straightforward or positive, whether they were on his side
or opposed. Nor had he ever encountered any evidence to suggest that his
attitudes were overly pessimistic.
"Captain!" One of the coin hunters beckoned.
"What have you got?" The man was quite wide of eye.
"A dead man. And not that long gone, either."
The corpse was charred. What remained of clothing and jewelry was foreign.
Likewise, his weapons, though his sword was a horseman's blade. Around him lay
what looked like foreign tools of sorcery.
Al-Azer said, "There should be horses around here somewhere. They'll tell us a
lot."
"He what I think he is, Az?"
"Probably. Long way from home."
"Find those horses. You think he was spying on us and got part of the falcon's
load?"
"Looks that way. He had no idea what the falcon was."
"Interesting. Is he the one who raised the bogon?"
"No. He was too young. But he might've worked for the man who did. As an
eyewitness. On the other hand, he might have been following us because he knew
about the mummies."
"Too many might haves, Az. What I'd like to know is how one of his kind can be
down here, south of Lucidia. Bone! Are you ready to travel?"
"Just give the order, Captain."
Al-Azer said, "We'll know more after we look at his horses."
"You're sure there'll be more than one?"
"If he's really what he looks like he'll have had at least three."
A SOFT TONE FROM A RAM'S HORN SOUNDED AN ALERT. THAT
horn's voice did not carry far. Else and al-Azer hastened toward the source of
the sound.
A youngster named Hagid—not to be confused with Heged the cannoneer—crouched
just inside the northeast edge of Esther's Wood. Hagid was remarkable because he
was second-generation Sha-lug. His father was an intimate of Gordimer the Lion.
Hagid had been sent with Else for tempering. With the courtier expecting that
the boy would return alive, with his parts all still attached. But Else knew the
Lion. He understood that the mission meant more than the survival of any
privileged boy.
Hagid pointed. A cloud of dust shone brown-orange in the light of the rising
sun. The men raising that dust were not moving in a tight column. They were
scattered. Later in the day, when the sun stood higher, that dust would be much
less obvious.
"Over there," Az said. "More of them."
The second cloud, due east instead of north-northeast and emerging from the
desert, owned a more yellow cast and was much more obvious.
Else grumbled, "Bone! Where's Bone? Az. Who's likely to be coming at us out of
the east?" That was all desert in that direction. The little principalities of
the Holy Lands lay all tangled up with one another nearer the coast, to the
north and west.
Az said, "It's time to go, Captain. One of those parties will be responsible for
our spy. I'd guess the other would include the people who raised the bogon.
Which is probably somebody who has something to do with the Kaif of Qasr
al-Zed."
Bone finally turned up. "We found the dead man's horses. Three of them. We
brought the stuff that was on them."
Else examined bridles, blankets, a saddle, saddlebags containing little but
dried food, and things Az said a wizard might carry on a trip. One closed case
contained arrows. Another contained a fine recurved bow made of laminated horn.
Else said, "This stuff didn't belong to any Lucidian. Az, check this stuff over
with your third eye."
"Captain..."
"I know. Don't get technical. Do what needs doing. Just be careful. He was out
spying while your monster king was hunting. Hagid. Tell Agban to move out now.
Due west, toward the coast road." The sea was less than thirty miles away.
The wood would mask the dust the company raised. And those hunters out there
would have to worry about one another.
They would not be friends.
Else examined the bow. "This is horse people work. They must be sending scouts
out to see what comes after Lucidia."
"They've never been defeated, Captain," Bone said. "Not in twenty