Deniably Dead (Arucadi Series Book 4)

by E. Rose Sabin

  Lore eyed the stone he’d been planning to pick up before Ril arrived. Kyla once said that when a gifted person believed their power utterly depleted, if in an emergency power was needed, it surged up from some hidden reserve. Time to test that lesson.

  As the short fellow raised the pistol and took aim at Camsen, the stone rose, hurtled through the air, and crashed into the side of the would-be shooter’s head, toppling him against the rock outcropping. He slid down, apparently unconscious, maybe dead.

  The screams of the burning men faded into silence. The flames died away, leaving the men’s skin charred, the men both lying unconscious where they’d fallen, unable to outrun the consuming fire. The stench of burnt flesh filled the air. Another odor assailed Lore’s nose. He pushed Ril away from him. In his fear the boy had lost control of his bladder. Urine soaked his trousers and leaked onto Lore’s shoes. Camsen reached out and grabbed the boy’s shoulder before he could run, as he was clearly poised to do.

  “Wh-what are you?” Ril asked, not merely his voice but his whole body trembling. “How’d you throw fire? And make that stone fly through the air and bonk Jeppy like that?”

  “We’re gifted,” Camsen said. “We have special talents most people don’t have.”

  “And we have questions for you,” Lore put in quickly, before Ril could ask anything else. “Where are the rest of the thieves and how many are they?”

  “Five more. They set up in the valley on the other side of this hill, where they couldn’t be seen from the road. They weren’t gonna stay there long, though.”

  “Won’t they wait until their friends here get back?” Lore motioned at the dead men and the man he’d bonked, as Ril had put it, with the stone.

  “I dunno. They were gonna split up. Some of ’em will wait, I guess. Maybe not all of ’em.”

  “How were they traveling?” Camsen asked. “Do they all have horses?”

  “Most of ’em do. A couple of the guys were gonna ride double.”

  “And what did they do with—with what they found in the box, the coffin?” Lore found the question difficult to frame, dreading what answer he might hear.

  “I dunno. They got so mad when they found out there wasn’t no gems in it, nothin’ but a dead lady, they were gonna kill me. They came after me with whips and guns, and I ran for my life, and they took off after me. I can run fast, though. I got way ahead of ’em. I figgered I could outrun ’em, but then you caught me.”

  “Yes, and you’re going to lead us to the camp,” Lore said. “We need to hurry, before they get away.”

  “I don’t wanna go back there.” Ril squirmed in Camsen’s firm grasp.

  “We’re not giving you a choice,” Lore picked up the whip the first man had carried and flicked it at Ril. “Get going.”

  “Will you protect me from them?” Ril asked, staring fearfully at the whip.

  “We won’t let them kill you. I won’t promise more than that,” Lore said.

  “You have to earn our protection by helping us,” Camsen put in more diplomatically. “You’ve seen what we can do. If you try to deceive us or get away from us, you’ll be in more danger from us than you are from your thieving friends.”

  Ril nodded, giving Lore and the whip a fearful glance. Camsen released him with a light shove to get him started. He headed back around the outcropping with Camsen close behind. Lore followed, carrying the whip. He hoped they didn’t have far to go. Now that the excitement had abated for a time, his weakness had returned, but he would not—could not—give in to it.

  CHAPTER FIVE

  DEAD? AND GONE

  Zauna looked up from her crystal ball and sighed. “Please, Renni, stop pacing and sit down. You’re making it hard for me to concentrate. I keep losing the picture.”

  With a mumbled apology Renni flounced down on the bed, sitting on her hands so as not to bite her nails from nervousness. “Just keep telling me everything you see.”

  “So you can do what?”

  “I know there’s nothing I can do, but I can’t stand not knowing what’s happening,” Renni said. “I feel so helpless. Maybe I was the wrong one to send on this mission. It should have been someone with different abilities. With more gifts.” She stood and started pacing again, but a glare from Zauna made her realize what she was doing. She sat back down and bit at her thumbnail, tearing at it savagely.

