That was my Amber, keeping up with the metals market despite everything.
"Who did the buying?"
She handed me a list.
"Interesting. The top name here, Lyman Gameleon, is down for a hundred twenty thousand at the maximum discount. Gameleon is one of our big-three suspects."
Even that didn't rock Willa Dount. She said only, "It was an emergency and I went where I had to go to get enough gold. The Stormwarden has examined the accounts of these transactions and expressed no disapproval."
A thought. Maybe even an inspiration. "Do you recall the dates and times of the transactions, Amber?" She had not noted those.
"No. Should I go get them?"
Willa Dount said, "That won't be necessary. I remember." She rattled off every deal as though she was reading from the record. The timing made it conceivable that the deals themselves had initiated the chain of complications. Or, at least, could have led to intensive recomplication.
"Did Gameleon know what the gold was for?"
"Lord Gameleon, Garrett," Domina scolded.
"Look, I don't care if you call him Pinky Porker. Just answer the question."
"Yes. He had to be told before he'd deal."
I'd already established, to my own satisfaction, a link between Gameleon and Donni Pell. "Was that wise?"
"In retrospect, probably not. But at the time Lord Gameleon was a last resort."
"Hardly. But let's not fight about it. That's it for tonight."
"Tonight?"
"I'll need you again tomorrow. Early. We're all going to walk this through."
She gave me a puzzled look as she rose. What chicanery was I planning?
"Find the Baronet and send him in," I said.
I'd grown impatient and irritable by the time the door opened. And that opening didn't make anything better. Willa Dount and Raver Styx came in, the Stormwarden looking like one of the tempests she brewed. "Will you want to question the staff, Mr. Garrett?"
"Where's your husband?"
"I don't doubt the answer to that question would be quite interesting. He left the house shortly after you arrived. When last seen he was entering the house of Lord Gameleon, his half-brother, who lives across the street. Lord Gameleon admits that he was there earlier but denies that he is now. About the staff?"
There was no juice left. My candle had begun to gutter. "The hell with them. I can tie the knot on it without them. I'm going home to get some sleep. Meet me at my place at eight, ready for a trek upcountry. Don't let anybody else wander off. Make a production of leaving so anyone interested will know something is up."
"As you will, Mr. Garrett. That will be all for tonight, then, Willa."
I asked, "Amber, are you coming or staying?"
Staring at the floor, she replied, "I'll go with you. But I need to get some things first."
I guess that was as close as she could come to telling her mother to pick her nose with her elbow. The Stormwarden developed a severe tick in her left cheek but she said nothing. She understood battles lost as well as battles won. The first thing I did when we got to the house was write a letter to Morley Dotes. I had one of the neighbor kids deliver it. Then I brought the Dead Man up to date and feigned an effort to pry a few secrets out of him just to keep him feeling wanted. I joined Amber in the kitchen, where we shared one of Dean's finer productions. Then I stashed myself away for the night. My dreams, which I usually don't recall, weren't the kind I'll treasure forever.
______LI______
Dean rousted me out in plenty of time to get ready. We breakfasted well and packed our field rations. I took a look at my arsenal and picked a couple of lethal engines suitable for a lady. I made Amber practice with them until her mother's cavalcade arrived. A thoughtful woman, the Stormwarden. She had somehow ascertained that I didn't have transportation of my own. She rolled up with a coach, a carriage, and a spare horse. She was in the coach. Willa Dount was driving the carriage. Amber stepped up on the seat beside her. What a lighthearted and friendly drive that would be. I went around the front of the horse and looked him in the eye. He looked back. I saw none of the tribe's usual malice. He obviously hadn't heard of me. The Stormwarden had shown some sense in another direction. I had expected to have to nag her into sending her army home, but she'd brought only the two men atop her coach. I couldn't squawk about them.
I suppose when you're a Stormwarden, you only need guards for show.
"You lead the way," I told Domina Dount. Her face was old stone as she nodded and started her team. Amber settled facing backward when she saw that I would ride rearguard, though most of the time the Stormwarden's coach obscured our views of one another. Willa Dount set a brisk pace, occasionally slowing so her boss could catch up. I stayed fifty yards behind the coach. In the city I watched the citizenry watch it. In the country I watched farmers. And as we moved upcountry I kept mentally reviewing my maps. I didn't see a single place that looked suitable for what I suspected had happened. I thought about moving up beside Willa Dount. She might have given something away.
Sure. Like stones flinch.
But I had a reason for lying back.
Morley overtook me two-thirds of the way to the deadly crossroads. At that point the road passed among trees and travelers couldn't be watched from afar. He dared rein in and talk.
"They're back there," he told me. "Gameleon and six men. They won't be easy."
"They trying to catch up?"
"No."
"Good. We'll put everybody in the sack at once."
"You're crazy, Garrett. Seven of them and no telling what up ahead and you're talking like you've got them by the shorthairs?"
"All they've got is numbers. I've got a stormwarden. Hustle on up and tell Saucerhead."
Morley resumed his lone-rider act in a hurry. It was coming together beautifully. I just hoped I wouldn't be in the middle when it crunched.
I wasn't the most pleased of men when we reached the crossroads. 1 hadn't spotted one place that fulfilled the criteria for my concept of what had become of most of the ransom gold—though I'd seen a few side roads and whatnot that would later bear further examination. If there was a later. If Amber wasn't more defeatist than I was becoming. I made the mistake, for a short time, of thinking I saw a chance for the big hit. You don't want to fall into that trap. It can shatter your perspective. It can narrow your focus until the rest of the world slides out of touch.
"Hold up!" I yelled at Willa Dount. She had turned west without pausing. My fault. I hadn't told her we would be stopping. We got out of traffic's way. I dismounted. Where was Saucerhead? I'd expected him to be waiting. He stepped out of the woods on the south side of the road. From the corner of my eye 1 noted Willa Dount's surprise. I joined him. "What have we got?"
"You were right. She's down there."
"Alone?"
"Nope. Company, and plenty of it. One guy by himself showed up about midnight last night. Then a mob of ogre breeds got there just before I left."
"Skredli?"
He nodded.
"How many?"
"Fifteen."
"Crask and Sadler behaving?"
"They aren't stupid, Garrett. They know their limitations."
"I suppose. I'd better tell the Stormwarden. You scout out a workable approach?"
"Sure. What about those guys behind you?"
"They can take care of themselves." I waited while a string of goat carts trundled past, trotted to the Stormwarden's coach, and invited myself inside.
"Why have we stopped, Mr. Garrett?"
I explained. "I didn't expect it to turn into so large a party. Otherwise, everything's come together. Any suggestions?"
"The man who arrived last night. My husband?"