Part 20 (1/2)
”It's hard to believe that Fearin is using two little girls to get us safe pa.s.sage,” Ranander said softly with an accompanying sigh. ”You know what I think of those girls, but to just give them away like porcelain dolls... ”
”Fearin isn't any happier about doing it than we are to see it done,” Ijarin surprised me by commenting. ”That's why he kept to himself once we got here, I think, the way he hasn't done until now. The necessity shames him, something we can all understand.”
”Don't include me in on that understanding,” I said, this time doing the surprising. ”Those girls really do have no place in the outside world, and I have the suspicion that if they were returned to their father their lives would soon be over. He'd never be able to marry them off to anyone he wanted to stay on friendly terms with, but here they will be married. And to real princes, who probably know they'll never again have a chance at women from the outside world.”
”I hadn't thought of that,” Ijarin said, suddenly brightening. ”And if the servants around here don't understand them, the girls will have to have their new husbands translate for them. That should be a good enough reason for them to be moderately polite to the men. It looks like Fearin was feeling ashamed for no reason.”
Ranander made a sound that could have indicated agreement, but for a change there were no words bubbling out to join the sound. In point of fact Ranander didn't look very happy, and the following silence let me do a little more thinking.
After a little while Sallain came over to talk to us, explaining that his sons had put the girls back into their coach in order to take them to his palace. Half of Sallain's escort had gone along with the coach and his sons, and I silently wished them all good luck. If the girls didn't wear out their welcome before the last of the army left the valley it would probably be nothing but luck...
”I wonder if it would be possible to convince you to visit with us for a time,” Sallain said, and I turned my head to find him staring at me. ”There isn't much in the way of beauty in this valley, so your presence would be very welcome.”
”If it's beauty you want, you're looking in the wrong place,” I told him, having half expected the invitation. ”All you can see is the outside of me; inside is something you really don't want to ever meet. Don't you know why I was able to speak to and understand your people?”
He stared at me in puzzlement for a moment, probably having forgotten about the language thing because he spoke our language, and then the truth dawned on him. He paled the least little bit, and I could almost see his lips forming the word Shadowborn...
”Yes, of course, you're perfectly right,” Sallain said after a handful of heartbeats. ”Please excuse me now, I need to speak to my men.”
He turned and rode away, obviously trying not to look as if he were hurrying, and Ijarin made a sound of scorn.
”I like the way he thanked you for helping him,” the barbarian murmured, clearly annoyed on my behalf. ”The least he could have done was behave civilly.”
”If you think that was bad, be glad we won't be here when the full truth hits him,” I murmured back. ”It occurred to me to wonder why I was allowed to help him if he's being punished for something, and a little thought brought me to the conclusion that my helping him must have made his punishment worse. Anyone want to guess how looking normal would be worse for him than looking the way he did earlier?”
”All right, I see it now,” Ijarin grudged, all annoyance gone. ”Until now Sallain was satisfied to stay in this valley because it was his hiding place. Now that he no longer has to hide, he'll want to go back out into the ordinary world. What will happen when he probably isn't allowed to leave?”
”I don't even want to think about it,” I answered, and that was the complete truth. I'd been used by whichever G.o.d had placed Sallain here to begin with, and wasn't that a novel experience...
The first of the army wasn't long in reaching our position, the men moving more than just briskly. They trotted past our position in a gait they'd be able to keep up for quite a while, and their glance at us was filled with a good deal of relief. Fearin and Garam must have a.s.sured everyone that the rest of us were still in good health, but seeing the truth for themselves clearly made the men feel a good deal better.
Garam led the way on his horse, and Fearin came by in a little while to ride up and down the column. The various wagons were being pulled by more than the usual number of horses, which would hopefully make it unnecessary to stop and change the horses. Ijarin's people came by after a while and looked like they were going to join us, but he gestured to them and they reluctantly kept going. The faster we got everyone out of the valley the better off we would be.
But fast isn't a word that can be used for moving an army through a distance that would take almost a full day to complete. The men and wagons moved as quickly as possible for the length of time they had to keep moving, but the actual time dragged by like a dying man in a desert trying to reach the water that would save his life. He might want to get up and run, but pulling himself along by his fingers was the best he could accomplish. And, as usual, waiting was more deadly and tiring than almost any kind of effort one might be forced to. Not to mention hunger- and thirst-making...
