Ilbei watched the major watching him back. “You was pretty quick to run me off last time we spoke, as you’ll recall, and I near forgot all about it till we was on our way. I turned back to go tell ya, when we seen that feller ya been poundin on come skulkin out and run off into the woods. Seemed sinister how he done it, so we went off after, thinkin we’d find where he was perpetratin the counterfeits.”
“Well, clearly you found it, Sergeant. But perhaps in doing so, you bit off more than you could chew.” The major stood casually, relaxed, his smile marginally gloating.
“Right, sar, so it seems. We was in a spot, it’s true, though I expect the main trouble was our mage run off some kind of magic accident. We’d have done all right in the end otherwise.”
“Yes, well, likely he did you all a favor, as there were several more men outside the cave, on their way in when we arrived.”
“
We
, sar?”
“Yes, myself, Locke Verity, whom you met the other day, and a few others.”
“Well then, it was right good timin ya come along.”
“It was. Now, please, Sergeant, where are those other plates?”
“I sent em off to Hast with the corporal.”
“You
what
?” The major’s face flushed.
Even in the prejudiced light of the torch, Ilbei saw him reddening, but he pressed on. “I sent them tiles off to Hast with a note fer General Hanswicket hisself. Told him we’d get in touch with ya and see to the situation as best we could after, or send word fer reinforcements if’n we thought it was more than my boys, and yerself of course, could get done.”
“You idiot!” the major spat. “By the gods, Spadebreaker!” He spun and stomped across the room, overcome with rage, profanity spewing forth like foul odors from a foundry. He went on so long Gad Pander actually began to laugh, though it was a choking, blood-soaked sort of sound.
Ilbei thought that was even odder than the major’s tantrum, and would have remarked on it, but the major stomped over to the local man and kicked him so hard in the stomach he began to choke in earnest, and eventually to throw up, retching and gagging up blood and teeth along with his last meal.
“When did you send them to Hast? How long ago?”
Ilbei blinked and made a show of perplexity, clearly confounded as to why the major was so upset. He finished the display with an appropriate bit of stammering. “Why, I, uh, well, sar, seems it was … it was five days before yesterday—no, make that six, given we done come back, went back, come back again, and then up here fer a night. So, countin that, that’d be eight if’n today is one, what’s barely begun, otherwise seven not countin it.”
The major glared at him, the heat of fury evident, his eyelids low. “Don’t you shovel that stinking peat at me, Spadebreaker, you simpleton. Where are they?”
“I told ya, sar, they’s at Hast by now.” He pretended not to see the malevolence in the major’s eyes. “If’n you’re worried they didn’t get there, just have old Jasper fix ya up with the general usin one of his fancy paper talkin spells. Ya can speak straight to the general yerself and verify he got em safe and sure by now.”
“Why would you do that, Sergeant? Why?”
“Why what? Why put ya in touch with the general, sar? Seems to make the most sense, what with ya worried about them tiles and all. Jasper can do it right quick, just say the word.” Ilbei had to concentrate to keep his eyes wide and innocent.
“No, idiot. Why would you send them away, the crown molds?”
“Oh. Beg yer pardon, sar. Yes, that. Well, it seemed like too much vital evidence fer us to pack around was all. Never know what might befall a feller out here, what with bandits, harpies and even ettins what supposedly used to be in this here cave.” He glanced at Gad Pander lying nearby and raised one bushy gray eyebrow. That was an awful lot of violence lying there.
Anger burned behind the major’s glare. So much so that Ilbei knew for certain that whatever facts were missing were big. But for all the rage brimming there, the major had no more to say. He simply spun and stormed out of the chamber, apparently too riled to speak. Ilbei watched him go, then shook his head, not sure what to make of the man. A good ruffs player wouldn’t come so close to unraveling as all that.
He crossed the room to where Gad Pander lay and took him by the arm, pulling him back up onto the rock he’d been seated on. “Are ya hurt worse than ya look?” he asked. He looked him over in the dim light that remained. His face seemed hardly human, lumpy and swollen as it was. “Even the likes of you deserves better than what ya got.”
