The Gully Snipe (The Dual World Book 1) (53 page)

veWarrnest looked like he had just bitten into a bone in the venison stew. He said, “Have you not heard? They make it no secret, that is clear! Bunch of filthy knockers! Acting as if ’twere normal. Acceptable, even!”

Several of the ladies present gasped.

There was a loud
thunk
, and Lord veWarrnest jerked his head towards the source of the sound. Less than a finger’s distance from his ear and buried in the back of his chair, was a throwing knife still vibrating from the throw. The lord’s breath caught in his throat and all of the fire in his eyes and the color in his lips drained away instantly.

A few of the ladies screamed when they saw the knife next to Strafe’s head. Finally, the eyes around the table were drawn to Gully, who had stood, and was leaning over with his hands planted on the table in front of him. His eyes were flashing red in poorly restrained anger. His chest was pounding furiously, and the snarl on his face was one that would have made even Gellen proud.

“Lord veWarrnest,” began Gully so fiercely that his anger could not be mistaken, “the next time that I hear a comment like that from you, that knife blade will bury itself precisely between your eyes. Consequences or no, I make that promise to you now, before all who are gathered here. You are not to disparage the clan of the Balmoreans again. They are a good people, brave and honest, and willing to sacrifice themselves to help stop our common enemy. Whom they chose to build a family with is of no consequence to anyone other than themselves.”

veWarrnest swallowed hard and beads of sweat had already formed upon his brow. He made no reply to the prince regent.

“And it is Raybb,” said Gully.

veWarrnest recovered himself and his eyes flashed angrily, but he did not reply.

It was Holm veDellersean that spoke timidly. “I’m... I’m sorry, Your Highness? Raybb?”

“There are more than just him, but Raybb is the particular one you likely speak of. His name is Raybb. Yes, he has a husband and a daughter that he loves with all his heart. What of it? And he is a supremely accomplished fighter. Unarmed, you could pit his bear and human forms against four of our best armed swordsmen together, and I would bet my whole coinpurse that Raybb would be the one remaining standing at the end. Also, the Balmorean men do not wear dresses, they wear kilts because it is the most practical clothing for the ones who shift forms.”

veWarrnest dipped his head in cold deference. “My apologies, Highness,” said the lord, with questionable sincerity. “I was not aware that you... aligned... with that sort of aberration so... ‘deeply,’ I suppose is the word I’m looking for.”

“I do,” said Gully emphatically, refusing to be baited by the poorly veiled insult. He stood up straight in front of his chair. Out of the corner of his eye, though, he noticed how pallid Thaybrill’s expression had turned with the conversation and how he had sunk down in his chair. He would have shot his brother a questioning glance, but he had a far more important point to make.

“The Mercher clan, the Balmoreans, have suffered much. They have been unfairly scape-goated and victimized by those running this slave trade. They have been hated and feared by almost all of the Iisendom, and
still
they were willing to join us and risk everything to fight this enemy off from a land that is not their own. They have asked for nothing in return. If I were to pick a people to emulate to make myself a better person in almost
every
way, I would do well to pick the clan of Merchers,” said Gully, his voice steadily rising in volume. “They are welcome to stay here as my guests as long as they please. If you find their presence among you untenable, then the problem is easily solved by taking your leave!”

The vast room fell into a deathly silence. Gully turned and stormed out of the dining hall, his boots echoing on the stone floor and the sweeping violet mantle he had been forced to wear flowing behind him.

He burst out of the dining hall and onto the darkened, mid-evening grounds of the Folly, his temper seething. Thaybrill had stressed how important it was to forge a solid bond with the noble families of Iisen since it was mostly through their cooperation that Iisen remained a kingdom at peace. It was a harder task than he had anticipated. These people were complacent and arrogant and insulting, and Gully could think of large numbers of people with whom he’d rather spend his time.

It took a moment, but he noticed that Gallun and Gellen had fallen in behind him somewhere along the way and were trotting along to keep up. He turned to them and started to speak in anger, not at them, but anger at the events of the evening. He stopped himself and took a deep breath, and only then did he say to the two wolves sitting attentively before him, “It is my wish that you were not in a position to hear any of the conversation at that dinner. It is my wish that
I
had not heard any of it, but I am not that fortunate.”

