Jimmy the Hand (29 page)

Jarvis shook his
head. ‘They’re all like that,’ he said to Jimmy.
‘Everyone thinks it’s fun to play practical jokes on a
beginner.’

The fellow
shrugged again, and showed strong yellow teeth much like those of his
charges. ‘Life’s dull,’ he said, ‘y’have
to make your entertainment when ye can.’

Jimmy glared at
him. ‘Do you like gratuities?’ he asked, pulling a silver
piece out of his belt.

‘Huh?’
asked the lackey.

Switching to
street vernacular, Jimmy said, ‘You like tips?’

The man’s
grin broadened. ‘Certs!’

Putting the coin
away, Jimmy said, ‘Then find your entertainment somewhere
else.’

Coe laughed.
‘Let’s go,’ he said and turned his horse.

But Jimmy could
tell, even before they left the yard, that his horse had a sense of
humour much like the lackey.

Suddenly,
he thought,
everyone I meet is a character. Gods, when will I be
able to go home to Krondor?
By the time they passed the last
booth at the edge of the market, his arse was already sore.
It
can’t be soon enough,
he thought.

They still
weren’t out of traffic—everything from a herd of sheep
being driven in toward town, to wagons heading out, and more
pedestrians trudging along beside the dusty white ribbon of highway
that snaked off to the north; a faint hint of the ocean came on the
breeze, and the occasional trees showed the direction of the
prevailing wind by the way they leaned to the right. Dust got into
his teeth, kicked up by feet and hooves and wheels. The deep ruts
showed that mud was probably worse.

Jimmy coughed
and shifted uncomfortably and the horse decided that meant it should
take off at a trot, and nothing he could do or say thereafter would
change its mind. Coe came up beside him, obviously trying not to
laugh. ‘Sit back,’ he said. ‘Don’t yank on
the reins, as that will only irritate it. Tug once as you sit back,
then release the pressure. If it doesn’t stop, tug again.’

Jimmy sat back,
shifting his weight to the rear of the saddle.

The horse
hesitated, as if uncertain what its rider wanted, but after a couple
of steps, it slowed, then stopped.

Coe’s
horse made as if to nip it and Coe handily yanked the beast’s
head away.

Jimmy gasped
out: ‘Thank you.’
It’s stupid to be afraid of
falling off this thing!
he thought, rubbing at a rib where the
hilt of his sword had thumped him painfully.
I’ve jumped
down from far higher roofs!

‘You
really don’t know how to ride, do you?’ Coe said.

The young thief
shook his head. ‘I’ve never left Krondor before,’
he said. ‘And there I had no need of riding.’ He made a
wry face. ‘I’ve seen it done often enough and it looked
so easy. I was sure I could manage it.’

Coe gave a cough
that sounded suspiciously like a muffled laugh. ‘Well, for
starters, you see that loop in front of your left knee? You can slide
the scabbard of your sword through it. Until you’ve ridden a
little more, having it loose at your side can be dangerous.’

Jimmy slid
Prince Arutha’s gift from his belt-sling and through the loop
and the sheath settled firmly.

‘Riding’s
more like dancing than just sitting down on the animal. You’re
quick and strong, though, it shouldn’t be too hard. Just
remember that the horse’s back is going up and down whenever
it’s moving. The faster it goes, the faster the movement.
That’s why you grip—so you don’t bounce up and down
even harder. Use your knees like springs—as if you were jumping
down from a height . . .’

All right,
I’ll try that,
Jimmy thought: he was reminded of the way
Prince Arutha had shown him the sword. He was immediately aware that
the mare was more relaxed.
Which makes one of us,
he thought
bitterly.

‘Now
remember that the horse can feel what you want it to do. If you
squeeze tighter with your thighs and lean forward, it knows you want
to go faster. If you lean back, it knows you want to stop. Try
turning it by pressing one knee, touching the rein to the same side
of its neck, and leaning a little forward and in the way you want to
go—just a little, more a matter of shifting your balance than
moving—you only pull on the bit when you need to shout. Right,
that’s good. Now—’

‘This is
pretty tiring,’ Jimmy said after a few minutes.

‘That’s
probably because you’re too tense,’ Coe said. ‘And
you’re using muscles you haven’t used before. Don’t
worry, it gets easier with experience.’

‘I hope we
don’t have far to go,’ Jimmy muttered.

Coe did laugh at
that. ‘Look at the bright side; you’ll cover more ground
on horseback.’

