David Eddings - The Redemption of Althalus

‘I know. Chief Albron thought it was just a coincidence, but he was wrong.’ Althalus made a wry face. ‘My name’s about the only part of the story your people got right. The rest of it’s the biggest lie I’ve heard in my whole life – and I’ve heard some very big lies in my time. Let’s get it right out into the open, Eliar. I am the one who robbed Gosti Big Belly about twenty-five hundred years ago, but Gosti didn’t have any gold in his strongroom, just copper and a little brass. He wanted people to believe that he was the richest man in the world, so he spread some wild lies about how much gold I’d stolen from him. You wouldn’t believe how much trouble that caused me.’

‘Nobody can live that long,’ the boy scoffed.

‘I didn’t think so myself, but Emmy cured me of that. Let’s stick to the point here. Can you read?’

‘Warriors don’t waste their time on that nonsense.’

‘There’s something you have to read.’

‘I just told you that I don’t know how, Althalus. You’ll have to read it to me.’

‘It won’t work if we do it that way.’ Althalus took the Knife out from under his belt and held it out to Eliar. He pointed at the complex engraving on the blade. ‘What does this say?’ he asked.

‘I can’t read. I told you that.’

‘Look at it, Eliar. You can’t read it if you don’t look.’

Eliar looked at the leaf-shaped blade, and he jerked his head back, startled. ‘It says “Lead”!’ he exclaimed. ‘I can actually read it!’ Then he shrank back as the song of the Knife touched him.

‘Pretty, isn’t it?’ Althalus said.

Emmy had been sitting nearby, watching. She rose and came over to where they were seated. She looked very closely at Eliar, who was still staring at the Knife with a befuddled expression. ‘Tell him to do something, Althalus,’ she suggested. ‘Let’s make sure that you can control him before you give him the Knife.’

Althalus nodded. ‘Stand up, Eliar,’ he said.

The boy immediately scrambled to his feet. He swayed a bit and put one hand to the side of his head. ‘It made me a little dizzy,’ he confessed.

‘Dance,’ Althalus told him.

Eliar started to jig, his feet pattering on the ground.

‘Stop.’

Eliar quit dancing.

‘Put both hands up over your head.’

‘Why are we doing this?’ the boy asked, raising his hands.

‘Just making sure that it works. You can put your hands down. Did you notice anything peculiar just now?’

‘You kept telling me to do things that were sort of silly,’ Eliar replied.

‘If they seemed silly, why did you do them?’

‘I’m a soldier, Althalus. I always do what the man in charge tells me to do. If he tells me to do silly things, he’s the one who’s silly, not me.’

‘That sort of takes a lot of the fun out of this, doesn’t it, Em?’ Althalus said aloud. ‘Did the Knife force Eliar to jump around, or was it just his training?’

Eliar gave Emmy a surprised look. ‘How did your cat get away from Andine?’ he asked curiously.

‘She’s sort of sneaky.’

‘Andine’s going to be very angry about that. Maybe we should leave in sort of a hurry – right after breakfast.’

‘Are you hungry?’

‘I’m always hungry, Althalus.’

‘Why don’t we eat, then?’ Althalus held the Knife out to the boy. ‘Here. You’re the one who’s supposed to carry this. Tuck it under your belt and don’t lose it.’

Eliar put his hands behind his back. ‘You should probably know that I was planning to kill you last night before we got to know each other. You might want to think it over a little before you just hand me back my knife like that.’

‘You aren’t going to try to kill me now, though, are you?’

‘No. Not now.’

‘Why not?’

‘You’re the man in charge, Althalus. Your arrangement with Chief Albron sort of makes you my sergeant. A good soldier never tries to kill his sergeant.’

‘Then I haven’t got a thing to worry about. Take the Knife, Eliar, and let’s eat.’

‘What a great idea,’ Eliar said enthusiastically, tucking the Knife under his belt.

‘Bacon? Or maybe ham?’

‘Whichever one you can make the quickest.’

Althalus made some ham and a loaf of black bread. Then he produced a very large cup of milk.

Eliar started to eat as if he hadn’t had anything for a week.

Althalus made more. ‘How long can he keep this up?’ he silently asked Emmy.

‘I’m not really certain,’ her reply came back. She watched Eliar eat with a slightly bemused look in her large green eyes. ‘See if you can distract him enough to get him to show me the Knife. I need to find out where we’re supposed to go next.’

‘Eliar,’ Althalus said, ‘you can keep chewing, but Emmy needs to take a quick look at your Knife.’

Eliar mumbled something.

‘Don’t talk with your mouth full,’ Althalus told him. ‘Just take the Knife out from under your belt and show it to her.’

Eliar shifted the chunk of ham he’d been eating to his left hand, wiped the grease off his right hand on the grass, and drew out his Knife. Still chewing, he held the Knife out to Emmy.

She glanced at it briefly. ‘Awes,’ she said.

‘Isn’t it in ruins?’ Althalus asked.

‘So?’

‘Just thought I’d mention it, that’s all. I’ll go saddle my horse.’

Emmy had gone back to watching Eliar eat. ‘There’s no real hurry, Althalus,’ her silent response sounded slightly amused. ‘From the look of things, our boy here’s just getting started.’

‘Just exactly where’s this war?’ Eliar asked as he trotted along beside Althalus’ horse, ‘and what kind of people are we going to be fighting?’

‘War?’ Althalus asked.

‘People don’t rent soldiers just for show, Althalus. I’m fairly sure you didn’t go to all the trouble of getting me away from Andine just because you were lonesome. Sergeant Khalor always told us that we should find out as much about the people we’re going to be fighting as we possibly can.’

‘Your sergeant’s a very wise man, Eliar.’

‘We all looked up to him – even though he could be awfully picky about details sometimes. I’ll swear that he can talk about one speck of rust on a sword for half a day.’

‘Some soldiers are like that, I suppose,’ Althalus said. ‘I don’t get all that excited about it myself. A rusty sword kills somebody as well as a polished one does.’

‘We’re going to get along just fine,’ Eliar said, grinning broadly. ‘Now, then, who am I supposed to fight?’

‘The war we’re involved with isn’t exactly like an ordinary war – at least not yet. We haven’t quite reached the point of armies and battlefields.’

‘We’re still choosing up sides?’

Althalus blinked, and then he laughed. ‘That might just come closer to what we’re doing than anything I’ve heard so far.’

‘Watch your mouth,’ Emmy’s thought had a slight edge to it.

Althalus laughed again. ‘That’s why we absolutely had to get our hands on the Knife, Eliar,’ he told the boy. ‘It’s the only thing that can tell us who’s on our side. The ones we want can read it. Others can’t. Emmy can read more of it than you and I can, and it tells her where we’re supposed to go to recruit the people we’ll need.’

‘She’s not really a cat, then, is she? My mother’s got a cat, but all her cat does is eat and sleep and chase mice. If Emmy’s that important, you took an awful chance when you traded her for the Knife the way you did. Andine’s a very strange little lady. You’re lucky she didn’t chain Emmy to her bed-post.’