by Mary Corran
‘Asher — left!’
She flung herself to the side at Mallory’s shout, then something whistled past her; a heavy grunt came from the big woman, and when Asher looked up she saw the large red hands were now curled about the blade of Mallory’s sword, which protruded from her vast stomach. Her face registered extreme shock as she slid to the floor in a kneeling position, pulling ineffectually at the blade as she let out a long wailing cry.
‘Asher, get the girl — quickly!’
Asher bent over the sleeping figure and shook her roughly, but Menna did not stir; in her sleep she looked younger than Asher remembered, and her face was very white. Her breathing was slow and shallow, barely perceptible.
‘Hurry!’ Mallory called.
She could hear various noises coming from outside the house; as she uncovered the sleeping Menna, Asher took a quick look out of the window to her left, but she could make out only the dark shape of the river in the distance and the looming presence of the bridge upstream, just beyond the Sair Gate and city walls, exactly as Oramen had described them. She put an arm under Menna’s shoulders and tried to lift her.
She was heavier than Asher expected, and she knew at once she did not have the strength to carry Menna to the door. Careful not to hurt her, Asher pulled her from the bed and laid her on the floor, then had to drag her in an undignified fashion over the rich carpet, the fine stuff of her thin night-gown slipping easily enough across the silk.
‘I’ll take her now.’ Effortlessly, Mallory stooped and lifted Menna into his arms as Asher finally got her to the landing. His ease was almost comic contrasted with her own difficulty, making her feel ridiculous and a little resentful.
‘Thank the Fates for a lucky shot. I could easily have missed. No, don’t worry about fetching my sword.’ Asher was relieved, not least because the big woman was still alive and groaning. ‘Downstairs, now. Quickly.’
Hare did not move, his gaze resting intently on Menna’s face. ‘Who is she?’ he breathed.
Asher did not answer him, but to her surprise Hare reached out his left hand and quickly touched Menna’s pale cheek. ‘For luck,’ he whispered. It was obvious the whole of his right arm was now paralysed, the infection spreading from his hand, and he looked terrified as he followed Asher down the stairs.
On the ground floor, they found the door into the garden standing open, and Club peering out into the darkness. ‘Bull?’
‘Here.’ A large shape emerged from the shadows. ‘All done? We’ve finished here.’ Asher noticed a long cut on the big man’s face, and blood dripped from a wound on his right arm.
‘Take Hare and Stern and get into that boat. We’ll go to the docks.’ Club turned to Asher, then back to Hare. ‘What’s the matter with your arm?’
‘I can’t move it.’ Hare was deathly white as he put a protective hand on his injured arm, then started. ‘But — ’
‘What is it?’ Asher asked sharply.
‘I felt that!’ Colour began to return to his cheeks, and as he looked down at his hand one of the fingers flexed. ‘Look! The girl — ’
‘Be silent!’ Mallory rounded on him. ‘Not another word. Club, where can we get over the wall to the inn’s stables.’
They followed him down the garden in darkness, for the night was heavily overcast with no hint of either moon, until they reached a place where the high wall separating the grounds of the shop from those of the inn was only shoulder height. Club took Menna while Mallory straddled the wall, then handed her up before turning to give Asher a boost. Hare watched, still bemused, flexing his right arm at the elbow with evident delight.
‘Many thanks, Club,’ she whispered down to him. ‘Hare, I’m sorry.’
‘But it’s all right again.’ He looked up dazedly at Vallis’s still, white figure, but broke off at Asher’s quick shake of the head.
‘The word is Esperance,’ Mallory called down. ‘Hare knows where to go for the money.’
‘So do I, Councillor.’ There was more than a hint of a smirk in Club’s voice. ‘I never forget a face! May Fortune favour you both.’
Asher jumped down on the inn side and helped steady Mallory as he edged himself to the ground. Together they headed for the stable building.
‘Asher?’ A slight figure slipped out from the doorway and came to meet her.
‘Essa!’ The women embraced briefly. ‘Is everything ready?’
