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soft off-white painted over timber and stone and plaster. The roofs were
mostly of red tile.
Wheeee& eeee&
 It s hot, and you re thirsty. So am I.
We kept riding, but only. until the next crossroad, which consisted of
half-a-dozen houses and a small building with a shaded porch. By then it was
near midday.
I wiped my forehead as I dismounted in front of the building.
 Could you tell me where I might get some water for my horse? I asked a
tanned youngster with shaggy black hair, a boy who might have reached to my
waist.
 We have some. You will have to lead your& horse& around the back. He
pointed around the left side of the building.  Barrabra! A traveler! Then he
was gone.
I scratched my head, itchy from the sweat and heat and dust, before taking
the reins and trudging toward the corner.
I stopped suddenly. Around the white-plastered corner of the building were
several men armed with swords, waiting, and the fear they would have denied
boiled from them. I didn t want to fight, and I didn t want to run. So I stood
there, reins in hand, wondering what I would do next.
Finally, I reached back and took my staff. That was all I had. I d never
gotten my knife back from the Kyphran soldier in all the confusion with the
white wizard.
I spoke loudly.  If I really meant you harm, don t you think I would have
fried you where you stood?
Two of them dropped the swords and ran. One shook his head. The biggest
charged around the corner waving the blade in a way that showed he had no idea
of how to use it.
Thunk.
Clang. The sword banged against the wall and dropped into the dirt.
 Just leave it there, I said tiredly.  All I wanted was some water.
 But& you re a wizard&  He was dark-haired, well-muscled, and wore faded
white trousers and a sleeveless shirt. On his feet were sandals, not boots.
 Says who? You made enough noise to warn an army.
 What are you? He looked past me to the other man creeping up behind me.
I half-turned in order to watch them both.
The man who had come from the rear did wear boots, the same pale-green
uniform, including the green leather vest, that I had seen on the prefect s
captives, and the way he carried the sword was more professional.
 Who are you? asked the soldier.
 Me? I m a woodworker at heart, who happened to displease the prefect of
Gallos.
 Likely story.
He was right, unfortunately. In his position, I wouldn t have believed me
either. I shrugged.  All right. I m from Recluce, and I created a little too
much order in Fenard, partly through woodworking, and now I seem to have every
white wizard in Candar after me. *
 That s not much better. He waited, however, probably for reinforcements.
So I wove a shield and disappeared. Then I knocked his sword from his hand
while he was gaping.
While he was meditating on that, I reappeared, presented the sword back to
him with my free hand.  It happens to be true, and I m getting a little tired
of playing games.
He paled slightly.  What do you want? He sheathed the weapon.
 I m trying to see if someone I once knew&  I raised the staff.
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For the first time, he actually looked at the staff, realized that it was
black. So help me, the man turned even whiter than the wall. He swallowed.
 Why& ?
 I need to know.
 Is she a black-haired blade that can destroy any man?
I hadn t thought of Krystal in quite that way.  One of them was
black-haired and a master with almost any kind of blade. Black-eyed,
pale-skinned-
 Hell& 
I turned on the other man, who had edged toward his sword, still lying not
that far from my feet,  Just hold it right there.
Footsteps thudded on the ground.
 Do I have to disappear again? I asked the young soldier.
He shook his head.  No. No, ser. We re supposed to bring anyone from
Recluce in to see the sub-commander. Those are the standing orders. I should
have remembered. The sub-commander was-
 The sub-commander?
 She s in charge of training. She does many other things, and she s also
the autarch s champion. Perhaps all that is not so wondrous to a magician like
you, but she is famed and fabled& 
It didn t surprise me-not after recalling the shy lady who had dismembered
the apples so quickly, or the woman who had been pressing Gilberto by the time
she left Recluce.
 He s going to Kyphrien to meet the sub-commander. I will be the one to
carry out the standing orders and to convey him there, for has he not found
our waystation? The way-station of Pendril and Shervan& 
The others stood back, and that was how I met Shervan.
 You water your horse, and Barrabra will fix you something to eat. Then
Pendril and you and I will saddle up, and we will depart for Kyphros, Shervan
announced after ushering off the half-dozen armed and able-bodied citizens of
the little crossroads.
 That s not a problem?
Shervan shook his head.  I must only apologize that we did not recognize
you. It has been so long& 
 So long?
 We used to receive the pilgrims from Recluce, but seldom do we see them
any more.
I nodded, knowing why-Antonin.
Whuuuffff& interrupted Gairloch, as if to ask about the water I had
promised.
 Ser? called a strong feminine voice from the covered portico. The shade
kept me from seeing more than an ample figure.
 That s Barrabra, explained Shervan.
 I need to water my horse& 
 That s a horse? asked Barrabra, still shrouded by the portico.
I smiled.  He s enough of a horse to have carried me through the Easthorns
and the Little Easthorns.
Shervan looked toward the portico with a look I could not quite decipher,
but would have said embodied the concept of  I told you so.
I took the reins and led Gairloch around the building to the watering
trough. Shervan followed, still talking.
Unlike some towns I had seen since leaving Recluce- places like Hrisbarg,
Freetown, Hewlett, and Weevett, to name a few-the rear of the whitewashed
stone or brick buildings was as clean as the front, and similarly shaded by
the protruding tile roof. The housing design confirmed my feelings that in the
summertime Kyphros was hot indeed.
 & and the Gallians, they just keep coming. We never fight unless we have
the advantage, and we must kill three of them for every one of us they get.
Having the hills and the mountains there helps, but just two eight-days ago
some of them got as far as Sintamar. Shervan grinned.  They didn t get back.
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I watched as Gairloch drank from the trough, carved roughly from limestone,
glancing back toward the north and the clouds that were again building over
the Little Easthorns. They didn t look natural, but who was I to say?  Those
clouds-
 & and the only other one was the knife-thrower& such a-
 What knife-thrower?
 You were asking about the clouds, ser?
 Later. What were you saying about the knife-thrower?
 I have never seen such a knife-thrower. Never. No, ser, the clouds, we did
not used to have clouds such as those& 
 What about the knife-thrower? I interrupted.
 & not since the days of the Great White Wizards, they say. You were asking
about the knife-thrower. Yes-that was the best. The cowardly Gallians-that was
before they became the mad dogs they are now-they ran from the black horse,
anywhere to escape the knives and the sword. Such a pair they were! Never had
we seen such a pair!
I was getting ready to strangle the cheerful Shervan, especially since
Gairloch had finished drinking.
Whheeee& eeee&
I fished out the remaining grain cake from the right-hand saddlebag
provided by Brettel.
 How-how did you do that?
 Do what?
 That food for your horse. You made it appear out of thin air. Never have I [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]