At least the trouble held off until the very last of the army was almost out of the valley. Fearin joined Ranander, Ijarin, and me as we brought up the tail end of the march, and we could see the rise in ground a small distance ahead that ought to signal the way out. Half way between that rise in ground and our own position there was a sudden flurry of activity, and Fearin headed for the flurry at once. I felt tempted to follow, but suddenly had the conviction that that was what I was expected to do.I had no idea where the conviction came from, but it didn't seem wise to argue the point. For that reason I stayed where I was, and in a short while I was able to urge the last of the guardsmen to keep going. Fearin stood a few strides to the left of the column with four guardsmen, the four currently surrounded by beings who looked very much like the one I'd spoken to in that house. The beings looked much too innocent, Fearin looked frustrated, the guardsmen looked frightened, and some of Sallain's people, in armor and still mounted, looked smug. I murmured to Ranander and Ijarin to get the last of the men out of the valley and then rode over to see what the fuss was all about.
”... two stories that don't quite match,” Fearin was saying with tightly-held anger as I rode up.
”Your ... citizens insist that these men made lewd gestures in their direction, and therefore need to be punished. My men say they're the ones who were gestured toward, and they simply returned the effort. If your people started the trouble, you can't expect to punish my people for getting involved.”
”Your people weren't supposed to get involved in anything at all,” one of the armored men retorted, an ugly amus.e.m.e.nt behind his words. ”Now that they did, you have to turn them over to us. After all, you can't say you weren't warned.”
”That's not what we were warned against,” I put in as Fearin seethed silently. ”Our people weren't supposed to interfere with yours, and they haven't. If your people considered some gestures as interference they wouldn't have started the exchange, so you have nothing to complain about. Back off and let us take these men out of here.”
”We don't take orders in our own valley, and certainly not from a female,” the spokesman came back, his expression still ugly even without the amus.e.m.e.nt. ”Those fools are ours to see to, and there's nothing you can do to change that.”
”That's not quite true, but I don't have to bother with any of you,” I said, showing my own version of an ugly smile. ”If it's a trade you want, your lives for theirs, the man of Power next to me can take care of it. If our people are bound not to make trouble, so are you and yours.
You're in the midst of breaking that agreement, so your lives are forfeit. Who wants to die first?”
”Don't be ridiculous,” the spokesman said with a nervous laugh after glancing at Fearin, while the beings who had been gathered around began to slide toward the dimness among the trees.
”He won't use his Power here, not when he can't kill everyone in the valley. It would start a war, and that's the last thing you people want.”
”But we've already been through one war, and now we're headed for a second,” Fearin said at once, his dark-blue gaze locked to the spokesman. ”Besides, how bad a war can it be if your people die if they try to follow me? You may be under the impression that I can't use Power here in the valley, but that's a mistaken impression. Would you like me to prove it?”
When Fearin raised his right hand the men mounted behind the spokesman began to back their horses, which produced a snarl in the spokesman even while his expression said he wanted to do the same.
”All right, all right, you win,” the spokesman snarled, clearly hating to say the words. ”We were told that you couldn't use your Power, but - Just get those fools out of here and don't come back.”
Fearin nodded at the four guardsmen, who turned instantly and began to run after the last of the men we could see climbing the rise. When Fearin mounted again we followed along behind the four, eventually taking our turn at reaching and climbing the rise. The silence was lovely until we left the twilight behind, coming out into early afternoon that had actual sunlight. We were the last to leave the valley, and once we were a dozen strides away Fearin finally turned in my direction.
”Do you have any idea how lucky you were?” he demanded in a voice that actually shook. ”Or maybe I should say how lucky we were. In the future do you think you might check with me before you threaten people with my Power?””If you're saying you couldn't use your Power in the valley after all it doesn't matter,” I responded without looking at him. ”If they hadn't believed me I would have had to let the beast loose, so the bluff was worth trying. Letting them get away with cheating wasn't something I would have been able to do.”
I heard him muttering under his breath rather than speaking out loud, but I could guess what he was muttering about. He also hadn't been able to let innocents be taken because those valley people made cheating a way of life, which is why he'd been arguing with Sallain's guardsmen.
