Unguilded

by Jane Glatt

  Pilo dropped her hands, and Kara traced her finger all the way around the collar. When no hint of mist was left, she started to untie the leather straps. The collar dropped to the ground.

  “What did you do?” Pilo asked.

  “I’ll tell you later,” Kara said. She already had her hand at Vook’s neck. “Once we’re safe.”

  “I got it,” Vook said when Kara started to untie his collar. His hands made quick work of the knot, and once it was off he flung the collar into the woods. In a few more moments Sidra and Mole were free as well.

  “Let’s go,” Kara said. “Back the way I came in.” She grabbed Sidra’s hand, and they started towards the fire pit. “Be quiet and don’t talk to any of them.”

  The fire was dying, but Kara could still make out the four bodies that lay strewn on the ground. She wrinkled her nose at the smell of shit. The secondary effects of the squill had begun.

  “I’m going to kill them,” Pilo said. She split off from the group and headed towards one of the fallen forms. She raised her hand, and firelight glinted off the knife she held.

  “Don’t,” Kara hissed. The knife stopped at the height of its arc. “You’ll be as bad as them.” The knife wavered, and then Pilo slowly lowered her hand.

  “You’re lucky I can’t be bothered, Harb,” Pilo said. She spat on his still form. “You piece of filth.”

  They heard a shout from the direction of the gate. One of the clammer women drew her hand across her neck and laughed.

  “Run,” Kara yelled. “Follow Mole, he knows the way.”

  The five of them took off through the trees, Kara following a few paces behind the small group. Vook slowed and dropped back beside her.

  “Clammers?” he asked.

  “Must be,” Kara replied.

  “They’ll kill Harb and Lowel,” Vook said. “Serves them right.”

  “Shhh, they’ll know we’ve gone this way.” She touched his arm and veered to the right, towards the bay. She wanted to draw the clammers off, give the younger ones time to reach the tunnel.

  A few minutes later, Kara heard hurried footfalls behind them. How many were following them? She picked up a twig and gently snapped it in half. They had to follow her and Vook so the others had time to get outside the fence.

  Vook found his own branch and copied her. They heard the sounds of pursuit, and they both ran as fast as they could through the darkened woods. Kara’s pack snagged on a branch, and she almost lost it trying to rip it free.

  There, the fence. They could follow it to the corner. She slowed to a walk and grabbed Vook’s shirt. Stealth was what was needed now. She edged along the fence quietly, Vook behind her.

  “They’ll try to swim around the fence,” a male voice said from behind them.

  Kara stopped, her heart pounding. She wiped her hands on her trousers, praying to Gyda that they all went towards the bay.

  “I’ll set a finder on them,” another voice said, this one female.

  Through the trees Kara saw a glow moving towards them. Mage mist! The clammers had sent a spell after them. She grabbed a startled Vook and hugged him tight. The reddish mist drifted through the trees towards them. Concentrating, she waved a hand at the mist. It hovered and then shifted direction, moving towards the docks.

  “No sign of them,” the female voice said. “They must have gone to the water.”

  A branch snapped as the clammers moved away from them.

  “Come on.” Kara let go of Vook and stepped up to the fence. She trailed a hand along it as they stumbled through the brush towards the corner.

  “Kara, is that you?”

  She stopped and peered ahead. “Pilo?” It was too dark to see more than a few feet in front of her.

  “Yeah,” Pilo replied. “We’re outside the fence. Hurry.”

  Kara knelt and stretched out a hand, searching for the tunnel.

  “Vook, here.” She edged away so he could get past her. “You need to crawl.”

  Vook disappeared, and Kara squatted on the ground. She could hear him rustling as he wriggled through the tunnel.

  “I’m out,” he whispered.

  Kara felt for the opening in front of her and wriggled into it. The damp earth closed in on her and for a moment panic set in. Then she slowed her breathing and started to push herself through with her feet. Hands reached for her arms, and she was pulled up and out of the tunnel.

  “Someone’s coming,” Pilo whispered. “Hurry.”

