This creep was a deathwalker, no heartbeat.
Could a deathwalker be killed?
Maybe I should run out the open gate, down the hill screaming. And maybe Ober's other guards were out there waiting.
Fighting was pointless because even little Nance was twice as strong as me. Okay, Claire, think. If you got no strength, what's left? Oh yeah, wits. Maybe I could talk him to death.
"What are you doing here?” I asked and tried really hard to sound calm.
"Where's the prince?” he whispered.
"What prince?” I asked, a tad louder.
"If you call the others, they all die."
If he wasn't called deathwalker for nothing, we were all in trouble. Still, I wasn't good at the suicidal thing, not if I could avoid it, and I glanced at the firepit behind him
Maybe I could lower my head and run, butt into him, maybe knock him into the fire?
"Where's the prince?” he asked again.
A form moved in the doorway behind him and I knew it was Lor. Did he have a knife or some other weapon? That might work. Or not.
Could this man be harmed? I had to let Lor know the problem, so he could grab the others and get them out through the stables and, damn, here I was playing sacrificial whatever, not my normal personality. Still, maybe they could bring a bunch of guards and I could hope they got here before I did my final check out.
"You know what?” I said, loud enough to hold his attention and warn Lor and also cover any sound Lor might make. “You've got no heartbeat, fella! How come?"
He hesitated, and with his back to the fire, his eyes still glowed red, not a pleasant sight. “How do you know that?"
"I'm magic,” I said. “That's what I do. I know things. You have no heartbeat, so I guess that means you're already dead, guess that means it's too late to kill you. Are you a vampire?"
"What?” He stopped and waited, not worried. He knew he had me trapped and so he wasn't in a hurry. That did not make me feel better.
"Vampire. A dead thing brought back to life, that can be offed with a wooden stake. Or a cross. Or garlic.” I went through all my memories of vampire movies and ran out of information.
He started moving toward me again, so I was also running out of time.
"None of what you say means anything. I cannot be destroyed. But you can."
With one more step he was in reaching distance, grabbing while I was ducking, his hand going past me into the wall. My luck ended there. His other hand dropped and caught my shoulder, sent me spinning. I hit the wall so hard I thought I heard my bones break.
Pain shot from my shoulder to my neck to my head. There were lightning flashes in my eyes and for a second I couldn't see, couldn't hear. Unfortunately, I could feel. Something warm and sticky, which always means blood, streamed down my face from a burning pain on my forehead.
My hands went numb under me, fingers popping. I tried to push away from the ground to get up, but I couldn't move. Then my fingers closed around dirt and I managed to pull together a handful.
Those skeleton fingers hauled me up and I tossed the dirt into the open hood. He shoved me back against the wall so that I was facing him and rubbed at his eyes with his other hand.
"You're dead,” he hissed.
Behind him shapes moved. I had to hold his attention and so I did what any city girl knows to do. When all else fails, scream.
I shrieked, “Dead like you! You're dead, dead, dead!"
His fingertips touched my throat, started to push. I couldn't move away so I kept screaming until my voice cut back to a gurgle. My breath caught, going nowhere, stuck. I tried to kick him, couldn't lift my leg. The moving shapes, the fireglow, the red eyes, all started blacking out on me.
And then the hand fell away and he let out one rasping howl. I slid slowly down the wall, sat on the ground, breathed. When I could see again, I really liked what I saw.
Lor held the deathwalker while the magician reached around him and wound a rope. They had dropped a blanket and the rope over his head, worked together those two, and snared the man. When his arms were bound to his sides, they tossed him on the ground and tied his thrashing legs and feet. Crisscrossing ropes held the blanket around his hooded head. We could hear muffled curses.
"Take care of Tarvik,” Lor told the magician. “I'll get this one."
I scraped myself off the ground and followed the magician back inside. The magician's tea was ready.
