Dammit.
With wine mulling on the hearth and nowhere to go. Or sinking into a warm featherbed -
He stopped that one before it started.
Or standing before a feasting-hall crowded with adoring listeners, his stomach full of a fine dinner and better wine, and his ears full of praise -
He managed to dwell on that image for quite some time, until a particularly sharp gust of wind cut right through his cloak and gave him more thoughts of cold and misery to dwell on.
He managed to feel quite sorry for himself before too very long, and dwelling on his own unhappiness made it a lot easier to “forget” Van, and what their attackers might be doing to him.
It seemed as if they'd been traveling for an awfully long time, though.
:It's nearly dawn,: 'Fandes said. :But that's not too surprising. I hardly expected them to ambush us too near their own stronghold. The trail is getting very fresh, though, and-:
She stopped, suddenly, and flung her head up to catch the breeze, hitting him in the face with the back of her skull, and nearly knocking his front teeth out.
:Sorry. They're near. I smell woodsmoke, heated stone, burned venison, and them. Get down, and we'll take this quietly. There's bound to be a sentry, but whether it'll be on the walls or outside them-:
Let's hope it's outside, Stef thought, flexing his stiff hands, then sliding off her back to land knee-deep in snow. We won't be able to get past him if there's a sentry on the wall, and I don't know the first thing about taking one out.
He let Yfandes lead the way, picking his feet up carefully to keep from falling over anything. Finally she stopped, right on the edge of a screening of bushes.
:Careless, lazy, or stupid,: she said, and for a moment he wondered if she meant him -
:They've let all this undergrowth spring up on the edge of their clearing,: she continued, her mind-voice thick with contempt. :We can come right up to the walls without anyone ever seeing us. Ah, there he is. Stef, look up there, just above the door. See him?:
Stef picked his way up to the bushes and looked - sure enough, there was something there, pacing back and forth a little. A shadow among shadows, on the top of a wall that even in the dim moonlight showed severe neglect. The square-built keep would not have lasted a candlemark in a siege.
:That's the sentry and that's the only one they have.: She paused a moment. :Now what that means is that this is probably the only way into the building, which is not very good for us.:
“I could just walk up there,” he offered. “I'm a Bard, I could just pretend I'm a traveling minstrel -”
:In the dead of winter, the middle of nowhere? Minstrels don't travel in winter if they can help it. How the blazes did you get out here, and why did you come? They may be stupid, but they're probably suspicious bastards.:
“Uh - I could say I was turned out of my post -”
She snorted. :Have you seen any Great Houses since three days before the Border?:
“My inn, then - the innkeeper's wife and I -”
:Why here? This isn't a very promising place. It's all but falling to pieces.:
“I'm cold and hungry, and I wouldn't care if it was the first place I saw with people and food and fire -”
:Wait.: She raised her head to look over his :Something's happening.:
With no more warning than that, the center of the building went up with an ear-numbing roar in a sheet of red and green flames.
