A Wizard and a Warlord Read online

  When they reached the bottom of the hill, they slowed to alternate jogging with running.

  "Why . . . . isn't ... anybody ... following?" Alea asked.

  "Read ... them," Gar panted in answer.

  Alea frowned, listening for thoughts as she ran. She heard satisfaction that the soldiers had chased away the intruder, along with chagrin that he had escaped-but overall, fear of the unknown that made them seek excuses not to follow Gar. Staves had, after all, twisted in hands, other staves had swung from hiding, and there was no way of telling how many companions Gar had with him. Worse, voices had called from nowhere. Not even Teak was overly eager to follow, so long as the suspect giant had been chased away.

  "Nicely done, that," Gar said. "I didn't know you could project thoughts into other people's minds yet."

  "Neither did I," Alea confessed, "but I had to try something! "

  "Pretty good for a first try," Gar said dryly. "How did you imitate the different voices?"

  Alea looked very confused. "I didn't."

  "They filled that part in for themselves, then." Gar nodded. "Heard what they expected to hear. Well, part of it may have been luck, but it was still well and cleverly done-very well. Thanks for the rescue."

  Alea glowed at the praise and scolded herself for letting it make any difference to her. She floundered for a minute, wondering how to respond, then realized that simplest was best. "You're welcome." Then, with sudden chagrin at her interference, "What would you have done if I hadn't?"

  "I hadn't quite figured that part out yet," Gar admitted.

  Alea's spirits soared again, the aftermath of battle making her heady.

  "What's General Malachi thinking?" Gar asked. Alea bit back the retort that he could listen for himself. Of course he could, and probably was doing so even now-but he wanted her to practice. She concentrated on the welter of thoughts in the camp and picked out the flaring anger of the self-proclaimed general. Her eyes darkened with apprehension. "He's livid with rage," she said, "and giving orders for patrols to go out hunting us."

  "Don't worry about them," Gar said. "Patrols will stick to the roads. No one is eager to come into the woods to chase us, and even if they did, their horses would slow them down; there are a lot of low branches here."

  "But you're a marked man now. I hope you discovered a great deal in that camp, because we're surely not going to learn anything more after this!"

  "I learned quite a bit, actually," Gar said thoughtfully, "mostly that there doesn't seem to be any government strong enough to keep this bandit captain from doing whatever he wants-except perhaps the Scarlet Company."

  "Yes, I eavesdropped on your mind and heard them saying that." Alea frowned. "What is this 'Scarlet Company'?"

  "Not a government, that's certain." Gar made a wry face. "I peeked in Malachi's mind, of course-he was enough of a bully that it seemed a good ideabut that didn't tell me anything more; all I had was a confused impression of blood and violence, and massive frustration that they stood in his way at all."

  "How do they interfere, though?"

  Gar shrugged. "By killing him, I guess-they've tried three times already. Since Malachi thinks bodyguards are the answer to the threat they pose, my guess is that this Scarlet Company is a band of assassins. I've heard of such things before-criminal organizations that kill people for hire. If Malachi has conquered half a dozen rival bands and three villages, I'm sure people are willing to spend their last penny to stop him."

  "But you just said there wasn't any government strong enough to stop Malachi," Alea protested. "Why don't the governments just hire the Scarlet Company?"

  Gar sat very still for a minute. Then he said, "You're right, of course. That's what they've done." He was silent another minute. "But that's just a guess. We'll have to go into one of the bigger towns, where the government must be, and make sure."

  Alea frowned. "I thought this mission was over."

  "Why should you think that?"

  "Well. . ."Alea floundered, surprised that he didn't see the obvious. "They're hunting you now. How can we walk the roads if we have to keep hiding?"

  "I'll travel in disguise, of course."

  "Disguise! All seven feet of you? How will you disguise that?"

