SCENE XIII Stranger Still
So the battle was won, and many more goblins fell to our horsemen as they fled into the woods. I say “our,” but I felt like a part of the victory only inasmuch as I was not on the losing side. You might expect that I would be hailed as a hero for playing so instrumental a part in the triumph, showered with honors and wealth, given the keys to the city’s extravagant larder (I couldn’t believe the king and his cohorts ate the tasteless muck we’d been fed so far), and surrounded by beautiful court ladies all anxious to touch my greatness. As you will have realized by now, I am not one to let minor scruples stand in the way of serious reward, and I was more than ready to sit back and wait for my golden goblet to be filled without pausing to explain that my actions were more self-preservatory than heroic, more accident than valor. I didn’t get the option.
The soldiers who relieved me at the walls were delighted to see the monster fall, but an odd hush came over them when they saw me clinging to the shattered parapets. Sorrail gave me a long silent look and then led the charge on the goblins, his face troubled.
The news of my actions spread round the troops quickly for a while and then, though I wasn’t sure when the change took place, there was a conspicuous lack of interest in my doings. By the afternoon the news was dead and I wandered alone through the marketplace where many soldiers were marching back to their garrisons amidst cheers and applause from the townsfolk. I was ignored. I caught some soldiers talking to each other about how Sorrail had led a unit of crack guardsmen from the king’s palace to pull the stone ramparts down on the invading monster, as if it had been planned that way from the outset. I thought this a bit much, and said so.
“That’s not the way I heard it,” I cut in. “I was under the impression that Sorrail was on the other side of the city and that the monster hadn’t even been seen until one of the Outsiders. .”
“You mean, one like you?” said one of the privates with something akin to contempt.
“Very like me, actually,” I replied, curtly. “Yes.”
“Oh, yes,” said the other, a tall young man with mocking eyes. “I heard that, too. You met the black fiend and wrestled it to death by yourself.”
“Of course not,” I began. “But. .”
“Of course not,” said the young man coldly, “that’s what I thought.”
They turned on their heels and walked away, smiling grimly to each other.
As I was considering this, Garnet and Renthrette appeared.
“Can you believe I’m not even getting credit for this?” I demanded.
“For what?” said Garnet.
“My brave defense of the city!” I said. “Who do you think dumped ten tons of quarried stone on that goblin wall-crusher? Who do you think stalled the enemy as they boiled around the walls and leveled their hellish champion moments before victory was assuredly theirs?”
“Sorrail,” said Renthrette, with a shrug that suggested she thought I was joking around and found it only mildly amusing at best.
“No, I’m serious. It was me. Sorrail was with you lot at the front.”
“Only for a short time,” said Garnet. “Then he led his men to encounter the horned beast at the breach.”
“But it was dead by then!” I protested. “I killed it.”
“No, Will,” said Renthrette. “You didn’t. You know you didn’t.”
She said it almost kindly. I stared at her.
“I’m sure you tried to help. . ” she began.
“Oh, right,” I said. “I tried to help but failed because I am-you know-incompetent and degenerate. And then Sorrail-who is a hero, virtuous and mighty-showed up to save the day. All hail Sorrail!”
Garnet scowled and looked at the floor.
“Must you always try to belittle whatever you are too unworthy to look upon, Will?”
That little mouthful of acid came from Renthrette’s slim lips. Her eyes held mine and I stood there speechless. She went on. “Sorrail is a man of virtue and valor. I think the very least you could do is give him credit for his victories instead of trying to poach them like some petty thief. But maybe that’s all you are. A petty thief. I thought you were past all that. In the future, if you’re going to lie, at least try to choose something remotely plausible.”
I was too amazed to speak and stood there spellbound as they turned and stalked away as if poles had been jammed up their rears. This made no sense. Not that bit about poles up their rears. That made all the sense in the world. But this erasing me from the story of the battle wasn’t just irritating, it was odd. Bloody odd, in fact, and I was going to get to the bottom of it.
I would begin with Aliana in the library. She had seen everything and would vouch for me, so I would salvage a little dignity yet, if only from Renthrette and Garnet. I must admit that this Sorrail character was really beginning to wind me up as well. If I could take him down a peg or two, so much the better. And if I could prove my account of things, that would help: the virtuous and heroic Sorrail taking credit for winning a battle at which he wasn’t present? Oh, yes, that would make him fall in the estimation of a certain streak of blond misery; fall like a ton of rocks had been dropped on his head.
But not yet. I didn’t want to think about the battle right now because it just made me mad, and I figured I needed a level head to prove Sorrail the duplicitous fiction-monger he clearly was. I decided to take a walk and take in the sights of the city properly.
I wandered in the direction of the library, aiming to leave the bustle of the marketplace behind me. On the way out, I spotted a weaponsmith’s. The place reminded me of Orgos, so I went inside, wondering if Sorrail or Garnet had put that raiding party together yet. It would have been delayed by the attack on the city, no doubt, and I found myself impatient and baffled by how long it was taking to mount the rescue attempt. I wondered if something was being done in secret, that I was being kept in the dark about it on purpose. I wouldn’t put it past Sorrail-maybe even past Garnet and Renthrette-to assume I wasn’t sufficiently trustworthy to be let in on their plans. Well, that was fine, so long as they actually did something and so long as it actually worked and quickly. If I didn’t have to be involved in the actual crawling about in goblin caves, so much the better.
The weaponsmith’s was full of the usual bits and pieces, but it quickly became apparent that its wares could be divided into two groups: the old stuff, which was elegant but unadorned, beautifully simple, and looked like it would be around for centuries; and the new stuff, which was often tricked out with gold and jewels but looked flimsy and poorly made by comparison. Orgos would have been very unimpressed. The new stuff, the shopkeeper assured me, was all the rage in the city. I didn’t doubt it.
I was about to leave when I caught sight of one of those huge two-handed swords such as I had seen over the fireplace at the Refuge Inn. I remarked on this and the shopkeeper, a tall man in late middle age, replied, “Similar, perhaps, sir, but this is a special piece.”
“Really?” I said. “How so?”
“It has been in our family many generations,” replied the shopkeeper. “My great-grandfather bore it when Phasdreille was besieged by a vast goblin horde which crossed the river to sack the White City.”
I had hardly been listening, but something made me stop and turn to him. He carried on his tale. “He rode with a cavalry force raised in the borderlands, and they met the goblin ranks as they lay outside the great city. The horsemen caught the goblins unawares and routed them, though many tall and fair soldiers fell in the battle. My great-grandfather survived, but he was killed shortly afterward, and that was the last time he wielded this mighty sword. With it he struck down many dozens of goblins, cleaving a path through their ranks until he came upon their chieftain: a huge brute dressed in red and black, great ugly spikes on his helm and a weapon like a vast cleaver in his massive claws. My ancestor faced the beast and, after many blows were struck on both sides, felled him, cleaving his skull in twain. But the goblin was wearing an iron collar and the great sword was notched, as you can see.”
And sure enough, the blade was damaged, a v-shaped piece of the steel edge knocked out. I looked from it to the shopkeeper and back, confused.
“A diamond was taken from the dead goblin,” said the shopkeeper, “and it was set into the pommel here.”
