Raymond E. Feist - The Serpentwar Saga

‘It means we need to move even sooner than we thought. It means you should dismantle this camp starting today and have your ships ready to depart next week.’

Calis was silent. Then he said, ‘I have six men who are not trained, and we’re barely half the number we had planned on. I cannot depend on hired mercenaries. Too many good men died last time because I made that mistake. I need –’ He stopped himself. ‘You know all the arguments. Bobby and I made them to Arutha three years ago. If we must go with only thirty-six men, I will take the next nine days to evaluate the last six. I’ll hang them myself before I’ll let them become a weak link in the chain we’re forming, but I’ll at least give them that little bit of time to prove themselves.’

Miranda’s voice rose. ‘I have been through a great deal to select these men, Calis. I think I know each one well. I think you have only two who might break, Goodwin and de Savona. The others will do as we need.’

‘Might break,’ he repeated. ‘That’s the problem. You think. If I knew they would break, I’d execute them tonight. If I knew they would stand fast, I would leave tomorrow. But if we judge wrong, and if one of them breaks at the wrong time

‘Nothing is certain.’

There was a dry chuckle and Calis said, ‘Working with an oracle has given us something of a false illusion of certainty, I’m afraid. If we return to the certainty that nothing is clear before it happens, we might survive this venture.’

‘I’m leaving. If you insist on lingering the next nine days, so be it, but Nicholas is adamant we should move as soon as possible. We’ve captured two agents and they know we’re up to something.’

‘Dead?’

‘Now they are. Gamina read both men before they died and found out little we didn’t already know, but it’s clear the snakes are closing in on this facility. You’ve done well covering your tracks for the last year, but now they know something unusual is happening outside of Krondor. The next bunch of spies they send won’t be sniffing around the palace, they’ll be out here in the woods looking for this encampment. Once they discover it was here –’

‘We’ve taken every precaution.’

‘Someone who loaded a wagon of beef will say something in an inn. Someone at the palace will let a list of prisoners be seen while he’s out of an office. It will take time, but within a year, not only will the snakes know you’re in their way again, they’ll have the name of every man with you.’

Calis was silent, then said something Erik couldn’t make out. Suddenly there was a sound of a door opening and closing, and Erik motioned for Roo to follow him in a hurry. They returned the way they went and made it back to their tent. Moving back to their bunks, Erik was silent for a moment as he caught his breath; then he woke Biggo. ‘Quiet. Wake the others.’

When Luis, Sho Pi, and Billy were awake, Erik said, ‘Some time before you were caught, did you run into a woman named Miranda?’

The four looked at one another, and it was Sho Pi who spoke first. ‘Dark of hair and with intense green eyes?’ Erik nodded. ‘She spoke to me outside of Shamata, while I was on the road to Krondor. There was something about her that I noticed at once. She has power.’

‘What did she tell you?’

Sho Pi shrugged. ‘We talked of things of little importance. I found her very beautiful and was flattered at the attention, but her interests seemed more abstract than carnal. And I was curious why I sensed she was so much more than she seemed.’

‘Was there anything she said that got you tossed into jail?’

Sho Pi said, ‘Nothing I can remember.’

The others talked about their encounters, Billy and Luis saying she had used a different name, but it was clear that all six men had encountered the woman at some point, less than a month prior to being arrested.

Biggo said. ‘That girl gets around, if she was talking to you’ – he pointed at Sho Pi – ‘at Shamata the week before running into Erik and Roo near Darkmoor.’

‘How does she know us?’ asked Luis.

Erik said, ‘It has something to do with an oracle who reads the future. We’re important in some way, but only if we survive the next nine days. I don’t know why we were saved from the gallows, and I don’t know what we might be to these people if we continue to live, but I have no doubt of this: if Calis thinks we’re dangerous to his plans, he’ll hang us all before he breaks camp in nine days. If he thinks we’re trustworthy, he’ll keep us alive. It’s that simple.’

Billy said, ‘It means we’ve got to work hard.’

‘We’ve been breaking our backs!’ complained Luis.

‘I mean work hard at being what they want.’

Sho Pi said, ‘Billy is right; he and I must stem our temper.’ He rose and returned to his own bunk, where he sat back, resting on his elbows. ‘Biggo must begin to show he can think for himself.’

‘What of me?’ said Luis, obviously fearful of not being judged trustworthy in nine days’ time.

‘You must put aside your pride. You must stop acting as if every order is an insult, and every task beneath you. Your arrogance will get you hung.’

‘I am not arrogant!’ demanded Luis, obviously ready to take offense.

Erik saw a fight coming and, thinking quickly to stem it, he said, ‘There’s more!’

‘What?’ said Biggo.

‘If one of us fails, we all fail.’

‘What!’ said Billy.

‘If one of us is judged unworthy, they’re going to hang all six of us.’

Roo looked at Erik a moment, then nodded. ‘We’re a team. We live or die as one.’

Luis glanced around the tent and saw all eyes upon him. ‘I … will work on humility. When that little cabrone tells me to shovel dung, I will cheerfully say, Sí, me comandante . How high?’

Biggo grinned. ‘If there’s a stiffer-necked bunch around than you bloody Rodezians, it’s them Tsurani up in LaMut, but not by much.’ Looking at Sho Pi, he said, ‘I’ve gotten by for years playing dumb so that folks won’t expect much of me. I guess it’s a habit now. I’ll try to look a little brighter.’

Sho Pi said, ‘And you, Rupert. You must stop trying to be so clever. It will get you killed. You are not as clever as you think, nor are others as stupid.’

Erik said, ‘What of me?’

Sho Pi said, ‘I do not know, Erik von Darkmoor. There is nothing you do that is obviously wrong. Yet … there is something. I do not know. A hesitancy, perhaps. You need to be more decisive.’

Further discussion was halted by the arrival of Corporal Foster, and the men leaped up to stand before their beds. The corporal looked around, for obviously something had been occurring just before he arrived, but nothing was obvious, so after a moment he shouted, ‘All right. Outside and fall in, you worms! We don’t have all morning!’

Foster stood over Billy, screaming insults at him. The prisoner looked as if he was about to leap to his feet and attack the corporal. A man in black stood not ten feet away puffing heavily from the exertion of the recently ended combat. They had been dueling, with Billy getting the upper hand, when suddenly Foster had tripped Goodwin. Then, before he could react, the corporal was standing over him as if it were Billy’s fault.

Then Foster said, ‘And your mother was a whore!’

As he turned away, Billy leaped to his feet. Before he could charge Foster, Erik hit him with a tackle, driving his shoulder into Billy’s waist. They went to the ground and rolled, Erik using his strength and weight to keep Billy under him.

Suddenly soldiers were hauling them apart and Foster was shouting, ‘Here, now! What’s this about?’

Erik, blood running from his nose from one of Billy’s elbows, said, ‘Keeping him from doing something stupid. Corporal.’