To the Gap (Daughter of the Wildings #4)

by Kyra Halland

  The four hands all stared at him. “Um. Nice draw,” Benner said.

  “I don’t like killing people, because I’ve usually got better things to do,” Silas said. “But it happens I’m bored right now.” He kept the gun trained on the Forn’s Crossing mage-killer.

  “Hey. Was just a question. Didn’t mean nothin’ by it,” the man finally said. But his eyes narrowed in resentment at being forced to back down, and Silas made a note to himself to keep an eye on him.

  “Say,” the other Forn’s Crossing man said, undeterred, “you’ve got awfully dark skin. Just like an Island wizard.”

  Were all the Forn’s Crossing hands this stupid? Silas moved his revolver to aim at that man. “Yeah, I’ve got Island blood. Remember, it wasn’t just wizards came from the Islands; they brought their slaves and servants, too. I guess my kin didn’t marry with the Granadaians as much as most of them did. Now, if you want to accuse me of something, why don’t you come right out and say it?”

  “That’s right,” Deevish said. “This fella, Shark here, he saved one of our boys from drowning in the White Rock. Put his own life in danger. Ain’t no wizard would do that. Won’t none of us Windy Valley folk stand to hear a word against him. You insult Shark, you insult all of us.”

  “Yeah,” Benner added. “You’d best watch your mouth.”

  Silas, Deevish, and Benner stared down the second Forn’s Crossing hand while Silas kept his gun aimed at him. Finally, the man swallowed and looked away. “Not accusing you of nothin’.”

  “Good.” Silas holstered his gun. A knot of about half a dozen cattle chose that moment to wander aside. In an unusual show of diligence to their duty, the two Forn’s Crossing men rode off to drive the animals back to the herd.

  Silas rode back to the position where he had been before. Now that the confrontation was over, he found himself shaking with a mix of relief and leftover rage. It was sheer good luck the face-off hadn’t turned into a fight. Those two Forn’s Crossing fellows looked to be the sort who went around purposely looking to stir up trouble. At least the Windy Valley hands were on his side – as long as they didn’t know he really was a wizard. He had no doubt that if they ever did learn the truth, they would be as quick to turn on him as they had been to defend him just now. He wasn’t worried about being able to handle a couple of Plains, though he had no desire to hang, and what Deevish had said about shooting off a wizard’s hands didn’t sound too appealing either. It would take a pretty big mob of pretty determined men to get the better of him.

  But if they found out about him, their suspicion would then turn to Lainie. Whether or not the Mage Council knew about Lainie’s forbidden abilities, the fact was that she was in mortal danger from the mage-hating Plain settlers of the Wildings. And he was convinced now it would be no different among the Plains who had settled at Amber Bay. The only place she would be safe was across the sea in a land where they didn’t believe magic even existed.

  Now he just had to find a way to convince her of that.

  * * *

  SILAS WARNED LAINIE in general terms that the Forn’s Crossing men who had confronted him were trouble, but he didn’t have the chance to go into detail until nearly a nineday later, when Paslund again relieved him from night duty an hour early. This time, remembering that Lainie slept with a loaded gun at her side, Silas announced his presence before he started climbing into the wagon. She welcomed him eagerly, without any hesitation this time, and he took his fill of her sweet warmth and left her likewise exhausted and satisfied.

  Afterwards, though Silas hated to disturb the lazy contentment that had settled over them, he told her in detail about the incident with the Forn’s Crossing hands and the two Windy Valley men. He spoke in whispers, even in the privacy of the wagon; this conversation was too dangerous to risk being overheard.

  In the faint light in the wagon, he could see Lainie staring up at the canvas covering as her hand drifted to her neck where the noose had been. “Those Forn’s Crossing men, that don’t surprise me, they’re a no-good bunch, but Deevish seems like such a nice fellow.”

  “He’s a perfectly decent fellow,” Silas answered, “except he hates mages. Just like most other Plains. You know how it is, darlin’.”

  “You risked your life to save Paslund. Surely that ought to count for something if they find out about us.”

  “I wouldn’t depend on it. You saved Bitterbush Springs from Carden and the Sh’kimech, and the folk there respect your Pa and they’ve known you since you were born, and they still tried to hang you.”

  “But they didn’t see for themselves what Carden was like with the Sh’kimech possessing him,” Lainie argued. “They didn’t know what he would have done. Everyone saw you rescue Paslund.”

  “I still don’t think that’ll make any difference.” Unlike Lainie, he had never expected his actions on behalf of Plains to change how they felt about wizards. He had seen enough to know that most people didn’t give up their deeply-ingrained prejudices that easily, not even when evidence to the contrary was right before their eyes. He fought to protect Plains and their rights and freedoms just because it was the right thing to do. Though, much as he believed in equality and rights for all people, much as he knew Plain folk had good reason to hate and fear mages, he found that his dedication to protecting them had been somewhat tempered by their tendency to hang innocent folk on the mere suspicion of being a wizard.

  “What if some rogue mages do try to interfere with the drive and we stop them?” Lainie asked. “Then everyone will see –”

  “If that happens, I want you to stay out of it.”

