by Martin Ash
'I say, that is impressive!' said the pale fellow, who was plainly the leader of this brigand band. Then he shook his head, tutting with tongue against teeth. 'But I'm sorry, it'll do you no good whatsoever. Pink and glowing or not, if you fail to lay it down immediately, then I fail to tell my dear friends over there to lower your comely companion. And I'm afraid she will be throttled. So sad; and unnecessary. Truly.'
'Lower her now, and I will lay it down,' declared Leth.
'Oh, I see, it's haggling time,' drawled the pale man. He took in an exaggerated breath between his teeth. 'Well now, let me see. There is, quite plainly, limited time in which to haggle. And I think there is little doubt that I have the upper hand. Still, if it entertains you, I see no reason to refuse. But mark you, if you fail to put down your lovely blade immediately she will be hauled high once more, and this time she will not touch earth again as long as a single breath remains in her body. Is that clearly understood?'
Leth nodded, his gall rising, knowing he was trapped. The outlaw leader gestured with a gauntletted finger to the men over the cavern. They paid out the rope.
Lakewander fell heavily to her knees, tearing at the rope that throttled her and gulping in great draughts of air. The outlaw inclined his head toward Leth and wagged one finger towards the ground. Reluctantly Leth laid the Orbsword at his feet.
'Daggers also, and any other weapon you carry. And then step back.'
Leth complied. Two of the outlaws, one rotund and unnaturally short, the other a gangling, surly youth with a pockmarked face, ran forward. The youth squeezed Leth's arms hard behind him while his companion bound his wrists roughly. At the cave entrance Lakewander was likewise trussed.
The leader had dismounted meanwhile and sauntered forward to stare Leth in the eye. 'So, what have we here? An unusual catch, so it strikes me.' His gaze passed appraisingly over Leth's armour, then flicked to the Orbsword lying naked at his feet. He spoke over his shoulder. 'Take them both into the cave until I have decided what to do with them.'
Leth was hustled across the bridge and made to sit with his back against the cavern wall. Lakewander was placed opposite him. The outlaws were going through their saddlepacks. The rotund fellow who had bound Leth's wrists bent to lift the Orbsword. To Leth's surprise the man, though plainly no weakling, had difficulty raising the weapon from the ground. He swore and stood back, scratching his head and scowling, then set to again. His companions laughed and taunted him as he struggled red-faced to carry the blade.
'Tag, you are getting feeble in your old age!'
'Like an old woman!'
'Ha-ha! Your muscle has turned to fat!'
The man called Tag set the sword down again. 'By my father's balls, I have never known anything like this. You try, Derman, if you think you can do better.'
A tall, heavily built barbarian of a man stepped forward with a swagger. He bent and grasped the sword-hilt in one hand. His sarcastic sneer withered as he made to lift it. Evidently it was far heavier than he had thought. He bent, braced himself and tried again. Two-handed he managed to raise the sword from the ground, but was visibly borne down by its weight.
The brigand leader looked on with interest. In one gauntletted hand he held the ornate sapphire helm that Leth had attached behind his saddle. He studied it carefully. His gaze flickered across the gorge to Leth. He ordered Derman to bring the sword, and crossed the bridge, swinging the helm at his side. Derman staggered behind him, cradling the Orbsword in his arm-crooks, his legs bent, taking little steps, his cheeks puffing and eyes bulging as if he was carrying a load twice his own weight. He let the blade fall with a loud clang before the cavern entrance.
The outlaws were silent now, all eyeing the glowing rose blade. The leader squatted before Leth. 'Now this is interesting. Your helm, and I'll warrant this too - ' he leaned forward and flicked Leth's gorget with the back of his middle finger, bringing forth an almost musical metallic sound ' - are far less weighty than they appear. Yet your sword weighs as much as twenty of its normal kind. And you carried it without effort. So. . . what do we have here?'
'I am Leth,' said Leth. 'My companion is Lakewander. We are travellers, nothing more. The sword and armour I came upon more or less by chance. I can tell you nothing more about them.'
The brigand leader leaned away from Leth and casually let fly with one forearm, smashing the back of his fist hard into Lakewander's face. Her head jerked back and hammered against the rock behind her. Her eyes rolled; blood dribbled from her mouth. She was knocked almost senseless.