She nodded. ‘As you asked. There’re clothes and provisions for you all, and here’re the passes.’ She handed Asher three sealed travel warrants. ‘Did you — ?’ She broke off, catching sight of Mallory and the girl.
‘No questions, Essa. Is the route north still the same?’ Asher asked hurriedly. ‘No changes to the safe houses?’
‘Didn’t you ask Mylla?’ Essa looked puzzled. ‘She’s been north most recently.’
A lump rose in Asher’s throat, and she found it suddenly hard to speak. ‘She’s dead, Essa. Jan doesn’t know.’
‘Dead?’
‘Don’t.’ Asher could endure neither sympathy nor explanations. ‘I can’t tell you now. We have to leave before curfew.’
Essa recovered as best she could, becoming brusque. ‘Which gate?’
‘The Sair Gate, it’s closest.’
‘Then come along.’ She led them into the stable where a covered wagon, teamed by four horses, stood waiting. ‘There’s bedding in the rear. It cost two gold to keep them here for you. The innkeeper’s an old skinflint.’
Mallory lifted Menna into the back of the wagon and left it to Asher to settle her comfortably. He got down again, saying: ‘You’d better stay with her in case she wakes, though it looks as if she’s had a heavy dose of something.’
‘All right.’ Asher leaned out between the curtains at the rear of the wagon, her voice suddenly unsteady. ‘Goodbye, Essa. Tell Jan and Margit and the rest about Mylla.’
‘Be safe, child, and come back to us one day. May Lady Fortune guard and keep you.’ They stared at one another a long moment until Mallory broke the contact by clicking at the horses.
Almost at once the cart began to move. Asher covered Menna’s sleeping form with one of the blankets provided by Essa, carefully tucking it round the girl’s body. She felt numbed by their success, as well as Hare’s extraordinary behaviour and recovery. ‘For luck’ he had said when he touched Vallis; and somehow her luck had healed him. How? And how had he known?
That Lassar must already be aware of Vallis’s loss she knew; the only doubt was whether they had a few moments’ head start or a whole night. It would depend on how quickly the governor’s men counted the tribute money and released Avorian from the Treasury vaults.
They stopped at the Sair Gate and she passed over their papers for inspection; the guard let them through, although not without questions at the lateness of the hour. Then they were outside the city walls and heading north, across the bridge over the Sair and toward the timberlands bordering the hills that led to Saffra; it was the shorter route, but slower, for they would have to keep to the trails where Avorian and his men would not.
Five days or more; five days for Avorian to catch up with us. Asher looked down at the sleeping girl, aware the hardest part of their long journey lay ahead. Perhaps Lassar already saw them in their flight. Her own gift, which had proven so unreliable, gave her a glimpse of a confusion of possibilities; she struggled to understand, realizing dimly that she would need it to show them the safest path. Except that from now on no path would be safe. Luck. They would need far more than their share to outdistance Avorian.
Chapter Seventeen
‘She’s still asleep.’ Asher frowned. ‘I’m worried, Mallory. It’s been so long — more than a day now.’
‘They must have given her too stiff a dose. But she’ll wake, Asher, don’t fret. In fact, it’s easier for us that she is asleep, because I can’t begin to imagine how she’ll react when she comes to.’
‘I know.’ Huddled in her blanket, Asher shivered. It was a cool night.
They had made camp in a wide clearing in what had once been the great Oxister Forest, but which had been so extensively logged it was now little more than a wood. In every direction stretched rows of stumps where the tall trees had been felled, the timber exported to pay for the ever-rising burden of the tribute. This visible impoverishment was a depressing and cheerless sight.
‘She must remember who she is of her own accord. I’m sure that’s what the Oracle meant: “The cub must wake itself”. It’s not for us to tell her.’
Asher yawned. ‘I don’t suppose she’d believe us anyway.’
‘How close do you think they are?’
‘Much too close for comfort.’ Asher was surprised by the rare clarity with which her gift displayed the warning. ‘We had a night’s start, but that was all; from now on the advantages are all on their side. They’re on horseback, can move faster and change mounts. There’s little hope we can do the same with a team of four.’
