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.I wouldn't want to face him to come courting."Tris gave Soterius a dry look."With the way you change companions, I'd be scared if I were you, too."Soterius grinned."Just my way of spreading sunshine," he replied, slapping Tris on the back."No reason to overwhelm one and make all the rest miserable.You could take a few pages from my book, you know." He lowered his voice con-spiratorially."And now that you don't have any official entanglements to worry about, you're free to choose for yourself, no one's business but your own," he added."Remind me of that if we make it to Dhasson in one piece," Tris replied."Really, Ban.That's been the furthest thing from my mind.""I know," Soterius replied."That's the trouble with you.Too serious.The right woman could lighten you up." He smiled wickedly."Of course, so could the wrong woman."Tris gave him a good-natured punch on the arm as they walked toward the main camp area.Before the supper fires were lit, they were pressed into service on a variety of jobs dismantling the camp, and when Tris finally grabbed a trencher of dinner and found a place near a fire, he dropped wearily onto his log seat.Harrtuck had promised that life on the road would toughen him up, Tris thought, and rubbed a sore muscle ruefully.Since they joined the caravan, Tris discovered that muscles he did not know existed could ache enough to keep him awake at night—loading and unloading tents, equipment and merchandise, straining with guy-ropes to erect the large tents and sledgehammer the stakes that supported them.And then, after he was already bone weary, sword practice with Vahanian.Tris sipped the mug of ale and wolfed down the rest of his stew.All of this activity might be the making of a swordsman, but it was likely to be the death of a prince.Carroway joined him looking equally exhausted."I'm going to be dead long before we reach Dhasson," the minstrel complained, digging into his food."If it's not a full day of entertaining for the audiences, it's this bloody sword work at night." Carroway stretched and groaned."Are you sure Vahanian's not secretly out to get us?""Ready for tonight's practice?" Vahanian asked, dropping down beside them with a steaming trencher of food.The mercenary grinned as Tris groaned his reply."That excited, huh? Must be doing a good job then.""Couldn't you at least look tired?" Carroway complained as he finished his ale."What's the point?" Vahanian replied with his mouth full."Doesn't make any less work.""No, but it would give me a lot of satisfaction," Tris answered."Where are we going next?""Further north," came a reply from Tris's other side."And if you ask me, it's a mistake."Tris turned to see Kaine, looking tired and dirty."Nothing but trouble up north." Kaine swigged his ale."'Course, seems to be a lot of that goin' around, if you take my meaning," he said, with a sidelong glance at Vahanian."I'm not sure I do," Tris answered carefully.Kaine snorted."Where have you been? Dhasson's at war.'Course, now, they're not saying that, but war's what it is, all the same," he said, dropping his voice."Some of the people coming through from that direction have some mighty strange tales.Mighty strange," he said, taking another draught."How strange is 'strange?'" Tris asked, leaning forward.Kaine finished his ale and set his mug aside, then tilted his head to look at Tris."How's unnatural things from out in the Blasted Lands for strange, huh?" he asked."Word is that there've been some creatures sighted up near Dhasson that aren't the making of the Goddess, if you take my meaning," he said broadly."'Twas a deserter through here that told some stories would stand your hair on end.Thought Dhasson's army was taking a beating and didn't fancy being eaten, or worse, so he lit off, or so he said," the tent rigger continued, wiping his mouth with his sleeve."The tribes' mages couldn't conjure things like that," Vahanian said thoughtfully and Tris turned.By the Lady's breath, Tris thought, he looks like he's taking this seriously!"Don't know about the past, but they sure seem to now," Kaine replied."And there were other stories.About day turning to night and lightning that wasn't the right color.About locusts coming up out of nowhere and disappearing just as fast.And about whole plains that were dry as a bone turning into mud right when the army went to cross them, and there weren't no rains for days, either," Kaine added."Now if that's not magicked, what is it?""Certainly sounds like magic to me," Vahanian replied.He got up, headed for the barrel of ale, and scooped up another mugful."You're a cautious one," the tent rigger said to Tris as Vahanian walked away."There're lots that don't hold with magic, but I've been around.I've seen strange things can't be explained no other way.Here's another piece of advice.Watch your back around that one," he said with a barely perceptible nod toward Vahanian, who was out of earshot at the ale barrel."No count of the men he's killed or betrayed.The Eastmark army doesn't hang men lightly, but there's a death sentence on him.Betrayed a whole platoon, he did, at Chauvrenne.""I'll certainly keep it in mind," Tris replied, as Vahanian walked back toward them.His thoughts lingered on the reports of magic far more than on Kaine's dark warnings about Vahanian's past.Certainly magic was no stranger to any of the Winter Kingdoms.And the grandson of Bava K'aa ought not to be surprised at arcane works, he thought, remembering the many times he saw his grandmother work spells at the palace.Some of them were workings of convenience, the sorts of things that any hedge witch might have done, like lighting a candle without a spark.But there were other times, Tris recalled, when as a young boy he hid in the shadows of his father's warroom, hoping to be overlooked so he could watch the exciting bustle of preparations for war.Then he saw some of Bava K'aa's true magic, as she scryed for the location of enemies or divined the weather or learned something of an enemy from captured belongings.So it should not be unusual for magic to be at hand if Dhasson really were at war, he thought.Except that the kind of dark magic the tent rigger gossiped about was unusual.There were legends about a time when dark magic was as common as locusts, and the people of the Winter Kingdoms suffered for it.Then the Light mages banded together and fought the Mage Wars up in the sparsely populated far north.That was many years ago, when Tris's grandmother was just a young woman.But anyone who ventured into the Blasted Lands did not doubt that strong magic had been loosed [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]