Thrall

by Barbara Ann Wright

  The next day, Gilka didn’t stop their march until they reached the village, still abandoned, though the tracks told that someone had been there since. Aesa helped the rest of the crews dig in and turn the place into a fortified camp, the labor making it harder to think. Whenever she glanced up, she found Runa watching her and didn’t know whether to be flattered or offended. At least someone believed she had a mind strong enough to resist Fernagher’s magic.

  When their scouting party returned in the afternoon, Aesa listened with the rest to tales of guard patrols in the area.

  “Patrols,” Runa said. “They’ve gotten wiser.”

  “They could be trying to keep us from this pool,” Velka said. “If we get to it, Runa can break its magic and free Aesa.”

  Runa shrugged, and Gilka frowned, lost in thought.

  Hilfey leaned close. “Don’t worry, Aesa. If you go crazy, we can bind you, keep you from going in.”

  The others nodded as if that was meant to be comforting. Aesa clamped her teeth on the urge to shout at everyone to stop telling her not to worry.

  Finally, Gilka glanced at Aesa and nodded, and Aesa had to wonder what everyone thought would happen when the pool was broken? It was a good place to start, she supposed, no matter what. If its magic was affecting her, breaking it would cure her. If not, the fini were one step closer to freedom.

  Gilka left most of her warriors to guard the village while her personal crew sneaked through the forest toward the pool. Aesa took her bow, her sweaty palms clammy against the wood. Under the wide-leaved branches of the forest, she relived her time with Ell, their joy in each other. Would the memories dissipate when the pool was broken? Was any magic that powerful?

  She led her crew along the same route Ell had showed her and soon spotted the rocky tor rising from the trees. Velka ranged ahead, and when she came scampering back, she put her head close to Gilka’s.

  Gilka made a large circle with one finger, then held her palm up and quickly made a fist. They would surround the pool and charge in fast, taking anyone they encountered. After one last pat on Aesa’s back, Hilfey set off in another direction with Otama, the others scattering.

  Aesa nocked an arrow but didn’t draw. Gilka waited, giving everyone enough time to get into position. They were long moments, crouching, scanning the forest, and hoping that Ell wasn’t at the pool, that no fini were.

  After a time that proved both brief and eternal, Gilka gave a sharp whistle and raced through the trees, Runa beside her. Aesa stayed with them, and when she saw the helmeted face of a guard peeking out from behind a tree, she shot him in the throat.

  Steel rang against steel from deeper in the trees, but Gilka kept toward the pool. Aesa spied the steps leading into the water and beyond that, the mouth of a cave hidden at the bottom of the jutting tor. A guard stepped from the cave mouth, turned toward Gilka, and fumbled for his sword, but Otama dashed from around the rock and buried her spear in his gut.

  On the other side of the pool, Velka dispatched another guard, and Hilfey dragged another from the forest. The rest of the crew brought out two more and hid them in the cave. Everyone paused, listening, but there was only the wind sighing through the trees. The guards hadn’t made a sound except for that brief ring of weapons. No one spoke. Gilka gestured for everyone to fan out and search.

  Aesa stared into the pool. It started out deep blue-green at the sides but led to a pit of utter blackness in the middle. She wondered how deep in the fini had to go.

  Runa caught her arm. “Is it pulling at you?” She’d lost some of her suspicious look, and Aesa wondered if she finally believed Gilka’s story.

  “I…” Aesa didn’t feel any pull, but part of her wished she did.

  Runa squeezed her arm. “I’ll break it. You’ll be all right.”

  “Get on with it,” Gilka said.

  Runa reached over the pool but didn’t touch the water. Velka jogged over, and Aesa was close enough to hear her report. “No other guards but lots of tracks.”

  “Circle out,” Gilka said. “If anyone comes, let them in where we can surround them.”

  Velka rounded up the others and sent them through the trees. Gilka paced around the pool, glaring at it, looking to Runa or Aesa as if waiting for something to happen. At last, Runa opened her eyes.

  Gilka waved her and Aesa toward the cave mouth, out of sight of anyone approaching. “Well?”

