The Complete Legends of the Riftwar Trilogy: Honoured Enemy, Murder in Lamut, Jimmy the Hand

‘Well it never would have started if you hadn’t been seen jumping out of the window of the favourite royal consort,’ Dennis replied. ‘Prince Rodrick, now our King, is as you may have noticed, mad, or so they say. That woman was his favourite. Of all the women to stoke your lust.’

‘I’d prefer to think that my troubles arose from art rather that lust.’

‘I remember the day a squadron of royal troops arrived, angry as hornets, figuring our place would be where you’d choose to hide out.’

‘I don’t bring trouble on to friends.’

‘My grandfather laughed so damn hard when he heard the story he swore he’d fight the prince himself if you came to us.’

‘Like I said, I don’t bring trouble on to friends.’

‘So what happened then?’

‘I decided it was wise to make my precious body scarce. I have an aversion to hangings, drawings and quarterings, and worst of all the litigators – if you can afford one – you have to put up with first before they get around to the punishments. Damn leeches, drain the last copper out of your coffer with their fees and you wind up dead anyhow. I couldn’t work. That fornicating son of a dung-eating proprietor of a knocking-shop who calls himself a King these days had his agents everywhere. So there I was, a victim of me own fame, unable to work, and all because of a beautiful doxy, and a sore on the royal backside she had told me about.’

Dennis laughed. ‘You brought it on yourself. He might have let it pass, I mean the tumbling of his consort. He threw her out of the palace the following day. Admitting the truth—that he had been cuckolded – would have been embarrassing. Oh, you’d have been dodging assassins for a while, but it would have finally blown over. But to compose that epic poem, dedicated to all the prince’s failings in bed and the sores on his backside was more than anyone could stand.’

Wolfgar chuckled. ‘It was a good piece of verse.’

‘They still sing it,’ Dennis said with a smile, ‘though far from the King’s Palace in Rillanon.’

‘Well, after that little fiasco I figured it was time to go to a land where royal warrants couldn’t find me. I tried to take ship to the southern lands but the dockyards were crawling with royal agents and snitches that would sell me for a few pieces of silver so I headed north instead. ‘That is where I met my precious Roxanne, on the road not far from here.’ As he said the name the old man smiled wistfully. ‘Had my heart on the spot she did. She was a fortune-teller, a true wizard with the picture cards, the reading of entrails and cracked bones. She was travelling with a merry band of vagabonds and thieves, and there was always room for a minstrel in their company.

‘Said I’d be hanged if I didn’t stay with her, and so I did. Ahh, there was a time in my sin sodden youth when I thought I’d never worry for the companionship of a lovely woman, but at that age, to find just one more like her was a blessing. So we jumped the fire-pit together as they say, and soon thereafter she smiles and says we need to find a place to raise our family.’

Again he laughed wistfully until a coughing fit doubled him over. The seizure passed and he wiped the spittle from his chin.

‘It was Roxanne who knew of this valley. Her little band of performers had found it years before: it was one of their secret hideouts and she led me here. We settled in; our two daughters came, and life continued, free, I might add, of any royal warrants and grasping lawyers looking for their fees. Free as well of the asinine wars that kings just love to get their people slaughtered in while they hide out in their palaces.’

‘Daughters?’

Wolfgar smiled. ‘Two lovelies they are.’

‘Where?’

Wolfgar laughed. ‘With a hundred hungry wolves at my gate last night, do you think I’d show my most precious treasures? I had them hide in the woods till things were settled. They came in with the other woman and children after your men bedded down for the night and slept in the servants’ quarters. When the boy on watch came in reporting your arrival I knew we couldn’t hold out against a hundred heavily-armed troops and was expecting the worst. We have a couple of small stockades up in the forests in case of trouble. This place is deliberately, out in the open. Bait, almost.’

‘Why didn’t all of you go up in the woods and hide?’

‘Would you? Too many signs that we were here. Someone had to stay behind and lead you to believe that all of us had been taken.’

Dennis nodded. ‘Where are the men?’ he asked. ‘I didn’t see a dozen here capable of bearing arms. All the rest are oldsters like yourself.’