“Piss off,” Pander spat. Strands of bloody mucus flung out toward Ilbei, but snapped back elastically and stuck to Pander’s chin, red webbing that glinted wet and sticky in the torchlight.
Ilbei shook his head again. “Fine,” he said. “I’ll take that to mean ya got no need fer me to help.” Then he too turned and left.
Chapter 21
I
lbei exited the small chamber and took a moment to look down the passage opposite, where the water was coming from. There was a strong smell of lead coming from that way, so he followed it out of curiosity. The passage bent back and forth, and soon the light coming from the chamber he’d just exited no longer served. Just as he was about to give up on it, he noticed a soft blue glow tracing the outline of a curve ahead. He went straight to it and found himself in a low-ceilinged natural chamber where water trickled down from above. The water fell in twisting ropes, glinting like silver in the blue glow as they stirred the surface of a small pool. The light came from luminous fungal blooms that grew around the pool, some creeping up the wall and others around the edge. Illuminated by the fungus, but not luminous themselves, were other growths within the pool, identical in appearance but not glowing for some reason. All were bulbous and knotty, a few nearly as big as his head, and the smallest hardly as large as his thumb.
Ilbei’s thirst was upon him the moment he saw the water, and given that there were several buckets and several tin cups set about, Ilbei dropped to his knees and stooped down toward the surface, intent on a drink. As he dipped his cupped hands into the water, he noticed gray foam floating around the edge of the pond. He pulled his hands out. He didn’t need to smell it to know what it was. Gad Pander and his men used the pond to separate the lead. The foam floated all around the side of the pond opposite the glowing fungus, and beneath it, heavier sediments slicked the bottom. He went to where the stream ran out of the chamber and found metal plates placed there, meant to catch the slurry when Pander and his people worked back here. He was just beginning to wonder what kind of idiot would do such work at the head of the only water supply around, when he realized why the buckets and cups were there.
He rose and took one of the cups, holding it into a trickle of water falling from the roof. It smelled clean to his sensitive nostrils, and it tasted wonderful, like the very heart of Prosperion. He took a long draught and was refreshed. When he finished, he looked round for another way out and saw that there was none. He could see how an ettin would have found this cave a proper lair. Nothing to sneak in from behind, and water right on site, with little chance of flooding even in a wet year. Good place to set up a counterfeiting operation as well.
He went out with a bucket filled with fresh water and brought a few of the handiest cups along. He found Mags and Kaige both on their feet and for the most part looking none the worse for wear. Meggins and Jasper were still out, lying there like a pair of logs.
“What happened?” Kaige asked, gratefully taking the cup that Ilbei proffered.
“I think Jasper’s spell backfired,” Ilbei replied. “Then it seems Major and some locals come along.”
“And why do you think that is?” Mags asked, dipping her cup into the bucket for a second round. “Did you get a look out there at the carnage they made coming in?”
Ilbei shook his head, indicating that he hadn’t, then went to the front of the cave for a look. The sun was well over the trees now, and Ilbei saw three men lying dead outside the cave, two with long, black-shafted arrows in their chests. Ilbei could hear the major speaking to someone around the edge of the cave mouth, but he thought it might be best if he didn’t go bothering him just yet. He returned and crouched beside Jasper instead.
With a gentle shake, he called to him a few times. Shortly after, Jasper’s eyes fluttered open and filled with surprise.
“Easy, son,” Ilbei said, preempting the question. “You’re fine. Everybody’s fine.”
Jasper blinked a few times more, and Ilbei helped him sit up. Mags brought him water, while Kaige tried to wake Meggins up. “What happened?” Jasper asked. “Did my spell fail?” He rubbed his temples, grimacing. “I think it must have.”
“Yeah, I expect it didn’t work like ya had it wrote down,” Ilbei said. He even managed to laugh. “But it done well enough with some luck. Ya took that big bastard down, so that was all right, but ya got the rest of us too. The major come along before the wrong folks woke up, so it’s all right in the end.”
