I gritted my teeth, dressed as quickly as I could and we hurried downstairs, but Rella was there before us. “Jamie’s out saddling the horses,” she said, smiling, calmly paying the innkeeper and chatting about the weather. We followed her outside. The twilight was fading and true dark setting in.
Jamie met us at the door with the horses, who were fractious at being saddled and turned out of their warm barn at such a peculiar hour. As we mounted, Rella said only, “Follow me.”
We did. The pain was just bearable, for the moment, and Rella seemed to know what she was doing. I could see Jamie shrug in the light from the inn and turn his horse to follow hers.
We turned from well-lit streets with many houses to an altogether darker part of the town. Barely one house in three was occupied. Many had broken shutters, doors hung off their hinges, and there seemed to be far too many dogs about. The horses were as nervous as I was, and when Jamie’s Blaze snorted and backed from a narrow lane Jamie risked speaking. “You do know where you’re going, do you?” he called to Rella.
She answered quietly from just ahead of Jamie. “I know they don’t like it. Not far now.”
We followed, down a short cobbled lane only just wide enough for the horses to enter single file. There was a high gated wall at the end of the street, with a door in it as wide as the lane itself. The door was closed and the gate was dark.
When we were all stood in a line before the door, Rella whistled a series of peculiar notes. Immediately a light was revealed halfway up the wall and the door opened wide. She rode in ahead of us, still whistling, and we came out into a large grassy courtyard covered by a high roof on long poles. How so much room could lurk behind so narrow a street I could not imagine, but I was new to cities and there was much I did not understand. For example, I had no idea where we were, but Jamie looked around and laughed. It wasn’t a pleasant sound.
Jamie
I’d heard of the Silent Service all my life and I’d known more than a few of their members, but I’d never dared to hope I’d see the inside of one of their Strongholds. In fact I’d begun to wonder if they were no more than tales. As I glanced around I realised where and why the stories about them had started.
From cobbled lane to grass—so their members would disappear at the end of that impossible road, or appear silently from nowhere and be able to ride hell for leather from a standing start. And the high roof must be designed to fool the eye from above—anyone looking down from a high tower would see only more roofs. It was ingenious and I longed for a little more light, but instead we were approached by three people wearing hoods, who gestured us down from our horses.
Rella, who had dismounted, said, “Don’t worry, Jamie. You’re not allowed to see any more than you’ve seen. All of you, please, you’ll need to be hooded for a moment or two.”
“And you?” asked Varien, sounding none too pleased.
“I work here,” said Rella, laughing. “Come, there’s no harm in it. I need to talk to my Master fast and this was the only way to do it. If you don’t wear the hoods they’ll have to knock you facedown on the ground and sit on you. Hoods are easier.”
Lanen laughed. “Pass it over, then. I can’t see worth spit in this light anyway so I might as well have an excuse.” She placed the hood over her own head without a qualm.
We didn’t really have any choice so we all did as Rella asked. “I’ll be right back,” she said. As she left we heard her calling on someone to bring us food and wine. In moments I had a fresh bread roll in one hand and a glass of wine in the other. Couldn’t fault their hospitality, and at least there was plenty of room under the hood to allow us to eat and drink.
Rella
If you think I’m going to give away any secrets, think again.
When I reached the Master of Kaibar we had a swift conversation, most of which any bystander would have found impossible to understand. Many of the lesser agents would also be confused, and I am not about to break silence now. However, if we had been speaking normally the mundane parts of the conversation would have gone something like this.
“I assume, Mistress Relleda, that you have a truly fine reason for bringing three Bricks into this Sanctuary?”
“You assume correctly. The idiot innkeeper at the Three Kings sent for one of Berys’s twisted creatures when I wanted a Healer.”
“I heard you were after healing. You don’t look any worse than usual.”
“It’s for a client.”
“A client!” he snorted. “And now you’re going to tell me your client is in the courtyard.”
“You guess well.”
He sat back and glared at me. “Three Bricks in the Sanctuary, Rella. This had better be good.”
