The Dragon Revenant - Katharine Kerr [74]
“Oh might they now?” Jill said. “So these archons are good for somewhat, are they?”
“You shall see, my petite partridge, the advantages of civilized life. We’ll have a strong case, because I have the original bill of sale, which looks forged, at least to my elven eyes. When we visited the lovely Brindemo in his private chambers? I saw it on the writing table in the corner, and I snagged it while you were talking to his son—the bill of sale, that is, not the writing table, which was a bit large for even an accomplished wizard to conceal.”
“Civilized life indeed!”
“One small thing,” Rhodry broke in, and he wasn’t smiling. “I swore I’d slit his throat, and that’s one vow I’ll hold to even if it kills me. Do you understand? Gwerbret or not, I won’t leave Bardek until I watch him die, and if the archon’s men torture me to death for it, well, that’s a price I’ve vowed to pay.”
The silence in the room was profound. Finally Salamander sighed.
“You know, beloved younger brother of mine, you might well get your chance to kill him long before we reach Pastedion, if our wretched rotten luck runs true to form and our enemies catch us on the road. If not, we’ll worry about reaching safety first and murdering Baruma second. Agreed?”
Rhodry did smile, then, a bitter, ugly twist of his mouth, but he said nothing. Jill decided that there was no use arguing with him, at least not at the moment.
“We’d best take a roundabout way to this place,” she said. “The longer we pretend to be traveling wizards, the better.”
“You are correct, my owlet. We’ll head back to the coast first and perform our wonders in the harbor towns to the north. You know, I think I’m getting a feel for the wizard business. I keep getting all sorts of new ideas for the show.”
The great wizard and his newly augmented crew were a full day gone by the time the news finally reached the Wylinth market place: the widow Alaena had sold her handsome barbarian slave to Krysello for his traveling show, and on one of her sudden whims, too. The conventional wisdom said that he must have offered her a tremendous amount of money, which confirmed everyone’s suspicions that the performer was as rich as an archon. The local gossips were outraged, seeing their delicious scandal gone all sour; surely Alaena wouldn’t have sold him if, as rumored, she’d been having an affair with the boy. For reasons of their own, of course, Gwin and Pirrallo were equally annoyed when they heard the news.
“Too bad you took your time,” Gwin said with a less than pleasant smile. “If you’d only been willing to make your move as soon as I found him, we could have just bought him ourselves.”
“Hold your ugly tongue! We’ll catch up with them on the road, that’s all, and if this stupid juggler won’t sell peacefully, then he’ll die.”
“Oh? And I suppose you can tell me which way they went, then.”
Pirrallo started to speak, then drew himself up to full height.
“Of course! But I need privacy to work. Don’t you or the others come near me till I’m done.”
Gwin watched him stride off in a huff and wondered why he was so sure that Pirrallo was going to lead them in the wrong direction. He wondered even more why