Norton, Andre - Anthology Read Free

line mooring the boat to a ring in the rock wall. They wrapped up
in the cover and lay in the bottom of the boat, he in the circle of her arms.
                   The boat slid out into the current, then
slowly, almost as if by happenstance, moved closer and closer to the other
shore as it traveled downriver. Someone on the shoreline at the bend ahead
pulled the rope to which their boat was attached.
                   They came ashore in darkness, where people
were waiting, and she could smell horses. She still held Chith, and only his
request could have made her give him up. Someone retrieved the boat cover,
wrapped them both in a warm robe, and handed the bundle up to a mounted man.
Peri ate and slept again, this time held in someone's arms as he rode through
the night.
                   In the morning, Perielle came to her senses.
                   "Who are you?" she demanded of her
rescuer—the human one.
                   "No one you know," he replied.
"Who do you think I am?"
                   One tutor had trained Peri in the intricacies
of the Question and Answer Game, in which, though stating only truth, you could
keep the other participant from discovering what you did not want him to know.
Careful, she thought. He asks the right kind of questions.
                   "I don't know," she answered. If he
really asked the right kind of questions, he wouldn't accept her answer.
                   He shook his head and smiled.
                   Well, that wouldn't work.
                   She thought furiously for several minutes,
then cleared her mind. The man said nothing. He continued to eat his travel
bread and leftover rabbit. Peri ate, too, and snagged a whole front leg for
Chith.
                   She kept pushing one idea away, refusing to
let it develop into a full thought. What else? Something about the sword and
the crown. And the cat.
                   Start with something simple, she told herself.
"I think you are a friend," Peri ventured.
                   "True. To rescue you was not easy."
                   An interesting answer. The two parts of it
didn't go together. See what more she could find out. 'That means you are an
enemy of the butchers in the castle now."
                   "True."
                   Chith wiggled to get his head out, and she
felt he was trying to distract her. A different tack seemed sensible. She knew
nothing useful about the sword and the crown. But the cat? No matter how
intelligent and helpful, cats did not make plans and dig tunnels and arrange
boats. While he could be a-wizard transformed, it seemed much more likely that
he was a familiar, sent by the wizard to rescue her. No sorcerer would do dirty
physical work he could make someone else do for him.
                   "You or someone you work with is a
magician, and Chith is a familiar," she said quickly.
                   The man stopped eating, looked at her keenly
with a slight smile on his face, and commented, "Excellent. Which is
it?"
                   "You're not a magician. Chith led me to
you, but he's not your cat."
                   "My cat?" he inquired.
                   Oh. what he hadn't said. She mustn't let on
she understood that lack of answer could mean agreement. "Not that a
familiar belongs to anyone, even the magician he works with,” Peri went on,
fast. "But that's the easiest way to say it." If he thought her
stupid or foolish, he might be less careful.
                   The man nodded. His smile broadened. "And
that means?"
                   Peri didn't answer. She couldn't without
scaring herself to death. The little band packed up and prepared to leave.
Chith took Peri to a place she could use for a privy and waited until she was
done. He led her to where they'd tied the