'Rich, is he?' she said.
'Rich has nothing to do with it,' said the troll.
'Are you going to kill our dad?' said Scree suspiciously.
''Corse he is,' said Mica severely. 'It's his job. An' then I'll get famed in
song an' story. This is Cohen the Barbarian, right, not some bugger from the
village with a pitchfork. 'E's a famous hero come all this way to see us, so
just you show 'im some respect.
'Sorry about that, sir,' he said to Cohen. 'Kids today. You know how it is.'
The horse started to snigger.
'Now look...' Cohen began.
'I remember my dad tellin' me about you when I was a pebble,' said Mica. ''E
bestrides the world like a clossus, he said.'
There was a silence. Cohen wondered what a clossus was, and felt Beryl's stony
gaze fixed upon him.
'He's just a little old man,' she said. 'He don't look very heroic to me. If
he's so good, why ain't he rich?'
'Now you listen to me...' Mica began.
'This is what we've been waiting for, is it?' said his wife. 'Sitting under a
leaky bridge the whole time? Waiting for people that never come? Waiting for
little old bandy-legged old men? I should have listened to my mother! You want
me to let our son sit under a bridge waiting for some little old man to kill
him? That's what being a troll is all about? Well, it ain't happening!'
'Now you just...'
'Hah! Pyrites doesn't get little old men! He gets big fat merchants! He's
someone. You should have gone in with him when you had the chance!'
'I'd rather eat worms!'
'Worms? Hah? Since when could we afford to eat worms?'
'Can we have a word?' said Cohen.
He strolled towards the far end of the bridge, swinging his sword from one
hand. The troll padded after him.
Cohen fumbled for his tobacco pouch. He looked up at the troll, and held out
the bag.
'Smoke?' he said.
'That stuff can kill you,' said the troll.
'Yes. But not today.'
'Don't you hang about talking to your no-good friends!' bellowed Beryl, from
her end of the bridge. 'Today's your day for going down to the sawmill! You
know Chert said he couldn't go on holding the job open if you weren't taking it
seriously.'
Mica gave Cohen a sorrowful little smirk.
'She's very supportive,' he said.
'I'm not climbing all the way down to the river to pull you out again!' Beryl
roared. 'You tell him about the billy goats, Mr Big Troll!'
'Billy goats?' said Cohen.
Вы читаете Troll Bridge
