Serpent's Blood

by Brian Stableford

  "We don't have enough men, period," said Sergeant Purkin gruffly.

  "We should've got help. Plenty of real army about if the militia can't be trusted." Purkin's original opinion had been that this was a fool's errand, but now that they had actually arrived at the place where Checuti was supposed to be he had changed tack. Now he was making a show of his strong disapproval ofjacom's determination to trust no one but his own men. If the adventure went badly, the sergeant would certainly not be short of arguments to demonstrate that the foul-up had definitely not been his fault.

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  "We'd have more men if we hadn't lost so many," Jacom told him, in a faintly accusative tone.

  "We'll just have to make do with what we've got left It's too late now to send for reinforcements. What are our chances of getting right up to the house without being spotted, do you think?"

  It was the little man who answered, before Purkin could open his mouth.

  "None," he said flatly.

  "There's geese in the sheds to the right of the front yard. Best sentries in the world you go through that gate an' everyone in the house'll soon know you're around."

  "Peck us to death, I shouldn't wonder," Purkin muttered contemptuously.

  "Naw," said the little man disgustedly.

  "Won't hurt you- but when they hear you comin' they'll start honking loud enough to wake the dead. You'll see."

  "What about human sentries?" Purkin asked, keeping his lips | very close to the prisoner's ear so that he could growl instead of | whispering.

  "Do they have those posted too?"

  "How should I know?" the little man replied, a little too loudly forJacom's liking, although the soft noise made by the wind as it rustled the leaves on the trees was enough to prevent the words being heard more than a few^ nets away.

  "I just know the place. I live round 'ere. Anyway, I gotta go now. You tell Carus Fraxinus we're square,

  OK? " '.

  Purkin was quick to seize the little man before he could wriggle through the group of guardsmen and race away.

  "Oh no you don't," he said.

  "We're not finished yet." ( "Door's opening," said Luca murmurously.

  "Someone coming out. Only one, though."

  "Where is he going?" Jacom asked.

  "Can't tell. Too dark in the shadows. Probably taking a leak."

  Suppose we're been spotted already, Jacom wondered. Suppose he's been tipped off that we're coming. He remembered, ruefully, the damage which Checuti's dark landers had done to his patrols on the night of the robbery, with the anaesthetic darts they'd fired from their blowpipes. There had been lamplight as well as starlight to aim by in the citadel, and there was far less light here, but the dark landers natural habitat was the Forest of Absolute Night, where- if rumour could be credited- there was hardly any once the sun had set. Jacom looked uneasily about, cursing the file:///G|/Program%20Files/eMule/Incoming/Brian%20Stableford%20-%20Serpents%20Blood.TXT (215 of 495) [11/1/2004 12:26:21 AM]

  awkward layout of

  the farm buildings and the overgrown wall surrounding the junk-laden front yard. The trees growing close to the outside of the wall were hardly dense enough to qualify as a forest but they were old and stout, with very leafy crowns, and they could have hidden a legion of clever savages.

  Not for the first time, Jacom wondered whether Purkin was right to argue that he ought to have gone to the governor to raise a company of militiamen. He reminded himself, though, that he had good enough reason to think that any message passed along the governor's chain of command was likely to be broadcast very quickly indeed. It was surely better to be here with too few men than to have come with a small army to find that the bird had flown.

  "It's OK," Luca said eventually.

  "He's gone back in. Geese never made a sound."

  "Darklander," opined the little man.

  "Darklanders got a way with birds. Checuti's always been thick with dark landers Blood brothers or something' like. Nasty in a fight savages, the lot of 'em."

  "You seem very well informed about his habits," Jacom observed.

  "How many men is he likely to have with him, do you think?"

  "I don't know!" the informer insisted.

  "It doesn't really matter, sir," Purkin said grimly.

  "We're too few to rush the place even if there're only half a dozen. Even if we keep watch on all the doors there's any number of escape routes from a place like that. If it comes to a fight. . . well, I don't like charging into a battle without knowing the enemy's strength or the quality of his arms. Far better to set an ambush and lie low. If he comes out when he's finished his business, not knowing we're lying in wait, we'll be able to see whether the princess is with him and we'll have a chance to take him. That's our best bet."

  "We don't want anyone getting killed," Jacom agreed, knowing that the assembled men would be anxious to know that he wasn't about to do anything foolhardy.

  "We're not here to take Checuti, unless we have a clear opportunity to do so.

  What we want, first and foremost, is to find out whether he still has the princess, and if so, where. If we can get that without a fight, so much the better. Maybe we can talk to him. We may not know how many men he 213

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  has,

  but he doesn't know how many we have. If we can persuade him that he's surrolrhded, he might be willing to give up the princess in exchange for free passage out of that house."

  "Ambush is best," Purkin said steadfastly.

  "Bluff can always get called. If we pretend we're more than we are, the bastards will either scatter or make a stand- either way, we're not up to it.

  If we wait, an' concentrate on grabbin' Checuti, the rest might look after themselves an' leave him to us."

