Against the Giants by Ru Emerson - (ebook by Flandrel, Undead) Page B

like a candle to his
eyes.
    Agya came up behind him. Malowan, aware by his last spell
that no one was nearby, tugged at her boy-cut hair and murmured, “We are safe
enough for now. The wood conceals something of value. Help me shift it.”
    Agya merely nodded and knelt to begin shifting balks of
firewood. The pile was nearly gone when Malowan’s fingers closed around several
tubes.
    “Scroll cases,” he whispered.
    She nodded, inclining her head again when he indicated she
should guard both the doors while he checked the tubes for safety.
    Eventually he chose two, shoved them into his pack, then
carefully restacked the firewood. “These must be valuable,” he whispered. “Time
for us to hide or get back outside before the next guard change.”
    Malowan waved her back into the room to watch and listen
while he resettled the huge hide. “Be very quiet. There are wolves, remember,”
he reminded her.
    She nodded, her face pale, and led the way.
    But before they had gone two paces, heavy footsteps echoed
through the hall, and a deep bass voice rumbled in counterpart to at least three
yipping wolves. Mal waited, holding his breath. The sounds passed by, and a door
slammed, cutting off all noise.
    Malowan gave a white-faced Agya thumbs up and went on. She
drew a dagger and followed.
    They retraced their steps and only once had to hide—Malowan
under a pile of sacks, boots, and other rubble on the floor of the cloakroom,
while Agya buried herself under a fur cloak that almost reached the floor. Two
giants came rumbling and cursing down from the tower, one clutching his head
while another grumbled, seemingly cross at having his sleep interrupted for
guard duty in full fog.
    Malowan waited an extra three tens of breaths after they had
left, then rolled from under the sacks and drew Agya toward the doors. He eased
one open as quietly as possible and pulled her outside.
    Somewhere high above the Steading, day had broken. Down here,
the fog was merely a brighter shade of gray but no less thick. The sides of the
road were barely visible as an occasional tuft of dead grass.
    Agya retrieved her tools. Malowan gestured a reminder for
utter silence. She nodded, wide-eyed, and there was only the faintest snip as the lock slid into place.
    They set out as quickly as they could walk. In this much
haze, they’d be invisible to anyone approaching, and they’d hear anyone long
before they saw them.
    A short distance down the road, Malowan drew the girl onto
the scrubby turf and back the way they’d come. To his surprise, Nemis was still
waiting in the tiny dell.
    The mage smiled very briefly then led back to the cave.

 
 

     
     
    The rest of the party was awake and finishing a plain
breakfast of corn gruel when the three returned. Nemis sought the packet of dry
herb he sprinkled on everything he ate before filling his shallow bowl. Malowan
settled down next to Vlandar and sent his ward to get breakfast for both of them
while he helped fill in parts of the map.
    Lhors was eager to hear what they had discovered, so he sat
himself a few paces away, trying to remain as unobtrusive as possible while he
kept his ears open.
    “I would suggest we start an hour earlier tomorrow,” Malowan
said. “There is a guard change at about first hour, and the servants had already
begun work in the kitchens. Still, we discovered a fair amount about the place.”
    The paladin had just begun to sketch on the map when Agya
returned with his breakfast. He drank down the rather gluey mixture from its
two-handled bowl while it was still hot.
    Agya only sipped at hers and fell asleep before it was half
gone. Malowan caught the wooden bowl as it slipped from her fingers and eased
her down next to him, tucking the woolen cloak around her. He smiled down at her
and then turned back to the map.
    Vlandar and the paladin spent the next several minutes going
over various details and debating tomorrow’s plans. Lhors tried to