“Shut up. Get warm. Keep quiet,”
The pixie relaxed, her breast heaving a little as she was slowly drained of her fright. The Justicar had taken a knife and sawed the bottom off his own coarse tunic. He began cutting the cloth into a rough, pixie-sized dress, and looked damned annoyed to be doing so. The man’s armor hadbeen hung out so that its felt lining could dry.
Casting a quick eye left and right, the pixie quite suddenly felt safe. “Sure, I’ll keep quiet. My name is Escalla, by the way. That’sPrincess Escalla or Lady Escalla. Sometimes Your Highness or Brightflower Maid. Or-or a pet name? I mean, you could even give me a petname.”
The Justicar glared at his captive through cold, dark eyes. “Pixie.”
“Uh, yeah…”The girl tried to coax a little morecooperation out of her host. “Or maybe a more bonding kinda term?”
“How’s about fishbait?”
The pixie hastened to agree. “Endearing! I mean, a sense ofhumor is good. We can laugh together now, I can see that. We have a rapport!”Escalla blew a strand of stray hair away from her face. “But about the ‘pixie’thing. Funny thing is, most people look at me and say, ‘Ooh! Pixie!’ when I’mactually a faerie. I mean, a proper name for everything, and everything done properly. Am I right?”
Having finished a rough strip of cloth to serve as a pixie dress, the Justicar glowered at the girl and hissed, “I said quiet!”
He untied the girl from the stick, roughly wrapped her torso in coarse cloth, and tied the dress in place with woollen thread. Escalla began to say thank you, only to find herself immediately bound hand and foot again and threaded right back onto her stake beside the fire. She decided to glare in annoyance at the Justicar, watching him as he drew a fishing line from his pouch and sent a line trailing off into the water.
She considered changing shape into a snake and slithering from her bonds. Unfortunately, the hell hound skin lay propped on the ground a foot from her rear, and she could feel the creature grinning at her. The pixie tried surreptitiously picking at her ties until the Justicar came to sit directly in front of her and glare into her face.
“Speak. Who were you spying for?”
Escalla made a little wiggle-waggle of her head, and the Justicar frowned at her warningly.
“Well how can I tell you if I have to keep quiet?”
The huge warrior gleamed like a demon in the red light of the campfire.
“You will tell me who paid you to spy. Where were you sendingyour information?” The Justicar glared at the pixie and folded his arms. “Startnow.”
“Or you’ll what?” With a sudden, brilliant surge ofinspiration, Escalla gave a derisive toss of her hair. “You’re not going tostick me in that fire! I can tell. Oh yeah, you look tough, but there’sno way you are going to take a sleek, pretty, helpless young woman and simply burn her alive.” The pixie stuck out her tongue. “So I guess I’ll just keep mylittle secrets after all!”
The Justicar gave the faerie a level look, then picked her up, levered open Cinders’ jaws, and fed her feet first into the hell hound’smaw. He closed the hound’s jaws about her rump, then simply went back to tendinghis fire.
Sweating rather large, genteel beads of perspiration, the faerie tried to remain perfectly calm.
“Um, he still has a tongue in here, doesn’t he?”
Cinders gave a snigger, wig-waggling his ears.
Girlie taste good! The hell hound’s nostrils leakedsulphur into the air. Burn now?
“Oh, gods…” Wide-eyed, Escalla bit her upper lip andgave a dazed, measured little nod. “All right, I’m going to scream like a peeledweasel now. I just wanted to warn you that you’ve only brought this onyourselves.”
Escalla took a deep breath and suddenly began to shriek and thrash in abject terror. Her screams sent echoes shooting all across the swamp.
“Get me out! For the gods’ake, get me out!Don’t~kill~me~don’t~kill~me~don’t~kill~me! God~oh~god~oh~godplease~please~please~please~please! I’ll spill my guts! I’ll tell you everythingI know!”
As a demonstration of pure spineless, backsliding terror,it was rather impressive. The Justicar fished the girl back out of the hell hound’s maw, and Cinders mentally smacked his chops.
Aftertaste. Yummy!
“You’re welcome.” The Justicar planted the faerie’s stakeinto the ground and regarded the weeping, wailing girl. “Spill your guts. I’mlistening.”
Now several shades paler, the girl hastened to be as helpful as possible.
“All right all right! N-now you have to understand that I’mnot malicious! I have been outcast from my rightful position as a leader in the forest community by-”
Escalla went into a panic as the Justicar opened Cinders’jaws. “They paid me fifty gold a time! I needed the money! I repent! Irepent! I repent!”
“Who paid you?” The Justicar pulled out a tuber he had foundin the woods and began carefully peeling it with his knife. “Names.Descriptions. Whereabouts.”
“Ah, it was just a guy on the boat. He found me stowing awaybehind the figurehead and cut me a deal.” The faerie gave a shrug. “He was justan extortionist! He worked a ton of different deals-took a cut from pickpockets,gamblers, had his own enforcers. His men were the guys who tried to stab you in the back!”
“And one of them tried to shoot you dead.” The Justicar threwtuber peelings in the fire. “You’re at the top of their hit list. What did yousee that makes them so keen to have you dead?”
Escalla bit her lip in anxiety.
“Well… there was one other guy they reported to. Apriest guy or maybe a sorcerer! He-he’s the one who wanted to know all about thecaravans. Tall, skinny, long hair but only at the rear. They met at Trigol City docks once. That’s all I know, I swear!”
Wiping clean his knife, the Justicar gave a satisfied growl. The information was enough to lead him back up the chain. If he found the paymaster of the spy scheme, then he might be able to bring the conspiracy to justice.
“Excellent. When we get to Trigol, you can help me search forthe man.”
“No! No, I can’t go! Cities are really bad for mycomplexion!” Escalla jerked at her ropes in alarm. “Really! I can give you adescription, paint you a picture, write you a poem!”
The Justicar glared at Escalla in ill humor. “I need to findhim, so you’re coming along.”
“No! No way! They’ll kill me!”
“They are already trying to kill you.” The Justicarsaw his fishing line give a tug and roused himself to pull in a large black bass. “Right about now, they’ll be hiring an assassin-maybe even throwing ascrying spell. They should be on your trail by around dawn.”
The girl dismissed the thought with a superior little sneer. “Hey, if they could do all of that, why hire a spy!”
“A scrying spell costs two hundred nobles, but youwork for fifty.” The Justicar threaded dinner onto a stick above the fire.“You’re not only a snitch, you’re a cut-price snitch. Gives you a real glow ofpride, eh, Your Highness?”
Behind the faerie, the hell hound skin gave another snigger.Seething with hate; Escalla went into a magnificent huff. She kept her hurt silence for almost ten minutes, finally unbending when a sniff of her nostrils told her that dinner was almost done.
Over the next few minutes Escalla let her regal sulk slowly waver; the mere effort of keeping quiet was almost killing her. As she saw dinner cooling by the fire, she finally relented and allowed her captors to hear her speak.
“Hmph! So are you going to starve me or feed me like agood servant should?”
“Ooooh-one look at you, and I can just see that you’re a lady, realprincess material.” The Justicar had been happily at work, constructing a cageout of sticks and woollen twine. “Have you got to go?”