Part 11 (1/2)

The priest shrugged. He evidently cared little for her travels. ”What do you want here?”

Need it be the whole truth?

”To work for some good family,” she said. The words ”to spy” surged in her throat, but she swallowed them down and babbled on rapidly. ”It's a long time since I had a proper job, and I haven't much money left.” The pressure was subsiding. She'd answered and spoken the trutha”evidently that was enough.

”Have you heard of the sorceress of the Goblin Wood?”

”Aye, in Brackenlee.” And from Sir Tobin and many others, but she managed not to say it.

”Have you ever seen her?”

”No, sir. To tell the truth, I didn't believe much of what they told me.” And still don't.

”Do you serve this sorceress?”

”No, sir.” For she doesn't exist.

He nodded acceptance, then thought of a final question.

”Do you intend harm to anyone in this settlement?”

The compulsion to answer squeezed her gut and her mind raced. ”As long as they mean no harm to me and mine, I mean no harm to them,” she blurted, trying to sound pert, then looking down as if embarra.s.sed. The power roiled, dissatisfied, but the compulsion to speak wasn't overpowering. Someone entered the tent, but she was too busy controlling her expression to look around.

”Very well.” The alien power drained out of her and she suppressed a gasp of relief. ”Goodwife Garron has a new babya”she might need an extra pair of hands. Jeriah will show you.”

She glanced up, startled by the name, and saw a handsome boy, younger than herself. The knight's Jeriah? It wasn't a common name. He nodded to Master Lazur and smiled at her.

”I thank you, sir.” Makenna curtsied unsteadily to both of them and Jeriah showed her out. She wished desperately for a few moments' privacy to recover from her narrow escape, but Jeriah walked on without pause. She wiped her sweaty palms, gritted her teeth, and followed him.

After one shrewd glance, he didn't speaka”did she look that shaken? But probably many did, after their meeting with Master Lazur. She'd have plenty of time to ask questions later, so Makenna fell in with his silence, and used the time to compose herself before meeting Goodwifea”what was the name? She felt a moment of panic, but Jeriah introduced them carefully.

Goodwife Garron was a thin, quick-moving woman, still pale and tired from the recent birth. But tired or not, she never wasted time. Almost before she knew what was happening, Makenna found herself up to her elbows in a tub of dirty laundry, where she finally had a chance to relax, after a fas.h.i.+on.

With a host of goblins willing to work for b.u.t.tons and bowls of milk, she'd forgotten the incessant grind of housework. Even though there was no house, for the cabin they would live in was only half built, cooking, laundry, firewood, and dozens of other ch.o.r.es had to be done. By the end of the day, when the family came back to the big tent where they all slept, Makenna's muscles ached as if she'd been pulling a plow.

There were six in the family. Goodman Garron was as slow moving as his wife was quick and seemed a quiet man, but perhaps that was only because he couldn't get a word in. Along with the new baby boy, there was a boy of twelve, Dacon, who took after his father, and a seven-year-old boy, Mardin, who grinned impudently at her. Ressa, the only girl, was five, and Makenna never found out much about her because her thumb never seemed to leave her mouth. Mardin and Ressa were too young to be much help, so Goodwife Garron sent them off to pester the men during the day. The children giggled when she told Makenna that, and Dacon beamed with pleasure at being cla.s.sed as one of ”the men.”

Makenna gained a bit of useful information that first night.

She was laying a pallet for herself in the already crowded tent, protesting that she could very well sleep outside.

”Nonsense, Makenna,” said Goodwife Garron. ”Suppose it rains? The last thing we need is to have to nurse you through a chill. Or suppose the alarm rings in the night?”

”Then she'd be closer to the church than we are,” Mardin piped up, and then giggled as Dacon buried him in the blankets.

”What alarm?” Makenna asked Goodwife Garron, who was smiling at the uproar.

”Didn't I tell you? By the saints, I suppose I didn't! All the folk who've tried to settle in this wood have been attacked by goblinsa””

”Led by a sorceress, seven feet tall, with flaming eyes,” proclaimed Mardin, shaking off his brother.

”Well, not quite that, perhaps. But that's why we've all these soldiers and priestsa”to catch the sorceress. If the alarm bell rings, you and I and the children will go straight to the church, Makenna. The menfolk, in fact most of the men in the village, plan to stay out and guard the stock and the suppa””

”I could help guard, too!” Mardin informed them. ”If I had a medal like father does, I'da””

”What medal?” asked Makenna, interrupting in turn.

”It's a charm to keep goblins away,” the goodwife explained. ”The same kind of enchanted iron they've got around the doors and windows of the church. We'll be safe in there, and the men'll take care of the rest.” Her frown told Makenna she wasn't quite as sure of that as she sounded. But Dacon told Mardin he was too young to guard a hamster, let alone a cow, the resultant fracas made the baby start to cry, and the subject was dropped.

