“By my father’s white beard, it’s never Eddis, is it?” Jerdren strode over to clap her on the shoulder. “I haven’t seen you since…” He considered this and shrugged it aside.
“Since the ale house in Lower Vale,” Eddis said, mildly enough. “The one where you and those two village louts got in a fight over the barmaid and got all of us tossed out.”
“Why—so it was.” He seemed surprised by this, then grinned again. “But I didn’t get you tossed out, Eddis! Hey, no, you punched that red-faced brother of hers in the—”
“I didn’t punch him until he grabbed my—never mind.” Eddis scowled up at him. “Damn all, Jers, why is it that every other time we run into each other, you’ve either been in a fight or are about to pick one? Not just Lower Vale, but Hillside, Rivers-Edge and Bally?”
She slapped the table, lowered her voice as M’Baddah touched the back of her near hand. “Sorry, M’Baddah. All the same, you’re a curse, Jerdren, that’s what you are. And frankly, if you plan on starting a fight here, or even if you don’t plan one…” She drew a deep breath and let it out in a hard gust. “Well, you’d better find someplace else to sit, or I swear I’ll—”
“Ouch,” Blorys put in wryly and offered her a shy grin.
Eddis glanced at him and fought a sudden smile. Poor man, shackled to a crazy brother like Jers.
“Fights?” Jerdren’s sandy red eyebrows went up. “Why would I start a fight in the Keep? There are rules, right? Only a fool would do that, right?”
Blorys cast his eyes up. Jerdren shrugged and smiled cheerfully.
“So, that’s settled. Eddis, you look gorgeous as always, and I’m tame today, I promise you, so is there room enough here for Blor and me to join you? We haven’t talked in a while, you know.”
Eddis edged over toward M’Baddah. Jerdren grabbed two empty stools, while his brother went for a jug of wine and cups. “How long’ve you been here?”
“An hour or so,” she said. “You?”
“Got in around midday.”
Eddis sighed heavily. “I should’ve known that was you. Had a little trouble on the way, did you?” she said sourly. “And left a nasty mess behind?”
“Huh?” He stared blankly. “Oh. Were the bodies still there?”
“One dead horse count? Also, lots of blood?”
“Not my fault,” Jerdren said dryly. “You cut ’em to keep from getting cut by ’em, and they bleed. Fact of life.”
He took a cup of wine from Blorys, drank deeply, wiped his mouth on the back of his hand, and gave her a cheerful grin. “Just trying to leave a clear road for you, Eddis.”
“Yah,” she scoffed. “Hello, Blorys. How’s the road?”
Blorys smiled. “Same as always. This last caravan was pleasant enough. One before that, seems we fought someone or something off every single day. One before that, up on the Holderin foothills, river flooded and took half our camp downstream.”
“Old business,” Jerdren said, impatiently. “Same as always, same as last year, and same as the next, probably.” He seemed to come to some decision, drank quickly, and set the cup aside. “Listen, Eddis,” he said crisply. “You’re just the person I wanted to talk to.”
“Me? Why?”
“Why not?”
She held up a hand for silence and began turning down digits. “Back up north, just before that fight over the barmaid, there was something about hidden gold. About half a year before that, something about cleaning bandits out of a village. Then there was Inner Dell and the—oh, never mind!” Eyes narrowed, she leaned on her elbows and glared at him. “I know that look, Jerdren. It means you’ve come up with something complicated, possibly dangerous, and probably unlawful. Well, not me, not anywhere, but definitely not here in the Keep!”
“But—!”
“Jerdren, they’ll lock you up here and toss the key over the walls if you steal from a shop. One of your schemes would probably get us all tossed over the walls!”
Blorys gave Eddis a tired look. “Sorry. I knew he was up to something, but he wouldn’t tell me.”
“Told you I would, soon as we found someone—well, like Eddis. Didn’t I? Just wanted to tell it once, that’s all.” He turned back to Eddis and smiled.
She edged back on her stool and eyed him sidelong. “Save the charm, Jerdren. You aren’t luring me into one of your schemes.”
“Scheme? But Eddis, this is official business!”
“Sure. Look, just tell me, I’ll say no, and we can go our separate ways.”
“She’s got a good point, Brother,” Blorys said pointedly. “Tell us, all right?”
The older man grinned widely. “Okay. We got in a while back, and I settled with the clients, then went to unsaddle while Blor got us cots. So, I’m coming out and ran right into Mebros. Remember, Blor? Used to be on the gates, short man, pale beard. Watch captain these days—so, anyway, I told him about our little fight out there on the road.”
“I thought,” Blorys broke in, “that we were leaving that until after we’d had a chance to clean up.”
“Well, he was there, and I know him. Anyway, Lhodis and his people weren’t going to keep quiet about the fight, were they? And Mebros wasn’t surprised. Seems there’s a band of robbers holed up somewhere close by. Of course,” Jerdren shrugged, “there’s always been a few men here and there, but since midsummer, they’ve attacked when and wherever they feel like it. Ten days ago, they took a gem merchant’s wife hostage, took all his money, then forced him to come here to collect the stones as her ransom.”
M’Baddah stirred. “What did they do?”
“The Keep men? What could they do, not knowing where the woman was? The merchant lost his money and his gems both, but at least he got his woman back.” Jerdren shook his head. “They know the guard here can’t chase ’em down, whatever dirty tricks they pull. These days, there are barely enough soldiers here to man the walls. The castellan runs what patrols he can, but—”
Eddis leaned forward. “You’re telling me they’re just going to get away with it?” she demanded. “Because if they do, then what’s next?”
Jerdren’s eyes were very bright. “Well, you know, that was my thought exactly, Eddis. It seems the castellan is going to put out the word for volunteers—heroes, Mebros says—to find that bandit camp and destroy it!”
3
Blorys sighed wearily, breaking the startled silence that followed his brothers words. “Jers, you’re mad.”
“Mad? Why?”
The younger man merely shook his head.
“All right, Blor, it may be only another Keep rumor, but if someone’s going to hunt down these bandits, why not us? We did all right this morning, didn’t we?”
“Against a band of poorly trained, ragged men like that, we did.”
“We were still outnumbered,” Jerdren reminded him, “and set on by surprise.” He drank wine, set the cup down, and began turning it between square, freckled hands, his eyes absently fixed on the contents. “Could be you’re right, Blor. I am getting bored with the same routine, year in and year out. Sure, it takes a good man to plan a journey across the realm, especially out to the borderlands, to bring a caravan through safely.”
“Or woman,” Eddis remarked dryly. Jerdren gazed at her blankly and finally shrugged.
“Oh—right,” he said.
“Look,” Blorys said, “Mebros’ always been one for spinning a good yarn. How do you know this isn’t another of them?”
“Could be,” Jerdren allowed, “but I don’t think so. He got it direct from one of the men who watches the inner gates, and that fellow is good friends with one of the castellan’s personal guard. That’s not the same as market rumor, is it?”