Liars and Thieves (A Company of Liars short story) Read Online Free PDF Page B

edged back towards the fire, but halfway across the clearing they jerked to a stop.
    Narigorm was crouching by the fire pit. Her wind-blown hair had turned from white to scarlet, as if flames were leaping from her head. She had lifted the iron pot of pottage back onto the tripod over the fire and was digging into it with her knife, spearing pieces of meat which she devoured as rapidly as a dog stealing from his master’s dish. I felt a shiver of unease as I always did when I saw her. She appeared completely indifferent to the outcome of the fight, and yet she had tried to save Jofre and Zophiel. Why?
    As if she could sense what I was thinking, she lifted her head and met my gaze. As the wind twisted the firelight and shadows on her skin, her face suddenly looked a thousand years old.
    Jack glanced at us and back at her. Then, evidently deciding that if we were not afraid of her she must be human, he gestured towards her.
    ‘That child with you?’
    I nodded reluctantly. I knew we had reason to be grateful to her for what she’d just done, but somehow that only made me more wary of her.
    Jack edged round the clearing towards one of the small bothies and squatted in front of it, picking the mud from under his nails with the point of his knife, never once taking his eyes off Narigorm.
    Pecker sidled closer, taking care to keep the fire between himself and the child.
    ‘Said you had the stone. That true?’
    Narigorm bestowed one of her innocent, wide-eyed expressions on him. ‘I always tell the truth.’
    ‘Let’s see it.’
    The child reached down the front of the white shift she always wore and pulled something out. She held it up. It was a dull black, about the same size and shape as a hen’s egg. It looked to be the same stone I’d seen Weasel playing with earlier, but I couldn’t be sure and evidently neither could Pecker.
    ‘How do I know it’s the right one?’ He squatted down, his body tense as if he was ready to spring away at the first sign of danger.
    Dye peered over his shoulder.
    ‘Could be. His Highness said it was black and there’s not many stones like that in these parts. Weasel would know.’
    ‘He’s legged it and so’s his Highness.’
    ‘He said stone turns red in fire,’ Jack growled.
    ‘Aye, he did right enough,’ Pecker said.
    ‘This stone, it is valuable?’ Rodrigo asked.
    ‘One of the dead monks was carrying it,’ I told him. ‘Zophiel says it’s a salamander stone. It cures anything  . . . if you know how to use it.’
    I didn’t know if Zophiel really believed what he’d told the outlaws. He was as sharp as death’s scythe. As a magician, he was used to thinking quickly and silencing any sceptics in a crowd. He could easily have invented the whole tale to distract the outlaws, in the hope of getting away. But now was not the time to mention that.
    Pecker seemed to make up his mind. He sprang up and bounded round the fire towards Narigorm. Osmond saw what was about to happen. He stepped swiftly between the outlaw and the child.
    ‘It’s mine,’ Pecker said. ‘Spoils it is, taken fair and square. I earned it.’
    ‘Stole it,’ Osmond said, glancing across at the monks’ corpses.
    ‘“Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I will depart,”’ Holy Jack intoned.
    ‘Hear that?’ Pecker said, triumphantly. ‘The dead own nothing. So it’s not thieving to take what they don’t own.’
    ‘But you murdered them to get it,’ Osmond said, indignantly.
    ‘That’s as maybe,’ Pecker said. ‘But that’s killing, not thieving. Isn’t that right, Jack?’
    Narigorm stood up, slipped around Osmond and before anyone realised what she intended, she had tossed the black stone into the centre of the fire.
    Pecker howled. He tried to snatch it out with his bare hand, but the fire burned too fiercely.
    ‘I’ll kill you, you filthy little brat,’ he yelled, making a grab for Narigorm.
    If Osmond hadn’t pulled her away, I am sure Pecker would have thrown