Blorys eyed him tiredly. “You’re still as much for it as ever, aren’t you?”
“Didn’t listened to what Eddis read just now, did you?” Jerdren countered cheerfully. He settled his shoulders against the mantle and gazed around the room. “Now—ah, Eddis, you’ve your own decision to make on this. And I’m not pushing you for any word tonight. So far’s I’m concerned, it’s the same deal as we made last time. Equal shares in decisions and responsibility, and equal shares to everyone of whatever treasure we find.”
“If I say yes,” Eddis replied, “and that’s only after M’Baddah and M’Whan and I have time to talk it over privately. That will only be after we’ve gathered as much information as we can tomorrow. This—” she tapped the nearest scroll—“is fine, so far as it goes, but it’s still too much ‘they say’ for my taste.”
“No need for anyone to decide tonight, then,” Jerdren replied. “Sleep on it, all of you. We can meet early tomorrow in the tavern.”
“Preferably,” Eddis said, “after the taverner’s had time to finish his bread and porridge and properly open the doors.”
“Huh?” Jerdren looked at her blankly. “We’ll decide who goes where, talks to whom, and once that’s done, we can meet again—late afternoon, maybe. We should know pretty well by then where we stand, I’d say.”
Eddis glanced at Blorys, who gave her a faint smile in reply.
“And then, since Ferec’s being generous with weapons and supplies again, we can get going on lists of what we’ll need, how many of us there’ll be, and so on. Only a fool’d go after monsters in caves with one decent sword if someone’d buy him a second to keep it company.”
“We’d want warmer clothing, decent food, plenty of lanterns, charms for making light and making fire,” Blorys said. He sounded resigned.
“Extra water bottles and plenty of travel rations,” one of the Keep men put in.
“And plenty more volunteers,” Jerdren finished.
“We could use someone who’s good at planning battles inside caverns, Jers,” Blorys said. “Last time you and I did that, we were following someone else’s orders, and that’s been a while ago. We have you two, for seeing far in the dark.” He indicated Mead and Willow with a nod. “If you decide to come along, of course. I’m thinking back to when we fought up north, and I’m saying dwarves.”
Jerdren frowned. “Dwarves? Why?”
“Because that kind of fighting is what they’re best at.”
“Dwarves,” Jerdren said again, darkly. “Doesn’t matter. Not likely you’ll find any around here.”
One of the Keep men cleared his throat. “Um, actually, there’s a pair of ’em came in just after we went out, down the walls. They were pretty beat up, from what I hear. Might not want to go anywhere, but just maybe …”
“Great,” Jerdren muttered. “Dwarves no one knows, dwarves no one here can vouch for, and wounded to boot.”
Eddis glanced at Blorys, question in her eyes.
He shook his head minutely and mouthed, “Tell you later.”
“Jers,” he said. “The dwarves who tried to betray us—that was an isolated incident, a clan that had been so ill-treated by men that it’s no surprise to me they turned to evil and joined the orcs. They’d been tortured, remember?”
“They said they had,” Jerdren replied.
“Why would they have lied about it? Doesn’t matter, though, Brother. These won’t be the same dwarves. I’m at least willing to talk to them without judging them by others of their kind.” Stubborn silence. “You know how angry you used to get when one of the officers looked at you and you could tell what he was thinking—‘Villager, country boy, common lout. Maybe he’s smarter than the deer he hunts, but probably not by much.’ Now listen to you!”
Jerdren’s mouth quirked. “All right, Blor, I know. I just… doesn’t matter. Each of you think about this tonight. If you want it, any of you, so far as I’m concerned, you’re in. Think about what you’d want for extra weapons and supplies, what we’ll all need.”
“Maybe,” Eddis replied sourly. “Personally, all I’m planning on is a decent night’s sleep. I don’t know when you slept last night, Jerdren, but I’m a much nicer woman to deal with when I’ve had a full night of unbroken sleep.”
“Fine. That’s it then. We’re done here?” He went to the door and knocked. One of the guards ushered them into the hall and another came from the head of the stairs to escort them down and turn them over to the main-floor guards.
There was no sign of the master and even less light along the walls. Somewhere in the distance, Eddis could hear someone snoring lustily. Sleep, she thought. I’m half sick for it. Until she’d had several hours of oblivion on that nice, soft pallet back at the inn, she wouldn’t give any further thought to this mad notion of the castellan’s—or Jerdren’s.
Jerdren, predictably, had the last word as they parted outside the tavern. Some of the Keep men had gone off to their barracks, and the elves were heading for the inn. M’Baddah and his son had already gone, and Blorys had followed the other Keep men into the tavern to secure a table and order wine.
“One more thing,” he said.
Eddis fought a yawn. “A quick one more thing,” she said. “I meant that about sleep.”
“Well, all right. One person I’ve already decided we need, if we can get him. I don’t know if you’ve battled in caves, gone looking for things hiding in them…”
She shook her head.
“Elves and dwarves are useful for seeing in the gloom, and Blor’s right, most dwarves are born to that kind of fighting. But when you’re up against foul things living in dark, twisty places, and they’ve been there a long time…”
“There’s a point here?” she asked as he hesitated.
“Thing is, we used the fellers back in the army as well, and dursed useful they were.”
Silence. She folded her arms and waited.
“Well, thieves. Remember that long-fingered lad who snipped your purse and nearly made off with it? That one—he’s good, Eddis. We could use him. And I wager if we asked nice, old Ferec would make us a present of him. Dungeons are rather full just now anyway, aren’t they?”
Before she could think of anything to say to this outrageous proposition, he smiled and strode into the tavern. A roar of excitement filled the room.
“I’m not going anywhere with him,” Eddis snarled under her breath, “because I’m going to murder him!”
She turned and stalked off to the private room she shared with Blot. Halfway there, she slowed her pace and began counting, up to ten and back down again, until her fit of temper eased. The poor child was no doubt still in terror of her. Not point in scaring her worse than she already was. Gods, she thought suddenly. If for some fool’s reason I do decide to take on this mad venture, what ever will we do with that child?
11
Eddis woke with a start in the gray light of early day. The small sleeping room she ordinarily enjoyed so much all at once felt confining. I dreamed of caves, she thought, and shuddered. She tried to remember anything about the dream but couldn’t except a sense of dread and darkness. Well, it wasn’t dark here and now, but the room was overly warm and stuffy. The wind, if any, wasn’t blowing through the window slit, as it usually did at this hour. After so many nights of sleeping in the open, it was small wonder she’d had bad dreams about close places.
Eddis edged onto one elbow. The door was still barred from the inside and there, on the floor, she could make out a small huddle of blanket just under the window. Blot slept, so far as she could tell.
Gods, she thought in sudden panic. What are we—what am I to do with a child? A half-grown girl who’s been ill-treated by hard men all her life? A child who barely trusted her and was afraid of everyone else except M’Baddah? She sighed quietly. Worse yet, if M’Baddah, M’Whan, and I decide not to go back to guiding, if we take up this new fight…. It’s astonishing she survived so long in a robber’s den. She wouldn’t stand a chance in those caves, but how could we simply leave her here? There are good, honest people here, and they’d do their best by her, but they’d never understand her. All she’d know is that M’Baddah befriended her when we took her away from the only life she ever knew—and then we abandoned her.