Gulls flew through the air above, reminding him of home with an ache whose pain surprised him.
He and Coe rode, while Flora drove the dog-cart. Lorrie had elected to stay with Bram and the children, who were going to travel to Land’s End in an old wagon from the Baron’s stable. They had taken enough time for Jimmy to explain to Flora who Coe really was, while hiding the truth from the others. Jimmy felt Flora needed to know the whole truth, but decided against mentioning Coe’s real identity to Bram, Lorrie and the others. He didn’t know why, except it seemed the Mocker’s way to keep things from outsiders.
‘Minstrels?’ Flora said.
Jimmy cocked an eye: evidently she’d watched how Lorrie handled the reins, because she was managing the dog-cart with easy competence.
Jarvis Coe chuckled. ‘I think young Jimmy is thinking of how the hero gets the girl, the gold and half the kingdom,’ he said.
‘Instead of which, Bram Blockhead does,’ Jimmy said. Flora sighed, and he rolled an eye at her. ‘What sort of baron do you think he’ll make?’ he asked Coe.
Coe shrugged. ‘Better than the last, if the court and the Duke find for him. There are plenty of witnesses that he’s Baroness Elaine’s lost son—and it’ll be convenient to have a local man, after the way Bernarr ran the holding into the ground and neglected his duty. Duke Sutherland paid no heed because he spends most of his days in Rillanon, rather than the western court, and the Baron paid his taxes on time. I think with Guy du Bas-Tyra in Krondor, a more critical gaze will settle on Land’s End. Great Kesh is close: a strong man’s needed here. Young Bram might have the makings of a hero.’
Jimmy shrugged. ‘Some hero,’ he said. ‘Oh, he looks the part—but what did he do? Get knocked on the head, get tied up, and get rescued by . . .’
‘By a pair of boys, four girls, a thief, and a witch-finder who officially doesn’t exist,’ Flora said tartly. ‘Still, I think Bram’s sweet.’
‘Girls,’ Jimmy said, and then laughed. ‘Maybe I’m a hero-in-training, then.’
‘Or a witch-finder,’ Coe suggested. ‘You show a lot of talent, Jimmy. I could use an apprentice . . .’
Jimmy shuddered and raised a hand. ‘Oh, thank you, but that’s far too much of an honour. I respect your goddess—and look forward to meeting her, many years from now.’
‘Well, if you change your mind, send word to the Temple. I have to go looking for that magician, and could use some help.’
‘Where do you think he is?’
‘Out there somewhere,’ answered Coe. ‘Getting ready to cause trouble.’ He glanced at Flora, who was watching Jimmy, then said to the boy, ‘There are things in the world, my young friend, you may never appreciate. Like the distant war with the Tsurani in the west. You might hear about them, and they may have some bearing on your life, but you may remain blissfully ignorant of most of what occurs. But you also may find yourself confronting some aspect of a struggle that I can’t begin to imagine myself, let alone tell you about.
‘That magician, that Lyman Malachy, was no chance visitor to the manor on the night Bram was born. Why he was here, at this place, on that night, may forever be a mystery, but I can tell you this much.
‘He or someone else like him will return to cause more evil. At the end, I sensed dark spirits in that house. Whatever the Baron thought would happen, I fear something else far more dire would have occurred. I think perhaps there was another agent of evil waiting to possess the Lady Elaine’s body at the critical moment.
‘There are dark forces loose in the world, my friend; dark forces which benefit from blood, murder and chaos. We could use a bright lad such as yourself in facing that evil.’
Jimmy laughed ruefully. ‘Thanks, but I think I’ll stick to something a little less dangerous, like stealing gold from under the nose of sleeping dragons.’
‘You could stay with m— with us, Jimmy,’ Flora said.
The young thief cocked an eyebrow, and she blushed.
‘I don’t think I’m cut out to be your . . . foster-brother,’ he said cheerfully. ‘And if I stayed, you’d have me helping old ladies across the street, and slaying demons, and Ruthia knows what else! Besides, what would your aunt’s Captain Karl find for me to do? Cabin-boy, puking up my guts watch after watch?’
Flora and Coe laughed at that.
‘What will you do, then?’ Jarvis asked curiously.
‘Go back to Krondor—and by land!’ Jimmy said.
Coe laughed. ‘Then turn your horse around, my friend, because you’re heading in the wrong direction.’
Jimmy blinked like an owl caught in lantern-light. Then he laughed. ‘I knew that!’ he shouted, and clapped his heels to the horse as he turned it around. ‘Fare well, friends! If you ever get back to Krondor, Flora, you know where to find me!’
She halted the dog-cart and stood up, waving. ‘That I do, Jimmy the Hand!’
‘And no offence, Master Coe, but I will sleep better if we never cross paths again!’