Iriny grimaced at their crude boasting, but I thought it better to listen to the utterances of fools than to have them looking about attentively. Once they had marched away, we decided to wait before coming out.
“This city has a bad feel to me,” Iriny muttered. I asked if it had always been so, and she said that she had never been here before, which surprised me. She shrugged, saying, “I have been to Stonehill several times since my brother permitted halfbreeds to join the Twentyfamilies, but I never came into Halfmoon Bay. Swallow did, of course, and others of the tribe, for there was always a good market for our more complex and costly work here, but I do not enjoy cities.”
Again we heard footsteps, but these were light and quick, and when I sent out a probe, I found Erit wondering where I was. Iriny and I emerged to find him standing a little distance away scratching his head. I called his name softly, and he swung round. His eyes widened at the sight of Iriny.
“You are a gypsy,” he said when we approached, the bluish radiance of predawn slicking his ratty little dirt-streaked face.
“I am, and what sort of burrowing animal are you?” Iriny asked, sounding amused.
The boy bridled and stuck out his chin. “I am Erit and I’m not afraid of you.”
“Good,” Iriny said. “I am not afraid of you either. But I hope this house we are going to has something more than bread and potatoes, for I am fearfully hungry.”
“There is no time to waste in gorging ourselves,” I said, knowing it was mere hours now till midday and the start of the masked moon fair.
“We can do nothing until the sun has risen and the city begins to stir,” Erit said.
“Aro has a plan, then?” I asked eagerly.
He nodded but said he would let Aro explain it. “Is she coming with us?” Erit asked, looking at Iriny. “I suppose you found her visiting their ghosts?”
“Ghosts?” I said, puzzled. “You mean the statues atop Stonehill?”
“The stone garden is said to be haunted by the ghouls of dead gypsies,” he said.
That explained why no one else lived atop the hill, I thought. “Why did you tell me to go up there, if there are ghouls?” I asked as Erit turned and beckoned for us to follow.
He looked over his shoulder at me. “It is said the ghouls only drink the blood of those who are treacherous and evil-hearted.”
I blinked, startled to realize that I had been tested.
5
IT WAS NOT far to Rolf’s house, which stood at the end of a row of small dwellings. No light showed at the windows, but the moment Erit knocked, the door was opened by a woman so like Rolf that she could only be his sister. She was older by perhaps a decade, and her hair was gray-streaked where his was dark, but her smile had the same warmth as she bade us enter the main room before we introduced ourselves. Rolf was waiting there, sitting at a scrubbed wooden table, his face and hands clean and his hair combed. He urged us to sit, too, for he could not easily stand. We obeyed, and I introduced Iriny.
“I am Arolfic and this is my sister, Mona. Erit you have met, though probably he had not manners enough to offer his name to you, or ask yours,” Rolf said in his rumbling voice.
“She is a gypsy,” Erit said.
“I do have eyes enough to see it, boy,” Rolf said. He looked at me. “I once heard that rebels across the Suggredoon have had some dealings with the Twentyfamilies.”
“It is true. But Rolf, before we go on, I must tell you the truth about myself and the danger my friend Domick poses to you and the west coast. My name is Elspeth Gordie, and I am a Misfit.”
He shrugged. “I know that Misfits worked with the rebels. Indeed, I once heard the rebel leader Serba speak out passionately against those who regard them as lesser beings because they are different.”
“Domick, whom we hope to rescue, is a Misfit, too. But some time ago, he was captured by the Herders. We did not know this until recently when I learned he had been delivered to Ariel, who is not a priest but serves them and is high in their councils. That is the blond man you saw bringing Domick from the Black Ship. When you spoke of seeing the man with him yesterday, I used my Talents to look at your memory. That was when I saw that the man with Ariel was Domick. That was why I was so shocked. Until that moment, I did not know the person I followed was a friend.”
“But if you did not know, then why were you following him?” Rolf asked.
