~And when they watched?
~Nothing. Stirred the fire. Walked in circles. No threat.
~What about Juhrnus and Sodur?
Those two had taken the last two watches, leaving Reisil to sleep through the night. She still had a great deal of healing to do, Sodur told her. And sleep was the best cure.
~Stirred the fire. Walked in circles..
The wounds on Reisil’s ribs felt remarkably better this morning, and the gouges on her face had closed so well that she no longer felt the need to go bandaged, though she slathered her healing ointment over them liberally. Kebonsat and Sodur both smiled encouragingly at her, though both were taken aback by the livid scars spreading like winter-stripped willows over her cheek and jaw and down to disappear into her collar.
Juhrnus treated her no differently and somehow Reisil felt better for that. He didn’t like her, true, but to him, she remained who she was, no need for pity. Kebonsat had said that the scars would not mar her kind of beauty, but that was before he’d seen them.
They set out again, following the trail that now ran parallel to the river, following the sinuous twists as the canyon gave way to a steep-sided gorge. The grasses made a whithying sound as they brushed through them, sending up tangy green scents of summer.
Saljane gave her kek-kek-kek-kek cry, raising her wings so that Reisil had to lean out of the way. She bumped Juhrnus’s chest and he put his hands on her shoulders to steady her.
~Stop that!
~Feel good. Fly?
~Not yet. This evening, and only for a short while.
They had decided the wizard night had lasted two days, which meant Saljane should be healed enough to try flying. Saljane subsided and Reisil could feel her impatience, almost sulking, if a goshawk could be capable of such a human emotion. But Saljane remained quiescent the rest of the day. Reisil didn’t look forward to the goshawk’s flight. Just the thought of that dizzying height made Reisil’s gorge rise. She swallowed and breathed deeply, trying to relax, doing her best to keep her reaction well hidden from her ahalad-kaaslane. She remembered that first day, asking if Saljane could read her thoughts. Maybe someday it would happen, but for now she was glad to be able to keep a few secrets.
They paused for only a few minutes at the noon hour to stretch and relieve themselves while giving the animals a chance to snatch a few mouthfuls of the lush grass. The way grew steeper shortly after, and Reisil’s dun and Sodur’s sorrel began to show signs of strain, slowing their pace even more. Kebonsat took Glevs on his horse and Upsakes took Juhrnus on his, increasing their speed for the moment. But Reisil knew it couldn’t last. Something would have to be done.
“The Lady will provide,” Sodur reassured her, bringing his horse up alongside.
“I hope so,” Reisil said dubiously, looking at Upsakes. He had lost his laudanum when he lost his horse. As a result, his temper seemed to grow sharper and more erratic with every passing moment. She said nothing of the small vial she carried in her healer’s pack.
“Do not be hard on him,” Sodur said, following her gaze. “He may not appear so at the moment, but he has been one of the Blessed Lady’s brightest stars.” At Reisil’s look of astonishment Sodur chuckled. “You have not seen him at his best. He was chosen quite young, long before my Lume found me. We were friends in Koduteel. Young ruffians, the lot of us, running about making mischief. Then one day Kasepu, his weirmart, appeared out of nowhere, crawled up his trouser leg, chittering away furiously at him. I think he’d been in the midst of playing a practical joke on his mother. He was only eleven years old. Youngest ahalad-kaaslane ever.
“Everyone seemed to think it was a sign of greatness to come. And he has done some remarkable things, especially in the war with Patverseme. He rescued an entire village by himself, and he’s spied out many of the enemy’s secrets.” Sodur sighed. “But he failed at Mysane Kosk. There was misinformation. On his word, many troops and supplies were directed elsewhere and he sent refugees into Mysane Kosk.” Sodur fell silent, the clopping of the horses’ hooves measuring the minutes. After a while he roused himself and spoke again.
“So you understand him a bit. The massacre was a blow to all of Kodu Riik, but he took it worst of all. He’s always been so sure of himself as ahalad-kaaslane. Everyone, including Upsakes and myself, has always believed the Lady chose him so young for a great purpose, a great destiny. Then Mysane Kosk happened. He’s felt responsible for it. It drives him.”
