Bitter Gold Hearts (7 page)

“Has he had his rites?”

“I don’t know, Father.”

“What gods did he have?”

I put temptation aside. “None that I know about. But we don’t need sacraments. This is a life watch, not a deathwatch. He’s going to make it.”

The priest checked the name chalked on the wall above the head of Saucer head’s cot. “I’ll say a prayer for him.” Small smile. “It never hurts, even with a sure thing.” He went on to those who needed him more, leaving me with the suspicion I had been one-upped.

Saucer head must have been awake awhile before he let us know. His first remark, a hoarse croak, was, “Garrett, remind me to stay the hell away from your women.”

I grunted and waited.

“Getting that one out of the Cantard got me half killed. I thought this one did me all the way.”

“Yeah. What the hell did you come
here
for? If you had go-power enough to make it this far, you could have got yourself to somebody who could have done you some good.”

“I was born here, Garrett. I had it in my head I was done for and it seemed right it should end up where it started. I guess I wasn’t thinking too good.”

“Yeah. You big dumb goof. Well, you’re going to make it in spite of yourself and these jackals. You got enough energy to tell me what happened?”

“Yeah.” His face darkened.

“So? What happened?”

“She’s dead, Garrett! They killed her. I got five or six of them but they was too many and they got past me and cut her...” And he started by god getting up off that cot.

“Hold him down, Morley. What the hell are you doing,

Saucer head?”

“I got to go. I never blowed a job like that before, Garrett. Never.”

Morley put him back down with one hand. Saucer head was running on spirit alone.

There were tears in his eyes. “She was just a little bit of a thing, Garrett. Sweet as a sugar bun and cute as a button. They shouldn’t ought to have done that to her.”

“You’re right. They shouldn’t have.” Part of me had known the worst all along, but the part that wishes and hopes was just getting the word.

Saucer head tried getting up again. “I got to, Garrett.”

“You got to heal up. I’ll take care of the rest. I’ve got an interest that came before yours. After you give me everything you’ve got, Morley is going to get you out of here and take you wherever you want to stay. And I’m going headhunting.”

Morley gave me a look. He didn’t say anything. He didn’t have to.

“Don’t you start playing devil’s advocate, Morley Dotes, telling me there’s no percentage in getting involved. You’d do the same damned thing even if you dressed it up as something else. Come on, Saucer head. Give it to me. Start from the beginning, the first time you laid eyes on her.”

Saucer head may not be speedy mentally, but his mind gets where it needs to go. And he sees what goes on around him and remembers it.

“The first time I seen her was with you at Morley’s Place. I thought to myself, How come a runt like Morley Dotes or a homely geek like Garrett always comes up with all the jewels?”

“He isn’t dying,” I said. “A sick sense of humor is the first thing that comes back. Imagine. Calling me homely. Never mind that night, Saucer head. When did you see her again?”

“Yesterday afternoon. She tracked me down at my place.”

She found him there and told him that I’d recom­mended him for any body guarding she needed done. She had a thing she wanted to do that night but she was nervous and scared and even though she was sure there would be no trouble, she thought it wouldn’t hurt to have somebody along. Just in case. Just to make her more comfortable. After Saucer head agreed to stick with her until she felt she didn’t need him anymore. She went away until shortly before dusk, when she came back with a small open carriage.

“She have anything with her?”

“Bunch of cases in the back. The kind women stuff with clothes and things. She wasn’t planning on coming back.”

“Uhm. She say anything about what she was doing?”

That was the only time he was a little uncertain about what he ought to tell. He decided I needed everything. “She never said what she was up to. But she was going to meet somebody. And she wasn’t planning on coming back.”

“Then if you hadn’t been along, she would’ve disap­peared and nobody would’ve known what really hap­pened.” Gods. I blind myself with my own brilliance sometimes.

“Yeah. You going to let me tell it? Or should I catch a nap while you’re jacking your jaw?”

“One more thing, then you can get on. Your payment. How and when?”

