The Stricken Field Read Online Free Page A

conversing across dwarves and vice versa, not to one another. Language was part of the problem, but distrust was playing a part, also. Again she wondered how long this unlikely coalition could survive.
    Gods, but she was tired! Every bone ached. Six days in the saddle!
    Eventually the diners began tossing their discards into the embers. She copied them with relief. Then she licked and wiped her forgers as best she could and waited for the greater ordeal to begin.
    She wished she could see Gath more clearly. Being an hour or two ahead of her, he could give her hints, were the fire not between them. Sometime soon she was going to be asked what her mission was. To confess that she had blundered into this disaster by sheer accident would leave her very little status to bargain with.
    At last Death Bird belched and threw away his bone. He shot an unfriendly glance past her at Karax. "Start entertainment?"
    The dwarf scowled as only dwarves could. "Just two." "Was agreed, two." Death Bird spoke in goblin. He could manage fair impish when he chose, although he still had the jotunn accent he had picked up years ago from Thane Kalkor's crew.
    "But first I want to hear from Queen Inosolan," Karax said.
    The goblin shrugged his enormous shoulders. "Speak, woman. Why here?"
    Inos drew a deep breath. She decided to stick to the truth as far as she could. If she tried lying and was disbelieved, then her later efforts to save Shandie would be made more difficult. "Your Majesty ... your Excellency ... I thought I was here by accident, but now I suspect otherwise." She could address only one at a time, and watch only one face at a time.
    "Tell where Rap!" Death Bird demanded, in no mood to listen to speeches.
    "He went to Hub." "When?"
    "Three months ago, or more."
    "Why?"
    Inos turned to the dwarf. "My husband is a sorcerer." "I know."
    "He spoke with a God. He was given a warning to pass on to the Impire. And he himself foresaw a great disaster." Death Bird chuckled coarsely and switched to impish. "His warning was not believed then."
    "Not you. Not this. The danger is occult, and it threatens goblins and dwarves just as much as the Impire."
    The goblin grunted skeptically. "He told me. This is old news, Inosolan."
    "But perhaps still timely. The millennium has not come yet."
    "Never mind the sorcerer," Karax rumbled. "Stop evading the question. Why are you here?"
    "There is a magic portal between my kingdom and the house at Kinvale. I came through and was captured by Death Bird's troops."
    The Dwarf cleared his throat harshly and spat toward the fire. "That's all? Then you are a blundering fool. Your loyalty is to the Impire. You are spies, or will be if you get the chance. We should kill the boy now, then give you and your daughter to the troops."
    Inos hoped that was merely an initial bargaining position, although dwarves were notoriously suspicious and untrusting. She turned her head to study Death Bird's reaction. "My husband was a good friend to you once."
    "Long ago. For him I spared your town many times, when my young men wanted it for sport. What happened to Quiet Stalker?" His angular eyes glinted with cold anger.
    "He tried to rape my daughter. A sorcerer's daughter. That was unwise."
    The goblin showed his white tusks, but he did not seem to be smiling. "No, he didn't. Your son gave him the girl for the night to seal a treaty. So it was not rape! Your son knew she bore an occult sword, one that cannot be seen unless she wishes it to be seen. He is a cheat and a murderer." Inos's heart was beating much too fast now. She could feel sweat streaming down her face, and that was not all due to the heat of the fire. "He did not promise she would submit. The condition was that your nephew could subdue the girl. He failed."
    "Against an unmentioned sorcery. Perhaps we should try another man or two, without the sword?"
    She faced the threat as defiantly as she could manage, clenching her fists. "Rap is a sorcerer, as you well know. If any