The Baker's Boy Read Free Page B

filigree
fineness, deep within the queen's body and deeper within her womb. He felt the
intricate tanglings of muscle and tendon, felt the sensuous curve of the
ovaries. And then he perceived something, barely discernible, hardly there, a
gentle ripple on a pond, a pulsing other. A life minutely separate and
distinguishable from that of the queen. Scarcely a life at all, more a
glimmering suggestion ... but it was there.
    Elated, he made no
quick move to withdraw-with infinite slowness and patience he removed himself.
Drawing away with a surgeon's skill. Just as he left, he felt the other
presence assert itself: a dark pressure.
    Baralis withdrew.
There had been something in that last instant of contact which gave him cause
to be wary, but his misgivings were eaten up and forgotten by the joy of his
success.
    He removed his
hands from the queen and straightened her dress. She moaned lightly, but he was
not concernedshe would not wake for several hours. Time for him to leave. With
a light tread he moved toward the door and unbolted it. One last pause to
admire his handiwork and then he was off, back to his chambers, barely casting
a shadow in the thin light of dawn.
     

One
    "No, you're
wrong there, Bodger. Take it from me, young women ain't the best for tumblin'.
Yes, they look good on the outside, all fair and smooth, but when it comes to a
good rollickin', you can't beat an old nag." Grift swigged his ale and
smiled merrily at his companion.
    "Well, Grift,
I can't say that you're right. I mean, I'd rather have a tumble any day with
the buxom Karri than old widow Harpit."
    "Personally,
Bodger, I wouldn't say no to either of them!" Both men laughed loudly,
banging their jugs of ale on the table as was the custom of the castle guards.
"Hey there, you boy, what's your name? Come here and let me have a look at
you." Jack stepped forward, and Grift made a show of looking him up and
down. "Cat got your tongue, boy?"
    "No, sir. My
name is Jack."
    "Now that is
what I'd call an uncommon name!" Both men erupted once more into raucous
laughter. "Jack boy, bring us more ale, and none of that watered-down pond
filler."
    Jack left the
servants' hall and went in search of ale. It wasn't his job to serve guards
with beer, but then neither was scrubbing the huge, tiled kitchen floor, and he
did that, too.
    He didn't relish
having to see the cellar steward, as Willock had cuffed him around the ears
many a time. He hurried down the stone passageways. It was drawing late and he
would be due in the kitchens soon.
    Some minutes
later, Jack returned with a quart of foaming ale. He had been pleasantly
surprised to find that Willock was not in the beer cellar, and he had been seen
to by his assistant. Pruner had informed him with a wink that Willock was off
sowing his wild oats. Jack was not entirely sure what this meant, but imagined
it was some part of the brewing process.
    "It was
definitely Lord Maybor," Bodger was saying as Jack entered the hall.
"I saw him with my own eyes. Thick as thieves they were, he and Lord
Baralis, talking fast and furious. Course when they saw me, you should have
seen 'em scramble. Faster than women from the middens."
    "Well, well,
well," said Grift with a telling raise of his eyebrows. "Who would
have guessed that? Everyone knows that Maybor and Baralis can't stand the sight
of each other, why I never seen them exchange a civil word. Are you sure it was
them?"
    "I'm not
blind, Grift. It was both of them, in the gardens behind the private hedges, as
close as a pair of nuns on a pilgrimage."
    "Well, I'll
be a flummoxed ferret!"
    "If the
codpiece fits, Grift," chirped Bodger gleefully. Grift noticed Jack's
presence. "Talking of codpieces, here's a boy so young, he hasn't got
anything to put in one!" This struck Bodger as so hilarious he fell off
his chair with laughter.
    Grift took this
chance, while Bodger was recovering, to haul himself off his bench and pull
Jack to one side. "What did you just hear of what me and