Firekeeper Saga - Wolf's Head, Wolf's Heart Part 58

Derian caught a glimpse of an elaborately painted board covered with polished stones in various colors when he went to the gatehouse to turn in his paperwork. The guard-having no orders to keep anyone from leaving Dragon's Breath-barely glanced at the doc.u.ments before thrusting them into a wooden tray by the door.

He did, however, give Derian's naked face a second glance, his own white-and-light-blue-patterned features awakening momentarily with an expression of mild distaste.

Heart still pounding and head light with relief, Derian swung back into Roanne's saddle and urged the lead mule into a fast walk, certain that any moment he would hear a voice calling out for them to halt.

Then had come the long, tense ride to the sheepfold. He and Lord Edlin hadn't dared press the animals too rapidly.

Frozen ground invited all manner of catastrophes-strains, sprains, and even broken legs. To insure against disaster, they kept to the margin of the road where packed snow offered better footing than did the carefully tended sleigh course down the center.

Three or four sleighs pa.s.sed them within the city limits, but once they pa.s.sed beyond the outskirts, not even the road custodians seemed to be up and about.

The worst part of that part of the journey was neither the cold nor the sleepiness that threatened to steal over Derian now that the demands on his attention had eased. It was worrying that he and Edlin would arrive too late-that they would arrive and find the others waiting impatiently or, even worse, that they would arrive and find representatives of New Kelvin's weird government waiting for them.Derian fretted over such contingencies, his thoughts beating out this rhythm of fear with some of the same steadiness that the horses and mules tramped over the snow.

It might have helped if he could have talked to Edlin, but the lord rode at the tail end of the train, urging on the stragglers and keeping a rear watch.

Finding the sheepfold empty seemed so impossible that Derian had just sat for a long moment and stared.

Afterward, he guessed that his expression must have been every bit as foolish as any Lord Edlin had ever managed, but Edlin, trotting his mount to the front, didn't even grin.

"We're here, what?" he said cheerily. "Well that's fine, just fine. I thought we might get here and find the others come and gone with nothing but a note to tell us where to meet them."

Derian, suddenly panicked by a possibility he hadn't considered, glanced frantically around. Edlin leaned from his saddle to slap him on the shoulder.

"Don't worry, old boy. No tracks. We're first. Let's get the beasts inside the fold, what?"

Doubtless the sheepfold had been built here precisely because the location was far enough outside the city limits that none of the city regulations applied, yet close enough that herders starting out early could have their flocks to market in a timely fas.h.i.+on. There was even a spring of fresh water and a rough shelter.

Horses and mules accepted the snowy sheepfold with little grace, despite the fact that New Kelvin's attentive road custodians had cleared it since the last major snowfall.

"I say," Edlin said, returning from the spring, over which he had needed to break the ice before drawing water, "it's a good thing we're not like Firekeeper-able to understand beast talk and all, what? The critters are probably cursing like soldiers. After all, we drag them out of a warm stable and send them off through the snow in the dead of night. Shame we can't heat them some mash or something."

Derian shook his head. "Don't dare risk it, they might end up with colic if we fed them, then took them out on the road again too soon."

He stomped his feet and looked back along the dark, silent road.

"I wonder where the others are," he said.

"Me, too," Edlin replied. "Wish we were with them, what? Much better than this freezing wait."

Derian nodded somberly.

Edlin brightened. "No reason why you and I shouldn't have something hot to drink, though, while we wait, I mean. There's dry wood in that shelter-I saw it when I went to the spring. I'll put on kettle-there's one there-and we'll have something to take the chill off our bones and put the rest to the side for when the others get here."

If they get here, Derian thought uneasily as he moved to water the animals. If they get here.

When Blind Seer tottered to his feet and, growling, made clear that he would prefer to move under his own power, Elise thought she'd start crying with guilty relief-relief because this was the first clear sign they'd had that the wolf would live, guilt because she had been wondering how they would ever manage to carry him when they began their retreat.Indeed, if they could carry him.

Thinking of how Firekeeper would react if she learned that Blind Seer had been abandoned was enough to make Elise wonder rather nervously if she could manage to carry the wolf at least a short distance.

