Elephant Thief

by Lia Patterson

  I shrugged. “Oh really, what difference does a single elephant make?” And a mage, but I did not remind him of that. Besides, I got the impression he was more worried about his reputation than the damage he would do to their position. He might not mind at all to see Rhys fail.

  “It will look bad,” he complained, confirming my suspicions.

  Lady Enit again bent down to whisper in his ear and when she straightened up, she had a definite glint in her eyes. “I think we might come to an agreement, Lady Arisha.”

  But I’d had half the night to refine my plan, until it was completely foolproof. “I’m pleased to hear that,” I replied. “But I must warn you, just in case you get any ideas, that I’ve told Cerwen that I will try to break through to Rhys. Should anything happen to me while crossing that river...”

  From her face I could tell that I had hit the bull’s eye. Charming woman!

  That moment the curtain to Owena’s room swished aside, and she came back in, carrying a tray with two silver goblets. “I’m sorry, Mother,” she said, eyes cast down. “I will do as you ask.”

  Lady Enit waved her words away in irritation, but accepted the mulled wine, as did her son. Obviously they were used to being waited on. Owena did not offer me a drink, but I didn’t want their hospitality anyway. I felt sorry for the poor girl, yet at the same time I thought that she could have put up a bit more of a fight.

  But my time was running out if I wanted to cross the river before hostilities commenced for the day. Already light showed through the walls of the tent.

  I pointed to Prince Bahram’s letter still lying in Pellyn’s lap. “My betrothed offers five talents of gold to whoever brings me back.”

  Greed! I had them now. And how did they think to collect the money?

  “Your prince’s messenger offered ten,” Lady Enit pointed out.

  “Very well, ten.” I shrugged. “All for looking away at the right moment, surely such a small thing.” I nodded at Owena. “Think of the rewards…”

  The girl did not protest this time, instead she regarded her mother and brother with a strangely intense expression. I frowned. What was the matter with her?

  Pellyn rubbed his eyes. “I…I suppose so…” He yawned.

  His mother pressed his shoulder. “Son, this kind of chance only comes once. We have to take it.” She yawned too.

  “That’s agreed then.” Pellyn rose, but wobbled for a moment and had to grab the arm of his chair to steady himself. “We accept your offer.”

  “Good,” I said, but could not help staring at them. Why were they acting so strangely?

  Lady Enit touched her head. “I feel dizzy.” Slowly she sank to the floor.

  “Mother?” Pellyn exclaimed. He turned to me, swaying. “What have you done to her?”

  “I’ve done nothing!” I protested.

  “You must have!” He took a step towards me.

  I backed away in alarm. “I swear I haven’t!”

  “You Sikhandi are all the same,” Pellyn said, the words coming out slurred. He fumbled for his dagger.

  I took another step back. “No!”

  He toppled at my feet.

  TWENTY-SIX

  I stared down at Pellyn lying sprawled on the carpet. The goblet had fallen from his fingers and rolled away, spilling wine in a scarlet cascade.

  Owena giggled hysterically. “It worked!”

  My head jerked up at her words. “What worked?”

  “My plan!”

  I knelt down by Pellyn’s side and felt his pulse: slow but strong. Alive! My heart started beating again. “What have you done, you fool!”

  “I drugged them.” She looked hurt. “I thought you’d be pleased.”

  “What was in the wine?”

  “Some medicine our healer gave me because I haven’t been sleeping well.” She produced a small glass vial from a pocket of her nightgown. “I just tipped the whole lot in.”

  “What is it?”

  “I don’t know. But it worked!”

  It had indeed. I pressed the heels of my hands against my eyes. My beautiful plan was in tatters! All because of this stupid girl who should surely have been strangled at birth! For the first time I felt some sympathy for Lady Enit. Another realisation hit me. If Pellyn’s men found me here, a Sikhandi mage with two apparently lifeless bodies at her feet, they might well act before I could offer an explanation. A fresh wave of wrath coursed through me.

  “You idiot,” I snapped, “look what you’ve done!”

  Owena pouted. “But you said you’d help me marry Kestrel.”