'Bastard!' yelled Leth, straining against his bonds.
'Now, let's start again, shall we?' said the brigand leader. 'I'll warrant that you and your pretty companion will fetch a handsome price in the slave-market. Your armour and this sword may well be worth more, to the right buyer. But first I need to be sure that I know all I need to know about you? Do you understand?'
'Hey, Harg, we're going to get to sample her before we sell her, aren't we?' demanded one of the men. 'Establish the quality of the goods, so to speak?'
The others sniggered.
'You will all get your rewards,' replied the leader, Harg, without taking his eyes from Leth.
'Well, don't mess her up too much, then,' said Derman, with a smirk. 'I like my women in good condition.'
The others sniggered. Through clenched teeth Leth said, 'Have you no honour?'
Harg eyed him mockingly. 'Honour? Why of course not. Perish the concept.'
'I yielded to you that she might be saved.'
'How chivalrous. How foolish.' Harg rose to his feet. 'Now, we are going to remove your armour. To do so we must untie your hands. Do not try anything foolish. There will be blades at your companion's throat as well as your own.'
Harg stepped back, folding his arms upon his chest. Two men dragged Leth roughly to his feet. They unbound his hands then began to work on the straps of his armour. Leth stood helplessly, racking his brains for a way out.
His gorget, breasplate, vambraces and shoulder-guards were removed. Lakewander, slumped against the rock, opened her eyes. Seeing Leth with his hands free, she cried out, 'Swordbearer, call the sword! Summon it to you!'
Leth stared at her, half-stupefied.
'Call it!' she cried. 'It will come!'
Something - could it have been a memory? - stirred within Leth. He pushed away one of the brigands working at his armour, and simultaneously reached out a hand. 'Orbsword, to me!'
The glowing blade, lying in the bright Orb-light outside the cave entrance, suddenly rose as if lifted by an invisible hand. The outlaws gasped; the sword flew at arrow's speed straight into Leth's open grasp.
The outlaws fell back, reaching for their own weapons.
Leth stepped towards Lakewander. Two men knelt with blades at her throat; most of the others had formed a semi-circle around Leth, out of reach of his sword.
'The sword is enchanted!' Leth warned, aware of their reluctance to approach its unnatural light, and wondering whether he had any chance at all of fighting his way free, even with the Sword of the Orb. 'Let her go!'
The two brigands holding Lakewander looked with some lack of certainty to Harg. He stood near the entrance, seemingly unperturbed, the fingers and thumb of one hand stroking his jaw.
'Most impressive,' he said. 'But wait.'
He turned and strode without hurry from the cavern, disappearing momentarily from Leth's view. He came back with two of his men. All three carried loaded crossbows. The two thugs knelt and took aim at Lakewander. Harg stood a few paces in front of Leth, the crossbow braced against his hip, aimed at Leth's middle.
'You wear only a linen shirt. I'll wager that neither that nor your magic sword will stop this bolt. And should they do so, can you move swiftly enough to prevent these other deadly bolts piercing your lovely companion's fair breast? Well, let us see. I will count to three. If on the third count your pretty pink longsword is not lying upon the ground again, beyond your reach, bolts, I'm afraid, will speed towards their desti
nations. And, oh, what a mess will be left when their work is done.' He smiled, almost charmingly, and lazily scratched his nose. 'Are we ready, then? One. . . .'
Leth knew he could not defy the bolts. Nor, indeed, was he swift or skilled enough to deal with so many foes. Yet, what was his and Lakewander's fate if he did not act now? She to be raped by these fiends; both of them to be sold into slavery. Was it not preferable to die now, taking as many brigands as he could with him?
And abandon Galry and Jace to their unknown fate?
'Two. . . .'
'Do not yield, Swordbearer!' Leth glanced across at Lakewander. She was glaring at him, her eyes like bright steel. 'Do not give in!'
He looked back at Harg, who met his gaze and was plainly deriving amusement from the conflict.
If I am alive at least I have hope, thought Leth. But if I fight even life will be taken from me. My children will be alone.
'Three. Time's up, I'm afraid.'
