Take a Thief

by Mercedes Lackey

  She'd told him which herbs to make into a poultice that did a lot to ease the ache of his eye and nose, and more to make into a tea that did something about his throbbing head. She already knew, evidently, that he could cook, and had left him alone while he readied his dinner over the tiny hearth in the Way Station. Now he couldn't imagine why he hadn't figured out she was a Companion immediately.

  Unless it was just that the idea of a Companion wandering around in an old worn set of tack was so preposterous, and the idea of a Companion deciding to make a Herald out of a thief was still more so.

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  :I told them to tack me up in the oldest kit in the stables that would fit me,: she offered, as he scooped the oatcakes off their stone and juggled one from hand to hand, waiting for it to cool enough to eat. He gave her a curious stare.

  "Ye— ye kidnapped me!" he accused.

  :Well, would you have come with me if I'd walked up to you and Chosen you?: she asked, her head cocked to one side. :I am sorry about your nose, but that was an accident.:

  "But—"

  :I've known for several weeks that you were my Chosen, : she said, as if it was so matter-of-fact that he shouldn't even be considering any other possibility. :I've just been waiting for the opportunity to get you alone where I could explain things to you.:

  "But—"

  :You've already lost this argument, you know,: she pointed out. :Three times, in fact.:

  He gave up. Besides, the cake was cool enough to eat. And he was hungry enough by this point to eat the oats raw, much less in the cakes he'd just made.

  He put a second poultice on his eye and nose and lay back in the boxbed that filled most of the Way Station. It had a thick layer of fresh hay in it, covered over with a coarse canvas sheet; it was just as comfortable as his bed in the Priory, and although he wasn't sleepy yet, he didn't really want to venture out into the alien environment outside his door. He heard things out there; all manner of unfamiliar sounds enlivened the darkness, and he didn't much care for them. There were wild animals out there, owls and bats and who knew what else. There could be bears….

  :You don't for one moment think that I would let anything hurt you, do you?: The unexpected fierceness of that question made him open his good 202

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  eye and turn his head to look at her, where she lay half-in, half-out of the doorway.

  "I don' know anything 'bout you," he admitted, slowly. "Nothin' at all 'bout Companions."

  :Well, I wouldn't.: She sighed. :And you're about to learn a great deal about Companions.:

  "No, I ain't. They're gonna take one look at me an' throw me out," he replied, stubbornly.

  :No, they aren't. They already know who you are, what you are, and that I'm bringing you in tomorrow.:

  "What?" he yelped, sitting up straight, keeping the poultice clapped to his eye with one hand.

  :Well, not everybody, just the people who need to. The Dean of the Collegium— that's the Herald who's in charge of the whole of Heralds'

  Collegium. Herald Alberich, the Weapons master. The Queen's Own and the Queen. A couple of the other teachers. They all know, and they aren't going to throw you out.: She was so matter-of-fact about it— as if it shouldn't even occur to him to doubt her. :As to how they know, I told them, of course. Actually I told them through their Companions, but it amounts to the same thing.:

  He flopped back down in the bed, head spinning. This was all going much too fast for him. Much, much too fast. "Now what am I gonna do?" he moaned, mostly to himself. "I can't ever go back— th' Watch'd hev me afore I took a step—"

  :You couldn't go back anyway.: Cymry replied.

  "But—"

  :Skif— do you really, really want me to leave you?: The voice in his mind was no more than a whisper, but it was a whisper that woke the echoes of that unforgettable moment when he felt an empty place inside him fill with something he had wanted for so long, so very, very long—

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  "No," he whispered back, and to his profound embarrassment, felt his throat swelling with a sob at the very thought.

  :I didn't think so. Because I couldn't bear to lose you.: Her thoughts took on a firmer tone. :And I won't. No one tries to separate a Companion and her Chosen. That would be— unthinkable.:

  He lay in the firelit darkness for a long time, listening to the strange night sounds in the woods outside, the beating of his own heart, and his own thoughts.

  Then he sighed heavily. "I guess I gotta be a Herald," he said reluctantly.

  "But I still think there's gonna be trouble."

  :Then we'll face it together. Because I am never, ever going to let anyone separate us.:

  * * *

  In the morning, gingerly probing of his nose and the area around his eye—and the fact that he could actually open that eye again— proved that the poultice had done its work. He cleaned himself up in the cold water, and donned his shirt and trews— wrinkled and a little damp, but they'd have to do. They both ate, he cleaned the things he'd used and shut the Way Station up again. He'd been stiff and sore when he woke up, but he knew from experience that only moving around would make that kind of soreness go away. Besides, at the moment, he couldn't wait to get back to the city where he belonged. Whatever people saw in "the country" was invisible to him. The silence alone would drive him crazy in a day. There was just one problem, of course— and that was that he wasn't going home, he was going to this Collegium place. As he mounted Cymry's well-worn saddle— with a great deal more decorum this time— he shook his head slightly. "I still think there's gonna be trouble," he predicted glumly.

