to have his soldiers turn Muros upside down and shake it until
everything fell out. All manner of interesting – and illegal – things
came to light, but there was no sign of Malon.
As I mentioned before, General Halbren was a blocky professional
soldier who’d been second in command of my army. His overall
attitude was far more Sendarian than it was Wacite. He was solid,
dependable, and almost totally unflappable. His very presence
calmed me, and I was in great need of calming just then. ‘Malon’s
simply not here, your Grace,’ he reported to me on the morning
after his soldiers had torn Muros apart. ‘No one’s seen him since
the day before yesterday. He had a meeting in that office of his with
a group of Wacite patriots. After they left, he stayed in his office
until almost midnight, and then he left the building. I’m certain of
the time, because I questioned the man who was on guard at the
main entrance personally. Malon’s lodgings are at an inn two streets
over, and his rooms showed some evidence of a hasty departure.’
‘I think we can rule out an assassination then, General,’ I said.
‘Assassins rarely take the trouble to carry off the body after they’ve
finished.’
‘True, your Grace.’
The fact that Malon had time to stuff a few things into a bag sort
of eliminates abduction, too, wouldn’t you say?’
,It’s probably safe to say that, my Lady.’
‘That would seem to indicate that he left voluntarily – without
bothering to let me know where he was going.’
‘That isn’t at all like hi.Tn, your Grace,’ Halbren noted. ‘Malon
always consults with you before he takes any action.’
‘It’s possible that those Wacites brought hitn some news about a
family emergency of some kind, but I still think he’d have spoken
with me before he left.’
‘I’m sure of it, your Grace.’
‘Did anyone else go into his office after the Wacites left?’
‘No, your Grace. The guard at the door and the officer in charge
of the night staff would have seen anyone, I’m sure.’
‘When did the Wacites leave?’
‘Three hours after sunset, your Grace.’
‘And Malon left about two hours later?’
‘Approximately, your Grace.’
‘Let’s go have a look at his office, General. We might find some
kind of clue there.’
albren made a rueful face.
something wrong, Halbren?’ I asked him.
‘I was just wondering where my brains had gone, your Grace.
The notion of searching his office never occurred to me. I tend to
respect other people’s privacy.
‘A commendable trait, General, but a little misplaced this time.
Let’s go see what Malon left on his desk.’
As it turned out, there wasn’t anything on Malon’s desk. He was
a compulsively neat man, so he put things away when he was done
with them. I knew him very well, however, and I knew that he’d
have a hiding place – for his jug, if nothing else. Finding that hiding
Place wasn’t very hard for me, since I’ve got certain advantages
when it comes to finding things. There was a hidden drawer in his
desk that did have the usual half-full jug of spirits. It also had a map
Of wacune in it as well, and when I opened the map, Halbren and
I immediately saw the inked-in line that traced a course from the
n”Orthern border of Vo Wacune to the site of the former capital – a
cOurse that obviously avoided all the main roads and quite probably
followed trails known only to forest bandits.
‘Could he have gone down there, your Grace?’ Halbren asked.
‘I’m almost certain he did, General, and I’m going to speak to
him at some length about that. He knows better than to run off on
his own. You can have your men ask around, but I’m positive that
Malon’s across the River Camaar into Wacune by now.’
‘Some emergency, perhaps?’
I shook my head. ‘No, Halbren. I’ve trained him not to deal with
emergencies personally. He’s here to pass along my orders, not to
run off to try to take care of things himself.’ My eyes narrowed.
‘When we do find him, he’d better have some very good excuses
for this little excursion.’
General Halbren and I got to know each other even better during
the two weeks that Malon spent in Wacune. I liked Halbren. In some
ways he represented a transition between Arendish impulsiveness
and Sendarian sensibility. Moreover, we were both angry with
Malon for his unexplained disappearance. Halbren sent word to his
own contacts down in Wacune, asking them to scour the forests in
an all-out search for my wandering seneschal.