Leth bent and quickly laid the Sword of the Orb upon the cavern floor. He stepped back. Lakewander sagged back against the rock wall and closed her eyes.
'Good. I think that was the right decision,' Harg said. 'Now, stay well back, and please do not attempt to call it back to you. Your blade may be well-trained and obedient, but I will waste no more time on such charades.' He signalled to the surly youth. 'Bind his wrists again.'
The youth leapt forward to comply. A dark shape loomed at the cavern mouth, blocking the light from outside. Two massive hands reached into the cave and grasped a pair of brigands by the backs of their mail shirts, lifted them, crushed their heads against the stone ceiling, and let them drop. Then the Bridgekeeper bent and punched hard into the pack of astonished men, catching one full in the chest.
Leth reacted. He dived for his sword, grabbed it and rolled towards Lakewander. The man the Bridgekeeper had punched flew past him, travelling backwards, and disappeared with a cry over the lip of the steps leading down to the Shore of Nothing.
Leth swung with the Orbsword, slicing into the neck of the first of Lakewander's guards. Without pausing he struck at the other. The man deflected his first blow. Leth lunged again. The brigand made to parry his blow, but Lakewander kicked upwards, knocking his sword-arm high and leaving him wide open. The Orbsword passed through his throat. He staggered back, sucking hopelessly for air, his hands going to the bloody wound, his legs folding beneath him.
The remaining outlaws were in total disarray as they struggled to deal with their new assailant. The Bridgekeeper reached in, scooped Tag from the cavern and tossed him over his massive shoulder into the river gorge. Leth's sword pierced another's back. The remaining men fled, out of the cave and across the stone bridge, with the Bridgekeeper stomping along behind them, loudly castigating the ground with his cudgel.
Leth freed Lakewander of her bonds. She stood before him, and to his surprise her bloodied lips were drawn back in anger, her eyes ablaze. She brought back her arm and struck him across the face with her open palm, so hard that he staggered. He reeled back, his cheek exploding with pain, tears starting involuntarily to his eyes.
'You yielded!' accused Lakewander, radiating her fury. 'Twice you yielded to them!'
'To save you!'
'Save me? Swordbearer, I am not important! You could have broken through and ridden away, while you were still on Swiftwind. Their crossbow-bolts would scarcely have dented your armour. Instead you stayed, and almost died.'
'I reasoned that while we lived we had hope. I was not prepared to leave you to swing upon that rope.'
'Are you sure that is your reason?'
'What do you mean?'
'Were you, rather, not hoping that they would kill you? That by such means you might fly free of our world and return to your own?'
'That is absurd.'
'Is it?'
Leth stared at her. Her gaze faltered. He wondered, had she just revealed something that she would rather have not? 'Lakewander, is this how it is? Will death return me to my own land?'
Lakewander ran her hands through her long fair hair. 'Would you go, without having found what you are seeking here?'
She turned and walked back into the cavern. She picked up her sword and scabbard from the floor and buckled them about her waist again. Leth was angry and confused. He still gripped the Orbsword in one hand. He looked at it, disquieted. Though Lakewander had prompted him to call the blade, he had known instantly, somewhere deep within himself, that he could summon it. And when it flew to him it had been the most natural thing, comfortable, reassuring and familiar in his grasp.
I have been here before!
Lakewander was at his side again. 'It is coming back, isn't it, Lord?'
He met her gaze, but would not answer.
The Bridgekeeper's great shadow fell across them both. 'Well, that is a pity,' he said, a trifle breathless. 'Some of them got away.'
He surveyed the bodies around him with a doleful gaze, then scratched his vast barrel of a belly, sniffed, and wiped his fleshy bulb of a nose with the back of one thick, hirsute wrist. He peered blinking into the cave, then turned and tramped to the lip of the gorge and peered down. 'Hmmm. I think I rather got carried away. I wasted one. Still, no matter. There are plenty here.'
'What of Harg?' enquired Lakewander.
Leth sheathed the Orbsword. 'He was the first to make himself scarce.'
'Yes, I should have guessed.'
'He is no run-of-the-mill brigand, this Harg. He speaks and bears himself like a man both educated and refined.'
