Obernewtyn

  I stood. "What shall I do then?"

  Rushton handed me a cloak from a wall peg and I put it on. "It is impossible for you to leave the grounds tonight. The weather will get worse, and even an arrowcase would not help you, for the storms which run from the Blacklands affect the bearings. You cannot follow the road because the Councilmen will be coming that way, and anyway, even if you made it through the mountains there are badlands which cannot be crossed as slowly as you would afoot." He spoke calmly and very deliberately, as if he had all the time in the world. "I cannot let you stay here because the house will be searched from top to bottom and I am not exempt," he added.

  "Then there is nowhere for me to go," I said despairingly. I had begun to hope he would let me hide in his rooms.

  "I will take you down to the farms. They will not be able to search there until the storm ends, and even after for some time, since the maze is snowed in. For that reason they are unlikely even to think of the farms to begin with. As soon as the way is clear, I will return for you, and I will tell you of a place where you will be able to take refuge until the wintertime ends."

  "But if the maze is impassable how are we going to get to the farms?"

  Rushton crossed restlessly to the window and peered through the shutter. "We won't be going through the maze. I thought I heard something..." He shook his head and came back to the fire, pulling on his own coat.

  "The wolves?" I asked, thinking of poor Selmar.

  Rushton only smiled. "They are locked up. I put them in myself, just to make sure." He looked at me search-ingly. "You are pale. I hope you are properly recovered. You took the medicine I gave you?"

  I nodded. "It was herbal lore, wasn't it?"

  "Yes," he said simply. "I know there is no evil in those old ways. The Council are old fools, frightened of everything. Now they have decided you are a danger because they don't understand you."

  He shook his head again and glanced out the window. "You must go now."

  "Yes, I..." I began, but Rushton waved his hands urgently. We both listened and this time I heard something too—the sound of running footsteps.

  "Lud take it! I think they have found you out."

  "Maybe they have found my bed empty," I guessed in despair.

  Rushton shook his head tersely. "I think it is worse. That must have been the coach I heard some while back. The Councilmen must have changed their minds about waiting until morning. Perhaps the weather cleared. By nqw Alexi will know the truth about you. We have to get you out of the house or you will be trapped. They will search the house and in the end they will come here. Vega does not trust me though she will not at once connect me with your escape."

  There was a loud knock on the door and we both froze in horror. Rushton tore his coat off and gestured me toward the Smaller door in the room.

  "All right, all right," he called grumpily. I pulled the little door shut and pressed my ear up against it. "What is it?" he asked, opening the door.

  "Still dressed?" Ariel asked him suspiciously.

  "I was reading in front of the fire. I fell asleep," Rush-ton said casually. "What's going on? I heard the wolves."

  "One of the Misfits has escaped," Ariel said. "Elspeth Gordie. Skinny girl with dark hair and a proud look. Sly bitch." There was a pause and when Ariel spoke again his voice was full of mistrust. "In fact, you must know her. She has been working on the farms."

  My heart thumped wildly.

  "I know the girl," Rushton said with a smothered yawn. "Quick with the horses but insolent. But why all the fuss over one Misfit? Lots more where she came from," he said coolly.

  "Alexi wants her," Ariel said evasively, his misgivings apparently quelled. "The Council has sent some men here after her. She's wanted for questioning."

  "She'll be dead before morning if she's out in it. Storm's nearly on top of us. Anyway, why do the Council want her?" Rushton asked with a natural-seeming curiosity.

  "I don't doubt she will die," Ariel said viciously, ignoring his question. "One of the sneaks said she had been planning to escape, but she won't get far. I have let the wolves out."

  "A bit drastic don't you think?" Rushton drawled through a yawn. "I suppose you want me to help look for her."

  "You are paid to work," Ariel snarled impatiendy.

  There was a long pause, but Rushton's voice was calm. "I am paid to manage the farms," he said. "But I might as well come. Otherwise I'll be up all night listening to your beasts."

