Firekeeper Saga - Wolf's Head, Wolf's Heart Part 62

When today had dawned, clear and bright, the falcon had not returned, but Firekeeper was unworried.

The bird could go much faster and more directly than any of them, but she still needed to rest and hunt.

Derian had reminded them when they set out that they were only a half-day's journey from Zodara.

Despite the exotic sound, Zodara meant something like "Trader Town," and was the easternmost crossing between Hawk Haven and New Kelvin. They had chosen to come here, rather than returning to Gateway, because from Plum Orchard they were days closer to the area where Citrine had last been seen.

Unhappily, coming into Zodara meant that they could not hope to sneak across unnoticed. They had come into the town quite openly-the New Kelvinese put their guards at the riverside, not their own interior.

Zodara was a much larger trade crossing than the Gateway to Enchantment and at this time of year became quite busy. The White Water slowed-as much as that angry body of water ever slowed-when portions upstream froze. Moreover, heavy cargoes, like the gla.s.s for which New Kelvin was renowned, were more likely to reach their destinations if slid over snow rather than jolted over stony roads.

This meant that Zodara was quite busy. With Derian's coaching, Elise secured them stabling near the southeast edge of town. The man who owned the warehouse looked at them without curiosity, dismissing them with the typical New Kelvinese disdain for foreigners. However, Elise doubted that he was so dismissive that if an alarm was raised he wouldn't remember them.

The winter weather meant that no one thought it peculiar that they kept their heads covered, so Elise's New Kelvinese haircut went unremarked when she and Derian ventured out into the town to check out their options for getting across.

Elise wasn't terribly hopeful that they could find someone who would carry them to Plum Orchard-she figured they would need to take their risks on the public ferry-but trade goes two ways.

Within a few hours, Derian had recognized a trader with whom his father did some business. Promises of payment and hints of intrigue had fired both this woman's greed and her sense of adventure. By late that afternoon they were all loaded aboard a series of flat-bottomed boats-even Blind Seer, though the wolf had to submit to being caged.

Evening saw them unloaded on the friendly sh.o.r.es of Hawk Haven.

Plum Orchard was a simple town-though at this time of year, swollen as the population was with merchants and their goods, it really qualified as a city. The cobblestone houses and shops looked so rea.s.suringly normal after nearly a moonspan of New Kelvinese architecture that Elise nearly burst into tears.

They took rooms at a coaching house owned by cousins of Derian's mother. In light of the family connection, the owners found room for the rather large group and their animals despite the influx of merchants in Plum Orchard.

A large payment taken out of the New Kelvinese coin earned by Doc's efforts in Dragon's Breath-andeasily exchanged here so close to the border-rewarded Derian's relatives for making the travelers welcome and encouraged them to keep from gossiping about their rather remarkable guests.

Elise was fascinated when she realized that to their hosts the most remarkable of these guests was not Derian, though they honored (and slightly envied) him for his counselor's ring, nor was it either herself or Edlin, though they both claimed t.i.tles and the promise of sizable inheritance, nor-and this was remarkable in itself-was it Firekeeper and her wolf.

The one whose presence awakened wonder and awe in these sophisticated innkeepers was Grateful Peace. They knew far more of New Kelvinese custom than was usual in Hawk Haven and recognized him for a man of quality and education-a man who, after the custom of New Kelvin, had risen to power more on his own merits than on his ancestry.

But Derian's cousins had been paid for silence and Elise felt sure that they would keep that silence.

For the first time since leaving Hasamemorri's house five days before, Elise had a really hot bath. She scrubbed the last traces of scarlet paint from her skin before tumbling between clean linen sheets. Her last thought before falling asleep was that she would have felt perfectly normal once more had it not been for her hair-or rather her lack of hair.

Early the next morning, Wendee Jay, frowning at her own reflection in the mirror, raised the same subject.

"I don't think I can go home until this has grown out. My little Merri will scream."

Had it not been for a certain defiant humor in the other woman's tone, Elise would have thought her completely serious.

"My parents," Elise replied, "are going to have quite a bit to say about my new style, too. I wonder if bonnets might come back into style?"

They laughed unsteadily. Small hats were definitely "in," but these were mostly ornaments, meant to draw attention to the head. The heavy, all-concealing bonnet belonged to the realm of marketwomen and older ladies, though it was considered permissible for travel.

Firekeeper thumped a couple of times on the door panel and came in. She, too, was scrubbed clean and freshly clothed. Her face, however, seemed to glow with something more than just scrubbing.

"Doc say," she announced, actually pirouetting in place, "that Blind Seer's eye will live!"