  "By stooping," Gar said. "You'd be surprised how quickly I can age. I could be an old man of any kind; an ancient peddler with a heavy pack would have plenty of reason to stoop. Or I might be your crazy half-witted brother, cringing and fearful of everything about me-I've done that before, several times, and it's worked well. I don't think any of these troops will have the wit to guess how tall I would be if I stood straight. They're looking for a fighter, not a beggar."

  "Well, it might work," Alea said doubtfully.

  "I think we'd better make a few more miles through the woods before we try the roads again," Gar suggested. "And keep an open mind-open to hear other people's thoughts, that is. The patrols might try the forest, after all."

  Alea hid a shudder as she stood. "They should be easy to lose in these trees." But she had memories of sleeping in branches and didn't want to repeat the experience.

  A few hours later, she led Gar to their packs; she had hidden both when she went after him. Burdened again, they strode through the woods as quietly as possible.

  As the forest darkened around them, Gar marveled that Alea's sullenness and anger seemed to have vanished with the landing. Perhaps it had just been cabin fever, after all.

  On the other hand, there hadn't, exactly been a great deal of time for an argument-and if she'd wanted a fight, she'd had a chance for a real one. He decided there was a great deal to be said for having common enemies.

  They slept in the forest that night, and it was a cold camp with only a small and nearly smokeless fire. "I'll take first watch," Gar offered.

  "Why?" Alea demanded. "Because you don't think I can stay awake?"

  Gar blinked in surprise. "Of course not. It's only that you're looking terribly tired."

  "You're not looking terribly fresh yourself." It wasn't true, but he was probably feeling worn. "I suppose you think that I have to rest because I'm a weak woman."

  "Scarcely weak, but very much a woman." Again, that brief flash of admiration that so irritated her. "Still, you should have the right to rest if you wish it."

  "Oh, really? So that you can sit up and feel virtuous?"

  "More to the point," Gar said, "so that I can meditate for a while. I couldn't sleep, not yet. Too much has happened in one day."

  "Don't you think I need some time to let the day's events sort themselves out?" Alea retorted.

  Gar nodded slowly. "Then take it."

  "Oh, so now I'm to sit up while you take your ease, am I? Shall I serve you breakfast, too?"

  "Only if you take the second watch."

  "So that's it! You want to wake up and find your food hot and ready, so you'll make me wake up in the middle of the night and start cooking!"

  "Why don't we make it three watches tonight?" Gar sighed. "I'll take the first and the third, so I'll cook breakfast."

  "So you can feel injured and nurture your resentment all night long? Not a chance! I'll take the first and the third!"

  "Done," Gar said, "if they're each three hours long."

  "And let you sleep six hours without an interruption? Just how selfish are you?"

  "Incredibly," Gar said gravely, "selfish enough to want the first watch and the third so I can feel like a martyr."

  "Well, it won't work!" Alea snapped. "Ill be the martyr, thank you! You can sleep and dream of me forcing myself to stay awake, pinching myself and holding my eyelids open!"

  "You win." Gar sighed. "I'll take the first watch."

  "Well, I should think you would!" Alea turned away, lay down, pulled up her blanket, and glared at Gar's back where he sat by the fire-legs crossed, back straight, hands on his knees, already meditating as he had said-and wondered why she felt as though she had lost.

  Gar woke Alea in the middle of the night
for her watch. She felt as though 'she were clawing her way up off a sheet covered with glue, but she fought off the yearning for the bed and pulled herself to her feet, then settled on a log by the fire.

  Once. she had moved that much, though, energy started to flow, and she didn't feel anywhere nearly as tired as she'd expected. Anger coiled; she suspected Gar had kept watch for the full six hours after all, letting her sleep-but she couldn't see the sky, so there was no way to tell time by the stars.

  Alea eyed Gar covertly as he settled himself under his blanket and closed his eyes. When his breathing deepened in the slow rhythm of sleep, she turned to watch him openly. The man was an enigma to her, a puzzle that she despaired of solving. Her most spritely conversation, her tempers, her arguments, their verbal jousting-nothing could crack his shell, make him seem to care or to reveal anything about himself. Was she so ugly as to repel him, make him want to present only the blank public face he showed the rest of the world? If so, though, why had he ' invited her to come with him?