  “Old magic,” Runa said, “like the staff. It pulled like a current, but it never caught me.”

  “Can you break it?”

  “I felt many such pools, all connected.”

  Gilka swore and banged her leg with one fist. She glared at the wall and finally at Aesa.

  “It shouldn’t be too hard to cut this one off from the rest,” Runa said. “Whether that will help Aesa, I don’t know.”

  “Do it.”

  From outside, a sharp bird call echoed off the rocks, the sign that someone was coming. Aesa knelt against the wall near the cave mouth, staying in the shadows. She craned her neck and saw a column of white and gray robes and a smattering of guards in armor. Ell could be in that group, or she could be far from there, awakening to her new life.

  Gilka put her fingers in her mouth, ready to whistle. In her mind, Aesa saw the fini die as they had before, without trying to defend themselves. Gilka couldn’t risk anyone knowing she was here.

  Aesa’s heart thundered like a herd of horses; any second now, everyone would hear it. There would be heaps of bodies, smiling corpses. She closed her eyes. A spell, that was all. Her crew knew much more of magic and life than she did. Once they cleansed the pool, she’d be normal.

  Her eyes slipped open. Lies, and she knew it. The plight of the fini had always moved her to pity, and the moment she’d first seen Ell had become fixed in her mind. But by the rotten gods, it would feel so much better to believe the lie.

  Aesa burst from the cave in a sprint. “Run!” she cried.

  The guards stopped, drawing weapons and moving to stand together.

  “Run,” Aesa cried in Ell’s language. She streaked around the guards. “Follow, follow! Run!”

  Aesa nearly believed in living gods again as the fini obeyed her, running in her wake, keeping pace with her as she kept calling, “Run!”

  They left the guards behind to fight Gilka’s crew. Weapon strikes and shouts rang out as the two groups crashed together. Aesa ran away from the village Gilka had taken, having no idea except to get away. She ran until the group behind her seemed ragged, some falling behind. She slowed to a fast walk, listening for shouts above the wheezing of the fini. Maybe Gilka didn’t want to risk running into any patrols, or maybe the guards had slowed her down enough that she lost Aesa’s track.

  Not for long, not with Velka searching for her.

  Aesa looked for Ell, but of course, she wasn’t among these fini. Aesa leaned against a tree and gave herself a moment to think of what she’d done: thrown away her dreams for a herd of mindless simpletons who couldn’t even thank her. And now she was alone in a foreign land filled with guards who wanted to kill her.

  Nothing to do then but find Ell and see if she could free the fini before Gilka slaughtered them all. Aesa thought hard on Ell’s words, anything that would lead her to a village. “House,” she said at last.

  The fini glanced around.

  “House?” Aesa put a hand to her brow as if searching.

  One of the men uttered something about houses, and she caught the words shapti and a few others she didn’t know. “House?” he said, pointing into the trees. She gestured for him to lead the way.

  They led her to a settlement that swarmed with activity. Wooden towers stood at four corners of a sloppy palisade, all hastily constructed by the look, but guards still walked the towers, commanding a view of the forest. Gray robes moved around the outsides of the palisade, going in and out the large gate and milling around a field.

  With her line of fini behind her, Aesa crept toward the field and watched the
gray fini picking some sort of crop. A nearby guard watched over them. She looked to the sun. This was probably the nearest settlement to Gilka’s stolen village. This would be the first place she’d attack, probably once night was upon them.

  And Ell had probably taken refuge here. Aesa could sneak inside, search for her, and spirit her out before anyone knew she was missing. She thought at first to pass as one of the guards, but once in the village, one look at her face would betray her. A fini then, for as long as she could stand it, but there was the matter of the guard wandering the field.

  Unlike guards in the old tales, where people sneaked into towns trying to find lost loves, this one was vigilant, with a stare sweeping over his charges. If she shot him, the guards in the tower might see, and he might be suspicious of another gray robe suddenly joining his.

  Treachery then. Sneaking hadn’t gotten her into nearly enough trouble already.

