Page 40 of The Summer Pass

“You’re really all right, are you?”

Lill frowned at him. What was that about?

“It’s just you got this look about you, when we were in the gate tower shooting at those men. I expected you to get shaky, maybe throw up—that’s how it took me the first few times I was in a real fight. But you got a funny look—I dunno what to call it. Like you were somewhere else in your head.”

“Did I?” Lill tried to speak lightly. He glanced up the hill toward the forge, impatient. “That happens sometimes.”

“I’m not bad with a bow,” Firuduna went on, and Lill didn’t contradict him, “but I was hitting a lot of shields. I know for certain I only killed one man today. There were eight dead men down there with arrows in them.”

Lill shrugged. “I’m not bad with a bow either.”

He took off toward the forge and was halfway there when it occurred to him that he was wasting an opportunity that he could ill afford to waste. Firuduna could help him get inside Tagra Degra; he’d lived in the Summer Pass all his life and must know all sorts of useful things about the terrain. But if he was going to help, he’d first need to be convinced that the mission was within Lill’s capabilities. Now might be the best moment to convince him. He had seen Lill in combat and must have realized Lill had been trained somewhere; if Lill admitted where, he could also explain that he knew how to do other things besides shoot.

It needn’t be any more than that. For instance, he needn’t give the full explanation that he had, in an unguarded moment, given to Zaraz. That wouldn’t make Firuduna look at him with lingering fear in his eyes, the way Zaraz did, but it certainly wouldn’t go over well. Lill turned around and retraced his steps, nerving himself to tell a piece of the truth about himself yet again.

It took two days of reconnaissance around Tagra Degra for Lill to find a way in. It could have taken much longer, but he had a piece of luck on the afternoon of the second day. He explained it to Firuduna that evening as they sat at the camp they’d set up in the woods to the west of the fortress.

“There’s a way to climb up the rocks on the north side and reach that section of wall right under the peak that’s barely guarded.”

Firuduna looked sceptical.

“I was keeping an eye on the area because it seemed the likeliest to me—they don’t guard it properly because they’re counting on the natural difficulty of the terrain. But I saw a soldier from the fortress climb down and back up. I had a good view from where I was hiding. He’d dropped a helmet from the wall—one of those bronze, western-style ones—and it rolled down to a ledge that I climbed to yesterday. I watched him go out the postern gate and climb down all the way to the ledge and back up. I could see the route clearly.”

“You won’t be able to see it clearly after dark,” Firuduna pointed out.

“No,” Lill agreed, and then realized this was being proposed as a reason not to attempt the climb, not just a difficulty to overcome. “I can still do it.”

“What about the postern gate? How are you going to get in there?”

Lill wondered for a moment if he was joking. “I’m not. I’ll go over the wall.”

Firuduna’s face twisted with displeasure. “How much experience do you have climbing mountains?”

“More than I had the day before yesterday. But I have lots of experience climbing walls. So long as I don’t have to carry anything heavy, I’m quite good at it.”

He was getting over the feeling that he’d had at first of Firuduna being one of the masters to whom he was reporting about the outcome of a reconnaissance mission. He could express pride in his skill without being afraid of the consequences.

“I know I don’t look like I have muscles,” he added, smiling, “but I do.”

Firuduna looked uncomfortable. “I don’t know if I’d say you look like you don’t have muscles. It’s just … all right, you’re a crack archer. You did that thing with the bridge—climbed underneath or whatever⁠—”

“I couldn’t have done that if you weren’t distracting the guards,” Lill offered. It was probably true.

“Sure. And you can climb walls—I guess I believe that. I daresay it wouldn’t do much good to ask what else you can do—maybe it would be easier to ask what you can’t do?”

“I’m a terrible wrestler,” Lill answered immediately.

Firuduna exploded with laughter.

“Your help was invaluable,” Lill went on, when Firuduna had calmed down. “The places you suggested I go to get a good look at the walls—you saved me a great deal of time. Perhaps you have some suggestions for me about climbing the mountain?”

“I want to see this route,” said Firuduna, folding his arms and looking as if he was prepared for an argument.

“Well, it’s dark … ”

“I want to see it tomorrow morning,” Firuduna clarified.

“Right,” said Lill, and didn’t mention that he’d been hoping to set off that night. “Tomorrow morning.”