The Redemption of Althalus (89 page)

“Let’s go,” Althalus said quietly to Gher.

“I haven’t finished my mead yet,” the boy protested.

“Yes, you have. We’re leaving right now.”

They went out through the tavern door to join Ghend and Khnom at the rail where their horses were tethered. “Have you got a moment, friend?” Althalus asked.

“We’re in sort of a hurry,” Khnom told him.

“This won’t take but a minute,” Althalus assured him. Then he looked directly at Ghend. “If I read your face correctly—and I usually do—you found the story about Gosti Big Belly and all that gold that’s piling up around him
very
interesting.”

“It got my attention,” Ghend admitted shortly.

“I thought it might have. You’ve got the look of a businessman about you.”

“Which business are we talking about? I don’t sell pots and pans or sheep, if that’s what you mean.”

“Neither do I, friend. I was referring to the business that involves the transfer of ownership of this, that, and the other thing.”

“Oh,
that
business. My associate and I dabble in that now and then.”

“I sort of thought you might. I saw the way your eyes lit up when those country bumpkins started talking about the fat man and his toll bridge. I’ll tell you right out in front that those stories lit a little fire in
my
belly, too.”

“So?”

“If it just happened that we both went to visit the fat man with the idea of transferring ownership of part of his gold, we’d probably be tripping over each other at every turn, right?”

“It’s possible,” Ghend conceded.

“Now, I
am
going to pay Gosti a call, and if you are, too, mightn’t it be better if we joined forces instead of going into competition with each other? If I’m trying to outsmart you and you’re trying to outsmart me, the fat man’s likely to outsmart the both of us, and we could both end up getting ourselves hung.”

“That
does
make sense,” Ghend admitted. “Are you any good?”

“He’s the best there is,” Gher said proudly. “You wouldn’t
believe
how much he’s charging my family for my education. Althalus here could probably even steal things from God.”

“Now
that’s
something I’d like to see,” Khnom chortled.

“Just point Althalus in the direction of God’s house and get out of his way,” Gher boasted.

“I think maybe we’d better talk about this just a little bit more,” Ghend said. “Let’s move away from here, though. The doorstep of a tavern’s not the best place for this kind of discussion.”

“I was just about to suggest that myself,” Althalus said. “You’ve got good instincts.”

They all mounted their horses and rode through the village, into the woods beyond.

“Find us a good place, Gher,” Althalus told the boy.

“Right.” Gher dug his heels into his horse’s flanks and galloped off.

“He seems to be a very clever boy,” Khnom observed.

“He’s so clever he makes my teeth hurt,” Althalus said sourly. “Every time I come up with a simple plan for a simple robbery, he starts adding complications.”

“Oh, by the way,” Ghend said, removing his peculiar bronze helmet, “my name’s Ghend, and this is Khnom.”

“That might be useful to know. My name’s Althalus, and the boy’s Gher.”

“Pleased to meet you,” Ghend said with a faint smile.

“I think I seen a good place,” Gher called from just on ahead. “There’s a meadow with a clump of trees in the middle. We can talk there without nobody seeing us together, and nobody can’t sneak up on us to listen to what we’re saying.”

“Lead the way,” Althalus told him.

“It’s over there,” Gher said, pointing off to the left.

The meadow was steeply sloped, and the small grove of trees in its center was several hundred yards from the edge of the surrounding forest.

“Are we going to do this like we usually do?” Gher asked as they dismounted in the grove. “You know—tenlike we don’t know each other when we get there?”

“ ‘Tenlike’?” Khnom asked with a look of bafflement.

“Gher makes up words sometimes,” Althalus explained. “What he actually means is ‘pretend like’—and he’s probably right. We don’t want Gosti to start thinking of us as a group. I think we should behave as if we’re strangers and sort of avoid each other while we’re inside Gosti’s main building. We’ll have to gain his confidence, and that’s going to take a while. We’ll need to make up a few fairly convincing lies, but that’s no problem for professionals.”

“Not really,” Ghend acknowledged. “Then we should probably split up right here.”

“Right,” Althalus agreed. “Why don’t you and Khnom ride out from this grove and go north? Then Gher and I’ll wait for about an hour and ride off toward the east. If anybody’s watching, he won’t realize that we’re together.”

“You
are
good, Althalus,” Ghend said admiringly. “You’ve got an excellent eye for details. When this is all over, we might want to talk again. I might just have a business proposition for you—but let’s rob Gosti first, shall we?”