Lakewander gave a nod, testing the inside of her bruised lip with her tongue. 'Count Drurwan Harg was a notable of our community before Ascaria took the city. He was absent when the city fell - it is not known where. But when he returned he was a changed man, black-hearted and iniquitous. He took to a life of banditry and has sustained himself by such means ever since.'
'He did not seem to know you.'
'He does not, though both my parents were known to him.'
From within the cave the Bridgekeeper's stentorian voice boomed contentedly, 'Oh yes, there's plenty here. They left two of their horses, too.'
He re-emerged and stood over Lakewander and Leth, weighing them with a reproachful eye. 'Now, Lakewander, I think there is something to be settled here, is there not? What of you and your warrior friend? I think you crossed my bridge without paying the toll.'
'Indeed we did, Bridgekeeper. But I hailed you loudly the statutory three times.'
'I did not hear you.'
'You were elsewhere. That is not my fault. The Law states that--'
'I did not hear you,' repeated the Bridgekeeper crisply.
Lakewander stood defiant before him. 'Just where were you, Bridgekeeper?'
'I was hiding. I saw these ruffians approaching from some distance away. I sensed they were up to no good, and concealed myself in the rocks yonder.'
'I see. And presumably they made no attempt to hail you, or announce themselves in any way?'
'They came across the bridge as if they owned it. They entered my cave. I was about to rush out and seize them when one, still upon the path, spotted you at the foot of the ridge. Their leader declared that they would wait here in ambush. So I thought I would remain where I was and see what transpired.'
Lakewander nodded to herself. 'You hid yourself where? Just there?'
She pointed.
'No. In that clump of boulders, over there. You see, it provides good cover, but there is a gap between two of the rocks which gives a view directly onto the bridge, the path before it and the area around my cave.'
'And what did you have around your head, Bridgekeeper?'
'Around my head? Why, nothing? Why do you ask?'
'You must have had something. Something thick and tightly bound, covering your ears. Otherwise, how could you possibly have failed to hear my call?'
'Ah. I see what you mean.' The Bridgekeeper glanced at Leth, suddenly sheepish, and then at his own large toes. 'Yes . . . umm. . . .'
'And you have already stated that you heard Count Harg declaring his intentions.'
The Bridgekeeper found something to interest him upon the wooded slopes beyond the gorge.
'Bridgekeeper, I think you have done well today. Certainly you have saved our lives, and for that we are grateful. The Law allows that you may take those who fail to announce themselves or pay the toll in the prescribed manner. The Law allocates to you their belongings also. It does not permit that you supplement your gains through subterfuge or prevarication. Is that not so?'
'Of course, Lakewander,' said the Bridgekeeper. 'Do forgive me. It is the excitement. I did hear you; of course I did. But it had slipped my mind, with all the thunderous goings on!'
He eased his bulk past Leth and Lakewander and began dragging bodies towards the back of his cave. 'It's quite a nice catch, actually. The best I've had in many a year, if the truth be known.'
Lakewander nodded. 'I don't doubt it.'
'Ooh, look at this! I think these two are still alive. Marvellous! I'll have someone to listen to my stories!'
Leth peered into the gloom. 'What does he do with them?'
'Don't ask,' replied Lakewander sharply. 'And do not try to intervene.'
The Bridgekeeper's low voice sounded again from the depths. 'Lakewander, will you and your brave warrior friend not stay and sup with me awhile? I can make a delicious fricassee, or perhaps a broth or potage with a rather splendid numbles, or pasty with black sauce. It will be such fun, and I have some wonderful stories to tell you.'
'You are kind, but I regret that we cannot. We have delayed too much already.'
'Ah, that’s a pity.' He came forward again. 'Are you descending to the Shore again?'
'We are. Oh, Bridgekeeper, I must check amongst the baggage. Harg's men took our saddlepacks and emptied our pockets.'
'Very well, Lakewander.'
She turned to Leth. 'Put on your armour, Swordbearer. I’m sending the horses back, as they can’t accompany us any further. They will return to Orbia.'
The Bridgekeeper watched her with a lugubrious eye. 'Are you sure you can’t stay? Just for a little while?'
'Not a moment longer. I will check the baggage and we will be gone.'
