Feist, RE - 00 Riftwar SS - The Wood Boy

by The Wood Boy (lit)

  'No, Your Grace,' agreed the captain. 'What of the bodies?'

  'Bury them. We have no means to return the girl to her family in Walinor.'

  The captain said, Til detail men to the digging. It'll take a while to dig through the frozen ground.' He then asked, 'And the gold?'

  Borric said, 'It's confiscated. The Tsurani would have taken it anyway, and we've an army to feed. Send it under guard to Brucal in LaMut.' He paused a moment, then said, 'Send the boy, too. I'll pen a note to Brucal asking the boy be found some service there at headquarters. He's a resourceful lad and as he said, he has nowhere else to go.'

  'Very well, Your Grace.'

  As the captain turned to go, Borric said, 'And Captain?'

  'Yes, Your Grace?'

  'Keep what I said to yourself. The boy doesn't need to know.'

  'As you wish, Your Grace,' said the captain as he departed.

  Borric sat forward and tried to return his attention to the business at hand, but he found his mind returning to the boy's story. He tried to imagine what Dirk had felt, alone, armed only with the kitchen knife and afraid. He had been a trained warrior for most of his life, but he remembered what it was to be uncertain. He recognized the boy's act for what it had been, an unusual and rare act of heroism. The image of a lovestruck, frightened boy trudging through the snow at night to confront a murderer and rescue a damsel lingered with the duke, and he decided it was best that the boy be left with that one shred of illusion about the girl. He had earned that much, at least.