Spy, Spy Again

by Mercedes Lackey

  “What are your intentions?” Ahkhan growled, turning to Kee.

  “I—I don’t know,” Kee said honestly. “I’d have to know how Sira feels. All I know is it feels like I’ve known her all of my life. Maybe more than all of my life. Like we’ve been friends and more forever. I’d like to go on—or start—being friends and more forever. But I don’t know if she feels that way.”

  “If she does?” Ahkhan demanded.

  “Then I’ll find a way for us to be together, and we’ll do whatever you people do about getting married.” Kee seemed very sure of that.

  “And if she doesn’t?”

  Kee’s voice faltered a little, but only a little. “Then when we get somewhere safe, we’ll say goodbye as friends and I’ll—I’ll go do something, I guess.” He sighed. “I hadn’t thought that far. I mean, I’m a Mage now, and if I were to go back home, I’d have to learn how to not be a Mage again. I guess I’ll do that, and if that doesn’t work, maybe Father can make me the ambassador to Hardorn or Rethwellan or Menmellith or even the Shin’a’in, where being a Mage will be an advantage.”

  And when Kee said that, an enormous weight was lifted off of Tory’s shoulders. No one who was Lifebonded would have said something like that. No one who was Lifebonded could. Whatever this was between Kee and Sira, it was something reasonable and sane, not terrifying and inexplicable.

  “So you wouldn’t pressure her to—”

  “No,” Kee said steadily.

  “You wouldn’t stalk her and pursue us back to the Moun—”

  “NO!” he said indignantly. “Seriously, Ahkhan, you Sleepgivers have some kind of twisted idea about—about love and—and whatever if you think that! I just . . . between what I’ve been feeling from her all this time we’ve been looking in on her, and what you told me about her, I think she’s amazing and I want to be her partner even if she does going on murdering people for a living. I mean, as long as it’s just Karsite demon-priests, that’s all right, and I’d help . . . ”

  His voice trailed off. Tory wasn’t sure whether to laugh or cry. Poor Kee . . . what must he be feeling now? Like he’d just been given everything, but it could all be snatched away in a moment, and without warning, maybe? And, of course, to find yourself in love with a Sleepgiver . . .

  “I’m not sure whether to laugh or cry,” Ahkhan said dryly. “Strangely enough, the tale my father tells about the first time he set eyes on my mother is not at all dissimilar. Without the hesitancy about our heritage, of course. I believe her body count exceeded his at the time.”

  Kee made a strangled little noise.

  “All right. If we live through this, and if she feels the same, you have my blessing, for what it’s worth.” Ahkhan sighed. “And don’t worry about getting Father’s. It’s not him you need to be concerned about.”

  “. . . it’s your mother.”

  “More than likely. But you’re a pretty thing, and evidently a powerful Mage. Both will go a long way toward mollifying her.”

  There was a long, long pause.

  “Thank you. I think,” said Kee.

  Silence settled over them all. Eakkashet seemed disinclined to comment—probably none of this made any sense to a creature that was literally made of fire and probably reproduced by splitting, or merging with another of its kind and dividing into four, or some other insane (by human standards) thing. Ahkhan had said his piece and, having said it, was obviously satisfied.

  Kee? Well, Kee probably had a head full of Sira right now since he’d finally gotten Ahkhan to stop glaring at him, and between that and the very urgent need to get across a border--any border--before the demon-summoners got on their trail, that was more than enough to occupy his mind.

  That left Tory wondering what the hell he was going to tell the King. Because he, with his limited empathy and being pretty good at reading girls, was absolutely certain Sira felt exactly the same way about Kee that he felt about her. Which meant that one way or another, Kee and Sira were going to be a couple. So how to tell the King that his son was going to marry a Sleepgiver?

  And there was one other thing.

  If they lived through this, it was pretty obvious that whether Kee and Sira managed to live in Valdemar, had to go to the Sleepgivers’ Mountain, or went to live somewhere in between, there was one phase of both his and Kee’s lives that was over. They would still be best friends . . . but they would be best friends apart. He could not compete with Sira, and he did not want to.

