Jess blinked.
“It’s funny,” Jaime continued unprompted. “So much has happened since that night. We thought we’d lost you, for one. And I’ve been so worried about what’s happening at home. I mean, surely one of my boarders realized we’d gone missing before the horses missed too many meals. Surely...”
“Yes,” Jess said firmly.
“And up until now, I’ve handled it all just fine. Which is to say I haven’t handled it at all, but sometimes you’ve got to put that kind of stuff aside, until there’s a better time to deal with it.”
Jess allowed, “I have a hard time doing that.”
“But suddenly I can’t get away from it. I was so happy to see you, and then suddenly I was so sad about everything else... I just...couldn’t...”
Jess found Jaime’s hand in the darkness, but it pulled out of her grasp.
“No,” Jaime said, fighting for control. “If you comfort me I’ll lose it. I’ll wake everyone up, and then they’ll want explanations and Arlen will tell them—” she cut herself off, leaving a palpable, empty silence between them.
“Tell them what?” Jess asked, suddenly aware that this unspoken thing was the key. Threat trickled into her voice. “Jaime, I will yell so loud...”
“Jess—”
“No.”
There was a big sigh from the darkness, the sound of Jaime shifting position on the hard ground. One of the horses lowered its head to whuff softly at Jess’s head and then at the still-damp clamminess of the dead man’s blood on her shirt, but Jess ignored it. And waited.
“Something happened today,” Jaime said, finally, reluctantly, her voice very far away even though it came from a spot not two feet from Jess’s ears. “Willand—that’s the blond wizard who was at the cabin—”
“I remember.”
“Willand didn’t treat me very well. She...she hurt me. She was trying to force Arlen into giving up the spell. She hurt me a lot.”
Jess couldn’t think of anything to say. The concept of such behavior had never occurred to her, but with understanding came a cold, cold anger. “You—everyone—treat me like I have to be protected,” she said. “Like you think I won’t understand the answers to the questions I ask, and that you have to watch out for me. But the next time I see Willand, it will not be me who needs protection.”
A hesitation, and Jaime said, “I believe you, Jess. But it won’t help me if you turn into another Eric—good-hearted and dead. And nothing can help, I think, except maybe time.”
They said for a moment in the darkness, while Jess thought about this woman who was her friend, and with whom she’d shared all her human hours—and many more under saddle. “I liked it when you taught me dressage,” she said suddenly. “I wish...I wish this part of me had been there, too. Someday, Jaime, will you teach me more? If the Lady part of me and the Jess part of me are ever in the same place at the same time?”
“Yes, Jess,” Jaime choked. “Yes, I’ll teach you dressage. But...this is between you and me, Jess, okay? When I’m ready for the others to know, I’ll tell them. But I have to deal with it before I can deal with them dealing with it.”
“That was confusing,” Jess told her. “But I won’t tell anyone.” Stiffly, she got to her feet and walked away, her bare feet feeling out ground grown chill with the night. She found Carey and sat as close as she could without touching him, unwilling to disturb his sleep again.
~~~~~
Jess dozed through the remaining hours of the night until the earliest dawn, when Mark woke from his valiant but futile effort at night watch and crept among the others, quietly waking them. In a few moments they gathered together in the haven of the rock formations, all a little chilled, all a lot sore.
Jess was no exception. The sharp pain just below her knee reminded her than an arrow had raked across dun flesh in Arlen’s stable. Her wrist throbbed unceasingly and she held it carefully against her stomach, trying to shield it from the occasional shiver that ran up her stiff frame. Arlen actually looked better than he had the night before—not surprising considering he’d probably just had his best night’s sleep since the siege. Jaime looked plainly awful—her eyes reddened, surrounded by the black circles from her broken nose. The slash in her breeches was crusted with dried blood and accented by her awkward limp.
Carey looked at them all and said, “It’s time to make some decisions.”
“It doesn’t look to me like there’s much to decide,” Dayna said glumly. “Unless we somehow just walk right past that guy up there.”