  She huffed out an impatient sigh. “No. Not when renegades and hunters alike are going to be after that eight hundred gildings on you. I’m not letting you face them alone.”

  He tried to hold back his frustration at her stubbornness; the last thing he wanted to do right now was provoke her into being even more stubborn. “Lainie, darlin’, listen to me. Even if there isn’t a bounty out on you, as soon as you join me in a magical fight, that’ll make you fair game for capture, and if the Mage Council doesn’t know about you now, they’ll surely find out after that.”

  She drew breath to argue some more, but he cut her off. “And it isn’t just renegades and hunters. There are things happening in Granadaia. I don’t know what’s going on or how far it goes or who’s involved; I just know it’s serious.” He hesitated; he should have told her about the message long ago, and she was going to want to know why he hadn’t, and none of his reasons for not telling her seemed good enough now. But he needed to lay down all his cards if he was ever going to convince her. “Right before we came out on the drive, I got a message from the Hidden Council. It said, ‘It’s worse than we thought, don’t trust anyone.’”

  A moment’s silence passed. “So,” she said, “when were you planning on telling me about that?”

  “I never had the chance, and I wasn’t sure what to make of it myself, and I didn’t want to worry you –”

  “Well, I’m glad you finally got around to it. It don’t help matters none when you hide things from me. But still, that’s got nothing to do with rogue mages, or with the Mage Council finding out about me. It’s to do with the Mage Council finding out about the Hidden Council. Don’t worry about me, just do what the message says, don’t trust any other mages, and you’ll be fine.”

  If only it was really that simple, that any trouble he was in wouldn’t of necessity involve her as well. But it wasn’t. She was in danger both because of who and what she was and because of her close association with him. And if she couldn’t even accept that and agree to stay out of a fight, there was no way he was going to be able to convince her to go to Amber Bay, much less overseas. At least, not without more compelling evidence that she was in danger – and once he had such evidence, it might be too late.

  But there was nothing else he could say to her now, not without beating the same old dead horse over and over again. He shifted over her and kisse
d her. “Let’s not argue any more. I can think of better things to do.”

  Chapter 7

  OVER THE NEXT month, the weather got warmer and drier. Most of the creeks and rivers the herd came to were still running, though not so deep that crossing them was as big an undertaking as crossing the White Rock had been. As the dry spring weather went on and the creeks dried up, there were a few stretches of a day or two when there was no water for the cattle and water for the men and horses had to be rationed out of barrels filled at the last water source. This wasn’t long enough for the cattle to really start to suffer, but the hands told stories of longer dry drives, three or four days or longer, when the cattle had gone blind and mad from thirst and dozens had been lost. Every man in the combined Windy Valley and Forn’s Crossing crews, even those who usually dismissed the gods, prayed daily to the Provider that their luck with water would hold out until the start of the summer rains.

  In a rare moment of privacy, Lainie suggested to Silas that if they did come across a long dry stretch or the rains didn’t start on time, she could call up a storm. Regretting the need to tell her no, Silas reminded her that using that much power would signal her presence to the mages who were out there ahead of the herd. Even Silas had to admit that if the Plain folk with the herd saw her call up a rain during a dry spell, that might dispose them more kindly towards wizards, and he thought again how the Plain settlers were putting themselves at a disadvantage by rejecting magic and wizards. In Granadaia, thanks to skilled weatherworking mages, drought and flood were almost unknown.

  The combined herd was joined by the Strawdale herd at the town of Honeybee. Once again, to keep the herd on schedule, the bosses gave the hands a few hours off in the evening but decided not to allow overnight leave. Besides cattle, the Strawdale herd included a flock of a hundred or so sheep, bred for hardiness and to survive on whatever forage was available, and to produce longer, thicker wool; they would be sold for breeding, to improve the Granadaian stock. The enlarged herd numbered some eighty-four hundred head of cattle and strung out nearly two leagues front to back. Fortunately, the Strawdale crew included twenty friendly, experienced, hard-working drive hands, who not only handled their own cattle and sheep but also helped pick up the slack from the ne’er-do-well Forn’s Crossing bunch.

  The two mages Lainie had found were closer now, within range of Silas’s mage senses. They were well-shielded, and seemed to be biding their time until an opportunity came to strike at the herd. Silas wasn’t sure how much damage two mages thought they could do to a herd of over eight thousand cattle, guarded by a crew of about sixty hands and other workers, and he also wasn’t sure he wanted to find out. He readied himself for the unexpected, and warned Lainie again to stay out of any trouble that arose – a warning which she showed just as much inclination to pay heed to as his other warnings, which was to say, none at all.

  A few days before the third Darknight since leaving Windy Valley, the combined herd met up with the small herd from the Discovery co-op. Mining was bigger business than ranching in the hilly, rugged area around Discovery, and the Discovery herd numbered no more than a thousand or so head. But several of the Discovery hands had a long-running feud with some of the Forn’s Crossing men, which resulted in a few fights breaking out and made the combining of the herds troublesome. By Darknight, the herd was still disorganized and unsettled, and everyone’s nerves were strained. The second Darknight of the drive had passed without mishap, and trouble was overdue.