  :Skif, there will always be trouble where you are,: she replied mischievously. :We'll just have to try to keep it from getting out of hand!: 204

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  Without a backward glance, she started up the forest trail, going in a few paces from a walk to a trot to an easy lope. It was very strange, riding her, now that he knew what she was. For one thing, she wasn't a horse— he didn't have control over her, and that was the way it was supposed to be, not an accident. But as they moved out of the woods and onto roads that had a bit of morning traffic, he began to notice something else.

  Now that they weren't charging down the road in a manner threatening to life and limb, people paid attention to Cymry, they clearly knew what she was, and they looked at her, and by extension her rider, with respect.

  Or at least they did until they saw his black eye.

  But even then, they looked at him with respect only leavened with sympathy. And since they weren't galloping at a headlong pace, but rather moving in and out of the traffic at a respectable, but easy trot, some people actually began to call greetings to him and her.

  "New-Chosen, aye, lad?" said a farmer, perched so high on the seat of his wagon that he was eye-to-eye with Skif. And without waiting for an answer, added, "Here, catch!" and tossed him a ripe pear.

  Startled, he caught it neatly, and the second one that the same man tossed to him, before Cymry found another opening in the traffic and moved smoothly ahead.

  :If you'd cut that up into quarters, I'd like some.: He was only too pleased to oblige, since he had the feeling that was what the farmer intended anyway. The little eating knife he always kept in his belt was accessible enough, and since he didn't have to use the reins, he didn't have to try and cut the pears up one-handed. She reached around and took each quarter daintily from his hand as he leaned over her neck to hand it to her.

  Everywhere he looked, he met smiles and nods. It was a remarkable sensation, not only to be noticed, but to elicit that reaction in total strangers.

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  He did feel rather— naked, though. He wasn't at all comfortable with all of this noticing.

  :Don't worry. You'll blend in once you're in your Grays. You'll be just another Trainee.:

  He was getting used to her talking in his head— Mind
speech, she called it— and he was starting to get vague pictures and other associations along with the words. When she talked about being "in his Grays," he knew at once that what she meant was the uniform of the Heraldic Trainees, modeled after the Heralds' own uniforms, but gray in color.

  :That's so people don't expect you to know what you're doing yet,: she told him, looking back over her shoulder at him with one eye. :And by the way, you don't have to actually talk to me for me to hear and understand you.: So she knew what he was thinking. That wasn't exactly a comforting thought. A man liked to have a little privacy—

  :And when you're a man, I'll give it to you.:

  "Hey!" he said, staring at her ears indignantly, and garnering the curious glances of a couple driving a donkey cart next to him.

  :Oh, don't be so oversensitive! I won't eavesdrop! You'll just have to learn not to "shout" all your thoughts.: Great, now he would have to watch, not only what he did and said, but what he thought…. This Herald business was getting more unpleasant all the time.

  :It's not like that, Skif,: she said coaxingly. :Really it isn't. I was just teasing you.:

  He found a smile starting, no matter how he tried to fight it down. How could he possibly stay angry with her? How could he even get angry with her? And maybe that was the point.

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  He wasn't sure how long it had taken them to get from the park where he'd found her to the Way Station where they stopped, but it took them most of the morning to get back to Haven. The Guards on the walls paid absolutely no attention to him, although they had to have seen him careening down the road yesterday. Cymry didn't volunteer any information as he craned his neck up to look at them, then bestowed a measuring glance at the two on either side of the passage beneath the wall. He wondered what they were thinking, and what they might have said or done yesterday.

  They sure didn't try to stop us, anyway. Not that it was likely that they'd have had much luck— not with only two Guards on the ground and Cymry able to leap a farm wagon without thinking about it. Maybe it was just as well they hadn't tried. He might have ended up with both eyes blackened.

  Once they got inside the city walls, though, people stopped paying as much attention to them. Well, that wasn't such a surprise, people saw Heralds coming and going all the time in Haven. On the whole, he felt a bit more comfortable without so many eyes on him.

  Their progress took him through some areas he wasn't at all familiar with as they wound their way toward the Palace and the Collegia. He didn't exactly have a lot to do with craftsmen and shopkeepers— his forte was roof walking and the liftin' lay, not taking things from shops. That had always seemed vaguely wrong to him anyway; those people worked hard to make or get their goods, and taking anything from them was taking bread off their tables. Helping himself to the property of those who already had so much they couldn't keep track of it, now, that was one thing— but taking a pair of shoes from a cobbler who'd worked hard to make them just because he took a fancy to them was something else again.

  Once they got in among the homes of the wealthy, though, it was a different story. He eyed some of those places, all close-kept behind their shuttered windows, with a knowing gaze. At one point or another he had checked out a great many of them, and he knew some of them very, very well indeed. The owner of that one had not one, but two mistresses that his wife knew nothing about— and they didn't know about each other. He treated them all well, though, so to Skif's mind none of them should have 207

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  much to complain about. Sometimes he wondered, however, where the man was getting all the money he spent on them….

