“You’ll shoot one without even issuing a challenge?” Starling asked faintly.
I looked into the sudden disillusionment in her eyes. I closed my eyes and focused on my task instead. Nighteyes?
Shall I drive the horses over the cliff, or just down the trail? They’ve already scented me and are getting anxious. But the men pay no attention.
I’d like the supplies they are carrying, if it can be managed.
Why did killing a horse bother me more than killing a man?
We’ll see, Nighteyes replied judiciously. Meat is meat, he added.
I slung Kettricken’s quiver over my back. The wind was kicking up again, promising more snow. The thought of crossing the slide area again turned my bowels to water. “There is no choice,” I reminded myself. I looked up to see Starling turning away from me. She had evidently taken my remark as her reply. Well, it would serve there as well. “If I fail, they will come after you,” I said carefully. “You should get as far from here as you can; travel until you can’t see anymore. If all goes well, we’ll catch up with you soon enough.” I crouched down beside the Fool. “Can you walk at all?” I asked him.
“For a way,” he said dully.
“If I must, I can carry him.” Kettricken spoke with quiet certainty. I looked at the tall woman and believed her. I gave a short nod of my head.
“Wish me luck,” I told them, and turned back to the slide zone.
“I’m coming with you,” Kettle announced abruptly. She stood up from retying her boots. “Give me the bow. And follow where I walk.”
I was speechless for a moment. “Why?” I demanded at last.
“Because I know what I’m doing crossing that rock. And I’m more than ‘good enough’ with a bow. I’ll wager I can drop two of them before they know we’re there.”
“But . . .”
“She is very good on the slide,” Kettricken observed calmly. “Starling, take the jeppas. I’ll bring the Fool.” She gave us an unreadable look. “Catch up as soon as you can.”
I recalled that I’d tried to leave Kettle behind once before. If she was going with me, I wanted her to be with me, not coming up behind me when I didn’t expect it. I glared at her, but nodded.
“The bow,” she reminded me.
“Can you really shoot well?” I asked her as I grudgingly surrendered it.
A funny smile twisted her face. She looked down at her crooked fingers. “I would not tell you I could do a thing if I could not. Some of my old skills are still mine,” she said quietly.
We set out to clamber back up onto the tumbled rock. Kettle went first, her probing staff in hand, and I came behind her, one staff length back as she had bid me. She didn’t say a word to me as she glanced back and forth between the ground at her feet and where she wished to take us. I could not discern what it was that decided her path, but the loose stone and crystalline snow remained quiet under her short steps. She made it look easy enough that I began to feel foolish.
They are eating now. And no one keeps a watch.
I relayed the information to Kettle, who nodded grimly. To myself I fretted and wondered if she would be able to do what needed doing. To be good with a bow is one thing. To shoot a man down while he is eating his dinner peacefully is another. I thought of Starling’s objection, and wondered what kind of man would show himself and issue a challenge before trying to kill all three men. I touched the hilt of my shortsword. Well, it was what Chade had promised me so long ago. Killing for my king, with none of the honor or glory of the soldier on the battlefield. Not that any of my battle memories had much of honor or glory in them.
We were suddenly clambering down from the loose rock of the slide area, going very quietly and carefully. Kettle spoke very softly. “We’ve a ways to go yet. But when we get there, let me choose my spot, and get my first shot off. As soon as the man is down, show yourself and draw their attention. They may not look for me, and I may get another clean shot.”
“Have you done this sort of thing before?” I asked softly.
“It’s not that different from our game, Fitz. From here, let us go silently.”
I knew then she had not killed this way before, if she had ever killed a human before at all. I began to doubt the wisdom of giving her the bow. At the same time, I was selfishly grateful for her companionship. I wondered if I were losing my courage.
Perhaps you are learning that a pack is best for such things.
Perhaps.
There was little cover on the road. Above and below us, the mountainside rose sheer. The road itself was flat and bare. We rounded a shoulder of the mountain and their camp was in plain sight. All three guards still sat carelessly about the fire, eating and talking. The horses caught our scent and shifted with small snortings. But as the wolf had kept them uneasy for some time, the men paid them no mind. Kettle set an arrow to her bow as we walked and carried it ready. In the end, it was simple. Ugly mindless slaughter, but simple. She let go her arrow when one of the men noticed us. It took him through the chest. The other two leaped to their feet, turned to see us, and dived for their weapons. But in that short space of time, Kettle had nocked another arrow and let fly as the helpless wretch drew a sword clear. Nighteyes came suddenly from behind to bear the last man down and hold him until I could rush in to finish him with a sword.
It had happened swiftly, almost quietly. Three dead men sprawled in the snow. Six sweating, restless horses, one impassive mule. “Kettle. See what food they have on the horses,” I told her, to stop her awful staring. She swung her gaze to me, then slowly nodded.
I went over the bodies, to see what they might tell me. They did not wear Regal’s colors, but the origin of two were plain in the features of their faces and the cut of their clothes. Farrowmen. The third one, when I turned him over, near stopped my heart. I’d known him in Buckkeep. Not well, but enough to know his name was Tallow. I crouched looking down into his dead face, ashamed that I could recall no more of him than that. I supposed he had gone on to Tradeford when Regal moved the court there; many of the servants had. I tried to tell myself it did not matter where he had begun, he had ended here. I closed my heart and did my tasks.
I tumbled the bodies off the cliff’s edge. While Kettle went through their stores and sorted out what she thought we two could carry back, I stripped the horses of every bit of harness and tack. This followed the bodies down the cliff. I went through their bags, finding little besides warm clothes. The pack animal carried only their tent and such things. No papers. What need would coterie members have of written instructions?
Drive the horses well down the road. I doubt they’ll come back here on their own.
That much meat, and you want me to just chase it away?
If we kill one here, it’s more than we can eat and carry. Whatever we left would feed those three when they return. They were carrying dry meat and cheese. I’ll see your belly is full tonight.
Nighteyes was not pleased, but he heeded me. I think he chased the horses farther and faster than he truly needed to, but at least he left them alive. I had no idea what their chances were in the mountains. Probably end up in a snowcat’s belly, or as a feast for the ravens. I was suddenly horribly tired of it all.
“Shall we go on?” I asked Kettle needlessly, and she nodded. It was a good trove of food she had packed for us to carry, but I privately wondered if I’d be able to stomach any of it. What little we could not carry nor the wolf stuff down, we kicked over the edge. I looked around us. “Dare I touch it, I’d try to push that pillar over the edge, too,” I told Kettle.