Swords: 06 - The Third Book of Lost Swords - Stonecutter's Story Read Online Free PDF Page B

man with the magical Sword was very opportune, was it not? Tell me what agreement you reached with him, and where he has gone now. Come, Lednik, I bear you no ill-will, and if you tell me the truth you need not fear me.”
           Lednik was now sweating more intensely in the shade than he had been a few minutes ago out in the sun. “Magic Sword? Is that what you said just now, Excellency? Alas, I am only a poor man, and have never heard of such—”
           “You will be a much happier poor man in the end, Foreman Lednik, if you do not try to treat me as an idiot. It is true that in this territory I have no official standing as an investigator. But I can go from this spot directly to the Hetman himself, and inform him of the suddenly improved technology of road-building in this portion of his domain. He will, I am sure, be interested to hear of it. And to hear the reasons why you, his trusted foreman Lednik, neglected to inform him of the presence in his domain of one of the Twelve Swords that—”
           “I want no trouble, sir!” Lednik was beginning to turn pale under his tan and sweat and road dust.
           “Then tell me, from the beginning, the truth about this visitor you had.” Wen Chang turned his head to glance at Lieutenant Komi. The officer, Kasimir noticed, was moving closer to the others, to stand inside the square of shade, from which vantage point he was better able to follow the progress of the interrogation.
           And now Lednik’s story came out. Yes, a man, a complete stranger to Lednik, had indeed appeared at the work site only yesterday. And this man had worn at his side a black-hilted Sword of marvelous workmanship.
           “Was there a device upon the hilt?” Wen Chang interrupted.
           “A device?”
           “A special marking.”
           “A device. Yes sir, there was such a thing. It was a little shape in white, the image of a wedge splitting a block. I did observe that much.”
           “Excellent. Continue.”
           Lednik continued in a halting voice with frequent hesitations, describing how the stranger had been willing to demonstrate the power that he claimed for the weapon, cutting away the rocky ridge as if he were digging in soft clay, or wood.
           “No, not even like wood, sir. Like butter is more like it. Like melting butter, yes. And that thing, that tool, that must have come somehow from the gods, why it made a dull, heavy hammering noise all the time that it was working, even though it was just slicing along smoothly. My workers had to scramble to move the chunks of rock away as fast as he could cut them out. He demonstrated the power of his Sword beyond all argument, and then he took it away with him again. I did nothing to interfere with him. No, you may bet that I did not. Who am I to try to interfere with a wizard of such power?”
           “His name?”
           Lednik looked blank for a few seconds. “Why, he gave none. And I wasn’t going to ask him.”
           “What did he look like?”
           Lednik appeared genuinely at a loss. “His clothing was undistinguished. Such as everyone wears in the desert. He was thirty years of age, perhaps. Almost as dark as you are, sir. Middle height, spare of frame. I did not pay that much attention to his looks. I feared his power too much.”
           “No doubt. Well, be assured that my own powers are formidable too, Foreman Lednik. And they tell me that you have not yet revealed the whole truth. What was the nature of the bargain that you struck with this stranger?”
           Eventually the full story, or what sounded to Kasimir like the full story, did come out. As payment for the stranger’s help, Lednik had agreed to release to him a certain one of his prisoners.
           Wen Chang squinted suspiciously when he heard this answer. “And what were you going to say to your superiors when