“One thing at a time, certainly. All right, have you got gold enough to buy your way across that bridge?”

“I’ve got plenty,” Ghend replied. “Do you need some?” The question was slyly put.

“And if I happened to say ‘yes,’ our partnership would end right here, wouldn’t it?”

“Probably, yes.”

“That went by real quick, didn’t it?” Gher said to Khnom.

“If we’d blinked, we’d have missed it,” Khnom agreed. “We’re dealing with a pair of masters here, my boy. We can tenlike we don’t know it, but we’d better keep our eyes open.”

“You’re right about that.”

“Gher and I’ll cross Gosti’s bridge a day or so after you and Khnom do,” Althalus continued. “And we’ll keep away from you when we get to Gosti’s place. Have you noticed my tunic?”

“How could I miss it?” Ghend replied.

“Most of the time, I’ll just leave the hood pushed back. If I pull it up and you can see the wolf ears sticking out, it means that I need to talk to you, all right?”

Ghend nodded. “And I’ll use my bronze helmet the same way. Most of the time, it’ll be hanging on my belt. If I’ve got it on my head, it’ll mean that
I
want to talk to
you.
”

“This is all coming together very well,” Althalus said. “This is probably as far as we need to go for right now. We’ll need to get the lay of the land a bit before we come up with any more details. Once we know where the fat man’s strong room is and how well it’s guarded, we’ll be able to polish the details.”

“Agreed,” Ghend said shortly.

“Do we need to talk about anything else?”

“I think that covers it,” Ghend said.

“All right, then,” Althalus said. “You two had better get moving. We’ll see you again in Gosti’s fort.”

“Only we’ll tenlike we never laid eyes on each other before,” Khnom said, grinning broadly at Gher.

“He learns quick, don’t he?” Gher said to Althalus. “Maybe if we steal enough gold, I’ll be able to buy him and teach him the business.”

That startled even Althalus.

“Don’t get worried none, Althalus,” Gher said with an impudent grin. “You’re
still
the best. I probably won’t get to be better than you are for at least another month or two—maybe even as long as three.”

Ghend was laughing as he and Khnom mounted their horses and rode out of the grove toward the north.

C H A P T E R     F O R T Y - T H R E E

I
t definitely goes against my grain, Ghend,” Khnom was saying to his confederate as Althalus and the others stood at the window watching the pair riding north toward the lands of Gosti’s clan. “Do we
have
to let that grubby thief get away with half of the gold?”

“We need him, Khnom,” Ghend replied, “Unless
you
want to go to the House of Deiwos and steal his Book.”

“Not very likely,” Khnom said, shuddering. “I’ve heard a few stories about what Dweia does to people who annoy her, and they make swimming in boiling pitch sound pleasant by comparison.” Then Khnom squinted slyly sideways at Ghend. “What about
after
he’s stolen the Book for us? We won’t need him anymore then, so we could cut his throat and take his share of the gold we steal from Gosti, couldn’t we? Once he’s delivered the Book, we’re done with him.”

Ghend laughed sardonically. “You have no loyalties whatsoever, do you, Khnom?”

“Not when they get in my way,” Khnom admitted. “I like gold, Ghend, and I won’t stop until it’s all mine.”

“Except for
my
share,” Ghend told him. “You weren’t planning to steal
mine,
were you?”

“Of course not,” Khnom replied just a bit too quickly. “Althalus and that clever little boy are another matter. You and I are like brothers, but those two aren’t much more than a convenience. Their only reason for existence is to help us rob the fat man and then to go steal the Book for us. Once they’ve done that, we can dispose of them.”

“Remind me never to turn my back on you, Khnom,” Ghend said.

“You haven’t got a thing to worry about, dear brother,” Khnom declared with mock sincerity.

“Not yet, anyway,” Ghend added.

———

“They aren’t really very friendly to each other, are they?” Gher said.

“Not particularly, no,” Dweia replied. “Ghend saved Khnom’s life after he was expelled from Ledan, but gratitude’s an alien concept for Khnom. Watch him very carefully, Gher. He’s devious, sly, and completely unscrupulous; and he’s
your
responsibility.”

“Mine?”

