The Changespell Saga

by Doranna Durgin

  She wasn’t sure she blamed them, for she looked upon each of them as a potential enemy herself.

  Although she wasn’t in any danger, not really. Sometimes her ride had nothing to do with the actual checkspell at all, but was simply the result of curtailed spellspeak. Eventually the wizards would gather to pool their work, but they would work separately for as long as possible rather than collecting to present a tempting target.

  Instead, the couriers were exposed in regular travel between wizards. And they rode without the safe retreat of a recall spell. Jaime didn’t quite believe a recall spell couldn’t be tied to some neutral setting, even though Carey had shaken his head and muttered something about the preparation and maintenance of a recall site when she broached the idea to him. It was hard to understand his dismissal when two couriers had already been badly hurt, and when it seemed like a solution was obvious.

  Jaime had to remind herself that beginning students were blithely unaware of the riding theories that seemed so clear to her. With an inward hmmph at her self-admonishment, she lifted Lady into a trot, posting in a rhythm that her body knew too well to bother involving her brain. It occurred to her that this job was one she might well be doing for some time, depending on how things went for Camolen.

  Two hours out of the stronghold, they verged on the first in a series of grassy knolls with bedrock too close to the surface to allow trees. Jaime’s guide veered from the well-used trail and Lady followed, until a small cabin became evident amidst the trees and the guide disappeared like a burst soap bubble. Perched at the top of the hill, it had an abandoned look to it. This was a new route, one Morley had grumbled and assigned to her anyway, and Jaime didn’t feel particularly welcomed by the dwelling’s starkness. A log cabin should be homey and inviting, not foreboding.

  She stopped Lady in the trampled grass before the cabin and dismounted, replacing the bridle with a halter so Lady could pick at the grass, and hobbling her as well. This was the boring part of the run, this waiting for the recipients to digest her messages and frame a reply. Sometimes it even meant sitting around and waiting for the magic-user’s return, for all that they knew she would be coming. This one hadn’t shown his face yet, which meant he was probably out on some wizardly errand.

  She went to the door to knock anyway, dropping the bridle by the side of the entrance—but as she raised her hand, the door swung away. The man who greeted her smiled in a way that made her want to step back, and said, “Play time.”

  Play time? She did take that step, and was about to identify herself when his hand shot out and grabbed her wrist, jerking her inside. She stumbled, caught herself halfway down—and found herself staring into the open, filmy eyes of the dead man on the floor. She gaped at his slashing, mortal wounds, and someone else grabbed her shoulders—literally picking her up off her feet and slamming her against the wall. Air whooped out of her lungs as she hit the wall again, and then again, rag doll limp. Her vision grayed; she gasped for breath and blinked her tearing eyes back into focus, discovering a whiskered face shoved up close to her own. It was an unpleasant, leering face, and she flinched from what she saw there.

  “Surprise,” he said. “You guys are easier to catch all the time.”

  She wanted to say something daring, something to show she wasn’t terrified. Instead she found herself mute, capable only of the whimper that trickled past her throat.

  “The message?” the man asked, tightening his hold, hitching her a few more inches up the wall, moving a few inches closer.

  “Saddlebags,” Jaime finally managed to whisper, after he dug his fingers deeply into the flesh of her arms. He looked away long enough to nod at someone she hadn’t yet seen, and she took the opportunity to get some impression of the place, something more than the door, the dead man, and the wall behind her back. She discovered the dwelling completely trashed. A woman sifted through the contents of a cluttered table, frowning in an unsatisfied way.

  “For your sake,” the man said, letting her slide down a little so her feet took most of her weight again, “I hope we find a copy of the spell in those saddlebags. Not all these stupid little pet wizards can have it memorized already.”

  “I don’t know what’s in the message,” Jaime ventured, knowing the spell wasn’t. She tried not to think of the consequences, although the dead man gave her a pretty good idea. Then again, death was probably the easiest of what was waiting for her. No Amnesty International on Camolen.

  “It’s not here!” a matter-of-fact voice called from the front yard. “D’you know of any other stable that runs duns besides Arlen’s?”

