Christopher Stasheff - Warlock's Heirs 03 by Quicksilvers Knight

Author:Quicksilvers Knight
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 9

In the stillness of false dawn, a bird called.

Geoffrey looked up, frowning. “Knows not that owl that he should be abed?”

“So should you, if you were a proper man,” Quicksilver retorted.

“No, a proper man would be up and about at this hour. It is the unproper man who would still be abed.”

“And not alone?” Quicksilver said scornfully. “I am sure you know whereof you speak.”

“Trust the voice of experience,” Geoffrey agreed. The owl hooted again.

“There is the voice I will trust,” Quicksilver retorted. “She, at least, knows what she should be about, and when.”

” `She’?” Geoffrey raised an eyebrow. “How can you be so sure ‘tis a hen?”

“Why, by its call,” she said, with contempt.

“Indeed! And how is hers different from his?”

“By its tone, of course! Here, the cock owl sounds like this.” Quicksilver cupped her hands and blew through her thumbs, producing a remarkably good imitation of an owl’s cry. The bird in the bush instantly answered.

“Will she not come to seek you now?” Geoffrey asked. “No-belike she sought to scold a male who had been out of his bed all night.”

“Indeed! And should he not chide her for her vigil?”

“Since it was to await him out of worry, I think not.”

“‘Twere best, then, that he not go home. Who could rest in a nest with a quarrelsome hen?”

“Indeed! Well, if she had a grain of sense about her, she would leave the nest ere he comes!”

“At last! We have agreed on something!”

Quicksilver stared at him, nonplussed, then reddened with irritation-but Geoffrey looked up at another birdcall. “That quail, at least, knows his proper hour.”

“And his proper task,” Quicksilver answered, “which is to greet the sun and find food for his mate and chicks.”

“Before the nightcrawlers can ooze back to their beds.” Geoffrey nodded. “I have seen them many a time.”

“Oh? I thought you had been one.”

“That, too,” Geoffrey admitted. “Should we not stop to break our fast soon?”

“Why? Have you not brought wine enough?”

“When the dog bites me, I bite back,” Geoffrey retorted. She replied that a man is what he eats, and so they rode on in good-natured verbal fencing as the sun rose, and the dawn elbowed its way past the night. After a while, though, both ran out of quips, and they rode side by side in a silence that Geoffrey realized had become companionable, and was surprized to find that he had no desire to break.

After a while, though, Quicksilver began to feel restless-she could not let this arrogant lordling presume too much, so she spoke. “I am surprized that you were so quick to say you would come to the aid of Aunriddy.”

“Are you truly?” Geoffrey asked, with interest. “Would you turn away from the prospect of a fight in a good cause?”

Quicksilver stared at him, then slowly smiled. “No, I would not! And I suppose it would be too much to ask of you to forego it, either.”

“Most certainly,” Geoffrey agreed cheerfully. “However, that is only the true reason. I have a better.

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