  “I would have! But not like this.”

  She gnawed her lips. “I only wanted to help you escape…”

  “I didn’t want to escape! All was going according to plan. Your brother had just agreed to escort me through the camp to the ford.” My moment of triumph ruined!

  Her shoulders drooped with disappointment. “So you do want to go over to the Sikhandi after all? I had thought–”

  “No!” I took a deep breath. “Of course I won’t betray Rhys. But I need to get to the ford to make him listen to me. He has to see I’m serious, else he’ll just send me home.”

  “Oh, I see.”

  Yes, but too late! Like a child bumping into a Shah board, the girl had upset all my plans. As if to mock me, Pellyn started snoring loudly.

  “What will you do now?” Owena asked.

  First things first. Above all, I did not want to be found with an unconscious Pellyn, snoring or not. The camp was stirring. Somebody might enter at any moment.

  “Help me with these two,” I told Owena.

  Together we dragged them into Pellyn’s room and left them sleeping on the carpet there. Whatever drug Owena had given them worked well, for though we were none too gentle they never roused. Indeed, with her ample chest Lady Enit produced some snores that rivalled her son’s.

  By the time we were finished, I had formed a tentative new plan. One thing was certain: I needed to get away as quickly as possible. With an inward sigh I decided to take Owena along, for I couldn’t very well leave her to face her family’s wrath. She would have to make herself useful though. Quickly I explained to her what to do.

  When soon after we walked out of the tent, Owena did not do too badly at first. Her voice hardly shook at all when she told the men guarding Hami that her brother did not want to be disturbed.

  “He commands that Lady Arisha be treated as his guest,” she added.

  They nodded obediently at her words, but then she hesitated.

  I took over. “Lord Rhys should be here any moment.” As if by chance, I made a point of brushing back my hair so the eagle feather was clearly visible. “Meanwhile the elephant needs to be watered.” I turned to Owena. “You were going to show me the way.”

  While the men dutifully took up their station outside Pellyn’s tent, Owena and I walked away. The place between my shoulder blades itched, as if expecting an arrow any time, yet there was no outcry. My head held high, I tried to hurry without arousing any suspicion. Surely our luck could not last much longer.

  A quick glance sideways showed me Owena looking frightened and guilty. She would never get me through the sentry lines, already she was attracting puzzled looks. Upon reaching the river bank, I caught sight of the small island straddling the ford farther upriver, my destination. The sun had risen by now, lighting up the walls of the Sikhandi fort and glinting on the spear tips of the guards there.

  Suddenly Hami emitted a deep rumble of the type elephants used to communicate over distance. After a moment a reply echoed back from across the river, and the guards up on the wall pointed excitedly in our direction. The time for secrecy was past, I decided.

  I turned to Owena. “Do you still want to come?”

  “I…yes!”

  Gathering up my robe, I started to wade into the water. “Follow me.”

  Behind us, a group of men had collected on the river bank. “What are you doing!” one of them shouted.
/>   “Only giving the elephant a wash,” I called back. “Lord Pellyn has given his permission.”

  After an initial hesitation Owena stumbled after me. “The water’s icy!” she complained, grabbing my arm.

  I refrained from pointing out that if she hadn’t interfered with my plans, she would be lying warm and snug in her bed. Instead I manoeuvred Hami to cover us from sight from the shore. A whispered command made him hold out his leg for me to mount.

  Quickly I climbed up to settle myself on his neck and then leant down to extend my hand to Owena. “Your turn. Hurry!”

  She looked at me in astonishment. “Up there? But…but…”

  Really, had the girl never clambered up rocks as a child? “Just step on Hami’s leg and he’ll do the rest. I won’t let you fall.” A glance over my shoulder showed a gathering crowd behind us.

  Owena hesitated. She made an ineffectual attempt to grab Hami, only to let go when the cloak she’d thrown over her nightgown started to slip. “I can’t!” she wailed.

  “Oy, you there!” somebody shouted from the shore. “Come back at once!”

  “In a minute!” I yelled back.

