The Demon Apostle by R.A. Salvatore

Author:R.A. Salvatore [Salvatore, R. A.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780345454287
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
Published: 2002-02-05T05:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 20

Regrets

“But you are not thinking clearly, girl,” Belster said, more loudly than he had intended. He put his finger over his pursed lips and glanced all around nervously. The Way was crowded and noisy this night, and apparently no one had heard.

Pony leaned heavily on the bar, twiddling her thumbs impatiently.

“How many of these folks do you think will join with the dark skins?” Belster asked earnestly, using the common synonym for the Behrenese.

“Of course,” Pony replied sarcastically, “we are in a secure enough position to ignore possible allies. The odds are so overwhelmingly in our favor already, after all.”

“You know what I am saying,” Belster grumbled back. “The Behrenese are not—have never been—loved by the folk of Palmaris. In that above all else, Bishop De’Unnero has plotted well. Not hard to make of them an enemy, and now you are coming along and saying that we might fight beside them. No, a mistake, I say. We shall lose more allies than we gain if you follow this path beside this Captain Almet.”

“Al’u’met,” Pony corrected. “As honorable a man as I’ve ever met.”

“His skin color alone will stop many folk from seeing that.”

“Then they are misguided,” Pony insisted, and then she looked questioningly at Belster. “Is this what you truly fear, or are you also unreasonably prejudiced against the Behrenese?”

“Well . . .” Belster mumbled, caught off guard by the blunt accusation. “Well, I’ve not known enough of them to make a judgment. I met one once, but only for a short—”

“Enough said,” Pony said dryly.

“Oh, but you are twisting my words and my thoughts!” the innkeeper wailed.

“Only because you know that those thoughts are without merit,” Pony retorted. “Al’u’met will stand with us, if it comes to that, and so will the Behrenese. They are allies we cannot ignore.”

“You believe in this man?” Belster asked for the fourth time since they had begun this conversation.

“He could have killed me,” Pony replied.

“And so he chose right in letting you go,” Belster agreed, “but to his own gain, by my thinking.”

“He gave me back the magical gemstones,” Pony added, “every one.”

Belster gave a great sigh and threw up his hands in defeat. He shook his head, but his smile widened, until at last he looked at Pony helplessly.

Only to find that she wasn’t even looking at him, but rather past him, her expression worried. Belster turned back toward the door and saw a pair of soldiers entering—town guard and not the King’s warriors who had been common, too common, in Palmaris of late. Belster noticed that one of them—a woman, an officer with fiery red hair—held Pony’s attention.

“You know her?”

“We fought together in the northland,” Pony replied softly. “Colleen Kilronney by name. I know her and she knows me.”

“Your disguise is well done this night,” Belster replied, trying to allay some of the panic he saw creeping over her. Both he and Pony knew his words for a lie, though, as Pony had come in only recently and, since Dainsey Aucomb was not in, it had been up to Belster to help with the finishing touches.

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