man's cleverness to be more dangerous'n wolves ever dreamt of, but they aren't clever enough-I don't think so, anyways-to steal the things we make.'
'Maybe they're too clever for that,' Gerin said. His warriors stared at him in incomprehension. He didn't try to explain; struggling against the black depression that threatened to leave him useless took all he had in him. After he'd ridden out the Trokme invasion, he'd begun, now and then, to have hope that he might keep something of Elabonian civilization alive north of the High Kirs. Now even a god seemed to have abandoned the land, leaving it open for these monsters from underground to course over it.
Rihwin came up in time to hear the last part of the exchange between Gerin and the two troopers. He said, 'Lord Gerin, meseems these creatures, however horrific their semblance, should by virtue of their beastly nature be most vulnerable to magic: nor are they likely to have sorcerers of their own to help them withstand the cantrips we loose against them.'
'The cantrips I loose against them, you mean,' Gerin said, which made Rihwin bite his lip in embarrassment and nod. Gerin went on, 'A really potent mage might be able to do what you say. Whether I can is another question altogether. I tell you frankly, I'm afraid of spells of bane, mostly because I know too well they can smite me instead of the ones at whom I aim them.'
'A man who recognizes his limits is wise,' Rihwin said, which made Gerin snort, for if he'd ever met a man who had no sense of limit whatever, that man was Rihwin.
Gerin paced up and down in the courtyard. At last he stopped and made a gesture of repugnance. 'I won't try those spells,' he said. ' That's not just for fear of getting them wrong, either. Even if I work them properly, I'm liable to end up like Balamung, consumed by evil magic that's overmastered me.'
Rihwin studied him judiciously. 'If any man could work spells of bane without their corrupting him, I reckon you to be that man. But whether any man can do such is, I concede, an open question.'
'Sometimes open questions are best left unopened,' Gerin said. What he would do if faced by disaster complete and unalloyed he did not know; he muttered a silent prayer to Dyaus that he would not have to find out. Aloud, he went on, 'What we need to do first, I think, is summon the vassals, fare south, and see if we can't teach those creatures fear enough to make them learn to stay away from lands I hold.'
'As you say, lord prince,' Rihwin agreed cheerfully. 'I look forward to sallying forth against them.' He mimed shooting a bow from the pitching platform of a chariot.
The Fox did not look forward to sallying forth. He felt harassed. He'd never wanted to be baron of Fox Keep, and once he became baron willy-nilly he'd never delighted in war for its own sake, as so many men of the northlands did. After the Empire of Elabon abandoned the northlands, his main aim had been to maintain its legacy in the lands he ruled. Fighting all the time did nothing to further that aim, but failing to fight meant dying, so what was he to do?
Rihwin said, 'Of course, you also must needs take into account the possibility that the Trokme clans north of the Niffet will seize the chance to strike south on learning of your deployment toward the opposite side of your holding.'
'Thank you so much, bright ray of sunshine,' Gerin said. 'And I have to worry about Schild Stoutstaff, and Adiatunnus, and where in the five hells my son has disappeared to, and more other things than I have fingers and toes to keep track of.'
'Lord Gerin, that's why the Sithonians devised counting boards,' Rihwin said with a sly smile. Gerin stooped, picked up a clod of dirt, and flung it at him. Rihwin ducked. His smile got wider and even more impudent. 'Ah, my fellow Fox, I see you've been taking lessons in deportment from your lady.'
'Grinning and ducking won't save you now,' Gerin exclaimed. 'You'd better run, too.' He chased Rihwin halfway round the keep, both men laughing like boys. Gerin finally stopped. 'You're made of foolishness, do you know that?'
'Maybe I am,' Rihwin said. 'But ifsobe that's true, what does it make you?'
'Daft,' Gerin answered at once. 'Anyone who'd want to run a holding, let along the beginnings of a realm, has to be daft.' He sobered quickly. 'I'll have to send out word to my vassal barons to gather here with as many armed men as they can bring. That can't wait. If it does, we'll have other visitors than our warriors.'