  "Good. It's started snowing so you'd better put on boots. I'll come back for you. Don't wander off," he added imperiously. There was the sound of footsteps and the outer door closing, then I heard Rushton's voice.

  "It's all right. He's gone."

  I came out, staring around fearfully. "He sounded like he thought you might have had something to do with my escape," I said in alarm, but Rushton shook his head.

  "He's always like that. I don't think it means anything. Alexi must want you badly to conduct a search while the Councilmen and the soldierguards are here. There is too much here that is forbidden for him to nsk having them offer to help. They won't want me to get near the Councilmen either," he added thoughtfully. Howling sounded again in the distance.

  "Damn those wolves. How will I ever get you past them? I wanted to take you myself. I might be able to keep them under control, but I can't go now that Ariel wants me. Lud damn it!" Rushton cried with helpless fury.

  "I... think I might be able to handle the wolves," I offered hesitantly. "You see ... I can. I mean sometimes I can communicate with animals. Talk to them."

  Rushton nodded slowly and there was even a touch of humor in his eyes. "So that is why you were so good with animals. I have not come across that particular ability before. Fascinating. I wish we had more time..." He bit his lip impatiently. "But there is no time. You say you can manage the wolves? You know they have been trained to be utterly savage?"

  I nodded with more certainty than I felt. I did not know if I could make them listen to me and let me go past unharmed. But I had to try; there was no other choice and the longer I stayed, the more dangerous it was for Rushton.

  "Before ... when you caught me, you said you would kill me," I said in a low voice. "Did you mean it?"

  Rushton looked up from lacing his snow boots with the same unreadable expression I had seen on his face that day in the barn.

  "It would have been safer for me if I could have," he said at last. "Best for my friends and for yours. If you are caught, you will reveal the way to the farms and my help. No one resists Alexi. And if the Council gets you, the Herders will make you talk. Alive, you are a danger to all I have planned."

  "Is your secret so important then?" I asked with a kind of despair.

  "More than you could possibly imagine," Rushton answered simply. "I risk many lives beside my own in helping you."

  I stared at his troubled face and made myself strong. "Tell me the way through to the farms. I will not betray you. I will manage the wolves." Or die trying, I thought.

  "The drains are like a maze themselves, but they were not designed to confuse. Remember to take the right turn always and you will be safe. To get from here to the courtyard, you will have to use the tunnels. I am not so certain about them. My mother told me of them but she had never seen them herself either." He explained about the tunnels then looked up warily as footsteps approached and then passed his door.

  "When you get to the farms, keep to the walls. The storm will be much worse by then and if you get lost you will die. Follow the walls to the farthest silo. The door will be open. Hide there until I come."

  "But... but is that all? For that I am to risk wild beasts and capture?" I asked hysterically.

  "You risk no more than I," Rushton said coldly.

  "But what if you don't come?" I faltered.

  His expression softened. "Understand this. I have already told you too much. If I tell you any more and you are caught, I will endanger others. It is my decision to risk my life for you.
I will not decide that for them."

  Chastened, I nodded, for what he said was surely the truth. The least I could do was trust him.

  "You do not know what an irony it would be if you betrayed me," Rushton added cryptically, pulling on his snow coat

  He stepped up to the door and listened hard. "Down the end of this hall is, a tapestry. That covers the first tunnel. The second... well, I hope it will be as I recall. If not, use your abilities to find the way, but very carefully." He opened the door.

  "Will you be all right?" I asked absurdly.

  He did not laugh. "I think so. Ariel may be suspicious but he will not act without some proof. I will try to direct the search away from you." Rushton stepped closer and looked out into the hall before giving me a slight push. "Perhaps someday we will have the chance to talk. There are many things . . ."

  He stopped abruptly. We could hear footsteps. "Go quickly," he said urgently, pushing me into the hall.

  "Good-bye," I whispered as I slipped away into the darkness.