“I did?” Jasper perked up at that. “I got the big one?”
“Well, like I said, ya got everyone, but yeah, ya got him too.”
Jasper looked up at Mags and grinned broadly. “Then it worked?”
Ilbei sighed in Mags’ direction, tilting his head toward Jasper, indicating that Mags should tend to him. Then he went to where Kaige was hauling Meggins to his feet.
“A man ought to at least get the wine and the women the night before if he’s going to have the hangover next day,” Meggins said as Ilbei approached.
“Aye, he should,” Ilbei answered, clapping Meggins on the shoulder. “I seen it the same when I come round.”
With his people all on their feet and in relatively good shape, Ilbei braced himself for his next encounter with the major. There would be orders coming soon. He glanced to the cave entrance, then summoned his group together with a low sound.
“Now listen up, quick,” he said. “I done told the major we sent them coin-makin tiles off to Hast with the corporal. And before ya go askin what fer or why, don’t. Far as you’re concerned, they went off just like I said. Got it?”
Nods from everyone.
“Right. Now, I’m gonna go see what’s next. Kaige, come on out with me and see if’n ya can find that packhorse we had. Don’t bother with the major, just look fer the horse and get on over to it. See if our gear is nearby. If it ain’t, ya come on back inside casual like.”
“What if it is out there?”
“Then get it and bring it in.” Ilbei had to stifle a sigh.
They went together outside, Ilbei pausing long enough to survey the area. There were two more bodies he hadn’t noticed before, down the slope a dozen paces and both pierced by the long black arrows. A glance to his left showed yet another man, impaled and stuck to a tree, the morning light glinting silver off the long shaft that pinned him there like a bug in a collector’s box. Ilbei frowned and looked to the major. Cavendis was engaged in conversation with Locke Verity, who leaned casually upon his fancy black bow.
To the right and tied to a tree not far beyond the cave was the packhorse they’d been using since their first encounter with Gad Pander at Camp Chaparral. Ilbei saw that their gear was lying on the ground not far away, all of it open and rifled through. The chest in which Jasper kept his scrolls and enchanting implements had been dumped, and there were scrolls lying about and leaves of blank parchment everywhere. Many had been blown several spans away, whisked along the steppe or down into the trees. Ilbei frowned at that too, but pointed Kaige to it with a movement of his head. “Gather up Jasper’s stuff and put it back in his box,” he said. “Then get the rest.”
Kaige moved off to comply, while Ilbei went to address the major and Locke Verity.
“Mornin, Master Verity,” he said, adding a nod for courtesy. “I expect them black shafts are the work of you and that fine bow?” He tipped his head back toward the bodies lying about.
“They are. It seems we came along just in time,” he said with a pleasant grin.
“It seems indeed,” Ilbei agreed. “I must say, that’s some fine shootin. And damn powerful too. Never seen a man pinned up like that one in the tree line there. That there weapon must have one mean pull.”
“It does,” Verity agreed. His smile was easy, and he wore an effortless sort of confidence.
Ilbei watched him for signs of duplicity, but detected nothing. Verity accepted the question and gave answer readily. Ilbei looked to the major, who was looking back, watching Ilbei with cat eyes as if the sergeant were a rat.
“So, Major, what now? We off to find the rest?”
“The rest of what?”
“Well, I don’t see Ergo the Skewer lyin here, so I take it he got away.”
The cat might have growled at the rat, the eyes narrowing even further for a flash of time. He glanced to Verity, who only maintained his pleasant smile, and then back to Ilbei. “What are you talking about, Spadebreaker?”
“Ergo, the Skewer. Ya know, that feller what done the thievin and brung us all out here. I’m seein he was here, but I don’t see him lyin nowhere. Lest he run off and died somewhere down in the woods there.” Ilbei only said the last to give the major an out. He didn’t want to corner the animal lurking behind the predator’s eyes.