The Redemption of Althalus (90 page)

All in all, Gosti’s fort was much more orderly than it’d been before. The main structure was now a fairly substantial log fort that overlooked the river and the toll bridge, rather than the rickety building Althalus remembered. The walled-in courtyard was lined with various workshops and animal pens. The stables were attached to the old hay barn on the north side of the court, and the smithy, tannery, and carpenter’s shed ran along the east wall from the fort to the barn. “Once we get there, we’ll have to do some exploring,” Althalus told Gher. “There are a lot of changes we’ll need to know about.”

“I’ll snoop around,” Gher said. “Nobody pays much attention to curious boys.”

“Good idea.”

“They’re taking Ghend inside the fort to meet Gosti,” Leitha told Althalus. “You might want to eavesdrop.”

“Maybe so. I don’t want Ghend getting exotic at this point.”

The ground below blurred, and Althalus found himself looking down at Gosti and his table.

“He’s grotesque!” Andine exclaimed in a voice filled with revulsion.

“They don’t call him ‘Gosti Big Belly’ for nothing, that’s for certain,” Eliar agreed.

“How can anybody that fat even
move
?” Andine demanded.

“He doesn’t,” Althalus told her. “He sleeps in that chair—and he usually keeps eating right through his naps.”

A fur-clad clansman with a bronze-tipped spear escorted Ghend and Khnom into the fat man’s presence. “These strangers want to talk with you, Gosti,” he announced. “They say it’s about business.”

“Show them in,” Gosti commanded, wiping his greasy hands on the front of his vast robe. “I’m always ready to talk business.”

“This one says his name’s Ghend,” the clansman said. “He’s the one who wants to speak with you.”

“I’m pleased to meet you, Ghend.” Gosti belched. “What kind of business do you have in mind?”

“It’s nothing very important, Chief Gosti,” Ghend said. “I have some things to attend to in Equero. Normally, I’d travel there through Perquaine and Treborea, but there are some people down there who aren’t really very fond of me, so my servant and I decided to go to Equero by the northern route. We got a late start, though, so we won’t be able to get across the mountains before the snow flies. I was wondering if I might be able to persuade you to put us up for the winter.”

“Persuade?” Gosti asked, gnawing at a bone.

“He means ‘pay,’ Chief Gosti,” Khnom translated.

“That’s the word dearest to my heart,” Gosti chortled, spraying pork fat all across the table. “Talk to my cousin Galbak, and he’ll see to your accommodations.” Gosti turned slightly and gestured toward a giant of a man with a close-cropped beard and agate-hard eyes. “Look after their needs, Galbak,” he ordered.

“Yes, cousin,” Galbak replied in a deep, rumbling voice.

“He’s a big one, isn’t he?” Eliar noted.

“Bigger’n a house,” Gher agreed. “I don’t think we’d want to get on the wrong side of him—except that I don’t really see no
good
side on that one.”

“You’re lapsing, Gher,” Andine scolded. “You’ve been taught to speak more correctly.”

“It’s part of the swindle, Andine,” he explained. “Althalus wants me to talk ‘country’ so Ghend and Khnom don’t get no ideas about how slick I really am. I’m supposed to be smart but act dumb. I don’t know exactly how come, but if that’s the way he wants it, I’ll do ’er that way.”

“It’s colorful, if nothing else,” Leitha noted.

“When are
we
going in, Althalus?” Gher asked.

“Let’s wait a few days. We want to give Ghend and Khnom time to get settled in—and for everybody in Gosti’s hall to get used to having them around. If we go in too soon, somebody might see some kind of connection between us. I want everybody there to believe that I’ve never seen Ghend before.”

Althalus and Gher spent the next two days carefully watching Ghend and Khnom grow acquainted with Gosti. “That should do it,” Althalus told the boy on the afternoon of the second day. “We’ll go in about midmorning tomorrow.”

“Anything you say, Althalus.”

They gathered in the dining room at the foot of the stairs for breakfast the next morning, and Dweia gave Althalus and Gher a great deal of advice—most of which Althalus planned to ignore.

“She does that a lot, doesn’t she?” Gher asked Althalus as they followed Eliar to the south wing of the House, where their horses were stabled.

Althalus shrugged. “It doesn’t cost us anything to sit and listen to her, and if it makes her happy—”

“But you don’t never do exactly what she tells you to.”