Drives him to help kidnap Ceriba? To keep the war going until he can get vengeance? Reisil wondered.
“What’s it like in Koduteel?” Reisil asked, changing the subject. “Upsakes said I should have gone there for training.”
“There are very few ahalad-kaaslane with birds, and even fewer with birds of prey. They—you—are a special resource that the Iisand uses heavily, which is why you will need to go there.”
“What does he need us for that others can’t do?”
“So many things, but the predator birds can fly higher and farther than any other. And they need not have the supervision that sillier songbirds need. They carry messages, spy out enemies—they are also responsible for the deaths of not a few wizards.”
“How?”
“The birds stoop so quickly and from so far, the wizards don’t realize they are under attack until too late. A stooping hawk can break an unsuspecting man’s neck, or gouge through his eyes into his brainpan. I don’t need to tell you, a tark, how easy it could be to kill someone that way. If the bird hits during the casting of a spell when a wizard’s shields are down, the blow need not be fatal—the magic rebounds on the wielder. We’ve lost a few birds that way, but have won battles also.”
“And Saljane would be taught to do these things in Koduteel?”
“Those and many more. Your training will include everything from surviving in the wilds to courtly behaviors. The ahalad-kaaslane have free reign in Kodu Riik, coming and going as we choose. We have no rankings, though generally experience gains the respect it deserves. There are those who spend more time in the court, acting as liaisons between the ahalad-kaaslane and Iisand Samir. But any one of us can go anywhere at any time, right into the Iisand’s bath chamber if you like—though he might have something to say about it. You must remember that we serve Kodu Riik and her people. Though we often accommodate the requests of the Iisand, we are not bound to him; the Lady’s law is always higher.”
“So why did Iisand Samir threaten Kallas?” Reisil demanded, surprising herself with how angry she was at the idea. Sodur shook his head, frowning.
“I do not know. I wanted to ask the herald—Upsakes and I know a good number of them. They travel Kodu Riik as we do, gathering information and bringing messages from Koduteel.” He paused and his head shot up.
“What is it?”
He looked at Reisil, for a moment not seeing her. He paled and swallowed, his throat bobbing jerkily.
“Sodur, what’s the matter?”
He started and blinked at her.
“What? Oh, nothing. Just something struck me . . .” He said nothing more, turning his head forward, his brow furrowed.
They rode well into the dusk, making their camp by firelight. With Lume’s help, Sodur had brought down a doe earlier in the day and so they feasted on roasted venison.
Reisil allowed Saljane a short flight up the gorge as the evening approached.
~Don’t hunt,, she advised. You may strain those muscles if you stoop. And no acrobatics, either. She felt Saljane’s joy in being airborne, though she didn’t have to suffer the view from above, Saljane not insisting that her ahalad-kaaslane link minds.
Sodur took the first watch and Kebonsat followed Reisil to the river, where she rinsed the pot in which she made tea from her precious supply.
“Will Saljane be able to scout ahead for us tomorrow?” he asked.
“I think so. She didn’t feel much pain today, though it would be easy for her to overextend herself. She’ll have to rest often—if I can
convince her to do so.”
“Good. We need horses—maybe we can find a croft or village.”
The next morning Reisil tossed Saljane into the air before clambering aboard the gelding. Once again Juhrnus rode behind her and Glevs behind Sodur. The morning was cool, with a promise of heat for the afternoon. A breeze twirled the loose tendrils of her hair and sped away across the grasses.
Before she could mount again after the noontime halt, Saljane grabbed her mind. Reisil clutched the saddle and gasped, closing her eyes against the confusion of their shared sight.
Saljane skimmed above the gorge, which wormed away into the sly hollows of the mountain’s shoulders. In a crook of the river below was a stockaded village. Cultivated fields made geometric patterns in greens and golds along the river in both directions.
~Good girl,, Reisil told Saljane, who radiated triumph back. How do you feel? Can you keep going?
~Rest, eat, fly again.
