I went to fetch my pack and brought it to Jamie. “Inside,” I said.
Jamie felt around inside the nearly-empty pack. When he found it his eyes grew wide. He lifted out a lump of gold, that the dragons call khaadish, about the size of his fist. He stared at it, his jaw slack in wonder.
“Lanen tells me that khaadish is rare among your people, Master,” said Varien calmly, “yet I have no sense of its worth. I saw no scrap of it on our journey here. What could you do with that much—”
“Gold. It’s called gold, Varien.” Jamie blinked. “Hellsfire. What could you do with it? Varien, a silver piece is worth twelve coppers. You can pay a man two coppers for a day’s work and know he has the full value of it, for coppers are cut into halves and quarters—they’re called haves and farthings, and most men deal in coppers for daily business. We sell horses, the best in Kolmar, and we occasionally see a gold piece for our best stud stallions. There are a hundred silver pieces to a single gold coin. A man’s work for two years, that’s what gold is worth. And that’s a single thin coin. There must be—gods, there must be the best part of two hundred gold coins here. Enough to buy this whole farm and every stud and mare on it, and the work of the men for years to come.”
Varien bowed his head briefly and closed his eyes. “I thank you,” he said, sighing. Glancing up again he looked to me. “I think I begin to understand why so many of the harvesters over the long years dared to breach the Boundary and face our wrath. Your legends tell of—of dragons stealing and hoarding this metal, do they not?”
“Yes, they do.” Jamie watched Varien carefully. “Is it true?”
“No. We do not seek it out. We do not regard it at all. The Gedri obsession with it passes our understanding.”
“And yet here it is, a fortune—”
“Jameth, it is in our nature,” said Varien, beginning to grow angry. “A man once betrayed his friendship with the Kantri for the sake of this yellow metal, a betrayal that cost the life of the one who had trusted him. The metal is of no worth save as ornament, and yet you tell me it is so highly valued among you—by the bright sky above, I do not understand!”
“ff you do not seek it out, how then have you so much of it?” persisted Jamie.
“I have told you, it is in our nature,” replied Varien, his anger plain now. “Where we sleep we turn the ground to this stuff. It is simply the way things are.”
Jamie let out a low whistle. “By the Lady,” he muttered. He replaced the gold in my pack and handed it back to me, shaking his head. “Well, you learn something with each new day, true enough. But this doesn’t answer the question. If you’ve kept that close hidden, it’s not the gold they’d be after. Besides, it was the wrong story,” he said. “They’d need to have come in to look over the place for that—they’d have cut the young lad and brought him here for healing, so we’d be too concerned about him and not notice his companion looking in every room. No, the story he used was only for finding a way in, or for finding a particular person.” He looked up at me. “Hell’s teeth, Lanen. Silver to horseshit it’s you.” He sprang up from his chair and started pacing the room. “Hells take it …” I let him get it out of his system. He swore pretty well when he worked up to it, he even used one or two I’d never heard from the sailors on the Harvest ship, when I went to the Dragon Isle.
“You said that bastard Marik wanted you for a sacrifice while you were on that island,” Jamie said finally. “Well, I’d wager my year’s earnings these men are here to finish what he started.”
I shuddered. It made a lot of sense. Marik had been desperate to give me to that demon—it had been stopped only because Akor had rescued me. I looked to Varien and saw sadness in his eyes.
“Were the same to happen I could not save you now, dearling,” he said in truespeech. “I am a man, more so each day, and only a Lord of the Kantri can battle one of the Lords of Hell and hope to prevail.”
“I expect you’re right. What are we to do now, Jamie? Do you think they would attack the house?”
“They will if they’ve been paid enough. We’ll set a watch tonight, and you come sleep in the common room—it’s the easiest to defend and it has a fireplace.”
