Read Online The Book of Kane by Karl Edward Wagner - Free Book Online
Authors: Karl Edward Wagner
Tags: Fiction.Dark Fantasy/Supernatural, Collection.Single Author, Short Stories & Novellas, Fiction.Fantasy
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of your terrified delusions—will be running around with impunity! And don’t forget I’m better suited to protect you from it than anyone else among you. Who else has any training or understanding of the necromantic arts? Given time, I tell you, I can discover means to ferret out this creature in your ranks—to seek him out and destroy the beast! Didn’t I earlier warn you all of the danger I bad foreseen in the stars! And no one listened. Fools! Ungrateful scum the lot of you!” The astrologer’s manner was not designed to win him sympathy.
“And now let me tell you something for a charge. I’ve done some thinking on my own, and I’ve got some of my own suspicions! Does that surprise you? Sure! He’s a scheming old charlatan, you say. Bah! What do ignorant buffoons like you know of true genius! Peasants who measure ability by material wealth! I tell you, my talents are so far beyond your mundane groveling imaginations that I waste my breath even trying to help you!
“But listen! Think on this while you smugly pass judgment upon your betters. When did all this start? When this man called Kane came riding up to our door out of the storm, that’s when! And just what do you know of him? A wandering mercenary, he tells you. And you believe! Well I’m not an ignorant backwoods plowhand , and I know something of what goes on in the rest of the world!
“And there are plenty of legends and rumors and wild stories that I’ve encountered about a man called
Kane. And none of them speaks well for him! At best he’s a treacherous, murderous rogue who’s figured in more plots and dark schemes than Lord Thoem and his demons ever dreamed of! And at worst the legends hint he’s some sort of immortal cursed by the gods to wander the earth and bring havoc wherever he stops!”
About time to put a stop to this, Kane realized. “Ok, old man! You’ve had your chance to clear yourself! All you’ve done is insult good people and brag about your own dubious abilities! As for these dark legends and nonsense, I don’t suppose you can produce any of it either. Sorry, graybeard, but the old divide and conquer ruse is a lot older even than you—and these people are too smart to be sucked in by your desperate ravings! How about it, Tali? Heard enough from him?”
“Plenty!” came the hot reply. “Come on, fellows! We’ll take this old viper up to his lair and see he stays put. He can batter Henderin’s ears with his garbage!”
Spluttering still, but trying to look dignified through it all, Lystric let himself be borne away to the wing of the castle where he and his charge were quartered.
The tension in the room was eased. The enemy within was dealt with to the apparent satisfaction of most. It was daylight, and plans could be made for the night to come. Guards would be posted. Doors locked. Weapons kept at hand. The bulk of the survivors departed on their own business.
“Thanks for what you did,” Baron Troylin told Kane awkwardly. “For a moment I thought you’d thrown in with them. Now I see you were just leading them along, stalling for time.”
“I’d hoped you wouldn’t think me so ungrateful for your hospitality. But it was the best way to manipulate them.”
“You seem pretty adept at that sort of thing,” returned his host. “Seems there’s a lot of talents you possess that speak for more than a common mercenary.”
“I never said I was a common mercenary, though,” said Kane with assumed levity.
Troylin discreetly let matters drop. Nonetheless he found himself pondering the astrologer’s accusations. The name of Kane was not unfamiliar to him, now that he strained his memory. Of course, political matters other than those of Carrasahl were only obscure if interesting gossip to his way of thinking. He was a simple man, and his chief concerns were usually connected with filling the hours between waking and sleep with as much enjoyable activity as possible.
But now that he thought about it,
“And now let me tell you something for a charge. I’ve done some thinking on my own, and I’ve got some of my own suspicions! Does that surprise you? Sure! He’s a scheming old charlatan, you say. Bah! What do ignorant buffoons like you know of true genius! Peasants who measure ability by material wealth! I tell you, my talents are so far beyond your mundane groveling imaginations that I waste my breath even trying to help you!
“But listen! Think on this while you smugly pass judgment upon your betters. When did all this start? When this man called Kane came riding up to our door out of the storm, that’s when! And just what do you know of him? A wandering mercenary, he tells you. And you believe! Well I’m not an ignorant backwoods plowhand , and I know something of what goes on in the rest of the world!
“And there are plenty of legends and rumors and wild stories that I’ve encountered about a man called
Kane. And none of them speaks well for him! At best he’s a treacherous, murderous rogue who’s figured in more plots and dark schemes than Lord Thoem and his demons ever dreamed of! And at worst the legends hint he’s some sort of immortal cursed by the gods to wander the earth and bring havoc wherever he stops!”
About time to put a stop to this, Kane realized. “Ok, old man! You’ve had your chance to clear yourself! All you’ve done is insult good people and brag about your own dubious abilities! As for these dark legends and nonsense, I don’t suppose you can produce any of it either. Sorry, graybeard, but the old divide and conquer ruse is a lot older even than you—and these people are too smart to be sucked in by your desperate ravings! How about it, Tali? Heard enough from him?”
“Plenty!” came the hot reply. “Come on, fellows! We’ll take this old viper up to his lair and see he stays put. He can batter Henderin’s ears with his garbage!”
Spluttering still, but trying to look dignified through it all, Lystric let himself be borne away to the wing of the castle where he and his charge were quartered.
The tension in the room was eased. The enemy within was dealt with to the apparent satisfaction of most. It was daylight, and plans could be made for the night to come. Guards would be posted. Doors locked. Weapons kept at hand. The bulk of the survivors departed on their own business.
“Thanks for what you did,” Baron Troylin told Kane awkwardly. “For a moment I thought you’d thrown in with them. Now I see you were just leading them along, stalling for time.”
“I’d hoped you wouldn’t think me so ungrateful for your hospitality. But it was the best way to manipulate them.”
“You seem pretty adept at that sort of thing,” returned his host. “Seems there’s a lot of talents you possess that speak for more than a common mercenary.”
“I never said I was a common mercenary, though,” said Kane with assumed levity.
Troylin discreetly let matters drop. Nonetheless he found himself pondering the astrologer’s accusations. The name of Kane was not unfamiliar to him, now that he strained his memory. Of course, political matters other than those of Carrasahl were only obscure if interesting gossip to his way of thinking. He was a simple man, and his chief concerns were usually connected with filling the hours between waking and sleep with as much enjoyable activity as possible.
But now that he thought about it,
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