Elise felt an answering glow light her own face and Wendee clapped her hands together. Despite his injuries, the great grey wolf had insisted on acting as forward watch for their group. Whereas on the journey out Elise suspected he had often slept for several hours a day, trusting his greater speed to permit him to catch up, this time Blind Seer had been nearby every hour they were on the move.

Only the heaviness of his sleep each night and the quant.i.ties of food he required gave hint to the tremendous toll his exertions took on him.

"He will have scar through lid and around eye," Firekeeper continued, "that will always show, but both will work."

The wolf-woman looked truly happy for the first time since she had failed to catch Lady Melina. Elise hoped that Firekeeper was on the way to forgiving herself."Blind Seer laugh at me," the wolf-woman continued, her tone sour but her eyes still dancing, "and say, why I keep this silly hair. He say cut it off and have done. Hair will grow back."

She held out a razor. "Would one of you cut it off?"

As Elise accepted the razor, it occurred to her for the first time that Firekeeper was as vain as any woman. Her disinterest in fas.h.i.+on, her open disdain for what she considered the more ridiculous aspects of clothing, her own idiosyncratic manner of dress, all these had blinded Elise to the truth.

Now, as she set about shaving the rest of Firekeeper's tatty hair to an even length, leaving just the bare fuzz of five days' growth against her scalp, Elise realized that Firekeeper would like nothing more than a thick mane of hair.

"How about you?" Firekeeper asked as she viewed the end result of Elise's barbering in the mirror. "Will you go short in front, long in back?"

Elise considered.

"I think so, Firekeeper. I don't have your courage. A tight braid wrapped close and the contrast won't be so obvious. Wendee?"

"I'll follow your lead, my lady." Wendee laughed a trace nervously. " 'Tis bad enough being bald in front without being bald all over."

Firekeeper ran her fingers over the stubble on her scalp, then shrugged.

"I not even had enough to make braid. Maybe someday."

She sounded distinctly wistful.

That trace of femininity vanished, however, when a shrill scream sounded from outside the window.

"Elation!" Firekeeper shouted and ran down the stairs.

They could hear her thudding over two at a time in her haste to get the peregrine's report.

Wendee sighed. "Don't think me coldhearted, Lady Elise, but I was so hoping for a day to let my behind rest from the saddle."

Elise nodded. "You're a kind woman to say so. Citrine is my own cousin and I'd been hating myself for wanting nothing more than to rest. Still, it seems that Elation is going to keep us honest to our better selves."

As she slipped on her outer clothes and hurried outside to hear what the falcon had to report, Elise felt a thin finger of worry touch her heart. They'd been counting on Elation to find Citrine.

What if the falcon had failed?

Firekeeper's bare feet slapped on the wooden treads of the staircase as she raced to meet Elation.

Outside, the ground was cold and hard, but she was too excited to miss her boots.

Elation was perched on a narrow fence rail, busily shredding a plump rat that had abandoned its comfortable housing under the floor of one of the hay barns upon finding that barn unaccountablyinhabited by a wolf.

Raising her head from her still warm repast, Elation fixed Firekeeper with one of her gold-rimmed eyes.

"I have found Citrine," she cried triumphantly. "As Doc guessed, she is to be found in a stone tower in the swamps to the east. She is pale and fragile, but still lives. I saw another thing there as well."

"I am certain you saw many things, mighty conqueror of the clouds," Firekeeper said, lavish with her praise.

Not only did the falcon deserve it, but flattery eased her along like oil on a hinge.

Elation, finished now with the rat, preened, wiping away the worst of the gore.

"I saw a man arriving," Elation said, "a man I had seen in Dragon's Breath some days after our own arrival. He had made himself noticeable to me then, for my eyes are sharp and I miss nothing. I had seen that he had hair beneath the knit cap-hair where a New Kelvinese permitted access into Thendulla Lypella would have had none."

Firekeeper gasped her admiration aloud, encouraging the peregrine to continue.

"He also did not walk like a New Kelvinese. They all mince because of those robes and tight shoes they wear," the falcon continued, exaggerating somewhat. "He walked like a man of Hawk Haven... or perhaps from Bright Bay. In any case, like a man from a place where trousers and boots are worn, not robes and curly-toed slippers."

"Peace doesn't wear curly-toed slippers," Firekeeper protested, temporarily distracted.

"He does in court and among his fellows," Elation retorted placidly. "I saw him."

Firekeeper shook the distraction away.

"So there is contact between New Kelvin and Baron Endbrook," she mused aloud.

"Rather between Endbrook and New Kelvin," Elation corrected, "for I saw that this man was treated as one of the flock at the lighthouse. Nor is Baron Endbrook happy at the news the man carried to him."

