The minutes dragged by, and a feeling of alarm crept into my heart. Where had they got to? Had the lads really been spotted and forced to retreat? No, what was I thinking of! Wild Hearts didn’t retreat and abandon their comrades. Any moment the bolt would clank and …
But the bolt didn’t clank. There was no sound at all apart from the vicious hissing of the gkhols, who seemed to realize that their breakfast was about to make a run for it. Invincible gave a squeak of satisfaction and came toward me, and Eel began rubbing his wrists.
“Right, now we’ll fight.” The Garrakian grabbed the knife and sliced through my rope at a single stroke. Just at that moment the lock of the door clanked.
“At last!” I hissed. “Hey, what are you doing?”
Eel dashed back to his old place, grabbing up the ling and stuffing it into his pocket on the way. He put his hands behind his back, setting the knife along his forearm so that it wasn’t visible to anyone else.
“Sit still and don’t move!”
Unfortunately, Eel was right; it wasn’t our rescuers who entered the cell.
Loudmouth, so imperturbable and so unfamiliar, so very different from the character that I was used to, leaned back against the wall farthest away from us, folded his arms across his chest, and fixed his eyes on an invisible point just above Eel’s head with an air of absolute indifference.
Purple Nose stood not far from me and pointed me out to the third man.
“There, Master Rizus, this one’s the thief.”
Master Rizus was short, with shiny black hair and deep-set gray eyes. His thin-lipped mouth and perfectly straight nose indicated a man not given to listening to other people’s opinions, and the unhealthy yellow color of his face put me in mind of the copper plague. He gave off an acrid smell of horse’s sweat, and his rich clothes were badly creased and spattered with mud. He’d probably galloped for a day and a night without stopping in order to view my humble person.
“I shall ask you just two questions.” For a man with such a delicate figure, his voice was exceptionally deep and low. “The way you die will depend on how you answer. Tell me the truth and you will die quickly. If you are stubborn, the gkhols will gnaw on your bones.”
“By your leave, Master Rizus, I will explain everything to them,” Loudmouth put in. “That way we will save a lot of time.”
The man nodded reluctantly and hissed: “But be quick. You have ten minutes while I change out of my traveling clothes.”
He went out.
“Friends…,” Loudmouth began.
“The Nameless One is your friend,” I replied morosely.
“Perhaps so,” said the traitor, not attempting to argue. “In case you have not already realized it, Master Rizus is a shaman and, I can assure you quite definitely, a very good one. He came to Ranneng especially to collect the Key for the Nameless One. I’m sure you can imagine how upset he was to discover that we didn’t have the artifact.”
We said nothing.
“All that Master Rizus wants from you is two honest answers to two very simple questions. If you answer them, I promise that I will kill you myself, quickly and painlessly. And then I shall make sure that you have a dignified burial.”
“And what are the questions, if you wouldn’t mind telling us?”
“I always knew that thieves were more amenable to a deal than other people,” Loudmouth chuckled contentedly. “The first question is: Who killed the shamans who were preparing to attack our group?”
“You were with us then,” I exclaimed in genuine amazement. “So how would we know? Some good people turned up, that’s all.”
“Good people are not capable of killing six of the Nameless One’s best shamans!” snapped Loudmouth. “Now Master Rizus is the only supreme shaman he has left in Valiostr.”
“Loudmouth, your Rizus is crazy. How does he think that we could know who knocked off his best wizards when we were ten leagues away in Hargan’s Wasteland?”
Well, I couldn’t really tell him that the Master and Lafresa were behind it all, could I?
Loudmouth clicked his tongue in disappointment and said regretfully: “Yes, I never really doubted that it wasn’t you, or Miralissa or Tomcat. They’re not up to it; this was done by someone of a much higher class.”
“Then why do you ask?” Eel said.
“Don’t look at me like that, old friend, or you’ll drill a hole right through me. Master Rizus wants to know, and I have to ask. All right, then, the second question is: Where is the Key?”
“Get lost!”
“Let me deal with him,” Purple Nose suggested to Loudmouth.
Loudmouth frowned angrily, but he didn’t say anything.
Eel muttered something very uncomplimentary about the big brute’s mother. The Garrakian’s calculations proved absolutely correct. The quick-tempered executioner immediately forgot about me, grabbed Eel by the sides of his chest, and lifted him up off the floor.
“Why, I’ll tear you to pieces! I’ll—”
But Eel punched the man under the chin with his left hand and threw the knife with his right. It flew through the air and hit Loudmouth in the shoulder. I jumped to my feet and took great pleasure in pounding the traitor with my fists.
Eel appeared beside me, pushed me aside, pulled the knife out of our enemy’s wound, slashed him across the leg below the knee, and knocked him to the floor.
“Rope! Look lively!”
Somehow we managed to tie the wriggling traitor’s hands together with the scrap ends of rope.
I hobbled across to the door and looked out into the corridor.
“All clear!”
“Excellent! Don’t take your eyes off that corridor!”
“For sure. Is he still alive?”
“Yes. Take the mouse from me.”
I put the ling on my shoulder and as my eyes met the Garrakian’s, I read the traitor’s death sentence in them. Eel leaned down over him.
“I promised to cut your heart out, but I don’t have the time for that now. Good-bye.”
He gestured to me to show me it was time to leave the cell. Once we were in the corridor, he closed the door and pushed the bolt home.
“Don’t tell any of our lads about Loudmouth,” he said to me. “Let them think he died back in the inn. They don’t have to know who the wretched villain really was.”
“Okay.”
“And don’t say anything about what I told you about myself, either.”
“Okay,” I repeated.
“And another thing … no one must hear a thing about there being enemies among the Wild Hearts. This is not the time to be spreading alarm. When we get back to the Lonely Giant, I’ll have a word with Owl myself.”
“All right.”
“I’m glad we understand each other,” the warrior said with a nod, and tugged hard on the lever that I hadn’t noticed in a niche in the wall.
A mechanism rumbled somewhere, raising the metal grille and letting the gkhols out. I shuddered, but I didn’t feel sorry at all for the Nameless One’s followers.
“Let’s go,” Eel said laconically, and hurried away without looking back. A guard jumped out of the watchman’s room and the Garrakian wrung his neck with a single deft movement.
The door of the corridor opened and three familiar short figures appeared in the doorway.
“What did I tell you, Hallas?” the smallest one piped happily. “I said I’d find them first, didn’t I?”
“Kli-Kli, is that you?”
“You humans have a strange habit of stating the obvious. Of course it’s me, Harold!”
“You’re the one thing I’ve been missing all this time.”