Doc certainly couldn't do so. He had lavishly used his talent to set Blind Seer's wounds on the way to healing-maybe too lavishly. Elise didn't want to think what they would do if someone else was hurt.

But at least Blind Seer was on his feet. The wolf's quickly shaved flank bore so many st.i.tches that he resembled a skin toy rather than a living creature-or would have had there not been so much blood clinging to his remaining fur.

Worse still was the area around his left eye. Kistlio's knife had cut the lid and damaged the orb. Doc had done his best-dabbing the region with alcohol before loosely bandaging that side of the wolf's head-but it was too soon to know whether the livid, swollen area would succ.u.mb to infection.

After binding the couple upstairs, Wendee Jay had sneaked down the stairs to scout, going far enough that she could hear what might lie ahead while remaining unseen behind the curve.

When Wendee came back up, her tired eyes were worried.

"I heard pounding on the door below," she reported. "From what I could gather-and the words weren't clear-the folks down there know they are locked in and are not at all pleased about it."

Grateful Peace, turning from where he was locking the door to the third-floor room behind him, turned up his lips in a wry expression that was not so much a smile as an admission that events had gotten beyond him.

"I used a key," he said, "that locks a lock most do not know is there. Had we not made so much noise, they probably would have continued their debate unknowing. Now, however...

He shrugged. "They will eventually force the lock. We must leave as soon as possible."

"Ready here," Doc said, rising and shouldering his repacked kit.

"As is your patient," Grateful Peace said, leading the way down the stair. "You are indeed a miracle worker."

"Hardly," Doc replied dryly.

Grateful Peace chose not to argue.

"Goody Wendee," he said, "was there any noise from the ground floor?"

Wendee nodded.

"I think so."

"Then let me go first," Peace said. "My reputation is ruined with those above-or will be when they have time to think-but most of those who are rooming on the ground floor are so junior to me that they will not dare give challenge."

Elise, marveling at his confidence, wondered, too, how much was bluff.

One thing was certain. Any hope Grateful Peace had for salvaging his place here rested on proving LadyMelina's treachery. From the moment he had locked the four remaining researchers into the tower, he had relinquished any hope of pretending to have been coerced into working with the foreigners.

Clutching the box holding the mirror-it was too big to thrust into a pocket as Wendee had the comb-Elise followed Grateful Peace down the curving stair.

Her ears strained, not only to hear what Grateful Peace was about, but for the sound of Firekeeper's return.

"What are we going to do," said Wendee, who must have been thinking along similar lines, "if Lady Blysse doesn't return?"

Elise shook her head uneasily, but Sir Jared had an answer.

"We go on," he said. "Of all our company, Firekeeper is the best able to escape on her own. With two of the artifacts in our possession, we would be betraying her trust if we didn't try to get away with them."

Wendee looked so shocked that Elise nearly strangled on a shrill, hysterical laugh.

"Remember how Firekeeper took on the bandits?" Elise said when she had her voice under control again.

"She'll be all right."

Wendee nodded, somewhat rea.s.sured. Elise wished she believed her own words. Firekeeper was tough, but she was hardly invulnerable. Moons had waxed and waned before she had fully healed from the injuries she had taken fighting Prince Newell.

This time, Doc wouldn't be there to treat the wolf-woman if she did get hurt, and Blind Seer wouldn't be there to bring help.

And then there was Lady Melina...

Elise found herself s.h.i.+vering and, to distract herself, focused exclusively on the moment.

Ahead she could hear Grateful Peace speaking in New Kelvinese, his accents far more pretentious than any he had ever used when speaking to her.

"I commend you," said he, "for your alertness. Yes, there has been a difficulty. For that reason, I have locked the upper levels. They are to remain locked until I return. Do not pay any mind to whatever anyone on the other side of those doors will say to you. They are not in control of themselves."

Elise felt herself grinning.

"Does what happened have anything to do," asked a voice that sounded like a young voice trying very hard not to sound young, "with the artifacts?"

Elise could almost hear Grateful Peace's meaningful nod. Its shape was reflected in the awed and slightly terrified intake of breath that came in response.

"However," Peace went on, "I trust that by the time the sun is nooning all will be well. I suggest..."

