The Lions of Al-Rassan by Guy Gavriel Kay Read Free Book Online Page B

lad.”
    Alvar grinned back. “He did caution me at times, my lord. Yes.”
    “Cautioned?”
    Alvar nodded. “Well, in fairness, I don’t know what more he—”
    Alvar was not a small man, and there had been nothing easy about life on a northern farm, and even less that was conducive to softness during a year of service with the king’s army in Esteren. He was strong and quick, and a good rider. Nonetheless, the fist he never saw coming hit the side of his head like a hammer and sent him flying from his horse into the grass as if he’d been a child.
    Alvar struggled quickly to a sitting position, spitting blood. One hand went feebly to his jaw, which felt as if it might be broken. It had happened: his father’s warning had just come true. His imbecilic habit of speaking whatever he thought had just cost him the opportunity any young soldier would die for. Rodrigo Belmonte had opened a door for him, and Alvar, swaggering through like the fool he was, had just fallen on his face. Or on his elbow and backside, actually.
    Holding a hand to his face, Alvar looked up at his Captain. A short distance away the company had come to a halt and was regarding the two of them.
    “I’ve had to do that to my sons, too, once or twice,” Rodrigo said. He was, improbably, still looking amused. “I’ll doubtless have to do it for a few years yet. Third lesson now, Alvar de Pellino. Sometimes it is wrong to hide as you did by the wagon. Sometimes it is equally wrong to push your ideas forward before they are complete. Take a little longer to be so sure of yourself. You’ll have some time to think about this while we ride. And while you are doing so, you might consider whether an unauthorized raid in Al-Rassan by a band of Garcia de Rada’s cronies playing outlaw might take this affair out of the realm of a private feud and into something else. I am an officer of the king of Valledo, and while you are in this company, so are you. The constable attempted to suborn me from my duty to the king with a threat. Is that a private matter, my young philosopher?”
    “By the god’s balls, Rodrigo!” came an unmistakable voice, approaching from the head of the column, “What did Pellino’s brat do to deserve that?”
    Ser Rodrigo turned to look at Laín Nunez trotting his horse over toward them. “Called me selfish and unfair to my men. Guilty of exploiting them in my private affairs.”
    “That all?” Laín spat into the grass. “His father said a lot worse to me in our day.”
    “Really?” The Captain seemed surprised. “De Rada just said he was famous for his discretion.”
    “Horsepiss,” said Laín Nunez succinctly. “Why would you believe anything a de Rada said? Pellino de Damon had an opinion about anything and everything under the god’s sun. Drove me near crazy, he did. I had to put up with it until I wangled him a promotion to commanding a fort by the no-man’s-land. I was never as happy in my life as when I saw his backside on a horse going away from me.”
    Alvar goggled up at both of them; his jaw would have dropped if it hadn’t hurt so much. He was too stunned to even get up from the grass. For most of his life his quiet, patient father had been gently chiding him against the evils of being too outspoken.
    “You,” Ser Rodrigo was saying, grinning at the veteran soldier beside him, “are as full of horsepiss as any de Rada I’ve ever met.”
    “That, I’ll tell you, is a deadly insult,” Laín Nunez rasped, the seamed and wizened face assuming an expression of fierce outrage.
    Rodrigo laughed aloud. “You loved this man’s father like a brother. You’ve been telling me that for years. You picked his son yourself for this ride. Do you want to deny it?”
    “I will deny anything I have to,” his lieutenant said sturdily. “But if Pellino’s boy has already driven you to a blow I might have made a terrible mistake.” They both looked down at Alvar, shaking their heads slowly.
    “It may well be that