“Because I learned that the blond man, Ariel, had brought a man here from Herder Isle whom he meant to infect with a deadly plague that would spread to all who came into contact with him, once it became contagious. I know the west coast has endured plague before, but this will be worse, for all who contract it will die. I came to find the man Ariel had brought here, because I wanted to stop the plague.”
Rolf’s face had gone pale, and I saw that his sister had pressed a hand to her mouth in dismay.
“You said once it became contagious,” Erit said.
I nodded, once again appreciating his quickness. “There is a delay of several days between when a person is infected and the moment he can infect others. Domick is infected, but there will be a few days before he can infect anyone else. The trouble is that we do not know the exact length of the delay or when Domick was infected. I think that Ariel brought Domick specifically to Halfmoon Bay because people come from every town on the coast to attend the masked moon fair and that means that the plague will spread so swiftly that no city will be able to close its gates to isolate itself. Since the moon fair begins today, and since Domick has not yet left the Faction house, I am assuming that the plague seeds he carries will not ripen until today at the soonest.”
“You should have told us,” Erit said accusingly.
“Now, boy,” Rolf said soothingly. “Maybe she could have told us sooner, but I don’t suppose she had any malicious reason for failing to do so.” He looked at me. “It is hard to understand how a sickness can be carried about and dispensed like a patent medicine, yet if you are correct, it seems as if you might be right about the timing of this foul business, for Erit and his friends have learned that your Domick is to be escorted by the Hedra at the Faction house to the first-night festivities as a special envoy from the One. That will put him at the heart of the crowds for several hours, and although there will be feasts each night of the festival, this is always the best attended and most lavish, for it is when Councilman Kana will crown a masked moon king or queen.”
“How did you learn this?” I asked Erit, who was scowling at the table. He glared at me.
“I talked to one of the kitchen maids. She told me about this queer priest over from Herder Isle who was to be a special envoy from the One and who would attend every event, starting with the first-night feast, to pass among the people and grant them Lud’s blessing. She said she did not see how he could manage it, since he seemed quite mad. She thought it a pity the handsome fellow who had brought him was not to be the envoy.” Erit looked suddenly at Rolf. “We will need a new plan.”
Rolf nodded, saying to me, “I had thought to take your friend during the first-night’s festivities, but I see now that we must take him as soon as possible. Erit, go over what you learned again and let me have a think.”
Erit obliged. “The maid said the Hedra think your friend mad. She said the priests complain that he has not come out of his room at all since the handsome blond man had helped him into it. He will open his door only a crack to admit plain fruit and water. He has been offered bathing water but refuses it with the terror of a man being offered a mug of poison. She said she had heard his moans and shouts, even though her sleeping chamber is on the other side of the Faction house from the guest chambers.”
“From what I heard of the last plague, lack of appetite and delirium are the first symptoms,” I ventured.
Rolf’s face had become set, and he glanced at his sister before nodding. “That is so, and most often this is followed by a period when the temperature drops almost to normal and it seems as if the person is
recovering. That can last as much as a day before the temperature rises again, and this time there is nausea and vomiting, then fits. Once the buboes come, the end is near.”
His detailed description indicated that he had seen plague victims in the last epidemic. I said, “One of our healers told me that the last plague became contagious at the vomiting stage. Since we know nothing of this plague, I am going to assume it is the same, and I wager, if it is possible to time it so well, that this period of seeming health will coincide with the time of the festivities tonight.”
We were silent for a moment, and then Rolf said, “Tell me of your Misfit powers.”
I swallowed my impatience and said, “I can read minds, though Misfits do not enter the minds of allies without permission except in matters of life and death. I judged it such a matter when I entered your mind to learn what the plague carrier looked like. As to my other Talents, once in the mind of another person, I can influence his or her actions. Also, I can pick locks and communicate with the minds of beasts.”
