Free The Quest of Kadji by Lin Carter Page B

out his numb and icy exterior, Kadji relaxed, pillowed comfortably on his own saddle and blanket-roll, stretching out his feet toward the cherry glow of the coals, and reflected that there were worse companions to take along on a journey than a magician. Such personages came in handy at times.
    And so they ate and drank, frugally, and fed meal to the cold and weary horses, and all the while the mighty smoke-grey wolf sat by his mistress and regarded them with unblinking eyes of gold fire. The wolf made Akthoob uneasy and he kept moving his own saddle and blanket-roll closer to Kadji.
    “You need not fear Bazan, little man,” Thyra smiled. “He is a friend to those I name my friends, and only a foe to my foes.”
    “ Aii ,” whimpered the timid little wizard, eyeing the great wolf uncomfortably. “Then this person humbles himself, and begs that you will make doubly certain he understand Akthoob to be his very great friend, indeed. Perhaps then the lord wolf will cease regarding this lowly one as though he were a dumpling!”
    Thyra and Kadji laughed at the notion that anyone could mistake the lean and scrawny little Easterling for a plump and edible morsel.
    Ere long the heat of the fire and the warmth of the wine made them drowsy, and Kadji doubly so, for that he had enjoyed no sleep the night before, and by now it was certainly early evening, although one could not be certain as the sky was a blind mass of falling snow.
    They slept that night in cozy if cramped quarters, while beyond the tent the demons of the storm howled and the Seven Moons bid their shining visages behind veils of flying snow.
    v. A Princess of the Blood
    IT WAS past dawn when they woke, and the snowfall had ceased at last, and all the world was a shimmering plain of utter white under a fierce but impotent sun.
    They breakfasted frugally from Thyra’s store, washed themselves in snow melted over the last embers of the coals, struck the tent and rode forth over immaculate fields.
    Kadji was grim and worried. Yesterday they had been close on the heels of Shamad: now they had lost him, for surely the tracks of his passage were hidden beneath the snowy mantle. All they could do was to ride forward in the same direction, due east, hoping that be was continuing in the same direction. If, after a time, they did not come upon fresh tracks, they would know he had changed direction, perhaps riding south to strike the Grand Chemedis Road.
    As they rode, Kadji and the girl saddle to saddle, the old wizard behind, nodding sleepily and dozing from time to time, the two young people talked in low tones. Kadji had told Thyra his story, and was curious to learn her own. When she did not elucidate the mystery of her presence in these events of her own accord, the boy warrior made so bold as to ask for it.
    “You know my mission, and why I must pursue the Impostor at peril of my own life, so as to wreak the vengeance .of my people upon him, and thus eradicate the stain laid upon the honor of my brethren. Shall I not know your own reasons and your story as well?”
    “That is so,” the girl said. “And if we are to be road companions, we should share our knowledge as we share our food. Ask, therefore, what you will.”
    “Who are you, really?”
    “I am the Lady Thyra of the Turmalin House. My mother was Amazya the younger sister of the late Emperor, Azakour, Third of that Name. She died in a distant province when I was but a child, having fled the Dragon City on the death of her brother.”
    That was something to think on! Kadji was astounded and stared at her in silence for a bit.
    “An Imperial princess, then,” he said. The girl nodded, her flame-red hair rippling gloriously in the sunlight.
    “But are you not the True Heir to the Dragon Throne?” be demanded in astonishment. “If you are the last surviving member of the dynasty, why . . . why . . .”
    She shook her head firmly. “The Law states that a female shall not inherit, thus I have no claim