I felt terribly confused and vulnerable. “But Jamie, the stablehands, they’re not fighters. What if …”
“I’ll warn them, my girl, don’t worry about that. You get working on the evening meal, that needs done and it’ll keep you inside. I’ll post a guard and set a watch.” He seemed almost pleased; certainly his eyes were bright and sharp. “They’ll not catch us sleeping, not if I can help it. Brew us up some chélan, there’s a good lass. We’ll need it.” He turned to Varien. “And you bring that sword to the tack room just now, Varien, and we’ll put an edge on it.”
Jamie
Lanen was right, though. The lads weren’t fighters. I warned them, but though they nodded and agreed to do as I asked, they all were convinced I was making a lot of noise over nothing. They knew better than to disobey me, but for all that I walked up and startled them several times after darkness fell. And I wasn’t even trying.
I kept walking around the buildings, checking the doors, trying to quiet the horses. They seemed bothered by something but I couldn’t tell what.
I’d been inside the common room warming up, and I must have stayed longer than I realised. It felt like the middle of the night when I went out again. I could feel the frost crunch under my boots. The quarter-moon was bright, the sky was clear, and it was bloody cold.
All of a sudden the horses in the west stable started complaining, loud and urgent. I turned and was making for the door when suddenly, between one step and another, the noise from the horses changed from restless to flat-out panic. That cry for help is unmistakable and reaches through your gut to get your feet moving without bothering your brain. I was already running.
When I reached the main stable door I threw it open. The smell hit me instantly, stronger even than the noise of terrified horses.
Smoke.
Hellsfire and bloody damnation.
“FIRE!” I yelled, loud as I could. “FIRE, FIRE, FIRE!” Over and over. I had no idea what had happened to the lad who normally slept in this barn but there was no time to wonder. The smoke was coming from the farthest stall on the left. I pulled off my coat as I ran, lifted the latch on the stall, threw the door wide and tossed my coat over the head of Row, our best stallion and one of the founders of Hadron’s stock. He was scared stiff and drew back, tossing his head in panic, fighting me. I spoke to him, calm as I could manage, knowing I couldn’t spend much time even on him with so many others to get out. I managed to get my coat over his eyes, and thank the Lady, he changed his mind all of a sudden and came out with me.
I was almost surprised to find the courtyard full of folk, busily getting out every horse they could. I caught one of our young stable lads in passing. “Rab, quick, take Row out to the paddock and take any of the others that’ll follow. And make sure someone’s fetching water to douse the fire!”
I didn’t stop to hear his reply. I was already running back into the barn, through the smoke, to the other stall nearest the fire.
Lanen
When I heard Jamie yelling “fire” at the top of his lungs I was up and moving before I realised I was awake. I’d slept in my clothes, for we had expected something, and somehow I managed to slip on my boots. I snatched up a coat as I hurried outside. Varien moved more slowly behind me, but then he didn’t understand about fires and horses.
When I emerged after even those short moments, the courtyard was full of our folk. Some were fetching water and dunking rags in it for the others to use to cover the horses’ eyes and noses with. The horses were screaming with terror, and I could hardly breathe myself as I grabbed a damp rag and ran into the stable.
The smoke was up to the roof in great grey clouds, lit from below by the flames. The fire seemed to be running along the hayloft as fast as a man can walk.
One of the lads cried out to
me as I passed. “She won’t come, Lanen! Shadow won’t come!”
“Then leave her and save another!” I yelled. I opened a stall at random and found myself facing Jamie’s own gelding, Blaze. I didn’t stop to think—I hadn’t had a conscious thought yet—just threw the damp rag over his eyes, called him by name and spoke to him in as normal a voice as I could, and tried not to panic myself as I led him out. To my immense relief he came with me. As we emerged into the sweet cold air outside the barn I heard Jamie yelling that the horses we’d got out should be taken to the paddock, so I grabbed a passing maidservant who was being no use and told her where to take Blaze. She said nothing but seemed glad to have something to do.
By now there were a fair few horses being led out of the courtyard, but not enough. Not nearly enough. I remembered to grab the rag off Blaze’s face and went in again.