Gellen huffed once as he nodded his head off in the direction that Gully had been heading, then looked at Gully quizzically.

“I am going to see Roald. You are welcome to walk with me if you like,” offered Gully, not letting his ill-humor hold him any longer. He murmured in a sly tease, though, “Not that it matters much when I ask you to stay behind.”

Gellen shifted on his haunches and grunted as if insulted.

Gully laughed more heartily this time. It felt good to be around people that spoke more plainly. He squatted down and put his hand behind Gellen’s neck affectionately, feeling the softness of the thick wolf fur under his hands. Gellen growled and snapped, trying to bite at Gully’s arm for being patronizing.

“Oh ho!” said Gully, pulling his arm free from Gellen’s jaws in the mock mauling the wolf was giving him. His eyes sparkled and he teased the balmor, “Is this how you treat someone of my stature now? With wolf spit?”

Gellen butted into Gully, knocking him flat onto his back in the middle of the grassy ward. Gellen pounced on top of Gully’s belly and licked at his face a couple of times, then sat down, right upon the middle of the prince regent’s chest. The wolf stared down at Gully, panting victoriously, and with a look in his eyes that dared Gully to do something about it.

Gully’s chest heaved, trying to laugh and breathe at the same time, something difficult to do with the wolf on top of him, and he finally wheezed, “Yes! You win, Gellen! You win! I give in! Just no more of your spit, I beg you!”

Gellen watched him a moment more to firmly rub in who had really prevailed and then stood off of Gully’s chest. Gully sat up in the grass and brushed himself off, already feeling better after bantering with the wolves. He laughed again and put his arm around Gallun, pulling the wolf close. He said to Gellen with a twinkle in his eye, “You stay back! I’ll probably now have caught vermin from your wallowing around on me thus!”

Gellen growled again in warning as Gully put his hand on the other wolf’s head as he sat on the ground with both of them. He sighed and said, “Oh, thank you, both. It’s good to have two that refuse to let all this power and grandeur go to my head! Come, now! Let’s go see Roald!”

Before Gully could stand up, a voice belonging to a swordsman crossing the bailey yard called to him. “Your Highness? I am not sure I will ever accustom myself to seeing the prince regent and a pair of wolves wrestling about with each other the way you do!”

In the dim light, it took a moment for Gully to realize it was the soldier, Dunnhem. Dunnhem bowed briefly, then held out his hand and helped Gully to his feet.

Gully brushed himself off the rest of the way and said, “Aye! Have no fear of me getting too big for my breeches! Gellen seems to have taken as his primary charge keeping me in fleas and humility! Tell me, Dunnhem, is the Lord Marshal in his quarters?”

“I believe he is, Sire. He was there not very long ago, buried in papers and reports.”

They began walking in that direction and Dunnhem said, “Er... if I may say so, thank you for what you did in making Roald the Lord Marshal. There are plenty in the Guard that do not know him well and are leery of what sort of lord commander he will be, but those of us that do know him have done all we can to extol his abilities and to reassure them that he will be even better than Lord Marshal Jahnstlerr. There have been so many changes happening so swiftly. It will be good to have a king once again on the throne of Iisen. I’m glad it’s to be you, too.”

Gully shot a sideways grin at the soldier as they walked. He said, “Ah, with comments such as those, I will soon need an additional course in Gellen’s lessons in modesty. You learn the ways of court flattery very quickly, Dunnhem!”

“Me, Sire?” Dunnhem’s lanky form slowed as he laughed. “Not at all! I’m a hopeless fumblethumbs at those sorts of skills. I’m a soldier, not a politician, thank the stars at night! I can remember as a small child seeing King Colnor make a public speech once, in the Bonedown. Even as a child, I found him inspiring. If it pleases you, I would have been happy with Thaybrill on the throne as well. I give thanks to the star of your father for keeping both you and Prince Thaybrill safe for the good of the kingdom. And it is good to have the disappearances of our people eliminated and the criminal elements behind them put away. Everyone I talk to feels a greatly renewed sense of hope and promise, Sire.”

