“There’s voices outside,” Kaarti said, eventually, not bothering to whisper. “Folks is coming back. I think the Sheraighs must be gone.”
Tobias dragged a hand over his chin and glanced down at the sleeping princess.
He set her gently on the floor, and proceeded to change her swaddling, his hands deft and sure. Mara couldn’t have done such a thing. By the time he was finished, the girl was awake and fussing. Kaarti unwrapped some hard cheese and bread, which Tobias fed to the child.
“Yous are still planning to leave?”
Tobias didn’t look up from feeding the princess. “I think we have to.”
“I can sell you a bit of food,” the woman said. “Cheese, a loaf of my bread. Some milk.”
“We’d be grateful.”
She bundled some food for them, gave them a skin of milk. Tobias gave her several silver treys.
“You’re a good lad,” she said. “Take care of the wee one.” She turned to Mara. “You see that he does.”
Mara couldn’t keep from smiling. “I will.”
All of them left the alcove, crossed through the bedchamber, and entered the common room. The table and chairs had been smashed to pieces, as had several bowls and platters.
“Kaarti,” Tobias said in a whisper.
“It’s all right. There’s more to be had in the market. And I can bake for coin. I’ll be fine. Others had worse.”
Faint daylight lit the edges of the canvas; Mara guessed that dusk wasn’t more than a bell away. If they were to leave before nightfall, they had to go now. Kaarti seemed to have the same thought. She peered out into the Notch before pulling her head back in and closing the gap in the cloth.
“No soldiers. And the one I hit is gone. I’d say it’s safe, but I’s the feeling it’s not.” She grimaced. “At least not for yous.”
“We’ll be all right.” Tobias checked his pistols.
Mara checked hers as well before returning it to her overshirt pocket and hefting the musket.
“That’ll draw attention,” Kaarti said.
Mara glanced at Tobias.
“She’s probably right,” he said. He handed her one of his pistols. “Chances are I won’t get off two shots. Not with her in my arms. Anyway, you’ve always been as good a shot. If not better.”
She frowned at this. Could it be that in his future she was changed from how she’d been in her own time, good at different things, interested in other subjects, even different in temperament? It felt odd to have him talk about her as someone he knew, had known. She didn’t know how to respond.
Kaarti checked outside again and gestured that they could go.
Mara followed Tobias out onto the stone path, falling in step beside him.
The chasm looked like it had come through a cyclone. Many shelters had been torn down. Broken furniture, rent clothes, and shattered containers littered the stone. Everywhere Mara looked, men and women saw to the repair of their homes and shops. She and Tobias walked past them, saying nothing. She tried not to stare.
Most of those they encountered ignored them, but not all. Some stared hard at the three of them. Perhaps they saw nothing more than dark-skinned parents and their dark-skinned child, which would have been enough to mark them as different in this pale land. Mara sensed, though, that a few saw more. Though new to the Notch, she could tell that Tobias didn’t belong here, and of course she didn’t either. They wore their Windhome training like silken finery. It set them apart, made them conspicuous. She was certain some of the people glaring at them knew exactly who had drawn this destruction to their haven.
“Tobias–”
“I know,” he said, his voice as low as hers. “Just keep walking.”
They quickened their strides, which only made them more obvious. Even the princess seemed to understand the danger. She kept her thumb in her mouth, her eyes wide and watchful, one hand fisted in Tobias’s overshirt.
As they neared the strand, and the stone shelf widened, Tobias slowed. “Blood and bone.”
Mara saw them as well. Soldiers – only a pair, but she assumed there were others nearby.
Tobias veered, approaching a shelter that might have belonged to a peddler, but which appeared deserted, its canvas façade ripped in several places. From there, he backtracked until they reached another shelter that smelled of spirit and something cloying. Mara’s eyes watered.