  And why, in Loki's name, did he give her that admiring gaze now and then if he didn't want to do anything about it?

  She sighed and turned away to scan the woods to the one side of the road, then the fields to the other. All other men were quite easy to understand-they wanted something, and you either gave it to them and let them go their way, or refused and endured their tempers or even, sometimes, their blows. Of course, since she'd met Gar, she'd learned to give as good as she got if a man tried to strike her-but that was another riddle about Gar: why would he teach her to fight when he knew it gave him that much less power over her?

  Her gaze lingered on his sleeping form again; she forced it back to the woods. Of course, Gar was still far more skilled at fighting than she was, and much stronger-not that the last mattered; he had shown her how to use a man's strength and size against him. Still, he couldn't think of her as much of a threat.

  Or much of a woman? If he had taught her men's skills, how feminine could he think her to be?

  She absently noted the movement among the trees-an owl launching itself from a branch and skimming away to the fields, where it plunged. She looked out over the furrows, frowning and pondering. Apparently Gar didn't see her as being either feminine or a threat-so if he were to see her as a woman, would he feel a threat from something other than the blows of her staff? Certainly boys verging on manhood seemed to be afraid of the very femininity they desired. Was Gar still a boy in that sense?

  She realized that her thoughts had begun to go in circles and gave up the puzzle with a sigh, turning back to scan the fields again, then the road and the woods-but the problem would not leave her alone, it kept nibbling at her mind....

  Then she saw the monster and the sight of it made her forget everything but its own grinning presence.

  5

  It was huge, easily her own height standing, which she discovered she was doing, staff raised to guard, words of alarm filling her mouth ready to be shouted. It might have been a cat, if a cat had had very short legs under a round body that swelled into .a great ball of a head, making the whole creature seem to be only a vast face on top of furry feet, and a grinning mouth half that face, filled with nasty-looking triangular teeth that glinted in the firelight, very white, very sharp. The nose seemed only a nubbin and the eyes small, though each was at least the size of her hand, and they crinkled at the corners as if with amusement, making the toothy grin seem on the verge of laughing. But the ears atop the body were halves of a sphere, almost perfectly round.

  Alea would have cried out, if the words hadn't purred in her mind:

  Don't fear, woman. I shan't eat you.

  What--what are you? Alea thought.

  One of those who filled this planet before your kind came, the creature answered. Foolish folk, they think they slew us along with all the other animals that lived in this land before they came. We hide now, and they never see us-unless we want them to. Of course, no one ever believes those who do.

  Then why show yourself to me? ' Curiosity, the creature answered. You're not like the others, you and your mate.

  He's not my mate!

  You mean you don't know that yet? the creature asked. How foolish your kind are! Tell me, though, what was that great golden pie that dropped you like kittens from a mother's mouth?

  The lie Gar had taught her sprang to her mind unbidden-but she looked in the creature's eyes, and the words stuck in her throat.

  We know truth from falsehood, the creature told, her, even if you do not What was that thing-the wagon that brought you from the stars?

  How-how did you know? Alea asked. Then anger came to her rescue. If you knew, why did you ask? Because we have never seen one like it, the monster replied. The wagons that brought the ancestors of the people who live here, they were all ungainly, bumpy things that looked like very fat birds with very short wings. Its grin widened, and a drop of saliva dripped from a tooth. We eat birds.

  Why don't you eat people? Alea demanded, fear gripping her vitals as her hands gripped her staff.

  Because you have minds, the creature answered, minds complex enough to be aware of your own existence. In that, you are enough like us so that we could not think of you as food.

  Even though these people took your land and chased you away?

  There is surely enough land for us over the sea, if we wish it, the alien answered, unperturbed.

  No, not alien, Alea realized-native. It was she who was the alien on this planet.

  Even so, the monster agreed, but you are fascinating, and all the more so because you are alien. Those of us who grow weary of the daily round of hunting and eating and begetting and kit-rearing find diversion in the strange and foolish doings of your kind.