  XXV

  I crept silently along the darkened corridor, pulling aside the tapestry and slipping into the dark crevice behind. I felt along the wall for the catch and the wall slid aside with a loud click. Terrified, I froze, but no one cried out or tore aside the curtain. The tunnel behind was festooned with clinging cobwebs and I brushed them aside, trying not to think about their occupants. The tunnel system had not been used in a very long time. Fleetingly, I wondered how Rushton's mother had known of tunnels she had never seen. Again there was the mysterious feeling that Rushton was somehow linked to Obernewtyn.

  Dismissing curiosity, I concentrated on walking noiselessly down the passage. The darkness was total and I bumped my nose at the other end. Again I searched for a catch and found it. This time the mechanism that worked the tunnel opening slid aside noiselessly and I found myself behind yet another tapestry. I listened, then crept into the hall praying Rushton's mother had remembered correctly. It was doubly dangerous sneaking along the halls. Anyone might see me.

  Almost sobbing with relief, I found the next tapestry and climbed in behind it. I was crouched behind it when I heard a slight sneeze.

  Terrified, I waited to be dragged out of my hiding place.

  The tapestry trembled

  "Greetings," came a thought.

  My body sagged to the floor with relief and astonishment. "Sharna?" I asked incredulously.

  "I sensed your need," he told me, squeezing himself into the space beside me. "I dreamed you were in danger, so I came."

  "What did you dream?" I asked him fearfully.

  "I dreamed your life has a purpose which must be fulfilled, for the sake of all things," he answered.

  I frowned into the darkness wondering why the beast-world continually wove me into its mythologies. He told me he could help me through the tunnel system, but when I told him I had to get to the small courtyard, I felt him tremble.

  His fear shattered my calmness, but I made myself speak. "I have to pass them. There is no other way. I will die if I don't."

  There was a long pause while he ruminated. "I will help," he told me at last. "Innle must be shielded," he added rather dreamily. I frowned, wondering if he was going a bit queer in the head.

  We moved like shadows through the darkness, Sharna leading me infallibly from one tunnel to the next, all of which were choked with spiderwebs and thick dust. One tunnel was so low that I had to crawl along it, the cold dusty stone bruising my knees and hands. I bumped into Sharna who had stopped. I thought we were at the end of another section, but he cautioned me to be silent. Someone passed in the hall alongside the tunnel.

  "She must be found," said a voice. "It it weren't for the Council. . ." It was Madam Vega.

  "The fates are with us," said Alexi. "She is the one I need. It was fortunate that the Council brought her to our attention. We might have let her go and die in the wintertime. She must be found and brought back unharmed. It might be years till another like her is found."

  "What of the Council?" Madam Vega asked.

  "We will tell them she perished."

  Ariel spoke. "She won't get past the wolves."

  "I want her found, not torn to pieces. That affair with the other girl was quite unnecessary. You are a barbarian," Alexi added, but as if he found that amusing.

  "She will be found alive," Madam Vega promised soothingly.

  It terrified me to hear how calm and certain they sounded. It did not enter their heads that I might get away.

  "The beasts have been trained to mutilate," said Ariel. "They kill only on command."

  "She must not be allowed to die," said Alexi in a flat voice that sent ice into my blood. "A pity we wasted so much time on that defective. I was so certain, but she had only minor abilities after all."

  They passed out of my hearing and, despairingly, I knew they meant Cameo. What had they done to her?

  "Come," Sharna commanded and we went on.

  At last we came to the outer wall. I pressed the latch and slid open the wall. A flurry of snow came in through the opening and I shivered. The chill of wintertime bit into my bare skin. Sharna told me the wolves were at the entrance, having sensed our approach. Their eyes gleamed redly in the dark and I shivered again.

  "Greetings, Sudarta," he sent, flattering them with a title that applauded their strength. But it seemed to have no effect on them.

  Sharna turned to me, his own eyes gleaming. "These are not ordinary beasts," he told me worriedly. "They were once wild cubs, but were caught by the funaga and made mad. There is a redness and a rage in their heads that stops them from being able to think. Best to come back when they are locked up."

