The Vacant Throne - Ed Greenwood [120]
The lad drew himself up and said, "Raulin Tilbar Castlecloaks, sir. Son of the bard Helgrym."
Craer lifted an eyebrow. "Oh? You look a little too old for Em to be your mother-though perhaps I misjudge her. She may have been far more preco-"
"Craer," Embra said crisply, as Raulin's face went bloodred, "that'll do. Give Raulin what little you've left of his wine back-nicely. He's saved my life and Sarasper's while you were off gallivanting, rendered us much gallant aid, held his tongue far more than you know how to do-and I've just been puzzling over how to politely part ways with him, before we step into yonder deathtrap and half the reavers in Aglirta come down on our heads."
Raulin spun around. "No, Lady!" he protested. "You can't! Not now! Not when-"
"The adventure's just getting to the good part?" Craer said mockingly. "That'd be the shining moment where some sword or other spills your guts into your lap, and you begin to spend a long, long afternoon with the flies, dying… but not quite fast enough that you won't still feel it when darkness comes, and the wolves find you."
Raulin's eyes blazed. "You wouldn't! Why-"
Naked but uncaring, Craer strode grandly to the youth's side, put an arm around his shoulders, and said reassuringly, "No, lad, of course I wouldn't." Then he smirked and added brightly, "I'd use a dagger, never a sword."
Raulin tore himself free, glared at the little man, and snarled, "Y-You. you-"
Almost lovingly Craer's fist sank into the boy's gut, Heaving him winded and gasping. Then his other fist took the boy under thee chin, snapping his head back and laying him out on his shoulders in the dust of the road. Raulin bounced once, staring sightlessly up at the sun, and then lay still, slack-jawed.
"Craer!" Embra snapped. "You didn't have to-"
"Oh, but I did," the procurer replied, looking down at the young man sprawled on the road at his feet, "or he'd've come creeping along behind us, sure as the Silverflow finds the sea, and some armaragor would've cut his throat for him." He looked up at his companions and grinned suddenly.
"Besides," he added, "he's almost my size."
Sarasper and Embra rolled their eyes; Hawkril merely chuckled.
"Welcome back, Longfingers," Embra said with a sigh.
Craer put his hands on his bare hips and said with mock hauteur, "That's Sir Longfingers to you."
Embra shook her head and turned away. "But of course. How remiss of me. You must remember not to dare to punish me later."
"Ah, she's learning at last," Craer announced, as he bent to tug at Raulin's clothing.
"Unfortunately," Sarasper said, crouching to help, "I don't think she's the one of us with the most learning to do."
Craer gave the old healer a sharp look, but Sarasper added nothing more except the comment, "Roll the lad your way, hey? This is caught, here…"
They'd carried Raulin a good way back down the road and into a thicket, and Embra was now two figurines lighter as a result of leaving the still-senseless lad a knife, and furnishing Craer with an identical weapon.
Mindful of Raulin's rumors, they had been more cautious on their return to the Silent House. As the Four climbed the overgrown hill in the bright sun, it seemed their care had been well advised. Some folk in the Vale listened as well as talked: six tombs away or so, a helmed head bobbed briefly into view to peer at them, and swiftly descended into concealment once more. Hawkril and Craer exchanged glances, and then made their own burrowings into the brush.
Sarasper sighed. "Couldn't we just get inside? Why all this love of blood and battle?"
"They're young yet," the Lady of Jewels told him soothingly. "It's just play to them."
"Embra," the old healer growled, squinting at her, "I'm reluctant to dismiss any fray where men bleed and are maimed and die as 'play'-if you take my meaning."
The sorceress gave him a thin smile. "Regarding it this way makes the heart a lot lighter, but if you like worrying and trudging about in gloom…"
Sarasper's reply was an exasperated growl, as he ducked through an open doorway into a spiderweb-shrouded