Tobias tapped on the shelter. After a brief wait, the canvas parted to reveal a man whose skin was only somewhat lighter than theirs. He was slight, and his eyes were glassy and bloodshot. He regarded the three of them for the span of a breath and then stood aside so they could enter.
More men sat on the floor inside, all of them Northislers. Two held small, soiled cloths to their faces. The man who had greeted them gripped such a cloth in a slender hand. A pile of shattered wood sat in the middle of the shelter; the remnants of tables and chairs. A fourth man sat against a wall. Mara couldn’t tell whether he was wounded, passed out, or dead.
Tobias leaned closer to her. “They’re–”
“Seers, I know.”
“Your lives are in peril.”
Tobias faced the man who had admitted them. “Yes. We’re trying to get away.”
“You avoided the caverns at the base of the escarpment. That was wise. But the threat remains. The snare is closing.”
“Do you know how many soldiers guard this stairway?”
“Four.”
Tobias muttered another curse. “Might we be better off hiding somewhere?”
“I believe not. Men will search here again, and again until they find you. Leaving now is the safer choice, though all is relative.”
“He talks like a Seer,” Mara muttered.
The man smirked. “We have not met. You are a Walker as well?”
“I’m a Traveler, yes.”
The smirk lingered, but he turned back to Tobias. “You are running still.”
“We’ve fought as well. And I’m convinced we’ll have to fight our way through in order to leave.”
“I believe you will, yes. The outcome is… uncertain.”
“I assumed you’d say as much.” Tobias’s tone was dry.
“You think that a hedge. You may be correct.”
One of the other men said something in a language Mara recognized from Windhome, but couldn’t follow. His voice was sharp, the words strident.
“My colleague says you are a danger to us, and that you cannot remain here. I am afraid I must agree with him. Normally, I would argue on your behalf, but after today’s show of force…”
“I understand,” Tobias said. “We won’t remain here for long.”
The second man repeated whatever he had said, his voice rising.
The first Seer half-turned in his direction, before straightening. “We can brook no delay. You must leave us. Now.”
“You’d let her die?” Tobias asked. “You know who’s after her, and you know what they’ll do when they find her. And still you’d send us away?”
Mara was afraid to inhale; the air felt brittle.
“You claimed to be a friend of her mother, Hanrid,” Tobias went on. “Is this how you honor that friendship?”
The second Seer started to say more, but the one named Hanrid rounded on him and hissed a response, silencing the man, who flinched back a step.
“What would you have us do?” Hanrid asked. “If we are seen helping you, our lives are forfeit as well.”
Tobias faltered, but Mara’s heart jumped with the first inkling of a plan.
“The liquid soaked into those cloths–” She indicated Hanrid’s square of fabric with a raised chin. “Tincture you call it, yes?”
The man gave a stiff nod.
“Is it as flammable as it smells?”
The Seer scowled. “An attack?”
“A diversion.”
He studied her, his gaze honed.
“We’ll pay you for what we use.”
He flicked his fingers,
a gesture bespeaking impatience, and perhaps umbrage. But he didn’t dismiss the notion. “They will know we helped you.”
“Not if we make it look like a theft,” Tobias said.
“What would you burn?”
That brought Mara up short.
“There’s a shelter near here where we were held against our will,” Tobias said. “I have no compunction about burning them out.”
The seer shook his head. “You will be noticed. Traced back to this shelter.”
“I’ll be careful,” Tobias said.
“The fire you start might spread. The entire Notch could be lost.”
“I’m hoping the soldiers will prevent that.”
Hanrid’s scowl deepened. He huddled with his colleagues, and even woke the fourth man, who, it seemed, had simply been sleeping. The man who had spoken earlier sounded wary of the idea, but the others agreed. Soon enough the second man acquiesced with a sullen shrug.
“Very well,” Hanrid said. “Two treys will pay for the Tincture and cloth to ignite it. We have rope in back, if you would be so kind as to tie us up.”