It was a good thing Tarvik was unconscious because that was the only way he could have got his nose past the smell to drink it. The magician dribbled the mixture down Tarvik's throat, as well as down the front of his tunic.
"Keep him on his feet,” he said, “and he will wake sooner. Now you must let me go."
I agreed, not so much for his salvation as for ours. Given enough night cover, he could be free of the city and into the hills before his absence was discovered. I doubted the guards would bother to check his cell until time for his morning meal. The success of his escape mattered as much to us as to him. If caught, he would be forced to tell how he had escaped and who had helped him.
When Lor returned, I told him the deal we'd made and said, “For the good of all of us, he needs to get away from here."
Lor nodded. He did not like to do it, but he knew I was right. I followed them back to the gate where our poor guard lay moaning, going to have another monster headache, that boy.
Lor had a horse waiting, and bound with more leather straps and tossed across its back was the bundled shape of the deathwalker.
"What are you going to do with him?” I asked.
"Rid us for good,” Lor said.
The magician said, “He can't be killed."
"He has no heartbeat,” I agreed.
"He can be buried,” the magician said.
Lor grunted and that's when I saw the spade balanced loosely on his shoulder.
"You wouldn't bury him alive?” As soon as I asked, I wished I hadn't.
"Go help Nance,” Lor said.
He didn't wait for me to answer. He set off on foot to guide the magician through the darker paths, beyond the guard routes and the huts and tents, until the magician would have a good start on pursuers. We couldn't give him a horse because a horse would be missed, but we sent him off with a wool cloak and with a pouch of food.
The magician said, “I will not thank you for my life, star woman. You took my one chance to regain for the god of Thunder the allegiance of Kovat. In releasing me this night, you have balanced our debt. If we meet again, we owe each other nothing."
"Fair enough,” I said, sincerely hoping I would never meet up with him again.
He wasn't one of those fuzzy people that I wanted to add to my list of friends. Still, he'd helped Lor save me from the deathwalker.
He glanced at me, looked away, then said so softly I barely heard him, “Beware of Ober."
So maybe he did think he owed me a penny's worth of gratitude.
I watched the two old men blend into the night, guiding the burdened horse.
After dumping half a mug of water on the guard, I left the rest on the ground beside him. Nursing careless guys was getting to be a bad habit.
Then I returned to the temple to join Nance in her vigil of the other careless guy.
She had dropped Tarvik onto a pile of fur while I was gone. We hoisted him up again, wedged our shoulders beneath his arms, and dragged him back and forth, back and forth. Although he had not fluttered an eyelid, I could now feel his body heat where he was pressed against me, and his limp arm around my neck was warm.
"If he does not wake by sunrise it will not matter,” Nance moaned. “You and I shall be dead from exhaustion and will not need him."
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Chapter 14
When we couldn't carry Tarvik's weight any longer, we dropped him in a corner. Nance sank down on the rugs nearby.
"What if the magician was wrong?” Nance moaned. “What if it is not a simple potion
?"
"Do you think Ober meant to kill him?"
"Worse than that. Perhaps she is a lifedrainer,” she said.
"Are lifedrainers worse than deathwalkers?"
Sitting on the floor beside Tarvik, I picked up one of his hands and rubbed it briskly between mine, not that I knew what good that would do but it's something people are forever doing on TV shows. He had a gold ring on each finger, some of them decorated with small jewels. I studied the rings, partly to see the pretty designs and partly to have something to do besides add Nance's worries to my own.
"They are monsters in the western mountains,” Nance said. “They have terrible magic that can destroy your mind and suck out your soul."
"Is that one of those bedtime stories nursemaids tell children to help them have happy dreams?"
"Laugh at me if you wish, but everyone knows they reside there, which is why I can go to the plateau with my wings and not worry anyone will follow. The shepherds stay far from those hills."
"You told me when we were on the plateau, but Nance, have you ever seen one?"
