his tunic as a demonstration of my prowess,” said Orgos. “Perhaps it was my anger, or the unsteadiness of my adversary, or perhaps my aim just wasn’t as good as I thought. I ran him through.”
I looked at him and was shocked to see revulsion in his eyes. What, I wondered, was so special about this corpse, which had begun the pile he must have accumulated since? He went on hurriedly, concluding a tale he wished he hadn’t begun.
“I never went home. In Bowescroft I found my name on the wanted lists, spent three weeks in hiding, and then found my way out of the city as a guard on a trade caravan. We went north to Havnor, where I met Mithos. He gave me a new identity and a new life.”
I thought for a moment. The horse hooves echoed vaguely at the back of my mind as I went through it all, scene by scene and line by line.
“Good story,” I said. “Lots of moody detail and sentiment. I like it.”
“It’s not just a story,” he said somewhat bitterly. “It’s my life.”
“There’s no such thing as ‘just’ a story,” I said. “They might be the most important things we have.”
“When they are true,” he said.
“They are usually true,” I said. “In a way.”
He frowned at me, so I shrugged.
“And now you are a swordsman,” I said. If he thought I was questioning his remorse, he ignored it.
“I have learnt how to use my sword and, more importantly, when and for what reasons. I am no random killer, Mr. Hawthorne.”
“But if someone comes at you with a sword?” I pushed.
He glanced at me and replied with the sigh of one reluctant to speak at all. “If a man, unprovoked, attacks me or wears the uniform of a sworn enemy, I will fight him. I have killed people in this line of work, but always with what I believed to be just cause. I am no mercenary, Will. I have not forgotten that young fool in the tavern all those years ago. Sometimes we act rashly or for the wrong reasons, but in these lands, at this time, the sword is the sole equalizer and, for now, I will continue to wield it.”
“And when life becomes complex,” I said, “people will always wish for a time like this, when skill with a weapon meant you could justly take a stand for what you thought was right and win. Another fiction, of course, a story we rehearse over and over in the hope it will come true.”
“There’s a big difference between fact and fiction,” he said.
“Not in my book,” I said. “And judging from the way you charge about like you’re in a fairy tale, not in yours either.”
He didn’t reply, and I don’t even know if he heard. That’s another drawback with stories. People don’t listen, or they don’t listen well.
“And the sword you carry now,” I added dryly, “has a magic stone in the pommel.”
“Yes.”
“I see,” I said. “Just so long as we are rigorously maintaining this distinction between fact and fiction.”
Orgos exhaled and said nothing. Indeed, there seemed to be nothing more to say. The image of a younger Orgos in a tavern turned over in my mind with the wheels of the cart, and I found myself wondering if I too would soon kill someone, and spend the rest of my life reliving the moment.
SCENE XXII
Opening Moves
We arrived back at the keep in time to hear Mithos report what he’d heard from the count.
“He has given us a tip on where we might start looking for the raiders once we have seen the coal to safety,” he said, with a hard smile. “Near Ugokan just south of the Verneytha border is a complex of catacombs constructed over two hundred years ago. Apparently a few months back some children from a nearby village were playing there and never came out. A party of the villagers went in after them and was never seen again.”
“Why did he not tell us this during the meeting?” said Renthrette.
“Not sure. I don’t think he completely trusts the governor of Verneytha or the duke of Greycoast, but if he had any specific reason, he didn’t say.”
Orgos produced samples of what we had bought. Lisha looked over the glass vials and thanked him significantly. He held her gaze for a moment and then looked at the floor as Renthrette said, “You were right about the quality of the horses here. The major traders are grouped