  “The stable boy is guiding them up into those rocky hills. I hope he’s not leading them into a trap.”

  “Why can’t I mindsend?” Renni addressed the question more to herself than to Zauna.

  “Maybe you can if you try,” Zauna said without looking away from her crystal ball.

  “And may you can. Why don’t you try?”

  “Because I’m concentrating all my power into crystal seeing, and you aren’t doing anything but distracting me.”

  Recognizing the truth of Zauna’s words, Renni said, “You’re right, and I’m sorry. I have been distracting you. I’m just nervous because so many people are depending on us to complete our mission, and it will fail if we didn’t recover the coffin with Kyla in it. And I feel so helpless, just stuck here waiting and knowing that even if I were with Lore and Camsen, I wouldn’t be able to do anything. I’d be in their way, just as I’m in yours here.”

  Zauna removed her hands from around the base of the crystal ball, folded them together, and rested them on the table. “Renni. You are not in my way. You are distracting me, but that isn’t the same thing at all. I know how hard it is to be here, having to wait while Lore and Camsen take all the risks. But you aren’t helpless. Let me tell you something.

  “I was raised by my mother, my father having found greener pastures elsewhere. She was a good woman, but not educated and not strong physically. To support herself and me she worked as a fortune-teller at a small carnival on the outskirts of Port-of-Lords. She found a crystal ball for sale at a low price in an outdoor market, and an exotic-looking robe in the same market, and she set herself up in business. She had no real psychic ability, but she did have a gift. Not a magical gift, but a gift of reading people and telling them what they wanted to hear. She managed to earn enough to keep food on the table and the debt collectors at bay. She became ill and died when I was nineteen years old. But I had learned a lot from her about people and the kinds of things they wanted to hear, so I put on her robe, polished her crystal ball, and took her place in the fortune-telling booth at the carnival. And like her I made enough money to keep a roof over my head and food on my table.

  “One day I gazed into the crystal ball, prepared to make up a rosy fortune for the client sitting opposite me, a haggard woman who looked like she could use a bit of cheering up. She started crying when I asked her if she had a specific question she wanted answered. She told me she wanted to know whether her husband had met with an accident or had just abandoned her and their young son. He had gone missing, and she had no money and no food. She admitted she wouldn’t be able to pay me more than a couple of small coppers. I told her that would be enough. I felt so sorry for her that I couldn’t bring myself to lie and make up a false story. I gazed into my crystal ball and willed it to give me a true answer. And something unexpected happened. Normally when I looked into the crystal ball, I saw nothing but my own reflection, distorted by the curvature of the crystal. But that day I saw more. I saw a man lying in a bed, and as I stared into the crystal in shock, the scene expanded. I could see that the bed was in a clinic. A nurse came into the scene, checked the man, and shook her head. Looking sad she walked from the room. ‘Your husband has had a serious accident and is in a clinic,’ I told the woman. ‘He needs you to help him recover. You can give him the will to live.’ I knew no more where those words came from than I knew how the scene had appeared in the crystal. I didn’t know then that I had an actual talent for crystal gazing. I only knew that I had a need. I wanted so badly to help the poor woman that my need had made me will to find the answer for her. And when I found it, I also discovered my true tal
ent as a seer.

  “Now let me get back to using that talent, and you will to mindspeak. Maybe you’ll discover you have that ability. Talent is often born of need.”

  Zauna placed her hands on the crystal and gazed into it once more. “The boy is leading them up a slope that looks to be dotted with caves,” she said. “It looks like the perfect spot for an ambush. I hope they’re alert. Lore is stumbling along as though he’s exhausted. I have a feeling that how they come out of this will depend entirely on Camsen.”

  Renni didn’t speak. Zauna's tale gave her a lot to think about. So much depended on the success of their mission. At least, so much depended on it if Kyla wasn’t truly dead. If she was, what did it matter what happened to her or the coffin? What were they even doing here? And why should Camsen and Lore put their lives in danger as they were doing if Zauna’s visions were true?