“Not very often, no,” Althalus admitted. “We’ll want to come out on the trail about ten miles south of that toll bridge, Eliar—just in case Gosti’s got lookouts posted near his fort.”

“Right,” Eliar agreed.

The willow trees along the tumbling river had turned, and their leaves were red as Althalus and Gher rode north through Arum toward Gosti’s fort. “Let me do the talking when we get to the bridge, Gher,” Althalus cautioned. “There’s something I need to set up.”

“All right,” Gher agreed.

It was almost noon when they reached the bridge, and the toll taker stopped them to demand two ounces of gold. “That’s a fine-looking tunic you’ve got there friend,” the tattooed fellow noted after Althalus had paid him.

“It keeps the weather off,” Althalus replied with a casual shrug.

“Where did you come by it?”

“Up in Hule,” Althalus replied, even as he had the last time. “I happened across this wolf, you see, and he was about to jump on me and tear out my throat so that he could have me for supper. Now, I’ve always sort of liked wolves—they sing so prettily—but I don’t like them well enough to provide supper for them, particularly when I’m going to be the main course. Well, I just happened to have this pair of bone dice with me, and I persuaded the wolf that it might be more interesting if we played dice to decide the matter instead of rolling around on the ground trying to rip each other apart.”

Even as he had the previous time, the toll taker became totally engrossed in the wild story about the dice game with the wolf, and Gher appeared to be caught up in it as well. Althalus was pleased that he hadn’t lost his touch, and he expanded the story, adding more outrageous details as he went along.

“Oh, that’s a rare story, friend!” the chortling toll taker said at the conclusion, clapping Althalus on the back with one meaty hand. “Gosti’s
got
to hear this one!” He turned to one of the broadly grinning guards. “Take over here,” he ordered. “I want to introduce our friend here to Gosti.”

“Right,” the guard agreed.

“That was a terrible good story, Althalus,” Gher said admiringly as they followed the toll taker across the bridge.

“I’m glad you liked it.”

“Was that the same one you told him last time?”

“More or less. I embellished it a little, though.”

They followed the fur-clad man up through the village, through the gates of the fort, and then on into the dining hall, where Gosti sat ripping chunks from the haunch of roasted pork.

“Ho, Gosti!” their guide said loudly to get the fat man’s attention. “This is Althalus. Have him tell you the story of how he came by this fine wolf-eared tunic of his.”

“All right,” Gosti replied, taking a gulp of mead from his drinking horn. “You don’t mind if I keep eating while you tell me the story, do you?

“Not at all, Gosti,” Althalus replied. “I certainly wouldn’t want you to start wasting away right in front of my eyes.”

Gosti blinked, and then he roared with laughter, spewing greasy pork all over the table.

Althalus glanced quickly around the smoky dining hall, and he saw Ghend and Khnom seated near the fire pit. Ghend nodded slightly and put on his peculiar bronze helmet.

Althalus launched into a much-expanded version of his story about the dice game with the wolf, and by late afternoon he and Gher were firmly ensconced in chairs beside the enormous fat man.

After sunset, Gosti drifted off to sleep, and the tall, bearded Galbak leaned across the table. “If you and your boy have finished, Althalus, I’ll take you to a place where you can get some sleep. When Gosti starts to snore, nobody sleeps.”

“I
am
a little tired, Galbak,” Althalus admitted. “Telling stories can be exhausting.”

Galbak let out a bit of a laugh. “Don’t play games with me, Althalus. You loved every minute of it.”

Althalus grinned at him as he and Gher rose from their seats. “You seem to be Gosti’s right hand, Galbak,” he told the towering Arum as they crossed the dining hall.

“Well, more like his left one,” Galbak rumbled. “He
eats
with his right hand.” Galbak sighed then. “That’s what’s going to kill him in the end, I’m afraid. It’s probably all right to be
sort of
fat, but Gosti’s taken it too far. He can’t sleep lying down anymore, and there are times when he can barely get his breath.”

“You’re likely to be the one who succeeds him, aren’t you?”

“Probably so, but I’m not looking forward to it very much. Gosti and I are like brothers, and I’m more or less forced to stand and watch while he eats himself to death.”

Ghend rose from the bench upon which he and Khnom had been sitting. “That was quite some story, stranger,” he complimented Althalus.

“This is Ghend,” Galbak introduced them, “and that’s his servant, Khnom. They’re from Regwos, and they’re wintering here.”

