“Aye, that could be,” Bembo admitted; however crude Oraste was, he had a good notion of how people worked. “She was prettier than most of these Forthwegian women, anyhow. They’re built like bricks.”
That was unchivalrous, but, from what Bembo had seen, pretty much true (he didn’t think about how he was built). Still crude but very practical, Oraste said, “Well, if we catch her, we can get some of that for ourselves.” He rocked his hips forward and back. Bembo’s nod held nothing but eager agreement.
Even before Leofsig knocked on his own front door, he knew something had gone wrong. He heard shouts from inside the house, as he hadn’t since Sidroc went off to join Plegmund’s Brigade. No sooner had he knocked than he stiffened. One of those raised voices belonged to his cousin.
He must have got leave, Leofsig thought. And, sure enough, when the door swung open, there stood Sidroc, big as life. “Hullo,” he said. “Good to see you again.”
“Hello yourself,” Leofsig answered, and let it go at that. When he and Sidroc clasped hands, it quickly turned into a trial of strength. After a while, they both gave up, with honors about even. Sidroc grinned. Even a few months before, his grip wouldn’t have been a match for Leofsig’s. Not caring to acknowledge that, Leofsig asked, “How long will you be here?”
“Three days,” Sidroc said. Leofsig decided he could probably stand that. His cousin went on, “Then it’s back to the encampment outside of Eoforwic a little while longer. Then advanced training somewhere else-they haven’t told me where yet.”
Leofsig didn’t much care where Sidroc went, so long as he went. “Let me by, will you? I’ve been working all day in the hot sun, and I want to wash.”
“I know that feeling, by the powers above,” Sidroc said. He hadn’t known it before he left; then his main goal had been avoiding as much work as he possibly could. But he didn’t step aside. “They treat us pretty well, though. We even had Ethelhelm and his band come out and play for us the other day.”
“Did you?” Leofsig’s opinion of Ethelhelm dropped a notch or two. This time, instead of asking, he pushed past his cousin and into the entry hall. Sidroc gave him a dirty look, but closed the door after him. Only as Leofsig stepped into the kitchen did he belatedly realize Sidroc was liable to be a very nasty customer in a fight.
In the kitchen, Conberge was chopping leeks and throwing them into the pot over the fire. Mutton stew, Leofsig’s nose told him. Without the slightest effort to keep her voice down, his sister said, “Well, he won’t be staying here very long, powers above be praised. As far as I’m concerned, if the Algarvians want him so much, they can have him.”
Sidroc could hardly miss hearing what she said. The next-door neighbors could hardly miss hearing what she said. Leofsig turned back toward the entry hall. He wondered if he would find out just how nasty a customer his cousin could be.
But Sidroc, to his relief and even more to his surprise, stayed out of the kitchen. “Can I clean up a bit?” Leofsig asked.
Conberge pointed to a kettle next to the pot to which she’d just added the leeks. “Hot water’s right there waiting for you,” she said. She looked past him toward the entry hall. Pointedly, she added, “Some stinks don’t go away no matter how you wash.”
“Let him be,” Leofsig said. His sister’s eyebrows flew up. He went on, “You said it yourself: he’ll be gone soon. If we can stay civil for three days, that will be the end of it.”
“How can there be an end, with a traitor in the family?” Conberge demanded.
Leofsig had no good answer for that. He got out of having to make one by starting to wash. His sister left the kitchen, but left it with her nose in the air. He cleaned up as quickly as he could and went back to his own bedchamber to put on a fresh tunic in place of the dirty, sweaty one he was wearing.
He’d just changed when someone rapped lightly on the door. “Come in,” he called, and his father did. Leofsig nodded. “I thought that was you. Everyone else knocks louder, to make sure I notice.”
Hestan’s smile quirked up only one corner of his mouth. “Sometimes difference is enough to make you notice something. Things don’t always have to be louder. Softer often serves just as well.”
“Maybe,” Leofsig said. After a moment, he went on, “I wish you could convince Sidroc of that.”
His father sighed. “Hengist is still living here. And, apart from him, we’re the nearest kin Sidroc has left. When he got leave, where else would he go?”
“To suck up to his redheaded pals?” Leofsig suggested. “I don’t know why he loves them so much-if it weren’t for them, his mother would still be alive and his house would still be standing-but he does. As far as I’m concerned, they can have him.”
