The Silver Mage - Katharine Kerr [145]
“Be it I may see this here ax?” he called back.
Garin unsheathed the ax, which had been hanging from his saddle peak, and held it up. In the sunlight the good dwarven steel of its head gleamed, more precious than silver out in this isolated area. While the fellow ambled up to the gate, Laz took the opportunity to study the shed with the barred door. From his distance he couldn’t be certain, but the door seemed to be quivering, as if someone were banging or pushing on it from the inside.
“What be it you be wanting to know?” the farmer said.
“Do you serve the Boars of the North?” Garin said.
“I did once.” The fellow paused to spit on the ground. “Bastards.”
“Do you know where their dun is?”
“The hells for all I care! They did move us out here.” He waved one arm to indicate the plateau. “Then they did ride away, off to the north. I hear tell that they be joining them there Horsekin, but I know not if that be true or false.”
“I see.” Garin nudged his horse, who moved forward a few steps up to the gate. The envoy leaned over and handed the farmer the ax. “Here you go, and my thanks.”
“My thanks to you.” The fellow took the ax in both hands and hefted it, then swung it one-handed as if testing the balance. “This be a good thing.” Ax in hand, he began walking back to the house.
Laz and Garin rode off side by side to rejoin the prince, who was leading his escort forward to meet them. Laz turned in the saddle to speak to the envoy.
“Farmer, my arse!” Laz said.
“Umm?” Garin said. “What do you mean?”
“The way he stood, so proudly, and the way he swung that ax like a weapon. His hands were callused, but his fingers weren’t all twisted and deformed from grubbing in the dirt. And his legs—those torn brigga couldn’t hide how bowlegged he was. He’s spent most of his life on horseback, I wager.”
Garin gaped at him.
“He’s not a farmer.” Laz sighed in sheer exasperation that the envoy couldn’t seem to see the obvious. “He’s either a member of the Boar’s warband or, ye gods, maybe even one of the Boars themselves.”
Garin let out a whoop of laughter, quickly stifled, since the prince had ridden up to them. “Hidden in plain sight,” the envoy said.
“Just so.” Prince Voran had apparently heard enough of Laz’s discourse to agree. “You’ve got good eyes, scribe.”
“My thanks, Your Highness.” Laz made a half-bow from the saddle.
“Let’s go back to camp.” Voran nodded at Garin. “I want to discuss this with your avro. There’s plenty of pine trees up on the hill. If we throw a few pitchy torches onto one of those roofs, the pigs should come running out of their sty fast enough.”
And the book will roast with them, Laz thought. He bowed again. “Um, Your Highness? May I have your permission to speak?”
“You may.” Voran inclined his head in Laz’s direction.
“I was thinking that it would be a great pity to burn their stored grains and the like with them. It’s a long ride back to Deverry, and some of the men are growing worried about rations.”
“That’s a sound point, Your Highness,” Garin put in. “Food’s always important to an army.”
“True enough,” Voran said. “Well, I’ll discuss this with Brel and see what he can come up with.”
Brel came up with something quite simple: let the dwarven axemen break down the gate and then have the horsemen ride straight into the farmyard. First, however, as Garin pointed out, it would be best to scout out the second farm they’d seen in the distance north of the first one.
“We’ll probably want to take both of them at once,” Brel said. “Those barns won’t hide more than a couple of dozen swordsmen each, so it should be safe enough to split our forces.”
To convince their prey that they’d believed his ruse, Voran led his men to the second farm. There again, Envoy Garin traded a dwarven steel ax for the information that the Boars had fled north, doubtless to join up with the Horsekin in relative safety while their disgruntled supposed supporters languished in grave danger. This second farmer looked even more like a nobleman than the first.
“Oh, it be a long way to them there Horsekin cities,” he said,