The man mountain sulked.
"But let"s get these horses stabled first," Lekmann suggested. To Coilla he added, "Don"t get no smart ideas."
They worked their way further into the port"s teeming thorough-fares. They pa.s.sed stalls and handcarts br.i.m.m.i.n.g with sweetmeats, fish, breads, cheeses, fruit and vegetables. Costermongers sang out the quality of their trays of wares.
Merchants pulled stubborn a.s.ses laden with bolts of cloth and sacks of spices. Wandering musicians, street performers and vociferous beggars added to the cacophony.
On corners, brazen succubi and incubi wh.o.r.es touted for customers with appet.i.tes jaded enough to brave the dangers of going with them. The smell of pellucid sweetened the air. It mingled with incense wafting from the open doors of a myriad temples dedicated to every known pantheon of G.o.ds. Through it all Watchers patrolled, paths miraculously clearing for them in the chaos.
The bounty hunters found a stable run by a gremlin, and for a fewcoins housed their mounts. They continued on foot, Aulay still close to Coilla.
At one point she thought she glimpsed a couple of orcs, crossing a distant intersection. But a Kirgizil dragon and its mean-faced kobold rider blocked her view and she couldn"t be sure.
Aulay, she noticed, was fidgeting with his eye-patch. He obviously hadn"t seen what she had, but for a moment she wondered if there might not be something in his "orc sense" after all.
She knew there was no reason orcs shouldn"t be here, although they were less likely because most of the orc nation was under arms, fighting others" causes. As was their lot. If there were any they could be de-serters, which wasn"t unknown, or on official business. That might mean they were searching for the renegade Wolverines. The other possibility, of course, was that the two she glimpsedwere Wolverines. It was too fleeting for her to tell. She decided to be positive and allow herself some small hope.
"This"ll do," Lekmann decided.
He pointed to an inn. A coa.r.s.ely painted wooden sign hung over the door. It read:The Werebeast and Broadsword.
The place was jammed with boisterous drinkers. "Get in there and find us somewhere to sit, Jabeez," Lekmann in-structed.Blaan scanned the interior, then used his ma.s.s to barge through the press, the other three in his wake. With the innate instinct of a bully, he zeroed in on a group of pixies and turfed them out.
As soon as the bounty hunters and Coilla sat, an elf serving wench arrived. Lekmann opened his mouth to order. She plonked four pewter tankards of mead down on the table, reciting, "Take it or leave it."
Blaan contemptuously tossed her some coins. She scooped them up and left.
The three humans" heads came together for a hushed, conspiratorial discourse. Coilla leaned back in her chair with folded arms.
"The way I see it, we"ve got a small problem," Lekmann whispered. The ideal thing would be to get rid of this b.i.t.c.h first and be done with watching her. But if she"s sold we won"t have her to pick out the other orcs."
"I told you," Coilla said, "I"m not doing that."
Lekmann bared his teeth and hissed, "We"llmake you."
"How?"
"Leave it to me, Micah," Aulay offered. "I"ll get her to do it."
"Eat s.h.i.t, one-eye," she responded.
Aulay seethed.
"Look, let"s a.s.sume this crazy freakain"t gonna help us," Lekmann argued. "Which case it might be best if we split up.
Me and Jabeez will look for somebody to buy her. You, Greever, can start searching for orcs."
"Then what?"
"We meet back here in a couple of hours and pool stories."
"Fine by me," Aulay said, glaring at Coilla. "I"ll be glad to see the back of it."
She took a deep draught of her ale and wiped the back of a hand across her mouth. "Couldn"t put it better myself." She slammed her tankard down on Aulay"s hand. Hard. There was a loud crack. His face convulsed and he let out an agonised yell.
He stared at his little finger. His face was ashen, his eyes watered. "She . . . broke. . . it. . ." he whined through trembling lips. Fury twist-ing his face, he reached for a boot with his other hand."I"m gonna. . . kill you . . ." he promised.
"Shut up, Greever!" Lekmann snapped. "There"s beings watching! You ain"t doing nothing to her, she"s valuable."
"But she broke my little..."
"Stop being such a baby. Here." He tossed over a rag. "Wrap this round it and close your trap."
Coilla treated them all to a warm smile. "Well, let"s get me sold, shall we?" she purred sweetly.
"It"s more of them, isn"t it?" Stryke said.
"No doubt of it," Jup confirmed. "Same as at Trinity, and that hunt-ing party."
They were concealed in a thicket, stretched flat and looking down at a camp in a hollow. It was occupied by a party of humans. The rest of the band had been ordered to stay back, out of sight, and from their position Stryke and Jup couldn"t see them.
The black-garbed humans undertaking various ch.o.r.es below were all males and numbered around twenty. They were conspicuously and heavily armed. A makeshift corral had been built for their horses, and near the centre of the camp a covered wagon was parked.
"s.h.i.t, that"s all we need," Stryke sighed. "Hobrow"s custodians."
"Well, we knew they were likely to be somewhere in the area. We couldn"t expect them to give up trying to get back the star we took."
"We could do without it, though. There"s enough to worry about."