  Off to their left, outside the fence, Kara heard tree branches snapping and brush rustling.

  “Mole,” Kara leaned over to the small boy. “You lead.” He was the smallest, so would be slow, but he could see in the dark better than the rest of them.

  Kara shoved Sidra’s hand into Mole’s. Pilo went next, then Vook, and then Kara. As quietly and quickly as possible they headed off into the woods towards the mad mage’s estate, directly away from whoever was in the woods.

  Ten minutes, that was all the time they had before there was a shout from behind them.

  “Go, Mole, run!” Kara called. But they could only go as fast as six year old Mole.

  They gained some ground until Sidra tripped. Pilo yanked her to her feet, and they kept running. A loud thud and a curse sounded from close by. The clammers weren’t doing much better than they were.

  Kara scrambled over a fallen log and then halted.

  “Mole, stop.” Ahead was the feathered willow—mage mist illuminated the clearing. Mole stopped just in front of the edge of the mist.

  “Stay close to me,” Kara said. She caught up with, them and they huddled around her.

  “This is where you disappeared,” Vook said. “One minute you were under the tree and then next you were gone.”

  “Yes. There’s magic here.” She stepped into the mist, concentrating on keeping it away from her. When she had a spot cleared, she waved the others to her. “Keep close.” She herded them forward a few steps until the mage mist surrounded them. She waved her hands to keep the mist from getting closer.

  “They’re all here,” a voice called.

  A man stood at the edge of the clearing. His long hair lay matted across his bare chest, and his rough trousers were belted with rope. Two other clammers joined him, a man and a woman.

  “They’re waiting all nice and quiet for us,” one of them said.

  Kara eased her little group further toward the tree. The clammers would have to walk into the mist, into the spell, in order to reach them.

  “I’ll get them.” One of the men walked towards them. He took two steps before he disappeared.

  “What did you do?” the other male clammer demanded. “Where’d you send Osai?”

  “I didn’t do anything,” Kara replied.

  As she spoke she continued to slowly shepherd the children away from the clammers. Now they were directly under the willow tree. Feathered branches fluttered in the wind.

  “Let me,” the woman said.

  A small puff of rust red mage mist left her hand. It met the mage mist in the meadow with a bright flare. Mole cried out and hid his head against Kara’s side.

  “It should be fine now,” the woman said.

  Kara smiled as she started towards them. She got two steps past where the man had disappeared before she too was gone.

  “Lelee!” the remaining clammer shouted.

  “You can join them,” Kara called out. She wasn’t sure they’d all end up in the exact same place but she really didn’t care. “Just walk towards us.”

  Even while she talked, Kara kept them all moving. Now they were past the feather tree, and in a few more steps they’d be out of the mage mist. She stopped the little group, and they all huddled together.

  “Are we going to disappear too?” Sidra asked.

  Kara stroked the girl’s hair. “No, we’re going to stay right here.”

  The last clammer looked at them uncertainly. After a few minutes, he headed left, back the way he’d come. Kara let out a dee
p breath. Gyda, she hoped he wasn’t circling around through the woods.

  “Let’s go.” She edged them out of the mage mist. “I’ve found a safe place for us.”

  They headed towards the shoreline, a single line of children holding hands to keep everyone together. Mole led the way, with Kara right behind, then Sidra, Pilo, and Vook.

  Kara made them stop once, when she thought they were close to Harb’s fountain. Vook scouted ahead, but he saw no signs of the clammers so Kara urged the little group on.

  The moon was high in the night sky by the time she spotted the little cabin. It was lit by mage mist and moonlight and already looked like home.

  “We’re here,” Kara said. “Wait.”

  She pulled ahead of Mole and pushed her way through some bushes and sighed. The cabin was quiet, and there were no signs it had been disturbed in her absence.

  “What is it?” Pilo asked from her side. “Is there a cave or something?”

  “You don’t see it?” Kara asked. Pilo was frowning and squinting in the direction of the cabin. “It’s right here.”

  She grabbed Pilo’s hand and pulled her forward, placing the girl’s hand on the side of the cabin.