“There’s a lot more involved here than just that guy up there,” Carey said. “Believe me, if we wanted to, we’d find a way past him. Things are no different than last night—we can’t travel as a group, not with Calandre’s people looking for us, and stirred up because of Sherra. I’d really hoped to find Sherra’s people more of a presence—one we could count on.”
“Just like last night,” Jaime said. “We’re safer here.”
“Unless someone misses him and starts looking,” Mark said dryly, nodding up at the rocky point.
Arlen nodded absent agreement. “Tell me, Carey, where does Sherra stand?”
“They don’t have a checkspell yet, not unless they came up with it in the last day or so. She was working with the other wizards on it, not making a play for you because she didn’t want to stir Calandre up.”
“Quite right,” Arlen said.
“I can’t believe you really feel that way,” Dayna said, scorn and challenge mixed into her voice.
“I’ve certainly had plenty of time to think about it,” Arlen said in gentle reproof. “It was much wiser for Sherra to put all her efforts into the checkspell than to start trouble by mounting a rescue once her first attempt failed.” He looked around the little group and a mildly startled expression crossed his face. “I think introduction might be in order, Carey.”
Carey laughed shortly as the others, also, realized they’d never really met Arlen, nor he them—even though their lives had been tied together for months now. “I think we might have time for that. This is Mark, Jaime’s brother. He’s been training with the archers and fighters since we got back. You can depend on him in a pinch, Arlen.” Mark looked a little surprised but lifted a hand for a waggle of a hello wave. “This is Dayna—she’s from the other world, too. She started using magic almost the moment we got here. One of Sherra’s students has been working with her.”
Arlen lifted an eyebrow. “You’ve just started and you called down the magnitude of magic I helped you calm last night?”
Dayna looked at the ground, seeming as small as she ever did, but then her head came up and there was no apology in her eyes. “I’d do it again.”
Arlen nodded. “All right, “ he said. “As long as you realize the danger you created, and the risk you created for your friends.”
“We had a little brush with backlash already,” Carey said ruefully. “And I, for one, am grateful for the chance she took this time.”
“For me,” Jess said. She looked at Arlen, finding it satisfying to view him from her human eyes. He was as tall as she, and didn’t look nearly as old as he had in her brief glimpse of him the evening before. Although he was still gaunt, she nonetheless found the arched nose from her early memories, and the warm, honest eyes. She thought his hint of an overbite was kind of cute. “Dun Lady’s Jess,” she named herself.
“Yes,” he said. “And the most magical thing to come of this whole adventure. I owe my life to your bravery last night, Jess. I’m sorry you were hurt.”
“I was not the only one,” Jess said, and Jaime gave her a sharp look, but no one else saw anything amiss. Their scars were all clearly visible, from Jaime’s sword cut to Mark’s saddle-sore gait. “And do not leave out Eric, Carey.”
“You mentioned that name,” Arlen said to Jaime.
Dayna looked away, but she was the one who spoke. “A friend,” she said. “One of Calandre’s little goons came to Ohio with Carey, and he caused enough trouble that o
ne of us was killed.”
“Eric was the first to believe me,” Jess said, and grief prickled at her eyes. Another misery to carry along with her wrist.
Carey took a deep breath and filled the pained silence. “We can’t just sit here. Right now there’s only one man up there, but that won’t last. This is our best chance to make a move.”
In puzzled protest, Jaime said, “But we’ve already agreed—”
“Not all of us,” Carey said, and held up his hand to forestall further objection. “I’ve been thinking about this all night, on and off. Listen. As far as that guy knows, there are five of us and four horses. They must have felt the magic—that’s probably what our dead friend over there was trying to check on—but they couldn’t see anything. If all of us but Jess were out in the open, our guy would think he was watching all of us. He’d feel pretty secure.”
“Yeah, but there’s still only one way out of here, and it’s past him,” Mark said.
“But if we had him distracted,” Jaime started slowly.
Dayna shifted, and said hesitantly, “There’s that thing I did in the woods...”
Mark winced. “I’m not sure that’s a good idea, Dayna.”
“No,” Carey said. “It’s a great idea.”