The air was torn by the sudden screams of a horse. I tried to get to the sound, but the fire was too hot and burning fragments were starting to drop down from the burning hayloft above. It was sickening and the smell of burning horsehair and flesh made me gag, but I didn’t have time to cry. I found myself in another stall fighting with Daft Sally, one of our brood mares, who didn’t want to come, when I heard the most astounding thing. It took me a moment to realise that the voice was not coming from behind me.
It was Varien. His mindvoice was calm and he was speaking to the horses in broad truespeech. He was not using words, just feelings, of calm, of sense, of safety outside the barn, of trusting and following the people who were trying to help.
I couldn’t be certain, but it seemed to help. Daft Sally calmed down enough to let me throw a halter over her neck and she followed me out, terrified but willing to go. I walked her as fast as I could to the door and gave the lead rope to young Tam. Every soul on the stead was working hard to get out as many as we could, but in the pit of my stomach I knew that the fire was well caught and if we could get any more of them out it would be by the grace of the Lady.
I was heading back to the stable door when on the edges of my mind it occurred to me even in the midst of that mad chaos that there seemed to be an awful lot of folk about, even with every soul we had—maybe some of the villagers had come—I was all but through the door when something fell over my own face, filled my mouth and blinded me, and I felt myself grabbed from behind with my arms pinioned to my sides. The man was big enough to drag me with one arm and keep the other tight around my throat. I tried to scream and got a mouthful of cloth, which set me coughing. I cried out in truespeech to Varien, as loud as I could, and tried desperately to stop coughing and breathe.
I had just managed to take one breath—I know this sounds slow, but it happened all in a moment—when in the midst of trying to kick backwards with my heeled boots, aiming vaguely for a shin, I was pulled off my feet. Only after being dragged backwards for a while did I remember what Jamie had taught me and tried to twist out of my captor’s hold. He seemed to have been expecting it, though, and tightened his stranglehold around my neck. It was clearly either breathe or fight, and even at that my breathing was terribly limited.
“Varien, quickly, help me!” I cried, with all the strength of mind I had.
“Lanen, you must focus your thought. Where are you? Are you in the barn?”
“No, no, some bastard has me by the throat so I can’t scream. He’s dragging me across the yard!”
“Dearling, be calm if you can. You are casting your speech too wide and I cannot find you,” came Varien’s voice, strong and calm and reassuring. “Send your thoughts to me through the smallest opening you can imagine. shall follow you.”
It wasn’t easy to think straight—I was furious that I was so easily held helpless, my mind was filled with getting the rest of the horses out of that inferno, and just on the edges of thought came the worry about what whoever it was that had me would do when he got tired of dragging me across the cobbles. However, desperation concentrates the mind wonderfully. I tried to think of a pinhole, just big enough for my mindvoice to get through, as Varien had taught me. “I’m here love I’m here, the bastard’s dragging me backwards, even in all this madness I should be easy enough to find—Goddess, that was another of the horses in the barn, I’m going to be sick—damn, we’re off the cobbles and outside on the grass damn it I need to breathe—”
The noises were receding, or at least changing. I could still hear horses yelling, it twisted in my gut, but now it was an outdoor sound, not the echoing noise they’d made in the courtyard, and around and about me were the sounds of quite a few horses and people. “We’re passing the paddock, damn this bastard I can’t get a foothold to stop him he’s moving me too fast, can’t anyone see me he’s too damn strong watch out there are more of them!”
We had stopped. The other voices were low and terrifyingly calm as they tied my hands together. I struggled and tried to scream again, but I couldn’t get enough breath to make any difference, and I was kept off balance quite successfully. The word “overpowered” occurred to me, and now I truly knew what it meant. It struck me then that I might just die there, alone and trussed up in the middle of my own field.
Fear always makes me furious. I twisted and fought harder, kicking when I could, but my captor tightened whatever he had around my throat and I had to give over. “Varien, quick, they’re tying me up and I still can’t breathe,” I sent in truespeech. I was terrified and it was harder than ever to draw a simple breath. “Help, help, I’m here, I’m here, please, help me find me get me out of here they’re tying my feet I can’t stop them help help help.”
