It was neither. The white-faced fool popped his head inside. “Can I come in?”
“Certainly,” Rosha called. “C-c-come on in, c-clown.”
Carlad looked at his smiling charge, and hid his own snicker.
“I’ve come to give you a lesson.”
MW-w-wonderful. I’m ready t-t-to d-d-do m-m-m-my b-best.”
Carlad groaned, and the fool looked over at him. “What’s wrong?”
Fallomar asked. The guard shook his head, and waved off the question.
“C-c-can you r-r-really m-make m-me t-t-talk like a m-member of the c-c-c-c—”
Carlad groaned again, more loudly, and once again Fallomar looked over at him. “Are you ill?”
“Yes, C-a-car lad are you s-s-s-s ”
“Am I really going to have to sit and listen to this?” the guard demanded of Rosha.
“Why, whatever d-d-do you m-m-m ”
“Come on!” Carlad pleaded, and he leaned against the wall and shrugged at the fool. “He’s trying to drive me crazy!”
“Who c-c-could t-t-tell?”
“You see?” the guard asked Fallomar.
“You know, you c-c-could always eh-chain me to this c-c-c-c—”
“Chain you to the clown, yeah, yeah,” Carlad sighed. “Then in walks my sergeant, and what does he say?”
“P-probably couldn’t tell the difference’ Rosha cackled.
“All right. All right. I’ve had enough of this,” Carlad announced, fighting a laugh of his own.
“Why don’t you chain me to him?” asked the fool. “You could lock the door from the outside and take a break ”
“I can’t believe you!” Carlad shouted, staring at Fallomar in surprise. “Yesterday this man was trying to kill you, and you want to be chained to him?”
The fool gazed at him a moment, then raised his eyebrows. “Good point.
But ah he could have, and didn’t.”
“That doesn’t mean he won’t! Listen, I’ve been around this fellow long enough to know, and believe me ”
“C-come on, C-car lad Leave m-m-me with him!” Rosha smiled a tight, treacherous smile, clearly visible to the guard under the edge of his hood. “Just for a few moments…”
Carlad looked at Rosha, then at the fool, then turned his face away to smirk at the wall. That was it! Rosha had changed his mind, and wanted a couple of minutes with this white-faced idiot in private.
“That’s why the speech lessons,” he murmured in Rosha’s ear.
“That’s right…” Rosha whispered back.
“What? What’s that you’re talking about?” asked Fallomar, feigning ignorance.
“Well, I don’t imagine it would hurt to leave for just a little while.”
Carlad smiled. “Wouldn’t hurt me, anyway…”
“Fine Carlad, then get I’m-m-mean, g-g-g-go ahead…”
The guard stifled his chuckle as he unlocked his own waist shackle and fastened it around the fool’s hips. “Have fun,” he said as he skipped out the door and locked it behind him.
They were silent for a moment, leaning together against the wall.
Pelmen broke it.
“Great performance. Want to join an acting troupe?”
“Any chance we could get out right now?”
“Not much. Not since we’re chained together and locked inside as well.”
“Keep your voice low,” Rosha advised. “Carlad says there are secret passageways all through this place.”
“He’s right, but at the moment Joss is still somewhere north of the city, and I left Ligne at the Drax table.”
“Ligne!” Rosha spat.
“A devious woman.” Pelmen nodded.
“Would you get this thing off my head?” Rosha pleaded, and in minutes the leather hood was unbuckled and tossed onto the floor. Rosha squinted at the glare, even though the room was lighted only by a single torch.
“Feel better?” Pelmen asked after a moment.
“Much. So when do we get out of here?”
That depends.”
“On what?”
“On where Bronwynn is, for one thing.”
“Bronwynn! Where is she?”
“If I knew that, I might be able to plan better! I don’t.”
“She’s not dead…” Rosha asked uncertainly.
“We’ll hope not. No, I fear she’s in the dungeon below us.”
Rosha stared at him. “Ligne’s said nothing to ”
“But she wouldn’t be likely to, either. Would she?”
“I’d expect her to kill Bronwynn, not imprison her.”
“That’s a possibility.” Pelmen sighed. “But, we don’t know. I’d like to search the dungeon.”
She’s not there, announced the Imperial House. Nobody listened. Nobody ever listened. It went back to cursing a green-jay.
“How do you intend to do that, since you Ve become such a close friend of the Queen?”
“I’m going to depend on you to distract her.”
“Me?” Rosha asked. “How am I going to distract the old witch?”
“By pretending you like her.”
There was a brief pause before the explosion. “What!” the young warrior screamed. Carlad, outside the door, chuckled to himself, imagining it to be the fool’s death cry.
“Somehow, I expected that would be your reaction…” Pelmen sighed.
The WiaarJ in Waiting
“Ask something else, anything, but don’t ask me to do that!”
“Not even to provide rescue for your Lady?”
“We don’t even know she’s in the dungeon!”
“And if she is?”
Rosha’s pained expression reflected the battle going on inside him.
“Come, Pelmen, don’t ”
“Fallomar,” the fool broke in quickly. “I am always Fallomar. Remember it.”
“Got it.” Rosha sighed, then he leaned back against the wall and shook his head. “I don’t know if I can,” he mumbled.
“Stiffen up, mod Dorlyth,” Pelmen said quietly. “Being a hero demands many kinds of courage.”
“Oh, but you don’t know that woman!” Rosha groaned.
“I’m coming to know her better and better,” Pelmen whispered harshly.
“And learning to loathe her more. Time, Rosha. I need time to go below.”
Rosha sighed. “I’ll… try.”
“And keep up that stutter in her presence perhaps it will discourage her.”
“That’s simple enough. When she gets too close, it comes back on its own.”
Carlad pounded on the door. “Rosha! You finished with him yet?”
“Ah hold on!” Rosha called. “What about the hood?” he asked Pelmen.
“You want it back on?”
“Are you joking?”
“Then I’ll take it with me. Wear it into Ligne’s presence and tell her I stole it from you to get her attention. With you warming up to her, she’ll not put it back on you.”
“I don’t know how I can…”
“Duck your head, and call the guard back.”
“Carlad!” Rosha called, and the guard came back into the room, grinning. He stopped when he saw the fool’s face still intact.
“Come on, man, set me free!” Fallomar ordered as he jumped to his feet and stretched the chain to its full length.
“I expected ”
“I know what you expected, but I talked him out of it! Now, get me loose before be changes his mind!”
“Just as well,” Carlad mumbled as he rushed to unlock the shackle. He didn’t want his sergeant walking in while the exchange was taking place. “Would have been difficult to explain.”
Fallomar stayed to help Carlad chain himself back in. Then he skipped toward the door, pausing only to scoop the hood up off the floor before dashing out
“Hunh?” Carlad shouted. He twisted around to look Rosha full in the face for the first time.
“So that’s what you look like,” the young warrior smiled at the astonished guard.
He’s got your hood!” Carlad shouted, and he bolted toward the door.