Everything seemed to slow down as the Serpent lunged toward the kingpin. I noted that she was not totally naked. She wore a ring. A big ugly snake thing probably still on her because they hadn't wanted to chop her finger off till after she died. I started to yell but it was too late.
She hit Chodo while Crask was still folding and Sadler was turning to see. She didn't know where she was going but knew she couldn't stay. Anywhere would be safer than here.
I yelled, "Winger! Come on! Let's get her!"
She responded without thinking. Good for her.
It had occurred to me that this was the ideal moment to separate ourselves from Crask and Sadler. Before they started considering who ought to follow the kingpin down that dark road.
The witch had a good sense of where to run. We couldn't corner her. She found her way out of the hidden passages. She fled the house from the rear. And gained on us while doing it.
I pounded around the side of the house just as she reached the front and almost landed in the middle of the departing dwarves. She whirled and headed east, toward the false dawn just beginning to define the vineyard hills.
Now Winger and I gained ground. We had longer legs and no need to worry about scratches from weeds and brush.
A winged shape dropped out of nowhere, brushed the Serpent's right shoulder, staggered her. Another followed it, then another, forcing her to change course.
Winger grabbed my arm. "Slow down. We might not ought to catch up."
"Huh?" I'd stopped thinking much.
"They're steering her."
They were indeed. I slowed to a trot and tried getting my brain to perking again. But I'd used my daily ration of smarts in Chodo's secret room.
The Serpent scrambled over the estate wall, raced for the cover of a woodlot following a small creek. MorCartha swarmed around her as Winger and I cleared the wall. They ignored us completely. The witch stopped just short of the trees, looked around wildly. MorCartha were there to cut off any attempt at retreat.
Men came out of the woods. Little guys, all of them, but men, not elves or dwarves or whatever. They surrounded the Serpent. A little old guy with glasses hobbled after them.
Willard Tate.
"Whoa," I said. "Stop right there, Winger. Good. Now, real careful, let's stroll toward the road." In half a second I'd overcome an impulse to go down and talk some sense into the Tates. That might not be any healthier than going back to hang around with Crask and Sadler. Willard Tate appeared demonic in the feeble light. He was set to get even with the world.
"What's happening?" Winger asked.
"You don't really want to know." Old Man Tate had his tools with him. I kept easing toward the road, hoping I wouldn't catch anyone's eye. "That old man there. His niece was the one the Serpent's thugs hit by mistake." I wondered how much he'd spent to arrange this encounter I wondered how much had been engineered and how much was pure luck. I didn't have any urge to go ask. Uncle Willard might decide it was a fine time to uncomplicate Tinnie's life by removing her favorite ex-Marine.
The Serpent screamed.
"You going to do something?"
"Yeah. Get my dearly beloved ass out of here. Too many people with their blood up in this neighborhood. I'm going to go home and lock myself in for a month, then I'll start trying to figure out what the hell became of that damned Book of Shadows."
I had an idea. it weighed five hundred pounds and was mad as a hatter. Process of elimination. Everybody else who had the slightest interest didn't have the book. Therefore, Easterman did or knew where it was. Maybe he wanted the excitement to settle down some before he started playing Fido the Terrible.
The Serpent had one hell of a set of lungs. She howled steadily. I didn't look back.
I'd make my peace with me about that later. After I got used to the idea of still being healthy.
46
Six hundred yards southwest of Chodo's gate the road to TunFaire crosses a small stone bridge over the creek that supports the woodlot where the Tates had waited in ambush. A pair of unsavory sorts were perched on the sides of that bridge. Seedy morCartha inhabited the trees overhead, for once uncontentious Presumably they belonged to the same tribe, perhaps the same family.
The shorter character stood, dusted his seat, gave me a big smile filled with pointy dark-elf teeth. "Everything come out, Garrett?" He was a handsome devil.
I kept cool Cucumber Garrett, they call me icicles for bones "You see before you the infamous Morley Dotes," I told Winger. Obviously, he wanted me to ply him with questions. I didn't. I'd show him. I'd spoil his whole day.
"He sure don't look like much.
"That's what the girls all say."
Saucerhead, still seated, grinned, spat into the creek. He glanced upstream. "Some excitement, huh?"
"Routine They never had a chance once I got rolling. I'd love to hang around and swap lies, but I haven't had my breakfast."
Saucerhead got up. He and Morley tagged along after us. Dotes sounded wounded when he said, "Routine? Your tail was an inch short of going down for the last time all the way. If I hadn't had you covered every step . .
Saucerhead told me, "We hired these morCartha to watch and report so we could jump in if you got in too deep."
"Oh. It was you guys that got me away from Chodo's kidnappers and that thunder-lizard?"
Morley hemmed and hawed. "You know the morCartha. Short attention spans They kind of lost you that time. But your luck held. We were on you the rest of the time."
"Maybe half the time," Saucerhead admitted. "Well, maybe a quarter of the time. People got to sleep some."
"My pals," I told Winger. "They look out for me."
"Hey," Morley protested. "Don't be that way. I set it up so it came out in the end, didn't I?"
"I don't know. Did you?"
Morley isn't one to blow his own horn, not any louder than the trumps of doom, anyway, so he let Saucerhead explain. Seems Morley smelled something in the wind early, something that would get me and Chodo butting heads. He'd stopped hiding and sulking over Chodo's having commandeered his place, had made arrangements. He'd gotten in touch with most everyone looking for the book and offered to become their warlord. Gnorst's bunch had no practical experience hunting and fighting. Likewise the Tates. And his reputation was dark enough to endear him to the witch's gang. Naturally, he'd gotten all parties to pay him in advance. Then he'd nudged everybody together for the final free-for-all.
"I thought it was pretty slick,' Morley grumbled.
"Yeah," Saucerhead said. "Way it came out, it even halfway solved the morCartha problem." He looked around to see if any hired hands were following. They'd lost interest. He was relieved.
Morley chuckled. "Don't worry about them. They're back there cleaning out Chodo's place."
I didn't have much to say. Let Morley think he'd covered me. He was a friend, sort of, and he'd tried. I guess it was his morCartha I'd sensed when I'd had that feeling of being watched. It had been him and Tharpe and the Tates in the boat that had followed me and Winger up the river. Let him think what he wanted. I was sure his contribution didn't mean much. Things couldn't have turned out much different, the nature of the greedy beast being what it is.
As we entered the city I asked Winger, "You still on Fido's payroll? I still have to go after that book."
"I don't think so." She was puffing.
I chuckled. "Want we should stop somewhere, get you a mule?"
"For what?" She did a good puzzled look.
"So you don't collapse. You must be lugging a hundred pounds of loot. I was amazed you kept up when we were chasing the Serpent."
She got huffy but denied nothing.
Hell, she clanked when she moved.
Morley was thoughtful. He observed, "We may be in for interesting times, what with the kingpin's spot up for grabs."