Part 48 (2/2)
Kettre managed weakly, ”No, Payne, don't let her. She'll put cross-st.i.tch in my head.”
The Brother shook his head and continued packing on the leaves. Wakje stood, and Nori could see the blood on his wrist where a bolt had cut too close. When Hunter and Fentris began limping over to join them, Payne grinned without humor. ”If they'd seen us as we are right now, they would have fought, not fled.”
Nori didn't disagree.
He glanced at her expression, back at the Tamrani, then lowered his voice. ”Which scout book did you give them?”
Her hand went to her waist. She was trying not to throw up, and she pressed her hand hard against her stomach. She managed, ”The one they expected, not mine.”
”But the hole in the cover?”
”Pierced with my knife, poked through with a branch, in case they'd seen the real book in camp. We were watched too many times.”
He nodded his approval. ”And Condari's papers?”
Hunter's s.h.i.+rt billowed on her without the belt, and she discreetly tucked the few papers she had stolen more securely into her pants. She glanced over at the Tamrani. ”I took two from the packet, but I don't know how valuable they'll be without the others.”
”He said he knew what was in them.”
”I meant for us,” she returned soberly. She broke off as the Tamrani approached. She glanced at the rim and her stomach roiled. Death, old death, and fresh death soon. She swallowed against the bile.
Hunter sat down heavily on a boulder. He was pressing a pad against his shoulder with one hand, and another against his leg. His face was still grey, and he didn't even object when Wakje began bandaging him up. He grunted when the ex-raider pulled the knot tight across his leg, then tamped it twice to check it.
Nori let her brother and uncle finish up. She could still feel the wolf in her hands, and she moved to the edge of the ravine to look down into the blackening shadows.
Gingerly Hunter limped over to join her. His voice was expressionless. ”We'll have to go down after them.”
She kept her eyes on the ravine. ”It would be you, alone, wounded and weak, against seven armed Harumen who have trained for decades to kill.”
”I need those papers, maDione.”
Her stomach twisted at the formal name. She wasn't sure it was all nausea, and she clenched her fists.
”You said you knew what was in them.”
”Yes, I know. But that was evidence.”
”For Ariye or Sidisport?”
His jaw tightened. ”You have no idea what those papers are worth.” His green eyes were cold. ”You took them from me deliberately. You traded them for your friend. The least you can do is help get them back, you and your G.o.dsd.a.m.ned wolf.”
From the tree line, Rishte bristled.
”I have other duties,” Nori said softly. ”And you cannot reach them now.”
”Cannot reach them?” His eyes narrowed sharply. ”What do you mean?”
The smell of his blood was making her stomach whirl, and she had to make her voice hard to use it.
”You, Fentris, and Kettre can hardly stand, let alone ride. Wakje is wounded, Payne and I are bashed up like a wagon wreck. Leanna, well, she's had a fright that will last for a while, and she should never have been in this anyway. We've got barely a dozen arrows between us.” She swallowed stiffly against the nausea. ”Your Harumen have only one badly wounded man who won't last out the night, and so will hardly slow them down. The rest of them are ready for revenge, not just killing. On top of which, they're heading into worlag hunting grounds. It's suicide to go after them.”
”So you won't help me?”
She smiled without humor. ”Trust me. In this, I am helping you more than you know.”
He gestured with his chin toward the woods. ”Like you did back there?”
When she kicked him near his wound. Her voice was low. ”Kettre was dying.”
His expression hardened. ”Do you have any idea how many could die in Sidisport, in your own county, because of those letters?”
”I would do it again.”
He stared at her. His voice was soft. ”You owe me, Wolfwalker.”
”And you owed me the truth, Tamrani,” she shot back. ”You knew there were Harumen in Ariye long before we were attacked, yet you never pa.s.sed word to the county. You-and Fentris, too-knew the Harumen would try to affect the council, yet you never warned the elders. Instead, you let the cozar-and Payne, and Leanna-bear the brunt of your secrecy.” Her stomach roiled, and she pressed both fists against it.
His voice was quiet. ”You saw that Haruman when you questioned him. This is bigger than the cozar, maDione. Bigger than your brother or your cousin, even you. If Ariye ever was wary of Sidisport, they should be doubly wary now.”
She could barely see him now, and she glared at his blurred image. ”Why?”
”Because Sidisport is a worlag, biting what it can reach. Right now, it's reaching into Ariye. I needed those letters, Black Wolf. I needed that proof for your councils.”
She just shook her head. She had proof enough in her scout book, proof in the code she'd taken from the raiders, proof in the two letters she'd stolen. Ariye didn't need the Tamrani to tell them when threats were on its borders. Not when the Daughter of Dione stood up in council to speak to the Ariyen elders.
Hunter eyed her silently, then turned and stalked away. He was angry, but it was more with himself. He had known innately she would do whatever she had to for her family, for her friends. If it had been her brother under the knife, she probably would have sacrificed Hunter himself to keep Payne alive. He should have guessed she would use him, as he had been trying to use her. It made him pause at the edge of the trees and look back. She was standing tautly, her fists clenched, staring down at the shadows. He almost turned to go back, but the Harumen's tracker moved over to look down over the rim beside her.
Broziah had moved quietly, and his voice was as mild. ”You were lucky.”
She swallowed her nausea. ”Aye.”
”They won't get far tonight.”
”They'll camp at the base of the cliff, then try to make their way south tomorrow.”
”You're not worried that they'll circle around and come back up to hunt you?”
Her voice was low. ”There are swamps at the lower ends of the canyons, and it will rain tonight and tomorrow. The swamps will fill, and they'll be trapped. It will take at least two days to get through those waters, maybe more if it rains hard enough on the ridges.” She swallowed hard. ”Once they make it past the swamps, it will still take one more day to reach the lower trail. Another day to get to a town. By then it will be too late.”
Broziah didn't understand what she meant. ”They still know where you are heading. They can send word ahead to Shockton.”
”No. Not them.” She rubbed her wrists as if she could soothe the fire that seemed to burn in her own veins. Her mind was beginning to whirl like her stomach. There was death below, but she hadn't even considered any other way. Trial block or trial bolt, that's what Randonnens said, and Nori, she was Randonnen. She forced her voice to be steady. ”They won't make it out of the forest.”
He gave her a sharp look. ”You swore you would let them go.”
She stared out at the deepening twilight. ”It's not me that will be the death of them. But it's me who sent them there.”
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