The Summer of the Swordsman

Chapter XVIII

Our interview with Garius was slightly less spectacular. Anakreon, Quinquius and I were ushered into the Prince's presence minus our arms, plus about twelve guards armed to the teeth. They hadn't checked too thoroughly, because I still had a dagger in my boot and Anakreon still had the two knives he keeps up his sleeves as well. I don't know where Quinquius hides his two extra knives, but they hadn't been taken either, that I had seen, so we were in pretty good shape, though outnumbered. We were in a large room in a private house, and the door had a stout latch that could be dropped in a pinch, effectively blocking entrance to the room. There weren't many guards between Garius and myself, and I could probably break through, I decided, and give him something to worry about if things got nasty.

Garius, Prince of Eripuse, wasn't as I had imagined him to be. Rulers of his sort generally tend to be dissipated . But Garius had the build and the face of a fighter, and he was younger than I had expected. He looked like a statue of Apollo that I had once seen in Artanis. He had the golden curls of a god, and the coldest, bluest eyes I had ever seen. He bent his glacial gaze on us when we first came in, and it didn't waver one fraction of an inch while we were before him.

Anakreon can be glacial too when the spirit moves him, and that day the spirit moved him. He put his hands on his hips, infinitesimally inclined his head, and waited.

"You are late," Garius said, and his voice was deep and menacing.

"I'm aware of that," Anakreon said. "It was necessary."

"Indeed?"

"Indeed." Anakreon's brows lowered and his voice was every bit as soft as Garius'.

There was silence for a moment. I began to cough, and Garius turned his eyes, bleak as blue glass, to me. "And you," he said. "Why were you late?"

Anakreon's brows lowered still further. "He travels with me," he answered, "And he isn't to be insulted by you or anyone else. That goes for all my men."

Garius' mobile lips curled in a faint sneer, but he turned away from me and eyed Quinquius. "And you are late, too, Roman," he said.

Quinquius was a great patrician from Rome, and it showed as he answered with the bored condescension used in addressing a presumptuous parvenu. "I believe that's been established, Eripusian," he said, and directed his attention to Anakreon.

Garius dismissed Quinquius with a motion of his fingers and returned his attention to Anakreon. "I have waited an entire summer to engage your services," he said. "I've offered honorable terms, excellent pay, and exorbitant security, which you have accepted‑‑"

"The gold is there to the last coin," Anakreon reminded him. "Ask your lackey."

"You will address me as 'Highness'," Garius said.

"And you will do the same with me," Anakreon returned. They locked gazes for a good long time until I cleared my throat.

Garius blinked, cast a cold eye at me, and said, "Well. So you want to leave my service."

"I wasn't aware that we had ever consented to be in your service," Anakreon said.

Garius raised his eyebrows. "You took the money," he reminded us.

"That, if you recall, pledged us to discuss terms with you. I have come here in good faith, but your conduct doesn't make me anxious to fight for you. I have returned the money and there is no contract now."

"I think I could force one," Garius said, motioning to three of his men. "A hostage is a handy thing to have‑‑" he nodded toward me.

The men seized me before I could move. One set his sword to my throat, and the other two laid the points of their swords against my neck and my back. I rolled an eye at Anakreon.