the fates allow it. I will not blame you if you want no part of this mad scheme. You owe me nothing.”
“I will be ready tomorrow,” Valkarr asserted, hammering a fist onto the thick oaken table and causing the plates to jump and rattle. “Already I feel the strength returning to my limbs.”
“Then you will be even more ready the following morning,” Amric said with a smile. “You have come a long way from death’s door, my friend, but I need you back at your best. You saw how hard those unnatural things were to kill. In any event, the extra day gives us time to gather supplies and rest the horses as well. After all, the next leg of the journey may well prove as strenuous as the last.”
He pushed back from the table and stood, drawing another suspicious glare from the Traug towering in the far corner of the room. Showing what he felt was remarkable restraint, he elected not to bait the surly creature again.
“It is time to conclude our business with Morland,” he said, with a final glance around the table. Bellimar and Syth rose with him and together they headed across the raucous common room of the inn and made for the doors.
“If you are meeting with a nobleman, perhaps you should take that bath first,” Thalya called after him.
“Not a chance,” Amric said over his shoulder. “There is nothing noble about this man, and I fully intend to leave muddy footprints all over those priceless rugs of his. Besides, I would only need another after we met with him.”
Syth chortled to himself as he and Bellimar followed Amric from the inn and into the night.
Morland sat in the high-backed chair, drumming his jeweled fingers on the table. His cold eyes shifted, sliding over each of them in turn with deliberate indolence.
Without looking away from the merchant’s cadaverous visage, Amric studied the glowering guards flanking the man. The one on the left was too bulky to possess much speed, and the one on the right was a touch soft. Even unarmed as he was, the warrior felt reasonably certain he could down them both before Morland was more than a few steps from his chair. He sensed the presence of the guards several paces behind him as well, heard the periodic creak of leather as they shifted with nervous tension. The merchant had seated his guests farther away from him this time, as well as increasing the number of guards in the room, and he seemed to think himself safe.
Amric let a slow smile play across his lips and a brash invitation creep into his gaze. Break your word, merchant, he thought, and we will discover together if that confidence is misplaced. If Morland took any note of the goading, however, he was betrayed only by an almost imperceptible tightening at the corner of his eye.
“Let me see if I have the right of this tale,” Morland rasped at last, tapping his index finger twice more on the table before his fingers became still. He looked at Amric. “You, who were to return with word of my business contact, instead slew him.” He turned then to Syth. “And you, who were to return with my misappropriated belongings, instead left them all behind.”
“You left out the part where we collapsed the place, in all likelihood burying or destroying your belongings in the process,” Syth put in helpfully. “I am quite certain we mentioned that part.”
Morland’s face twisted in sudden fury, but Bellimar interrupted before he could respond.
“The Wyrgens tapped into primal forces they could not hope to control,” the old man said. “The consequences drove Grelthus and his people to bestial madness, even as it weakened the very structure of Stronghold itself. We were fortunate indeed to escape that place of death, so that we could return to you with this news, as was our agreement.”
His tone was level and eminently rational, and he placed a subtle emphasis on the last words. Morland’s angry gaze flicked over to him, and it was evident that the reminder had registered.
“Despite the embellishment of our friend Syth here,” Bellimar continued, “only a central portion of the fortress actually collapsed. While it is indeed impassable, much of the structure was unaffected. Once travel to the east becomes less hazardous, a man of your considerable resources could no doubt mount an expedition to Stronghold. It may yet be possible for you to retrieve the artifacts you seek.”
“Perhaps,” Morland said, letting the