  “I can feel it,” Pilo said. She bent her head to her hand. “I think I see something. Yes, I see wood.” Pilo took a step back and looked up. “I see it now. Is it magic?”

  “I think so,” Kara said. She’d hoped that the mage mist kept the cabin whole and secret. It was good to know that the latter was true. “You can see it?”

  “Now, yes,” Pilo said. She trailed her hand along the side of the cabin to the corner. “I can see the whole thing. There’s the door. Is it safe to go in?”

  “Yes, I’ll bring everyone else.” She turned to find Mole, Sidra, and Vook right behind her.

  “I don’t need to see it,” Vook said. “Not right now. I just want to be inside.”

  “Come on.” Kara took hold of Mole and Sidra. Vook stayed close behind. In moments they were all inside the little cabin. Moonlight spilled in through the windows.

  Kara rummaged in her pack, wishing she’d thought to look for a lamp or candles earlier. She had a flint but nothing to light.

  “We’re stuck with the dark I’m afraid,” she said. “But there’s water.” She walked over to the kitchen and pumped enough water for everyone to have their share. Then they all settled down to sleep. The floor was hard, and her belly was empty, but they were safe.

  THE PRIMUS STOOD when she entered his study.

  Arabella thought the man’s home was a little underwhelming. It had none of the dramatic opulence of Valerio Valendi’s huge estate or even the quiet elegance of her own small house.

  A scarred desk took up much of the space in the room and bookshelves lined two walls—books and scrolls overflowing the shelves.

  “Ah, Arabella, so kind of you to visit,” Rorik said. He wrote a few words in a small journal and waved a hand over the page before closing the book. He slid it to one side and gestured to a small wooden chair that sat beside the table. “Please, sit down.”

  “Thank you, Primus, but I will not detain you.” She smiled and clasped her hands in front of her. She was wearing an expensive pale blue silk dress—one she wasn’t going to risk damaging on the rickety chair he indicated.

  “I know it’s not grand,” Rorik apologized. “But my study is completely shielded. We can talk freely here.”

  “Of course,” Arabella replied, her opinion of Rorik rising. That was something she’d not thought about. “Can the shielding be detected?” A shielded room could raise the suspicions of the wrong people. In her case, Valerio Valendi.

  “Probably, but this is my workroom—it’s understandable that I would shield it. I wouldn’t want to put anyone else at risk when I test out new spells.”

  “That makes sense,” Arabella replied. She would shield her own workroom as soon as she returned home. “Thank you.”

  Rorik inclined his head. “But that is not what you wished to see me about.”

  “No. I have learned that Castio keeps a family, and I was wondering if you knew the Mage involved. Her name is Etta.”

  “I know her, of course,” Rorik replied. “Quite lovely, although she is only a minor talent. She’s from a non-mage lineage—her brother is Warrior Guild. She’s often part of negotiations with them.”

  “She’s a spy?” Arabella asked, surprised.

  “I wouldn’t put it that way,” Rorik replied. “But she was Warrior Guild until she was twelve so she knows many who are currently rising to power. I had not known about her and Castio.”

  He seemed sincere, but Arabella didn’t know Rorik well enough to recognize if he was lying. She met his gaze, and he did not look away. “I have a spy of my own—in her household,” she said, watching Rorik. His pupils dilated. This was news to him.

  “I see,” he said and nodded. “Castio spends much time there, does he?”

  “So I hear,” she replied. “It intrigued me. In my home villa we all live as families but here—Castio is the first Master Mage I know who does that.”

  “It is unusual,” Rorik agreed. “But not forbidden. The Primus before me lived with a wife.”

  “Did he? I hadn’t heard that.” She hadn’t heard much about Primus Nimali. No one wanted to talk about him. At least not to her. “What happened to her? When he died.” As with Council Members, the Primus was appointed for life—Rorik was Primus so Nimali must be dead.

  “She died,” Rorik said. “Some say she was assassinated.”

  “What do you say?”

