Mocker eased as close as he could without revealing himself.
Nepanthe was supposed to be in the dungeons of Castle Krief.
He didn't see Ethrian, and that disturbed him more than his wife's presence. The boy seldom strayed from his mother's side. She wouldn't let him.
She was going to make Ethrian a mama's boy in spite of himself.
He was so intrigued by his wife's presence, and by trying to eavesdrop, that he ignored everything else-especially the others in Bragi's party.
Beyond being able to get into trouble anywhere, Aral Dantice had one noteworthy talent. He remembered. Now he remembered a dark face seen only momentarily in Necremnos when he noticed the same face peeping from an ornamental hedge. He whispered to Trebilcock.
It didn't occur to them that they shouldn't nab suspects on Necremnos's turf. They decided, they split, they drifted round till they could take the watcher from behind.
Mocker's first warning was a grip of iron closing on his shoulder.
He squealed, "Hai!" and jumped, kicked, sent Dantice sprawling-and found himself staring into the cold, emotionless eyes of Michael Trebilcock, along the blade of a saber.
He whipped out his own blade, began fencing. In silence, which was one of the most un-Mocker-like things he had ever done.
The clash of steel drew a crowd.
He had meant it to be a quick passage at arms, perhaps wounding the boy as he whipped by and fled across the yards and hedges....
But Trebilcock wouldn't let him.
Mocker's eyes steadily widened. Trebilcock met his every stroke and countered, often coming within a whisker of cutting him. Nor did the younger man give him any respite in which to calculate, or regain his wind.
Trebilcock was good.
Mocker's skill with a blade was legend among his acquaintances. Seldom had he met a man he couldn't best in minutes.
This time he had met one he might not best at all. He managed to touch Trebilcock once in ten minutes, with a trick never seen on courtly fields of honor. But Trebilcock wasn't daunted, nor did he allow the trick a second chance.
Trebilcock couldn't be intimidated. Mocker couldn't perturb him. And that scared Mocker....
"Enough!" Ragnarson shouted. "Michael, back off."
Trebilcock stepped back, lowered his guard. Perforce, Mocker did likewise.
He was caught.
Wham!
Nepanthe hit him at a dead run. "Darling. What're you doing? Where've you been?" And so on and so on. He couldn't get in a word.
"Come on," said Ragnarson. "Back to the barge. It's time we moved out. Nepanthe, keep a hold of him."
Mocker looked everywhere but at Bragi. He could feel Bragi searching his face.
He considered pretending amnesia, rejected it. He had given himself away by responding to Nepanthe. Some fast thinking was in order.
As he clambered aboard the barge, Ragnarson said, "Michael, you handle a blade damned good."
"Sir?"
"I've never seen anybody go to draw with Mocker."
"Wasn't a draw. He was tiring."
"That's why I stopped you. Where'd you learn?"
"My father's fencing master. But I'm not that good, really. At the Rebsamen...."
"You impressed me. You men. Get this sonofabitch cast off. We've got to disappear before they find out I told them a pack of lies."
Nepanthe slackened her fussing. Mocker took the opportu-nity to look around.
He didn't like what he saw.
Haaken leaned against the deckhouse, a piece of grass between his dark teeth, staring. Varthlokkur stared from the bows. Reskird, directing the bargemaster, stared. They didn't have friendly eyes.
The safest course would be to tell ninety percent of the truth.
He was confused. Nepanthe was babbling all the news since his capture. It piled up dizzyingly. She and Ethrian had been kidnapped by agents of Shinsan? Possibly by Chin, his supposed rescuer. Though he tried, he couldn't make the evidence of his own kidnapping indict Chin. If the Tervola had stacked it against Haroun, he had stacked it perfectly. The accusation against Bragi could be due to misinformation....
When it came to question time he told the exact truth. All he held back was his feeling that it hadn't ended, that he still had to make up his mind which way to jump.
For the moment he leaned toward his old companions, despite bin Yousif's apparent perfidy. He could be on Bragi's side without being on Haroun's.
"Get those lazy bastards rowing," Bragi yelled at Reskird. "Damn." He slapped at a mosquito. It was everybody's hobby. "Let's get some miles behind us before those clowns change their minds."
Mocker frowned puzz.ledly.
"Stealing a march, old buddy. One from Haroun's book. Kind of hate doing it to Aristithorn. He's not a bad guy. The others.... They deserve whatever they get."
"Self, am wondering what old friend blathers about. Is getting more governmentalized all time, till cannot speak with meaning."
"I made a deal with the junta that took over when we got rid of the Fadema. We finished what we came for. We got Nepanthe. Only reason we've been hanging around is we couldn't get out. So I told them, let us go home, we'll leave without bothering you anymore. If they didn't, I'd whip on them from behind the whole time they were trying to handle Necremnos. Argon's in a bad way. They'd didn't have muchchoice. My boys have been turning them every way but loose. They didn't have any stomach left for storming the Fadem, against my bows, with the Necremnens behind them. So they agreed. Ahring and TennHorst are moving out already.
"Of course, if they saw a chance to plunder us back, they'd jump on it. So hurry, damnit, Reskird."
"What about Necremnens?" Mocker asked.
Ragnarson grinned. "Their bad luck. They didn't show up because we needed help. They came to plunder. And they'd jump us too, if they thought they could get away with it. Old Pthothor hedged every time I tried to pin him down about designating plunder areas."
"Old friend is right. Trick is worthy of Haroun."
"Think they'll report to Pthothor?" Haaken asked after they debarked and joined the escort Ahring had left for them. The Necremnen rivermen were wasting no time heading upstream.
"Not unless he heads them off," Bragi replied. "Those boys are scared. They're homeward bound."
Later, as they hurried along a road raised above rice paddies, Visigodred's roc made a clumsy landing a few hundred yards ahead. Marco tumbled off, landed with a hearty splash and heartier cursing. He came boiling up the embankment, blood in his eye. He fell back. Sputtering, he tried again.
"Goddamned overgrown buzzard, you did that on purpose. We're gonna bring this pimple to a head. You're lower than snake puke, you know that, you big-ass vulture?"
He slipped again. Splash!
"Throw him a rope," Ragnarson suggested.
The bird quietly preened, ignoring everyone.
"I'm gonna carve out your gizzard and make me giblet stew," Marco promised. Soldiers helped him dry off. He bowed mockingly toward Ragnarson.
"Got a word for you, chief," he said. "And that's get your butt home. That creep Badalamen is kicking ass all over Hammad al Nakir. And El Murid told him to wale on Kavelin next." He snatched a lance from,-a trooper, rushed the bird, whacked it between the eyes. "Listen, bird, if I wasn't allergic to walking...."
Ragnarson waved his companions past and hurried onward. Marco was still cursing when they passed out of earshot.
The army gulped huge distances daily. Ragnarson walked himself, to demonstrate that anyone could manage. The columnbecame strung out. Plains riders came for a look, but withdrew when they saw the Thing and the Egg prowling the column's flanks.
Ragnarson halted near Throyes, sent a party to the city for supplies, and to inform the Throyens of Varthlokkur's presence. The Throyens might have been tempted otherwise. The loot of the Fadem was considerable.