The word could have been "command."

"I suggest that you return to your sleeping quarters and get what rest you can. Tomorrow promises to be a very busy day."There was a chorus of "Yes, sirs" and other polite noises, then a pattering of feet as at least a dozen people did their very best not to be the last one before the gaze of the Dragon's Eye.

"Come," Peace said more softly in Pellish. He poked his head around the corner of the stair and motioned for them to hurry. "We dare not delay."

"Lady Firekeeper..." Wendee began, but Peace shook his head decisively. "No. She must find her own way."

With Peace in the lead, they descended again into the cellars. Wendee went down next, a.s.sisting Blind Seer. Elise followed and helped Doc manage the ladder.

At the bottom, as they were all reclaiming the cloaks they had stowed in a dark corner and Peace was lighting a torch, Elise turned to Sir Jared.

"Doc," she asked, keeping her voice soft, "do you have room in your pack for this?"

She held up the box containing the mirror.

He nodded wearily.

"Put it in for me, will you, Elise? I don't think I could get the pack off just now."

Elise felt terrible about burdening him further, but the box didn't weigh too much and she needed to have her hands free... just in case.

They trooped through the icy darkness in silence, lit only by the one torch they had taken time to light.

Peace said nothing until they had left the spiderweb of tunnels beneath Thendulla Lypella for the greater sewer network.

"Much," he said, motioning them to a halt, "depends on what has happened with Lady Melina, if Lady Blysse has... neutralized her, then we may have hours before anyone comes for us. If she has not, pursuit could come quite soon.

"Ultimately, this sewer empties outside the city. That is how I suggest we go. However, our exit will be neither easy nor pleasant."

"Oh?" Elise asked, distrust flooding her.

After all, Peace had betrayed his own people. Why shouldn't he betray them? She thought of the mirror and the comb. Peace could redeem himself quite nicely if he returned them, couldn't he?

"Lady Elise, my fellows would be fools to leave a potential roadway such as this unguarded. However, on a cold night like tonight, the guards may be less than attentive. Unfortunately, the exit from the tunnel is covered with a heavy grille work gate. My keys will open it, but I do not think we can open it without attracting attention to ourselves."

Wendee said leadenly, "Then we're doomed."

"Not quite," Peace replied. "There is a smaller exit hatch, similar to the one through which we entered the tunnels. My keys will also open that door, but one problem remains."

"What?" Elise asked.

"The hatchway enters directly into the guardhouse.""Oh."

Doc asked, "Do we have any choice?"

"We could exit within the city," Peace said, "but I do not fancy our chances of traversing the city without causing comment. Even if no one has heard about the thefts we are a rather disreputable-looking lot."

"We're doomed," Wendee repeated. Then, with visible effort, she put on a brave manner. "So we might as well follow the course that dooms us less quickly. I'm for the tunnel into the guardhouse."

Everyone else nodded-even Blind Seer.

They went on without speaking for some time. As she trudged along in the back, Elise found the night's exertions catching up to her. Who would have known when they'd settled down that evening to discuss how best to retrieve the artifacts that some hours later they would have two of them?

Two and hopefully three.

Elise could feel exhaustion threatening her. It had been a long day and promised to be a longer night. She was cold, and her feet-which she had been on much of the day-ached abysmally.

Her head ached, she wanted to weep, to whine like a child, anything but tramp through this cold tunnel with its reek of sewage.

It seemed too much, unfair, that the only reward she could antic.i.p.ate at the end of the journey was a possible fight followed by further flight, this time through the snow and wind. Presumably they'd ride until hiding became necessary, and then where would they go? Where would they hide?

Ahead, the light of the single torch Grateful Peace carried burned steadily. At least here there was no wind. At least here no one was chasing them. At least here...

Elise straightened and forced a grin. If this was as good as it was going to get, well, then, she'd better appreciate it.

What had she been telling herself-that it was unfair that she had to put up with these conditions?

Well, who insisted you come along, Lady Elise Archer? she asked herself.

No one but me was her silent reply.

And in any case, what's fair? Was it fair that Sapphire and Shad were nearly murdered on their wedding day? Was it fair that King Allister had to deal with treachery along with his coronation?

What is fair?