Hestan sighed again. “I can’t very well slam the door in his face, not with Hengist living here. And I don’t want to turn my brother out. That might be … dangerous. You know why.”
“On account of me,” Leofsig said.
“That’s right.” His father nodded. “And so we’ll put up with my charming nephew as best we can for as long as he’s here. It’s only three days, I think. We can manage.”
“Aye, he told me he had to go back then,” Leofsig said. “Then the Algarvians teach him more about murdering Kaunians or terrorizing Unkerlanters or whatever they intend to do with Plegmund’s cursed Brigade. The king would sit up in his grave if he knew what the redheads were doing to his name.”
“I won’t say you’re wrong, because I think you’re right,” Hestan answered. “But having Sidroc off in the west somewhere far, far away won’t be the worst thing in the world for us, no matter what he ends up doing here.” He cocked his head to one side and waited to see how Leofsig would respond to that.
Seeing his father eyeing him made Leofsig think before he spoke. “No matter what happens to him there, you mean,” he said slowly.
Also slowly, Hestan smiled. “Hauling rocks hasn’t taken your wits away, anyhow. The Algarvians wouldn’t be recruiting Forthwegian soldiers if they didn’t intend to throw them into the fire. And the fires in Unkerlant burn hotter than they do anywhere else.”
From the kitchen came Elfryth’s call: “Supper’s ready!”
Leofsig grinned at his father. “The fires in Unkerlant burn hotter than anywhere else except under the supper kettle.”
“I hadn’t thought of it that way, but you’re right,” Hestan answered. “And a good thing, too, says I. Come on.” They headed for the dining room together.
When they got there, Uncle Hengist did what he’d started doing again this summer: he waved a news sheet at Hestan. “Here, did you see?” he asked. “The Algarvians are driving everything before them down in the south.” Sounding as cheerful as if he were discussing a football match, he talked about soldiers and behemoths captured, soldiers and behemoths slain, provinces seized, and towns afire from eggs dropped on them from on high.
Beside Hengist, Sidroc sat listening to the recital with a broad grin. As Hestan and Leofsig sat down, neither of them said anything. That seemed to irk Sidroc, who growled, “No stopping the Algarvians. They’ll smash Unkerlant to powder.”
“If they were having everything their own way, why would they need Plegmund’s Brigade?” Leofsig asked. Sidroc didn’t answer him, not in words, but his scowl was eloquent. Leofsig smiled back as nastily as he could. Like most Forthwegians, Sidroc was swarthy, but an angry flush darkened his cheeks above the edge of his beard even so. Leofsig’s grin got wider and more provoking yet.
Before anything could come of that, Conberge and Elfryth brought in olives and bread and olive oil for dipping to start the supper. No matter how much Leofsig enjoyed baiting his cousin, he enjoyed eating more. A day on the roads always left him feeling empty. He noticed that Sidroc displayed the same sort of wolfish appetite, and wondered how hard the Algarvians were working him in the encampment they’d set up.
Both young men also dug into the mutton stew. There wasn’t quite so much mutton in it as Leofsig would have liked
; times were hard. His mother and sister had stretched the stew with beans and turnips and parsnips. After two big bowls, he sopped up gravy with a thick slice of bread cut from the loaf. He drank three cups of wine, too.
He still had plenty of room for cheese and candied fruit afterwards. He could have eaten more than he got, but his belly had stopped snarling at him. “Enjoy it while you can,” he said to Sidroc. “When you head for Unkerlant, you’ll be lucky if you get barley mush.”
“We’ll do fine,” Sidroc retorted. “If there’s any food at all, well take it. That’s what being a soldier is all about.”
“That’s what being a thief is all about,” Leofsig said, ignoring his father’s warning look. “And if they send you down south, you’ll find out all about snow, the same way they did last winter. Good luck stealing when everything’s frozen up.”
This time, Hestan did more than send a warning look. His tone sharper that usual, he said, “Leofsig, what were we talking about before supper? Sidroc’s father dwells here, and Sidroc himself is a welcome guest.”
“Aye, Father,” Leofsig answered, but his face betrayed him-it showed exactly how welcome he thought Sidroc was.