  So he and Kee would never be quite the same again. In fact, there was a good chance that he’d never even see Kee again once they escaped.

  Kee would be fine. He had Sira.

  But what do I do?

  The darkness had no answers.

  17

  They all woke at dawn; nearly simultaneously as far as Sira could tell. Eakkashet radiated a comforting warmth, but the cold breeze from outside the cave told them that without him they’d have spent a profoundly uncomfortable night. She woke first, to discover that somehow during the night she and Kee had ended up supporting each other.

  Despite the danger they were in, that invoked a cascade of feelings in her that had absolutely nothing to do with harsh reality. All of them were wonderful. Some of them she had no names for yet. And when he woke up a moment later and smiled at her, it gave her the most irrational feeling that everything was just fine, even better than fine, and nothing bad could possibly happen as long as the two of them were together. She allowed herself to give in to that feeling for just a moment or two, because she knew it was not going to last.

  But that bit of silent communion between them was quickly interrupted when Tory and Ahkhan stirred and grumbled, and she and Kee separated, sitting up carefully, before the other two opened their eyes. She discovered she didn’t feel nearly as sore as she had been afraid she would. Either the gentle warmth Eakkashet had supplied all night had something to do with that, or she wasn’t in as bad shape as she had thought.

  The water afrinn burbled at Tory, who held out his empty waterskin. Atheser filled the skin, the rest of them followed suit, and the afrinn then burbled at Eakkashet and slipped out of the shelter, beneath the air afrinn’s illusion bubble.

  “He is going to see if there are Karsites about,” the fire-creature explained. “What is our plan?”

  Ahkhan took out his map. “I think we’re here, roughly,” he said, putting his finger on a spot. “I’d like to get over the Border into Menmellith. That’s not ideal, because a mere border isn’t going to stop the Karsites from crossing it, but they might hesitate, and that will give us a chance to get far enough ahead of them to buy some merc help, or summon some help from the troops guarding the Border.”

  Sira nodded, sucking in her lower lip when she saw how much farther north the Karsites had taken her than she had thought. How had they done that, in so short a period of time?

  Maybe by riding their horses to death and having new mounts ready when the old ones were about to drop. They seem to think anything is disposable except themselves.

  They all gnawed on trail biscuits and drank water while they considered the limited view the map gave them. “Essentially,” Ahkhan said, finally, “all we know for certain is that if we go north, we’ll be going from hills into mountains, we’ll likely be limited to traveling in the valleys, which will make it easier for the Karsites to ambush us. But if we go west, it will still be hills.”

  “Easier terrain for us, but easier for them, too,” Tory pointed out.

  “I can help,” Eakkashet said. “Since Kee can replenish me, I can shapeshift into a firehawk and scout from above. I very much doubt that the Karsites will pay any attention at all to a bird.”

  “That would be of immense help,” Sira said gratefully. “And you don’t have to do any of this.”

  Eakkashet laughed. “This is highly interesting for me—for all three of us afrinns, s
o far as that goes. We were idle for so long that it is a pleasure to be doing things. It is not as if we are in any danger from those fools.”

  “I wouldn’t be so sure of that,” Sira cautioned. “You haven’t yet encountered those priest-Mages or their demons.”

  “Nor have they encountered us. But—very well, we will take precautions.” Eakkashet sounded as if he were trying to conciliate her. Well—fine. She didn’t mind him being a bit arrogant, as long as he was as good as his word and was careful as well.

  The water afrinn darted back, squeezing under the edge of the bubble, and burbled at Eakkashet.

  “For as far as he went, he found no humans,” Eakkashet said with satisfaction. “Perhaps they have moved southward, since they did not find us here last night. That would be the logical next step. Our home is south, after all, it would be logical to assume that was where we were going. They would want to catch us before we reached that Border.”

