Murder in Cormyr - Chet Williamson [34]
"He could've had an oliphant in his other hand for all I knew. I just saw that axe a-swingin', and that was enough for me and the missus."
"But nothing else… glowing?"
"Just his face. Like a corpse it was." He shook his head with a mixture of disgust and regret "And like a corpse he is now, sure enough. Met up with someone who played a trick right back on 'im, rest his soul." Then he beamed at me again. "But lookin' at the bright side, we got no ghost spookin' around anymore." A similar sentiment, I thought, to Shortshanks's.
The conversation changed to farming then, but I noticed that Grodoveth and Tobald were standing up, Tobald brushing crumbs off his shirtfront. I strained to hear what they were saying over Farmer Bortas's droning about oats, and caught Grodoveth saying,"…, too tired to ride back. I'll just spend the night here."
And Tobald replied, "Well, I've got to get up early and help Barthelm. Are you sure? I hate riding back alone--"
Then Bortas said something, but I just managed to catch Grodoveth's words: "… no more ghost. What's there to be scared of?" He turned to Hesketh Pratt. "I'll be staying here tonight."
Hesketh bowed deeply and licked his lips, I supposed, at the thought of a paying lodger. "Very good, Lord Grodoveth. I'll show you upstairs--"
"I'll find it," said Grodoveth, and clapped a hand on Tobald's shoulder. "Sleep well, my friend. I know I shall." And so saying, he went upstairs with a candle that Hesketh handed him. Tobald paid Hesketh for the drinks and, giving me a farewell wave, went outside.
I excused myself from the somnolent discussion, left enough on the table to pay for the drinks, fearing that Benelaius would be annoyed by my profligacy, and went to the door. Hearing hoofbeats, I peered out and saw that Tobald was indeed heading west toward the road to Ghars, looking uneasily about him.
There was no one else outside, so I stepped across the road and looked up at the six second-floor windows. A candle gleamed through the thin curtain that covered one of them, and the shadow's flickering told me that someone was moving inside. After a few minutes the light went out, leaving the window in utter darkness. I waited another minute, and then walked around to the back of the tavern.
There was only one door that led to the outside from the kitchen, and two windows. Only one small second-story window looked out on the swamp, so I figured the upstairs back consisted of a poorly lit hall.
I remained for another half hour, going from front to back, but Grodoveth's room remained dark, and no one came out of the tavern save for Farmer Bortas and his friends. I stayed in the shadows so they didn't see me.
After their departure, Jenkus and I started for home. It was perhaps a mile from the Swamp Rat to Benelaius's cottage, and I confess I started to drowse almost the instant I was in the saddle. Jenkus's walking gait is very soothing to the weary soul, and I was nothing if not weary.
I suppose I dreamed the footsteps before I actually heard them. But when they came into my waking mind, I knew that I had not heard the like before. It sounded like two or three horses running behind me with loose shoes, a jittery, clattery kind of sound. But after each clatter was a great thud, so that I knew there was great weight falling on the road. It was a constant da-da-BOOM, da-da-BOOM behind me, and from the sound of it, it was getting closer and closer.
Jenkus had significantly increased his speed on his own, but I spurred him nonetheless before I looked around. When I did look around, I spurred him harder.
17
It was pitch-black, and we were keeping to the road more by instinct than sight, but I was able to see against the sky behind me what looked like a small mass of men and horses riding all together. Men and horses? Say rather ogres on oliphants. I swung my head around and didn't dare to look back again.
But I did call back to them, "What is it you want?" thinking that if they cried out, "Your purse!" or "Your