That took, as I’ve said, two full weeks, and when the Wacites
finally did locate Malon, he was already on his way back to Muros.
I spent the better part of a day polishing the grand remonstrance
I fully intended to shower down on my friend, but I never got the
chance to use it. Malon looked tired, but at the same time jubilant,
when General Halbren delivered him into my clutches. He had one
of those irrepressible grins on his face that reminded me of Killane
himself.
‘Now, don’t y’ be after scoldin’ me until y’ve heard me story, yer
Grace,’ he said as he entered. Clearly, he’d seen the storm brewing
in my face.
‘You’re in trouble, Malon,’ Halbren told him.
‘I’m terrible sorry t’ have caused y’ both so much concern,’ Malon
apologized, ‘but I was perfectly all right, don’t y’ know. A distant
cousin o’ mine who lives down in Wacune brought me some
information a couple,o’ weeks ago, an’ I saw right away that here was
me chance t’ surprise her Grace here w’ a bit o’ an early birthday
present, don’t y’ know. Don’t y’just love surprises, me Lady?’
‘Not really, Malon. They usually involve bad news.’
‘Not this time, Lady-O,’ he said gaily. ‘As it turns out, some o
me Wacite relatives dropped by t’ tell me that Duke Carteon an
his Murgo friend had been seen in th’ vicinity o’ the ruins o’ VO
Wacune, an’ I thought it might be a golden opportunity t’ settle
some old accounts as has been naggin’ at y’. I put almost th’ entire
Killaneson family t’ work on it, but it still took th’ better part o’ a
week t’ track down yer enemy. Him an’ that Murgo was bein’ very
careful, don’t y’ know. Anyway, th’ short of it is that we found th’
two o’ them, an’ I set up a little ambush t’ welcome ’em t’ Wacune.’
,you idiot!’ I stormed at him. ‘That Murgo is a Grolim!’
‘He might o’ bin, yer Grace, but he didn’t do no Grolimin’ after
we stuck a dozen or so arrows in ‘im, don’t y’ know. As I remember
it, he did start t’ shout somethin’ just before all them arrows swept
him out o’ his saddle. Anyhow, Duke Carteon drove his spurs all
th’ way into his horse an’ tried t’ make a run fer it, but we’d had
th’ foresight t’ stretch a rope across the trail about chest high, an’ it
picked ‘im right outta his saddle as he tried t’ ride through it.’
,You captured him?’ I exclaimed.
‘That we did, me Lady. That we did.’
‘Where is he?’
‘That would sort o’ depend on how well he’s bin keepin’ up w’
his religious obligations, me Lady,’ my seneschal replied a little
vaguely.
‘What did you do with him, Malon?’ I bored in.
‘Well, me Lady. We all talked it over while he was layin’ on th’
ground tryin’ t’ git his breath back – th’ fall off his horse havin’
knocked th’ wind outta ‘im, don’t y’ know. When we first went
after ‘im, it’d bin our intent t’ capture ‘im an’ deliver ‘im up t’ yer
grace fer disposal as y’ might see fit, but now that we had ‘im an’
got th’ chance t’ look ‘im over, we seen what a disgustin’, weasely
little rascal he was, an’ I jist couldn’t bear th’ thought o’ insultin’ y’
by bringin’ such a mangy dog into yer presence. Th’ more we talked
it over, th’ more it was that we couldn’t bring ourselves t’ dignify
im w’ no formal proceedin’s, don’t y’ know. As we saw it, he jist
didn’t deserve that kind o’ consideration.’
‘What did you do to him? Get to the point, Malon.’
‘Well. me Lady, we had this here miscreant as we didn’t think
was really worth th’ effort o’ feedin’ an’ guardin’ all th’ way back
‘ Muros, an’ we had this here rope as had just jerked ‘im out o’ his
saddle, an’ there was all them lovely trees handy. Since everythin’
was there anyway, we took it as a sign from th’ Gods, so we hung
‘im right there on th’ spot.’
General Halbren burst out with a roar of laughter at that point.