off? You could wave it around like a parasol if you wanted.’
Mmrr’s tail stopped in mid-swish.
“I thought you might see it that way,’ Danae said.
“Shall we go down to the dungeon for your fencing lesson,
your Majesty?’ Stragen suggested. ‘Caalador and I are going to
be busy being burglars tonight, I think.’
‘Not only tonight, I’m afraid,’ Caalador added. “I haven’t been
on a roof in years.”
“it’s like swimming, Caalador,’ Stragen said. ‘Once you learn
how, you never forget.’
‘i’d really like to forgo the lesson today, Milord Stragen,
Sarabian said. ‘i’m still sore from yesterday.’
‘Fencing is not like swimming, your Majesty,’ Stragen told
him. ‘You have to practice continually. If you’re going to wear
that rapier, you’d better know how to’use it. In a tight situation,
that could be your last line of defense.’
Sarabian sighed. “Sometimes I wish I’d never even heard of
Elenes,’ he mourned.
‘Because Ehlana told me to,’ Mirtai said as she, Engessa, Kring
and the two thieves crossed the document-littered lawn toward
the Interior Ministry. “She wants to be sure that nobody interrupts
you. ‘
‘Mirtai,’ Stragen said with a pained look, “I love you like a
sister, but burglary’s a fine art.’
“I think my beloved can manage, friend Stragen,’ Kring said.
‘i’ve seen her walk through a pile of dry leaves and not make a
sound.’
“I just don’t like it,’ Stragen complained.
‘You are not required to, Stragen-thief,’ Engessa told him.
‘Ehlana-queen said that Mirtai-daughter will go with you, so she
will go. ‘
Mirtai smiled up at the towering Atan. ‘Thank you, Engessafather.
It’s so hard to make Elenes grasp reality sometimes.’
‘Engessa and I are going to relieve the two knights watching
over the documents on the lawn,’ Kring told them. ‘We’ll stay
fairly close to the building, and we have other men nearby. Call
if anyone surprises you in there, and we’ll come in and rescue
you.’
‘i’ve never had a platoon of soldiers standing watch for me
while I burglarized a building before,’ Caalador noted. “it adds
a whole new dimension to the business.’
Stragen grunted sourly. “it takes a lot of the fun out of it. A
large part of the thrill of burglary comes from the danger of
getting caught.’
‘i’ve never tried burglary,’ Kring admitted. “it’s not much of
a challenge among the Peloi, since we all live in tents. A sharp
knife will get you into the stoutest tent in the world. If we want
to ransack someone’s encampment, we usually send in some
men to run off his horses. He chases those men, and that gives
us a free hand.’
‘Burglary’s a crime of stealth, Kring,’ Stragen smiled. ‘You get
to sneak around at night and climb over roof-tops. It’s a lot of
fun – and really quite profitable.’
‘Be careful up there on that roof, Mirtai,’ Kring admonished
his betrothed. “I went to a great deal of trouble winning you,
and I’d hate to lose you at this point. Oh, speaking of that, friend
Stragen – and you too, friend Caalador – if anything happens to
her, you do know that I’ll kill you, don’t you?’
‘We wouldn’t have it any other way, friend Kring,’ Stragen
Smiled.
Mirtai ran a caressing hand over her beloved’s scalp. Stragen
had noticed that she did that quite often. He wondered if the
feel of the little fellow’s shaved head might have had some bearing
on her decision to marry him. ‘You need a shave,’ the giantess
said. ‘Remind me in the morning, and I’ll take care of it.’
Then Stragen, Caalador and Mirtai, all dressed in close-fitting
black clothing, slipped through the shadows of a grove of trees
near the Ministry of the Interior. ‘You’re really fond of the little
fellow, aren’t you, Mirtai?’ Stragen murmured softly, ducking
under a tree-limb.
‘Kring? He’s a suitable sort of man.’
‘That’s a rather lukewarm declaration of passion.
‘Passion’s a private thing. It shouldn’t be displayed in public.”
‘Then you do have those feelings for him?’
“I don’t really see where that’s any of your business, Stragen.”
There was a filmy layer of fog lying on the lawns of the
imperial compound. It was autumn now, and the fog crept in
off the Tamul Sea every evening. The moon would not rise for
hours yet, and all in all it was a perfect night for a burglary.