They soon had the Seers seated and bound in the middle of their common room. Tobias argued that he should be the one to burn Gillian Ainfor’s shelter, but Mara disagreed.
“The Sheraighs are looking for you, and so is this Orzili you keep talking about. No one knows who I am. And besides, if…” She spared the Seers a glance. “If the child begins to fuss, I won’t know what to do. She responds to you.”
Tobias surrendered with a sigh. “All right. You know which shelter it is?”
“Of course.” Mara gripped a bottle of Tincture in one hand, and a flint and metal in the other. Her pistol lay heavy in the pocket of her overshirt. She hid the bottle as well and slipped out of the shelter into the damp night air.
Even with soldiers positioned at the mouth of the Notch, the stone shelf wasn’t empty. A few people darted from shelter to shelter, casting wary glances toward the uniformed men. Mara followed their example, watching the Sheraighs as she crept farther into the Notch. She didn’t think they had seen her.
Despite her brave reply to Tobias, she wasn’t certain she could find the shelter in which she had been imprisoned. She was exhausted and bewildered the night she arrived, and desperate to get away after she and Tobias subdued the Binder. Moreover, all these shelters looked much the same. She feared she might stride past it unawares.
To her surprise, though, she knew the shelter as soon as she spotted it. Her skin crawled with memories of the place. She paused in mid-stride and glanced around before approaching the entrance.
She put her ear to the canvas. Hearing nothing, she reached into her pocket, grasped her pistol, and stepped inside.
Nothing stirred within, but Mara noted that the minister’s furniture had been spared. She crossed to the back room. The Binder was gone, as were his tools and devices. That suited her. Arson was one thing. Murder was another.
She shoved the chairs and table to the back of the common room so that they pressed up against the canvas separating the front space from the rear. Then she placed the bottle of Tincture at the base of the canvas as far from the furniture as possible. Finally, her hands trembling, she used the flint and metal to light the cloth that jutted from the bottle like a fuse from a bomb.
Hanrid had assured her that this would be enough to make the bottle explode, and she believed him.
Taking leave of the doomed shelter, she returned to the Seers’ establishment, careful again not to be seen. The walk back felt much shorter than had her search for the minister’s shelter.
“Did everything go all right?” Tobias asked as soon as she entered the cavern.
“I think so. We’ll know soon enough.”
Mara had listened for the explosion, but had heard nothing. Now, though, she smelled smoke. She and Tobias shared a look.
“Gag us,” Hanrid said, “and watch for the soldiers. As soon as they pass this shelter, you must leave. Every moment you linger puts all our lives at risk.”
Tobias did as the man said, but left Hanrid for last.
“Thank you,” he said, his voice low. “I won’t forget this.” He pushed a lock of hair from the princess’s brow. “I’ll make sure she never does either.”
The Seer nodded, grave as a cleric. “You honor us.”
Tobias set the man’s gag in place and joined Mara by the entrance. The smell of smoke strengthened. Peering out at the Notch, Mara thought she saw a flicker of firelight. But they kept out of sight, until at last she heard shouts as well. They didn’t have to wait long after that. Three soldiers flashed past the Seers’ shelter, brushing so close to the canvas that she could have reached out and touched them as they ran by.
“One left,” Tobias whispered. He held his pistol in one hand, and had the babe cradled in his other arm. “That’s probably the best we can hope for.”
“I agree. Lead the way.”
He didn’t move. Instead, he turned his stunning green eyes on her. “I know as far as you’re concerned we’ve never met. But I’m glad you’re here.”
Her cheeks heated. “Let’s go,” she said. “Standing here is making me nervous.”
He spared the Seer one last look and pushed through the canvas. Mara followed.
As they neared the edge of the Notch, stepping out from under the overhanging cliffs into a cold, steady rain, the remaining soldier caught sight of them. He gave them the most cursory of glances. An instant later, though, his gaze snapped back and he fumbled with his musket.
