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