~Good, but don’t overdo it. See if you can find any traces of Ceriba, if the trail keeps following the gorge.
Saljane let go and Reisil swallowed down her lunch, which had crept back up her throat as she swooped over the river gorge. Juhrnus steadied her as she straightened and released her grip on the dun gelding’s mane.
“There’s a village ahead,” she announced to the others.
“Lady be praised,” said Sodur. “We’ll buy replacement horses for Upsakes and Glevs and fresh mounts for the rest of us.”
“Any idea how far?” Kebonsat asked Reisil. She shook her head. “Let’s go then, and see if we can get there before nightfall.”
They came at last to a place where the river gorge narrowed into a bottleneck and they could go no farther following the river’s path.
“The village must be beyond,” Reisil said, looking up at the rocky cliffs through which the river boiled in white, frothy fury.
“Here! There’s a path,” Sodur called. Glevs rode behind Kebonsat again. Sodur and Lume had picked their way along the brushy base of the cliffs and now waved them over.
Red sand lined the zigzagging path upward. Man-made, Reisil thought.
They mounted the trail, leading their horses up the steep incline. Reisil was panting as she reached the top. She paused in the fading sunlight to gaze into the valley below.
The path flung itself up over the cliffs in savage, steep jumps, and then dropped down more gradually, following a gentle curve into a long valley. Horses, goats and cattle grazed below, guarded by herders and dogs. The village lay another half league beyond the point where the path melded with the valley floor. A swampy low patch spread out from the river in between, dividing the pasturelands from the village. Cattails, butterbur and comfrey rooted in the marshy ground, and swarms of mosquitoes hummed above.
“Do you think it wise for all of us to approach at this hour?” asked Glevs as they reached flat ground. “I’m looking a bit disreputable, as is my friend here,” he said, jerking his thumb at Upsakes.
Kebonsat glanced over his shoulder. “You’re right. I will go and make the purchase.”
“Not alone,” Upsakes protested. “Take Sodur with you. While you’re trading, he can find out about your sister—how long since they passed through and where they said they were going.”
Kebonsat nodded, eyes narrowed, unable to fight the logic, though Reisil could see the suspicion dancing in his eyes. Glevs swung to the ground.
“We’ll set up camp by the river.”
Kebonsat and Sodur departed into the golden dusk leading the other two horses. Juhrnus and Glevs fetched wood while Reisil dug in her pack for fishing line. She sat on a tussock of grass over a six-foot drop where the water had gnawed away the underside of the bank, untangling her line and slapping at mosquitoes.
She heard Upsakes digging a firepit behind her. After a few moments, his footsteps crunched on the gravel behind her. He stopped, watching over her left shoulder. Her skin prickled. Reisil kept working at the tangle, tugging too sharply and reknotting what she’d just worked free. Upsakes made a disapproving sound and bent to pick up a smooth river rock for lining the fire pit. His breath steamed hot against her neck as he stooped. He straightened, laying his free hand on her shoulder and squeezing gently, like a lover.
“You’ve no idea how long I’ve been wanting to do this,” he said in a swollen, gloating voice.
Then pain exploded behind Reisil’s ear and she collapsed unconscious to the ground.
Chapter 12
Reisil’s head throbbed and her mouth tasted of grit. She lay twisted on the ground. Groaning, she turned to lie flat—or as flat as she could with her bound hands gouging into her back. She flexed her fingers and found she could hardly feel them, so tight were the bindings. Nor could she feel her feet.
“She’s awake.” Glevs squatted beside her, roughly shoving her onto her stomach to check her bindings. He ran his fingers over her swollen flesh and yanked to see if they were loose. Reisil whimpered at the pain. “Good job. She’ll not get those undone soon.”
“Not soon enough, anyway,” Upsakes said, his voice juicy with satisfaction.
“You don’t like her much, do you?” Glevs stood and walked away, leaving Reisil facedown.
“She’s poison. She refused the Blessed Lady’s gift, and now she’s corrupted the bond. Her assistance to that wizard is clear proof.”
“How’s that different from you? We’ve got wizards on our side,” Glevs pointed out.