Seeing that, Sidroc half rose from his chair. Breathing hard, he said, “I know you all hate me. Do you know what? I don’t care. Do you know what else? Every stinking one of you can kiss my arse.”
“Son-” Uncle Hengist began.
Sidroc cut him off. “Aye, you, too, Father. You were screaming at me to stay out of the Brigade as loud as anybody else. And you were wrong, you hear me, wrong!” His voice rose to a roar. “Best lot of mates I’ve ever found. So you can kiss my arse, too. Just like them!”
“Just like me, Sidroc?” Leofsig got up, walked round the table, and kissed his cousin gently on the lips. “There.”
For a moment, Sidroc simply stared. He wasn’t too bright. But then, with a bellow of rage, he realized what Leofsig had done. He swung on Leofsig without any shift in his eyes to warn what he was going to do-sure enough, the Algarvians had taught him a thing or two.
Leofsig saw stars. He reeled backwards, fetching up against the table. Sidroc swarmed after him, fists flailing. From furious, his cousin’s face had gone deadly cold. He’ll kill me if he can, Leofsig realized.
He threw a punch at Sidroc, but his cousin blocked it with a forearm. His father and Uncle Hengist were brawling, too, but he could pay them no heed-he was indeed fighting for his life.
Conberge screamed curses as vile as any Leofsig had ever heard in the army, but Sidroc flung her back onto her mother when she rushed at him. Conberge and Elfryth went down in a heap. Leofsig grabbed a bowl and hurled it at Sidroc. He missed. The bowl shattered against the wall.
Sidroc kicked Leofsig. Leofsig kicked, too, trying to put Sidroc out of the fight with a well-aimed foot. But Sidroc twisted, quicker and smoother than Leofsig remembered him being, and took the kick on the hip, not between the legs.
Panic surged in Leofsig. What can I do? He reached for the bread knife. At the same moment, Sidroc grabbed one of the chairs. He swung it as if it weighed nothing at all. His first swipe knocked the bread knife flying from Leofsig’s hand. The next caught Leofsig in the side of the head.
He sagged to the floor. Ihave to get up, he thought, but his body didn’t want to hear him. Ihave to… Sidroc hit him again. The lamps seemed to flare red, then guttered toward blackness. He never felt any of the blows that landed after that-or anything else, ever again.
Five
Vanai heard what she thought were Ealstan’s familiar footfalls coming up the hall toward their flat. But when the knock on the door came, it was several harsh bangs, not the coded raps Ealstan always used.
Ice shot up Vanai’s back. Had someone betrayed Ealstan to the redheads? Had someone betrayed her! Heart thudding, she waited for the harsh cry: “Kaunian, come forth!”
She wondered if she would do better to come forth or to go out the window headfirst. It would be over in a hurry then, and it wouldn’t hurt much. Who could guess what the Algarvians did to Kaunians in their labor camps before they finally slew them? But while Vanai was wondering, the knock came again-the right knock, this time.
Cautiously, she approached the door. “Who is it?” she asked in a low voice.
“It’s me,” Ealstan answered. “Let me in.”
It was unquestionably Ealstan, but he didn’t sound right. Were a couple of Algarvians standing behind him in the hall, one maybe holding a stick to his head? What disaster would descend on her if she opened the door? She didn’t know, but she knew Ealstan wouldn’t have left her to face disaster alone. That decided her. She unbarred the door and pulled it open.
Ealstan stood there alone. Breath whooshed out of Vanai in a long sigh of relief. Then she saw the look on his face. She gasped as involuntarily as she’d sighed. “What is it?” she demanded. Ealstan didn’t answer. He didn’t move, either. She had to grab him by the arm and tug him into the flat and then tug him again so she could close the door. Once she’d barred it, she spun round to face him. “What is it?” she repeated.
Ealstan still didn’t answer, not with words. Instead, he thrust a sheet of paper at her. She hadn’t even noticed he was holding it. Of themselves, her eyes went down to it. The Forthwegian script was exceptionally clear, but she hadn’t read more than a couple of lines before it seemed to blur. “Your brother,” she whispered.
