Free The Seascape Tattoo by Larry Niven Page B

is known that, as recently as last year, she paid for the testimony of a man who had encountered one of the original raiders, who spoke of desert tribes and a story she accepted as true.”
    â€œA mother’s love,” Aros said.
    â€œAnd it is that mother who concerns us.”
    â€œWhy?”
    â€œJade Silith is Azteca. She was offered to the general as part of his spoils of war, although it is said their bond has become one of love. The general is a huge man. Your size.”
    And there he stopped speaking.
    Aros thought, and he suddenly saw it. “He’s big, she’s Azteca, and you are insane.”
    â€œYou are about the age that Elio would be. Black hair, dark skin. You are a warrior, like his father. His mother is obsessed that the boy is still alive. Do you speak the language of the desert people?”
    â€œA little. I fought a skirmish against them during the border wars.”
    â€œWhen was this?”
    â€œEight, nine years ago. I was a soldier.”
    â€œWell … that can be fixed. Yes.”
    â€œTell me what you want.”
    â€œI want you to remake yourself as the general’s missing son. To enter the kingdom with me, I as your servant. You must ingratiate yourself to the grieving mother and father. Allow them to celebrate your return. And during that process, I will find a chance to discover what I need.”
    â€œAnd if I do this? If I can do this?”
    â€œIf we do this and succeed, not only will you be free … but you will be wealthy, with the gratitude of the greatest queen in the Eight Kingdoms.”
    â€œWho are you,” Aros said, suddenly without the need to ask. He knew.
    â€œThat is not important,” the stranger said. This was no stranger. By the Feathered One, no stranger at all! “What is important is your oath. You are many things, but your people have a sacred pledge no righteous Aztec has ever broken. If you make that oath to me, I in turn will swear to set you free at the end of this.”
    The anger boiled within him. “You did this to me. You wanted my help and arranged for me to be here.”
    â€œI swear I had no such scheme,” the man said. “Yes, I did put you here. No, it had nothing to do with the princess.”
    â€œThe tomb?” The last time he had seen his old enemy, he had been sealed in a tomb infested with giant hungry arachnids.
    â€œThe tomb. I can see your scars. There’s a spider bite under that setting sun. I bear their wounds as well.”
    Aros’s lips curled in a smile. That, at least, was something.
    He hated himself for not wringing the sorcerer’s scrawny neck. But the desire for life had stirred within him, corrupting his resolve. But … he just couldn’t help his worst enemy, damn it.
    Could he?
    â€œAll right,” he said. “By the Feathered One. I promise that if you free me, I will serve you until the princess is rescued or we discover it is impossible. But there is a condition: if you lie to me, even once … our deal is off.”
    â€œAgreed,” the sorcerer said. “And if you disobey me or break your oath in any way … you are dead.”
    Aros thought about that and realized that he had nothing at all to lose. “Then in that case, Neoloth-Pteor, I’m your man.”

 
    NINE
    In the Desert
    For three days now, their tiny caravan had picked its way through sand and rock and rain-carved arroyos, through heat-shimmer mirages and past distant mountain ridges that resembled skeletal spines peeking through the earth in a dragon’s graveyard.
    Neoloth called to Aros, who rode a half length ahead. “You have passed this way?” he asked.
    Aros nodded. Both wizard and barbarian rode brown stallions more spirited than the four packhorses following them, or the tiny, sure-footed mule carrying Fandy. “I was with the desert peoples south of here for half a year.”
    â€œThieving, no