‘It most certainly is not!’
‘It is a simple solution, Em, and you wouldn’t even have to get your little paws dirty. We go to Arum and pick up the knife. Then I go to Nekweros and cut Ghend’s throat with it.’
‘That’s not what it’s for, Althalus. It has writing on the blade. There are some people we’re going to need, and we’ll recognize them because they’ll be able to read that writing.’
‘Isn’t that just a little exotic? Talk to your brother and find out who these people are. Then we’ll chase them down and get on with this.’
‘It doesn’t work that way, Althalus. Situations change. If things have happened one way, we’ll need certain people. If they’ve happened in another way, we’ll need different people. Circumstances decide exactly who we’re going to need.’
‘Wouldn’t that mean that the writing on the knife-blade changes as the circumstances change.’
‘No. It’s not the writing that changes, pet. It’s the reading.’
‘Wait a minute. Doesn’t the writing mean the same thing to everybody?’
‘Of course it doesn’t. Everybody who reads any writing gets a different meaning from it. When you look at the writing on the blade, you’ll see a certain word. Other people will see a different word. Most people won’t see words at all – only decorations. The people we want will see a word, and they’ll say that word out loud.’
‘How will we know that they’ve read it right?’
‘We’ll know, pet. Believe me, we’ll know.’
The tag-end of winter dragged on for the next month or so, and then one night a warm wind blew in from the southwest, cutting the snow away almost overnight. Althalus stood at the south window watching the muddy brown streams overflowing their banks as they ripped their way down the mountainsides of Kagwher. ‘Did you do that, Em?’ he asked.
‘Do what?’
‘Call up that wind that’s melting all the snow.’
‘I don’t tamper with the weather, Althalus. Deiwos doesn’t like it when we do that.’
‘If we don’t tell him, maybe he won’t notice. We’re already cheating, Em. What’s one more little cheat? Maybe we should work on that a bit. You teach me how to use the Book, and I’ll teach you how to lie, cheat, and steal.’ He grinned at her.
‘That isn’t funny, Althalus!’ she flared.
‘I sort of liked it. How about a little wager on which of us can corrupt the other first?’
‘Never mind.’
‘Corruption’s a lot of fun, Em. Are you sure you wouldn’t like to try it?’
‘You stop that!’
‘Think it over, Em, and let me know if you change your mind.’
They were both edgy for the next week while they waited for the spring runoff to subside. Then, after the mountain streams had returned to their banks, Althalus gathered up his weapons and they made ready to leave.
He pulled his cloak over his shoulders and looked around. ‘I guess that’s everything,’ he said. ‘I’m going to miss this place. It’s the first time I’ve ever had a permanent home. Do you think we’ll be able to come back some day?’
‘I think so, yes. Shall we leave?’
He picked her up, reached back and spread the hood of his cloak. ‘Why don’t you ride back there, Em?’ he suggested. ‘Once we get outside, I might need to have both hands free in a hurry.’
‘All right,’ her voice murmured in his head. She crawled up over his shoulder and down into the bag-like hood. ‘This should work out just fine.’
‘Will other people be able to see you when we get outside?’
‘If we want them to. If we don’t, they won’t.’
He looked at the curved wall and saw that she’d put the door back.
‘No questions or comments?’ Her silent voice sounded disappointed.
‘Oh, I’m sorry, Em. How’s this?’ He threw himself back in an exaggerated posture of amazement. ‘Astonishing!’ he exclaimed. ‘There seems to be a hole in that wall! And somebody even covered that hole with a door! Would you fancy that?’
She hissed in his ear.
He laughed, opened the door, and started down the stairs. ‘Don’t forget to turn out the lights,’ he said as they went on down.
He remembered something as they were crossing the drawbridge. ‘This might not mean anything, Em,’ he said, ‘but I’ll tell you anyway, since you always seem to tie your tail in a knot when I mention something that doesn’t seem very important. There was some kind of animal following me when I first came here. I never saw it, but I could definitely hear the silly thing.’
‘What did it sound like?’
‘It was a sort of wailing sound, but not quite like the howl of a wolf. I heard it off and on all the way here.’
‘A kind of despairing scream? The kind of cry a man might make if he’d just fallen off a cliff?’
‘That comes close. It wasn’t a man, though.’
‘No, it probably wasn’t.’
‘Should I have hidden so that I could get a look at it?’
‘You wouldn’t have really wanted to see that creature. It’s something that Ghend sent to follow you, to make sure you were doing what he wanted you to do.’
‘Ghend and I are going to have a little talk about that one of these days. Will that thing still be waiting out there on the other side of the bridge?’
‘It might be. There’s not much we can do about it if it is.’
‘I could chase it down and kill it.’
‘You can’t kill it. It’s a spirit. Is killing always your first answer to every problem?’
‘Not every problem, Em, but I can kill things – or people – when the situation calls for it, and I don’t get all weepy about it. It’s part of the business I’m in. If I do my job right, I don’t have to kill anybody, but if something goes wrong – ah, well.’
‘You’re a terrible person, Althalus.’
‘Yes, I know. Isn’t that why you hired me?’
‘Hired?’
