursued us. Then we stopped to let our horses rest a bit.

“Thanks,” I said.

“Just doing my job,” he modestly replied.

“Want to tell me exactly what that job is?”

He reached for something inside his jacket. Instantly I had my sword out and at his throat again. “Slow, buddy,” I warned. “No hurry now.”

“Okay, okay,” he said easily. With two fingers, he withdrew a tightly rolled parchment, sealed with wax. “I’m just the messenger.”

I recognized the seal, and blood pounded in my ears as I broke it. I turned so that the glow from town gave me enough light to read. The message was short and, like all the best messages, left the reader with only one course of action. I rolled it up and stuck it in my bags. “I ought to say no,” I told the young soldier.

“He said you wouldn’t,” Anders replied with an easy grin.

“What else did he tell you?”

“That I could trust you. And not to lie to you.”

I nodded. “Good advice. So why did you follow me for so long without saying something?”

“I tried to find you in Neceda, but you left just as I got there. I saw you coming out of that tavern where your office is, actually, but didn’t know it was you until I talked to the barmaid.”

“Did she rat me out right away?”

“Sure. After I gave her five gold pieces and my best smile. And she lied about which way you went, but after she described you I knew I’d seen you and which way you’d really gone. I followed you to the river, but by then you were on the boat. I figured I’d keep following you and wait for a chance to talk privately.” He shrugged. “Things kept getting in my way, though.”

“Like those muggers?”

“Amateurs,” he snorted. “If they’d known when to quit, they’d still be alive.”

My full reaction to the message hadn’t hit me yet. “I guess we should get started, then.” I gestured toward the moonlit road ahead. “Lead on, then, Mr. Anders.”

“Sir Michael,” he corrected with another grin. “But you can call me Mike.”

We headed away from Pema toward a place a hundred miles away, and for me, twenty years back in time.

We crossed the Gusay, which put us back in Muscodia, and headed north. We traveled the length of Casselward and, at last, entered Arentia in the middle of the night.