“Pleased to meet you, Ghend,” Althalus murmured perfunctorily. “Maybe we’ll have time to get better acquainted during the winter.”

“Maybe,” Ghend agreed, sitting back down.

Galbak led Althalus and Gher on toward the dining room door. “I wouldn’t get my hopes up too much about that one, Althalus,” he suggested. “Ghend keeps pretty much to himself, and you could tell him the funniest joke in the world and he wouldn’t so much as crack a smile. I’ve never heard him laugh once since he came here.”

Althalus shrugged. “Some people are like that.” He glanced back over his shoulder and saw Khnom exaggeratedly mouth the word “stables.” Althalus nodded briefly and then followed Galbak on out of the dining hall.

The room to which Gosti’s cousin led them had no door, nor any significant furniture. There was a pile of straw in one corner that was evidently intended to serve as a bed. “It isn’t much,” Galbak apologized, “but Gosti hates to spend money on
furniture instead of food.”

“It’ll be just fine,” Althalus assured him. “The boy and I can go to the stable and pick up our blankets, and then we’ll settle in.”

“I’ll see you in the morning, then,” Galbak said, and then he retraced his steps back toward the dining hall.

“It’s working out pretty good, isn’t it, Althalus?” Gher noted as the two of them walked through the fort toward the stables. “You got some plans about that real tall fellow, don’t you?”

“I get a feeling that he’s going to be useful later on,” Althalus replied. “It seems that Gosti concentrates on eating and leaves details up to his cousin. That could be important before this is over.”

They left the main building and passed through the various workmen’s open-fronted sheds to the hay barn on the northeast corner of the enclosure. Then they entered the stables that were butted up against the north wall. Ghend and Khnom were waiting there in the dim light.

“You took your time getting here,” Ghend growled.

“There’s no real rush,” Althalus replied. “There’s already snow in the passes, so we aren’t going anywhere until spring.”

“I know that, Althalus,” Ghend said, “but I was starting to wonder if you’d changed your mind.”

“And leave all of Gosti’s gold for you? Don’t be silly. Have you located the strong room yet?”

Ghend nodded. “It’s on the main floor—past the dining hall and up a very short flight of stairs. I haven’t had a chance to look inside yet, but I’d guess that it’s got a wooden floor—probably split logs. Nobody in his right mind stores gold in a room with a dirt floor.”

“Truly,” Althalus agreed. “Particularly in a region where everybody’s carrying mining tools. Is it guarded?”

“All the time, but that shouldn’t be much of a problem. The guards who watch the door at night usually take a couple of flagons of mead to work with them. If we go in after midnight, they’ll probably be dozing. We’ll be able to kill them quietly.”

Althalus nodded. “Could you see the lock?” he asked.

“It won’t be a problem,” Khnom assured him. “I could undo that one in my sleep. We
could
do this tonight, you know.”

“Too dangerous,” Gher said quickly. “You fellows only got here a few days ago, and me and Althalus came today. They’re probably watching us sort of careful because we’re still strangers, and that big, mean Galbak’s almost certain sure told the guards that they’d get skun alive if they drank theirselves to sleep. I think we ought to wait until they get used to us—and by then the snow’ll be belly deep on a tall horse.”

“He’s right,” Althalus said. “I want lots of open running room out there after we steal that gold. Galbak’s got long legs, and he can probably run like a deer for at least a day and a half before he gets winded. No robbery’s complete until you’ve gotten away.”

“You’re very good at this, Althalus,” Ghend observed.

“I learned a long time ago that good planning makes for good robberies. We’ve got a long winter ahead of us, but we’ve got plenty of work to keep us busy. We need to go over every inch of this fort so that we can find our way in the dark. Our main problem is that we’re inside a walledin group of buildings. Getting inside was easy. Getting out with the gold might be a lot more difficult.”

“I’ve had some luck with fire,” Khnom suggested. “The fort
is
made of wood, you know, and people whose houses are on fire are too busy to pay attention to anything but the fire.”

“It’s a possibility,” Althalus conceded, “but let’s see if we can find some other way. A fire would only give us a two-hour head start—at most—and that’s cutting things a little fine. I can lie my way past the front gate if that’s our only way out, but we
don’t
want to kill the guards. Blood attracts almost as much attention as fire, and we don’t want to destroy the strong-room lock, either. If we do this right, they won’t know they’ve been robbed for at least a day. If we’ve got a full day’s head start, we’re home free; if it’s only five minutes, we’re in trouble.”