"Do you reckon they might have Coilla or Haskeer?"
"Who knows? Do you think your farsight might help?"
"It hasn"t aided us much so far. But I"ll give it a try."
He gouged a hole in the earth with his fingers and wormed a hand into it. Then he concentrated, eyes closed. Stryke held his peace and continued studying the camp.
Eventually Jup opened his eyes and let out a long breath.
"Well?"
"I picked up a faint orc presence, but I"d say it wasn"t as close as down there. It"s not too far away, though."
"Is that all?"
"Just about. Couldn"t tell if it was male or female. Nor the direction. If those b.a.s.t.a.r.d humans weren"t so keen on eating our magic-"
"Look."
Down in the camp, a figure was climbing from the back of the covered wagon. It was a human female. She was of an age where child-hood had been left behind but womanhood had yet to blossom. The lingering puppy fat of youth, along with honey-coloured hair and china blue eyes should have made her comely. But she wore a sullen, ill-tempered scowl and her mouth was mean.
"Oh, no," Jup groaned.
"What?"
"Mercy Hobrow. The preacher"s daughter I told you about."
She moved around the camp with a cavalier gait, yelling at the custodians. They jumped to obey her.
"She"s not much more than a hatchling," Stryke said. "Yet she"s obviously issuing orders."
"Tyrants are often distrustful. They"d prefer to use a member of their family than rely on outsiders. And it looks like he"sgroomed his sp.a.w.n well."
"Yes, but leaving a ...child in command?"
"Humans are all f.u.c.king mad, Stryke, you know that."
Now the girl was laying about the custodians with a swish.
"Have those men no pride?" Stryke wondered.
"No doubt fear of her father is the stronger emotion. But you"re right about the error of giving her authority; they haven"t even put out any guards."
Stryke whispered, "Don"t speak too soon."
Jup made to say something. Stryke clamped a hand over his mouth and moved the dwarf"s head to face to their right.
Two custodians were walking slowly toward their hiding place, swords drawn. Stryke re-moved his hand.
"They haven"t seen us," Jup said.
"No. But if they carry on this way they will, or they"ll see the band."
"We"ve got to take them out."
"Right, and without alerting the others. Feel like being bait?"
Jup smiled wryly. "Do I have a choice?"
Stryke glanced at the approaching sentries. "Just give me enough time to get in position." He snaked into the bushes, moving in the di-rection of the nearing sentries.
Jup counted to fifty in his head. Then he stood up and stepped out into the path of the sentries.
They froze, surprise on their faces.
He moved their way, hands well out from his sides, clear of his weapons. He added to their confusion by smiling.
One of the custodians barked, "Stay where you are!"
Jup kept coming and kept smiling.
The sentries raised their swords. Behind them, Stryke quietly emerged from the undergrowth, a dagger in his hand.
The custodian bellowed again. "Identify yourself!"
"I"m adwarf," Jup replied.
Stryke piled into them from the rear. Jup ran forward, drawing his own knife.
The four of them went down in a scrum of twisting limbs and flying fists. A few seconds of struggling sorted them into two separate fights. But the custodian"s swords were second best at close quarters. Armed with knives, Jup and Stryke had the advantage.
Jup"s kill was quick. He saw the way clear to his opponent"s heart and took it. One blow was enough.
Stryke had more of a task. In the clash he lost his knife. Then his rival managed to get himself on top. He clutched his sword two-handed and made to bring it down like a dagger to Stryke"s chest. Stryke had hold of his forearms and pushed back. The stalemate was broken when he somehow found the strength to topple the human. A brief tussle for the sword was won by Stryke. He planted it in the custodian"s guts.
"Quick, let"s get their bodies out of sight," Stryke ordered.
They were pulling the corpses into the undergrowth when three more sentries appeared from the opposite direction.
Jup swiftly whipped up his knife and lobbed it at one of them. The human took it in the midriff and hit the ground. His companions charged.
Orc and dwarf met them with drawn swords and they paired off to fence.
Aware of drawing attention from the camp, Stryke tried to end his foe as fast as possible. He went at the human furiously, pouring blowson him, and ducked and weaved to find an opening. The sheer force of his a.s.sault reduced the man"s defence to tatters. With a hefty swing. Stryke cleaved his neck.
Adopting similar tactics, Jup"s style was unsubtle frenzy. The cus-todian he faced parried the first half dozen blows then flagged. Backing off, he started shouting. Jup moved in quickly and whacked him in the mouth with the flat of his blade. That put a stop to both the yelling and the human"s guard. A follow-through to his stomach settled the issue.
Stryke padded to the bushes and peered down at the camp. His fear that the shouts might have been heard proved unfounded. With Jup"s help, the bodies were concealed.
"What happens when they don"t report back?" the dwarf panted.
"Let"s not be here to find out."
"So where to?"
"The only direction we haven"t tried-due west."
"That takes us dangerously near to Cairnbarrow."
"I know. Got a better plan?"
Jup slowly shook his head.
"Then let"s do it."
It was half a day of hard riding before Jup said it. "Stryke, this is useless. There"s just too much land to cover."
"We don"t give up on our comrades. We"re orcs."