David Drake - The Mirror of Worlds

"Well, a servant comes from the castle every ten days or so-"

"Oftener!" the stable hand said. "Well, it's been oftener recently, that could be," Noddy admitted. "And maybe there's two different servants, but if it is they're as like as two peas. They don't talk, but the first time he brought a potshard with pigs written on it-"

"Can you read, Noddy?" said the scarred hunter in surprise. "I most certainly can," the innkeeper said, tilting his head so that he looked down his nose at the hunter. "Regardless, he brought the note with silver shaved off a block, nineteen parts out of twenty pure. So I sent Cayler back with him to lead six hogs. Since then they've been back-or the one has, I can't say, as I told you. They don't bother with a note now, just bring more silver." "There's no pigs in the tower now," said Kore. Everybody turned quickly. The ogre squatted on her haunches outside. She could probably have gotten through the open doorway, but she wouldn't have been able to stand or even squat without tearing a hole in the ceiling. "Which she could easily do, of course," said Shin, replying to the unvoiced observation. Garric grinned. "I smelled hogs," he said, thinking back to when they'd jogged past the tower. At the time he'd ignored it, because the fact hadn't concerned him; the information was still in his mind when required, though. "The freshest pig droppings in the road were seven days old," the ogre said, her long face exaggerating the solemn precision of her speech. "The smell from the tower itself was somewhat more recent, I grant-but I would've heard pigs if they'd been present." A woman-the one Garric'd seen when he rode into the valley-crept down the stairs; she'd left the child on the upper floor.

She slipped through the back door to the outside oven, casting nervous glances over her shoulder. By contrast, the men in the common room seemed to have relaxed. "I did, however, hear a horse," Kore added.

"Though muffled, as if it'd been snaffled." Garric looked hard at the innkeeper. Noddy grimaced in discomfort. "I don't know anything about who lives in the castle!" he insisted. "Except that their silver assays nineteen parts pure," Garric said without inflection. "Look, I don't know how it's like where you come from!" Noddy said. "Around here, though, we keep ourselves to ourselves. That's why we came out here, often enough." He looked at the hunters for confirmation, but they turned their faces away. The one who still had an arrow nocked rotated it parallel to the bowstaff. He glanced apologetically toward Garric, then unstrung the bow. "Never figured how a stone castle could set there," the other hunter said, watching his partner intently instead of looking toward either Garric or the innkeeper. "It's next to being a swamp even in front of where it stands, and in back itis swamp. I saw a hart mire hisself there. Before the castle come, I mean." "Well, what am I supposed to do?" Noddy demanded. "Go on, tell me! What?" "Well, Master Garric," said the aegipan. His tongue waggled in visual laughter. "We're safely past the tower, so we don't need to worry about it either." "We'll eat here and sleep tonight," Garric said. "We'll start back just before dawn so there's light when we arrive. I'm not willing to chance the business at night." Carus was visualizing the climb up the tower's rough stone wall. It'd be possible if he went barefoot and used both hands. He could carry the dagger in his teeth, but it wouldn't help if the mute servants tipped a vat of boiling oil over the parapet when he was halfway up. Though if the ogre lifted him as high as she could reach and then tossed him the few remaining feet- "What is it that you expect your horse to do tomorrow, master?" Kore asked. "For that's what my oath requires me to be, you'll recall." Garric looked out at the squatting monster. He flushed with anger that came from the ghost in his mind-but the gust of laughter that followed it a moment later was Carus' reaction as well. "I expect you to carry me to the castle or wherever else I decide, Kore," he said, "and then to wait quietly while I determine my next step. If you think you're likely to stray then I'll tether you, but the gelding you replace would stand drop-reined." "Look, fellow," said the scarred hunter, still looking at his partner. "I'm not afraid of trouble, but I don't borrow it. I've kept clear of that castle ever since I got an eyeful of it the first time. I don't see you've got call to do otherwise." "I disagree," said Garric. "But I accept that you don't feel the same duty to act that I do." The duty didn't have anything to do with having become a prince, of course; he'd be doing the same thing if he were an innkeeper. He was doing what he thought a man should do. He gave Noddy a wry smile. "Now, good host," he said,

"I wouldvery much like a meal." "And I," said Kore, "will practice standing drop-reined. I hope that by morning I'll have learned that skill to my brave master's satisfaction." Garric joined in his ancestor's unheard laughter, while the three local men watched in puzzlement.

Chapter 9 Tenoctris drew back on the reins, halting the gig on the crest above the opened tomb. Cashel hopped out and tied the mare to the base of a bush-probably Forsythia, but it was past blooming and he wasn't sure. He used the lead rope rather than the reins to give the horse more room to browse. She'd probably tangle the line in the brush, but at least he'd tried to make her a little more comfortable.

Cashel drew the satchel with her gear from behind the seat as Tenoctris dismounted. She moved carefully, but she didn't need his help like she used to for doing common things like, well, getting up and down from a gig. "I thought there'd be guards still here," he said, looking down at the excavation. In truth he'd been surprised that they'd been able to leave the Coerli city without having an escort of soldiers. Things were different with Garric gone. It wasn't that Sharina didn't care about him and Tenoctris, it was just that she didn't believe Cashel or anybody Cashel was looking after needed other help. Cashel smiled, standing with the staff in one hand and the satchel made from a rug in the other. He wasn't as strong as Sharina seemed to think; but he doubted a soldier or an army-could handle any likely trouble better than him alone. "I'm going to lie in the sarcophagus again," Tenoctris said, taking short steps down the slope.

"I don't need it the way I did the other night, but it's such a powerful focus that it'll reduce the process to a few minutes." She chuckled. "That concentration of powers is the only thing of value here," she explained. "And it's of no more use to ordinary thieves than a vat of molten steel would be." Cashel scrambled to get in front, just in case the old wizard slipped. There was next to no chance of his own bare feet going out from under him, but he slanted the quarterstaff out for a brace anyway. He paused at the top of the trench to judge the sun. It'd be down soon, but the twilight would last long enough to see by for another hour. "I'm going to make myself younger," Tenoctris said. Cashel stepped into the tomb and turned to make sure Tenoctris didn't have trouble in the doorway. She maybe thought he was surprised to hear what she'd said, because she went on,

"Oh, not for vanity, I assure you. It's just a practical response to the difficulties of what we'll be doing. I need a more supple body, you see." Cashel helped her onto the bench and held her hand as she got into the coffin. He looked again at the carvings and wondered about the man who'd wanted to be buried in such a thing. Tenoctris opened her satchel and took out a simple stylus of lead. With it she marked a triangle on the bottom of the stone box down at the end where her head'd lain when they came here before, then wrote words on each of the three sides. She looked at Cashel with a little grin and said,