  But Zauna was right. She had to put these doubts aside. There were times when it was good to question everything, but this was not one of them. This was a time for confidence—confidence in the truth of the claim that had sent them on this mission, the claim that Kyla still lived but was in some kind of deathlike stasis that would someday be broken and she would be revived. Confidence in Lore’s and Camsen’s abilities to recover Kyla and their horses and wagon and supplies. Confidence in the truth of what Zauna saw in the crystal.

  Confidence in her own abilities. She’d accomplish nothing and only be a distraction to Zauna if she continued to stew and fret instead of somehow making herself useful. The one talent she knew she had, that of wiping out someone’s memories, was of no use now. Nor was it of any use to lament that fact.

  She could at least try to mindsend. But how did one go about it? Zauna had admitted she had no idea. Kyla had had the ability, but that did little good now. Who else in the Community had the ability?

  Professor Morence could mindspeak, an ability that had become of vital importance in their struggle with Jerome, but the professor was back in Port-of-Lords, so that was no use here.

  Lore had it! Or at least he did have it. It was one of the abilities Jerome had conferred on him. Did he retain it?

  “Zauna, I’m sorry to bother you, but I just remembered that a gift Jerome gave Lore was the ability to mindspeak. If he still has that ability, might that make it easier for one of us to reach him?”

  Zauna looked up with an exasperated frown. “It might, if either of us had the ability,” she said. “But since we don’t …” Her voice trailed off as she turned back to her crystal gazing.

  Renni’s temper flared. “You can see him in your crystal. You’d have a better of reaching him than I would. Can’t you at least try?”

  “Well, considering that we don’t even know whether he retains the ability, I don’t think—”

  “don’t think!” Renni interrupted her. “Just do it.”

  “Oh, you think it’s that simple, do you? Then you—Oh! Oh, no! Lore, look behind you!”

  Renni leapt to her feet and put a hand on Zauna’s shoulder, thinking the words she’d heard Zauna say, Look behind you! and feeling Zauna send power into the crystal, aided by the power Renni shared with her.

  “Duck!” At Zauna’s shout, Renni again fed power to her.

  Zauna gave a sigh of relief. “Renni, he heard me! He must have. In the crystal I saw him react to both my warnings. I must have mindsent.”

  §

  They reached the valley filled with low shrubs, crossed it, and started up another rough hillside. Lore kept a close watch on Ril and on their surroundings as well. Concerned that the boy was leading them into a trap, Lore braced himself for an attack from in front or to either side.

  Look behind you! a voice spoke in his mind. Startled, it took him a few seconds to react. As the message sank in, he whirled around.

  Duck! This time he reacted immediately. A bullet whizzed over his head. Crouching, he looked in the direction from which the shot had come.

  He saw him—the man he’d struck with the rock. Camsen must have received the mental warning too. He shot a stream of fire toward the man Ril had called Jeppy.

  Jeppy threw himself onto the ground. The fire passed over his head.

  “The next fire stream won’t miss you,” Camsen shouted. “Surrender if you want to live.”

  “Better do as he says, Jeppy,” Ril shouted unexpectedly. “They’re gifted.”

  Jeppy probably had no more idea what that meant than Ril did, but a second stream of fire hitting a branch above him and setting it on fire convinced him. The sparks falling from the burning branch and landing on his clothing made him roll to put out flames. His roll took him closer to Lore and Camsen. While Lore watched dispassionately, Camsen walked closer.

  “Cooperate with us and we’ll spare your miserable life,” he said, stretching out a hand.

  Apparently misunderstanding Camsen’s gesture and fearing that it meant more fire was about to be thrown, Jeppy curled into a ball, his hands over his head.

  Lore walked to him and nudged him with one foot. “Looks to me like he wants to die,” he said, winking at Camsen.

  “I’ll be happy to oblige him,” Camsen said. “Unless he cares to switch sides and join us.”

  Jeppy uncurled enough to turn his head and open one eye. That eye peered up at Lore. “Don’t kill me,” he begged. “Tell me what you want me to do.”

