Blade put his big hand over his mouth. "Shut up, princess. Not another sound until I tell you. Now crawl backwards, very slowly and very carefully, and then follow me. I think it is time to run again. But softly very, very softly."
Chapter Three
Taleen found her path just as the moon was setting. It was narrow and made rough underfoot by stones and flints and, judging by the depth below embanking hedges, had been trodden for centuries. Blade's feet suffered, while the Princess went easily enough in her buskins.
As they went Taleen poured out all her knowledge of the Drus, as though the horror she had just seen had triggered her tongue. Blade, by nature a skeptic, was too much shaken by the recent scene not to be attentive. He listened and learned. Later would be time enough to sort fact from fiction. One thing he already knew. The Drus could not be ignored. They were a fact of life in Alb. They did evil and they did good. The Mysteries all knowledge and education, all medicine, all the higher arts and crafts and, most especially, all magic, were in Dru keeping. And woe to he who tried to usurp their prerogatives.
The princess, Blade learned, had been returning home after four years in a Dru school on the Narrow Sea when she had been attacked and captured by the minions of Queen Beata. The Queen was sister to King Voth of the North, and there was a great hatred between the two.
"She thought to hold me captive as long as it pleased her," Taleen said now, "and to bring a great ransom and many concessions from my father. He has great love for me, my father, and I am an only child. That bitch of a Beata would have succeeded, too, had I not had the foresight and the courage to bide my time and watch for my opportunity. I played very meek and frightened, Blade, and then I wept and told Beata that confinement was killing me. On my knees and I will make her pay for that, by Frigga on my knees I begged that I be allowed long walks in the woods and fields. I said I would die for lack of sun and air. Was that not clever of me, Blade? I pointed out that she, the queen, could have no profit of a dead princess. That was sly, eh, Blade?"
"Most clever," said Blade gravely. "Very sly, princess. So you watched your chance and seized a sword and slew one of your guards. Yes. Clever indeed. There is just one thing that puzzles me a bit."
The path had widened now, the going was easier, and she was swinging along briskly by his side. She cast him a sidelong look. "What puzzles you, Blade?"
Blade kept his face expressionless. "It was a brave thing, a great thing, for a girl like you to kill a warrior. I admit that. But how was it that you were alone with this guard? Was there only one guard? From the little you have told me of this Queen Beata she is no fool, so there must have been other guards. Where were they?"
He saw her scowl and kept his glance averted. He wanted to laugh and dared not. For the past few hours they had been getting on well and he did not want to spoil it.
Taleen was still frowning. "You ask too many questions, Blade. And the wrong questions. What business of yours is it that I "
"None," he said hastily. "None at all, princess. Forget that I spoke."
For a minute or so they trudged on in silence. Then Taleen sighed heavily and said: "You are right, of course.
I think you must have been a wizard in your own land. There were other guards. But I selected one that I judged weak, the weakest of all, and cozened him with certain promises. He was a handsome rogue, and he knew it, and so believed me when I said that I desired him. He arranged for us to be alone, for I swore that I would not do anything but in private. When were alone I suffered his embrace, but only to get close to his sword, and then I killed him and ran. And found you sleeping by the brook. As naked as you are now!"
She scowled again, her lips a red pout, and her luminescent brown eyes traced up and down his brawny nakedness. "And I tell you this, Blade. Your bare hide now begins to offend me. There is just too much of you!"
Her eyes fell and lingered on his genital area. She made a face and averted her eyes in what he knew was a feigned disgust. "Get you some cover, Blade. I command it. I am sick of looking at you."
He raised the sword in mock salute. "Gladly, princess. Just where do I get it. You will perhaps weave me a breechclout here and now, on the spot?"
The problem solved itself a moment later in a manner neither could have foreseen. They rounded a narrow bend in the path and came upon an open field. It was a cultivated field, bordered by a crude fence of piled stones, and just beyond the fence a man rushed at them with upraised sword.
Blade leaped before the girl, his own sword raised. "Keep back!"
She was first to laugh. Followed by Blade, who put his sword down and joined her, doubling over in merriment. So ridiculous!
Yet, in the first shock of surprise, the scarecrow had looked human enough. The sword, of wood, threatening enough.
Taleen was helpless now, holding her flat belly, her breasts shaking, as she pointed from Blade to the scarecrow and then back again, powerless in the throes of peal after peal of manic laughter.
"You you," she grasped, "tried to protect me from a scarecrow "
Blade leaped the fence and tugged a pair of tattered linen breeches from the scarecrow. They fitted well enough, though a bit tight around his powerful thighs. He went back to Taleen, pondering the odd security that a man can derive from a simple pair of pants.
The sky was beginning to gray now, with a first hint of false dawn in the east. When the girl had laughed herself out they resumed their way. Blade was thankful for the incident, and did not mind seeming a buffoon. Her good humor was restored and she chattered like a magpie. Blade kept mostly silent, and noted the changing nature of the countryside. They left the woods, crossed a vast expanse of wold, and entered a region where cultivated fields were intersticed with fenland and marsh. As the true dawn came on and the stars paled, Blade made out the blurred shapes of thatched cottages, all of them on stilts, standing well back from the path. A drift of wood smoke, accompanied by the odor of cooking meat, made his belly churn. Cattle and horses, evanescent against linear pearl light from the east, moved and sounded as they made their way past. A goat trotted to a fence to give them a baleful inspection, then bleated in derision.
After the sights of that night Blade had felt he would never eat again. Now his stomach rumbled indelicately and he was ravenous. He said as much to Taleen, who had stopped chattering for a moment, and she bade him be patient. The town of Sarum Vil, and her cousin Lycanto, was not far now. They would be well fed.
After another small silence, during which Blade caught a whiff of salt air and knew they were near the sea, Taleen said: "Blade!"
"Princess?"
"I think it best that we do not speak of the things we have seen this night. The Albs are a suspicious lot as it is, and I am going to have enough trouble explaining you. I do not think we should mention the Drus, or what we did or saw. If you agree I think we must make an oath on it."
It was agreeable enough to Blade, in fact suited his purpose, yet it was in his nature to probe a matter that interested him. Without looking at her he said, "You knew that girl who was killed tonight?"
After a moment: "I did not say that. Or did not mean it so. A princess does not know a serving wench. But I recognized her she was of my cousin Lycanto's household. So what of this?"
He prodded her gently, unsmiling. "You mentioned gossip, and matters you did not understand. What of this indeed? I must know. You do not walk in peril now, but I do. How will these things affect me? And how came that poor girl into the hands of the Drus?"
He heard her sharp indrawn breath. "I spoke true when I said you were a wizard in your own land! Your wit is sharper than a sword you go straight to the heart of matters. But you are right. It is another reason why we must not tell of what we have seen tonight."