Athyra Read Online Free PDF Page B

loudmouth Speaker,
    He’d get haughty and I’d get meeker.
    Hi-dee hi-dee ho-la!
    Step on out ...
    He stared insolently back at the room, his expression impossible to read, save that it seemed to Savn that there was perhaps a smile hidden by the black hair that grew above his lip and curled down around the corners of his mouth. After giving the room one long, thorough look, he stepped fully inside and slowly came up to the counter until he was facing Tern. He spoke in a voice that was not loud, yet carried very well. He said, “Do you have anything to drink here that doesn’t taste like linseed oil?”
    Tern looked at him, started to scowl, shifted nervously and glanced around the room. He cleared his throat, but didn’t speak.
    “I take it that means no?” said Vlad.
    Someone near Savn whispered, very softly, “They should send for His Lordship.”
    Savn wondered who “they” were.
    Vlad leaned against the serving counter and folded his arms; Savn wondered if he were signaling a lack of hostility, or if the gesture meant something entirely different among Easterners. Vlad turned his head so that he was looking at Tern, and said, “Not far south of here is a cliff, overlooking a river. There were quite a few people at the river, bathing, swimming, washing clothes.”
    Tem clenched his jaw, then said, “What about it?”
    “Nothing, really,” said Vlad. “But if that’s Smallcliff, it’s pretty big.”
    “Smallcliff is to the north,” said Tem. “We live below Smallcliff.”
    “Well, that would explain it, then,” said Vlad. “But it is really a very pleasant view; one can see for miles. May I please have some water?”
    Tem looked around at the forty or fifty people gathered in the house, and Savn wondered if he were waiting for someone to tell him what to do. At last he got a cup and poured fresh water into it from the jug below the counter.
    “Thank you,” said Vlad, and took a long draught.
    “What are you doing here?” said Tem.
    “Drinking water. If you want to know why, it’s because everything else tastes like linseed oil.” He drank again, then wiped his mouth on the back of his hand. Someone muttered something about, “If he doesn’t like it here ...” and someone else said something about “haughty as a lord-Tern cleared his throat and opened his mouth, shut it again, then looked once more at his guests. Vlad, apparently oblivious to all of this, said, “While I was up there, I saw a corpse being brought along the road in a wagon. They came to a large, smoking hole in the ground, and people put the body into the hole and burned it. It seemed to be some kind of ceremony.”
    It seemed to Savn that everyone in the room somehow contrived to simultaneously gasp and fall silent. Tem scowled, and said, “What business is that of yours?”
    “I got a good look at the body. The poor fellow looked familiar, though I’m not certain why.”
    Someone, evidently one of those who had brought Reins to the firepit, muttered,
    “I didn’t see you there.”
    Vlad turned to him, smiled, and said, “Thank you very much.”
    Savn wanted to smile himself, but concealed his expres—
    sion behind his hand when he saw that no one else seemed to think it was funny. Tem said, “You knew him, did you?”
    “I believe so. How did he happen to become dead?” Tem leaned over the counter and said, “Maybe you could tell us.”
    Vlad looked at the Housemaster long and hard, then at the guests once more, and then suddenly he laughed, and Savn let out his breath, which he had been unaware of holding.
    “So that’s it,” said Vlad. “I wondered why everyone was looking at me like I’d come walking into town with the three-day fever. You think I killed the fellow, and then just sort of decided to stay here and see what everyone said about it, and then maybe bring up the subject in case anyone missed it.” He laughed again. “I don’t really mind you thinking I’d murder someone, but I am not