Free Dagger by David Drake Page B

dark
    as the sky above—
    and the caravan master knew he'd be really lucky if he still had the strength to throw himself directly into Setios' house.
    "Heqt help and sustain me in this enterprise which 1 undertook for my daughter Star," Samlor prayed, though the only sound that came from his mouth was the wheeze of his breath. He gripped the sash with his left hand and a bar with his right, then drew himself into the opening with the clumsy certainty of a toad hopping.
    The Cirdonian's hobnails slipped an instant after his shoulders curved away from the adjacent wall, but his torso was already half inside the building. He wriggled, trying to pull himself the rest of the way through the narrow opening. His boots clashed on the wall which had supported his shoulders—
    and pushed him
    inside with no trouble at all.
    If he'd been thinking straighter, he'd've planned it that way. 58
    David Drake
    A boobytrap—
    a spring-driven blade or a nest of spikes—
    would have gone off
    during Samlor's previous activities, but there was still the chance that someone—
    human or not—
    waited in the darkness to spear the intruder as he
    sprawled totally helpless. The Cirdonian was so played out by the sudden release of strain that he couldn't have moved for the next few seconds if he'd known he'd be slaughtered instead of just fearing it.
    "Praised be Heqt in whom the world lives," murmured Samlor as his senses returned him to the world beyond his own effort and necessities. The marble floor beneath him was cold and slick with water. The glazed windows had not been closed the last time it rained; and that, from idle chatter overheard at the caravansary, had been more than a week ago.
    Khamwas called from the alley, his words blurred but the worry in them clear. Samlor rolled onto his right side. There was a sharp pain in his left thigh where the unsheathed dagger had prodded him during his contortions. He didn't think it had drawn blood through the double tunics.
    "It's all right," the caravan master said, then realized that he wasn't sure he could understand the croaked words himself. He gripped the window ledge, brushing the scattered bars into muted chiming around his knees.
    "It's all right," he repeated, leaning back through the opening by which he had entered. "Just a minute and I'll find—
    " his hand brushed fabric, curtains or
    tapestries, beside the window "—
    yeah, just a second and I'll have something for
    you t' climb by."
    The Napatan might have been able to mount the way Samlor had, but Star was too small to fill the gap as comfortably as either of the adult males. It was risky to bring her into a magician's house, but a worse risk to leave her in a Sanctuary alley.
    Life was, after all, a series of gambles which every creature lost on the final throw.
    A fastening gave way; cloth tumbled down beside the Cirdonian. It was embroidered, partly with metallic threads that made it stiff to the touch. Something about the feel of

DAGGER
    59
    the fabric suggested to Samlor that he didn't want to see the design. He slipped an end of the tapestry out between the remaining bars instead of tossing it directly through the opening he had torn. He no longer felt lightheaded, but he didn't trust his muscles to anchor his companions against a straight pull.
    "Come on up," the caravan master directed, speaking through the window. "Star first." The tapestry, belayed around the grill, wasn't going to pull out of his hands.
    The window was scarcely visible as a rectangle, and the still air smelt of storm.
    There was a discussion below. Star came up the tapestry, flailing her legs angrily behind her. There was a pout in her voice as she demanded, "What is this old place? I don't like it."
    Maybe she felt something about the house—
    and maybe she was an overtired
    seven-year-old and therefore cranky.
    There wasn't time to worry about it. The caravan master gripped the child beneath the shoulders with his left arm and lifted her into the room. Star