Free Magician by Raymond Feist Page B

fully
laden with hot lamb, greens, and potatoes. In spite of the rich
smell, Pug felt no appetite. “No, you can have it.”
    Tomas scooped up the platter and began
shoving the food into his mouth Pug smiled. Tomas had never been
known to stint on food.
    Pug returned his gaze to the castle
wall. “I felt like such a fool.”
    Tomas stopped eating, with a handful of
meat halfway to his mouth. He studied Pug for a moment. “You
too?”
    “Me too, what?”
    Tomas laughed. “You’re
embarrassed because the Princess saw Rulf give you a thrashing.”
    Pug bridled. “It wasn’t a
thrashing. I gave as well as I got!”
    Tomas whooped. “There! I knew it.
It’s the Princess.”
    Pug sat back in resignation. “I
suppose it is.”
    Tomas said nothing, and Pug looked over
at him. He was busy finishing off Pug’s dinner. Finally Pug
said, “And I suppose you don’t like her?”
    Tomas shrugged. Between bites he said,
“Our Lady Carline is pretty enough, but I know my place. I have
my eye on someone else, anyway.”
    Pug sat up. “Who?” he
asked, his curiosity piqued.
    “I’m not saying,”
Tomas said with a sly smile.
    Pug laughed. “It’s Neala,
right?”
    Tomas’s jaw dropped. “How
did you know?”
    Pug tried to look mysterious. “We
magicians have our ways.”
    Tomas snorted. “Some magician.
You’re no more a magician than I am a Knight-Captain of the
King’s army. Tell me, how did you know?”
    Pug laughed. “It’s no
mystery. Every time you see her, you puff up in that tabard of yours
and preen like a bantam rooster.”
    Tomas looked troubled “You don’t
think she’s on to me, do you?”
    Pug smiled like a well-fed cat “She’s
not on to you, I’m sure.” He paused. “If she’s
blind, and all the other girls in the keep haven’t pointed it
out to her a hundred times already.”
    A woebegone look crossed Tomas’s
face. “What must the girl think?”
    Pug said, “Who knows what girls
think? From everything I can tell, she probably likes it.”
    Tomas looked thoughtfully at his plate
“Do you ever think about taking a wife?”
    Pug blinked like an owl caught in a
bright light. “I . . . I never thought about it. I don’t
know if magicians marry. I don’t think they do.”
    “Nor soldiers, mostly. But Master
Fannon says a soldier who thinks about his family is not thinking
about his job.” Tomas was silent for a minute.
    Pug said, “It doesn’t seem
to hamper Sergeant Gardan or some of the other soldiers.”
    Tomas snorted, as if those exceptions
merely proved his point. “I sometimes try to imagine what it
would be like to have a family.”
    “You have a family, stupid. I’m
the orphan here.”
    “I mean a wife, rock head.”
Tomas gave Pug his best “you’re too stupid to live”
look “And children someday, not a mother and father.”
    Pug shrugged. The conversation was
turning to provinces that disturbed him. He never thought about these
things, being less anxious to grow up than Tomas. He said, “I
expect we’ll get married and have children if it’s what
we’re supposed to do.”
    Tomas looked very seriously at Pug, so
the younger boy didn’t make light of the subject. “I’ve
imagined a small room somewhere in the castle, and .I can’t
imagine who the girl would be.” He chewed his food. “There’s
something wrong with it, I think.”
    “Wrong?”
    “As if there’s something
else I’m not understanding . . . I don’t know.”
    Pug said, “Well, if you don’t,
how am I supposed to?”
    Tomas suddenly changed the topic of
conversation. “We’re friends, aren’t we?”
    Pug was taken by surprise. “Of
course we’re friends. You’re like a brother. Your parents
have treated me like their own son. Why would you ask something like
that?”
    Tomas put down his plate, troubled. “I
don’t know. It’s just that sometimes I think this will
all somehow change. You’re going to be a magician, maybe travel
over the world, seeing other magicians in faraway