The Two of Swords, Volume 2 by K. J. Parker

Author:K. J. Parker
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Fiction / Fantasy / Epic, Fiction / Fantasy / Historical, Fiction / Action & Adventure, Fiction / War & Military
Publisher: Orbit
Published: 2017-11-14T05:00:00+00:00

For some reason, the pirates didn’t want to bring their ship into the main harbour and tie up among the naval galleys and the revenue sloops, so they dropped anchor off a secluded cove, in the middle of the night, and rowed them ashore in a little boat. It struck Musen as a ludicrously dangerous enterprise, but apparently the pirates had had a certain degree of practice.

“You’ll have to hoof it into town from here,” said the pirate captain, who’d come along to wish Axio Godspeed. “Just climb up to the top and follow your nose across the downs till you get there. The inn’s called the Diligence: just keep kicking the door till they answer. Say I sent you; they’ll see you right.”

Needless to say they did no such thing, but the innkeeper saw them right anyway, as soon as Corason flashed a handful of silver fifty stuivers under his nose. Nothing was too much trouble, apparently, not even for strangers who walked in over the fields in the dead of night.

In the morning, Corason asked if he could buy three horses. The innkeeper didn’t laugh, because that would’ve been rude; instead, he hazarded a guess that they might just possibly find something at the Wheel Star, where from time to time they sold off pit ponies that were too old and feeble to pull a cart; but that was thirty miles away in the other direction, so maybe the gentlemen might prefer to wait for the stage.

While Corason conducted the negotiations, Axio had wandered off; he came back with the news that there were four very fine geldings in the stable—remounts for the Imperial couriers, in all probability, but the emperor already had far more horses than was good for him, as witness the appalling mischief Senza was getting up to with all that cavalry, whereas three good horses and a fourth to carry a few supplies would get them to Choris quickly and in relative comfort. “Now if only,” Axio said, looking straight past Musen as if he wasn’t there, “we knew a good horse thief—”

Musen was rather inclined to resent being given the job, since stealing horses doesn’t call for a skilled and talented thief, just a dishonest groom. Walk across the yard, look round to see nobody’s watching, go inside, saddles and bridles, lead the horses out into the yard and ride like hell; where’s the technique or the finesse in that?

At least once they’d got clean away there was no danger of being pursued; not when they’d stolen the only four horses in the county.

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