“Aye. My brother. Dead.” The phrases jerked from Ealstan one by one, as if from a clockwork toy that was running down. But then, unlike such a toy,
Ealstan somehow found the energy to say more: “My stinking cousin killed him. Beat him to death the way you’d beat… you’d beat… I don’t know what.” Tears started running down his cheeks and into his beard. Vanai didn’t think he knew he was crying.
She made herself keep reading the letter Ealstan’s father had sent. “They didn’t do anything to him,” she said in disbelief. “They didn’t do anything to him at all.”
“To Sidroc, you mean?” Ealstan asked, and Vanai foolishly nodded, as if she might have meant someone else. Ealstan went on, “Why should they do anything to him? Leofsig was just a Forthwegian, and Sidroc’s in Plegmund’s Brigade. They’ll probably pin a medal on him for it.”
“Didn’t you tell me Plegmund’s Brigade was training outside of Eoforwic?” Vanai answered her own question: “Of course you did. That singer you like went out with his band and performed for them.”
“Ethelhelm.” Ealstan sounded amazed he’d come up with anything so mundane as the musician’s name. “Aye, the Brigade is here-or some of it’s here. Some of it’s gone off to train somewhere else. I found out about that from him.”
“But.. won’t the soldiers do something to your cousin?” Vanai was faltering, and she knew it. “They can’t want somebody who’s nothing but a murderer. . can they?”
“What do you think soldiers are?” Ealstan answered bleakly. “Especially soldiers who fight for King Mezentio. But it doesn’t matter anyhow. Look at the date on the letter.”
Vanai hadn’t. Now she did. “That’s-three weeks ago,” she said. “And it just got here now?”
Another foolish question. Ealstan, fortunately, took it as a matter of course. He said, “Aye. What do the Algarvians care about how the post runs in Forthweg, or even if the post runs in Forthweg? We’re lucky it got here at all- if you call that luck. But you’re right, or I hope you’re right-I want to go out and see if I can get the Algarvians to do something about Sidroc. If he’s still here, I mean. He’s liable not to be.”
“Don’t do that!” Vanai exclaimed.
“Huh? Why not?” Ealstan asked, as if he intended heading for the encampment of Plegmund’s Brigade that very moment. Shock had to have dulled his wits.
Patiently, Vanai answered, “Because you still might be wanted in Gromheort, that’s why. Do you plan to show up there and have them arrest you?”
“Oh.” Ealstan sounded astonished. No, that hadn’t crossed his m
ind at all. When it did, he nodded. “You’re right, curse it. Well, he might not even be there. Powers above, I hope he’s not there. I hope he goes out and the Unkerlanters kill him first thing. I wish I could do it myself. I wish I had done, it, back there in Gromheort. A million Sidrocs aren’t worth one of my brother.”
“I’m sorry.” Vanai went to him and held him. They clung to each other for a while. Vanai hoped that did Ealstan some good. She doubted it would do much. But maybe if he thought she thought he felt better, he really would feel a little better. She shook her head. She wasn’t used to needing such convoluted thoughts.
“Oh,” Ealstan said again, this time as if remembering something. “There’s a piece of the letter right at the end that’s meant for you.”
“There is?” Vanai hadn’t read the whole thing; the crushing bad news that headed it had been enough. Now she pulled back so she could look at the rest. Sure enough, Ealstan’s father wrote, Your friend’s grandfather has been asking after her. We have said that, so far as we know, she is well. We shall say nothing more without your leave and hers. Vanai said, “I don’t want him knowing any more than that. I don’t even want him knowing that much, but it can’t be helped.”
“Don’t worry,” Ealstan told her. “My father knows how to keep his mouth shut-a bookkeeper has to. And my mother and sister won’t blab, either.” Thinking about her kept him from thinking about the rest of the news-but only for a moment. Then his face crumpled, for he went on, “Leofsig won’t say anything. Leofsig ca-ca-can’t say anything, not any more he can’t.” He started to weep again.
Vanai went into the kitchen, took down a bottle of spirits, and poured a full glass for Ealstan and half a glass for herself. “Here,” she said, handing him his. “Drink this.”
He knocked it back as if it were so much water. Vanai blinked: he didn’t usually drink like that. She sipped her own, letting the spirits slide hot down her throat. When Ealstan spoke, his voice held an eerie calm: “Maybe Ethelhelm can find out for me whether Sidroc is still in the camp near here. If he is …
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