Beyond the Gap (Opening of the World) by Harry Turtledove

Author:Harry Turtledove [Turtledove, Harry]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Publisher: Tom Doherty Associates
Published: 2007-02-20T00:00:00+00:00

XII

“WE WILL RIDE south and east,” Eyvind Torfinn said, no irony audible in his voice. “We will let the other Bizogot jarls and the Raumsdalian Emperor know that the Rulers follow behind us. We will make sure our lands are ready to meet you as you deserve.”

“Is good,” Roypar said. “Is very good.” By Samoth’s expression, he didn’t think it was very good, but he held his peace. Roypar led here. Anyone else challenged him at his own peril.

Parsh’s body lay where it had fallen. “Will you burn him?” Hamnet Thyssen asked. “What is your custom with your dead?”

“He will lie there till the foxes and bears and tigers have feasted on him,” Samoth answered. “He failed as a man—he deserves nothing better than to feed beasts. No doubt his spirit, when it is born again, will be born into the body of such a one.”

“You believe in reincarnation, then?” Eyvind Torfinn asked eagerly.

“Have you evidence to support your belief?”

Trasamund and Hamnet Thyssen had to drag Eyvind away from the wizard of the Rulers. If they hadn’t, he would not have ridden south and east. He would have stayed there and plied Samoth with questions for as long as the sorcerer could stand it.

Hamnet glanced over to Roypar. The chieftain looked unmistakably pleased with himself. The Rulers thought of themselves as conquerors beyond compare. Had he lain with a woman of a lesser breed the night before? Hamnet guessed he had. Gudrid showed nothing one way or the other. She was good at making her indiscretions discreet—unless she dropped the mask and showed them off.

Hamnet looked away. She laughed softly. So she knew what he was thinking, did she? She’d always been good at that. Hamnet Thyssen turned his back, which only made her laugh again, louder this time. Too bad, he thought.

Roypar really did let them ride away. That surprised Count Hamnet. It seemed to surprise and dismay Samoth, who muttered into his thicket of beard. The way he muttered sparked suspicion in Hamnet even before the Rulers’ encampment dropped below the horizon behind the travelers. He rode over first to Audun Gilli and then to Liv, asking each of them, “Is the wizard back there tracking us by magic? Are we taking along some little spell that lets him spy on us?” He had to repeat himself, using Raumsdalian and then the Bizogots’ language. He wished the two people among the travelers who knew sorcery could understand each other. As happened too often in life, what he wished for had nothing to do with what he got.

Ulric Skakki understood him both times he asked the question. “You have a nasty, distrustful turn of mind, your Grace,” Ulric said—in the Bizogot language, a choice Hamnet found interesting. “I only wish I’d thought of that myself.”

“Don’t worry,” Hamnet said. “You would have before long.”

“That kind of spell is possible, I suppose.” Audun Gilli didn’t seem to think Samoth had actually done such a thing.

Liv did. “Yes, of course. A sorcerous flea, you might say, coming along with us.

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