  “Lots of duns to be had,” grumbled the whiskered man, dragging Jaime over to the door in such an absent way she knew immediately that he counted her as no possible threat at all. In the doorway he paused and added, “but not that quality.”

  The man who’d greeted her stood by Lady’s head; did that mean there were only the three of them? As if that made a difference. “Looks a lot like that mare we found in Arlen’s barn—you know, the one that dumb shit Gandy run to death.”

  Whiskers stared at Lady, his eyes narrowing as he nodded slightly. “She does at that. I think maybe we’ll bring this one with us. Calandre might find some use in her.”

  The other man snickered unpleasantly. “Yeah, like maybe Arlen’ll be more cooperative if he doesn’t want to see you hurt, courier.”

  Jaime opened her mouth to say that Arlen didn’t even know her—but they wouldn’t believe it. She wanted to spit at the man, and fought the unfamiliar desire to rake her work-shortened nails across his face. Instead she looked at the ground and took a slow, deep breath, guessing that subservient cooperation was the most likely to leave her unbrutalized.

  The woman came out of the house, stuffing a sheaf of papers into the leather container that looked like nothing more than an executive briefcase; neither it nor her expression fit well with her pert-nosed features and soft blonde hair. “I’m through here,” she said brusquely. “It was a waste of effort. The man had nothing.”

  “One less wizard on their side,” Whiskers said reasonably. “Gerrant, go get the horses.” Gerrant looked up from the hobbles he’d just taken off, hesitant, and Whisker’s grip on Jaime’s arm tightened with his irritation. “Go on—she’s not going anywhere.”

  A grumble and a shrug, and Gerrant left to do as he was told, heading for the woods behind the cabin. Lady stood uncertainly, knowing she was free and that there was tension in the air. Lady. A haltered horse galloping home alone would cause a fuss much sooner than any slowly dawning understanding that the newest courier was more than just slow on her unfamiliar route.

  So much for subservient cooperation.

  A quick glance at Whiskers confirmed his distraction; he’d turned his attention to the woman, watching her set a spell at the cabin’s door.

  Jaime took a deep breath and tore loose from his grasp, scooping up the bridle, sprinting for Lady. In the back of her mind she hoped to mount and make a run for it, but Lady went jigging away at the sudden movement—and at the man lunging for Jaime. Just as his grasp plucked at her shirt, Jaime swung the bridle reins in a big circle, a resounding slap against tense bunched in Lady’s rump. The mare bolted.

  If only she ran to the closeness of Sherra’s, and didn’t head instead to Arlen’s—

  A rough tackle slammed Jaime to the dirt, crushed by Whiskers’ weight on top of her. He trapped her between his knees, jerked her around to face him, and hit her hard. Pain shot through her head as it bounced off hard ground, and through her face as he hit her again and again and—

  “Stop it.” The voice was cold and derisive and held aloof disdain. The onslaught faltered; Jaime gulped for air and choked on blood, spitting and gasping, as the woman’s voice continued, “That’s enough. She’s not in any shape to run again, and Calandre will want something to work with.”

  Immediately the man got off her, unable to resist one last jab with his booted toe. “I hope you like riding d
ouble, sweetheart.”

  “She’ll ride with me,” the woman said, her voice more distant as she moved away. “Now get her to her feet. Gerrant’s coming.”

