Michael A. Stackpole Read Online Free PDF

had come from thirty-two carefully carved chess pieces, half in red, the others black. Each had a small peg on the bottom that would fit in the holes, holding them in place. A small trough ground out at the end of each side provided a niche for the movestone.
    “Geoff, this is wonderful! Now I can play while on the road, if anyone in the caravan plays.”
    “You will find plenty of players, I think.” Geoff smiled openly. “Wiley, the woodwright, made it for me in return for my giving some basic fighting lessons to his sons. Grandfather has agreed to help me teach them. If they work well, we might even reopen the school.”
    “Might, Geoff, might.” Grandfather frowned a bit. “I’m really getting too old to teach children.”
    My brother and I exchanged a smile, then I whistled aloud for my horse. Stail’s head came up, and the bay gelding trotted over to me. 1 slipped the chess set into my saddlebag, then swung up into the saddle. “I will come back in the spring, after the mountain passes have thawed, and tell you all about everything. And I’ll have Bear’s Eve gifts for all of you.”
    “Good-bye, Lachlan. Farewell.” My grandfather lifted his hand and waved. Even though I felt his eyes upon me, it seemed to me that he was not seeing me at all.
    Both he and Geoff watched as I took Stail down the switchback trail and joined up with the caravan. I paid the caravan master, a man named Haskell, the five gold Imperials my grandfather had given me for that purpose, and he told me to find a place in the train that suited me. I waved up at the two of them, and they waved back, then the caravan’s dust cloud swallowed them.
    Deep down inside I felt 1 had betrayed my family because I did not feel properly homesick. Over a week out from Stone Rapids and I’d not dreamed once about my home. I wanted to feel lonely and desolate, but the caravan was full of interesting people and stranger things that took my mind entirely off those I had left behind. It hardly felt appropriate for me to be happy and excited so much.
    During the days I tended to spend most of my time riding beside the cumbersome wagons driven by merchants from Garikopolis. Laden with all sorts of wonderful things, from spices and crystal to delicately woven tapestries and shiny metalwork, they were bound for the capital in time for the frenzy of Bear’s Eve gift purchases. Being a native of Garik province, I felt proud about the way my people’s goods were cherished and coveted above and beyond those produced elsewhere in the Empire, but 1 restrained myself from believing all the stories the merchants told of past years in the capital.
    At night, as the caravan settled down to prepare meals and let the draft beasts rest, 1 found myself drawn to the company of the various groups of guards who had hired on to protect the caravan. Some merchants had retained their own soldiers, while the caravan company itself had hired a large number of warriors to ward it. Because the private soldiers were paid better than and refused to take orders from the caravan guards, a certain amount of friction existed between the two camps. Because of my training I had more in common with the soldiers than normal folk, and the warriors tolerated me because I listened attentively to their stories.
    As the caravan made camp in the Haunted Mountains, approximately a day’s journey west of the City of Sorcerers, I watched several of the guards in the employ of Kasir the gold merchant fence with each other. Stripped to the waist and using blades sheathed with leather practice covers, the two men sparred on a narrow strip between two bonfires. Others, including some of the caravan’s guards, watched the two men, offering applause, advice, and odds on victory as the battle wore on.
    Having spent my entire life in the village of Stone Rapids, I had never realized how important rank insignia were taken in the outside world. When we rode into town for Bear’s Eve, Grandfather always