F O U R (15 page)

"Did your cousin give you any warni"No," the clansman answered curtly. "Why ng that he was going to run away?" would he? We  despised each other.  Nowshut up! You're trying to break my  concentration." Ryld sighed and settled back in his spindly,  flimsy-looking limestone chair. Fromthe corner of his eye he glimpsed something that made him  sit up straightercheck the precise position of Splitter leaning against th         , double-e wall, and stealthily loosenhis short sword in its oiled sheath on his belt.

He himself didn't quite know what had alerted him.  These weren't the first circle of  revelers  he'd  watched  rise  from  their  seats  and  draw  their  weapons,  either  to  play at fencing or to settle a quarrel that had nothing at all to do with the hooded male defeating all comers at sava. Indeed, within  the confines of the Jewel Box, blades rasped  from  their  scabbards  with  a  certain  regularity.  Superficially,  this  new quartet was no different, but somehow Ryld knew that they were. Sure enough, they

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stalked  straight  toward him  and his ob

i                livious opponent through the fragrant haze of ncense. Other patrons, likewise sensing the  swordsmen's intent, made haste to clear

the way.

adA blade with a glowing redness—an imprisoned spirit perhaps—oozing inside the amantine,  flicked  in  a horizontal  sweep at  the tabletop.  Ryld  caught  the

and pushed it away before it c                    weapon The long sword was as sharp as only an encould upset the sava pieces or  his neatly stacked winnings. h

anted weapon could be, but he ma

the grab without cutting his hand. Finally  startled from  his re      naged boy looked wildly about.                  verie, the scrawny

"May we help you?" asked Ryld. "We'

Though not so big as Rve been listening to you," said the owner of the long sword. yld, he was nonetheless husky and tall for a drow male, andthe points of his prominent ears seemed to  reach above the top of  hi

s  head  like a

bat's.  He  was the  best  dressed and plainly the  leader  of the foursome, even though

his broad, sullen face bore the mottled bruises of a beating. The weapons master

assumed that some  noble female must have  seen fit to give the male a pummeling.

His companions would think none the less of him  for that.

Especially since, Ryld noted, two of them  were hurt as well, moving a triflestiffly or slightly favoring one leg. Perhaps they were all kinsm

en, and one of the

priestesses in their House had gone on a regular tear. "You've been asking a lot of questions about runaways," the swordsm

an continued

in a threatening drawl. "Have I?" R

He reflected that it was too bad the thyld replied.         ree musicians had left the stage a few

minutes back. He doubted that anyone had ma            is

conversations while the longhorn was shrilling away naged to eavesdrop on h. The other m

a

"Just m   le scowled and asked, "Why?" aking conversation. Do you  know some

"No, but I know that in the Jewel Box we don'thing about the rogues?" t like it when people are toocurious. W

e  don't like them  hunting runaways. We  don't like them  listening  to  ever

private thing we say and reporting back to the Mothers."            y"I'm not a spy "

.

Maybe he was, but he had no inten"Ha!" the swordsm       tion of confessing it to this fool.

an scoffed. "If you were, you wouldn't admit it."

"Be that as it ma

boy and I finish our gamy,  I suggest you and your friends return to your table and let this e." The m

ale with the red sword swelled like an inflated bladder on the verge of

bursting. "You're trying to dismiss me  likam?"                 e a servant? Do you  have any idea who I

"Of course, Tathlyn Godeep. I trained you. Do you remember me?" R

Tyld pushed back his cowl, exposing his hitherto shadowed features. a

him thlyn and his friends goggled at their former teacher as if he had just revealed self to be some  ancient and legendary dragon.

"I see you do. So I'll bid you good day " .T

athlyn looked as if he was groping for a comment that would allow him  to

terminate  this  confrontation  with  his  dignity  intact,  but  the  onlookers  started  to

laugh. His fear less compelling than his pride, he screwed the  sneer  back  onto  hisface.

"Yes," he said, his voice raised to cut through the laughter, "I know you,  Master

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Argith, but you don't know me, not the person I have become. Today I am  theweapons master of House Godeep." rivalries on the very bottomHouse Godeep was one of the petty H rungs of the laouses of Narbondellyn, whose frantic dder of status were almost beneath the notice of the nobles farther up. Ryld doubted the Godeeps would rise much higher with Tathlyn leading their warriors .swin               During his training, the boy had learned to g  a sword  with  reasonable skill, but he  had always demonstrated extraordinary recklessness and general poor judgment when placed in comma

"Congratulations," said R               nd of a squad. yld. "Perhaps if you'd known I would rise to  such an eminence, you wouldn't havetaken such delight in smashing my  knuckles and beating m"I didn't do it for sport. It was to teach  you to close the outside line and ty shoulder to pulp." o  standup straight. I tried simply telling you to make the adjustments, but you didn't heed me.

