Chương 40: Cold Shoulders, Full Stomachs

My nightmare is of one of the nobles I had seen in the council of the necromancer. Seemingly a friend, the man has insisted on the value of my spoken words, collecting them into a thin book of poetry, which he stands up to read in front of the council. Also present are Belle and her mother, Mistress Aria. I have a copy in my hand and there is something wrong, the words have been changed to make me sound foolish.

Wicked is the expression of the councillor now, as he begins to read and I begin to suffer the astonishment and then mirth of the listeners. Glad to wake from this experience, which was worse than the mockery of the khan the previous evening, I quickly become cheerful, seeing that Animal Friend has risen to 2 during the night. Perhaps Lisandra can buy me a horse and a bow.

Then, with sufficient skill in Animal Friend and Wield Shortbow, I will try to prove to the khan and his people that they have laughed too soon at this crow. When she has risen, I explain to Lisandra what I need and she raises her eyebrows.

'Crow. I've come to admire you greatly. And I know there's a mystery to you that I can't ask upon; you've sworn to our god. But this challenge? This isn't for rogues. This is for warriors who have spent their whole lives riding and using a bow. Are you sure now, you know what you're about?'

'Mistress Lisandra, I tell no lie; give me horse and bow and I'll be set fair to try.'

'Well then. I believe you. I believe in you.' With the sky having been light for an hour, the settlement is busy. Lisandra and I make our way past tents where leatherworking, metalworking, and food preparation are taking place, to a long, oval corral whose fences contain dozens of horses. As we walk, we are no longer greeted with friendly looks: even young children manage to display expressions of scorn towards us, copied from the adults. This should not trouble me, yet it does.

I have done nothing to deserve the contempt of these people. They misjudge me. While it is not clear to me if the man managing the horses is an officer serving the khan or an owner of his own business, it is very clear that he has little time for us. He is a small man with grey hair kept shorter than most here, and he has a thin, long moustache, carefully shaped.

As Lisandra tries to negotiate with him for a horse the manager interrupts her to give orders to his staff and often looks away from the conversation to show us he is busy keeping an eye on all the activity of the stables. When Lisandra holds out two gold coins, he just shakes his head.

'Worthless here. We don't use them.'

'Well then, can we perform a service for you? I'm a sorceress. Perhaps you'd like Protection from Snakes cast on a horse before it rides out of camp.' The manager shrugs.

'Maybe. How long does it last?'

'Thirty minutes.'

'Then no; that's not long enough.'

'Crow?' Lisandra looks at me without much hope.

'Can you think of anything we have to offer this man in return for a horse?' As it happens, I believe I do.

'I am right to say, those horses are giving you difficulty? If I break them in, will you give me one and keep the other three?' I gesture towards a far pen of four horses, where a reddish-brown mare is leaping and kicking its hind legs in the direction of a woman who has merely opened the gate, a coil of rope in hand. A chuckle is the response of the manager, one that lasts until my steady stare communicates that I am serious.

'All right. If you tame them, properly mind, not just put them under a spell that wears off, if you can do that, then I'll be happy to let you have one. You'll deserve it too. They are a fierce lot. Even our best trainers can do nothing with them.'

'Daunting, but Crow rarely feels fear. What's your highest Animal Friend skill here?'

'Six; I am six,' the manager sounds proud.

'I'll return in a week; in the meantime a bow I seek.'

'You'll come back in a week?' he repeats.

'What difference will a week make?' I do not answer, instead looking over at the horses.

'What about bows?' Lisandra senses I don't wish to explain myself and redirects the manager's attention.

'Go to the archery butts downstream, outside the camp.' Offering a nod of thanks, I set off, Lisandra hurrying after me.

'Really Crow? You can tame wild horses now?' My smile is the smile of a fine fellow; the smile of the world's only afk leveller. Yes, I can train wild horses. I can do anything once I have the basics of a skill. I'm struck by an important thought. Next time I level up, I must save a skill point to invest in a skill that a new and unforeseen situation demands. It was foolish of me not to have appreciated this earlier.

Our short walk complete, I see that archery, like riding, is clearly a passion for the people of Cantreth. Perhaps a hundred of them are in the practice area, releasing arrows at straw figures; dozens of children are learning archery too. Most people are on foot, in rows facing rows of targets, instructors walking among them.

The next field, however, is marked out for riders who display the most extraordinary abilities, not only hitting the targets while galloping across them, but also while turning fully in the saddle and releasing their arrows while riding directly away from their targets. These warriors would be hard to defeat in open battle, for they can ride past their enemies, pouring arrows upon them and even if being chased by cavalry could still inflict casualties on the pursuers. Reading on this site?

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'Come on, Crow, there are some workshops over there.' Crowdreaming over, I follow Lisandra as she ducks into a large tent where a dozen men and women are engaged in a bewildering amount of tasks. I'm curious though and hop around to look at the lathes and vices and glue pots and horn shavings.

'What do you want?' an older Cantreth woman with grey at the roots of her otherwise long, brown hair accosts me. Hurrying up, Lisandra says, 'We wish to buy a bow and arrows.'

'What have you got to trade?'

'Gold?' suggests Lisandra and this time, I can see from the woman's eyes that the negotiation will not be hopeless. Perhaps because she is wearing two silver rings.