‘I just
won’t be able to walk at the end of it.’

‘You’re
young and fit, Jimmy; it’ll pass quickly.’ Coe moved a
little ahead and said nothing else for a time, leaving Jimmy to sort
himself out. After he and the horse had come to an understanding
Jimmy rode forward until he was by the older man’s side.

Jimmy felt
discomfort in his legs, but nothing compared to the discomfort he
felt about Coe and his relationship to the men they were following.
Acting casual, he asked, ‘These men you’re looking for,
they’re friends of yours?’

Coe shook his
head. ‘No. I just think they might have some information I
need.’ He turned to look at Jimmy. ‘And you?’

The young Mocker
distinctly remembered telling him that he was going to meet some
friends. Evidently he hadn’t been believed.
I was going to
have to tell him the truth sooner or later. Might as well tell him
now.
‘Truth is,’ he said cautiously, ‘I’ve
never even seen them.’

‘Correspondents
are you?’ Coe asked, grinning.

Jimmy didn’t
even smile. Instead, he shook his head. ‘No, sir. It’s
like this: Flora and I met this girl, a farm-girl just come into the
city looking for her brother. She’s hurt and can’t go
anywhere and she says these men took her brother from her family’s
steading. She asked me to go get him back.’

‘Just like
that?’ Coe asked. He looked genuinely astonished. ‘It’s
very generous of you, Master Jimmy, but how were you planning to
persuade them to give the boy up?’

‘First I
needed a horse,’ the young thief replied, ‘so I was
concentrating on that problem when you appeared. And the horse
problem got resolved so quickly, well . . .’ Jimmy hesitated.
‘Truth is, I hadn’t actually planned that far ahead.’

Coe chuckled.
‘Well, isn’t this something?’ He shook his head,
then said, ‘We seem to be following the same two men. They are
very, very dangerous.’

Jimmy tried to
sound confident. ‘I’ve had dealings with dangerous men
before.’

Coe looked at
Jimmy and there was no humour in his expression. ‘This is no
lark, boy. So if you’ve any notions of doing heroic deeds with
no one getting hurt I suggest you turn that beast around right now
and hie yourself back to Land’s End. Because that’s not
the way things will happen. These two have information I need, and
they will probably be disinclined to give it freely. I expect blood
will flow before we’re through. And since I don’t want
you disturbing my plans I must insist that I be in charge. Because I
do have a plan and I’m going to assume I’m also more
experienced in this sort of thing. Follow my instructions, and we’ll
try very hard to ensure that the blood which flows isn’t ours.
Are we agreed?’

Jimmy sat
silently, then he laughed. ‘I can’t begin to tell you how
relieved I am to be with someone who has a plan. Because I was talked
into this much against my better judgment and have no idea of what
I’m doing.’ He let out a theatrical sigh of relief. ‘So
what are we going to do?’

If the older man
was taken aback by Jimmy’s practical enthusiasm he hid it
behind an unmistakable expression of pure doubt. Then he sighed and
picked up the pace. ‘First,’ he said, ‘we must find
them.’

Two men crested
the rise.

They rode into
sight as they reached the summit of the next hill. Jimmy pointed them
out, then turned to see Coe’s reaction. His companion wore a
startled, unhappy expression, as though someone had just dumped
something cold and slimy down between his collar and his skin.

Jimmy frowned,
forgetting the areas he felt like rubbing at the moment. Which were
many. ‘What’s wrong?’

Jarvis rubbed a
spot on his chest, then grabbed something beneath the cloth of his
shirt and pulled it away from his body. They’d been riding
since mid-morning, about five hours or so as well as Jimmy could
judge; he didn’t realize how used he was to the shadows of the
city telling him what time it was. They hadn’t stopped to rest
the horses either, and the animals appeared to Jimmy’s
untrained eye to be no less fatigued than his legs and backside were.
Moreover, Jarvis Coe hadn’t proven talkative along the way, and
Jimmy was still a little vague on what it was they were going to
accomplish once they got wherever they were going. He returned his
attention to Coe, who still stared at the two men on the next rise.

‘Master
Coe?’ Jimmy prompted.

The man’s
eyes moved and he stared at Jimmy’s face, but it was a moment
before they seemed to actually see him. ‘There’s a wicked
feeling about this place,’ he said.

