Free Kingdoms of the Night (The Far Kingdoms) by Allan Cole & Chris Bunch Page A

quarters, th’ innkeeper tapped at his door and said a man wished converse with us.
    “‘This late,’ I told Hermias, ‘this man’s trade’ll either be dishonest, like most matters here in Jeypur, or bloody.’
    “Hermias laughed. ‘So far, my good captain, this trip has been lacking in adventure. We could do with a footpad or two to enliven the tale we’ll come home with.’ He ordered th’ keeper to show our late visitor in, and bring him whatever he wished to drink.
    “I slid my chair around so my back was to th’ bulkhead and made sure my blade was in reach. Hermias hadn’t learned yet adventure’s best in the tellin’ ’n seldom in the experiencin’.
    “The man that came in looked fair ordinary. He was dressed quietly, if expensively and appeared quite sober. In a crowd most people wouldn’t notice him, or if they did would imagine him a factor or perhaps a magistrate’s clerk. He introduced himself as Pelvat.
    “Hermias asked him his trade and he looked sly an’ said, ‘Perhaps milord might care to think of me as a harvester. Others might call me a gardener.’
    “‘Since we’re to be in Jeypur no longer than a week,’ Hermias said, ‘what gardening would we need? Although I imagine you’re being inexact in your words.’
    “‘Not at all,’ Pelvat said. ‘A gardener goes across his land and decides which plants are flowers and are to be watered and tended, and which are weeds to be plucked and tossed away. So I’ve been described, although I work mostly in the city among men.’”
    “‘An assassin!’ I said, my stomach curling a little.
    “Pelvat made no reply, nor did his face change. He paid me no mind, I suppose correctly, since Hermias was th’ lord whose keep he was seekin’.
    “Hermias himself took a deep breath, and I saw his jaw firm. ‘I am an Antero,’ he said. ‘We have no need to hire murderers. Not now, not ever. So what in blazes impelled you to approach me?’ I could see his face flush as he realized who was sittin’ opposite and anger spread. Pelvat rose. ‘My apologies for having disturbed your lordship at such a late hour and for such a...misunderstanding. But it was quite natural, since I was able to perform certain services for a kinsman of yours some years ago and he, at least, found my scythe to be quite keen and exact.’
    “‘Who?’ Hermias demanded.
    “‘General Antero, himself. You don’t think those councilors who fell ill most conveniently and passed on in spite of the best efforts of wizards and leeches alike just happened to have the gods frown on them, do you?
    “‘A skilled gardener not only knows how to distinguish flowers from weeds but also how to distill other plants to make his task of beautification easier and less, shall we say, obvious.’”
    “Hermias was white with rage. ‘Get out!’ he snarled and his hand went to the table where his dagger lay in its sheath. I myself reached for my own weapon.
    “But there was no need. Pelvat bowed once, slightly, and slipped into the night. We never saw nor heard from him again.
    “Hermias and I were awake until dawn, talkin’. Somehow, sir, we felt the murderer spoke the truth, at least as far as he knew it.”
    She ended her tale, looking away from me in embarrassment. It was many moments before I could speak. Finally I fought my way through the heavy surf of emotion to address her. I said, “Kele, you’ve served me well once again, not only as my servant but as my friend.”
    “I hope so,” she said and her expression was troubled.
    There was nothing else to be said. We parted and I returned to the villa. I had Quatervals to cancel all of my appointments for the day and retreated to the solitude of my study where I brooded for many hours.
    Somehow the use of poison made the crime worse. A poisoner is someone who gloats over the dark power of death that only he or she is privy to, someone who watches his victim writhe and die with pleasure.
    Cligus. My son.
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