Blood? What i The blood was dull and brown on the blade. Sud- denly he remembered everything.
"Oh. No," he whispered to the chill air. The words froze like little clouds before his nose. Another sort of chill settled into his spine, and he suppressed a violent shudder. Gods. l used magic.
Total wakefulness came with the realization.
Though still drained from the ordeal, he struggled to his feet, a little unsteady, but more or less alert to every sound in the stable. Within moments he was numb with cold. From below him came the odor of horse, or possibly dieren. The beasts made little noise in the stable, and Alaire guessed it was fairly late now, and they were asleep. Best to let it stay that way.
He considered the likely prospect that Kai had left him here, to fend for himself, and had returned to the castle alone. Staying with me would serve no purpose, he admitted. Better that he's gone when the Swords of the Association come take me away.
Climbing to the top of a mound of hay, he peered out between the slats of the small, round window and studied the snow-covered street below. A thick layer of white covered the entire landscape, and dotting the streets of what had to be the edge of the tavern district were the staggering remnants of the evening's revelers. He thought he saw the two men who'd fought over the bottle of aakaviit, but that did not concern him. What did matter was that he didn't think he was far from the scene o "crime"; he puzzled over why the Swords hadn't picked them up already.
Isn't arrest for Magic simultaneous with the spell- casting? Maybe not. Maybe the mages here weren't good enough to catch the perpetrator in time.
Before the arrest of the two magicians the previous night, the officers had talked with the barkeep first.
Could this man have been an informant, telling them who to arrest? Maybe, he thought with a thin ray of hope, the Swords rely on snitches to make their arrests, giving the impression of "omniscience" to enhance their authority.
The man who ran Kai through fled when he saw me. He was long gone by the time I found the harp. If there were no witnesses to the Bardic Spell, then just mayb If he stayed in the stable much longer he'd freeze to death. Any warmth to be had in the place was down there, with the beasts. And their owner would likely appear at dawn to tend to them, if not sooner.
A door creaked open at the other end of the stable, and Alaire held his breath. His heart was beating so fast he was afraid it would give him away.
He saw nothing of the level below him, but who- ever came in didn't stop at the animals. The ladder began to rattle as someone climbed it. Alaire reached for his sword and stood ready with it.
Kai's head popped up over the edge, and he froze, with the tip of Alaire's sword at his throat.
The boy stared at him, then the blade, then ba Alaire before saying, softly, "I see you're up. How do you feel?"
Alaire let his breath out, and withdrew the blade.
"Better. Come on up here."
Kai did so, with two canvas sacks slung over his shoulder, "I brought breakfast. And clothes. We can't go around looking like we're highborn anymore."
Kai seemed grim, but alert and sober. "So," Alaire said, dropping his voice in response to the obvious need for quiet. "The Swords are looking for us?"
"Everybody's looking for us," the Prince whispered urgently, dropping one of the sacks between them.
Although dried blood covered his clothes, his recovery seemed to be total. If he had any pain from the wound, he didn't show it. "The Swords of the Associa- tion, the Constables, the Royal Guard. You should be asking, who isn't looking for us!" He fixed Alaire with an angry look. "You have a lot to answer for!"
"Huh?" Alaire replied, completely confused. "I only -- "
"Why didn't you tell me you were a Bard?" Kai demanded. He opened one canvas bag, presenting a banquet of food. Sausages, cheeses, bread. Even a flask of wine. The sight of it all made Alaire's stomach clench with hunger. Gods, I'm starving! he thought, forgetting Kai's wrath.
They started eating, using Alaire's knife to carve up the food. Once Alaire got some of the food in him, his stomach quieted, and he felt much better prepared to face whatever came.
"As I was saying," Kai said sternly, gesturing with a sausage. "Why did you have to use magic, of all things?
We had those toughs beaten! Now we've got everyone in the kingdom looking for us. There's a reward for us, too. Ten thousand crowns!"
"Dead, or alive?" Alaire asked, carving another hunk of sharp cheese off the enormous round.
"I'm not joking," Kai protested, filling his mouth with bread and sausage.
Alaire regarded him askance. Then, it fell into place. He doesn't remember anything from the time the assassins attacked us to when the spell healed him.
Either from drinking, or from the magic. I still can't believe I putted that off. He looked at die harp, sitting behind Kai, and wondered with awe, am I a Bard now?
Kai continued to seethe at him, plainly thinking Alaire had taken a stupid and cowardly way out of the fight.
"For one thing," Alaire said, patiently, "I'm Bard. I am only studying to be one, and I've not achieved that status yet. We didn't mention that before, because we were under instructions fro King, my father, remember, to keep that to ourselves.
Would you have allowed us into your kingdom had you known? No," he said, answering for Kai. "Anyway, the question is moot. I tried the spell that I thought would work, because if I hadn't you wouldn't be talk- ing to me right now. You'd be dead. You suffered a fatal wound. Remember?"
Kai's look made it clear the Prince didn't believe him. "What are you talking about?" he asked irritably.
Alaire sighed. "What do you remember, Kai?"
He thought this over briefly. "We left the tavern, two robbers jumped us, you took one and... and..."
"And what?" Alaire pers Kai's gaze grew very distant, and a strange, bleak, frightened expression crept over his face. "I don't remember. At least, I don't think I remember. Some- thing happened back there, something that... it must have been the magic."
Alaire looked at him narrowly. "Is that all?"
Kai looked ready to fling the cheese round at him.
"What else is there?"
His anger concealed what had to be fear. He does know, Alaire realized. He knows what happened, and he doesn't want to admit it. Who can blame him?
Would I want to relive that?
He decided to take control of the discussion. "The robbers, as you called them, were no such thing. They were assassins. And they were there to kill us, not take our purses. I know, because the same ones or some- one just like them tried to kill Naitachal, my Master, within the very walls of your palace. I got lucky with one; I killed him without so much as a scratch to myself. That round with Captain Lyam probably saved my life. I learned some things from your teacher that put me at an advantage. Remind me to thank him."
"He's the best," Kai said proudly. Then he frowned in accusation. "If you got so good at this, then why did you have to invoke magic?"
Alaire sighed "Because the assassin you were fight- ing killed you. Or at least, he wounded you badly enough that you almost died."