Page 44 of Something Human

“What happened?” Suthus asked, from the other side of the headman. Gunthanaruth was calling for a servant to bring food and drink for Rus. “Kaman told me you came to him with a poisoned arrow in you. He said he wouldn’t draw it because he had no way of healing the poison. We looked for your body on the field, but … ”

“But it wasn’t there,” Rus supplied. “I was still using it.”

Suthus chortled. “And I am glad! What an unexpected blessing, to have you back. But how did you survive? And where have you been?”

Here it was: the time to lie. And not only to lie to Gunthanaruth, for whom Rus had little affection, but to Suthus, whom he liked and respected.

“It’s true I took an arrow in the leg.” He shifted his kilt to show the bandage. “And it was poisoned. Or made of poisonous wood, I think, actually. Kaman sent me away with the arrow still in me, and I went out onto the field to see … ah, what I could do, I suppose, in the time I had left.”

Suthus made an approving noise, and Gunthanaruth grunted.

“I found a Phemian soldier who was still alive, but injured too badly to survive, and I did all I could do for him. Then I found another … He had been trapped under an overturned cart, and I dug him out, not knowing if he was a Luth or a Phemian. He was a Phemian, and he was not badly hurt—he was almost uninjured, only he had been trapped by the cart, and would have died there without my help.”

“Ah!” said Suthus eagerly. “I see what must have happened. You spared his life, and in return he gave you the antidote to the Phemian poison!”

Gunthanaruth made a face as if he had eaten something rotten. “You insult him, Suthus. You think he spared the life of an enemy, on the battlefield?”

“The battle was won,” Suthus offered, but he looked uncertain.

“I did spare his life. As my lord Suthus says, he offered me the antidote for the poisonous wood. It was a bargain—my life for his.” The lie would have had to begin somewhere, Rus thought. So here was where it began.

He remembered that moment, his first glimpse of Adares. He had always intended to spare the man, whoever he was—to let him go, if he could, or to give him a merciful death if he was beyond help. He wouldn’t have bothered to dig under the cart or lift the heavy wood if he hadn’t intended that. When he saw the face of the man he had rescued, he thought it was a final blessing from the gods, that he should have used his remaining strength to return such a person to the world.

“He said that the Phemian priests keep antidotes to many poisons in their holy place, and he told me how to find the one I needed. That is where I have been since.” He pointed into the gloom in the direction of the temple complex. “I was some time recovering—maybe I didn’t mix the antidote correctly—but I explored the buildings when I was well enough. There was not much to find. I think they had been evacuated before we arrived. I was about to return to camp when some of Gundurus’s men came into the holy place with horses—”

“What?” Gunthanaruth cut him off. “Whose horses?”

“Gundurus’s horses,” Suthus supplied helpfully. “I suppose.”

Rus had known this part of the story was going to prove distracting to the headman, but there was no way of accounting for why he had ridden off into the forest without it.

“They said they had orders from Gundurus to pen the horses in the Phemian holy place,” he explained patiently. It was quite true. “I don’t know why. But they also told me a bull had broken lose and was in the forest nearby. My bull, they said.”

“Eh?” Gunthanaruth’s mind was obviously still on the horses. “That’s true, we did lose one of them.”

“They should all have been slaughtered, as is proper,” Suthus put in mildly. “We will not need them again on this campaign.”

“We may need them,” Gunthanaruth said. “But these horses—”

“Let him finish his story,” Suthus suggested.

Gunthanaruth grunted assent, and Rus went on: “I felt it my duty to pursue the bull in the woods—”

“Ah, no!” Suthus threw up his hands. “I mean—yes, in a strict sense, and it does you credit, Rusanarath—but alone, and injured? You didn’t, did you?”

“Let him finish his story,” said Gunthanaruth sardonically.

“I—” Rus cleared his throat. “I did ride out into the forest. I did meet the bull, and I killed him.”

“Good lad,” said Gunthanaruth. “These horses of Gundurus’s—how many did you say there were?”

“Perhaps two dozen, my lord. But there is one more thing. While I was riding in the forest, I saw the Daine camped in a valley.”

That got Gunthanaruth’s attention at last. “Ah, yes? How far off, would you say?”

“Twelve miles. Maybe less, but the terrain is rough. I rode down as close as I dared, and I came upon a pair of their outriders without being seen, and overheard their talk. I think—from what they said, I believe they intend to attack before dawn tomorrow.”

“Do they indeed? Well, they will find us ready. This is fine work you’ve done, Rusanarath. Fine work indeed.”