He may have been overly concerned with diplomacy, but even someone like that would find it hard to hand over four innocent men without doing what he could to stop the farce. I'd realized that if he hadn't already used magic it was probably because he couldn't, but happily the valley people hadn't thought the thing through quite that thoroughly.
The army had kept going for a good distance before the first guardsmen stopped to make camp, and Garam probably hadn't had to urge them to go that distance. The meadow beyond the valley was wide and welcoming with a thick stand of trees beyond its expanse, and by the time we reached the middle of the camp our tents were already in evidence. The rest of the inner circle waited for us near those tents, along with a couple of guardsmen a.s.signed to see to our horses. Fearin and I dismounted and handed over our mounts, and once the guardsmen were gone Fearin turned to the others.
”We're all really drained after that trek through the valley, so even though there's a lot of day left we'll hold our next meeting tomorrow morning at breakfast in my tent.” Fearin looked around as he spoke, probably seeing the relief in everyone's face just as I did. ”The men are even more tired than we are, but I've set a spell to make sure that those men on sentry duty stay awake and alert. You all have food and drink in your tents, so have a good meal and a good sleep and I'll see you in the morning.”
As soon as the group began to break up I started for my tent, but I managed no more than a single step before Fearin's hand was on my arm.
”Not you,” he said, annoyance mixed with weariness in his tone. ”You and I have a discussion waiting for us, and it's waited too long already.”
”I think I've said more than once that we have nothing to discuss,” I responded without turning my head to look at him. ”And even beyond that, do you really want to start an argument with me when we're both so tired? There isn't a chance that you'll get what you think you want, High Master, so show everyone how wise you are and let go of my arm.”
My mentioning ”everyone” wasn't a turn of phrase; the rest of our circle had stopped leaving, and now they stood and stared at Fearin and me with disturbed expressions. It actually took half a dozen heartbeats before Fearin's hand left my arm, but when it happened I didn't comment any further. I simply went to my tent, waited for my own food and drink to appear, then had my meal while I thought some more. The conclusions I came to were very disturbing and left behind a single, burning question: what was I supposed to do about the situation?
Since that answer refused to come, I laced closed my tent flap, got out of my clothes, then let sleep take me. I'd have to see what happened tomorrow, and then maybe an answer to the most important question would come... How long was I likely to live if I tried to do anything...?
Chapter 20.
I was dressed and out of my tent before dawn the next morning, this time wearing the new clothes Fearin had provided. The new day started out overcast and heavy with the promise of coming rain, the sun G.o.d's splendor hidden behind a dark gray ceiling like the top of an angry tent. Not a breath of a breeze stirred the heat and moisture-laden air, and I couldn't help taking this weather as a bad sign. More than one storm was waiting to break, and when it did...
Getting back to the area of our tents showed me people on their way to Fearin's meeting, so I followedthem to the dark blue tent. I got a number of worried looks that I ignored, going instead to the food table and beginning to help myself. Ranander was, of course, the last to arrive, most likely having stopped on the way to see if I were still in my tent. He sent me a light and friendly smile where I sat with my food, and then went to the table to get his own plate. Fearin sat to one side, paying attention to no one, apparently distracted by his thoughts. No one saw fit to interrupt his thinking, so the meal pa.s.sed in relative peace and quiet. Once most of us were finished, though, Fearin brought his attention back to his guests.
”I think most of you know by now that we're less than two days away from our ultimate destination,” he said, his words slower than usual and on the heavy side. ”Prince Garam, you and your special squad will enter the city first, primarily to escort Kiri. She'll help you locate the cardinal points your men will need to be stationed at, and you'll help her to find the places she'll be exercising her ... talents.”
”Which talents are you talking about?” Garam asked after nodding, nothing but curiosity in his voice. ”If she's going to be talking to rats again - ”
”What she's going to be doing is distracting people just before we attack,” Fearin said, interrupting what would probably have been nonsense. ”She has the ability to ... make things uglier or more beautiful as she sees fit, and she'll be doing both. Men will be clawing down walls with their bare hands to get at the object of their most intense desires, and other men will be screaming and fighting to get away from their greatest terrors. If all those men are city guardsmen, we may not even have much to do in the way of fighting once we're inside the city's walls.”
There was a time of silence while everyone stared at me, Garam with his brows high, Talasin with a smile, Lokkel with a satisfied expression, Ijarin with nothing of his feelings showing, and Ranander with a grin.