‘Which way should we go when we leave the forest?’ Mallory rotated his shoulders to relieve the strain of driving most of the day. ‘Any preference?’
‘I think west, then north again.’ She sighed. ‘I wish Mylla were here, she always knew which was the safest way.’ Her throat tightened, grief still near the surface.
‘It’ll be light soon. We might as well get on.’ Mallory stood up and held out a hand to Asher. ‘Come on, sleepyhead.’
They left the forest at noon, emerging into the northernmost section of the Sair Plains, the river now far to the south. North lay the range of low foothills which rose in the extreme distance to become true mountains, white-capped and frozen, their ultimate destination. Mallory, who had never travelled so far north, was stunned by the vista of beauty ahead, but Asher, who had, was increasingly anxious at the slowness of their pace.
They’re coming, Mallory. Lassar can follow Menna — I mean Vallis — much more easily than seeing me.’
‘What do you suggest?’
She bit her lip. ‘There’s a smallholding north of here which is part of the underground route. If we can reach it tonight, we might hide out there. It’s very out of the way. Avorian can’t travel far at night, any more than we can.’
‘All right. You direct, I’ll drive.’ He set the team in motion again, noting a slight hesitation in one of the leaders; he would have to take care they did not go lame. Asher had been right in saying they would find no replacements on their way and he nursed the horses warily along the flattest section of the trail. It had begun to rain, a driving, icy rain that stung his cheeks and eyes and made it hard to see.
‘You see where the trail goes up, round the side of that hill? Go there.’
They turned north, heading up into the lowest rank of foothills; the slopes were sparsely wooded, and Asher wondered whether their equipage would stand out too blatantly, so that even now their pursuers could see them with ordinary sight; but there was no point in worrying about it. She tried to concentrate on her surroundings, on the grey-blue granite against the drab landscape. Several small farms and cottages dotted the slopes, blending in with the stone, although the north of Darrian was less populous than the south and centre, being much colder and less fertile; but herds of goats wandered about freely, and the sloping fields showed the hay well advanced.
In the late-afternoon, Asher directed Mallory down a narrow rocky trail which wound along the side of the hill, descending to a discreet valley through which flowed a thin green river, like a snake.
‘The smallholding’s tucked into the base of this slope, so it’s practically invisible from above. We can spend the night there.’
‘The horses need the rest,’ Mallory agreed wearily; the leader was now distinctly favouring his off-hind foot. They made the descent to the valley sluggishly, at little more than a slow walk.
‘Where is this place?’
‘There, do you see?’ Asher pointed to what looked like a natural outcrop of rock, regular in shape, a long, low structure right up against the side of the hill. ‘It belongs to a woman named Silla. She and her husband dug the house out of the rock. Now he’s dead she lives here alone. She’s a solitary person, but she’s saved many lives in her time.’
‘Ours, too, I hope.’
*
‘How far ahead are they?’ Avorian snapped.
‘Less than half a day, no more.’ Lassar had his eyes closed, concentrating on his inner vision. ‘They travel slowly.’
‘When will we catch up with them?’
‘Soon. Before they reach the border, at any rate.’
‘Can’t you be more specific than that?’
Lassar’s eyes opened, and he turned in the saddle to face his master. ‘There is no must in their future,’ he observed placidly. ‘It might be tonight, or tomorrow, or the next day. But it will be.’
Avorian snorted in disgust, then waved a hand to his men, a dozen of them in all. ‘We ride on. North, into the hills.’
Lassar followed his master, urging his tired mount into a trot. It would be night soon, and then at last he would be allowed to rest; of all forms of exertion, riding was the one he detested most.
*
Asher bent over Vallis, watching as a faint colour came back to her cheeks and her eyelashes quivered.
‘I think she’s waking,’ she said to Mallory in a soft voice.
‘Stay with her. I’ll go and see to the horses.’
Silla, a gaunt old woman with straggling white hair and sharply severe features, hovered unwillingly nearby. ‘Do you want me?’ she asked coldly. ‘It might be better if there were no unfamiliar faces round her.’
‘No, leave us alone. I’ll call if I need you.’ Asher sat on the stone floor beside the pallet; Vallis moaned in her sleep, the first sound she had made in two days.