"Now," Ryld continued, "I've explained I have no intention of tattling to thematrons about anything I might happen to  learn in this place. Is my  word good enough for you? If so, we  should have no quarrel." "That's what you say "

.

"Lad—excuse  me  .  .  .  Weapons Master,  pause,  breathe,  and reflect.  I sensefeeling angry over your aches and bruises. Perhaps you want to take it o you're ut onsomeone, but I'm  not the person who admi

T                nistered the beating." athe punishment during training was for mythlyn stood silent for an instant, then  he said, "No, you' own good. No hare not, and I suppose all rd  feelings,  WeaMaster. Enjoy your m                         ponsatch."

He started to turn away, then whirled back around. The point of the red long sword streaked at Ryld's neck. Before the four companions had even  reached the sava table, Ryld had inconspicuously centered his weight and planted his feet in a manner that would allow him  to get out of his chair quickly. He simultaneously sprang up and brushedthe blade aside with a sweep of his arm,  but  he didn't strike  it  at  quite  the  proper angle. The wicked edge of the red sword drew a little blood.

Ryld realized that this was his first real  fight in the better part of a year. He'dintended to go out with one of the comhimself a few of the predators that were always wapanies patrolling Bauthwaf, slaughter ndering  in  from the caverns farther out, but somehow he had never bestirred himself to do it. That was no problem. He had no fear that  he was rusty

.back, he was surprised at his lack of m           It was just that, looking otivation. All these thoughts flashed through his mind in  an instant and without slowing hisreactions in the slightest. Tathlyn jumped back out of reach, but one  of his companions was lunging at Ryld.

It looked like they all intended to fight, which probably meant they were all theweapons master's  kin and subordinates. Otherwise, one or more  of  them mihave stayed out of the quarrel.                       ght

Ryld twitched himself out of the way of his attacker's wild head cut, drew his leaf-bladed short sword, and thrust. The onrushing Godeep's  momentum  ld'sstrength and skill, and the magical keenness of his point    d     , Ryserve  to bury the  weade                                 pon ep  in the  crook of his assailant's  fighting arm.the short sword—enchanted to wound even     Though not his favored weapon,

Blood started from  the puncture, and, staggering, the Godeep dropped his falchion. incorporeal spirits—was a fine blade.

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It would actually have been easier to kill  the dolt than merely incapacitate him,  but

Ryld was on a secret mission, and outright  homicide was far more likely to attractattention than a simple tavern brawl.

Tathlyn and his other two friends saw their chance and rushed  in. Ryld knew  thathe didn't have time to pull the embedded short sword out of his victim's flesh. If hetried, his other enemies would have him. He cloaked the wounded Godeep in a ragged bulb of darkness and shoved him  at the others.

Ryld couldn't see through the obscuring field  any more than his adversaries couldbut, peering around the edges of it, he  saw the wounded Gode       ,ep  reel  into  his fellows  and stagger them,  startle  them,  too,  with  theimpedim                        sudden, unexpected ent to their sight. That gave the weapons master  the  time  he  needed  towhirl, take in the obstructive clutter of  furniture and gawking him                          sava players before

, and  leap  up  onto  the  table  where  his  own  game  sat  waiting.  His  racing  feetannihilated  the  snare  he'd  so  cunningly  laid  for  the merchant, hurling the pieces rattling across the board and onto the  floor.He jumped down on the other side, grabbed Splitter,face his enemies. In one smooth blur of motion, he yanked this and spun back around to most trusted of all his weapons from  its scabbard and came on guard.  Desword was so perfectly balanced that it  felt as light as a dagger in his grasp. spite its hugeness, the great He noticed that the noncombatants  in the taproom  had begun shouting encouragement and insults at the fighters. A couple quick-thinking gamblers weregiving odds.

R    three remaining adversaries manhandled their shadow-shrouded kinsman out of their way and stalked forward, myld'saagainst the wall. The one on the left hung bnifestly hoping to pin the fencing teacher t look as if he'd  actually turn and run unless  ack a bit, none too eager, but he didn'Taweapons master himself go down under Splittethlyn told him  to, or else he saw the r's razor edge. Ryld had no intention of letting himself  be trapped. He moved away from  the wall the same  way he'd  moved up to it, springing onto the table and charging