Rise of a Merchant Prince. Raymond E. Feist

recruiting?’

      ‘Never mind. I’ll tell you about it when the time’s right.’

      Erik saluted and was about to leave when a guardsman hurried out of the castle, saluted, and said, ‘Sergeant, the Knight-Marshal wants you and the corporal down at the City Watch office at once.’

      De Loungville grinned. ‘What do you think? Want to bet it’s one of our own?’

      Erik shrugged. ‘No bet.’

      Erik followed him through the maze of corridors in the Prince’s palace. The original keep, built centuries before to protect the harbor below from Quegan raiders and pirates, had been added to over the years until a large sprawling series of interconnecting buildings with outer walls rested hard against the harbor side and covered the entire hill upon which the old keep was the summit.

      Erik was starting to find his way around and feeling a little more comfortable, but there were still things he didn’t understand about what was taking place here in Krondor. He had barely seen Bobby since returning to the city. He and Jadow had been given better than a hundred men each to oversee, with Bobby’s orders simply being ‘Put them through their paces and keep an eye on them.’ Erik wasn’t exactly sure what that meant, but he and the other corporal had contrived some vigorous training exercises based on the ones they themselves had endured when first coming into de Loungville’s service. After a week of this, Erik now had a pretty good idea who would fit in with the sort of army Calis was fashioning, and who wouldn’t.

      Calis hadn’t been seen since Erik returned, and when he had asked about their Captain’s whereabouts, de Loungville shrugged and said he was off on some errand or another. That made Erik uneasy, as did the fact that Erik’s place in the scheme of things was unclear to him. The regular guard in the palace either avoided him or treated him with unusual deference for a corporal. He had guard servants address him as ‘sir,’ and yet when he asked questions, he got brusque, even rude answers. It was clear there was some resentment on the part of the existing garrison over the creation of this new army of Calis’s.

      As they reached the office of the Watch Commander, Erik found his hand reaching for his sword without thought at the sight of Roo backing out of the Watch Commander’s office with his own sword drawn.

      A shout from within could be heard: ‘He’ll not harm you! Put that sword away!’ He recognized the voice as belonging to William, Knight-Marshal of Krondor.

      Roo’s appearance was one of a man totally unconvinced, yet Erik couldn’t see what was causing his friend such alarm. He almost fell, he was so startled by what he saw next. Coming out of the Watch Commander’s office was a green-scaled serpent with large red eyes in an alligatorlike head on a long sinuous neck. Then Erik saw the thing’s body and saw it had wings. It was a small dragon!

      Before Erik could do anything, Robert said, ‘Relax.’ He stepped forward and said, ‘Fantus! You old thief!’ He knelt next to the creature and put his arm around its neck, giving it a hug as if it were a favorite hound. Bobby told Erik and Roo, ‘This thing is a sort of pet to our Lord William, so don’t be upsetting the King’s cousin by trying to kill it, will you?’

      Suddenly, from inside the office, Erik heard William’s laugh and then his voice: ‘He said he’d like to see them try.’

      Bobby playfully rubbed behind the creature’s eye ridges and said, ‘Still a tough old boot, aren’t you?’

      Erik took Robert at his word that this was a pet, albeit the most fantastic pet anyone had ever imagined. The creature looked him up and down and suddenly Erik was convinced there was intelligence behind those eyes.

      Erik stepped around to where Roo remained hard against the wall and looked past the creature into the office. Inside, the Watch Commander stood, while Knight-Marshal William remained to one side of the desk. Lord William was a short man, barely as tall as Bobby, but he looked fit for his age, somewhere in his fifties. He was reputed to be among the shrewdest military minds in the Kingdom. It was said that in the last years of Prince Arutha’s tenure he spent nearly every day talking with the old Prince, learning everything he could. Arutha’s deeds had been part history, part legend, but he was accounted one of the finest generals in the annals of the Kingdom.

      William said to Robert, ‘Lord James will be along in a minute,’ and added to Roo and Erik, ‘Would one of you please fetch some water. Your friend has fainted.’

      Erik looked down, saw Duncan’s feet sticking through the doorway, and realized he must have been the first to step through the office and encounter the small dragon.

      Erik said, ‘I’ll go,’ and was off. To himself he said, ‘Just when I was thinking things couldn’t get much stranger.’

       • Chapter Five • Newcomer

      Roo yawned.

      The discussion had been under way for hours. His mind wandered, so that when he was asked a question, he had to say, ‘Excuse me, my lord? I’m sorry, I didn’t hear what you said.’

      Lord James, Duke of Krondor, said, ‘Robert, I think our young friend here is in need of refreshment. Take him and his cousin down to the mess while William and I confer.’

      They had been holding a discussion in the Watch Commander’s office since Roo had arrived, and until Lord James had mentioned refreshments and the mess, Roo hadn’t given much thought to the fact he and Duncan had not broken their fast. De Loungville motioned for Roo and Duncan to follow him.

      Outside the office, as they moved down the hall, Roo asked, ‘Sergeant, what’s going on? I had almost no hope I’d ever see my money again, but I want that bastard Sam Tannerson’s guts on a stick for what he’s done.’

      Robert grinned back over his shoulder. ‘You’re still a vicious little rodent, aren’t you, Avery? I admire that in a man.’

      As they moved through the castle, Robert said, ‘It’s not so simple as mustering the watch, going out, hauling in this Tannerson, and hanging him.’

      ‘No witnesses,’ offered Duncan.

      ‘Right. And there’s the issue of why there were these killings.’

      ‘Why were there?’ asked Roo. ‘Destroying my wine would have been clear enough warning.’

      Robert motioned for them to pass through a door into the soldiers’ mess as he said, ‘Well, that’s what the Duke and the Knight-Marshal are asking themselves this very minute, I’m betting.’

      Roo saw Erik and Jadow standing at one end of the mess while a bunch of soldiers in grey tunics and trousers sat eating. He waved and Erik came over. ‘Sergeant?’ he asked, to see if there were orders.

      ‘Tell Jadow to keep an eye on those recruits, and join us.’

      Erik did as he was ordered, and when he was seated with the others, castle serving boys hurried over with food and ale. Robert dug in and said, ‘I think we’re going to have a bit of fun tonight.’

      Roo said, ‘Fun?’

      ‘Well, if I can judge the Duke,’ said de Loungville, ‘I think he’s going to come to the conclusion that there’s been just a little too much killing going on of late, and it’s time to do something about it.’

      ‘Do what?’ asked Duncan. ‘The Mockers have been in control of parts of this city since … since before I was born, I know that much.’

      Robert said, ‘True, but then, there’s never been a Duke of Krondor like Lord James, that’s also a fact.’ He smiled and bit into a cold joint of mutton. Speaking around the mouthful, he said, ‘Better stoke up your fires, lads. I think we’re going to have a long night ahead of us.’

      Roo asked, ‘Us?’

      Robert