Makenna slipped out of the tent. The noisy jostling of these humans disturbed her, and she stood a few moments, staring up at the starry sky and trying to ignore the settlement around her. How was she ever going to sleep in a tent full of them?

At least she was getting the information she needed. How easy it would be to have the Flamers set the church afirea”no need to cross charmed iron for that. And when the men rushed to save the women and children, their goods and gear could be stolen or destroyed. Of course, something must be done about the priests and soldiers first. She still had much to learn.

These people had been kind, but their kindness was for a human servant girl. For a hedgewitch, for her goblins, they would have no mercy at all. With a weary sigh, Makenna turned back to the crowded tent. In spite of her fears, she was so tired she fell asleep immediately.

As Makenna grew more accustomed to the Garron family, her very lack of unease around the humans began to trouble hera”they were, after all, the enemy. If she got too comfortable, she might make some slip and give herself away. She hoped the need to gather information would keep her wary enough.

One bright morning, her hands covered with bread dough, Makenna asked Goodwife Garron who Jeriah was.

She laughed. ”Don't set your heart on that lad, dear, he's a lordling or I've never seen one.”

”I noticed that,” said Makenna, kneading more flour into the dough. It felt strange to perform this task outside, in the sunlight. Perhaps it was the familiarity of these ordinary household ch.o.r.es that was draining her defensiveness. ”That's why I asked about him. What's a lordling doing here?”

”He's some sort of a.s.sistant to Master Lazur, who seems to be a pretty important man, judging by the way the other priests act around him. It's not that odd.”

”Aye, I guess that's right,” Makenna admitted, and turned the subject. There was no other priest whose name began with L, so Master Lazur was almost certainly the priest the knight had mentioned. If Jeriah was his a.s.sistant, it made sense that Tobin would know him, though it seemed strange that a priest's a.s.sistant would have such heretical opinions.

She found out a lot about the soldiers by eavesdropping on their conversations. Though they were civil, the soldiers cared little for the settlersa”their one ambition was to capture the sorceress, destroy the goblin army, and get out of 'this wilderness' and back to the City of Steps to spend their reward. That chilled her, for the City of Steps was the Hierarch's city, which meant these men were from the Hierarch's own guard.

They all wore goblin repulsion charms, just like the knight's, and many of the settlers had them, too. In addition, all the priests and some of the soldiers had extra charms to help them resist goblin spells. She tried to learn which of them carried these charms, but it was impossible, for they changed hands nightly when the soldiers gambled. Along with the charms, many of them wore steel armor beneath their rough tunics, but they carried no swords for fear of compromising their 'disguises.'

Their plan was to let the goblins overrun them and flood into the settlement. Then they would close ranks to hold and slay them. The thought of her goblins dying in their trap sent a wave of hatred was.h.i.+ng over her, and Makenna took several small risks trying to discover where their weapons were stored.

But it wasn't until she entered the nearly completed church for the priests' First Day Speaking that she found them, stacked neatly in crates along the back wall and protected from the goblin's interference by the charmed windows and doors.

She'd avoided Master Lazur since their first meeting, fearing his sharp intelligence. Now she watched him curiously, but there was little to see. Although his eyes were fixed on the speaker, he looked as if his thoughts were elsewhere. Thinking of her? Makenna s.h.i.+vered and looked away, and her attention was caught by a young woman with tears pouring down her face. She seemed familiar, but Makenna couldn't remember having met her in the settlement.

Goodwife Garron had spent most of the Speaking whispering threats to her restless children, instead of watching the priest, so it was easy to catch her eye and nod at the weeping girl. The goodwife's cheerful face darkened. ”Lost her baby, poor thing,” she murmured. ”Stillborn. It came early when the goblins burned them out.”

The girl at the cabin! She looked diminished now, with her lank hair and reddened eyes. Makenna thought of the small, unformed creature that Goodwife Garron cherished soa”she'd hardly let anyone else touch the child. Makenna's mother had healed and helped pregnant women. ”Magic comes from life and is part of it,” the long-dead voice whispered in her memory. But it was different from her mother's voicea”silvery, like the chime of the liar's bell. A cold chill crept around her neck and shoulders. Her mother would not have approved of this, of her.

Makenna looked down. But her mother wouldn't have approved of the slaughter of the goblins, either. She'd been forced to choose, and she had no regrets. But . . . magic comes from life. Perhaps it was because of the voice that she did what she did next.

It started simply enough. The afternoon clouds had blown off without producing rain for once, and the family sat around the dinner fire, wrangling as usual. Goodwife Garron had just told Mardin for the third time not to talk with his mouth full or he'd choke, when the boy stopped talking and wheezed loudly.