  :He's honest enough, but there are others,: Cymry put in. :You see what I mean by needing your skills?:

  He furrowed his brow and concentrated on thinking what he wanted to say instead of saying it out loud. :I suppose—: he said dubiously.

  But they were soon past the second wall, out of the homes of the merely wealthy, and in among the manses of the great. And Skif had to snicker a little as they passed Lord Orthallen's imposing estate. It was the first time he'd come at it from the front, but he couldn't mistake those pale stone walls for any other. How many times had he feasted at m'lord's table, and him all unaware?

  They passed Lord Orthallen's home, passed others that Skif had not dared approach, so guarded around were they by the owner's own retainers. And finally there was nothing on his right but the final wall, blank and forbidding, that marked the Palace itself.

  His apprehension returned, and he unconsciously hunched his head down, trying to appear inconspicuous, even though there was no one to see him.

  No— there was someone.

  The next turning brought them within sight of a single Guardsman in dark blue, who manned a small gate. Cymry trotted up to him quite as if she passed in and out of that gate all the time, and the man nodded as if he recognized her.

  "This would be Cymry," he said aloud, casting a jaundiced eye up at Skif, who shrank within himself. "They're expecting you," he continued, opening the gate for them to pass through, although he didn't say who they were.

  Cymry walked through, all dignity, and began to climb the graveled road that led toward an entire complex of buildings. Skif tensed. Now I'm in for it, he thought, and felt his heart drop down into his boots.

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  14

  He sat in Cymry's saddle like a sack of grain, and waited for doom to fall on him. She had taken him up the path, through what looked like a heavily-wooded park, past one enormous wing of a building so huge it had to be the Palace. Eventually they came to a long wooden building beside the river in the middle of a huge fenced field— he'd have called it a stable, except that there weren't any doors on the stalls….

  Then again, if this was where Companions stayed, there wouldn't be any need for doors on the stalls, would there?

  It had a pounded-dirt floor covered ankle-deep in clean straw, and there was a second door on the opposite side, also open. These gave the only light. Cymry walked inside, quite at home.

  The building was oddly deserted except—

  Except—

  For three people who were very clearly waiting for him just inside the door. One was an odd, birdlike man, slight and trim, hardly taller than Skif, with a cap of dark gray hair and an intelligent, though worried, expression. The second was taller, with a fairly friendly face which at the moment also bore a distinctly worried expression. Both of them wore the white uniform only a Herald was allowed to wear.

  His "welcoming committee," evidently.

  He couldn't see the third one very well, since he was standing carefully back in the shadows. The third person wasn't wearing the white uniform though; his clothing was dark enough to blend in with the shadows.

  Could be sommut from the Guard, he thought gloomily. Gonna haul me off t' gaol soon's the other two get done with me.

  :He's not, and you're not going to gaol,: said Cymry. But that was all she said. He couldn't find it in himself to feel less than uneasy about the shadowy lurker.

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  She stopped a few paces away from the two men, and Skif gingerly dismounted, turning to face them with his hands clasped behind his back.

  A moment later, he dropped his eyes. Whatever was coming, he didn't want to meet their faces and see their disgust.

  "So," said the smaller one, "you seem to be the young person that Companion Cymry has Chosen."

  "Yessir," Skif replied, gazing at his ill-shod toes.

  "And we're given to understand that you— ah— your profession— you—"

  The man fumbled for words, and Skif decided to get the agony over with all at once.

  " 'M a thief, sir," he said, half defiantly. "Tha's what I do." He thought about adding any number of qualifying statements— that it had been a better choice than working for his uncle, that no one had offered him any other sort of employment and he had to e
at; even that if Bazie hadn't been around to take him in and train him, he'd probably be dead now and not Chosen. But he kept all of those things to himself. For some reason, the clever retorts he had didn't seem all that clever at the moment.

  The shorter man sighed. "I suppose you're expecting me to give you an ineffective and stuffy lecture about how you are supposed to be a new person and you can't go on doing that sort of thing anymore now that you're a Trainee."

  Skif stopped looking at his toes and instead glanced up, startled, at the speaker. "Uh— you're not?"

  " You are not stupid," the man said, and smiled faintly, though his tone sounded weary. "If you've already played over that particular lecture in your mind, then I will skip it and get to the point. I am Dean Elcarth. I am in charge of Herald's Collegium. The moment you entered the gate here, so far as we are concerned, whatever you were or did before you arrived here became irrelevant. You were Chosen. The Companions don't make mistakes. There must be the makings of a Herald in you. Therefore you are welcome. But when you get in trouble, and you will, because sooner or 210

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  later at least half of our Trainees get in trouble, please remember that what you do reflects on the rest of us as well, and Heralds are not universally beloved among a certain faction of the highborn. The others will give you the details as they see fit, but the sum of what I have to say is that you are supposed to be part of a solution, not part of a problem, and I hope we can show you why in such a way that you actually feel that in your deepest heart."

  During this rather remarkable speech, Skif had felt his jaw sagging slowly.