  Sira was not at all sure of that . . . but if Eakkashet and the air afrinn were both prepared to scout from above—well, they would at least have some warning of any Karsites between them and the Border with Menmellith.

  Through this entire discussion, she was acutely aware of Kee, sitting quietly at her side without contributing anything. Somehow it wasn’t a distraction; she still found herself able to focus perfectly well. His presence was more like a bulwark than anything, as if she knew she could be certain that if she missed anything, he would see it.

  And sure enough, he spoke up, just as she thought that.

  “We need to have more than one plan in place,” he pointed out quietly. “What if we find a physical barrier, like a river or a canyon, that we can’t cross that’s not on the map? What if the Karsites don’t do what we think they are going to do? We have limited supplies and limited options. I don’t think we can afford to make things up as we go along. And yes, I know we need to get moving, but a candlemark of planning now could save us a day or more later if we get into trouble.”

  Eakkashet looked at the water afrinn, who burbled at him. “He says he can part the water around each of us, one at a time, so that we can walk safely on the riverbed if there is a river.”

  “Good, we didn’t know that before. What about a canyon? I’m not prepared to try to climb down an unknown, raw rock wall with nothing but my fingers and toes.” Kee raised an eyebrow at Sira’s brother. “You may be that good, but I’m not.”

  “A canyon would be as much a barrier to the Karsites as to us,” Ahkhan pointed out. “If we find something too deep to climb, Eakkashet can scout for a trail down, and the Karsites won’t have that advantage.”

  “And if we find them between us and the Menmellith Border after all?” Tory asked quietly.

  They fell silent. And it was Kee who spoke at last. “Then we go north. There is one thing we do know. There is one Border that the Karsites will not dare cross. And that is the border with Valdemar.”

  * * *

  • • •

  Tory was doing his level best to concentrate on the immediate moment and nothing else—because if he thought about the danger they were in, he knew he’d falter and let doubt take him down, and if he thought about Sira and Kee, he’d be too muddled with mixed emotions to pay attention to what he was doing. So he listened—there was nothing out there but the sound of the wind in the rocks. The breeze smelled of nothing, not even dead grass. And of course the only thing outside their cave was the opposite wall of the wash and a crooked slit of blue sky. Eakkashet slipped out first and shapeshifted into the firehawk while the rest of them ate and stretched.

  Stretching, warming their muscles, was a must. They were going to have to start today’s trek by climbing a rock wall—a short one, but still. Then they’d be moving at a pretty good pace for the rest of the day. No matter what, they still had to travel as far and fast as they could until they reached safety—

  If we can.

  The fire afrinn returned just as the air afrinn resumed its normal form. “There was no sign of them close at hand, but they have thoroughly muddled up all the ground hereabouts, which is to our advantage. I will scout ahead. Merirat and Atheser will scout to the left and right. You just concentrate on running.”

  Ahkhan didn’t wait for an invitation to begin the trek. He shot out of the cave and began climbing the sides of the wash before Tory had even gotten to his feet. By the time the rest of them joined the Sleepgiver at the top, he was watching Eakkashet soaring ahead of them. “I’ve picked the best route for as far as I can see,” he said, brusquely. “Let’s go.”

  Ahkhan did not launch into a flat-out run, as they had done yesterday, although Tory would not have been surprised if he had. He and Sira matched paces, side by side, in an identical lope made for endurance running. He and Kee followed right behind, and Tory, at least, was watching carefully to see where Ahkhan put his feet so he could match that as closely as possible.

  He’d have been worried about dangerous animals, because only the gods knew what was out here, but not after all those Karsites had been tramping around all night. Probably any wild animals had been scared right across the plain, or were cowering in their dens, wondering when it would be safe to come out again.

  At least with so many men all over this ground it would be impossible now for anyone to pick out their trail from the rest. Eakkashet was right. The ground was so muddled their trail would just blend right in with the rest.

