The Book of Kane by Karl Edward Wagner Page A

enough! You’ve had your chance to exorcise the devil! All you’ve done is loaf around and use Henderin to get free meals! Well by Thoem, we’ve had enough stalling, and now there’s going to be some action!”
    “Just what do you mean by that?” thundered the baron, pounding on the table. “Just what sort of ‘action’ do you have in mind against my son!”
    Tali retreated a bit, then supported by the opinion of his fellows, he began less belligerently, “Now, milord we all understand how much the boy means to you. And the bunch of us has been loyal to you throughout. There was plenty who said we’d regret ever coming up to this godforsaken place with a madman along. But damn it all, we’re not about to sit here and be slaughtered in our beds just because your son is too highclass to burn for his crimes!” His fellow retainers murmured assent.
    “May I remind you,” Troylin hissed, “that murder of an aristocrat—no matter how insane—by a commoner carries a sure penalty of crucifixion! And I assure you that anyone who tries to lay a hand on my boy I’ll cut down myself!”
    The crowd was getting dangerous. Tali retorted, “Well then, there’s some of us who’ll run that risk if we have to—better than taking our chances being snowbound with a wolfpack at the walls and a werewolf in our midst! And there’s no punishment when there’s no witnesses!” he added significantly.
    “What are we doing!” Breenanin shouted over the ugly growls of the crowd. “You stand there talking about murdering someone who’s never given any of you a just cause to complain! A month ago you would have died for Baron Troylin! Time and again I’ve heard you congratulate yourselves on being in the service of one of the most generous and easy going gentry in the land! And now because you’re suddenly frightened, you talk of killing his only son—whom all of you thought was a great guy before his sickness! You even talk of massacring all of us! I’d prefer letting the wolves in—they’d show more gratitude! You don’t even know if Henderin had anything to do with these murders!”
    The two factions glared at one another uncertainly. They were ordinary folk, a country baron and a lot of provincial retainers from a backwater kingdom. Murder and mutiny were foreign to their rustic background, but terror of the unknown and the presence of hideous death brutalized them all. The retainers must regain their accustomed security at any price; Troylin would fight to the death to preserve his son.
    Kane had carefully avoided identification with either side. It was not his fight and as always his only loyalty was to himself. He needed the baron’s hospitality until the way south was open. After that he cared less how they resolved the dispute. Still as long as he was here and a werewolf was haunting all in the castle, he was an interested party. And at present he did not want to get involved in mutiny—especially since strangers made bad risks as witnesses.
    Tali persisted. “Well, if Henderin isn’t the werewolf, there’s sure a lot of evidence against him! First, we know he killed that guard like he was a wild animal, and we all know he’s crazy. All the time asking for raw meat and howling nights and going berserk! Second, when the hunting party was attacked yesterday, Henderin was running around loose. Caught him coming back from the forest. Mighty strange wolves attacking armed men on horseback, while an unarmed man on foot runs around unharmed. Like he didn’t need to fear them—like he was out there telling them to kill us! Ok—where is Henderin when these other attacks happen? Poor Bete gets his in the storm, bunch of travelers get theirs too—and the thing last night in the soldiers’ quarters! And Henderin—oh, he’s safely locked up! So we’re promised. Only thing is—we’ve just got Lystric’s word for that! And I for one don’t care to believe everything that scheming old fossil has to