“Necessary evil, and I know the difference. She doesn’t. I accept my ahalad-kaaslane and she doesn’t. I am acting as the Lady wishes, and in hindering me, she does not.”
“If you say so. What about the whelp?”
“No telling where he stands and no time to find out. They’re getting too close to ruining the plan. Besides, he’s ahalad-kaaslane. If he is truly faithful to the Lady, then he will be grateful to aid in our success in any way he can.”
Upsakes planned to kill her and Juhrnus too. She knew it as if he’d danced through the clearing shouting it.
A creeping stiffness invaded Reisil and she began to tremble like a bowstring pulled too taut. A moan in the shadows beside her made her realize that Juhrnus lay inches away, his head at her feet.
“Aid?” Glevs laughed, a brassy, booming sound. “I don’t know that he’d call getting dead aid, but why not? It will certainly keep him out of trouble.” He laughed again, a greasy, sinister sound. “I’ll miss you, you varlet, when this is all over and we go back to trying to kill one another.”
“As you say, but we’re not through yet. Once we take care of our present company, we’ll have to fan the flames. Let the others finish the Vadonis girl, then take the body to Vitne Ozols. If her father hasn’t committed to a new war by then, that should do it. He’s got enough influence in court to convince your Karalis to revoke the treaty. With the wretched evidence of his daughter’s ill-used body, he won’t think twice.”
“You play dirty,” Glevs said in an admiring voice. “I wouldn’t have thought any ahalad-kaaslane would treat with the Wizard Guild, or kill your own.”
“Couldn’t have managed it without the Guild, nor they without me,” Upsakes replied smugly. “As for Sodur and Juhrnus, I put the blame on that bastard-get, Reisil. If she’d taken the Blessed Lady’s gift when it first came to her, then I’d have sent her with Sodur and the other newly chosen to Koduteel, where they’d have been well out of danger. As it is, we’re only here because of her. I ought to be in Kallas right now, planning our war strategy. But you must take some credit as well. It cannot have been easy to let us have the daughter of your employer, and now to kill his son. You grew up together, no? And your family has long served House Vadonis.”
“As you say, I regret the steps I’ve had to take. But this treaty cannot be allowed.” Glevs sounded unrepentant. Reisil growled in her throat, remembering Kebonsat’s adamant defense of his boyhood companion.
“Hsst! They’re coming back. Kasepu says they are crossing the wetlands
now,” Upsakes declared.
“Then let’s get these out of the way.”
Glevs and Upsakes bent over the two captives. Reisil choked on the handful of dirt Upsakes shoved in her mouth before he tied on a gag. Fear and fury vied for dominance as he pinched her cheek, his lips shining with saliva. He grinned, the tip of his tongue running along the edges of his teeth.
“There you go, girly. Not a good time to make noise now.” He stood up, rolling her over to the steep edge of the bank with his feet. “Call your bird, girly. See what good it does you. She’ll not come in time. Maybe if you’d done like I told you, you wouldn’t be in this mess.” Then he shoved her hard and she pitched down the bank, plunging down into soft mud and shallow, sucking water.
Reisil wrenched away from the water’s frigid tongue and banged up against Juhrnus, who had fallen between her and the bank. He wriggled away, his body making wet, slurping sounds as he inched along. He was making a moaning, keening sound behind his gag, a sound of unrelenting grief. Reisil followed, her nostrils flaring as she struggled for air, her tongue straining to push out the dirt and gag that choked her.
~Saljane! she called.
~I am here.
~Come back! Come back to me now. Reisil’s head and side throbbed and she couldn’t feel her hands. Her mind felt shattered and unfocused, so much so that she could hardly maintain the contact.
~What has happened?
Worry. Fear. Fury.
~Come back. Hurry.
The connection broke, snapped by a wash of pain and fear. Reisil lay supine in the water. It was futile to call Saljane. Upsakes knew the goshawk was not a night bird. Hot tears seeped from Reisil’s eyes. What had she done? There was nothing Saljane could do, even if she didn’t get lost or run into a mountainside.
Path of Fate Page 22