The Eyes of the Dragon

88

The two old men parted from Dennis. They shook hands all around; then Dennis kissed the judge’s ring, which bore the Great Seal of Delain on its face. Peyna had given up his judge-General’s bench, but had not been able to part with the ring, which to him summed up all the goodness of the law. He knew he had made mistakes from time to time, but he had not allowed them to break his heart. Even over this last and greatest of mistakes, his heart did not break. He knew as well as we in our own world do that the road to hell is paved with good intentions-but he also knew that, for human beings, good intentions are sometimes all there are. Angels may be safe from damnation, but human beings are less fortunate things, and for them hell is always close.

He protested Dennis’s act of kissing his ring, but Dennis insisted. Then Arlen shook Dennis’s hand and wished him speed o’ the gods. Smiling (but Peyna could still see the fear lurking in Dennis’s eyes), Dennis wished them the same. Then the young butler turned east, toward the castle, and the two old men headed west, toward the farmstead of one Charles Reechul. Reechul, who raised Anduan huskies for a living, paid the grinding taxes the King had imposed without complaint, and was thus considered loyal… but Peyna knew that Reechul was sympathetic to the exiles encamped in the Far Forests, and had helped others reach them. Peyna had never expected to need Reechul’s services himself, but the time had come.

The farmer’s eldest daughter, Naomi, drove Peyna and Arlen north on a sled pulled by twelve of the dogger’s strongest huskies. By Wednesday night, they reached the edge of the Far Forests.

“How long to the camp of the exiles?” Peyna asked Naomi that night.

Naomi cast the thin, evil-smelling cigar she had been smoking into the fire. “Two more day if the skies keep fair. Four more days if it snows. Maybe never, if it blizzards.”

Peyna turned in. He drifted off to sleep almost at once. Logic or illogic, he was sleeping better than he had in years.

The weather kept clear the next day, and on Friday as well. At dusk of that day-the fourth since Peyna and Arlen had parted from Dennis-they reached the small huddle of tents and makeshift wooden huts for which Flagg had searched in vain.

“Ho! Who comes, and can you say the password?” a voice called. It was strong, sturdy, cheerful, and unafraid. Peyna recognized it.

“It’s Naomi Reechul,” the girl called, “and the password two weeks ago was ‘tripos.’ If it’s not that now, Ben Staad, then put an arrow through me and I’ll come back and haunt you!”

Ben appeared from behind a rock, laughing. “I’d not dare meet you as a ghost, Naomi-you’re fearsome enough “live!”

Ignoring this, she turned to Peyna. “We’ve come,” she said.

“Yes,” Peyna said. “So I see.”

And I believe it’s well that we have… because something tells me that time has grown short… very short indeed.