“I hope I do not disappoint you, Dunnhem, or them.” Comments like these in the last few days, even with the best intentions, made Gully wary. Most of the time he considered it to be no more than bald slavering by those seeking favor, and dismissed them out of hand. Dunnhem, though, and a few others, he felt to be sincere, and those were the ones that made him wary. It made him worry that these people were misplacing their faith in him. He worried what would happen when they realized that all of this was an approaching disaster.

Gully was still lost in these thoughts as they walked when Dunnhem asked, “Sire, I was wondering if it was true...”

The guard’s voice trailed off, but he had gained Gully’s attention.

“Yes, Dunnhem?”

Dunnhem pursed his lips in the fast fading light. “Never mind... forgive me, Your Highness. It is not my place to ask such things.”

Gully stopped, causing the others to stop with him. He knew the question would come up sooner or later and he preferred to address it rather than let the Guard arrive at a bad conclusion on their own.

“You wish to know if Roald knew of my thieving while he was a guard, do you not?”

Dunnhem dipped his head and almost seemed to shrink back from him a step, and Gully knew he had guessed correctly. Dunnhem said, “It is not my place, Your Highness, to demand—”

Gully said, “You are not demanding, Dunnhem, and I prefer the chance to explain in my own way.”

Gully began walking again, more slowly this time, Dunnhem next to him and Gallun and Gellen on his other side.

“I have been a thief since I was about twelve years of age, even before Roald entered training to become a swordsman,” explained Gully. “The day he told me he was going to enter training to become a swordsman of the Kingdom Guard was a nervous, uneasy one for both of us, because he already knew what I was doing. It was Roald, bless him, who finally sat me down while his mother was away and told me that while we were at home, we would always be brothers, not Guardsmen or criminals, but that out on the streets of the city, he would take his loyalty to the law and the crown very seriously. I accepted that arrangement... happily, in fact. And that was how it was for us. I had a couple of near misses where he almost did catch me since he knew me better than anyone. Mostly, he was concerned with my run-ins with other guards, equally for my safety at their hands and for the safety of the swordsmen at my hands.”

Dunnhem listened as they walked and did not interrupt.

“Roald never willingly allowed me to slip away, and the only reason I managed to is because I’m a rather clever thief, if I do say so myself,” said Gully, earning a chuckle from the guard. “Roald’s conscience is clear. He has always been a good and honest soldier, every day of his service. As for me, well... I give you leave to form whatever opinion of me you wish.”

This time it was Dunnhem who stopped momentarily as they neared the building where Roald’s apartment was housed.

“I’ve expressed my honest opinion of you already, Your Majesty,” said Dunnhem. “Although, truth be told, I’m relieved I never had a run in with the Gully Snipe personally. The swordsmen who were humiliated by the Gully Snipe’s exploits were usually teased without mercy by their fellow guards, and I had no desire to join their ranks!”

This time, it was Gully’s turn to laugh out loud.

Dunnhem added, “Thank you, though, for that explanation. Some have wondered if Lord Marshal Delescer was some sort of an accomplice at times, now that the truth of your relationship has come out. For those of us that know him well, it is impossible to imagine, but you know how rumors have sturdy legs.”

“Aye, indeed they do, Dunnhem,” said Gully, hoping the truth would protect Roald.

When they arrived at Roald’s apartment in the building that housed the Offices of State, Dunnhem wished the prince a pleasant evening and took his leave with a deep bow.

Gully knocked on the door and a moment later there was an impatient voice inside that said, “Can it wait? It’s late and whatever it is, it surely can wait. Come back tomorrow!”

Gully pushed the door open and stepped in with Gallun and Gellen right behind him. They walked through a foyer and then into the private office of the Lord Marshal. Roald was leaning over the massive carved wooden table with quires of papers and parchments, bound codices, and ledgers spread all around.

Roald would have looked very dashing in the sharp uniform of the Lord Marshal, with its charcoal-colored cape, deep scarlet doublet with gold buttons, and black boots and snug trousers. As it were, though, he looked tired and frazzled and very preoccupied.

“I said, whatever it was could—” Roald looked up and realized who was standing in the doorway to his office.

Gully hoped Roald would finish his admonishment, but he was disappointed.