Fand stood in the doorway to her chamber and shook her head. 'No, Fox, I don't care to have you in here this evening, so back to your own bed you can go.'
Gerin scowled at her. 'Why not? This is three times running you've told me no, and I know you've said aye to Van at least twice.' One reason the two friends had stayed friends and not quarreled over Fand was that she'd always treated them pretty evenhandedly-till now.
'Because I don't care to, is why,' she said, now tossing her head so her hair flew about in coppery ringlets. 'And if that's not enough of an answer to suit you, why, to the corbies with you.'
'I ought to-' he began.
'Ought to what?' she broke in. 'Have me by force? Och, you can do it the once, belike; you're bigger nor I am, and stronger, too. But your back'd never be safe after that, nor had you better sleep but behind barred door. For that I'd take vengeance if it cost the life of me.'
'Will you shut up, you idiot woman, and let me get a word in edgewise?' he roared in a startlingly loud voice- loud and startling enough to make Fand give back a pace. 'I was trying to say, before you started screeching at me, that I ought to know what you think I've done wrong so I can figure out whether I really meant it or if I should try to make amends.'
'Oh.' Fand came as close to seeming subdued as she ever did. After a moment, she sighed. 'It's not that you don't mean well, indeed and it isn't. But haven't you had enough to do with women to know that if you need to ask a question like that, the answer'll do you no good?'
Elise had said things like that, not long before she left him. He hadn't understood then, and didn't altogether understand now. 'I don't fancy guessing games,' he said slowly. 'Usually you tell me whatever's in your mind- more than I want to hear, sometimes. Why not now?'
'Och, it's late at night, and I'd sooner sleep than have a row with you the now,' Fand said. 'Go on to your own bed, Fox. Maybe tomorrow I'll feel kinder toward you-who knows?' Then, because she was honest in her own fashion, she added, 'Or maybe I won't.'
Evasion made Gerin angry; when he wanted to know something, he kept digging till he found out. 'Tell me what you're thinking,' he growled. 'If I've done something wrong, I'll find a way to make it right.'
'You do try that, I'll own; you're just enough and to spare, for a fact,' Fand said. 'This time, though, 'twill not be so easy for you, I'm thinking.' She shut her mouth tight then, and gave him a stubborn look that warned she'd say no more.
More than her words, the set of her face finally told Gerin what she meant. He clapped a hand to his forehead. 'You're still sizzling because I brought Selatre to the keep,' he exclaimed.
'And wouldn't you be, now, if I was after coming back here with a big-thewed, big-balled Trokme man with a fine yellow mustache on him?' she said. 'Och, puir fellow, by the side o' the road I found him, starving and all. Sure and I didn't fetch him back to sleep with him, even if he will be living in the castle from here on out.' She did a wicked parody of his explanation of how he'd come to bring Selatre to Castle Fox, and topped it off by assuming an expression innocent and wanton at the same time.
Gerin hoped he managed to disguise his startled laugh as a cough, but wouldn't have bet money on it. 'You have the tongue of a viper, do you know that?' he said. It pleased her, which wasn't what he'd had in mind. He went on, 'By the gods, I haven't set a hand on her since she got here. I don't mean I haven't tried to take her to bed, I mean I literally have not touched her. So I don't know why you keep wanting to have kittens about it.'
'Foosh, I know you've not touched her.' Fand tossed her head in fine contempt. 'But can you tell me so easy you've not wanted to?'
'I-' Gerin lied with few qualms when he dealt with his neighbors; only a fool, he reckoned, told the bald truth on all occasions. But lying to his leman was a different business. He ended up not answering Fand at all.
When she saw he wasn't going to, she nodded and quietly shut the door between them. The bar on her side did not come down; he could have gone in.
He stood in the hallway for a minute or so, then muttered, 'What's the bloody use?' He went back to his own
