David Drake - Master of the Cauldron

"Nothing, because there's a five year gap starting in the fifteenth year of Aguar's reign and continuing through the second year of his successor Afrase the Third," said Liane with a smile of triumph. "Which is exactly what you'd expect if the Kremsa account is true, because the priests of the Erdin temple would've had to flee if pirates captured the city. If they even survived."

"Liane," Garric said, frowning at the passage he'd just read to Attaper. "I understood this as 'large band of warriors,' but what it actually says is 'a large warrior'. If Dromillac was a wizard, is it possible that he brought a giant to help Aguar? And what I read as 'the leader of the band' could be another wizard, a wizard who controlled a giant."

"Yes," Liane said, nodding three times quickly to emphasize her agreement. "That'd explain why Tenoctris said Volita is a focus of power still, even after a thousand years. But Garric-I read the passage the same way you did at first, 'cast the pirates into the Underworld,' as meaning 'killed them.' But what if… Garric, Dromillac was a wizard and probably so was the ally he brought to Volita to help him. What if they cast the pirates underground, literally? Under where the palace now is built."

"And they're coming back up," Garric said, speaking the words to see how they sounded. "The pirates are coming back from underground after a thousand years. I don't see how men could live… but there would've been a wizard with the pirates too, wouldn't there? Even so, how could theylive underground?"

The two male librarians came through the cordon of guards carrying a roll of oxhide which was almost too heavy for them. The female librarian following saw Garric's frown of puzzlement. She said, "It's a map of Sandrakkan, your highness. It was copied from a marble original that was destroyed in the palace at the end of the Old Kingdom."

Attaper glared at the priests, then looked from Liane to Garric and said, "Your highness, were these pirates like the People who attacked Ornifal from the sea in Stronghand's time? Because those were led by a wizard and they weren't, well, ordinary men."

He cleared his throat and added, "Of course, I don't mean they could live in caves underground. But nobody was sure where they really came from, because there isn't any island where they said it was."

"It's…," Garric said. He meant to go on, "… a thousand years so there can't be a connection," and of course itwas a thousand years. But that was true whether you connected the pirates who attacked Sandrakkan here in the West at the end of the Old Kingdom with the People who'd fallen on Ornifal in the past generation, or if you were suggesting that those pirates might still be alive in the caverns beneath Erdin.

Which he and Liane had both thought of as soon as they read the passages in theChronicles. And both might be true.

"I don't know, milord," Garric said instead. "It's at least possible. As possible as anything else I can come up with now."

"Garric," said Liane. She paused and dabbed her tongue to her lips, less to wet them than to give herself time to order her words. "If it required a wizard to defeat the pirates the first time… a pair of wizards, if we understand theChronicles correctly. Should you recall Tenoctris from Ornifal, do you think?"

Garric looked at her as he thought. Then he grinned. There were side-effects that he couldn't possibly guess no matter which choice orwhat choice he made. Liane was trying to follow every thread back to what would be the right answer, the perfect answer. She had a splendid mind, but no human being was capable of carrying out the task she'd set herself. There wasn't a perfect answer, period.

"No, love," he said. "I shouldn't."

Attaper's eyes flicked between them as if he were watching a handball match, while the ancient king in Garric's mind grinned. "We had good reason to send Tenoctris with Lord Waldron," Garric continued. "Nothing we've learned or guessed here changes that. While I'd very much like to have Tenoctris' advice right now, she'd be the first to say that summoning warrior giants is beyond her. If they're what's required, I'm afraid we'll have to find them on our own."

There was a jangle in the hallway; the guards stiffened. Garric found his hand going to his sword pommel by reflex.

He and Carus grinned together. The reflex was that of the king, but there'd been times Garric had found it the difference between life and death.

"Between your death and somebody else's, I'd put it," Carus said, laughing with his usual good humor. "And I'll always pick somebody else for the job of dying, having done it once myself."

The noise was one of the soldiers who'd been stationed outside the temple double-timing down the hall, his equipment and studded apron clattering. Priests peering in at the visiting prince jumped out of the way. The Blood Eagle's shield banged clear one who didn't jump fast enough.

Attaper placed himself slightly forward of Garric. "What's the trouble, Muns?" he said, louder than a normal speaking voice.

"Sir, there's people gathering down the streets outside," Muns said, halting in the archway with the troops on guard there instead of coming through. "It's not a mob yet, not exactly, but I think we'd best get back to the palace."

He paused. Attaper turned to Garric with his mouth open, but before he could speak Muns added, "Sir? I think I saw that one-eyed scut as made the trouble at the coronation. I think he's leading them."

"I should've put my sword through Tawnser when he first turned his one bloody eye on me!" Attaper snarled. He looked at the three librarians, then pointed to the woman.

"You!" he said. She drew herself up sharply, as anyone would at Attaper's tone; Garric felt his own back straighten instinctively. "We came in by the front entrance but there's a back way, isn't there? Come on, where's the back way?"

The librarian blinked. "Yes, of course," she said, "you entered from Factors' Square, but there's the door onto Lantern Street. I'll take you."

"Right," Attaper said. "Muns, tell Under-Captain Fiers to hold the front as long as he can with his section, but to send the rest of the regiment to me at the Lantern Street entrance. Go!"

He scowled and muttered to Garric, "I figure we'll need everybody we've got available, and we'll be bloody lucky if we don't need more. A mile to go through somebody else's city!"

They followed the librarian at a quick trot. The parties of Blood Eagles guarding corridor intersections fell in behind at Attaper's barked commands. They'd already snatched off the gilt balls that blunted their spearpoints.

If the mob was gathering on side-streets until it was fully prepared to attack, it wasn't really a mob. And if Lord Tawnser had arranged things so neatly at the front of the temple, Garric doubted that he'd have neglected the back entrance too. But it was the best choice available.

"There!" the librarian cried, pointing down a short hall to a door lighted by a transom glazed with bulls-eye glass. An attendant was dozing in the corner. He jumped up with a shout of terror when Garric and the leading Blood Eagles crashed along the corridor at him. The soldier's hobnails sparked on the stone floor.

"The Cattle Market's on this side!" said Liane from Garric's heel. "It's near Erdin's north gate!"

"Keep behind me!" Garric snapped as Attaper lifted the cross-bar from its staples. Garric pushed the door open with his left hand; his sword was bare in his right. He and Attaper stepped through the doorway together.

Lantern Street was a narrow alley facing the twenty-foot high stone terrace that supported the Cattle Market, a plaza surrounded by stalls for beasts who'd been separated after sale. The street was empty but the terrace was full of people, most of them men and all armed.