  The little man made a small sound of disgust. The last part didn't sound very convincing to Jacom. He suspected, in fact, that it didn't sound convincing to Purkin either. Jacom didn't want to lie in wait, leaving the initiative to the other side. He wanted to act. He wanted, if it was at all possible, to be a hero. Fate surely owed him a chance of that, if there was any fairness in the world at all. "If we lose him . . ." Jacom began slowly. He didn't continue. There were far to many ifs hanging over the argument. . . and at the end of the day, he and he alone had to sort through them. He was the officer. It would be his fault if they screwed this up, no matter whose advice he took, and Purkin would never let him forget it. Fraxinus had recommended cleverness- but what did cleverness amount to, in a situation like this?

  In all the stories he'd been told as a boy, about ever-valiant guardsmen and dastardly enemies of the state, things had gone much more smoothly than his own exploits to date, and no officer had ever made a wrong decision without having a subsequent opportunity to redeem himself spectacularly. It was, however, easy for characters in stories to win through when the appropriate moment arrived: they had dutiful story-rellers^to make sure that they'd be all right whatever desperate risks they chose to take. In real life there were far too many things that could go horribly wrong.

  "You're the only one of us who knows exactly what Checuti looks like, sergeant," Jacom pointed out.

  "It won't be easy to pick him out in light like this on the basis of a second-hand description. All things considered, I think we might have to do something a little more enterprising than just lying low and waiting for Checuti to walk into our arms. We might be able to persuade him that we're more than we are, if only we pretend hard enough- and he might be prepared to talk, if he's sufficiently uncertain of his

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  situation. He won't have time

  to plan; he'll have to
think fast, and he could easily make mistakes."

  "Don't bet on that," said their informant.

  "Shut up," Purkin snarled into his ear gruffly. It was painfully clear that he'd rather have said it to Jacom.

  "All right," said Jacom, trying hard to sound like a man in full command of the situation.

  "This is what we're going to do. Firstly, we need to post men around the house. It'll have to be threes and twos. Those of you who don't have half-pikes have your swords drawn and ready. Mor, Pavel and Kristoforo, make your way round to the rear. Keep some distance between yourself and the yard- don't start the geese honking if you can possibly help it. Taj, you and Herriman go to the right, Fernel and Aaron to the left. If they do make a run for it, look out for Checuti and look out for the princess. Your first priority is to get the princess, if you can ... if that's not on, try to grab somebody, alive and able to talk. If they don't run, wait for orders. I'll make sure you know if and when it's time to go in."

  "What about him, sir," Purkin asked, meaning the man who had brought them.

  "Let him go," Jacom said.

  "He'll only get in the way if he stays.

  Come down, Luca. You'll be more use on the ground than up a tree if this doesn't work out. Stay with Kim and Purkin. " Purkin released the man he was holding, but he let out a sad sigh as he did so. As Luca scrambled down to the ground the little man hurried away along the road.

  "We'll wait ten minutes while the others get into position," Jacom said to the men who had remained by the path leading to the gate.

  "I

  want you three to wait by the gate. Have your swords ready, but don't move unless and until I shout for help. "

  "Where were you thinkin' of shourin' from, sir?" Purkin enquired disapprovingly.

  "From the doorway of the house, sergeant," Jacom said, trying to sound stern as well as brave, 'if I can get that far. " " You're going to go up there and knock on the door, are you, sir? " the sergeant asked with scrupulous politeness.

  "All on your own, like."

  "If our friend knows what he's talking about, I doubt that I'll get to the door before the geese start honking," Jacom said drily.

  "As 215

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  for being on my own ... well, let's just remember who it was that got us into this mesKlf anything dreadful should happen to me. . . you can all go back to Xandria then, can't you?"

  "I'm not sure that we can, sir," Purkin said, with a noticeable edge to his voice.

  "Not as guardsmen, sir not without the princess." It had not quite dawned on Jacom until that moment that if all that had been required for the rehabilitation of his men was that something untoward should happen to him, something untoward might very well have happened already.

  It'd be nice to have real friends about me, he thought. Men that I could trust. Men who'd gladly take a risk on my behalf. But if I have to settle for men who haven't any good reason to stab me in the back, I'll just have to keep reminding myself that things could be even worse.

  "Well," he said aloud, more than a little sourly, 'in that case, you'll just have to hope that this comes off, won't you? " " Ambush is safer, sir,"

  Purkin stubbornly insisted.

  "Trust me, sir. Lie low and wait. Always best."

  I tried it once, Jacom thought, and look where it got me! "Bluff is cleverer," he said firmly.

  "And whether we trust one another or not, that's the way we're going to play it, all the way to the last ditch." f

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  8 the man who faced Andris across the

  low table was overweight but not flabby; he somehow gave the impression of having earned his size rather than having it thrust upon him by luxury and indolence. His curly hair didn't seem in the least effeminate, and this wasn't because he wore a neat pointed beard of the same ebon sleekness. He was attended by a slender grey monkey which perched on the back of the sofa, tethered to a lamp standard by a thin silver chain. "The prince of thieves, I presume," Andris said drily. "It's not a name I ever sought, nor one I can cherish," the bearded man answered mournfully.