“Magic,” Arlen said. “Maybe you’d better let me in on it. But first, I need to make something clear—you can’t count on me for any spells. For one thing, Calandre knows my touch and can locate us through any magic I do. For another—well, I simply haven’t got it in me.”
“I was afraid of that,” Carey said heavily. He leaned back against the rocky wall and gave Arlen a succinct explanation of Dayna’s first successful spell. “This would have to be something much more subtle. About the level of a glowspell, where there just isn’t enough magic gathered to create a backlash.”
“It wouldn’t be enough to keep him away,” Arlen said. “But as a distraction I think it would be perfect. A go-away spell. Why didn’t I ever think of that one?”
“It takes desperation,” Dayna said, but she responded shyly to Arlen’s approval.
“That’s our distraction, then,” Carey said, and looked at Jess. “That puts a lot on Jess.”
“Me?” Jess said in surprise, having failed to anticipate Carey’s plan.
He nodded reluctantly. “If you’re willing to do it,” he said. “Here’s the way I see it, start to finish: we need to eat what food is left and see to our immediate needs. There’s a spring back under the rocks, not a fast-flowing one, but it ought to do if we’re careful. Jaime, especially, needs to clean out that cut, and the horses need to be watered. We may not get the chance to take care of those things once we start trouble.” He nodded at the exit. “And Arlen, if you can, Jess will need a finder. Something like the maplight,” he explained to Jaime, glancing at Mark and Dayna to see that they understood the reference—”only tuned in to a person—this time Sherra—instead of a place. And then it gets simple. While Dayna hits that guy with her go-away, with all of us in plain sight, Jess makes a run for it. She should take him completely by surprise, be past him before he even figures out he should stop her.”
“I can do that,” Jess said, believing it.
“Might not be that easy, braveheart,” Carey told her. “There will be others out there besides our one little fighter. You may have to get by them.”
“I can manage the finder,” Arlen said, “but it’s a risk.”
Carey looked grim. “Just as dangerous to have someone blundering around out there with no direction. Run into the wrong side, or get backtracked, and we’re all caught—unless you can send Sherra a quick call for help, directly?”
“That would blaze a trail so bright Calandre would be blind to miss it. If Sherra’s not in a position to respond immediately...well, let’s just get a start on the business end of eating and taking care of ourselves. We can make final decisions when we get there.”
“That means you have to stay back here,” Carey warned Jess.
“But I have to go to the bathroom,” she responded plaintively, looking at the other end of the hollow, which had been honored as the latrine location.
“Hurry then,” Carey said with a smile. “It’s amazing all the little practical things that get in the way of a good plan,” he bemoaned to no one in particular as Jess scurried out of the sheltered pocket into the monotone light of dawn, and someone else chimed in with next dibs.
When Jess returned, Carey was attending to the tedious business of watering the horses, filling one of the waterskins at the spring and trickling water into Dayna’s cupped hands while the thirsty animals noisily sucked it up. Arlen nibbled at a hunk of bread, very stale if the amount of chewing he was doing was any measure. Jaime sat quietly and let Mark tend to her leg; he gave her suspicious little glances when he thought she wasn’t looking and Jess knew he suspected she was holding out on something.
Jess joined Arlen next to the saddlebags and poked through them, finally discovering a peach that hadn’t been too badly bruised. She nibbled at it as Arlen gnawed his bread, and then almost shyly offered him a bite.
“No,” he said, “I left it for you. You’re the one who’s going to need the strength. All we have to do is sit around and wait.”
“You hope,” Jess said, with her usual perspicaciousness. “I think we are lucky it was so close to dark when we got here last night. Otherwise that man’s friend would have gone for help instead of trying to spy on us. And maybe others will come for him anyway.”
“Maybe they will,” Arlen allowed. Then he reached out and touched a length of her dun hair, retreating almost immediately despite her lack of protest. She looked at him curiously.
“You’re a first, that’s all,” he said. “More than one wizard has fooled around with shape shifting, from human to bird or dog or something more exotic—and usually to their own woe. But no one has ever thought of finding the human potential in an animal.”