“Up front. I always make them pay up front... well, I almost made an exception for her. I took every coin she had, and then she was still half a mark short. I forgave her that and told her she should hold out part of the fee so she wouldn’t short herself. But she said there was no problem, and when we got where we were going, I’d get my other half mark and maybe a nice bonus for being such a sweetheart.”

“Yeah. That’s Saucer head Tharpe all over. A real sweetheart. All right. Go on.”

They had moved out in the twilight, Saucer head on horseback behind the carriage. He was lightly armed, but that wasn’t unusual. He preferred to rely on his strength and speed. I didn’t have to ask if he had seen anyone watching or following. He was looking for that and saw nothing. They left the city after dark and headed north at a leisurely pace, not doing any fancy switch backing, not hurrying, and not drawing any special attention. Because he rode behind the buggy most of the way, they didn’t talk much. But there was a three-quarter moon and a clear sky, and he was able to tell she was getting more worried and nervous as the night wore on. She was thoughtful of him and the animals, pausing for several rests.

About three in the morning they came to a woodland crossroad a couple miles from the famous old battle­ground at Litchfield, where some say the old imperial bones still sometimes get up and stalk around in search of the man who betrayed their commander.

As is customary at important crossroads, there was a central grass diamond with its tutelary obelisk. Amiranda stopped next to the obelisk where her team could crop grass. She told Saucer head they would wait there. As soon as the person she was meeting showed, he could head back to TunFaire.

Saucer head dismounted. After working the kinks out he just stood leaning against the buggy, waiting. Amiranda had little to say. An hour dragged past. She became more worried by the minute. Saucer head’s feeble at­tempts to reassure her foundered on his ignorance. She believed her worst fears were coming true. The moon was about to depart the heavens and the east was lightening when Saucer head realized they were no longer alone. An absence of the gossip of birds awak­ening tipped him off. He just had time to warn Amiranda before they charged out of the woods. The moment he saw them he knew they weren’t just road agents.

“There was at least fifteen of them, Garrett. Ogres. Some of them with the pure blood, like you don’t hardly never see no more. They had knives and sharp sticks and clubs and big bones and you could tell they was bent on murder. They was cussing in ogres on account of me being there. They wasn’t expecting me.”

Saucer head wasn’t clear himself on how it went after that, except that he got himself between the ogres and Amiranda, with his back against the buggy, and went to work with a knife and club of his own, and when he lost those, with bare hands and brute strength.

“I killed five or six, but there just ain’t a whole lot any one man can do when he’s outnumbered so bad. They just kept piling on me and hitting and cutting me. That girl, she didn’t have enough sense to run. She tried to fight, too. But they dragged her down and cut on her... I thought I whipped them for a minute ‘cause they all ran off. To the edge of the woods. But then I went down and couldn’t get up again. Couldn’t even move. They thought I was dead. They dragged
me
over and dumped me in the brush, then they dragged everyone else over, then they started going through the girl’s stuff, cussing ‘cause there wasn’t nothing worth nothing, but they squabbled like sparrows over every piece anyway. And not once even thinking about helping their buddies that was hurt.”

Then they heard someone coming. They scurried around cleaning up after themselves, then took off down the road with the buggy and Saucer head’s horse. About that time Saucer head got himself together enough to get on his feet. He found Amiranda, scooped her up, and headed out.

“I wasn’t thinking so good,” he said. “I didn’t want her to be dead so I didn’t believe it. There’s this witch I know that lives about three miles from there, back in the woods. I told myself if I could get the girl to her every­thing would be all right. And you know me. I get my mind set...”

Yeah. I tried to picture it. Saucer head half dead, still bleeding, stumbling through the woods carrying a dead woman. And after that, he walked all the way back to TunFaire so he’d be in the right place when he died. asked a lot of questions then, mostly about the ogres and what they’d said when they’d thought him dead. He hadn’t heard anything I could use. I got directions to the witch’s hut.

Saucer head was getting weaker then, but he was work­ing himself up again. I told him, “You just relax. If I don’t get it straightened out, you can take over when you’re well again. Morley, I want you to get him out of here. Come on. Morley will be back to get you, Saucer head.”

