A Mankind Witch by Dave Freer

inevitably followed Signy around growled straight back at the guard.

    "Any minute now and they'll start barking," said Cair calmly. "Then the whole pack of them will be here. They'll tear you apart."

    The hulking guard looked at Cair, obviously not knowing quite how to deal with Signy. "Thrall. I've been sent to beat you. I'll go and fetch some of the others and finish the job properly."

    Cair shrugged. It hurt like hell. "Enjoy explaining to them that a woman bested you. I'm sure that will make them all respect you."

    "You've beaten him," Signy's voice shook slightly. But she stood her ground and held on to the yoke. "Your mistress is not going to count the strokes. Now, go before I whistle. That will indeed bring half the dogs in the hall here."

    The guard straightened up. "Just you wait, thrall."

    "Oh, I will," said Cair, with a confidence he was far from feeling. "But I won't have long to wait. Ill fortune is right behind you. You are a doomed man. I read it in your future."

    The guard snorted. "Insolent thrall. How dare—"

    "I mean no disrespect. I do but see what I see," said Cair, loftily.

    The guard snorted again, and stalked out.

    Cair smiled. It cost him no small effort to do so.

    "Back to your work," said Signy to the open-mouthed thralls standing staring.

    The others hastened away. "It might have been better just to let him finish beating me, Princess," said Cair, quietly.

    "Probably," said Signy with a grimace. "He will come back, thrall, with his companions. And Vortenbras won't listen to me."

    Cair bowed. It hurt. "I will deal with it, Princess. He just caught me by surprise."

    She looked more worried rather than eased. "You shouldn't have done that trick with the snake, thrall."

    Cair attempted not to smile. "But it was a very good one, Princess. The ladies screamed so well."

    For the first time ever, Cair saw Signy smile back at him. He decided that a beating had been a small price. She shook her head, almost unbelievingly. "You are very impudent, thrall. But you will get badly hurt."

    "I'll do my best not to, Princess. Could you tell the stable master to tell all of us to move the dung heap to the far paddocks tomorrow? Later? Please, my lady?"

    She bit her lip. Looked suspiciously at him. Then nodded. "Later."

    It was an unpleasant extra job that would take many hours. Cair winced at the thought. And he'd have a sore back for it, too. In the meanwhile he had a lot of preparation to do. If he knew human nature at all, either the guard would be back just as soon as he was sure that the coast was clear, or he would come in the morning after he'd done some brooding. Cair thought it would be wise to disappear for now. Signy's ceiling hideout would do nicely. He took someone's saddle along for company and began to quietly cut stitches with a sharp little fragment of iron he'd made with patient rubbing on some stone. The other part of what he did, he knew that the princess would disapprove of. But the horse would recover.

    When evening drew on he slipped out of his sleeping area. Nobody—by now—would dream of mentioning the fact to anyone in authority. He left his carefully caraway-scented bedding and took a long, cold, obstacle-filled walk—dragging a small sack of caraway behind him. He then walked back to the stables. Cair dared not sleep, but instead sat, thinking. Before cock-crow he made himself busy with mucking out. The horses did not approve of the change in pattern, but by the time the thralls were straggling across the garth to the kitchen for their morning rations he'd moved himself off to the dung heap, and had begun loading up the cart.

    Presently, the yelling told him that the hue and cry had started. He smiled and went on loading dung. If anyone had actually looked around the back of the stables they'd have seen him there. Soon he heard the dogs, baying, giving out that they had the scent. Cair went on loading. He had the better part of a cartload of dung done before the