  Camsen gave Lore a look that indicated Lore should take over. He thought a moment. Both he and Camsen had expended a great deal of power. His power was severely depleted; how much Camsen had left he didn’t know, but it couldn’t be a lot.

  “Where are your friends—the rest of your crew?”

  “Not far from here,” Jeppy said, sitting up and casting a wary eye at Camsen.

  “Good. I want you to go there. We’ll follow but stay out of sight. I want you to tell your friends that your two unfortunate companions are still chasing Ril, but you returned to report. Tell them that they were certain they’d catch up with Ril soon, and should be back with the little rat in a short while. Do you understand?”

  He nodded and rose to his feet, his legs trembling.

  “Don’t try to warn them that we’re here. We’ll know, and you know what we can do if you don’t follow my instructions. You and your gang will all suffer for it.”

  “I’ll do just what you say.” He kept casting nervous glances at Camsen, apparently afraid fire might be hurled at him at any moment.

  Good. Lore wanted him afraid, though not so terrified that his companions would realize something was wrong just by looking at him. “We won’t hurt you as long as you follow my instructions. You don’t need to be afraid.”

  Camsen echoed that reassurance, saying. “You’re perfectly safe. Just do as you’re told.”

  “What do you want me to do after I tell them the message you gave me?” Jeppy looked only marginally less nervous, but Lore didn’t see much he could do about that.

  “Say that you’re going to look for your friends, as they should be coming along,” Lore instructed. “Then come back here.” When Jeppy frowned at that, Lore hastened to add, “And don’t worry. We’ll keep you safe. I’ll want to know how many are there and what they’ve done with our supplies and the coffin with the body in it.”

  Again Jeppy’s trembling increased. “We got that coffin thing opened.” He paused to glare at Ril, who kept his gaze averted. Jeppy continued, “The boy told us the coffin was full of gems or something.”

  “Or something,” muttered Camsen, causing Jeppy to flinch like a scared rabbit.

  “He had no idea what was in the coffin,” Lore said. “He kept asking, and I wouldn’t tell him. I guess he thought that meant it was something quite valuable. It is valuable to us, but to no one else.”

  “Who was she? The corpse, I mean.”

  “That’s none of your business.” Camsen snapped.

  “You need to go in now and do what I told you,” Lore added equally crossly. “We mean to recover all of our belongings, incl
uding the corpse.”

  When Jeppy hesitated, he added, “We’ll protect you if your buddies get suspicious and threaten you.” Lore hoped that wouldn’t happen. He wasn’t at all certain that he could protect the man and didn’t really much care what happened to him, but they did need the report.

  “Get going now. Hurry!” Lore gave him a push, and Jeppy tottered off, his booted feet crunching over loose rocks. Lore and Camsen followed at a cautious distance with Ril in tow.

  Their path wound through waist-high shrubs and around boulders that looked none too stable. It was almost impossible to walk quietly over the rocky ground. When Jeppy rounded a pile of large rocks that must have fallen from higher up the hillside, they remained behind, hidden by the rocks. The uneven way the rocks were piled left gaps through which, with caution, they could watch to be certain Jeppy carried out his instructions.

  A large, muscular brute stalked toward Jeppy and bellowed something, but Lore could not make out the words, nor could he hear Jeppy’s response. He must have followed orders, because the bald, brutish fellow turned and walked out of sight. A second man came briefly into view, a smaller man whose face looked like it had been stepped on by a horse. That one stared after Jeppy as their emissary headed back toward them but turned away and disappeared from sight just before Jeppy rounded the rock pile and halted in front of Lore.

  “I did what you told me to,” he whispered. “I talked to Shiny, told him what you said to tell him. I think he suspected something, but I swear I didn’t do nothing but what you told me to do. He’ll kill me if he knows I led you here. What’re you gonna do?”

  “That depends. How many men are there?”

  “Just one besides Shiny.”

  “Shiny’s the big bald guy?”

  Jeppy nodded. “We call him that ’cause his bald head’s so shiny. The other guy’s Blue.”