Nico pulled off his heavy robe as he ran, so that he wore only his thin grey undergarments. He cast the robe far into the tall grasses so as not to give Aleas the same idea.
Staying focused on the ground before each footfall, Nico fell himself into a stride he felt confident of maintaining. On his right the course of the stream wound upwards, but Nico stayed clear of it, so as to avoid the marshy ground along its edges. The sun rose ever higher, though denser clouds came drifting into the valley from further up, to obscure its heat, and after them came a wind that whipped at his hair and set the grasses surging in steady currents all around him.
Nico passed the Seer's hut, and nodded briefly to the ancient monk who sat outside, painting something on a square of parchment. The old man nodded back.
Stopping for the briefest of moments to gulp a mouthful of water from the narrowing stream, he chanced a look behind him and could just make out the shape of Aleas hauling himself laboriously along the same trail. It was a gratifying sight.
Half an hour later he had reached the top of the valley, where Nico veered towards the stream again, and a series of bubbling springs. He could see trout darting within the pools they formed, and he quickly chose the likeliest spot, a large pond with overhanging vegetation, which he approached at a crouch.
With haste he unwound the twine, as he studied the pool and the fish swimming in its clear waters. Then he shook out the hook and foil, until they were both fully untangled. He would need a float, he realized, so he wrenched off a twig from one of the windswept bushes and secured it to the twine. With a final deep breath, he cast the assembled line across the water, and hunkered down to wait.
The fish were hungry. Almost as soon as the silver foil flashed in the water, a trout darted out, gulping both foil and hook in one go. Nico yelped in excitement and quickly drew it in. It was a small fish, but size didn't matter. He felt the slight weight of it as he pulled it free of the water, proceeding carefully now, the fish flapping at the end of the line. Up it came into his hands, wet and slippery and real as it tried to struggle from his grasp. With his childhood practice, he unhooked the fish and clobbered it to death against a rock.
Quickly, he cast the hook back into the water, his heart pounding. He could not quite believe how easy this was going to be, and his face grinned with the joy of it. 'For once, my little friends,' he said to the fish still uncaught, 'fortune chances to look on me.'
*
The hours passed slowly. Nico worked with hook and twine, waiting until the pool seemed fished enough, then he would move on to a lower pool and continue trying his luck there.
It was a pure and satisfying task. His mood was as warm and mellow as the sun's heat against his bare arms. A breeze played down the gulley carved by the passage of the river, just cool enough to be refreshing. The occasional bird sang somewhere out of sight. Water tinkled. Grassflies buzzed in lazy arcs, sometimes came close enough to trumpet in his ear.
He had not caught sight of Aleas again, which he thought odd. At first he worried that his companion might be up to something devious. But, as time passed and the sun rose slowly towards the point of midday, he allowed himself to believe that Aleas had come undone somehow. Perhaps a twisted ankle, or perhaps he had simply opted to try fishing lower down the valley, after deciding his net was too much of a burden.
Twenty-two small trout now lay on the grass beside him, strung along a spare length of twine. By the angle of the sun he reckoned he had perhaps another half hour before he would need to start making his way back. He was determined to leave himself with plenty of time.
So lost was he in his calculations, Nico failed to notice the subtle sound of movement approaching from behind.
A bird fell silent in mid-song. A tuft of grass rustled as though trodden underfoot. Nico noticed neither. Instead, with a brief twist of the wind, a smell came to his nostrils. He sniffed at it, barely aware of doing so: his mind, back where it was watchful and wary, tried to place the sudden scent in the air – and then it did so. It was the reek of human sweat.
Nico swung around in alarm.
But much too late.
*
'I hate to do this to you, I really do, but my master leaves me little choice in this matter. So, here we are.'
Impressive words, thought Nico, if only because they were spoken with barely a hint of breathlessness, as though Aleas was merely taking in the fresh air of the day when, in reality, he was labouring downhill with a catch of fish fastened to a long twine draped over one shoulder, and a fishing net filled with a bundled Nico slung from the other.
Nico blinked the sweat from his left eye. The other one had already swollen shut from a blow he could not remember. All he recalled was turning around and seeing a flash of motion, then he was here – in the most embarrassing position he could have ever imagined.
'Your words,' Nico muttered through clenched teeth, and through the sharp press of the net criss-crossing his face, 'do very little to reassure me just now, Aleas.'
The other man grunted, as though to confirm it was an ungrateful world they lived in, and he, most of all, must suffer it.
'Why do you do this?' asked Nico, a strand of the net between his teeth. 'Are you so much in fear of your master?'
Aleas stopped for moment. He swung around to speak as though Nico was standing just behind him. 'It isn't fear, Nico. I could best the man with any weapon he might choose for me, though he doesn't know it.'
'Oh?' said Nico, buying time.
'I owe him my life, Nico. What choice do you have when you owe someone as much as that?'
Aleas set off once more, and Nico winced at the pain in his cramped limbs with each bouncing step, already going numb save for the one arm he had managed to poke out through the net.
'I'll make it up to you,' came the other man's voice again, though quieter than before. 'I promise it.'
Nico felt the twine of the net give way between his teeth. His free hand yanked hard and pulled another strand wide apart… and then another until, all at once, he tumbled out through the hole he had just made, and fell on his shoulder to the ground.
Aleas immediately turned and watched him rise unsteadily to his feet, a look of amused interest on his face rather than of surprise. His hands still clutched the empty net draped over his shoulder.
Nico knocked the smile from his face with a sudden right hook. As Aleas staggered for balance Nico's foot caught him so precisely in the crotch that he himself winced from the sudden impact.
Aleas turned white.
He sat down in a delicate descent with the breath hissing out of him and his hands clutching at his lap. 'Sweet mercy,' he breathed. 'Was that entirely necessary?'
'Such are the choices we are forced to make in this sorry world. So, here we are.'
*
'Should be any time now,' Kosh decided, as he passed the gourd to Ash.
'You really think he can win?' Osh asked, still watching the entrance to the courtyard.
Kosh shrugged. 'You always said no victory was ever certain, not even after it was achieved.'
Osh chuckled at this response, and it lifted Ash's heart to hear it.
'If your boy wins,' commented Baracha, also peering at the entranceway as one hand tapped restlessly against his leg, 'I'll eat my own tongue right where it lies in my mouth.'
'Please,' said Kosh, 'I would really prefer it if you did not.'
In a corner of the yard, the waterclock trickled noisily as it counted down the hour. Ash was surprised to feel a flutter of anticipation in his belly. Perhaps it was only Baracha's tension rubbing off on him a little. Perhaps, though, he did really care about beating the Alhazii in his petty games.
If nothing else it would be good for the boy. A victory in front of all of them would help to settle him, and nurture his own self-belief.
'They are coming,' said Kosh, a moment before the two apprentices appeared through the archway of the courtyard. A shout went up from some of the Rshun, as they rose to their feet or emerged from indoors.
'Hah!' exclaimed Kosh. 'They walk side by side. And, look, they carry the fish between them!'
What's this? thought Ash, his face breaking into a grin.
