'It was Ehren's idea, actually,' Tavi said.
'Wish he was coming with us,' Max rumbled.
'That's the glamorous life of a Cursor,' Tavi replied. 'But with any luck, we won't be gone long. We sail Varg and his people back home, make some polite noises to keep diplomatic channels open, and then come right back home. Two months or so.'
Max grunted. 'Gives Gaius time to gather support in the Senate, declare you his heir all legal and official.'
'And puts me somewhere that is both beyond the reach of potential assassins and of unquestionable of importance to the realm,' Tavi said. 'I am particularly fond of the former.'
The sailors began casting off mooring lines, and Kitai took Tavi's hand firmly. 'Come,' she said. 'Before you splatter your breakfast all over your armor.'
As the ship pushed away from the dock and began to rock with the motion of the sea, Tavi felt his stomach began to slowly roil, and he hurried to his cabin to relieve himself of his armor and make sure that he had plenty of water and an empty bucket or two available. He was a terrible sailor, and life on a ship was pure torment.
Tavi felt another twinge in his belly and thought longingly of nice, solid ground, be it ever so littered with assassins.
Two months at sea.
He could scarcely imagine a greater nightmare.
'This stinks,' complained Tonnar, from five yards behind Kestus' mount. 'This is like some kind of bad dream.'
Kestus glanced down at the field hatchet strapped to his horse's saddlebag. It would be hard to get much strength behind a throw while riding a horse, but Tonnar's head was so soft, it probably wouldn't matter. Of course, then there would be the matter of the moron's corpse and potential murder charges.
True, Kestus had the entire deserted run of the wilderness southwest of the Waste to hide the body in, but there was the matter of the new man to complicate things. He glanced back at the third member of the patrol, the slender, wiry pipsqueak who called himself Ivarus and had enough sense to keep his mouth shut most of the time.
Kestus was a strong believer in avoiding complications. So he did what he usually did when Tonnar flapped his lips. He ignored him.
'Do you know what it's like closer to the Waste?' Tonnar continued. 'Wild furies everywhere. Outlaws. Pestilence. Starvation.' He shook his head mournfully. 'And when old Gaius blew Kalare off the face of the earth, he sent about half the able bodied men in the whole area away with it. Women are throwing themselves at men for a couple of copper rams or the heel of a loaf of bread. Or just to have someone around who they think will protect their brats.'
Kestus thought wistfully of murder.
'I talked to this one guy from the northern march,' Tonnar went on. 'He plowed four women in one day.' The loudmouth slashed the extra length of his reins savagely at the branches of a nearby tree, scattering autumn leaves and striking his mount's neck sharply by mistake. The horse twitched and jolted, and Tonnar barely kept from being thrown.
The man cursed the horse savagely, kicking harder than necessary with his heels and jerking hard on the reins to bring it back under control.
Kestus idly added theoretical torture to the theoretical murder, because done right, it might be funny.
'And here we are,' Tonnar snarled, waving his arm in a broad circle at the silent expanse of trees all around them. 'Men are making fortunes and living like lords, and Julius leads us out into the middle of nowhere. Nothing to see. Nothing to loot. No women to bed.'
Ivarus, his face mostly hidden beneath the hood of his cloak, broke a branch about as thick as a man's thumb from a tree beside the trail. Then he nudged his horse up into a trot and drew up alongside Tonnar.
'We could have them lining up to spread their legs for us for the price of a piece of bread,' Tonnar was saying. 'But no-'
Ivarus quite calmly lifted the branch and broke it over Tonnar's head. Then, without a word, he turned and nudged his horse back into his original position.
'Bloody crows!' Tonnar bellowed, reaching one hand up to clutch at his skull. 'Crows and bloody furies, what is wrong with you, man?'
Kestus didn't bother trying to hide his smile. 'He thinks you're a bloody idiot. So do I.'
'What?' Tonnar protested. 'Because I want to tumble a girl or two?'
'Because you want to take advantage of people who are desperate and dying,' Kestus said. 'And because you haven't thought things through. People are starving. Disease is rampant. And soldiers get paid. How many legionares do you think have been murdered in their sleep for the clothes on their back, the coins in their purse? How many do you think have fallen sick and died, just like all those holders? And in case it slipped your notice, Tonnar, all those outlaws would have every reason to kill you. You'd probably be too busy trying to stay alive to spend any time humiliating women.'
Tonnar scowled.
'Look,' Kestus said. 'Julius got us all the way through Kalare's rebellion in one piece. None of our company died. And out here, we're out of the worst of it. It might not pay as well, or have the… opportunities, as the patrols nearer the Waste. But we aren't dying of plague or getting our throats cut while we sleep, either.'
Tonnar sneered. 'You're just afraid to take chances.'
'Yep,' Kestus agreed. 'So's Julius. Which is why we're all in one piece.' So far.
The loudmouth shook his head and turned to glare at Ivarus. 'You touch me again and I'm going to gut you like a fish.'
'Good,' Ivarus said. 'Once we hide the body, Kestus and I can switch out our mounts with yours and pick up the pace.' The hooded man glanced up at Kestus. 'How much longer until we get back to camp?'
'Couple of hours,' Kestus replied laconically. He gave Tonnar a very direct glance. 'Give or take.'
Tonnar muttered something under his breath, and subsided. The rest of the trip passed in blessed, professional silence.
Kestus liked the new man.
They rode into the glade that Julius had chosen as their camp as twilight settled over the land. It was a good site. A steep hillside had provided them a place to earthcraft something that almost resembled shelter from the weather. A small stream trickled nearby, and the horses whickered, their steps quickening as they recognized the place where they would receive some grain and rest.
But just before he rode out of the shelter of the belt of heavy evergreens that surrounded the glade, Kestus stopped his horse.
Something was wrong.
His heartbeat sped up a little, as a tension with no obvious explanation seized him. He remained still for a moment, trying to trace the source of his unease.
'Bloody crows,' sighed Tonnar. 'What is it now-'
'Quiet,' Ivarus whispered, his voice tense.
Kestus glanced back at the wiry little man. Ivarus was on edge as well.
The camp was completely silent and still.
The company of rangers that was supposed to patrol this area of what had once been the lands of the High Lord Kalarus Brencis numbered a dozen strong, but three and four-man patrols moved in and out of the camp on a regular basis. It was not inconceivable that all but a pair of the rangers were out on their rounds. It was not unthinkable that whoever was minding the camp might have gone on a quick local sweep, hoping to turn up some game.
But it didn't seem very likely.
Ivarus brought his horse up beside Kestus' and murmured, 'The fire's out.'
And that pinpointed it. In an active camp, a fire was kept alight almost as a matter of course. It was too much of a headache to let it go out and continually rebuild it. Even if the fire had burned down to hot coals and ashes,