Jimmy looked
around: there was a copse of trees to the right, fields to the left
and up ahead, a slight rise in the land with a jut of rock around
which the road wound and which now hid their quarry. A peasant was
working in the field, taking something out of a sack and throwing it
on the lumpy ploughed land. He shook his head. ‘Seems ordinary
enough to me.’

Coe looked at
him sideways, still clutching whatever it was he wore beneath his
shirt. Then he shrugged. ‘Perhaps I’m mistaken. Just a
feeling after all.’ He gave his head a hard shake and blinked
his eyes. ‘Was there something you wanted?’

All right,
Jimmy thought. He’d had ‘feelings’ of his own a
time or two.
Time to get careful. Maybe my bump of trouble doesn’t
work outside the city, and Jarvis Coe’s does.
‘I saw
two men riding up ahead,’ he said aloud.

‘Then
let’s try to catch up to them.’ Coe trotted ahead. When
Jimmy caught up to him the older man looked over at him. ‘Do
you have a weapon besides the sword?’ he asked.

‘My
knife,’ Jimmy said, his voice implying a shrug he couldn’t
manage at a trot.

‘Lag
behind me as I catch them up. I’ll tell them I need directions
to Land’s End. When they tell me it’s behind us I’ll
berate you for getting the innkeeper’s directions wrong.’

Jimmy grimaced
and Coe said, ‘What’s wrong?’

‘It’s
a little hard to miss Land’s End from the road if you think
about it.’

Coe tried not to
laugh. ‘I was never very good at subterfuge on my feet. What do
you suggest?’

‘Just ask
if they mind if we travel along, in case of highwaymen. That should
distract them, even if they say “no”.’

‘Very
well. We ride up together. I’ll hale them and start talking
while you look for the boy, if you can get close enough, grab him and
run. I’ll take care of the rest. Understood?’

‘Yes,’
the young Mocker said. It seemed a reasonable enough plan. ‘If
it’s them they must have been dragging their heels for us to
catch up to them when they left so long before us.’

Coe didn’t
answer, but then he didn’t need to: Jimmy was self-evidently
correct. When they made the turn around the low hill they found the
two men, their horses at a standstill, apparently having an argument.
The smaller man had a bulky sack tied onto his horse behind the
saddle, but there was no sign of a child. The two men looked back at
them and their horses began to prance nervously.

‘Excuse
me, sirs,’ Jarvis called out. ‘Could you spare a moment,
please?’

The two men
looked at one another and shortened their reins; then, before Jimmy
could catch up to Coe, they set heels hard to their horses’
sides and took off down the road as though pursued by demons.

‘Well that
certainly looks guilty,’ Jimmy muttered.

Coe didn’t
hear him; he’d whipped his horse after the two men as soon as
they’d started off. It was a chase they had no hope of winning,
for their horses were hardly as fresh as the kidnappers’.
They’d been riding steady, while the two men had apparently
dawdled along with many a rest, for Jarvis and Jimmy to have
overtaken them so soon.

Still, we
have to try, and we might get lucky.

Jimmy clapped
his heels into the horse’s sides. It took off after the other
man’s mount: horses were obviously gang-minded, Jimmy decided.
He could feel the power of the gait, the thunder of hooves and the
rushing speed, faster than anything he’d experienced before—and
the hammering of the saddle against his abused hams. Jimmy flapped
his elbows like a chicken, but he had almost supernatural balance,
and managed to get into the rhythm of the horse’s gait without
difficulty. He had the odd notion that he had no idea what to do if
the horse decided to stop suddenly; Jarvis hadn’t mentioned how
to ride at a gallop and he genuinely had no idea of what to do to
slow the animal. The saddle was slamming him hard in the arse and his
teeth were rattling. He put his heels down, as Coe had reminded him
several times during the day, and stood up in the stirrups. Suddenly,
his teeth stopped rattling and his head stopped bouncing enough to
have a clear view ahead.
Ah ha!
he said silently,
that’s
how you do it!
He let his knees flex and his legs and hips rolled
with the horse’s gait, while his upper body remained relatively
level with the road.

For a giddy
moment, Jimmy thought,
this riding business isn’t so bad if
you keep your wits about you.
Then the horse decided it was tired
of running, and it was only Jimmy’s uncanny reflexes and
superior sense of balance that kept him from launching from the
horse’s back, landing on the hardpan road with painful
consequences. As it was, he ended up in front of the saddle, hugging
the animal’s neck. The horse seemed irritated by the unexpected
display of affection and with a snort began to trot, returning Jimmy
to the teeth-rattling again.