I crossed my arms and grinned. “Damn right it’s good. You would not believe how the strands of fate are crossed and woven in favour of the lady out there. That girl is the one Berys is after. The daughter of Marik. The one in the demon caller’s prophecy who’s going to rule all of Kolmar.”
“You’ve found her!” he cried, jubilant.
“Found her? I’ve been with her for months. And I’m not going to give her up now. Do you realise what she’s worth? To her mother, to Marik, to Berys himself?”
“Then you intend to bargain with her?” he asked, sitting back, nearly closing his eyes.
I snorted. “Not likely. You know what Berys is after and so do I. I’ve no time for demons or the bastards who work with them. I’m on duty for her mother, Maran Vena.”
“I’ve heard of her,” said the Master, a tiny, greedy smile crossing his face. “I’ve heard she has something almost as valuable as her daughter.”
“The Farseer is not the issue here.”
“Why not?”
“Trust me, it’s not for sale or stealing.” I grimaced. “I tried once. Bad idea. Is the Healer here?”
“I’ll send her out.”
“And I’ll need Post horses for four all the way to Verfaren, or at least to within a day’s travel.” I was proud of myself. My voice stayed calm and reasonable through that whole sentence.
He sprang to his feet then, spluttering and swearing. “Hells’ teeth and bones, woman! Do you have any idea of the cost? Of the wear on the horses, of the loss of speed to our people for a week! Give me one good reason I should let you and three Bricks use the Post!”
I waited, smiling, for him to stop spluttering, then said calmly, “I need to get the new owner of Hadron’s horses safely to the best Healers in the world. Then, when she owes us her life—well, we may never have to pay for one again.”
Damn, he could move fast when he wanted to.
xi
The Wind of Change Blows Icy Cold
Lanen
We had stopped for the night, a single day out from Kaibar.
We had left our own horses with the Silent Service in Kaibar the night before. In exchange, we might keep the Post horses we rode when our race was over. The Service did well out of the deal, for of course our mounts were of Hadron’s stock. Still, it was worth it for the speed. Jamie wouldn’t sell Blaze, so he arranged to collect him next time he passed.
The Healer of the Silent Service had been a very kind woman, who had said little but whose gentle touch made her work all the more effective. I felt a little better, but I was beginning to realise that each time someone worked on me the effect was less, as if my body were telling me that there was only so much to be done. I tried not to think about it, and even succeeded for much of that day.
Travelling by Post is astounding. It was hard at first: no one with sense would ever ride a horse that hard, but you never stay on one horse for long. Jamie and I laughed the first time we changed horses, because two of four new mounts were beasts we had sold only a few years ago. Seems Hadron’s horses were highly valued by the Silent Service. Jamie muttered something about doubling the price and Rella laughed. “We must have a talk about that sometime in the next few days,” she said, “but not right now. Mount up.” At the next change we r
ecognised a big gelding we’d sold at Illara just that autumn past. He remembered us, too, and nuzzled at Jamie. We all felt the better for that.
In any case, once we had crossed the Kai—on a dark vessel that made almost no sound—we began our ride on the Post horses and covered huge amounts of distance that night, stopping only to sleep for a few hours in some inn somewhere. I was all but asleep in the saddle and barely managed to stagger into the room we were sent to before I fell across the nearest bed and asleep. Varien must have had to shift me to get in. When we woke it was daylight, all four of us were in the one room, and Rella was up and dressed and in deep conversation with a man at the door. When she closed it she turned to face us gravely and said, “The word from Marik’s Healers has come and gone this last hour. They know it was you needing help in the Three Kings, girl, but they don’t know where you’ve gone. Last seen in Kaibar. The farther we get the better.”
“Lady, will they not assume that we seek the more powerful healers in Verfaren?” asked Varien. He had hardly spoken all day. “It must be known that Lanen is unwell.”
“I’m counting on the speed we left at to save us,” Rella replied, throwing her few belongings back into her pack. “We recognised Marik’s Healer, we knew he’d report, and we took off. The last place they are going to look for us is in the South Kingdom, where Marik is.”
We stared at Rella, unconvinced. She looked up.
“That’s the idea, at any rate. Any of you have a better one?”
