The old chamberlain motioned the man back to give the rogue his peace. Pinch trembled at the edge of the firelight, hovering at the rim of the winter blackness.
'He repaid them,' Cleedis slowly dogged on, pulling back the attention of the rogue's friends, 'he repaid them by stealing all he could and fleeing the city. Now, what do you think of that?'
Man, woman, and halfling exchanged uncomfortable glances, their thoughts clearly centered on their tall master. He continued to scorn the warmth of the group.
'Did he make a good profit?' Sprite asked nervously, but the joke fell flat.
'Why stop the tale there, Cleedis?' murmured the upright man's voice from the darkness. 'There's so many little embellishments you've left out. Like how the king thought his queen was barren and wanted a son for his throne. How he raised the boy with care and the best of all things-until one day his wife was fruitful and bore him a son, and then three more over the years. That was three more than he needed and certainly better than an orphan boy.'
The man brought his anger back to the fire and leaned close to share it with the others. Perhaps the old man didn't like his story shanghaied, or perhaps he could feel the pain in the other's voice. Whatever the reason, his joint-swollen fingers knotted painfully about his sword.
'Or how he drove his queen to death once she'd whelped heirs for him. And then one day the dear old man woke up and decided he didn't need the boy he'd taken in, the one who wasn't his seed. All his life, the boy had lived in luxury, expecting and waiting, only to be pushed out by a group of mewling brats. How about that, Cleedis?'
The rogue turned to the other three-short, plump, and broad-sitting like rigid stones in dumb silence.
Smoothly a smile expanded on the rogue's face, oil spreading across the storm of his emotion. The coiled tiger's spring eased from his frame, and with a cheerful bow he scooped up the wine jug. 'Good story, eh? One's as true as another, and they're both as true as a vagabond's tale.'
The three still sat nervous and quiet, vassals unable to fathom their master's mad caperings.
Pinch threw back the jug and drained a long swallow, quenching the wine-dark thirst deep inside him. He then flung the uncorked jug toward his gang. 'Drink and sleep, that's what you need!' he thundered.
As they scrambled to catch the jug and stay wide of his moods, Pinch quickly settled close to his old fencing master till his wine-breath whisper tickled the old man's ear. 'You need me or you'd not come this far. No more tales-'
'You're forgetting the priests, boy,' the other growled, never once breaking his stare into the darkness.
'No more tales or you'll not wake up some morning. Do you think your guards can keep us away?'
Cleedis blinked. 'If I'm dead, there's no profit for you. That's all you want, isn't it?' The old man quickly shifted the terms.
A contented sigh swelled in the rogue. 'I'm sure you've got enemies in Ankhapur. Wouldn't they pay to see your head packed in a pickle pot?'
He didn't wait for an answer, but left the old man chewing his words. 'To bed!' he thundered once more as he herded his accomplices to the small ring of tents that was their traveling home. With cheerful wariness, they swarmed to heed him.
In the fading firelight, Cleedis watched as his former student never once turned his back on his supposed friends. The old swordsman smiled-a cold, dark smile like the dead winter night around him.
For the next three days, there were no more tales; not even any talk. It didn't take years of familiarity to read Pinch's mood. Even the coarsest soldiers knew there was a sour gloom hanging around the man. He spoke only when necessary and then barely more than a grunt. He ate quietly and drank without sharing. Most ominous of all was that he abided every inconvenience-the trails reduced to slicks of mud and slush, the streams of thin-crusted ice, even the stinging blows of sleet-with an impassive stare into the wilderness beyond. To his friends, it seemed the memory of Ankhapur roused in him a furious anger, like some furious scorpion retreating into its lair. If that were the case, nobody wanted to jab him lest they get stung.
Sprite-Heels, who watched his old companion as closely as the rest, formed a different opinion, one that he kept to himself. The halfling knew Pinch better than anybody and sometimes he held the conceit that he understood Pinch better than Pinch himself. Sprite was sure he could read the machinations in the old rogue's eyes, could divide them into patterns and stages. First the thief studied a guard, never one close to him, but one who was detached and unaware of the rogue's scrutiny. Sprite knew Pinch was finding the weaknesses, the passions, and the follies that the long ride betrayed in each man: Who gambled and lost poorly; who drank when he thought the captain wasn't looking; who shirked his duties; who betrayed others. All these things became Pinch's catalog of the levers by which he could move the men, elves, and dwarves of their escort.
After six days, the party came to a way-house on the southern road. It wasn't more than a rickety handful of a house and outbuildings enclosed in a palisade of sticks, but it offered protection from the icy sleet that had pelted them all day. The riders were frozen through to their bones. Even Cleedis, who by his station was better equipped than any of them, was chilled to his marrow. The horses were caked with mud and their hooves skittered across the sleet-slicked ground. It had been a painful lurching day in the saddle for everyone. The prospect of an inn, even a barn, right there in front of them, was a thousand times better than another night sleeping on half-frozen mud and pine branches.
A boy splashed through the melting snow, shouting out their arrival, so that by the time the Ankhapurans reached the gate, a band of grooms and farmhands faced them on the other side. The inn's staff was armed with a smattering of spears, scythes, and flails, the weapons of a ragtag militia. The signboard over the closed gate creaked in the wind, announcing that this was 'The House of Pity.'
'Where you be bound?' shouted one of the lot as he struggled his way to the front.
'We are Lord Cleedis of Ankhapur and his escort,' shouted back the captain of the guard, the one Pinch knew was a brute to his men. 'Who are you?'
'The landlord's cook,' replied the cadaverously thin man who stepped to the front. He wore a greasy apron and carried a heavy cleaver, the uniform and tools of his trade.
'So much for the food,' Therin whispered to Sprite.
'Well, open the gate, lackey, and give us a room for the night. My lord is not accustomed to waiting in the mud.' The captain was flushed with impatience to be out of the foul weather.
With slow deliberation, the cook peered first into the woods on one side and then on the other, searching the shadows and the darkness for something. Finally he turned back to the captain. 'Can you pay?
'Can we pay?' the officer sputtered. 'Pay depends on service, lout!'
Now the cook slowly, and again very deliberately, looked over the riders, counting out the number on his fingers. When he'd counted both hands, his face furrowed in concentration until at last he nudged the man next to him with over-broad secrecy. Heated whispers flew until at last the second fellow held up his own hand and the cook continued to count. The captain barely suppressed his rage at this dawdling.
'Twelve!' Pinch yelled out when the count was clearly above three hands.
The cook and groom paused, looked at their hands, looked up, looked back at their hands, and then very slowly and deliberately began the count again.
The captain twisted in his seat to glower at Pinch, and for the first time in nearly a week the rogue beamed a wickedly cheerful smile and stoically endured the icy discomfort.
Behind Pinch a chorus of snickers and snorts struggled not to break into a round of guffaws.
When the pair's count reached three hands, every eye of the cold and wet escort turned on Pinch. The rogue only nodded and smiled.
'Three!' chimed Sprite's high-pitched voice.
The count began again.
The guards edged in closer, this time watching all four vagabonds.
At two hands, Maeve could stand the ludicrousness no longer, and a hysterical cackle burst from her lips. It pealed down the wooded lane.
The count began again.
The captain wheeled his horse back through the mud. 'If they say anything-' he paused in midsnarl, realizing he could not carry out a threat against his master's guests. 'Well,' he finally continued with teeth chattering, 'don't let them!'