‘The men?’ and Wolfgar shook his head. ‘Roxanne’s people are wanderers. If they’re in trouble, a warrant on their heads, they’ll come here for a year or two to hide out, then they move on. One year we might have less than thirty living here, another year it might be a hundred. Most of the performers found ample riches working the army in the west. Those lads brighten up a great deal at the sight of a pretty woman dancing to the songs of a talented bard. The jugglers and acrobats get a copper or two also.’

‘And a couple of purses vanish from the crowd, as well, I warrant,’ suggested Dennis.

Wolfgar shrugged. ‘Even when most of the performers are gone for months, we have a score of men around – too much work to be done by just women and children.’ His expression darkened. ‘A couple of months back, twenty of the men and most of their women went out of here to trade. Furs for salt, tools, a few trinkets and baubles for the children.’

‘And they never came back,’ Dennis replied.

Wolfgar nodded.

‘They most likely ran into the same trouble we did,’ Dennis said. ‘Don’t know what’s up, but a lot of Dark Brothers are moving through the region just over that bridge.’

‘Figured it was something like that,’ Wolfgar grumbled. ‘Never much cared for Roxanne’s people. Pack of thieving scoundrels, but fair enough if you married into the clan. I guess with all them gone, I’m the leader here now.’ He looked back at the long house. ‘We’ve got around twenty children here to look after now. As for the women who lost their men, they’ve mourned. Practical people though, and with a hundred men to choose from with your party, they’ll get over it soon enough.’

‘What about the Dark Brotherhood?’ Dennis asked.

‘Them bastards? Remember this is the between-lands. Until the war started your border marches only came up to the Broad River. The moredhel rarely ventured beyond the next range twenty miles to the north of here.’

‘You had an understanding with them, is that it?’

‘They never knew about this place.’ He paused, glaring at Dennis. ‘At least until yesterday. We stayed out of each other’s way. I guess all that’s changed.

‘You hear rumours and gossip. This isn’t the only human community north of the King’s law. I’ve heard stories of … well, some are pretty far-fetched. Lost cities and ancient gods. Mostly scams to sell lost treasure maps to the gullible, I suspect. But there are those rumours that seem to have a gleam of truth in them. The Dark Brothers don’t get close to the other side of those mountains, for a reason. Something keeps them away. I’m just as content not knowing what it is, rather than climbing over those icy crags to find out.

‘But until yesterday no Dark Brother ever stumbled across that entrance to the valley. How much trouble that’s going to bring, I don’t know. I guess it depends on how badly they want to dig you out of here. You could be safe for the winter, or maybe only for a few hours. I just don’t know.’

A gust of wind caused the snow to swirl back into their faces so that they turned, facing back towards the long house.

Men were beginning to stir, a few were out in the courtyard relieving themselves, a coil of smoke puffed up from the kitchen house carrying with it the scent of roasting meat.

‘How long are you staying?’ Wolfgar grumbled.

‘Depends – on what the Dark Brotherhood is doing, the weather. I don’t know.’

‘This storm keeps up you’ll be here a while. Damn, a hundred mouths to feed, I wasn’t planning on it.’

‘We can take care of ourselves. I’ll get hunting parties out before this storm really hits. I saw a lot of game signs; the valley seems rich.’

‘Best damn place in the world right now. At least it was till yesterday.’

Dennis saw Sergeant Barry coming out of the long house, a dozen men following him, bows slung over their shoulder, and with them, several local boys to act as guides. With a nod to Dennis they ventured out and started up the slope to the treeline, spreading out as they advanced until they were lost to view in the snow.

As he watched them leave he experienced another flash of memory: days like this, heading out with his father to hunt, the fresh snow helping them to track. His father was not the type to go out with a fanfare and a score of beaters to stir up the game for him, he much preferred the solitude and the opportunity to teach his son the ways of the woods on his own. If the weather was fair they’d go for as long as a fortnight, taking enough game to eat well, but no more, many times just tracking an elk for the pleasure of it, then leaving him alone.

He swung his gaze back to the trail. The light snow had lifted for a moment and a quarter of a mile off he caught a glimpse of Gregory and Tinuva, riding slowly, coming back in.

‘Good. They gave up the chase back at the canyon,’ Dennis said.

Wolfgar nodded, hawked, and spat again over the stockade wall. ‘That elf. Tinuva’s his name isn’t it?’

‘Yes. Why?’

‘Just I’ve heard a few rumours, that’s all.’

‘Such as?’