Talking about monsters in the mountains kept Nance from fretting about Tarvik. He didn't show any signs of waking. I couldn't find the pulse at the side of his neck, so I slid my hand under his tunic again and across the hard muscles of his chest until I felt his heartbeat. Then I laced closed the front of his tunic and wrapped his soft cloak around him like a blanket.
"How would I know? How would anyone know?” Nance shouted. “That's the whole thing! They can be invisible.” Lowering her voice to a whisper, she added, “They are said to have hairy bodies and leathery wings and they eat children, but when they come among us, some say they make themselves look like us. Ober could be a sorcerer. Lifedrainers are sorcerers, or the work of sorcerers, or else they control them. No one knows which."
I wasn't worried about lifedrainers, which were certainly no more than a story, but I was worried about Lor. He should have returned by now. Leaving Nance to watch Tarvik, I went to the stable to look for him.
The sun, not yet above the horizon, cast a long glow in the eastern sky. The stars faded. In the chill air I could feel the warmth of the horses. They made soft sounds which perhaps meant they expected something. Did Lor feed and water them at daybreak? If so, where was he? Did he lie injured or dying in some seldom-traveled place? I would have guessed him far stronger than the magician, but the magician had his tricks.
The horses reached out their noses to me, obviously expecting something. I could force myself to face a magician alone, but I could not force my hand to reach past those enormous teeth to stroke a horse, no matter how gentle the dark eyes. I saw Black and Pacer, and, at the far end of the row gleaming white in the morning light, was Tarvik's horse, Banner.
Peering from the doorway I saw a temple guard stop by the far wall, his back to me, and do a slow cat stretch, his arms above his head, to get the kinks out of his spine. I knew exactly how he felt.
If I stepped from the stable door into the early light my shadow would touch him.
Slowly I edged my face around the doorway and watched him walk away.
"Hssst."
The whispered warning set me shaking. I spun to see Lor slip past me into the stable, leading the horse. There was nothing on its back now.
"Why are you here?” he demanded.
"Where were you? The sun is up."
"Hmmph,” he grunted and moved around the stable forking feed into the troughs.
"I was afraid that magician might have harmed you."
The white eyebrows drew together. “Harmed me?"
"I thought you'd be back before now."
"Had a hole to dig."
Right, didn't want to know any more about that. “The magician, where is he?"
"Gone,” Lor said.
Although he spoke briefly to me, he murmured long speeches to his horses as he rubbed their sides and thrust his hands behind their ears to scratch them. He treated them like puppy dogs.
"Could he be caught again?"
"He's safe enough if he follows where I pointed him,” Lor said, then added, “You're not."
I let out my breath in a puff of agitation, knowing he wasn't going to answer my questions. Worse, he was right. Soon the guards would come looking for Tarvik and somebody would stop by the stable. I ducked back through the temple door and closed the stone.
When I told Nance that Lor was back, she cried, “So the magician and his magic are gone and Tarvik still lies beyond our reach. We have let that horrible man trick us."
"Oh lord, I hope not."
"When will he wake?” Nance sobbed, flinging her arms around me, stretching up to press her tearful face against mine. “Tell me that, Stargazer! Draw your magic circle and tell me what it holds for Tarvik!"
"You're getting me wet with your weeping. Do be still. Let me think."
"You think too much!” Nance sputtered. “He could be dying, even as you talk."
To keep us both busy, I dipped a cloth in a bowl of water and told Nance to do the same. We wiped perspiration from Tarvik's face. Was this feverish flush better than the lifeless cold of earlier? The magician had closed Tarvik's eyes.
"He looks like he's sleeping,” I said.
"What sort of sleep is that, that cannot be broken? Soon his guards will search for him. Shall I tell them he lies here, his mind stolen by some evil spell?"
"If they come here, I'll go to the gates and tell them you are busy praying. You don't need to speak to them. Ober can suspect whatever she wants but she cannot take over the city in a day."
"Not without her deathwalker."
"Yah, there's that. Didn't figure on the deathwalker showing up."
