The man was over six feet, maybe thirty. He moved lithely even in his weariness. He had muscles on muscles. His tattered shirt revealed arms and chest crisscrossed with scars. His face was empty of emotion. He met my gaze as he approached the fire, neither smiling nor betraying unfriendly intent.
Chill touched me, lightly. He looked tough, but not tough enough to negotiate the Plain of Fear alone.
First order of business would be to stall. Otto was due out to relieve me soon. The fire would alert him. He would see the stranger, then duck down and rouse the Hole. "Hello," I said.
He halted, exchanged glances with his mongrel. The dog came forward slowly, sniffing the air, searching the surrounding night. It stopped a few feet away, shook as though wet, settled on its belly.
The stranger came forward just that far. "Take a load off," I invited.
He swung his saddle down, lowered his case, sat. He was stiff. He had trouble crossing his legs. "Lose your horse?"
He nodded. "Broke a leg. West of here, five, six miles. I lost the trail."
There are trails through the Plain. Some of them the Plain honors as safe. Sometimes. According to a formula known only to its denizens. Only someone desperate or stupid hazards them alone, though. This fellow did not look like an idiot.
The dog made a whuffling sound. The man scratched its ears.
"Where you headed?" "Place called the Fastness."
That is the legend-name, the propaganda name, for the Hole. A calculated bit of glamor for the troops in faraway places. "Name?"
"Tracker. This is Toadkiller Dog." "Pleased to meet you, Tracker. Toadkiller." The dog grumbled. Tracker said, "You have to use his whole name. Toadkiller Dog."
I kept a straight face only because he was such a big, grim, tough-looking man. "What's this Fastness?" I asked. "I never heard of it."
He lifted hard, dark eyes from the mutt, smiled. "I've heard it lies near Tokens."
Twice in one day? Was it the day of twos? No. Not bloody likely. I did not like the look of the man, either. Reminded me too much of our one-time brother Raven. Ice and iron. I donned my baffled face. It is a good one. "Tokens? That's a new one on me. Must be somewhere way the hell out east. What are you headed there for, anyway?"
He smiled again. His dog opened one eye, gave me a baleful look. They did not believe me.
"Carrying messages."
"I see."
"Mainly a packet. Addressed to somebody named Croaker."
I sucked spittle between teeth, slowly scanned the surrounding darkness. The circle of light had shrunk, but the number of menhirs remained undiminished. I wondered about One-Eye and Goblin. "Now there's a name I've heard," I said. "Some kind of sawbones." Again the dog gave me that look. This time, I decided, it was sarcastic.
One-Eye stepped out of the darkness behind Tracker, sword ready to do the dirty deed. Damn, but he came quiet. Witchery or no.
I gave him away with a flicker of surprise. Tracker and his dog looked back. Both were startled to see someone there. The dog rose. Its hackles lifted. Then it sank to the ground again, having twisted till it could keep us both in sight.
But then Goblin appeared, just as quietly. I smiled. Tracker glanced over. His eyes narrowed. He looked thoughtful, like a man discovering he was in a card game with rogues sharper than he had expected. Goblin chuckled. "He wants in, Croaker. I say we take him down."
Tracker's hand twitched toward the case he had carried. His animal growled. Tracker closed his eyes. When they opened, he was in control. His smile returned. "Croaker, eh? Then I've found the Fastness."
"You've found it, friend."
Slowly, so as not to alarm anyone, Tracker took an oilskin packet from his saddlebag. It was the twin of that I had received only half a day before. He offered it to me. I tucked it inside my shirt. "Where'd you get it?"
"Oar." He told the same story as the other messenger.
I nodded. "You've come that far, then?"
"Yes."
"We should take him in, then," I told One-Eye. He caught my meaning. We would let this messenger come face to face with the other. See if sparks flew. One-Eye grinned.
I glanced at Goblin. He approved.
None of us felt quite right about Tracker. I am not sure why.
"Let's go," I said. I hoisted myself off the ground with my bow.
Tracker eyed the stave. He started to say something, shut up. As though he recognized it. I smiled as I turned away. Maybe he thought he had fallen foul of the Lady. "Follow me."
He did. And Goblin and One-Eye followed him, neither helping with his gear. His dog limped beside him, nose to the ground. Before we went inside, I glanced southward, concerned. When would Elmo come home?
We put Tracker and mutt into a guarded cell. They did not protest. I went to my quarters after wakening Otto, who was overdue. I tried to sleep, but that damned packet lay on the table screaming.
I was not sure I wanted to read its contents.
It won the battle.
Chapter Seven: THE SECOND LETTER
Croaker:
Bomanz peered through his transit, sighting on the prow of the Great Barrow. He stepped back, noted the angle, opened one of his crude field maps. This was where he had unearthed the TelleKurre axe. "Wish Occules' descriptions weren't so vague. This must have been the flank of their formation. The axis of their line should have paralleled the others, so. Shifter and the knights would have bunched up over there. I'll be damned."
The ground there humped slightly. Good. Less ground water to damage buried artifacts. But the overgrowth was dense. Scrub oak. Wild roses. Poison ivy. Especially poison ivy. Bomanz hated that pestilential weed. He started scratching just thinking about it.
"Bomanz."
"What?" He whirled, raising his rake.
"Whoa! Take it easy, Bo."
"What's the matter with you? Sneaking up like that. Ain't funny, Besand. Want me to rake that idiot grin off your face?"
"Ooh! Nasty today, aren't we?" Besand was a lean old man approximately Bomanz's age. His shoulders slumped, following his head, which thrust forward as though he was sniffing a trail. Great blue veins humped the backs of his hands. Liver spots dotted his skin.
"What the hell do you expect? Come jumping out of the bushes at a man."
"Bushes? What bushes? Your conscience bothering you, Bo?"
"Besand, you've been trying to trap me since the moon was green. Why don't you give up? First Jasmine gives me a hard way to go, then Tokar buys me out so I have to go digging fresh stock, and now I have to dance with you? Go away. I'm not in the mood."
Besand grinned a big, lopsided grin, revealing pickets of rotten teeth. "I haven't caught you, Bo, but that don't mean you're innocent. It just means I never caught you."
"If I'm not innocent, you must be damned stupid not to catch me in forty years. Damn, man, why the hell can't you make life easy for both of us?"
Besand laughed. "Real soon now I'll be out of your hair for good. They're putting me out to pasture."
Bomanz leaned on his rake, considered the Guardsman. Besand exuded a sour odor of pain. "Really? I'm sorry."
"Bet you are. My replacement might be smart enough to catch you."
"Give it a rest. You want to know what I'm doing? Figuring where the TelleKurre knights went down. Tokar wants spectacular stuff. That's the best I can do. Short of going over there and giving you an excuse to hang me. Hand me that dowser."
Besand passed the divining rod. "Mound robbing, eh? Tokar suggest that?"
Icy needles burrowed into Bomanz's spine. This was more than a casual question. "We have to do this constantly? Haven't we known each other long enough to do without the cat-and-mouse?"
"I enjoy it, Bo." Besand trailed him to the overgrown hummock. "Going to have to clear this out. Just can't keep up anymore. No; enough men, not enough money."