  He shrugged, and leaned down to haul Jaime up in an almost offhand way. But he held on to her, and this time she was almost glad for the support. She swiped feebly at the blood running freely from her lips and nose and waited, stupidly dazed, as Gerrant emerged from the woods with three horses in tow. She was so focused on the epicenter of pain in her nose that Whiskers had to shake her arm when it came her turn to mount behind the woman. Zombie-like, she did as she was told, and was soon riding away from Sherra’s at a rough trot that jarred her pains with every step.

  ~~~~~

  Carey patted the sweaty black neck before him and urged the horse up the short but exceptionally steep bank they faced. Denied the chance to help Arlen or Jess, he’d taken up his courier work with a vengeance, riding every day and sometimes twice a day. It hadn’t taken many such days to wear him down, and that’s the way he wanted to keep it. While he was caught up in the aches and cramps of his body, in watching the trails for Calandre’s threats and avoiding the pitfalls of rough travel, he actually managed to avoid the can’ts that loomed so large in his life.

  One of those can’ts he’d discovered early on, as he saddled Lady for his first run. He was tightening the girth in easy stages when he realized he couldn’t just mount up. Having given Jess the respect she was due as a woman, he couldn’t fall back to that easy partnership they’d had—one in which he was nonetheless master.

  He couldn’t pretend he’d never kissed her—or that she hadn’t kissed him back. Honest in everything, Jess had made no attempt to hide the confusion—and the passions—he created in her.

  So in the end it was a good thing Jaime was riding for Sherra, for he doubted Lady would have responded so well to a completely new rider, not with the turmoil she’d been through. Even if he’d never managed to tell Jaime so...he thought she knew anyway.

  The black stumbled and Carey gave himself a mental kick. You’re not supposed to be thinking about this. Frustrated, he turned his attention vigorously back to the run, turning the horse toward another bank in this rough shortcut with a “Hup! Hup!” of encouragement. The black strained upward, Carey returned to work with the grim satisfaction of its distraction.

  When he finally reached Sherra’s stronghold, he rode into a courtyard of commotion. His first impulse was to ignore it and return to the stable—until he saw the cause of the disturbance.

  Lady ran loose in the courtyard, saddle on her back and halter on her head, evading all attempts to capture her. At the moment her would-be wranglers were several young children and a few of the household workers, none of whom had the skill or nerve to bluff Lady out.

  Carey closed his eyes and dredged up the composure he would need to deal with an upset Lady, and then dismounted, leaving his own tired mount to stand quietly in place. “Lady,” he said loudly, and all heads turned to look at him, including hers. She took one step toward him and then hesitated, allowing him to move up by her shoulder. He stood quietly as she craned her head around and sniffed him with the quick shallow breaths that meant she was taking in his scent. Then, reassured, she allowed him to quietly grasp the halter.

  “Where’s Jaime?” he demanded, too tired for tact, too concerned to even try.

  “The horse came back without her!” one of the children declared as the others nodded. A livestock hand shook his head helplessly and said, “The children came for help when the horse ran in, and now you know as much about it as any of us.”

  Where had Jaime ridden today? Carey made a quick inspection of Lady and her tack, and found only that the message was missing. He pointed at the oldest child, a girl nearly into adolescence, and gestured her over. “She’ll go with you to the stable now, as long as you keep a good grip on that halter. One of you others can take my horse. And tell Morley to meet me in the main room.”

  Inside the house, he sat at one of the long, empty tables, his mind blank, his gaze distracted by a young man sweeping up the residue of the last meal. All his urgency ran into a wall built of fatigue and frustration...and the helpless feeling that Jaime would be one more friend he was unable to help.

  It was Mark who stumbled across him while he waited for Morley. Jaime’s brother. Just the person he wanted to deal with right now.

  No, that wasn’t fair. Carey lifted a hand in greeting as Mark sat across from him, laying an unstrung bow across the table next to a quiver of practice arrows.

  “You look beat,” Mark said, sounding fairly cheerful himself. “But I think I’m finally getting the hang of things around here. If I can only get that glowspell down...but hey, no need to worry about defense with me around. As long as we’re attacked by big oval targets with painted weak spots, we got no problem at all.”

  Carey snorted, unable to resist the good-natured humor. But he shook his head in the end, and murmured, “We do have a problem,” as he stretched the arm that had been skewered not so long ago, and which stiffened up faster and more thoroughly than the rest of him. “Damn, we’ve got a problem.”

  It was a barely audible murmur, but Mark heard it—and heard the unspoken magnitude of concern as well. “What?” he asked, just short of demand.

  “Lady’s come back without Jaime,” Carey said. “I’m waiting for Morley—he’ll be able to tell us her route today. And then, someone’s going to have to come up with a Ninth-level reason to keep me from riding out after her.”

  Mark said, slowly and carefully, “It doesn’t have to mean anything dire. She’s been dumped before, no matter how much she tries to make me forget it.”

  “She wasn’t dumped,” Carey clarified. “Lady was wearing her halter. They must have been at their destination, where she should have been hobbled.”

  “She could have broken free,” Mark offered, even as Carey shook his head.

  “Something scared her, or she wouldn’t have run in like she did, and had half the household chasing after her. She’s not a hard catch, normally.”

  Mark looked down at the bow and arrows before him, fingering the stiff leather of the quiver. “Jaime’s all right,” he said in a stiff and determined voice, the sturdy adaptability shaken. “She’s all right. She’s probably on her way back on foot, embarrassed as hell.”

  “Maybe,” Carey acceded, still not believing it. “If only Lady could tell us...if only we could bring back Jess...damn, I miss her.” Not now, Carey—one crisis at a time.

  Mark looked up, a sudden alert glance, and Carey turned to see what had caught his attention. Morley. Good.

  “Morley—” he started, but the man raised his hands to forestall demands and explanations.

  “I know, I know,” he said. “Lady came back without her rider. I know where she went, and right now a very brave child is daring to interrupt Sherra at work. We’ll find Jaime, Carey.”

  Eric, dead because Carey had dropped into his life. Arlen, waiting for a rescue that wasn’t coming. Jess, buried in a place where no one could reach her. “She’s not going to stop me this time,” he said.

