Beyong the Gap

more than that. So as she turned to go, she stepped on Liv's foot. It might have been an accident. It might have been—but it wasn't.

His own anger inflamed by the strong wine he'd poured down, Hamnet Thyssen started over toward them. He hadn't gone more than a couple of strides before he found, not for the first time, that his present beloved could take care of herself.

Liv's lips moved. Hamnet could see that. Gudrid didn't turn back, so the Bizogot woman's words weren't intended for her ear—which didn't mean they weren't intended for her. Gudrid made a fundamental mistake. She forgot the lesson she'd had to learn far to the north—getting on the bad side of a wizard or shaman was a long way from smart.

One heartbeat, Gudrid's minimal gown held together as well as overstrained fabric could reasonably be expected to do. The next, things fell apart, literally and spectacularly. They had no obvious reason for falling apart. It might have been an accident. It might have been—but it wasn't.

Gudrid looked down at herself, first in surprise and then in horror. The involuntary squawk she let out swung every eye in the reception hall toward her. That was just what she didn't want. There was more of her to cover up than she had hands to cover it.

She started to pick up what was left of the gown, then seemed to realize she couldn't put it back together again. She took a step toward a table full of trays of appetizers, but must have decided the trays weighed down the tablecloth too much for her to grab it. With another squawk, she kicked out of the remnants of what she'd worn and fled the reception hall.

'Oh, dear.' Eyvind Torfinn hurried after her.

'Well, well. There's a dressmaker who won't live to grow old,' Ulric Skakki predicted. 'But I'll bet half the men here want to know who he is so they can get him to make gowns for their lady friends.'

'I wouldn't be surprised,' Count Hamnet answered, but didn't think it was the dressmaker's fault. When he walked over to Liv, he carefully de-toured around the bits of fabric still on the floor. He wagged a finger at her. 'That was naughty of you.'

'Too bad,' she said. 'Did you see what happened?'

'I saw, yes. I couldn't hear what the two of you said, but I know she stepped on you on purpose.'

'If she did that in the Three Tusk country, I would have killed her,' Liv said. 'But I know you Raumsdalians are soft when it comes to such things, so I thought I'd embarrass her instead.'

'You did,' Hamnet said. Gudrid might have arranged for her own wardrobe to fail, but she would have gloried in her nakedness if she did. To get surprised . . . That was embarrassing.

'She's spent a lot of time tormenting you, so she thinks she can torment me, too, because I make you happy,' Liv said. 'She won't get away with that, no matter what she thinks. I can make her more unhappy than she makes me.' Her eyes flamed.

'Chances are she's got the message now,' Hamnet said.

'Shed better.' Liv glanced over toward Sigvat II, who was happily chatting with the well-made brunette. 'Did the Emperor get the message about the Rulers?'

'No, curse it.' Hamnet shook his head. 'He says he'll worry about them when they bother the Empire, if they ever do. Till then, he doesn't care.'

'Well, why should he? He has more important things to worry about.' The Bizogot woman's voice was tart. Sigvat s companion laughed at something he said. If the Emperor made a joke, of course it was funny.

'I don't know what to do about it. I don't think I can do anything about it—except bang my head against a stone wall, I mean,' Hamnet Thyssen said. 'I've done that before. By God, I've made a career out of it. But this time I can see it won't get me anywhere.'

'So what will you do, then?' Liv asked.

'Well, I told you I was thinking about going back to my castle and waiting for the sky to fall,' Hamnet answered. 'Sooner or later, it will. We both know that. And ... I was hoping you'd come with me.' He had to work to say that, but he got it out. Now to see what happened next.

'I like being with you. You know that. I like it better than I ever thought I could like being with anyone,' Liv said. 'And the Empire has more . . . more things in it than I thought there were, there could be, in the whole world. But—'

'But?' Hamnet broke in harshly. As soon as Liv started saying nice things, he knew trouble lay ahead.

'But,' Liv said again. 'The sky will fall here sooner or later, yes. For the Three Tusk clan, the sky will fall sooner. We roam nearest the Gap. The Rulers will strike us first. By the nature of things, they have to. The Three Tusk clan . . . They are my folk. I will do what I can to help them. I have to do that, Hamnet—don't you see?'

He started to ask if anything he could do or say would make her change her mind. He started to, but he didn't; he could see it was hopeless. Not without admiration, he said, 'You're as stubborn as I am. Do you know that?'

She nodded again. 'That was one of the things that drew me to you. I wondered if we would bang heads, the way musk-ox bulls do in rutting season. But we never did, did we? Not till now.'

'You will go north?' Hamnet asked.

'I will. I have to,' Liv said.

He thought about his castle, about the estate surrounding it, about the game-filled woods to the east. He thought about how many Raumsdalians, starting with his bailiff, could care for the castle and estate as well as he could. He thought about the Gap, and the building storm beyond it.

'Would you put up with a half-baked Bizogot if I came north with you?' he asked.

Liv stared at him as if she didn't believe her ears. Then she threw herself into his arms. Naked Gudrid might have made a bigger spectacle at the reception, but not by much. Well, Hamnet thought dizzily as the embrace went on and on, at least I know why I'm doing this.

XIX

Hamnet Thyssen did have a hangover from the drinking he'd done at the reception the night before. Maybe his own headache and touchy stomach made him think Ulric Skakki seemed especially jaundiced-looking the morning after. Or maybe Ulric was as astonished and dismayed as he seemed to be.

'You're really going back to the barbarians?' he yelped in what certainly sounded like pained disbelief.

'That's right.' Count Hamnet took a cautious sip from a mug of wine. The hair of the dire wolf that bit him might ease his pangs. He sent the adventurer a defiant stare. 'What about it?'

'You mean, besides your being out of your bloody mind?' Ulric was also nursing a mug. He was eating a sticky roll with candied fruit, too. Hamnet wasn't ready for food yet. Ulric Skakki went on, 'You're the last man on earth I would have looked for to think with his cock.'

'By God, I'm not!' Hamnet said, loud enough to make his own head throb. More quietly, he continued, 'Sigvat s not going to do anything about the Rulers. You know that as well as I do. He rubbed our noses in it last night. So what does that leave me? Either I go home and wait for the world to go to the demons or I try to do something about it. I thought about sitting on my hands, but I just can't.'

'An idealist?' Ulric Skakki asked sardonically. Hamnet Thyssen's nod was as defiant as his stare. Ulric laughed in his face and said, 'Sitting on your hands, eh? How idealistic would you be if the Bizogot girl weren't sitting on your—'

'Watch your mouth, Skakki.' Hamnet Thyssen folded his right hand into a fist. 'It's early for a brawl, but you can have one if you want.' He wondered if he was bad-tempered because of his headache or because Ulric's gibe held more truth than he wanted to admit, even to himself.

The adventurer shook his head. 'No, not me. I'm a peaceable chap,' he said. Count Hamnet snorted. Ulric Skakki went on, 'Seriously, though, would you think of doing something like this if you weren't in love with Liv?'

'I hope so,' Hamnet answered. 'It's the right thing to do—or will you tell me that's not so?' If Ulric tried, Hamnet intended to walk away.

But Ulric didn't, not straight out. He was practical instead, practical and devious. 'It's only the right thing to do if you think the Bizogots can beat the Rulers. Otherwise, seems to me you'd do better waiting for trouble here.