  Surely they’d come after us any moment! I came to a quick decision. “Hami!” I called and sent him a brief impression of what I wanted from him. “Carry her.”

  At once his trunk wrapped around Owena’s waist. She squealed when he lifted her up, but I just ignored her and urged Hami into the deeper water.

  “The elephant needs a thorough wash,” I called over my shoulder. Hopefully they couldn’t see properly what was happening.

  “Arisha!” Owena was crying. “Help me!”

  “Just keep still and he won’t drop you,” I told her. Rhys had made considerably less fuss!

  I didn’t have the time to deal with her anyway, because shouts rose behind us. Hoping that Hami wouldn’t stumble and spill me into the river, I twisted round and crawled onto his back where my things were fastened to Dillan’s harness. Luckily we had prepared everything in advance. I only had to untie a few knots to have the rolled up linen sheets fall loose down Hami’s side, where the current of the river tugged at them.

  Hami looked round curiously at the strange white contraption enveloping him, but at a shouted command kept going. The bags also held something else I needed: a piece of wood that had started life as a humble broomstick, now sawn off and with scraps of white linen wrapped round it.

  Holding this improvised baton of truce aloft, I sat up on Hami’s back, very conscious of making a wonderful target. We had reached the deepest part of the river by now, but fortunately it had not rained the last few days, so the waters were low. Hami still carried a whimpering Owena, her gown trailing in the water like some strange weed.

  Shouts echoed back from either shore, but so far they hadn’t made up their mind to shoot at us. The Sikhandi camp lay in a bend of the river. To reach the island straddling the ford, we needed to get closer to their side, where the water was shallower. Opposite us lay the Gate of Dawn, facing east, and to my surprise it started to yawn open. They were thinking I was escaping their way!

  I cursed inwardly. Were they trying to get me killed? At once I scrambled forward to direct Hami on a course parallel to the shore and away from the gate. This was not the quick dash to the island that I had envisaged! By now the Aneiry side of the river resembled an anthill that somebody had poked a stick in. Suddenly an arrow arched up. My heart missed a beat, but it fell harmlessly in the water behind us.

  I waved the baton at them. Couldn’t they see the signs of truce? Surely a white elephant was difficult to miss! Suddenly I spotted somebody galloping along the shore, shouting. Wynn! His blond hair flew behind him as he waved for the archers to desist.

  Ahead of us, the island loomed closer, the scraggly alders clinging to it beckoning as invitingly as the famed pomegranate trees of the Ninth Heaven. Might we make it there alive after all? That moment a single figure standing on a boulder by the ford caught my eye. Owl. While everybody else was running about, she stood still, bow in her hand. My throat went dry. Unlike the other archer Owl would not miss. However, she made no move to draw her bow. Yet…

  As the water got shallower, Hami quickened his steps, equally eager to reach dry land. We had made it! Another glance at Owl showed her still waiting patiently, her bow at her side. Could it be she trusted me? But other concerns took over as riders started boiling out of the Aneiry camp, heading our way. I grabbed the bag of flour from Hami’s back and slid down.

  “Let me down!” Owena wailed, hanging limply in Hami’s grip.

  “Let go, Hami,” I shouted over my shoulder, struggling with the string holding the bag closed.

  With a thud the elephant dropped his load. Owena fainted in a wet heap. However, I had no time for her. With shaking fingers I opened the bag of flour and ran to mark out a large white circle around us and across the path leading to the Sikhandi camp. I finished only just in time. When I shook out the last bit of flour to close the circle and set up a hasty barrier spell, a dozen horsemen thundered across the ford, splashing water everywhere.

  Rhys drew Gwynt to a halt in front of me, sending pebbles flying as the horse reared up. His eyes blazed behind the visor of his eagle helmet. “Arisha! What are you doing here?”

  I stood there panting, flour sticking to my wet robe, and said the first thing that popped into my mind. “Setting up camp.”

  TWENTY-SEVEN

  “What!”

  Drinking in the sight of him, I made a vague motion behind me. “Yes, I’m staying here.” He was alive and well! And none too pleased with me, but I had expected as much.