"When did you see this?" Firekeeper asked.

"The sun was high then," Elation replied. "When I had seen all I could see, I flew here directly. I rested some when darkness came, then flew much of the next day. Last night, I rested again. When I arrived, I located your lodgings by the mules in the pasture."

"Less than two full days," Firekeeper said. "I am impressed. Even for a falcon of your power and tenacity, that was a flight of which to sing."

Elation preened, though her feathers were clean by now.

Blind Seer, pretending to doze in the thin winter suns.h.i.+ne, sn.i.g.g.e.red.

"I am impressed," Firekeeper repeated. "From what Derian and his maps tell me, we afoot will need four or five full days to cover the same distance."

Elation's arrival had found their company somewhat scattered. Doc had been tending to Grateful Peaceand making arrangements for the crippled thaumaturge to be moved to Doc's family holdings in the Norwood Grant.

Peace had survived the journey, but that was the best that could be said for his condition. Ideally, he should have been allowed to stay in one place and heal, but the danger to his life should he remain so close to the border was very real.

As Firekeeper understood it, the New Kelvinese One-Apheros the Dragon Speaker, a ruler who was not a king, who served a king but was more powerful than that king... this Apheros would not simply let Grateful Peace disperse from the New Kelvinese pack.

Peace's actions would be seen as more heinous than stealing meat from a weaning pup and for them the penalty would be death. Whether or not a.s.sa.s.sins, such as those who had come to Sapphire and Shad's wedding, would be sent could not be ascertained, but in any case, Peace would be safer away from the border.

Derian, for his part, was replenis.h.i.+ng their sadly depleted supplies. Edlin was a.s.sisting him-at Derian's invitation.

However, with Bold's help, Firekeeper collected her stragglers before the morning was much older. In a private room with a thick door and Bold outside the windows to make certain none snooped on their conference, she informed them of what the peregrine had discovered.

"So," the wolf-woman concluded, "how soon can we leave?"

Derian frowned thoughtfully.

"I'm nearly finished with my purchases. There are farms along the way, even a tavern or two with rooms to let. We don't need to carry as much."

Edlin nodded agreement and seemed to be about to launch into one of his incomprehensible speeches when Doc spoke up.

"Have we thought this through?" he asked. "So we go. What are we going to do when we get there?"

Firekeeper honored Doc for his healing talent-a talent he had insisted on using to her benefit as soon as he had recovered some, so that her hip no longer ached and the bruises were fading to a nasty purplish green. Because of how she honored him, she held back her exasperation.

"We must ride for days and days," she reminded him gently. "Maybe we can plan on the road?"

Doc nodded a trace impatiently.

"We can and shall," he said. "However, do you really think that the few of us can take Smuggler's Light?"

Firekeeper was sincerely puzzled.

"We not take this light. We take Citrine. She is very small."

"Firekeeper," Doc persisted, "they won't give her to us, not just for asking, nor do I suspect that she's going to be particularly easy to steal away. This matter has advanced beyond our ability to handle it alone."

"I say! I'd wondered about that," Edlin said diffidently. "I mean, this Endbrook is an amba.s.sador, what?

Wouldn't our going after him-and I know you, Sister, you're not going to let him hurt Citrine and thengo free as air-I don't particularly want to let him go myself... But what I was saying is, wouldn't our going after him create a diplomatic incident?"

Firekeeper felt her patience melting.

"Not again!" she wailed. "Isn't anything simple?"

"Maybe among the wolves," Edlin said kindly, "but not among humans, what?"

"And not among wolves either," Blind Seer added from where he lay beside her on the floor. "If it was, you wouldn't be here. By the way, have you considered how you're going to get the artifacts you gave to Elise and Wendee away from them? They sleep with them at night and wear them under their clothing by day."

"Shut up!" Firekeeper growled at him.

The humans blinked at her and she slouched down.

"Not for you, Edlin," she apologized, for it was clear that everyone thought she'd been snarling at Edlin.

"That's all right," he beamed.

Firekeeper sighed.

"This diplomatic incident," she said, sounding out the words carefully, "how do we prevent it and rescue Citrine still?"

She had expected this simple question to start another long wrangle, but Doc surprised her by saying: "I have an idea. It will take some cooperation from your winged-folk allies, Firekeeper, but I think it's time we brought in Princess Sapphire. Citrine is, after all, her little sister. Sapphire's not likely to refuse a call to come to her aid. If the crown princess decides an amba.s.sador is out of line, she can act against him..."

"Boot him out, you mean," Edlin translated happily.