  She turned to her group of fini. “Sit.” Once they obeyed, she helped one of the gray fini out of his robe. He let her have it without question, smiling all the while, even trying to help her shed her clothing until she slapped his hands away.

  Aesa slipped the robe on and crept as close to the guard in the field as she could while not leaving her cover. She tried to maneuver out of sight of the towers, but over the flat ground, it was nearly impossible. She’d have to get the guard to come to her.

  Aesa shucked her bow and gear near one tree and moved to another. She lay on the forest floor, hid her knife in one hand, and tried to cover her face with leaves, hoping to be mistaken for a fini who’d gotten hurt.

  She grabbed a dead branch, smacked it against the nearest tree, and lay still, eyes barely open. For a moment, nothing happened, and she thought the guard hadn’t heard. She was about to reach for the branch and try again when the gentle crunch of a footfall sounded nearby. Clever bastard had sneaked around to come from her other side.

  Aesa held still and listened, willing the guard to come closer. She blocked out the sounds of birds and wind, straining to hear the guard’s breath, to sense him as he moved closer. She heard a subtle sound, just beside her, like a knee landing in the dirt.

  She lunged, leading with her blade. The guard fell back, surprise lighting his face, but his hand whipped up. Their forearms bounced off each other, making Aesa curse.

  She slashed for his knee, but he pushed backward and drew a knife. Aesa followed, tackling him. He lifted his knife, but she sliced his wrist, and it fell from his fingers. His mouth opened in what would be a cry, and she punched his throat, thankful of all the lessons Hilfey had taught her. Still, he grabbed for her blade. She felt a sting on her leg where his fallen knife bit into her as she straddled him.

  Mouth working, gasping, he struggled to keep her blade from his chest. She lifted up on her knees and bounced down, driving the air from his lungs, and his arms went slack, her blade punching a jagged hole in his throat.

  She wasted no time, not even to check her leg. She slung her bow around her, then donned the guard’s cloak over her robe and put on his helmet, needing to fool only the tower guard, who was probably wondering where his fellow had gone.

  Aesa sauntered from the trees, messing with the front of her breeches as if tying them back up. She didn’t look toward the tower in case one of the guards had keen eyesight. Instead she scanned for a spot along the palisade where the guard towers might not see.

  There, a blind spot. It took everything in her not to charge in that direction. The sun now lingered close to the horizon, and Gilka would be on the march.

  Aesa wandered to the palisade, looking back and forth over the fini, trying to mimic the guard. When she reached safety, she planted her back against the rough wooden posts and waved at the closest fini.

  The gray-robed woman scampered over eagerly, a bright smile on her wrinkled face. Aesa took several plants from her arms, and she reached out, trying to smooth Aesa’s frown.

  Aesa gently moved her away and gave her a reassuring pat. She dropped the cloak and helmet and shooed the old woman away. The long plants covered her bow, and if she held them cocked to the side, they shielded her face. With one more look at the sinking sun, she hurried inside the village.

  Amazing, the guards just didn’t see her. The fini watched her with something like pity, but everyone seemed to assume she knew what to do, as if none could comprehend a fini disobeying orders.

  Aesa fought the urge to scowl. Could Ell have survived in such a place with an awakened mind? They might have discovered her, just as Aesa would be discovered if she stayed too long. The guards could have forced her into the pool or punished her for what Aesa had made her do.

  With gritted teeth, Aesa searched through streets, peeking into open doors. Futility, she soon realized. The place was too large, and she couldn’t wander into every house. As the sun dropped below the horizon, she knew she’d been foolish. She should have stayed with Gilka. The warriors would have gone from house to house. She could have found Ell then.

  And all it would have cost her were heaps of dead fini. Ell might have joined them, too, killed by some overzealous fighter or a guard who wasn’t watching what he was doing, or in a fire started by a dropped torch, or…

  The call of a horn echoed through the street, and a quick glance at the gate showed the gray-robed fini coming in from the fields. As the last hurried in, the guards pulled the gate shut.

  Aesa ducked between two houses. And now she’d stayed too long, by the rotten gods! Now what? If Ell was here, maybe she’d come out into the streets once the attack started.