She stared at him with a little frown. “Is that good, or bad?”
“Why, neither, I suppose—although once word of this gets around we’ll probably have to create some sort of checkspell so innocent animals aren’t torn from their natural shapes for the sake of experimentation. I imagine it was quite a traumatic experience.”
“It was hard,” she admitted. “But my friends helped me, even before they believed me. Now I can help them.”
“It seems to me you’ve already paid your dues in this little drama,” Arlen said. He took a gulp from a waterskin and dribbled water down his tunic on the way. “Never could use these things,” he grumbled. Then, “Eat, Jess. Here comes Carey, and I wouldn’t be surprised if he was ready to move. Full day is almost here, and I don’t think we can afford to waste any more time.”
“I did not think this was a waste of time,” Jess said with another frown. “I think it is good to meet with the man whose stable I have lived in all my life.”
Arlen smiled. “Maybe so,” he said, and stepped out just far enough that he could be seen from the point.
Carey stopped in front of Jess and said, “We need to wrap your arm before you go out. You about ready?”
“Yes,” she said, looking at the dead man’s boots as Carey dropped them on the ground. A strip of material trailed from his hand, the same color as Dayna’s overlong tunic. He sat next to her and held the boot up next to her arm for measure, then applied his knife to it.
“I want you to take the gray,” he told her, his phrasing awkward as he muscled the knife through thick leather uppers. “He’s the best rested, and he’s strong, and he’s got heart. Either that or he’s too stupid to be afraid of the things he should be; I haven’t decided yet.”
Jess scraped the last of the peach flesh from the stone pit with her teeth, and set it on the ground next to her, holding out her arm when Carey gestured for it. He carefully lay the leather against the swollen and bruised limb, but she gasped with surprise and pain when he wrapped the tunic strip tightly around it.
; “I’m sorry,” he said, looking at it but not backing off. “You can’t be worrying about banging it around when you’re on this run. We’ve got to protect it.”
She nodded, blinking hard and fast.
He finished the chore, looking almost as relieved as she felt that it was over, and ran an apologetic hand down her shoulder. “Let’s hope that was the worst part of the whole run. Now, if Arlen will produce a finder for you, I’ll get Dayna started on her spell—if nothing else, maybe the magics will mingle and hide your trace,” he said to Arlen. He squeezed Jess’s arm and told her, “The finder will take you to Sherra if you follow it, and it won’t fade until you get there. Just get her back here, anyway you can. I don’t think she’ll be hard to convince—just be Jess. Oh—and here.” He removed his chain of spellstones and lowered them over Jess’s head. “There’s only one there that’s important now—the shieldstone. It’ll keep anyone from directly working magic on you. Don’t get cocky, though, because a quick-witted wizard will still find ways to hurt you.”
Jess nodded; it seemed simple enough. Looking down at her newly inflexible wrist, she was suddenly ready to go.
“Finder,” Arlen said. He caught Dayna’s eye. The small woman sat cross-legged in front of Mark, looking fragile and uncertain—but when she finally nodded, there was determination in her face. Arlen waited for Carey to join them and start a conversation that was far too loud and unnatural—here we all are, out in the open, not up to anything at all—but one that easily created a rustle of notice up on the point. Then he closed his eyes, holding one hand out palm up; moments later he opened them again, just as a gentle greenish light bloomed into existence. With the other hand he touched Jess on the shoulder, and the light left him to hover several yards in front of her.
“The auto club would love this one,” Mark said, interrupting an inane conversation on horse-training ethics that he’d obviously not been following in the first place.
“Right,” Jaime teased gently. “No more men refusing to admit they’re lost.”
Mark grinned. “Good riding, Jess,” he said, dropping a hand on Dayna’s shoulder. Dayna opened her eyes and shrugged; in her face was a dawning of wonder at what she’d been able to do. The rustle of the guard was conspicuously gone. Carey strode over to hold the saddled gray while Jess mounted, an unnecessary gesture she allowed him without completely understanding. When she was settled, he closed his hand around hers on the reins.
The Changespell Saga Page 29