“I had your safe passage to show, Marshal-General, and thought again that I would prefer to scout the territory ahead of you. I would not beg more than one night’s extra lodging—”

“You knew I would come yesterday? How?”

“A messenger from the grange where you stayed the night before stopped for a mug of ale at the Fox and told the landlord you would be back at Hall the next day. Then, when I arrived here, your people told me the same. But the other reason I came was to warn the Hall of the intended theft of the necklace by a dwarf—a dwarf who was with that gnome. You do know, Marshal-General, that he’s kteknik?”

“Of course,” she said. “Go on.”

“The dwarf was intent on the theft; the gnome was not, but I thought might be persuaded to it after I left. So I warned your people, and suggested the ruse of putting a single sapphire and some gold in the room where the necklace had lain, and a separate guard on it upstairs somewhere, as far from rock as possible. I said I would remain in the chamber alone, with guards outside, and explained I expected the rockfolk to come through the rock.” He paused for a swallow of water. “As they did. But the dwarf had drugged the gnome and then used his rock-magic to rend the rock silently and swiftly. The gnome was unconscious and nearly dead when the dwarf broke through.”

“Why didn’t you call for help?” the Marshal-General asked.

“I was a fool,” Arvid said. “I am not stupid, but a man of wit may outsmart himself, and I did so. Seeing the gnome senseless, and knowing my skill and experience, I thought to disarm the dwarf myself—kill him if I must—and then—” He shook his head. “I knew the guards were spelled—”

“What? You didn’t mention that.”

“I forgot. Before they broke through, they sent the rock-cold … the spell that makes men tired and cold, their eyes heavy as if pebbles lay on them. I have faced its like before; I stayed awake, but suspected the others slept.” He shook his head again. “And for that, and for my pride in swordplay, I caused their deaths, for the dwarf caused the rock to spread across the door. I thought then it was only a single stone’s thickness, but the gnome told me later—but let me tell it in order.”

“Go ahead,” she said again.

Arvid told of the fight, of tending the gnome and the long difficult crawl through the passage, of the gnome’s claim that since his blade in the dwarf’s hand had wounded Arvid, the gnome owed him a great debt.

“I told him that leading me out and tending my wound cleared the debt, but he said no,” Arvid said.

“How did the troop find you? There on the hillside?”

“No. I knew I must come back to the city, so we walked—I don’t entirely remember until we found a road. It was on the road your people found us. The—Marshal? Knight?—named Pir would have killed me there and then.”