  Aesa slung her bow around her body and climbed the house next to her, the shutters and pitted wood giving her plenty of holds. She crept along the roof, keeping to stout beams beneath the thatch. She found a narrow perch with a clear view of the village’s main street, but in the dark, she’d be hidden from the towers. She crouched and waited. If Gilka didn’t attack this night, she’d sneak over the palisade once everyone had gone to sleep.

  As the minutes wore on, she fought the urge to shift. Her right leg began to cramp, her slight wound aching, but she didn’t want to draw attention to herself by moving around. On the towers, the guards lit torches, the same as those that flared to life in the muddy streets below. Aesa laid her bow across her knees, letting her eyes adjust to the failing light.

  When the first tower guard fell from sight, Aesa blinked, not quite sure of what she’d seen. But then a second slid to the ground without a sound. The last light of the sun had disappeared, ceding the night to Gilka.

  Aesa crept to the edge of her perch, scanning the street below, but no one seemed to notice the missing guard. She could sound the alarm, but for what purpose? She couldn’t convince an entire village to flee.

  She squeezed her bow until she feared it would crack. Find Ell, she told herself. That was all she could do now. Search the faces below, and if Ell wasn’t here…

  She would give herself to Gilka. When the crews flooded the streets, she would hand herself over to them and accept her fate.

  The gate moved slowly, the breeze picking up. As it bowed inward, though, Aesa knew this was no ordinary wind. If she’d been closer, she might have heard the chant.

  The gate flew inward, snapping in a loud, splintery crunch. Shouts started from the guards nearby, but Gilka’s crews poured through the opened gate like a flood, noiselessly cutting down everyone in their path.

  Cries spread through the village like flames, all from the mouths of guards. Aesa leaned far forward, scanning faces, searching, hoping. The wind picked up, gusting around her, and she heard chanting at last. A chill ran down Aesa’s spine as the rustling rush of hundreds of wings sounded from above. Runa had unleashed her birds.

  Aesa dropped her bow and covered her head, unsure of how the birds determined friend from foe. Maybe they only attacked those who were armed. The wind whipped her stolen robe as bird cries filled the air. A raptor’s wing brushed her back, and she flailed to get away. Her right foot skidded
. The edge of the roof loomed like a black pit. She grabbed a fistful of thatch that tore away.

  With a cry, Aesa tumbled, back first, toward the ground. Birds of every size filled the sky for a split second before the impact took her breath and her vision, leaving her still.

  Chapter Nineteen

  Fernagher was quite beautiful, Laret supposed, but not enough for all the trouble it had caused. She didn’t know what she’d expected. More than trees and shrubs and grass. She might have felt different if the trees were purple, or the shrubs sang, or the grass could cure someone’s every woe, but this was just land.

  Ulfrecht didn’t even give them time to search for interesting plants. They marched all day, looking for Gilka’s trail. He hadn’t wanted to land exactly where she’d landed, Dain had said. He didn’t want to fight with her ships; they had to leave her a way off the island if they forced her to retreat.

  Not that he would let her. What Ulfrecht thought of Laret’s suggestion to cut the island off from Gilka rather than kill her, Laret never found out. Ulfrecht hadn’t spoken to her or Maeve, leaving them to Ari and Dain and another warrior, a dour man called Henrik.

  When Laret got tired of looking for the reason Fernagher was so special, she watched Ulfrecht’s crews instead. Through a gap in their ranks, she spotted someone watching her, and when she took a better look at his face, she gasped.

  Maeve looked to where she stared. “Einar!”

  “I just noticed him.”

  “He’s certainly noticed you. I can feel his scowl from here.”

  Laret sniffed. “I’d hoped he’d been killed.” She grinned as she relived the moment after he’d grabbed her neck hard enough to leave a bruise. She’d nicked her finger on one of the sharp beads lining the hem of her hanab and smeared his fingers with it, leeching his blood out from under his nails in painful rivulets. “I notice he hasn’t tried to get any closer to us.”

  “Worthless little prick,” Maeve said. “If he was any closer, I’d kick him.”