“Useful skills, I imagine,” Rolf said mildly, though his sister and Erit stared at me as if I had grown a second head. “Do you need to be looking at a person—or touching him—to enter his mind?”
“I need to be in physical contact only if the person I want to probe is asleep or if it is raining, for water inhibits our Talents,” I said. “So does tainted ground.”
“Can you not reach the mind of your friend, then, and make him come out?” Erit demanded.
“When you showed me the Faction house, I tried, but the walls of the Faction house are tainted with small amounts of Blacklands material,” I said. “The Herders do it deliberately, because they know it blocks Misfit Talents. But even if I could reach his mind, I am sure Ariel will have left instructions with the Hedra to keep Domick inside until this evening.”
“Can you reach your friend’s mind when he emerges from the Faction house?”
“Unless he is wearing a demon band. Or unless Ariel has set up a block in his mind to make it impossible.” Seeing the puzzlement on their faces, I explained about Ariel’s block in Malik’s mind and in the minds of the One and the Threes.
“You are saying he is a Misfit, too?” Rolf asked slowly.
“He is a defective Misfit with the ability to manipulate minds and emotions, and he sees things that have yet to happen,” I said.
“I think we ought to use a message-taker like you were thinking yesterday,” Erit said. “We send a message pretending to be from this Ariel, ordering Domick to be brought out of the Faction house to him. Then you can enter his mind and make him come to you.”
Rolf said thoughtfully, “The message is a good idea, but even if he is able to leave, he will probably be escorted by Hedra, and they’ll have to be dealt with. And there is another thing. You will have to be masked, because masks are worn from dawn today until dusk on the final day of the festival. If you are found unmasked, you will be co-opted as someone’s festival slave for the day.”
“But where can we get masks?” I said worriedly.
“There is no shortage of them in this house,” Rolf murmured. He reached up and took his sister’s hand. “You see, our sister Carryn was a gifted mask-maker. She died in the last plague, along with both her children and her bondmate.”
“I am sorry,” I said, appalled.
“Yes,” Rolf said. “But we have masks here that Carryn made for customers who perished in the plague. It is fitting that you will wear them to help prevent another plague.”
“I will get the masks,” said Mona, her eyes shining with tears.
“Do you have any idea how many Hedra will escort Domick?” Iriny spoke for the first time.
Rolf looked at her. “At least two,” he answered. “Can you fight?”
“I can deal with two men,” she said calmly.
Erit stared at her, fascinated, as Rolf asked, “What if there were more?”
She shrugged. “Then I will need help.”
I saw Rolf relax and realized he had been testing Iriny to see if her words were empty boasts.
“I can fight, too,” Erit put in eagerly.
Rolf shook his head. “I think that we had better avoid setting ourselves up for an open confrontation. What we need is a diversion that will allow Elspeth to spirit her friend away from his escort. One advantage is that they will not regard him as someone who would escape, for they think he is one of them.”
“Will there be enough time to set up a diversion?” I asked worriedly.
Rolf smiled, and for a moment he looked very like Erit. “I will arrange the diversion.”
“What if he refuses to come with you?” Erit said to me.
“We could use a sleep potion,” Rolf told them. “I know of one so strong that the fumes will render him unconscious for a short time. Still, we will need to separate him from the Hedra to manage it. I assume your mind powers will enable you to deal with anyone who sees what is happening?”
“I can manage two or three but not at the same time,” I said.
“Well and good,” Rolf muttered. “Can you scribe the letter to Domick? A metalworker’s hands are not fit for a quill. Better also scribe a covering letter to the Hedra who are to take him to the festivities this evening.” As he spoke, he rose and hobbled across the kitchen to rummage in a cupboard. He withdrew a quill and some parchment. “Scribe that Domick is to be brought to the pier to collect a special gift from the One, which he is to present to Councilman Kana this evening. Ask the Hedra master of the house for an escort or two. That ought to waylay any suspicions.”
