The Ruby Knight

interrupted.’
    ‘But I’m hungry.’
    Kurik put his hand threateningly on his belt.
    ‘All right, all right, don’t get excited.’ The boy hurried on up the stairs.
    The tap-room was a bit smoky, and the floor was covered with sawdust and silvery fish-scales. The five plain-clad knights, along with Kurik and Berit entered unobtrusively and seated themselves at a vacant corner table.
    ‘We’ll have beer,’ Kalten called to the serving-wench, ‘lots of beer.’
    ‘Don’t overdo it,’ Sparhawk muttered. ‘You’re heavy, and we don’t want to have to carry you back upstairs.’
    ‘Never fear, my friend,’ Kalten replied expansively. ‘I spent a full ten years here in Lamorkand and never once got fuddled. The beer here is weak and watery stuff.’
    The serving-girl was a typical Lamork woman – large-hipped, blonde, busty and none too bright. She wore a peasant blouse, cut very low, and a heavy red skirt. Her wooden shoes clattered across the floor, and she had an inane giggle. She brought them large, copper-bound wooden tankards of foamy beer. ‘Don’t go just yet, lass,’ Kalten said to her. He lifted his tankard and drained it without once taking it from his lips. ‘This one seems to have gone empty on me. Be a good girl and fill it again.’ He patted her familiarly on the bottom. She giggled and scurried away with his tankard.
    ‘Is he always like this?’ Tynian asked Sparhawk.
    ‘Every chance he gets.’
    ‘As I was saying before we came in,’ Kalten said loudly enough to be heard in most parts of the room, ‘I’ll wager a silver half-crown that the battle never got this far north.’
    ‘And I’ll wager two that it did,’ Tynian replied, picking up the ruse immediately.
    Bevier looked puzzled for an instant, and then his eyes showed that he understood. ‘It shouldn’t be too hard to find out,’ he said, looking around. ‘I’m sure that someone here would know.’
    Ulath pushed back his bench and stood up. He thumped his huge fist on the table for attention. ‘Gentlemen,’ he said loudly to the other men in the tap-room. ‘My two friends here have been arguing for the last four hours, and they’ve finally got to the point of putting money down on the issue. Frankly, I’m getting a little tired of listening to them. Maybe some of you can settle the matter and give my ears a rest. There was a battle here five hundred years ago or so.’ He pointed at Kalten. ‘This one with the beer-foam on his chin says that the fighting didn’t get this far north. The other one with the round face says that it did. Which one is right?’
    There was a long silence, and then an old man with pink cheeks and wispy white hair shambled across the room to their table. He was shabbily dressed, and his head wobbled on his neck. ‘I b’leeve I kin settle yer dispute, good masters,’ he said in a squeaky voice. ‘My old gaffer, he used to tell me stories about that there battle ye was talkin’ about.’
    ‘Bring this good fellow a tankard, dearie,’ Kalten said familiarly to the serving-girl.
    ‘Kalten,’ Kurik said disgustedly, ‘keep your hand off her bottom.’
    ‘Just being friendly, that’s all.’
    ‘Is that what you call it?’
    The serving-girl blushed rosily and went back for more beer, rolling her eyes invitingly at Kalten.
    ‘I think you’ve just made a friend,’ Ulath said drily to the blond Pandion, ‘but try not to take advantage of it here in public.’ He looked at the old man with the wobbly neck. ‘Sit down, old fellow,’ he invited.
    ‘Why, thankee, good master. I read by the look of ’ee that ye be from far north Thalesia.’ He sat down shakily on the bench.
    ‘You read well, old man,’ Ulath said. ‘What did your gaffer tell you about that ancient battle?’
    ‘Well,’ the wobbly fellow said, scratching at his stubbled cheek, ‘as I recall it, he says to me, he says -’ He paused as the busty serving girl slid a tankard of beer to him. ‘Why, thankee, Nima,’ he said.
    The girl smiled, sidling up to Kalten. ‘How’s yours?’ she asked, leaning against him.
    Kalten flushed slightly. ‘Ah – just fine, dearie,’ he faltered. Oddly, her directness seemed to take him off guard.
    ‘You will let me know if you want anything, won’t you?’ she encouraged. ‘ Anything at all. I’m here to please, you know.’
    ‘At the moment – no,’ Kalten told her. ‘Maybe later.’
    Tynian and Ulath exchanged a long look, and then they both