  Rorik sighed and leaned back in his chair. “It doesn’t matter what I say,” he said. “She is dead, and I am Primus. Now, I appreciate your company, but I have work to do.”

  “Yes, of course,” Arabella said.

  As she made her way to her own home, she wondered about the courage of a woman who became the wife of a Primus. If she truly had been assassinated, it was not a surprising end. Without political power of her own, the wife of a Primus would be the target of his enemies. And a Primus—even one who seemed as benign as Rorik—had enemies.

  Only Mages with the most magical skill and power rose to become Primus—they succumbed to their enemies otherwise. A Mage who became Primus would have spent a lifetime protecting themselves from attacks—physical or magical. But a wife—especially one who was a minor talent like Castio’s Etta and perhaps Nimali’s wife—would be vulnerable. She had Noula looking for such vulnerabilities, after all.

  She would have to learn more about defensive spells—to ward her rooms from eavesdroppers and to keep her safe. She may not be as attached to Valerio as a wife was, but she was carrying his child and she was his ally. Once that was known, his enemies would become her enemies.

  Chapter fourteen

  “HOW DOES IT work?”

  “Like this. Watch out!”

  Water splashed close by.

  “You’re wasting it.”

  Pilo said that. Kara rolled onto her side and opened her eyes. Pilo and Sidra were frowning at Mole as he leaned on the handle of the pump.

  “Stop it,” Pilo said and swatted at Mole. “Stop wasting the water.”

  “We’ve got lots,” Mole said. He leaned over to watch the water gush from the pump spout into the basin below it.

  “How do you know?” Sidra asked quietly.

  “That’s right,” Pilo said. “How do you know? You don’t know where it comes from, so how can you know that there’s lots?”

  “Huh,” Mole said. He pumped again, and water overflowed the basin and spilled onto the dusty floor below. “Shouldn’t it go somewhere?”

  “Pull the rope underneath,” Kara called.

  Mole looked over at her, and she pointed underneath the basin. He peered under the basin and yanked on the rope. Just like at Mika and Allon’s, a wooden plug came out of the basin and the water flowed into a trough and out through the wall.

  “How’d you know about that?” Vook asked. He was sitt
ing cross-legged with his back towards the window.

  Kara looked past him at the grey morning sky.

  “I’ve seen one before,” she replied. “But it was fed by a river, not by magic.”

  “Magic,” Pilo said. “Is this magic? Is that why only I could see the cabin last night?”

  “I think so,” Kara said. She’d hoped that the cabin was spelled to remain hidden, but now that she knew it was, it caused other problems. Would she always have to lead them here?

  “Then how did you find it?” Vook sat very still, suspicion in his eyes.

  She couldn’t blame him. He’d been betrayed by just about everyone he’d ever trusted.

  “I can see magic,” Kara said. “I’ve always been able to see it, I just never knew for sure what it was.”

  “Who told you that?” Vook didn’t look any less uneasy.

  “The mad mage.”

  The other children all stared at her.

  “He was sane when I talked to him,” Kara continued. “He told me that his madness comes and goes. But I saw and reacted to his magic. At least that’s what he said.” What he’d shouted at her as she’d run away, but she didn’t need to tell them that.

  “Does he know you’re here?” Pilo asked. Her arms were crossed, and the scars on her face were deep red against her pale skin. “I’m not sure we’re better off here with the mad mage than we were with the clammers.”

  “Don’t be stupid,” Sidra said. “The clammers were going to eat us. You said so yourself.”

  “The mad mage doesn’t know I’m still here,” Kara said. At least she hoped he didn’t. What if he’d put some kind of alarm spell on the place? But if he had it would have been triggered a few days ago, giving the mad mage, Santos Nimali, plenty of time to come and investigate. She scnned the small room. Nothing had been disturbed, other than by her small group.

  “He won’t hurt me,” Kara said. “He’s not mad at all, he’s been spelled. And he wants my help because I might be able to undo some of the spells.”

  “You would help a Mage?” Mole asked. “Why?”

  “’Cause then he’d owe her,” Vook said. “Maybe enough to let us all stay here.”