"Nor did you think Ober would poison Tarvik so soon,” Nance grumbled. “Tarvik had better wake today from his lazy dreaming or he will have no reason to wake. He will find himself no more than a slave in his own lands."
Now that his skin was warm and he breathed evenly, she stopped worrying and started fussing. I left her to tend him. She brushed back his hair and washed his face and smoothed his tunic with constant nervous strokes. If that didn't wake him, what would?
Rather than listen to her complain, I combed my hair back into a ponytail, and tied a rolled scarf around my head so it covered my forehead. My aching bod wanted to collapse on the sheepskins but instead I got out my temple gear.
So there I was, face painted, robe dragging, when the guards began banging on the gate. I slid past Nance. Whether her wide-eyed shock was at the noise or at my appearance, I did not stop to ask.
Crossing the courtyard, I called through the gate, “Who is there?"
"Your guards, keeper of the temple. The lady Ober has sent her guards to request you go to her now."
Right, sure, I was going to march into the lion's mouth. “That cannot be done. My orders must be from the prince."
"My lady, the prince—the prince cannot be found. And the magician of Thunder has escaped from his cell."
From the hesitation in his voice, I knew the guard spoke carefully, hoping to warn me about the situation at the castle without saying anything that would create suspicion in Ober's men.
"We must pray to the Daughter for the answer to such strange occurrences,” I called. I got better everyday at imitating Nance's fancy phrases. “The ladies Ober and Alakar may enter the temple at midday if they wish to join our prayers."
And if Tarvik is still asleep at midday, we will have some long praying to do, I thought to myself.
"My lady Ober commands to see you now,” demanded another voice.
That gave me no choice. I had to play my role with all the display Nance usually tossed into the act. Throwing open the gate, I found myself staring at four of Ober's men.
Nothing to do but wing it.
Standing in the entry in the long shadows and bright sun streaks of early morning, I raised my arms so my bracelets and rings flashed reflected light. The temple guards stepped back, their eyes lowered. Ober's men re
mained unmoving.
I chanted, “Even now the Daughter of the Sun seeks the council of her father. To disturb the prayers of her priests would be to break the golden thread that binds the temple to the Daughter's heart. Leave us and we shall put aside all other concerns to pray for the protection and swift return of her servant, Tarvik."
From the corner of my gaze I watched Ober's guards. Raised as they had been, beyond the temple's reach, they might doubt me, but I was pretty sure they were all terrified of Kovat and would hesitate to force entry to his temple.
Without waiting to give them any chance to make a bad decision, I closed the gate and slipped the bolt into place. Nance's temple guards would remain loyal, but I did not know how long they could hold off the larger number of Ober's men. Back home, my avoidance of run-ins with authority consisted mainly of driving within the speed limit. Not much preparation.
Oh, right, I had some skill at dodging bad boys. Those creeps probably qualified as bad boys.
I hurried back inside.
"Midday, indeed,” Nance said, giving Tarvik a sharp slap. “He may well sleep past midday of tomorrow or the day beyond that."
"You had better think of long, convincing chants."
"I know enough chants to bore Ober through six settings of the sun, but will she wait?"
"Could we make the ritual more impressive than usual?” I asked. “Something so unusual that people would be, oh, I'm not sure what I mean, but I think we need something magical."
"We could start by dressing your hair properly."
"You're not listening."
"I understand what you say,” Nance said, “and it frightens me. You bend and use the rituals of the temple to gain your own wishes, with no thought that you might anger the Daughter and bring lightning bolts upon us all."
"Is that something you ever saw the Daughter use?” I asked, wondering where the average hiker learned that skill.
Nance shouted, “How would I know! I have never used the temple for anything other than devotion. Now, with you here, it has become a place to receive messages through weird star circles. Also, my private rooms, forbidden to all but templekeepers, have been entered by a wicked magician of Thunder. And, now it seems, I have as a permanent guest my wretched cousin."
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