Swords: 06 - The Third Book of Lost Swords - Stonecutter's Story by Fred Saberhagen Read Free Book Online Page A

distance flying scavengers were visible about the place. At closer range tracks in the sand were visible, showing that four-legged beasts had been at the bodies too. Kasimir as he walked closer to the grave saw that a pair of human feet and legs had been partially unearthed by the scavengers and gnawed down to the bones. He opened the pouch at his belt containing things of magic, and began to prepare a minor spell to help disperse the odors of death and decay.
           The first body unearthed by the soldiers was naturally the least deeply buried, the one with the gnawed feet, that proved to be clad only in a dirty loincloth. Undoubtedly, Kasimir thought as he began to brush the last dirt away from the inert form with a tuft of weeds, it was that of a quarry worker. In this dry heat, decay might be expected to move slowly; a few whip-scars, not all of them fully healed, were still perfectly visible on the skin of the back. The head had been badly injured, perhaps by falling rock, so that not even a close relative would have been able to recognize the face.
           Kasimir was about to ask what else there was to look for when Wen Chang, who had squatted down beside him, grabbed the body by an arm and turned it over. A moment later the Magistrate nodded minimally and let out a tiny hiss of satisfaction.
           It still took the physician a moment longer to take notice of the thin, dry-lipped blade wound entering between the ribs. If that wound had any depth to it at all, the edged weapon that made it must have found the heart, or come very close to it.
           The physician nodded in acknowledgment.
           The Magistrate stood up, and with an economical gesture ordered the first body dragged to one side. “Keep digging!” he commanded, and the soldiers did.
           In only a few moments a second body, which had been buried right under the first, had come into view. Again the only garment was a loincloth. The back of this man had also been permanently marked with the lash, and his head too had been virtually destroyed, by some savage impact that had well-nigh obliterated his face.
           This time Kasimir was the first to discover blade wounds; there were two of them in this corpse’s back, and they might have been made by the same weapon as the wound in the first man’s chest.
           Wen Chang, showing little reaction to this discovery, stood with hands clasped behind his back, nodding to himself. “Keep digging, men,” he ordered mildly.
           The third corpse, found almost exactly under the second, was paler of skin than the first two, and showed no visible evidence of beatings. As if, thought Kasimir, this was not the body of a quarry laborer at all—though who else would be buried here? But the third body like the first two was clad only in a single dirty rag around the loins.
           The face of the third man also had been obliterated, in a way that might be the result of the impact of heavy rocks. And there, under his left arm, was the entry wound of what might have been a sword.
           Wen Chang lifted one of the limp arms, relaxed past rigor now, looked at the hand, and let the arm fall back. “A somewhat unusual accident,” he commented dryly. “Three men killed in virtually the same way. I suppose that a number of very sharp objects, as well as heavy ones, fell upon them as they were laboring in the quarry?”
           Umar had been hovering nervously near the resurrection party, alternately approaching and retreating, and Kasimir could not have said whether the foreman was aware of the discovery of the blade wounds or not.
           However that might be, Umar chose not to understand the Magistrate’s comment. “You see? These are just dead prisoners, we have them all the time. Who are you looking for? I will summon all my workers to stand inspection for you if you like. Maybe the man or men you want can be found among