By the time I had completed the letters, Mona had returned with a wicker basket filled with beautiful hand-painted boxes. As she began to unpack them reverently, Rolf took the letters from me and read through them, sealed both, and went to some trouble to make a mark that would pass for an identification stamp that had been damaged or worn away. “If the message is delivered by a reputable message-taker, it is less likely the seal will be scrutinized.”
“If Domick is unconscious, how am I to get him out of the city?”
“I will have Golfur close by, my greathorse,” Rolf said with a fleeting smile. “I have asked Erit to prepare a bundle of supplies, which will be lashed to Golfur’s saddle. I will also have a canvas sheet and ropes ready to truss Domick up so we can lay him over the saddle and make him look like a carpet, and a few false parcels to lash atop him and hide his shape.”
Overwhelmed with gratitude for his thoughtfulness and generosity, I apologized to Rolf for being unable to reimburse him for the supplies, but he interrupted to say that since I was ready to sacrifice my life to save his city, he could hardly begrudge me a bit of food and water. “Now I will also put Golfur’s papers into his saddlebag, for you may be asked to produce them when you leave the city. Once you have no more need for him, you can return him to me.”
I said awkwardly that Rolf ought not to lend me any horse, for I would not return it to him unless the beast wished it. “You see, we Misfits believe that beasts should not be owned by humans. If Golfur comes with me, it will be as a free horse.”
Rolf laughed. “Bless you, lass, but a stolen horse is useless unless you can also steal his papers, and there is no time for that. Better to take Golfur, and if he wishes to be freed of my company, I will not oppose it. But you will discover his will soon enough if you truly can speak with beasts. That is a Talent I might envy,” he added wistfully.
“When this is all over, I will teach you to communicate with beasts,” I promised. “There is a language of signals that can be learned by men and beasts, which allows them to communicate. These were devised by a man who once ran the Aborium rebel cell.”
“You speak of the Black Dog?” Rolf asked.
“You know him?” I asked eagerly.
“Regrettably, I did not meet him, for I was never a rebel, though I have given them aid from time to time. But I heard he was a good man.”
Erit had returned, and Mona began to remove
a series of exquisite masks from their boxes.
“They are very beautiful, but they are all masks for wealthy folk,” I said.
“Not necessarily,” Mona replied in her soft voice. “During the masked moon fair, there is much play upon deception and the wealthy delight in wearing their servants’ clothes with a jeweled mask, or they will wear their own attire but have a cheap mask so that none can be sure of their status or their identity. They derive much hilarity from seeing their friends bow and scrape to a potboy or croon to a washer lass. Or even an urchin.” She reached out and took a splendid, bright-red mask, enameled to a high gloss and sewn with shimmering jet beads, setting it on Erit’s dirty face. The urchin offered us a wicked gap-toothed grin. The effect of such a smile with such a mask was as alarming as it was comical. Mona spread out other masks and bade Iriny and I choose our own.
Iriny selected a splendid yellow and gold creation that resembled the metal masks the soldierguards sometimes used to protect their faces during confrontations. I chose a dark green mask with emerald beading about slanted eye slits and beautifully realistic cat’s ears, wondering what Maruman would make of it. Mona went out again and returned with a hooded green cloak of thick velvet, which she said I ought to wear until I mounted Golfur, for no one seeing a girl in a green velvet cloak and cat mask would think her the same as a simple lad riding a laden greathorse from the city. Uneasy about being given so much, when my gift to this house had been news of a potential catastrophe and a reminder of an old and painful tragedy, I said, “What if some harm comes to it?”
“Better that harm should come to a cloak than a courageous young woman,” Mona said with unexpected firmness. “Take it and wear it now. Return it to Rolf if you can. I will put those clod-stamping shoes you wear now into Golfur’s saddlebags, for you must wear something more dainty with the cloak. Your feet are too big for my shoes, but Carryn’s feet were bigger. Wait.”
The Stone Key Page 8