scissors.'
NailBiter must learn his manners quickly, then. Every time he flew now, he would have a prince stretched out under his beak, a tempting royal breakfast within easy reach of a quick strike.
But they would take NailBiter from him. How much flying did Vindax do, anyway? A few state visits here and there, a bit of hunting. Sald Harl's sky days were apparently over.
The valet adjusted the black baldric with care.
Vindax was still studying him with sardonic amusement. 'My father's on his fifth Shadow. One tried breathing through a hole in his back, the second was heard to remark that the soup tasted bitter, and two were mistaken for rabbits.'
'You're trying to scare me.'
'I want you scared.' Vindax lacked the king's penetrating gaze; his eyes were a blunt instrument.
The valet bundled up the discarded clothes as though planning to burn them. He probably was. The trooper flying suit was back in the anteroom--it didn't matter. Sald's money was still in the pockets, his keys...None of those mattered. His two quarterings did not matter. He had no name and no rank.
The valet bowed and vanished, never having said a word. Vindax straightened up.
'My duties?' Sald asked.
Vindax looked at him with fake astonishment. 'My life, of course. At the cost of your own, if necessary.'
'I know that bit,' Sald said.
The prince shrugged. 'You are seen and silent, that's all.'
'Do I have any authority?'
Vindax smiled faintly. 'Normally, no. But in any affair which pertains to my safety, you are paramount. You can even give orders to the king, although I don't recommend it. No limits at all.'
So he could keep NailBiter, but he would have no time for training. 'King Shadow?'
'You outrank him.'
If a choice must be made, the prince's life would take precedence. The arrogance was understandable.
'The flying part I can handle,' Sald said. That had been the original purpose of Shadow. 'It's the stiletto and strychnine part.'
'Today is the banquet,' Vindax said irritably, anxious to be off. 'I've set aside tomorrow for learning. As Shadow you're head of my bodyguard. You have a staff--hire and fire as you please, but some of them have been at this for kilodays. King Shadow will give you pointers.'
'That's still not the truth, Prince,' Sald said. 'You're wearing exactly the expression NailBiter does when he's snatched a mutebat and thinks I haven't noticed.'
The prince flushed. 'And what do you do then?' he asked, dangerously.
'I make him as mad as I can. If he gets mad enough, he spits it out.'
The black eyes glared, and Vindax reddened further. 'Get insolent with me, fellow, and I'll have your head!'
'That's what NailBiter thinks.'
The prince gasped audibly and then burst into a roar of laughter, but laughter with a curious metallic ring to it. 'All right! I'll spit. Back when we flew together, how would you rate me?'
Sald--Shadow, now--hesitated and then saw that flattery was certainly not part of his job. 'Potentially good. You had the courage, the reflexes. Not patient enough. Inclined to be reckless. That's my fault also, so I can't judge it. But you never got enough practice.'
'Of the twenty days before Shadow's unexpected resignation,' Vindax said, 'I flew nineteen. I expect to fly every day for the next thousand, with a few exceptions. Some days only a couple of hours, true, but some are going to be long, long hops.'
Now it was Sald who gasped, and Vindax nodded with pleasure at the effect.
'I'm going to explore my inheritance, Shadow,' he said. 'From one end to the other, from salt to ice, Range and Rand. My father never did, but he agrees that it is a good idea. Far too much this court does nothing but gossip, and knows nothing. So I'm getting my practice in now, and the jaunts start soon. You were chosen because you're a damned good skyman, and I need one.'
Sald sighed with relief. 'Then I am truly grateful--and honored. And I swear that I will gladly serve as Prince Shadow, and to the limits of my ability.'
When NailBiter had spat out the mutebat, he was rewarded with a tasty morsel. Vindax smiled in satisfaction at the speech. 'And for a start,' he said smugly, 'we'll do the big one: the Rand. All the way!'
For a moment Sald did not comprehend. Leftward, the Rand led only to Piatorra, and relations between the two kingdoms were supposedly strained at the moment. Rightward lay wild, poorly settled country: frontier. He knew almost nothing about it, for Rantorrans normally thought only of the Range. But the Rand there was habitable, for it roughly paralleled the terminator. And 'all the way' must mean all the hundreds of miles to where it swung abruptly darkward and vanished into the ice layer on Darkside.
He gasped. 'To Allaban?'
A black glare barbecued him. 'To Ninar Foan!'
Of course. The rebels still held Allaban--Sald had forgotten his history as well as his protocol. The siege of Allaban...the keeper of the Rand...Queen Mayala...
It was curious that Aurolron had never even attempted to recover Allaban. Was Vindax planning a war, now or when he came to the throne?
'Reconnaissance?' Sald asked cautiously.
'Partly.' Then the prince grinned. 'Also the duke of Foan is premier nobleman of the realm, and he has a daughter.'
A long way to go for a date!
'And no son,' Vindax added. 'So if she has buckteeth or one tit bigger than the other, then we'll marry her to my brother and he can be the next keeper at Ninar Foan. Don't tell him that! Politically she's the obvious match for me. We'll see if she's beddable. Now we must go mix with the rabble.'
Sald needed to know what he was required to do--where to stand, when to sit, how much to drink when he tasted the wine--but his mind was still caught up in the thought of the Rand. 'How long?'
'About a hectoday, there and back.'
A hundred days in the air: new country and watch after watch of soaring, finding the thermals, analyzing the terrain--his heart began to pound at the thought. It would be the adventure of a lifetime and the best thing NailBiter could get. It would not give Sald back his freedom, but it would help.
Vindax had apparently misread his expression. 'Don't worry--you cover me, but the others will cover you.'
'Why?' Sald demanded, and his stupidity provoked royal impatience.
'Because otherwise you'll crack like an egg.'
Sald bristled. Was his courage being questioned? Or his skill? He was as alert as any, and NailBiter would see danger long before he would. 'NailBiter can dodge anything in the sky,' he said--and stopped.
Shadow's job was to not dodge: a great honor and a very short life expectancy.
Vindax read his expression correctly this time and nodded in grim satisfaction. He headed for the door without another word.
The crown prince's enforced absence from public view was ended. He walked out to play his role in the life of the court, followed one pace behind, as always, by Shadow.
Chapter 2