  ~~~~~~~~~~

  Chapter Sixteen

  Sherra never tried. To her consternation and Carey’s barely repressed wrath, Morley admitted he’d sent Jaime to Theo’s, an accomplished wizard well within the territory Jaime was used to covering. Accomplished enough to draw Calandre’s unwanted attention—or focus it on the courier who might be carrying information about the travel spell. By mid-afternoon in an day turned cloudy and dim, Carey rode point—the only experienced horseman in a small group of uneasy riders on well-worn horses.

  Despite his heavy exposure to horse sense, Mark had clearly not spent many hours in the saddle. Gacy, the advanced student Sherra had assigned to the investigation, held the reins as though he thought they might attack him. The fourth member of the company was Katrie, the tall blond woman Jaime had come to trust and Carey had therefore chosen as the warrior for the gro
up. Normally he could depend on his own reflexes and training when it came to defense, but these were far from normal times.

  He checked back over his shoulder and decided his neophyte riders could take a little speed. “Going to canter!” he called back to them, and asked his sturdy little bay mare for the transition. Morley, he decided, had been acting out of mercy—or guilt—when he gave Carey the bay for this trip; the animal’s gaits were as smooth as slow river water. He knew the others wouldn’t have it so easy, but he squelched his sympathies and refused to look back until he reached the turnoff to Theo’s little homestead. He found pretty much what he expected: the others straggled out behind him, easy prey for any raiding party that might be hanging around. Mark and Gacy were too busy keeping themselves a-horse to care, but Katrie shot him a look of pure ire.

  “Making my job pretty damn hard,” she growled at him.

  He knew; he just hadn’t cared, and his shrug told her as much.

  “Fine,” she said coldly. “But now we’re here and we’ll do it my way. Hold my horse and keep your ass right here until I say otherwise. I’ll be back after I’ve had a look around.” She dismounted, an unfamiliar maneuver that nonetheless displayed the authority of movement Carey associated with skilled warriors.

  Carey caught the reins she tossed at him and watched her stride up the lane. When she was out of sight, he leaned back in a weary stretch, while the bay shifted to a lazy, hip-shot stance beneath him. Mark and Gacy had dismounted, and made various disgruntled noises as they experimented with walking again.

  “If this is the accepted mode of transportation around here, maybe I’d better take a few lessons from Jay,” Mark grumbled, maintaining his dogged personal fiction insistence that Jaime was perfectly all right.

  “There are other ways,” Carey said. “As long as you know two wizards you trust with a fairly complicated spell, and don’t mind the side-effects.”