  “Will you stop this nonsense!” he snapped. “Don’t you realise this place could turn into a battlefield at any moment?”

  “That is your choice alone.” I held out my hand for Gwynt, and the mare lowered her muzzle into my palm. I had forgotten how the air had that extra sparkle in his presence! And only now did I appreciate how much I’d missed him. Feeling slightly breathless, I smiled up at him.

  Rhys did not smile back. “Enough! You’re coming with me at once.” He leant down to grab my arm.

  I evaded him and stepped out of reach. “No.” Gwynt threw up her head as he urged her forward, but refused to cross the line marked in white flour. Quickly I reinforced the spell with more energy drawn from the burgeoning vegetation around us. “This is a circle of truce, Rhys, and I intend to stay here whatever may come. You would have to drag me out of it kicking and screaming.” I meant it.

  His jaw tightened. “Very well, if that is what it takes.” Again he spurred Gwynt forward, but the mare sidled away. He cursed. “What have you done to her?” In a fluid motion he dismounted. “Just you wait!”

  The circle did not stop him – it wasn’t designed to. Yet I felt a bit discouraged at how annoyed he was with me, when my own heart sang at the mere sight of him. He grabbed me by the shoulders.

  “Aren’t you at all pleased to see me?” I blurted out, unable to keep the hurt out of my voice.

  The armoured fingers of his gauntlet dug into my skin. “By the Lady of Darkness, Arisha! Of course I am. But not here! We have to get you away. The Sikhandi might attack at any time.”

  “No they won’t. Prince Bahram will respect a truce declared by a mage.” At least I hoped so.

  He threw a quick glance at the walls of the fort. I could make out the Sikhandi soldiers standing at readiness, looking on curiously, but all the gates were shut again. It would have been foolish to try a sortie anyway, with the Aneiry massed so close.

  Rhys switched his attention back to me. “That may be so for the moment,” he conceded. “But I’m not taking any chances. We’ll ride back to camp and you will account for how you came to be here.” His face darkened again. “What idiot let you through our lines? I demand a full reckoning!”

  I held up my hands in appeasement. “Please, Rhys, just give me a chance to explain first. I’ve had an idea that I need to put to you and Prince Bahram
.”

  His mouth tightened into a thin line. “An idea? Arisha, is that why you came, risking your life in this foolish manner?”

  “Yes! Because it’s worth it!”

  “You gave me your word you’d stay at the Eyrie!”

  “And I kept it,” I flashed back. What did he take me for? “Five days, as promised. I didn’t escape till the morning of the sixth.”

  For some reason that didn’t placate him. “Wait till I get hold of that useless Collen,” Rhys pressed out through gritted teeth. “I’ll feed him to the rats piece by piece! I expressly told him not to let you out under any circumstances.”

  “It’s not his fault,” I protested. “He stood no chance, not with Lady Luned helping me.”

  “Grandmother aided and abetted you in this lunacy? And I suppose Cerwen and Owl as well? I’ll give them a piece of my mind!” His wrath was almost palpable in the air around him. “Why do the women of my family never do as I tell them to?”

  Because he was wrong? But I didn’t voice the words hovering on the tip of my tongue, for I hadn’t come to quarrel with him. Well, not very much so. “Please, Rhys,” I appealed to him, “all I ask is that you hear me out.” I lifted my hand to touch my hair. “For the sake of this feather?”

  “Arisha!” He closed his eyes, as if in pain. “You know I can’t deny you when you ask that way!”

  “No?” I filed away that useful information for later. “You will listen to me?”

  He hesitated, but I detected a softening in his stance. Slipping off one of his gauntlets, briefly he touched my cheek. “Arisha…very well, but back at the camp.”

  “No, I’m not going anywhere. I want to put my idea to Prince Bahram as well.”

  “Have you been listening at all!” he exploded. “The Sikhandi–”

  “…are doing nothing,” I interrupted him, motioning at the fort. “Had they wanted to attack, surely they would have done so by now.” I was secretly relieved that this part of my plan at least had worked out. “Prince Bahram’s no fool, he must know you would obliterate them out here in the open.”