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"A spear took him in the back," A
"Let's get you attended to," Kardeen said. He took my arm and led me out of the room.
I learned something new about my mother that night. Another something new. She was something of a doctor-and I don't mean witch doctor. I was guided back to my room. A page went for Mother. There were twenty minutes of her fussing over the injury. I got my pain medicine, and it tasted just as vile the second time. Mother smeared some kind of jelly over the wound. This preparation didn't sting the way Dieth's poultice had. It felt warm but not hot, soothing.
"The one rib is broken, but the other may not be. I can't be sure without X rays," Mother said. "You shouldn't have any real problem with it now, but you need to stay flat for at least forty-eight hours."
"No chance," I said, and Mother didn't argue.
"I have to tell the king that you're back," Kardeen said then. "He left standing orders that he was to be told instantly of your return, and I'm already late. You'd best get a few hours rest before you leave."
"As long as someone wakes me three hours before dawn," I said.
"I'll see to it," Kardeen promised.
Timon managed to promote a few gallons of hot water, and I took the time to get cleaned up. With a fresh dose of painkiller in me, I managed to get it done without help. Then I dropped across the bed like a dead man. A
"The cooks sent up breakfast and coffee," Lesh said. A table had been set up in the room and loaded with food. I hadn't heard any of the preparations. Timon and Harkane helped me dress. They did most of the work. My mind was still somewhere closer to sleep than waking.
Mother came in with A
"I'm worried about Parthet," Mother said while she took another look at my back. "If the elflord captures him, it won't go well. The lords of Fairy take harsh measures against the wizards of the seven kingdoms when they can."
"You mean they'd kill him?"
"Eventually. Parthet is old. It might not take him long to die under the treatment he could expect." Then she handed me a silver flask with the family crest and some extra designs worked into it. "This is the painkiller. Only take a single capful at a time, and don't take it at all until you feel the pain. It should be longer each time."
"Nobody warned me how screwy time is in Fairy," I said. I was getting used to things like that, people forgetting to mention things that were too "obvious" to need mentioning-if you knew enough about the land to start with. "Not that it would have made much difference. I still had to go," I added. But I wouldn't have taken the extra time to go farther north and raise hell after I got the sea-silver. And then I wouldn't have taken the business end of that spear in the back.
"How did you get the elf sword?" Mother stared at it. I told her, very briefly. I was too busy eating to weave the full tale.
"Be careful. Such weapons can cut the hand that holds them."
"So can everything else around here."
"Grandfather wants to see you before you leave," Mother said.
"Getting waked up twice in one night has got to be hard on him," I said, hoping to get out of a pointless formality. There wasn't much time, and I didn't see what good it could do.
"No matter, he sleeps lightly," Mother said. "He's been worried. You were gone so long."
I nodded-simple punctuation. "We'd better go see him, then."
The meeting was short and not as gloomy as I had feared. I introduced A
When the audience was over, Baron Kardeen had my extra soldiers and everyone was armed and armored. I left my shield behind-I hadn't found a use for that yet, despite my initial enthusiasm for it-but I did wear a helmet. Harkane had scared up a new one for me. The fact that I wore a tin pot willingly should give some idea how nervous I felt about the expedition. My Cubs cap was in my pocket, the blue bill sticking out. One bag of sea-silver was brought to the doorway that led to Arrowroot. We wouldn't take it through until Arrowroot was secure, though. If. The other bag was taken to the door leading to Coriander and put under guard. If I succeeded in Arrowroot, I would pop over to Coriander, set up the door there, then return to Basil to start my mad ride to Thyme. I didn't expect to need the second bag, at least not until I reached the other end, if then, but I wanted it handy, just in case.
A
Once more, the sense of danger was overpowering as soon as I opened the passage to Arrowroot. Danger flowed through the doorway like heat out of an oven. But I was ready for it this time. I gritted my teeth and moved on into Arrowroot, Dragon's Death out and ready.
There were no torches burning in the corridor we entered. There were no watchfires on the battlements. Castle Arrowroot was silent but for the lapping of the Mist against the outer wall.
"Which way?" Lesh asked softly once we had a couple of torches burning.
"To the great hall, but carefully. We don't know what's waiting for us," I said.
We had trouble skulking-ten of us in chain mail and toting metal weapons-but it didn't matter. There was no one in the corridors, and everyone in the great hall was sound asleep. Underscore the sound. The volume of the combined snoring was incredible. A twenty-one gun salute might not have wakened men who could sleep through that din.
"These are Resler's people," Lesh said after we got a few more torches lit along the walls. A
"Hey, Kobe!" She prodded one of the sleeping men with her foot, roughly. His snoring changed tone for a moment, but he didn't wake. A
"Let's find your uncle," I told A