***

Morley finally spoke when we hit the street. “Nasty business.”

“You heard of anybody getting rich since yesterday?”

“No.” He gave me a look.

“Got any contacts in Ogre town?” If you aren’t part ogre, you can’t get the time of day down there. I had a couple of people I knew there but none I knew well enough to get any help on this.

“A few. But not anybody who’ll tell me anything about a deal that has Raver Styx on the other end of it.”

“That’s my problem.”

“You going out there to look around?”

“Maybe tomorrow. Got some loose ends to knot up around here first.”

“Use some company when you go? I’m way behind on my exercise.”

He pretended he was interested in anything but what interested him. “I don’t think so. And somebody has to stay here and keep reminding Saucer head that he’s hurt.”

“It got personal, eh?”

“Very.”

“You be careful out there.”

“Damned right I will. And you keep your ears open. I’m interested in news about ogres and news about any­body with a sudden pocketful of gold.”

We parted. I went home and wrapped myself around a couple gallons of beer.

__XIII__

The dead man’s mood hadn’t soured by the next morning. I got worried. Were we getting to the beginning of the end? I didn’t know enough about the Loghyr to be sure what sort of symptom persistent good humor might be. I told him about Saucer head, leaving out none of the details. “That give you any ideas?”

Several. But you have not given me enough information to form more than one definite opinion.

“A definite one? You? What is it?”

Your little overnight treat was involved up to her cute little ears in the kidnapping of the Stormwarden’s son. If not a part of the conspiracy itself, she did at least have guilty knowledge.

I didn’t argue. I had formed that suspicion myself. It was good to know I had a mind nearly as agile as his, if not so absolute in its decisions. But him being a genius exempts him from the doubts plaguing us mere mortals.

“Would you care to run through your reasoning?”

//
would appear simple and obvious enough for even one of your narrow intellectual focus to unravel.!
gave him a big grin. That was his way of zinging me for having dared entertain overnight in my own home. He couldn’t shake his good humor completely, though. He added,
Troublesome as females are when they step out of their proper roles as connivers, manipulators, gos­sips, backstabbers, and bearers and nurturers of the young, slaughtering them is not an acceptable form of chastise­ment. I urge you to persist in your inquiries, Garrett. With all due caution. I would not care to see you share the woman’s fate. How would I attend the funeral?

“You’re just a sentimental fool, aren’t you?”

Too often too much so for my own welfare.

“Ha! Dirty truth gets caught with its nose sticking out. If I get scrubbed, you might have to get off your mental duff and do some honest geniusing in order to keep a roof over your head.”

/
am an artist, Garrett. I do not
 
—

“And I’m a frog prince under a witch’s spell.”

“Mr. Garrett?”

I turned. Dean was at the door. “What?”

“That woman is here again.”

“The one who was here yesterday?”

“The same.” You would have thought he smelled spoiled onions in his pantry the way his face was puckered.

“Take her into the office. Don’t let her touch you. It might be communicable.” I let him get out of hearing before adding, “You might carry it to your nieces and suddenly have them all turn desirable.”

You ride him too hard, Garrett. He is a sensitive man with an abiding concern for his loved ones.

“I let him get out of hearing, didn’t I?”

/
would not want to lose him.

“Me neither. I’d have to go back to cleaning up after you myself.” I got out then, ignoring him trying to come up with the last word. We could kill a whole day that way. Amber was looking her best and sensed that I saw and felt it. She tried starting up where she left off. I told her, “I’ve decided to find that money for you. I think we’re going to have to stick to business and move damned fast if we want to catch the trail before it’s cold. I did a lot of legwork yesterday, poking under rocks. I came up with a sack full of air. I’m starting to think the whole thing was an out-of-town operation.”

“Garrett!” She wanted to play. But she could accept two hundred thousand marks gold as a good reason for not, for the moment. I figured her for the type who could get hooked on the challenge. That might be my next problem.