“Of course. Eliar dealt with Pekhal in Wekti, Andine outwitted Gelta in Treborea, and Leitha and Bheid eliminated Argan and Koman in Perquaine. Now it’s your turn, and Khnom’s the one you’re after.”

“I don’t think he’ll give me too much trouble, Emmy,” the boy said. “The Knife told me to ‘deceive,’ didn’t it? Doesn’t that mean that I’m supposed to trick him? I already did that when I came up with the idea of the dream thing that made him and Ghend help me and Althalus rob Gosti, didn’t I? I’m already so far ahead of Khnom that he doesn’t even know which way I’m going.”

“Don’t get overconfident, Gher,” she chided. “Khnom’s more clever than he appears to be. Keep things simple. If you get
too
exotic, he’ll start to catch a faint odor of something that’s not quite right, and that’ll put him on his guard. He already knows how clever you are. You have to make sure that he keeps believing that you’re concentrating on tricking Gosti instead of Ghend.”

“I’ll remember that, Emmy,” Gher promised.

It was late morning two days later when Ghend and Khnom reached Gosti’s toll bridge, and they were obliged to wait while the burly toll taker was engaged in a heated argument with a would-be prospector in ragged clothes.

“What if I promise to come back and pay after I find gold?” the prospector suggested plaintively.

“Don’t be silly,” the tattooed toll taker said in a voice filled with contempt. “You pay now, or you don’t cross the bridge.”

“It’s just not fair,” the ragged man complained. “There’s all that gold up there, and you won’t let me cross the river to get my share.”

“You don’t have any money at all, do you?”

“Well, not yet, but I’ll be rich as soon as I find gold.”

“You’re just wasting my time. Stand aside and let the paying customers through.”

“I’ve got as much right to be here as they do.”

“Guards!” the toll taker shouted over his shoulder to two fur-clad men armed with bronze axes lounging nearby. “This fool’s blocking the bridge. He wants to cross the river. Why don’t you throw him in, and we’ll find out how good a swimmer he is.”

The two burly guards grinned broadly and started toward the prospector.

“I’ll tell my Clan Chief about this!” the fellow threatened, backing away. Then he turned and ran, shouting curses back over his shoulder.

“Does that happen often?” Ghend asked the tattooed man.

“All the time. You wouldn’t believe some of the promises I’ve heard. Only about one in ten has the money to cross the bridge.”

“How much?” Ghend asked shortly.

“One gold ounce apiece,” the tattooed man replied.

Ghend opened his purse almost negligently and took out two coins. “How do I go about getting in to see your Chief?” he asked. “I need to talk business with him.”

“He’s in that fort over on the other side of the river,” the toll taker replied. “Most probably in the dining hall.”

“I wouldn’t want to disturb him while he’s eating.”

“You’ll wait a long time, then. Gosti eats steadily from morning to night. I wouldn’t worry about it. He can eat and listen at the same time.”

One of the guards laughed. “It’s eating and talking at the same time that gives Gosti problems,” he said. “He sprays a lot when he tries to talk, so it gets kind of messy out in front of him.”

“I’ll keep that in mind and stand back a bit,” Ghend said, and then he and Khnom made their way across the bridge.

“They don’t look the least bit like Arums,” Eliar protested. “Why aren’t they wearing kilts like real Arums do?”

“The trade routes between Arum and Wekti hadn’t been established yet,” Dweia explained.

“What’s that got to do with their clothes?”

“Kilts are made of wool, Eliar,” she replied, “and Arums aren’t very interested in raising sheep. This
is
happening twenty-five hundred years ago, you realize. Back then, most of the people living in the mountains wore animal-skin clothing, and their weapons were all made of bronze.”

“What a strange way to live,” Eliar said disapprovingly.

“That’s a better bridge than the old one,” Althalus observed. “A good sneeze would’ve collapsed the old bridge.”

“Was that fellow with the drawings on his skin the same one you met last time?” Gher asked.

“It’s the same man,” Althalus replied, “but he’s acting more official, now that the price has gone up.” Then he squinted at the fort across the river. “It’s bigger than it was when I came here last time. Could we get a bit closer, Em? I’d like to see just exactly what’s been modified.”

“Of course, love.”

There was a brief blur beyond the window, and Althalus found that he was looking down at Gosti’s fort from above. “They
have
made some changes,” he observed. “Last time, that barn at the north end was outside the walls, and the pigs were just wandering around in the courtyard. I see that they’re penned up now.”