“Not really,” I said, wincing. The pain was coming back, and the voices were loud that morning, and my back was killing me. “If we’re going to Verfaren, let’s go. At least there I can get some decent healing before they kill me.”
Rella seemed to find that funny.
I didn’t. But she didn’t know—I didn’t tell her, or anyone else, but I had started bleeding again. My lower back never stopped aching now, and the riding was making it worse. I wasn’t keeping much food down either. I felt miserable and I was deeply grateful that the furious riding left us very little opportunity to speak to one another.
The most peculiar part about that mad dash was how my mind kept returning to my mother, of all things. I found myself wanting desperately to speak with Jamie about Maran Vena, to hear anything he could tell me about her. In fact what I really wanted was to talk to her, face-to-face—though I would have preferred a good shouting match. I had been angry at her most of my childhood and I thought I had grown past that years ago, but here was that same anger back again, formless yet full-blown in its strength. I was even angry at Hadron for being so cold and heartless to me all those years. How stupid! Hadron was dead these six moons, and I had learned from Jamie in the autumn that he had known from my birth that he was not my father, that I was nothing to him, and that he had kept me at Hadronsstead only in memory of Maran—the only woman he had ever loved. Still, the heart does not always make allowances for others, especially in such circumstances.
The worst part of that time, however, arose from my own soul with no reference to any other. I am deeply ashamed to admit it, but in the secret depths of my heart I was furious with the child that grew within me. I know it sounds unnatural and I would deny it if I could, but it happened. The simple truth is that I had been told that it could not survive its own birth and I was angry at it for taking me with it. Despite that day in Kaibar when Varien and I had played at becoming parents, I knew that my life was more than likely to end suddenly and badly, when I had only just begun to live. I was very glad that our speed did not allow us to speak much to one another, and I closed my thoughts to Varien as best I could.
We rode through the day nearly without stopping, pushing the horses and ourselves, changing about every twenty or twenty-five miles. The poor beasts would be useless for several days after, but they were all young and fit and it wouldn’t really hurt them. And we had travelled well over a hundred miles in a day, with six changes of mount. It was astounding.
At this rate we would be in Verfaren in another day.
I can hear what you are thinking, those of you who have borne children. How could you do that? Didn’t it hurt like fury? Yes, it did. Didn’t the riding make the pain worse? Yes, of course. But what would you? I was being forced to ride like the very wind towards the one place in all of Kolmar that I should have been avoiding, for the sake of saving my life. The demons were piping loud and clear and I was dancing like there was no tomorrow, for that was indeed like to be the case.
We stopped just to the north of Elimar, the capital of the South Kingdom. Rella again selected the inn. It was expensive, but it was clean and the food was good enough. She disappeared soon after we arrived, only to return in time for the evening meal. “I’ve arranged for a really fine Healer to come along to see you, my girl,” she said, very pleased with herself. “But not until after we’ve eaten, so get down to it.”
I was intensely relieved to hear that a Healer was coming, but I couldn’t eat a thing. I had gone to change my cloth when we arrived and found that I had to change all my underthings. Even I knew that there was far too much blood. The possibility that I might die from this was beginning to become very real. I had been trying to blank out the pain but it was now affecting my every movement, and I was starting to feel light-headed from the loss of blood. I started to thank Rella for her kindness when Jamie interrupted me. He had been brooding and growly ever since we’d left Kaibar and he wouldn’t tell me what was bothering him. From the storm on his brow I suspected we were all about to find out.
“That’s enough!” he said sharply, keeping his voice as quiet as he could with that much anger behind it. I knew it was coming but I still jumped. “Why, Mistress Rella?”
“Why what?” she asked, tearing a chunk off the loaf on the table. “Damn, I’m hungry. Pass the butter, will you, Lanen?”
“Why all of it?” said Jamie, staring at Rella. “Finding Healers, arranging Post horses—I can’t believe it’s all part of your work.”
Rella looked at him, a bit confused. She wasn’t the only one. “Why question a gift from the Lady?” she said calmly. “You know I’m on duty.”