  "I can't," I told him despairingly. "The entrance of the drain is just across the small courtyard. Maybe I can think of a way to distract them and then make a run for it."

  But Sharna was not listening. He was staring outside, an odd thrumming sound vibrating in his throat. Silently the beasts withdrew.

  "Sharna, what... ?" I began, but suddenly the old dog launched himself from the tunnel, and with a terrified cry I understood how he meant to distract them.

  "Sharna!" I screamed. "Don't!"

  "Go!" he commanded. I heard the primitive snarling of the wolves with a primeval shudder. I heard Sharna taunting them, calling them away from my exit.

  Trembling so hard I could scarcely walk, I climbed out of the tunnel and stood for a moment, paralyzed with fear as the wolves attacked.

  "Go!" shouted Sharna into my thoughts. A madness came over me and I flew across the courtyard and flung myself into the tunnel. It was high off the ground but I did not notice that. And when I was inside, I began to wriggle mindlessly along the round, narrow drain. The noise of battle was muffled as my body filled the tunnel. I fought off the sensation of being buried alive.

  "Go!" Sharna cried again, but I felt him weakening and knew he had sacrificed himself to provide the distraction I needed, and I had been too cowardly to stay and help him. Sick with shame and despair, I wanted to die too. Perhaps if I had not been half stuck, I would have thrown myself out of the drain. But I could barely move and a growing panic urged me on to where Rush-ton had said the tunnel widened slightly.

  Tears poured down my face as I crawled and scrabbled, the pain in my knees a distant throb.

  After an eternity, the tunnel widened and a blast of snow-laden air told me I had reached the end. I felt no joy. Only the icy cold encouraged me to move. Staggering to my feet, I set off from the wall in the direction of the barns. At least a foot of snow had fallen since I had entered the tunnel, but there was a break in the storm and only a few snowflakes fell. The night was crisp and utterly still, the snow seeming to absorb all sound. The clouds allowed the moon to peep through briefly, lighting a bleak yet strangely beautiful barren scene. The snow had blown in great drifts against the right-angled walls of the old stable and the other two outbuildings that formed three sides of a square. It began to snow again, at first softly, then v
ery thickly. It seemed impossible that this was the farm where I had basked in the sun and smelled the apple blossoms.

  The snow obscured my view of the silo and I turned to get my bearings from the wall, only to recall Rushton's strict instructions not to wander in the open. I could see nothing, and in turning, I lost whatever small sense of direction I had. I had once seen a man who had died in the wintertime. They had found him in the thaw, stiff and blue as a statue. Trying to quell the panic I stumbled forward thinking, "I must come to a fence or a wall soon." Trying to forget the endless fields of Obernewtyn.

  "Who is there?" called a voice, seeming a long way away. I could see nothing and wondered if I was going mad.

  "Is someone there?" the voice called, marginally closer.

  "I am here," I called recklessly. Anything was better than being left alone again in the flying white hell. "Here!" I screamed, terrified the person would not hear. I saw a flash of light and broke into a shuffling run. I noticed dimly that I could not feel my feet at all.

  "Who is it?" asked the same voice, much closer. Suddenly,'a face seemed to appear in front of me out of the swirling whiteness. I knew him. It was an unsmiling youth called Domick whom I had sometimes seen with Rush-ton.

  He seemed to recognize me, and his face grew wary. "Elspeth Gordie?" He held the lantern up to my face. "What are you doing here?"

  I stood in the midst of the storm, my mind reeling. What could I say? What possible reason could I have for wandering around on the farms? The silence between us lengthened and I saw doubts fill Domick's face.

  At last he said uneasily, "Well, you had better come back with me. We'll talk where it's warmer."

  He struck off to the right and I followed him closely, wondering what I could say to him. Very quickly we came to a squat, sturdy building I had not seen before.

  "What is this place?" I asked through violently chattering teeth.

  Domick bundled me through the door. "This is the watch-hut," he said shortly and hustled me across to the fire. He took a thick blanket and threw it around my shoulders; then piled more wood on the fire and poked at it with a stick.