  So you are glad to have them? Alea asked cautiously. Quite pleased, the creature assured her, and you and your mate are even more diverting, because you are stranger than the strangers! You are new, you are novel, you are ...

  Not mates! Alea thought fiercely.

  All kits must learn as they grow, the creature thought in a consoling tone. Be patient and you shall learn, too.

  Alea stifled an angry.comeback-it wouldn't do to antagonize a telepathic creature with so many sharp teeth. Do you often show yourselves to the people? That must change the way they behave.

  It would indeed, the creature agreed, so we never let them see us-and if they should do so by accident, we make sure they forget. Still, there seem to be tales about us in the land.

  Alea could believe that easily. Why, then, do you show yourself now to me?

  To learn what you are, and what you mean to do, the creature said. Thus we showed ourselves to the first of your kind to come here, and would not let them settle until we were satisfied of their good intentions. Alea frowned. How did they convince you?

  By deciding to leave the planet as soon as they knew we were intelligent and self-aware, the creature replied. They trooped back aboard their bird-ships,.and would have left, robbing us of a fascinating diversion.

  So you told them they could stay?

  We erased all memory of us from their mind, the creature told her. Then they had no reason to leave.

  But they took your land!

  We let them settle, the creature said. Those who did not find them amusing swam away to other lands. Those of us who loved to watch their antics retreated to the wild places, the barrens and the depths of the forests, the mountains and the fens, to listen to their thoughts and watch their mad caperings.

  So now you come to see if I too shall be amusing, Alea thought, anger growing again.

  More importantly, we wish to know your intentions toward our little friends, the monster thought. They have good hearts, most of them, and we would not like to see their lives disturbed.

  We mean this land no harm, Alea said, only good.

  I can see that in you, the creature replied. Moreover, I can see that you are very courageous-frightened, but able to overcome your fear. That is a brightness within yo
u that we respect.

  So--you do not object to our coming?

  Be welcome, the monster thought. Help whom you cad. If you need help yourself, remember and call upon me.

  I-I thank you, Alea thought, astounded. How--how shall I call?

  Call me "Evanescent," the creature replied. I shall come, or one much like me.

  A sudden distant squalling off to her left made Alea turn to face it, staff coming up, heart pounding-but she recognized it even as it stopped: two cats disputing territory, or perhaps a coupling that one of them did not desire. She turned back to the fire, trying to make herself relax, wondering why she was gripping her staff so tightly. Really, a catfight was nothing to fear, and there hadn't been anything else to attract her attention, except that owl flying over the road-a very dull watch, in fact.

  Sudden pain throbbed in her head, but was gone as quickly as the catfight. She pressed a hand to her temple, frowning. Something seemed to be missing there, some thought that she'd wanted to remember but that had slipped away. Well, she had much to learn yet, about meditation.

  She scanned the woods again, then the fields, seeing nothing unusual-but she did notice that the gloom had lessened. She stood and stretched, amazed at how quickly the night had passed, amazed that dawn was coming and it was time to start cooking breakfast. That would teach Gar to let her sleep longer than she deserved!

  Still, she would have liked to remember that fleeting thought. Well, if it was important, it would come back to her.

  The next day, Gar stripped down to his breechcloth and folded his clothes carefully, then smeared himself liberally with dirt, mixing dead grass and leaves into his hair while Alea packed his clothes under her trade goods.

  "How's this?" Gar hunched over, even bending his legs, and stumbled toward her, whimpering, "Poor Gar's a-cold! Poor Gar's a-cold!"

  "I should say you are." Alea stared, unnerved by the change in his appearance; surely she would never have recognized him through all that dirt. He was right-bent over like that, he actually seemed shorter than she was. Which isn't saying much, she thought with irony. She was well over six feet herself, after all, and had long ago resigned herself to never finding a husband-and still didn't think to, but here she was traveling with a man who actually made her feel small! "How are you going to keep from freezing?"