I could do no more, I was exhausted and now my head was pounding from using truespeech. I felt I was only a few breaths away from fainting for lack of air, so I concentrated on just breathing.
Varien
I summoned my strength and went swiftly over the Kantri Discipline of Calm as I sought her. I knew I could be of no further use to the horses, for Jameth had stopped us all from entering the barn. The fire was raging now and it was plain that nothing else could be done. For a fleeting moment I longed for my old form. I could have simply lifted the horses out, for the fire would not have harmed me.
I noted as I sought the direction of Lanen’s voice that Jameth had begun clearing the horses from the other two stables. Ah, there.
Old habits die so slowly. I had spent my entire life being certain of my power over the Gedri, knowing that they could pose no real threat to me. Had I thought about it for even the half of a moment I would have called for assistance, but I did not. I suspect I was not as calm as I believed, for I followed Lanen’s thought and hurried after her, my sword in my hand. I was too far away when I finally realised that I had been foolish, but by then I could do nothing but finish what I had begun. I sent a prayer winging to the Winds as I came up to the dark knot of men who were busy tying Lanen hand and foot. We were too far from the walls of the stead for any to hear a cry for help, amidst all the mayhem.
I did not stop to announce my presence, I simply raised my sword and rushed at them. I must have made some sound—I think I may have growled in my anger—but in any case they heard me and easily avoided my ill-aimed blow.
“Kill him,” said one quietly, pointing to me. A large man left the others and came to meet me. What little training I had had that morning deserted me as old instincts took over. I nearly dropped my sword to swipe at him with my claws, but I managed to remember at the last moment that I had none, and by pure chance managed to avoid his sword. I was off balance and tried to back away, but he kept coming towards me, menacing in the darkness.
“Akor!” came Lanen’s mindvoice, weak now. Just that one word, but the fear in it rang like metal in my soul and focussed my thoughts into cold, calm fury. I leapt back and found my feet, then began to advance, growling, towards the one who stood before me. He struck and his blade glanced off mine and hit my arm, but I ignored the flash of pain. Time seemed to change around me, for I moved as fast as I could and suddenly the other was slow
and clumsy. I was able to strike at his unprotected body before he struck again. He faltered and dropped his sword and I struck once more, putting my body into the blow.
He dropped to the ground and I turned around to face the others, only to find a second body on the ground before me and the others in flight. I turned and slipped on the wet grass, and sat suddenly upon something soft. Another body. This one had a drawn knife in one hand and had been just behind me—but I certainly hadn’t killed it.
“Lanen!” I called, shaking my head as I stood and slowly returned to the normal passage of time.
“Here, love, and safe now. I’m here with the horses they left.”
I strode over to her. “Dearling, how did you … ?”
“She didn’t. That was me. Good even, Master Varien.”
Callum
Well, there’s not much left to tell. When Ross has room to swing, it doesn’t matter if they parry, he’s just too strong and his blow works anyway. It didn’t then. That skinny git with the silver hair should have gone down with half his arm lopped off, or broken at the very least, but he stopped Ross’s blow with his bare forearm. He didn’t even yell, he hissed, and then he moved up and struck out fast as a snake. I’ve never seen anything like it, you couldn’t even see his sword move. Ross was hit, bad. Dev kept trying to tie up the woman, but she was fighting like fury and Dev had to keep tight hold of her. I tried throwing a knife or two, but I was scared witless and my aim went all over the place. This wasn’t Old Man Merc, this was something worse: something that couldn’t be hurt with steel and moved like the wind. He swung that damned huge sword round again and near cut Ross in two, killed him sure, but while Jaker had come up behind him and was about to knife him, I heard a quiet sound like a butcher cutting meat, and saw Jaker drop to the ground without a sound. Then Porlan, who had come up in front to take him out while he was busy with Ross, dropped as well.