the
adjoining seas. Any guards who were awake when I left were too busy
playing cards to step out and check my bona fides. But our lords
from the Hill want the ordinary folk to seethe with fervor against
the enemy.
It’s a lot easier to seethe against Raver Styx and her
ilk. They profit no matter how the fighting goes. I used the route
Saucerhead and Amiranda had followed. The moon was now full. The
team didn’t mind night travel, even with me at the traces.
And the nation of horses has been out to get me ever since I can
remember. It was a smooth, quiet ride with very little to see. The
only traffic I encountered was the night coach from Derry, half an
hour ahead of schedule and just limping along with its two or three
somnolent passengers and load of mail. Guard and driver tossed me
friendly greetings, which showed how worried they were about the
night. I suppose, theoretically, that I should have had one hand on
a silver blade at all times. There
was
a full moon. But
there hadn’t been a confirmed wolfman incident this close to
the city since before I went into the Marines.
Once I did unravel a murder that had been dressed up to look
like a wolfman’s work. It’s a hell of a way to make
sure your old man doesn’t get the chance to write you out of
the will. I reached the dire crossroad about the same time Saucerhead had. I gave it a look around as it stood, considering the fact
that there was more moon than there had been that night. I
didn’t see or get a feel for anything, so I loosened the
horses’ harnesses, made sure they couldn’t run off,
climbed onto the buggy’s seat, and napped. I did a good job
of snoozing, too. I thought first light would waken me, but the
honor went to a ten-year-old who shook my shoulder and asked,
“Are you all right, mister?”
I counted my hands and feet and purse and discovered that I
hadn’t been murdered, mutilated, or robbed. “I am
indeed, son. Except maybe for a case of premature
senility.”
He looked at me funny and asked a few kidlike questions. I tried
giving reasonable answers and asked him a few in turn. He was on
his way somewhere to help somebody with farm chores, but he let me
buy him breakfast. Which goes to show how tame it really is around
TunFaire these days, for all we city people put down the country.
No city boy would have risked hanging around with a stranger. The
real monsters of today live in the city’s shadows and cellars
and drawing rooms.
He didn’t tell me one thing even remotely useful. Acting
on the premise that it is never wise to put temptation into the
path of an honest man, I led my team into the woods opposite the
area I intended to explore. I made sure the beasts wouldn’t
have the pleasure of deserting me, returned to the diamond, and
checked to make sure they and the rig were invisible, then went
across and started looking through the bushes. It wasn’t hard
to find where the dead and wounded had been thrown into hurried
concealment. The brush was torn and trampled. The corpses had been
cleared away but their drippings had been ignored, at least by the
cleanup crew. The flies and ants had come and gone. The bloodstains
were now the province of a gray-black, whiskery mold that described
perfectly every spot and spill. Which didn’t tell me anything
except that a lot of people had done a lot of bleeding.
My woodcraft was no longer what it had been in my Marine days,
but it took no forest genius to follow either of the trails leading
deeper into the woods. The first I tried split after about a third
of a mile, heavy traffic having turned eastward suddenly. It looked
like four or five ogres had been on Saucerhead’s trail when
they were recalled by their buddies. The other trail ran down into
the woods east of where I stood.
I didn’t need to follow Saucerhead to know where
he’d gone. I turned east.
Five hundred yards along I paused, planted the back of my lap on
a fallen tree trunk, and told my brain to get to work. I knew
adjoining seas. Any guards who were awake when I left were too busy
playing cards to step out and check my bona fides. But our lords
from the Hill want the ordinary folk to seethe with fervor against
the enemy.
It’s a lot easier to seethe against Raver Styx and her
ilk. They profit no matter how the fighting goes. I used the route
Saucerhead and Amiranda had followed. The moon was now full. The
team didn’t mind night travel, even with me at the traces.
And the nation of horses has been out to get me ever since I can
remember. It was a smooth, quiet ride with very little to see. The
only traffic I encountered was the night coach from Derry, half an
hour ahead of schedule and just limping along with its two or three
somnolent passengers and load of mail. Guard and driver tossed me
friendly greetings, which showed how worried they were about the
night. I suppose, theoretically, that I should have had one hand on
a silver blade at all times. There
was
a full moon. But
there hadn’t been a confirmed wolfman incident this close to
the city since before I went into the Marines.
Once I did unravel a murder that had been dressed up to look
like a wolfman’s work. It’s a hell of a way to make
sure your old man doesn’t get the chance to write you out of
the will. I reached the dire crossroad about the same time Saucerhead had. I gave it a look around as it stood, considering the fact
that there was more moon than there had been that night. I
didn’t see or get a feel for anything, so I loosened the
horses’ harnesses, made sure they couldn’t run off,
climbed onto the buggy’s seat, and napped. I did a good job
of snoozing, too. I thought first light would waken me, but the
honor went to a ten-year-old who shook my shoulder and asked,
“Are you all right, mister?”
I counted my hands and feet and purse and discovered that I
hadn’t been murdered, mutilated, or robbed. “I am
indeed, son. Except maybe for a case of premature
senility.”
He looked at me funny and asked a few kidlike questions. I tried
giving reasonable answers and asked him a few in turn. He was on
his way somewhere to help somebody with farm chores, but he let me
buy him breakfast. Which goes to show how tame it really is around
TunFaire these days, for all we city people put down the country.
No city boy would have risked hanging around with a stranger. The
real monsters of today live in the city’s shadows and cellars
and drawing rooms.
He didn’t tell me one thing even remotely useful. Acting
on the premise that it is never wise to put temptation into the
path of an honest man, I led my team into the woods opposite the
area I intended to explore. I made sure the beasts wouldn’t
have the pleasure of deserting me, returned to the diamond, and
checked to make sure they and the rig were invisible, then went
across and started looking through the bushes. It wasn’t hard
to find where the dead and wounded had been thrown into hurried
concealment. The brush was torn and trampled. The corpses had been
cleared away but their drippings had been ignored, at least by the
cleanup crew. The flies and ants had come and gone. The bloodstains
were now the province of a gray-black, whiskery mold that described
perfectly every spot and spill. Which didn’t tell me anything
except that a lot of people had done a lot of bleeding.
My woodcraft was no longer what it had been in my Marine days,
but it took no forest genius to follow either of the trails leading
deeper into the woods. The first I tried split after about a third
of a mile, heavy traffic having turned eastward suddenly. It looked
like four or five ogres had been on Saucerhead’s trail when
they were recalled by their buddies. The other trail ran down into
the woods east of where I stood.
I didn’t need to follow Saucerhead to know where
he’d gone. I turned east.
Five hundred yards along I paused, planted the back of my lap on
a fallen tree trunk, and told my brain to get to work. I knew
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