“How will your master feel about a halfing bathing in his pond?” Rikus asked.
Caro watched Anezka’s small form slip beneath a lily pad, then smiled crookedly. “Don’t worry about my master,” the dwarf said. “If we wanted to, we could drink the last drop of his wine and swim in his pond for days. He’d never say a word to us, I promise.”
“Then here’s to Agis of Asticles. May his fortunes prosper!” Neeva said, raising her goblet. When Caro did not match the gesture, the woman asked. “What’s wrong? It’s only proper to drink to your host’s health.”
“To toast him would be to toast my bondage,” the dwarf replied, his face unreadable.
“There are worse things than this sort of bondage,” Neeva said, waving her hand around the lavish courtyard. “This is paradise!”
“Compared to our slave pits, perhaps,” Rikus allowed, rolling his crystal goblet between two grimy fingers. “But slavery is slavery. I doubt that Caro’s master views him much differently than be does this colonnade or his house. It’s all property.”
Caro nodded. “I couldn’t have put it better, my friend.”
“Forget I offered that toast,” Neeva said, starting to empty her glass on the ground.
Rikus grasped her wrist. “Don’t waste the wine!” he said. “Slaves get too little of it. We just have to think of something better to toast.”
Caro lifted his glass. “To your freedom,” he said.
All three of them downed their wine in a single gulp. The dwarf refilled their glasses, then casually tossed the empty carafe into the pool. It landed on a lily pad and came to a rest in the center of the enormous leaf.
“Have you given thought to where you’ll go from here?” Caro asked.
Rikus nodded. “After we find Sadira, we’ll join a slave tribe,” the mul said.
“I’m afraid you may have to wait for quite some time before you speak to Sadira,” Caro replied. “She’s with Lord Agis in the city, and I don’t know when they’ll return. Perhaps you should leave the message with me. I’ll see that she gets it.”
Rikus shook his head. “We’ll have to wait-”
“We can’t wait long,” Neeva interrupted. “The cilops are probably already on our trail. If we’re going to have any chance of escaping, we’ve got to keep moving-and get to the mountains before they catch us.”
“It’s not fair to burden Caro with this particular message,” Rikus said.
Neeva met Rikus’s eyes evenly. “Tithian’s spy is watching Sadira. If Caro’s here and Sadira’s in Tyr, then Caro can’t be the spy, can he?”
“Spy?” Caro gasped, his jaw dropping. A moment later, he closed his mouth again. “How did you find out there’s a spy in my master’s household?”
“That’s a long story not worth the telling,” Rikus said, far from anxious to dredge up memories of Yarig’s death by discussing the gaj. “If you’ll tell us where your master and Sadira are, we might reach her before we go to the mountains.”
“I’m afraid it would be impossible to find them. The last time I saw my master and Sadira, they were going to a rendezvous. They never returned,” Caro explained, a sudden frown accentuating the deep crow’s feet around his eyes. “I’m afraid something may have happened to them.”
“We’re too late!” Rikus yelled, hurling his goblet across the pool. It smashed against the outer wall, causing a light tinkle of shattering glass to echo all around the colonnade.
Neeva reacted more calmly. “How long ago was this rendezvous?” she asked. “Where was it to take place?”
“Agis and Sadira disappeared three days ago,” Caro reported. “Neither would say where they were going, but both were acting rather nefarious about the whole thing. I suspect their destination was somewhere in the Elven Market.”
Rikus stood. “That’s where we’re going.”
The old dwarf slipped off the bench and dropped to the ground. “I have something in the house that might help you.”
“What?” Neeva asked.
Caro smiled. “It’s a surprise,” he said. “I’m sure you’ll find it quite remarkable.”
After the dwarf left, Rikus and Neeva retrieved the weapons they had stolen during the escape from Tithian’s estate. They secured the daggers to the belts of their breechcloths, then Rikus kneeled at the edge of the pool to catch Anezka’s attention.
Just as the mul glimpsed her form gliding toward him, several sets of thudding steps sounded outside the colonnade. Rikus looked up and saw the stout form of a half-giant blocking the arched entrance. His brown hair hung over his ears in long greasy strings, and he had a protruding brow set above a pair of drooping eyes. The half-giant wore a purple tunic emblazoned with Kalak’s golden star, and in one hand he carried a polished bone club taller than a dwarf. The guard’s thighs were as big around as the pillars of the colonnade, and he had to stoop to keep from scraping his head on the ceiling.
“In the name of King Kalak, stand where you are!” the half-giant bellowed. His voice rumbled over the still waters of the pond and echoed off the opposite wall encircling the colonnade. As the guard lumbered toward the bridge, another half-giant, a little stockier and shorter than the first, stepped into the entrance.
Anezka briefly stuck her head up from between a pair of the lilypads. When she saw Rikus’s shocked expression and the half-giant guards, she slipped back beneath the water and disappeared beneath the floating leaves.
“Neeva!” called Rikus, returning to his feet. “Hand me the-”
The mul had spoken too late. Even as he reached for the spear, it whistled past his head. The shaft took the first half-giant square in the rib cage and sank to half its length. The guard dropped to his knees, then pitched forward onto his face.
The second guard began to climb over the still body of the first. A third half-giant moved through the entrance and, upon seeing the blockage ahead, circled around the other way.
Rikus searched the area beneath the bower for something to use as a weapon. Both he and Neeva had obsidian daggers, but the knives did not seem like effective weapons against half-giants.
When the mul’s eye fell on the bench, an idea occurred to him. He gave his dagger to Neeva, then nodded toward the closest half-giant. Rikus did not need to say a word for his fighting partner to know he wanted her to cover the attack he was about to make.
The second half-giant finished climbing over his dead comrade, then stepped onto the bridge. Rikus wrapped his massive arms around the bench and picked it up, groaning with the effort. He turned toward the bridge. The half-giant stepped a third of the way across in one stride. “Stop!” he cried.
Rikus charged, holding the bench like a battering ram. The half-giant grinned and lifted his club.
From behind the mul, Neeva’s dagger flashed overhead in a black streak. It hit the guard in the brow, striking hilt-first. It bounced harmlessly away and landed on a lily pad with a hollow thump. Nevertheless, the attack served its function-stunning the half-giant long enough to keep him from swinging his club before Rikus drove the end of the bench into the guard’s chest.
A great crack sounded from the half-giant’s sternum. A heavy groan escaped his lips. He whirled his arms, and his club went crashing into the bower. With a tremendous bellow, the guard fell backward, slamming into a pillar. The marble column broke into three pieces, and the half-giant landed among the sections, cursing and vowing vengeance.
As the guard started to sit up, the roof collapsed, dumping half a ton of rubble on his head. His death cries were lost amid the thunderous clatter.
Rikus dropped the bench and turned around. He saw that the third half-giant had decided against the bridge and was approaching the patio through the pond. Neeva already faced him. Armed only with a dagger, she was moving forward to meet him at the edge of the island.
To one side of the bridge, Anezka emerged from the water long enough to grab the dagger that had fallen on the lily pad. Guessing that she intended to attack from under the water, Rikus retrieved the second half-giant’s club and stepped to his fighting partner’s side. When Neeva lifted her arm to throw her remaining dagger, Rikus laid a restraining hand on her wrist.