Jamie sliced the air with one hand. “Ridiculous!” he snarled. “No one could pay the Service enough to get us all on Post horses, not even Maran.”
“What!”
The exclamation was out of my mouth before I could stop it. Too late now to call it back and just listen. Ah, well. I tried to ignore the heads that had turned in my direction—I suppose it was a loud shout, at that—and spoke more quietly. “What do you mean, not even Maran? What does my mother have to do with anything?” I asked. I was much taken aback for, as I have said, Maran had been on my mind all the day long.
Rella was frowning and shaking her head at Jamie, but he faced me and said harshly, “Rella’s working for her. She’s been in Maran’s pay since she joined the Harvest ship with you in the autumn. Since you first met her. Didn’t you know?”
“What? No! I thought—Rella, you said the Silent Service wanted Marik, you never—I mean, you said you knew Maran—oh hell,” I snarled. “Hells’ bells and bloody damnation, Jamie,” I said, feeling stupid and angry and betrayed. “I’ve been an idiot again, haven’t I?”
“I suspect we all have, my girl,” said Jamie, “but I don’t intend to continue in ignorance.” He rounded on Rella. “Well?”
She had carried on eating, stopping only long enough to say in her normal tones, “I’m not going to say a word until I’ve eaten and Lanen has seen a Healer. Then you can ask me anything you want. Right now, leave me be. I’m hungry.”
We had no choice. We were all subdued and ate quickly. I never tasted the little food I managed to eat, but I was feeling awful anyway and didn’t eat much in case it came back up. Soon enough we all retired to an upstairs room, where we found the four small beds taking up nearly every bit of floor space. There was barely room to squeeze around them to get inside the door.
I crawled into the first bed I could reach.
I was feeling worse by the moment, as the agitation of all that riding caught up with me. However, once we were in and the door closed Jamie turned to Rella with a grim frown and a nasty expression on his face, and I had something else to think about.
“Very well, Mistress Rella,” he said. “Perhaps you will now deign to tell us what in all the Hells is going on?”
“You make everything such hard work, Jamie;” she said, shaking her head.”But you’re losing your touch. Talking about such things in a common room! Honestly. You only had to ask.”
“Lady Rella,” said Varien gently, cutting off whatever Jamie was about to say, “of thy courtesy, surely the time hath come for truth between us?”
She was taken off guard by him. She knew who and what he was, but I think she forgot from time to time just what it meant to have lived for so very long. Now, with those deep green eyes fixed on hers, and that lovely voice speaking so kindly to her—well, “the eyes of a dragon are perilous deep,” they say.
“Yes, my Lord Dragon, I suppose it has,” she said with a sigh. She turned to me and smiled. “You are so much like her, you know. I’ve known Maran ever since she came back to Beskin, about a year and a half after you were born. She has been a good friend to me in my comings and goings for all that time, even knowing who I am and what I do. She is the best friend I have in the world, Lanen. When word reached me that she wanted to hire me to watch over you I was already in Illara, but I signed on that damned ship and went to what I thought would be my death because I had said I would look after you for her. My dearest friend’s daughter. Yes, Jamie, she has paid me. Is paying me. Is paying the Silent Service. And no, there is no money in the world that could have got me on to that ship or arranged these Post horses for us all.”
She threaded her way across the crowded little room to stand foursquare in front of Jamie and slapped him hard across the face.
“You bastard,” she said, quietly but with a startling intensity. “How can you have travelled with me for so long and know me so little? Yes, I am a minor Master in the Silent Service and I may choose my own assignments. Yes, I have more leeway in the arrangements than most, and yes, I was going to ask for consideration from you and Lanen the next time the Service needs good horses. That does not mean that I do everything for pay, or that I seek to use or betray you. Any of you. I’ve cared about Lanen since I met her, despite all the rules about these things, and I know how sick she is even if you don’t care to. I have arranged this swift transport and a good Healer’s visit for her because I give a damn what happens to her, as Maran’s daughter and in her own right.” You could cut the fury in her voice with a knife. “And fool that I am, I was starting to give a damn about you, Jameth of Arinoc. Get to the Hells and close the gates behind you.”