Caalador was puffing when they reached the wall surrounding
the Ministry of the Interior. ‘Out of condition,’ he muttered.
‘You’re almost as bad as Platime,’ Stragen told him, speaking
very softly. Then he squinted upward, swinging a heavy grappling
hook in his hand. He stepped back and began to whirl the
hook in a wide circle, letting out more rope with each circuit.
Then he hurled it upward with the rope trailing behind it. It
sailed up over the wall and fell inside, striking the stones with
a metallic-sounding clink. He tugged down a couple of times to
set the points in place. Then he sat down on the grass.
‘Aren’t we going up?’ Mirtai asked him.
‘Not yet. Somebody might have heard it. We’ll wait until his
curiosity’s had time to wear off.’
‘Fellers what’s a-standin’ watch in the middle o’ the night ain’t
really all that eager t’ go lookin’ fer where it is oz noises is
a-comin’ from, dorlin’,’ Caalador explained. “it’s been my experience
that they usually feel that a quiet watch is a good watch,
so they don’t go out of their way to investigate things. As long
as nobody sets the building on fire, they’re not overburdened
with curiosity. B’sides,’ he added, dipping once again into the
dialect, ‘fellers oz gits chose t’ stand gord at night usual turns
out t’ be drankin’ min, an’ after a flagon er two, they can’t really
hear hardly nuthin’ a-tall.’ He looked at Stragen. ‘Do you want
to try the ground floor before we go up on the roof?’ he asked
in clipped Elenic.
‘No,’ Stragen decided. ‘Ground-floor windows are always
double-checked when people lock up, and watchmen pass the
lonely hours of the night rattling door handles and trying the
windows close to the ground. I’ve always preferred attics
myself.’
‘What if all the attic windows are locked as well?’ Mirtai asked
him.
‘We’ll break one.’ He shrugged. ‘The building’s high enough so
that a broken window won’t be all that visible from the ground.’
‘Don’t be too obvious, Stragen,’ Caalador cautioned him. ‘i’ve
got the feeling that we’ll be going back inside every night for
the next week or two. That’s a large building.’
‘Let’s get at it, then,’ Stragen said, rising to his feet. He looked
out across the lawn. The fog had grown noticeably thicker. He
tugged down on the rope a couple of times to make sure that
the hook was secure, and then began to climb up.
‘You go on up next, dorlin’,’ Caalador said quietly to Mirtai.
‘Why do you call me that?’
“Jist a-bein’ friendly-like. It don’t mean nothin’ personal, so
don’t go complainin’ t’ yet bow-legged beau. He’s a likable sort,
but he shore is touchy where yet concerned.’
‘Yes,’ Mirtai agreed. She went quickly up the rope and joined
Stragen atop the wall. ‘What now?’ she asked.
‘We’ll go across to the roof and start checking attic windows
just as soon as Caalador climbs up.’
‘You’ll use the hook again?’
He nodded.
‘Burglars are about half-ape, aren’t they?’
‘We prefer to think of ourselves as agile. Now then, if we run
into anybody inside, we’ll try to hide first. If that doesn’t work,
we’ll rap him on the head. Caalador’s carrying a wineskin, and
he’ll pour wine all over the man. The smell of that should make
him less credible when he wakes up. Try not to kill anybody. It
takes all night to clean up, and we’d have to carry the body
away when we leave. This isn’t an ordinary burglary, and we
don’t want anybody to know we’ve been here.’
“you’re repeating the obvious, Stragen.’
‘i’ve seen your instincts in operation before, love. If you do
kill somebody, please try to leave most of the blood inside the
body. I don’t want to be caught in there with a mop in my hands
when the sun comes up.’
‘Why are you both being so affectionate tonight?’
“I don’t think I quite followed that.’
‘Caalador’s been calling me “darling” ever since we set out,
and you just called me “love”. Is there some sort of significance
to that?’
he chuckled. ‘A gang of burglars is a very close-knit group,
Mirtai. We depend on each other for our very lives. That creates
powerful ties of affection – which usually last right up until the
point when the time comes to divide up the spoils. That’s when
things sometimes turn ugly.’
‘Let’s have it all in place before we make any overt moves,
Sarabian,’ Ehlana counseled. ‘The Interior Ministry knows that
we’re up to something, but we’re all pretending that everything’s