‘Menna?’ Asher whispered. ‘Are you awake?’
Her eyelids flickered open and dark eyes met Asher’s in a bemused expression. ‘Awake?’
‘You’ve been sleeping for a long time. How do you feel?’
‘Tired.’ Her voice was very faint. ‘I was ill. I remember ... ’ A pause. ‘Do I know you? Your face — ’
‘I’m Asher, from the Treasury. We met once, in the Chief Councillor’s house.’
Sudden alarm registered in her face. ‘Where am I — why are you here? Have you kidnapped me?’
‘Not exactly.’ Asher was relieved to see the girl’s eyes close again as her alarm faded and she drifted back towards sleep. ‘You’re quite safe,’ she added softly, hoping it was true.
She remained by the pallet all night, sleeping fitfully, afraid the girl would wake again.
They left at daybreak, the horses restored by a night’s rest, but instead of guiding Mallory, Asher travelled for a time inside the wagon, keeping a watchful eye on her charge. The reference to kidnapping concerned her, for it was plain Avorian must have mentioned such a possibility to the girl; she would hardly otherwise have jumped to such a conclusion so rapidly. Vallis slept on, but more lightly, and Asher was aware she might wake fully at any time.
The ranks of hills rose higher as they progressed further north, and their pace slowed as the wagon ascended to a pass between two peaks which, in the absence of sun, still bore streaks of frost on the rock to either side. Asher came out to join Mallory on the driver’s seat.
‘They’re getting very close now,’ she said anxiously. ‘I can feel it.’
‘We can’t go any faster. The track’s not good as it is, and we can’t afford for one of the horses to break a leg.’ But he flicked his whip across the backs of the leaders, who responded with a desultory increase in pace.
‘They’ll catch up before sundown at this rate.’
‘What do you suggest?’
‘We have to go on, this is the shortest route.’ Asher frowned suddenly, sensing a warning in the patterns in her mind. ‘I think — yes, go on. But faster.’
Mallory glanced at her face. ‘What is it?’
‘Listen.’ He did so, shaking his head,
hearing nothing. ‘Can you hear birdsong?’
‘None.’
‘Then I think we’d best hurry.’
They breasted the top of the pass and paused for a moment to stare at the seemingly endless ranks of peak upon peak ahead; it was a breathtakingly clear day, but Asher was consumed by an overwhelming sense of urgency.
‘Mallory, get on! Quickly. We have to get away from here.’
He did as she asked, pressing his weary team on to the gradual descent, their hooves slipping on the scree covering the narrow trail. He was conscious of nothing but the rhythm of steady clop-clopping until he heard a gasp from Asher, and pulled on the reins to look back.
For a moment there was absolute stillness in the air; then he saw a brownish puff of smoke from high on the left-hand peak drift upward to the skies in a slow, leisurely fashion. There seemed to be movement on the slopes overlooking the trail, but it was not until the sound finally reached him that he realized what was happening. It was a roaring, tearing sound that built in volume until the earth shook, and only Mallory’s tight hold on the reins prevented the horses from bolting.
The level of noise rose until it was deafening, and the air filled with dust and the crashing sounds of falling rock; the wagon shook, briefly. Then the worst was over, and the noise began to fade into the distance.
‘Was that a landslide?’
He saw Asher’s white face peering back at what had been the trail, and nodded. ‘Or an earth tremor. Did you see it coming?’
‘No, I just felt a warning to move on. Mallory, this gives us more time.’ Her eyes lit up. ‘Avorian will have to go round a different way.’
Where the trail had been was now a mass of broken trees and rock, and near to where they had paused earlier, a wide crack had opened in the earth; too wide to cross. That they had escaped injury was miraculous. ‘Perhaps we are meant to get her away, and the balance of fortune is with us,’ Mallory said softly. ‘Perhaps we will win after all.’
Fate, Asher thought. If they had not been in precisely the right place at the right time, they would have been killed or forced to turn back, straight into Avorian’s arms. Instead they were safe, and even granted a respite. She looked at Mallory and smiled.