  Now and again, he looked up to marvel at this inhospitable wilderness. How did anyone scratch a living out here? Maybe they didn’t. Maybe that was why the prison was in the middle of it. But that would bring its own set of problems, because everything but water would have to be brought in by wagon. And the fodder for the horses or mules—probably mules—that pulled the wagons would have to be brought along too, so that meant long wagon trains coming and going often. Was being a guard here considered punishment or a privilege? It should have been easy duty, after all, not like the kind of prison where there were dozens crowded into stinking cells, and the chance of a riot or a breakout was high.

  Easy duty until they picked up Sira, anyway. That must have been quite a shock. She hadn’t said anything about it yet. And now he found himself wondering just what had been going on all that time between when she’d been captured, and when she’d escaped. Obviously at some point she’d somehow called up these afrinn things, but how? She said she wasn’t a very powerful Mage—and surely the Karsites had put protections against magic around their prison, because it was clearly one built to hold special prisoners. So how had they gotten in? Or had she somehow brought them with her?

  The questions kept coming, and he welcomed them, because now he had plenty to think about besides Kee.

  The country they were running through was showing stronger signs of transition from a desert to something more like dry grasslands. That was going to make tracking them harder, but it was also harder to run through the knee-high, dry grasses, which offered resistance that was not unlike running through water. And if it was less sandy, it was now more dusty, and his eyes felt sore and he kept wanting to sneeze.

  His legs ached. How long had they been running? By the light of the sun, it was halfway to noon, and Tory, at least, was starting to feel the effects of running most of yesterday and all morning. I wish we still had the horses . . . But it would have been impossible to get them undetected across all that open plain. But, oh, his legs ached, and his side was starting to. His lungs burned. And he badly needed a drink of water.

  At least it was cold. And dry, so he wasn’t drenched with sweat as well. But he tasted salt whenever he licked his lips.

  “All right,” Ahkhan said quietly, as they mounted the crest of yet another hill. “Time for a breather. Slow down to a walk.”

  “I’d rather drop to my knees,” Tory admitted, “But yes, I know, if we stop, we’ll just stiffen up and it will be worse when we start ag
ain.” Now that they weren’t running, he reached for his waterskin and poured a generous amount down his throat as he walked. Well, that was one blessing; they weren’t going to have to conserve water, not with Atheser, the water afrinn, ready to refill their skins and bottles at need.

  Sira looked back over her shoulder at Kee. They exchanged the kind of smile that shut everyone else out. Tory allowed himself a moment of envy.

  “Eakkashet’s coming back,” Ahkhan said, interrupting that moment. Tory peered up into the cloudless sky and saw the afrinn winging toward them—but there was something odd about that silhouette—

  He’s carrying some—

  Tory barely got that thought out when Ahkhan ducked, and he was nearly hit in the face by a large, dead rabbit.

  He had the presence of mind to catch it, and a moment later he had it stowed in his mostly empty pack.

  “I didn’t know he knew how to hunt,” Ahkhan said, bemusedly.

  “Neither did I,” his sister replied.

  “Beats dried beef,” Tory pointed out. “He can hit me in the head with dead rabbits any time he likes.”

  Ahkhan held them to a walk until Tory’s legs were just about feeling normal, then after they had all had a piece of rock-hard trail biscuit, he set the pace at a lope again. Eakkashet returned three times more with rabbits; judging by what Tory knew of hawks, the afrinn was roughly four times as good at hunting as a real hawk would have been. But maybe the trick here was that the four of them were working like drivers, starting up the rabbits in the grass well ahead of them and making them easy targets for the firehawk.

  If the pace hadn’t been so grueling, this could have been pleasant. It was not all that different from a day of falconry, except the hawk was flying itself. A cool, sunny day, driving game before them, with an assurance of a hot meal at the end of the day.

  Highborns would be happy to do this. If they were on horses.

  But the pace was brutal, they were not on horses, they’d be sleeping on cold hard ground tonight and for at least the next several nights, and Tory could only wonder how many more days of this they had ahead of them.