  "I understand they call you the big dark lander but I don't expect that you approve of the habit."

  "But I'm not a dark lander Andris pointed out, 'whereas you certainly do seem to be a thief."

  "That's true," Checuti admitted with a theatrical sigh, but said nothing more while he studied the map which he had carefully spread out on the table.

  "Not that I have anything against you on that count," Andris said diplomatically.

  "Merel speaks very highly of you-and I suppose I owe you my thanks for getting me out of jail, if what you told her about the princess's intentions was true. I'm worried about Merel, by the way- I do think your three bully-boys should have intercepted her too. She'll be anxious and afraid she probably thinks the king's men have got me."

  The black-haired man didn't seem to be listening.

  "This is terrible,"

  he observed critically.

  "If this is an example of the mapmaker's Art it's no wonder the lore fell into such disrepute in Xandria." As Andris had anticipated, the premature and rather rough and ready scrolling of the map had done his brushwork no favours at "7

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  all. The map did indeed look awful.

  "I didn't have the right materials to start with," he retorted resentfully,

  'and the work was utterly spoiled when I had to stuff it into my shirt and climb out of the window. Was it really the king's men at the door, or did you arrange that? "

  "It was the innkeeper," Checuti admitted.

  "You'll probably recall that he didn't actually say he was the king's man- he just demanded that the door be opened in the king's name. Anyone can do that.

  What's a king for, after all, but to lend the authority of his name to his loyal subjects- and, of course, to keep the coin of the realm nice and fresh?

  Burdam didn't want to get into an argument with Phar he's a touchy fellow, quite unpredictable, and his partner is far too friendly with that young guard-captain. At the very least, Phar would have wanted to come along to keep an eye on you. It's dangerous enough my being here at all, without inviting the whole world. Don't worry about your pretty cousin. She'll figure out soon enough that it wasn't the king's agents who grabbed you.

  Phar will look after her. "

  "If it's so dangerous for you to be here," Andris said, 'why did you come?

  Why invite anyone at all? "

  "Good question," said Burdalm Thrid, who was hovering by the window looking out into the night. The other men had retired to another room where they had immediately begun to play cards, watched by two silent dark landers The dark landers had looked Andris over very carefully when he arrived, and he had studied them with equal interest, but Thrid had not bothered to introduce them. , "Burdam's the cautious type," Checuti said. 'l. made him my chief lieutenant so that he might act as a sobering influence, but somehow it hasn't worked out. Every time he tells me not to do something, it increases the temptation to do it. Sheer perversity, I suppose. He says it'll be the death of me. He's probably right. "

  Andris couldn't help thinking that the conversation was becoming bizarre.

  Checuti was not at all what he had expected. He was beginning to comprehend, however, how the idea of robbing the king's treasury might have proved irresistible to such a man.

  "I'm right about this business being sheer madness," Thrid said.

  "I

  should have slit the bitch's throat myself, the instant we found her. "

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  "What birch?" Andris wanted to know.

  "Princess Lucrezia," Checuti told him.

  "It's partly because of what she told me that I wanted to see you- and the map." He smiled faintly, presumably in response to Andris's blank stare.

  "My master plan was perfect," he explained, 'in every respect but one or perhaps two. At the citadel, it succeeded just a little too well. We escaped with all the coin, but we also carried away an unconscious princess who was surplus to our requirements. She hadn't seen anything very damaging, but my cautious associates were all for killing her regardless. I let her talk me out of it. In the course of doing so, she told me some interesting things about what might or might not be happening south of the forest. She told me about Keshvara's seeds, thus confirming what I'd already heard rumoured about the exceedingly unpleasant death she'd marked you down for, and she told me everything Keshvara had told her about Fraxinus's plan to cross the Dragomite Hills and the unique opportunity presented by the blight which seems to have wiped out so many nests. "

  "All horse shit," opined Burdam Thrid.

  Checuti ignored him.

  "This information was intriguing in itself," he went on, 'but I probably wouldn't have paid any more attention to it if my plans hadn't started to go slightly awry at this end too. You see, I'd rather reckoned on living a quiet and orderly life from now on. I thought that rural Khalorn -- which is, after all, my homeland -- would be the perfect setting for an idyllic retirement.

  Unfortunately, things seem to have changed while I've been away.

  Darklanders are flooding out of the forest in considerable numbers, bringing tales of invasion by drago mites with human riders demon women descended from children stolen in the distant past to be nest-slaves.

  "I've had dark lander friends since I was a child. I spent time in the fringes of the forest in my younger days-- I've known those two men you met just now for fifteen years. I'm one of the few gold ens to be inducted into the Uluru."

  "What's the Uluru?" Andris asked.

  "It's a secret society all dark landers belong to some such society.