  Silas was even more on edge, knowing that those two mages were out there somewhere, maybe planning to take advantage of the dark of the moon to strike. Late that morning, when he felt a strong tug on his mage senses, he nearly jumped out of his saddle. His heart exploded into heavy pounding, which didn’t slow down when he realized that what he had felt wasn’t a probe from another mage or a magical attack but a signal that an urgent message had arrived in his Hidden Council message box. With the herd on the move, there was no chance for him to get into his knapsack to see what the message was, but he had no doubt that its urgency meant it brought another warning.

  The day seemed to drag on endlessly as he wracked his mind, wondering what the message said. Finally, when the sky was deepening with sunset, the trail bosses called a stop for the night. The wagons pulled up to mark the campsite a short distance from the herd, and the cooks began laying out a hasty supper. Like on the previous Darknights, watch shifts would be doubled tonight, and the hands on the first shift, including Silas, would have little time to eat and rest.

  Silas wolfed down his plate of bacon, biscuits, and canned peaches. While everyone else was still eating and talking about the day and the upcoming moonless night, he slipped around behind the wagon where his and Lainie’s belongings were stowed. His knapsack lay near the top of the heap of gear in the wagon bed; quickly, he opened it and reached into the magical pocket where he hid his message box. Keeping his hands inside the knapsack so that the square silver box would remain concealed, he took out the folded piece of paper that had appeared in the box and read the hastily scrawled words, written in the same hand as the last message he had received.

  Take the girl and get as far away as you can.

  Fear dropped into Silas’s gut like a block of ice and his knees went weak. He read the message again to be sure of what it said. Take the girl…

  There was no longer any question whether or not Lainie was being hunted. His muscles tensed with an urge to grab her right then and run. But they couldn’t, not yet. The only way to get beyond the reach of the Mage Council was to go overseas, and they didn’t have the money. The payout from the drive would let them travel swiftly and board a ship with no more delay than absolutely necessary. It still wasn’t going to be easy to convince her that they needed to go away, but the time for doubts and coaxing and dancing around the issue had ended. There was no choice; they had to go. And until then, he would do whatever it took to keep her safe.

  “Hey, Shark!” Endis shouted. “Where are you? Time to get on watch!”

  Silas stuffed the note back into the message box and returned the box to the magical space in his knapsack, then pulled out a fresh bandana and took off his old one. He came out from around the wagon, tying the new bandana around his neck. “Right here, boss. Just needed a new kerchief.”

  “Get on out there,” Endis said. “The herd feels jumpy tonight; I’d lay a hundred gildings to a copper bit there’ll be a stampede.”

  Silas fetched Abenar from the remounts and rode out to the herd. As Endis had said, the cattle were restless, mooing and bawling and milling about and refusing to bed down. Maybe they were just picking up on the crew’s nervousness, or maybe they were sensing, in that way animals had, that something dangerous lay in wait. Silas checked again for mages and found only the two he and Lainie had been watching, still somewhat in the distance. Close enough to move in tonight? It was hard to tell, but he didn’t think so. He drew his mage senses back in and forced himself to resist the urge to keep probing lest he give away his own presence.

  The tension rose through the evening. A few hands sang, loudly and off-key, but their voices were swallowed up in the vast, dark, waiting night. It was almost a relief when, less than an hour after Silas started his watch, a coyote yipped under the moonless, star-filled sky and within a couple of heartbeats, the herd rumbled into a walk and then a full-out run.

  Silas was on the far side of the herd from the camp when the stampede started, and it was as much as his life was worth to try to get through the mass of running cattle to look for Lainie. He kept a watch out for her as best he could, but in the chaos-filled darkness, he never saw her. He prayed she was safe at the camp – which was only safe as long as the herd didn’t decide to run through it. More likely, she was riding along with the stampede; all hands would be needed to help bring eight thousand cattle under control and round them back up. If she was riding, he could only hope that the dark and confusion would keep her from being discovered by the two lurking m
ages. It might be hours before he could find out if she was safe; the thought of returning to the camp after the stampede to find her missing made him feel sick with fear.

  The stampede had started fairly early in the evening and the cattle weren’t rested, so they ran themselves out well before midnight. Not wanting to stray too far from where he could easily find Lainie, Silas had stuck with the main herd instead of going after bunches of cattle that split off. As soon as the cattle straggled to a stop, he rode through the herd to the other side to look for her.

  And there she was, safe and sound, talking to a few of the Strawdale hands as they walked their tired horses. One of the hands was holding a torch; in the flickering light, Silas saw her laugh at something one of the men said. His relief at finding her safe faded into that strange feeling of being an interloper in her world.

  Take the girl… Could he really tear her away from everything she knew and loved? If that was what he had to do to keep her safe, to not fail her again as he had so many times before, he would do it.

  She turned and saw him. “Silas!” she called out, waving him over.

  His hesitation fled. He jumped down from Abenar, ran over to her, and pulled her into a tight embrace. “I couldn’t see you,” he said against her hair. “I didn’t know where you were or if you were safe.”

  She hugged him back, then smiled up at him. “I’m okay. I know what I’m doing around a stampede, you know that, and this one wasn’t so bad.”