“Don’t,” Tobias said, his voice carrying over the wind, the pelting raindrops, and the rush and retreat of the surf.
The man froze, eyes shifting from Tobias’s pistol to the two Mara held. They strode to where he stood.
“Lay your musket on the ground.”
“And if I don’t?”
“You’ll die,” Mara said.
“I don’t believe you. You won’t shoot because you don’t want to be heard.”
They didn’t have time for this.
The guard hadn’t moved, but it wouldn’t take much for him to raise his weapon and fire.
“You’re right,” Tobias said. “I don’t want to shoot. It would be much easier for me to summon a time demon.”
The man gave a small shake of his head. “You’re bluffin’.”
“They’ll have told you I’m a Walker. Our kind and the Tirribin share an affinity. They’ll come at my summons, and they’ll take your years. It’s your choice. Put down your musket and live, or don’t and die. It’s not a pleasant death, by the way. I’ve seen it. We’re in a hurry. So decide now.”
The soldier’s breathing had turned ragged.
“All right,” Tobias said. He raised his gaze skyward and opened his mouth to speak.
“No!” The man set his weapon on the stone.
Tobias kicked it out of reach. “On your knees.”
His eyes met Mara’s. She nodded in response to what she saw in his look, and positioned herself behind the man. Tobias set the barrel of his pistol against the soldier’s brow.
“How many men are on the strand?”
“None. There’s just the four of us. But there’s a fire and…” His mouth twisted and he muttered a curse.
Tobias raised his gaze, all the signal she needed.
Mara pounded the butt of one of her pistols into the back of the soldier’s skull. He tipped onto his side and didn’t move again.
Mara took the musket. At Tobias’s look, she lifted a shoulder.
“I’m better with a long gun. And I don’t think it matters anymore how conspicuous we are.”
He didn’t argue.
They descended the stone stairway toward the strand. The steps were slick with rain, and Tobias attempted to shelter the princess with his overshirt, which slowed them. Mara stared up repeatedly at the stone shelf, expecting to see the other guards coming for them. Their luck held, however, and as they neared the bottom of the stairway, the
shadows deepened. With rain falling, and clouds blocking the moon and stars, she didn’t think they could be seen from above. Mara’s thighs burned and her knees ached. She didn’t recall noticing such pains before her Walk back in time. The aging of her body had taken a toll.
They reached the strand at last and Tobias turned southward, away from the city proper, as Kaarti had instructed.
“What if there are no boats tonight?” she asked. “I know tomorrow is the Emergence, but this weather…”
“I’d thought of that. I don’t know what else to do.”
Mara didn’t either, and so fell silent. Not for long, though. “What will we do when we’re away from here? Do you have a plan? I know we have to keep Sofya alive. But beyond that…” She trailed off, overwhelmed by the responsibility he had shouldered, responsibility that she was now taking on as well.
For some time, Tobias didn’t answer, and she feared she had angered him. But when at last he spoke, it was in a voice so low, she could barely hear him over the surf. “I don’t know. It’s not that I haven’t given this thought; I have. I just… So far I’ve been consumed with keeping us alive. Eventually, I want to return her to the throne, but the truth is, I have no idea how to do that. Hanrid was right. I am still running. I have to run until I figure out what to do next.” He glanced her way. “I suppose that sounds pretty foolish.”
She stared back at him, her gaze again following the scars that traversed his face. “Keeping yourselves alive is no small thing. You’ll work out the rest when you can.”
His smile conveyed gratitude, and more. She blushed and faced forward again.
They soon lost sight of the Notch, and lost as well the meager glow spilling from the shelf. They picked their way along the shoreline, navigating rocks and driftwood by what little light seeped through the clouds. Progress came slowly, and Mara grew increasingly more frightened with each step. By now the Sheraigh had to know that the fire had been a ruse, and their colleague had been overpowered. Tobias maintained a stony silence that she couldn’t interpret. Did he share her fears, or was he always so single-minded?
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