[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
.Seeing that the Swordmaster was now expecting some sort of comment, Kethol quickly chewed and swallowed.Gulping the last bit, he said, ‘You were speaking of Baron Mondegreen when the housecarl interrupted.’‘I was.’ Noting that Kethol had almost hurt himself gulping his food so that he could answer, Argent softly said, ‘Drink your wine.It’s not as good as you’d find in Ravensburgh or Rillanon, but it’s a fair enough companion to that cheese.’Kethol forced himself to sip at his wine, rather than gulping it down, as he would have liked.It was worth the tasting, certainly, but to Kethol’s way of thinking, the purpose of drinking wine in the middle of a cold day was to warm him from the inside, and the quicker it went down, the quicker it would start getting to work.Steven Argent was still waiting for Kethol to speak.‘I…liked Baron Mondegreen,’ Kethol said.‘He seems a kind man.’Steven Argent nodded.‘True enough.Though those who failed to notice the steel behind his smile have regretted the oversight.How did he appear?’‘Dying, my lord,’ Kethol said.Steven Argent sighed.‘Yes, he is.’ He tapped at the letters in his lap.‘These are hardly the only letters brought back from Mondegreen, as you’ve undoubtedly concluded.Father Kelly is of the opinion that he’ll be dead within a few weeks, even if he remains in his bed, and that if he had been fool enough to travel in this weather, you would have only delivered a body to LaMut.’ He didn’t wait for a comment.‘You managed to keep Morray alive, and that’s what you were told to do.’Kethol nodded.‘Other than the Tsurani attack, did you see any evidence of anybody trying to harm him?’Kethol shook his head.‘None at all.He and Baron Verheyen seemed almost, well, chummy, and–’‘They despise one another.Just because they are both vying for the earldom doesn’t make them fools.’ Argent paused, then softly added, ‘Quite the contrary, in fact.’‘The earldom, my lord?’ he asked.‘Has something happened to the Earl?’ Surely he would have heard about that.‘No.’ Steven Argent shook his head.‘Earl Vandros is fine.It’s an open secret, though, that he’s certain to marry the Duke’s daughter, Felina–although I wouldn’t bring it up with him; he’s unaccountably touchy on the subject.As the Duke of Yabon is without a son and heir, Vandros will end up being Duke of Yabon.The King will name his successor, here, but Vandros will have quite a say in the matter.Morray is Bursar, he enjoys that advantage, but Verheyen has distinguished himself in the war–there’s no more deadly blade in the West–so as a military leader, he enjoys another edge.So, Morray and Verheyen are desperate for the Earl’s favour.Starting trouble is not the way to earn Vandros’s favour.’ His brow furrowed.‘I’m surprised you didn’t know that.’Kethol forced himself not to shrug.‘I’ve never been much for barracks gossip.’ Which wasn’t quite true; you could learn a lot from barracks gossip, but Kethol had always been far more interested in everyday issues of, say, how eager a given captain was to expend men, or which serving girl was especially friendly, than he was in more lofty matters of noble succession.Yes, everybody heard rumours about the court, about feuds between Guy du Bas-Tyra and Duke Borric, whispered stories about the King being stone crazy, or about Prince Erland being at death’s door, or dead already at Guy’s hands–but that didn’t have much effect on you when your real concern was whether or not the Bugs were going to come over the next ridge and cut you into tiny bits.It was enough to know that those who were deciding things were meeting at Yabon.As serpentine as the politics were here in LaMut, it was probably worse there, and Kethol had always thought that the distinction between bad and worse was far sharper–and much more likely to get him killed–than that between good and better.‘And I assume,’ Steven Argent said, ‘that you’d like to be returned to Tom Garnett’s service?’‘My lord?’‘Tom Garnett–I take it you want to go back to his company?’To Kethol’s way of thinking, the three of them had never quite left Tom Garnett’s company; they had just been given a particular assignment, much like the time when Tom Garnett had sent them out to scout ahead during a lull in the fighting with the god-cursed Bugs.Come to think if it, that was probably the time when Tom Garnett had concluded that Kethol was the leader of the three of them–and actually, on that sort of thing, he was, by virtue of having been raised a forester’s son.‘Actually, my lord,’ Kethol said, ‘we’ve talked it over among the three of us, and what we’ve decided is, well, we’ve decided that we’d like to be paid off now, and head south for Ylith, to wait for the thaw there.’The Swordmaster arched an eyebrow.‘In this weather?’ He frowned.‘It’s bitter cold, and it’s likely to get even worse.I’ve spoken with Grodan–he says that there’s another storm coming–worse than the last–and Rangers have even more of a feel for such things than magicians.My guess is that it’s not going to be as bad as Grodan suspects, but I’d not like to bet heavily on that.Certainly not enough to be out on the road when it hits.’‘But–’‘If Grodan’s right, you might find yourself caught in a blizzard halfway to Ylith, and not thaw out until spring.’Kethol didn’t wonder how Steven Argent knew they were going south if paid–it was the logical choice if you had finished fighting and were seeking warmer weather.‘Gold and silver are fine things,’ continued the Swordmaster, ‘but you can’t burn them to keep you warm.Better to have a warm bed and hot food safely inside the city’s walls until spring, right?’ He frowned.‘Besides, I’m still concerned about Baron Morray, and even if I didn’t have specific instructions from Earl Vandros to see to his safety, I’d still like the idea of having you outsiders watching over him.’Yes, Pirojil and Durine had pointed out, in great detail, why the Swordmaster would prefer that.But Kethol could hardly go into the politics of that here and now, and it was probably better and safer to act as though he hadn’t noticed.‘Well,’ he said, ‘what with us taking a one-in-three each day, we’re managing to watch over the Baron even now, granted, but–’‘You didn’t ask Captain Garnett to assign others to watch his rooms while he slept,’ the Swordmaster said, nodding approvingly.‘So, was that being thorough, or a matter of you three never trusting anybody else?’Kethol shrugged.‘You told us to protect the Baron, and we did.’‘You did a fine job; the Baron is still breathing, and busy at his account books, which is as it should be.’ The Swordmaster nodded in approval.‘Which is why I want to keep you on that duty, at least until after he’s out of my city, or until the end of the approaching storm, whichever comes last.’ He spread his hands.‘I’m sure you’re not fool enough to travel in this weather if you didn’t have to, and you don’t have to.Besides, the Earl might have to hire on more mercenaries before this bloody war’s over–and I wouldn’t want word to spread that we’d paid off three men and sent them out into the cold to die.Wouldn’t help recruitment.’Kethol shook his head [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]