Lord Toede

kender, defending your good name.'

'Kronin alive?'

'They have a few good healers,' Bunniswot said, nodding, 'and they anticipate injuries at a moot, so he's fine. He thinks you're out finding the assassin.'

'Already found him,' said Toede. 'Miles.'

Another nod from the scholar. 'They figured that, too. He alive?'

'No,' said Toede, not adding anything else.

'Well,' said the scholar, 'after they sorted out that you didn't try to kill Kronin, but Miles probably did, the entire party shifted into a celebration in your honor-you know, the brave little humanoid, unfairly accused, who seeks out the guilty party.'

'That's a new one,' grunted Toede.

'And it's now more than ever likely that the kender clans will join the rebellion,' added Bunniswot. 'You want to head back?'

'In a moment.' Toede sighed, then added, 'Ever kill anyone, scholar?'

'Me?' A nervous laugh. 'Oh, no. Uh… and you?'

'More than I care to count,' said Toede. 'Even more that I have been indirectly responsible for. And yet, this one, felt so…'

'Troubling?' suggested Bunniswot. 'Painful? Thought-provoking?'

'Satisfying,' finished Toede, ignoring Bunniswot's sudden start. 'This one was worth it, as though I had accomplished something. You know?'

'Uh,' said Bunniswot, 'I don't, I'm afraid.'

Toede sighed again. 'Must be a deficiency in your species. I guess we should go back. What's on tap now?'

Bunniswot brightened. 'You missed several more toasts to your glory, and now Taywin is reading her poetry.'

Toede made a face. 'Perhaps we ought not to hurry back,' he said. 'Maybe we should get our story straight about my epic battle with the assassin. It would help if I had a scholarly witness to the culmination.'

Toede looked at the scholar for a moment, then added with a smile, 'And while we're at it, you can remind me of some of 'my' quotes.'

Chapter 23

In which Our Protagonist is swept along by events, and the oft-mentioned necromancer finally makes an appearance, after his own fashion. Also, a council of war is held, havoc is cried, and the gnolls of war are unleashed.

'When are these mysterious allies going to show?' snarled Toede, sitting on the crushed remains of an ogre plinth. They were back at the scholars' old campsite that, except for the rot, looked just as Toede had left it six months earlier. The remains of the birches and stone monuments lay like broken toys around the site.

Bunniswot shrugged, squinting at the sun. 'He said about midday. Does it look middayish to you?'

'Remind me to not let you draw up the battle plan,' muttered Toede. He looked over to Taywin and Rogate. Rogate had sketched out a map of Flotsam and was drawing arrows from outside the walls to inside the walls. With Miles's death, Rogate had become the 'honor guard' for Highmaster-in-Exile Toede.

Toede watched Rogate draw a long, sweeping arrow that started in the west, looped entirely around the city, and attacked the Rock from a seaborne invasion. 'Or him, either,' added Toede.

Bunniswot sniffed 'Taywin says the best mode of attack would be from the south, where the walls are still in disrepair. I tend to agree.'

Toede nodded. 'The problem is not the condition of those walls. The problem is the wall between the Lower City and the Rock. In case of invasion, the public plan was always to mobilize the populace and meet the enemy at the outer walls. The secret plan was for the upper classes to pull back into the Rock and leave the rest to fight and die in the streets.'

'Do you think Groag would continue that policy?' said Bunniswot.

'If it works, don't mess with it,' responded Toede. 'Besides, you said that Groag's first order of business was rebuilding the Rock Wall, then the manor, and is only now starting to rebuild the outer wall.'

'And quickly,' added Bunniswot. 'There are a lot of cheap materials and cut corners in that particular project. I wish we could find another siege machine like your friend Jugger.'

'Jugger is… was… unique.' Toede shuddered, thinking of that long, lazy arc over the Blood Sea. 'At least I hope so. I never want to meet another denizen of the Abyss…' Toede stopped for a moment, then asked, 'Do you hear that?'

'What?' said Bunniswot.

'Sounded like someone laughing in the distance,' said Toede. Another pause. 'It's gone now.'

Bunniswot shrugged, shaking his head. 'Groag has hired a number of mercenaries, including ogres from the Balifor area and some minotaurs from across the Blood Sea, all for personal protection. Most of the rest of the armed forces have survived two of your 'visits' to Flotsam already. As a result, they are battle-hardened, but they have no desire to face an army with you at the helm.'

Toede grunted. Nor did he have any desire to lead an army with himself at the helm or any other position, but he had not been able to come up with an easy way out for the past two days.

'Most of Groag's courtiers are loyal,' continued Bunni-swot. 'But it is a loyalty built more out of fear than trust. Groag is even more mercurial than… you were, and if the going gets tough, they will probably fold and surrender.'

'You seem to know a lot about how Groag's court works,' noted Toede.

'I should,' said Bunniswot, 'since I am the official court historian.'

Toede stared at the scholar. 'You're the what?' Bunniswot shrugged. 'I returned to Flotsam with my notes, without a sponsor and needing a job. Groag was just setting himself up, and knew that I was not part of the 'old mob' that followed Hopsloth or the priests. So I got the posting.' He paused a moment, then added, 'How do you think I got your book copied?'

'You mean…'

'Groag's scribes,' said Bunniswot, 'who were also Hopsloth's scribes, and Gildentongue's scribes, and now that I think of it, your scribes. The bureaucracy remains intact, I've discovered, regardless of changes in the leadership.'

'I remember the scribes,' said Toede. 'I wouldn't trust them with a lead groat.'

'Nor I,' said Bunniswot, 'which is why the initial manuscript came to them on official order from Groag. They leapt on the chance to prove their worth and loyalty to the new master. That was the first print run. Then Groag found out about the book (though not the copying), and screamed bloody murder about Toede traitors lurking in Flotsam. After which, the scribes, afraid for their jobs as well as their lives, produced another hundred copies in exchange for my silence in the matter.' 'And the third printing?' said Toede. 'We're working on a profit-sharing plan,' said Bunniswot. Both hobgoblin and human heads spun around as Tay-win cursed at Rogate, 'We can't use an airborne assault.

We don't have anything that flies!'

'A minor point,' countered Rogate, 'easily surmounted by a brilliant commander and tactician such as our high-master!'

'Children,' admonished Toede.

'Even a brilliant commander can't build ships out of nothing!' said Taywin, looking more worn and tired than usual.

Rogate nodded intensely, then looked at the kender, his eyes not quite focusing. 'Moles!' he shouted. 'What if we get some really large moles, and tunnel under the walls?'

Taywin buried her head in her hands and screamed, also in a ladylike fashion.