'Show me.' Lisandra again takes out two gold coins. They are bezants from the Arkine Empire, not much bigger than my thumbnail, and show the emperor's head on one side and an owl on the other.

'There's not enough gold in these to be worth melting them.'

'Silver then, these are from Nekis and are real silver.' Lisandra reaches into her pouch and finds a handful of silver coins. They look small, lying on her stocky palm, but the woman picks one up and tries to make an impression in it with her teeth. Seemingly satisfied – my heart skipping with hope – she gets a weighing scale and puts a hexagon-shaped piece of metal on one scale.

'That much silver.' It takes nearly twenty coins to before the weight rises and when it does Lisandra looks at me and smiles. Unsmiling is the woman who now takes a recently made bow from a rack, she hands it to me and turns away. What a joy, to slide my hands along the polished wood and bone, to feel the spring in the trembling of the bow when I shake it; to inhale the scent of glue and oil. This feels like when a cat first allows you to touch it: a connection; an affinity. Already, I love this bow.

The woman returns with two cords and a quiver of twenty arrows.

'If you don't know how to use the bow, ask at the butts.' I may be only skill 1 in Wield Shortbow but it is enough to know how to place a loop of cord at one end of the bow, wedge that end between foot and floor, then lean down upon the other end, exerting myself until I can slip the loop of the taught cord into the slot made for holding it. Plucking the strung bow like I would my barbat, I am delighted by the note it sounds. Crow with a bow. This will become a dangerous weapon.

Death whistling upon my foes from the dark shadows. Back outside in the brighter light of day, we find a line of practicing archers and while Lisandra sits heavily on the ground behind me after I find an empty lane, I take an arrow from the quiver and fit it to the string. Deep breath. Pull. To the maximum. Release. Wide right but not by much. I'm pleased enough except for a soreness along my inner arm where the stiff feathers of the arrow brushed me as it sprang from the bow.

I will need to wear my leather armguard if I am going to do this all day, which I should. Eventually, typically some time over the next four hundred hours of practice, I will get a natural skill up. For now, more careful with the release to protect my arm, I use up my twenty arrows (five of which strike the target).

'Not bad. Nowhere near the level you are going to have to be.' Lisandra hides a yawn with the back of her hand, then whispers, 'but I've feeling you will be at the necessary level surprisingly soon.' One of the trainers is blowing into a pipe of some sort to make a shrill sound and all practice ceases. Then I see it is so that people can walk down to the targets and regain their arrows. This gives me the excuse to leave Lisandra without even looking at her, because I know she will read my expression.

She's no fool and understands the nature of my boon, though probably not the specifics. She also isn't likely to speak of it. After I gather my arrows Lisandra heaves herself up.

'Mind if we go back to our tent for breakfast? I'm hungry.' I don't mind at all, in fact I could use some breakfast too. On our arrival at the tent, I find the others disconsolate.

'No one has brought food for us today,' says Gerard.

'And we can't even buy some. It's like we are unwanted guests turning up at a ball. The servants have to let us in, but they don't have to bring us food and drink.'

'What's that Crow?' Belle holds her hand out for the unstrung bow and I pass it to her, watching as she caresses the polished wood and bone.

'Beautiful. I think when I level up next, I will put a point into short bow.'

'What are we going to do? Is there any point staying? What will we eat?'

'Of course we're staying.' There is strength in Lisandra's voice, which fills the tent.

'Crow will practice until he can win the tooth.'

'That might take years.'

'It won't.' Lisandra manages to restrain herself from saying anything else and I am glad. Of course I trust my friends but every person who understands the nature of my secret boon is a risk. If news of it were widespread, other realms would try to copy us and our advantage would be lost. Still in irritable mode and pitching his voice upwards to show it, Gerard continues, 'And what about food?' I speak as confidently as I feel.

'We shall eat as much as we need; you can rely on Crow to feed.'

'I hope it's not a diet of nettle soup again.' But the rancour from Gerard's voice has gone.

That night – after a day of archery practice and a skill increase in Animal Friend – while my friends go to the khan's tent (despite having no invitation or escort), I slip into the darkness while concentrating on my Stealth. I am shadow-in-the-night Crow once more. Patient. Cunning. Waiting for the sighs and gasps and chants from the main tent to provide a distraction should I fail to be perfectly silent. It is almost trivial to obtain a servant's jerkin, a pair of moccasins, a wool waistcoat, and dark trousers.

Each from a different tent, far apart. Then I lean into my Disguise skill so as to be able to approach the cooking area as a servant. Like a crow watching the slow progress of a tasty beetle, I study the movements of the servants as the cooking is completed and dishes are laid out on tables, then removed, to be brought to the large tent presumably.

My plan to brazenly walk forward in the exact fashion of those collecting the food proves to be unnecessarily complicated when a large plate of braised meat is left unattended. That will do us all very nicely. It is hard not to smile as I approach our tent, the appetising scent of cooked meat all around me. I can hear the voices of my companions, angry that they have been refused entrance to the night's food and entertainment. Ducking under the flap, I keep my head down as I hold up my heavily laden tray.

'Oh!' The exclamation is from Aarax.

'Someone has come with food for us after all.' Lady Horsta says, 'Well, that's better.' Then I stand up, letting my Disguise drop and now my grin cannot be contained, especially when I see the impish smile on Belle's face as she understands how I intend to keep us fed while I level up the necessary skills to complete the challenge.