Deniably Dead (Arucadi Series Book 4)

by E. Rose Sabin

  “Zauna saw some of that, but I’d like to hear the details from you,” Renni said. “First, though, let me check in with Zauna.”

  Camsen’s eyes widened. “She can mindsend and receive now?”

  “We were both trying to increase our abilities,” Renni said. “Along with her crystal ball, she got a book listing all the things the mages of old could do, and the book indicates that the ability to mindsend was common.”

  “We’re not mages, though,” Camsen objected.

  “Not as we understand the word today, but it seems that all gifted were referred to as mages in that time. Anyway, we tested and practiced, and we discovered that we could do it.”

  “I wish I knew what you’re talking about,” Ril whined. “What are mages and what’s it mean to mindsend?”

  “Nothing you need to know,” Camsen said firmly. “Let’s get this wagon moved.”

  “No, wait,” Ril said. “I know something that you don’t. I’ll tell you, if you tell me what you’re talking about—being gifted and all that.”

  “I’m not in a bargaining mood,” Camsen turned his back on Ril to hitch his horse to the wagon.

  “I can’t reach Zauna. I don’t know what’s going on with her, but we need to find water for the horses. And for us, too,” Renni said. “Did you see a stream anywhere on your way to the thieves’ camp?”

  “No,” Camsen said. “We were too busy defending ourselves and trying to stay alive and safe. But there must be one. They’d need water for their horses.”

  “I can tell you where it is.” Ril’s voice rose and fell in a mocking singsong. “But I won’t unless you tell me what I want to know.”

  Camsen whirled around. “Listen, you little weasel,” he said, “you started this mess by telling your thieving friends we had gems in that coffin. Even so, I’ve saved your life twice. So don’t try to bargain with me. You cooperate with us and help us, or we’ll deal with you as we have your band of thieves.”

  Renni puzzled over the change in the former priest of Ondin. Camsen had always demonstrated patience and a hesitance to perform any act of violence even to save a life. His exhaustion and his concern over Lore and the loss of Kyla could explain in part his angry reaction to Ril, but she suspected that something else was troubling him and feeding his anger. When she had the opportunity, she’d talk to him and try to discover what that something was. Right now they had no time. They had to act, and since Camsen only seemed interested in berating the stable boy, she had to take the lead.

  “Look here,” she said, claiming Camsen’s attention and also Ril’s, “we have to act while we still have some light. The horses must be watered and fed, and we have to recover our stolen supplies. So Ril, you’re with me. Camsen, you stay here and guard the wagon.” She grabbed Dark Star’s reins and led him off the road. “Ril, get the other horse and take us to that stream.”

  Whether the firmness with which she delivered the command or Ril’s eagerness to get away from Camsen led the boy to obey her, he took the reins of the horse Camsen had ridden and followed Renni. “Take the lead,” she told him as he drew up next to her. “Guide us to water.”

  “It’s not far, but we may run into Shiny and Jeppy,” he objected.

  “Let me worry about that,” she told him. “These horses need food and water.”

  “There’s plants near the stream they can graze on,” he said, guiding the horse up the sloping hillside.

  “That’s not the path we took to get to the thieves’ camp,” Camsen called after them.

  “Never mind that,” she called back, relieved that he made no move either to stop them or to follow them. “Try to get some rest.”

  Ril could lead her into a trap, but she trusted Zauna to warn her of imminent danger. Although she could not always control what scene the crystal revealed, Zauna promised to concentrate on having it unveil anything that posed significant danger to any member of their company.

  No warning or any other word came from Zauna, which worried Renni. However, they wound their way only a short distance into the hilly countryside before reaching the stream. Ril let his horse drink while he helped her remove Dark Star’s saddle and bridle and lead that horse to the water. As he’d said, grass and shrubs grew along the bank of the stream, and after the horses drank their fill, Renni groomed Dark Star as best she could without proper tools and then let the horses graze until the growing darkness warned her that little time remained to return to the wagon.

  As she thought of negotiating the winding, stony trail in darkness, however, she foresaw too much likelihood of an accident befalling her, the boy, or the horses. Although Camsen would worry when they failed to return, she decided it would be wiser for them to spend the night here. It would be far from comfortable, but at least the grass along the stream bank afforded a somewhat softer sleeping spot.

  Ril offered no objection to this plan until Renni informed him that she would have to tie him securely to prevent his slipping away while she slept.

  “No! Don’t do that. I won’t run away. How am I s’posed to sleep tied up like that?” he complained loudly.

  “Keep your voice down,” she ordered. “It won’t do you any good to complain.” Having anticipated his reaction, she quickly slipped over his shoulders a loop of the rope she’d brought in Dark Star’s saddlebag. She drew the rope tight before he could dart away. He struggled, but lacked the strength to prevent her from quickly tying him securely.

  “Get what sleep you can. At first light I’ll untie you and you’ll lead me to the thieves’ encampment. I want to try to recover our supplies.”

  “Better hope Thornbridge hasn’t got back with Bax and Ched.”

  “I don’t see how he could. I have his prize horse, and even if he gets another horse, he can’t ride all night. Now let me get to sleep.” She lay down on the grass, grateful now for the warm jacket Zauna had insisted she take.

  The air had turned cool, and the ground was far from comfortable. As tired as she was, she couldn’t fall asleep. She kept shifting about, trying to find a more comfortable position, and at one point fell into a dreamy near-sleep state. Then one of the horses snorted, rousing her. She stood up and looked around, though she could see little in the darkness.

  She heard nothing that hinted of an intruder, either animal or human. The horses seemed to be asleep, and she concluded one had been dreaming. She needed sleep and headed back to selected spot, but she felt restless. Maybe she could find a spot a bit softer than where she’d been lying. She walked to the stream, where moonlight reflected on the water made it a bit easier to see. Her foot landed on a fallen branch that cracked as she stepped on it. The loud snap brought a complaining whine from Ril.

  “How’m I s’posed to sleep with you moving all around and me trussed up like a pig on a spit?” he grumbled.

  Maybe she had been making a bit more noise than she realized, but it shouldn’t have wakened him. A sudden sense of urgency led her to say, “Seems neither of us can sleep. Maybe we’re not supposed to. Think you can find your way to the robbers’ camp in the dark?”

  “What?” his voice cracked in alarm. “Are you crazy? Go there in the middle of the night?”

  “You say there are only two men left there. We’d take them by surprise. They wouldn’t be expecting us to come at night.” She made her way to where he lay and bent over him. “You didn’t answer my question. Can you find the way? It isn’t completely dark. There’s moonlight. Dora’s nearly full.”

  “I can take you there, but what’re you gonna do when you get there? Can you throw fire like Master Wellner? Or throw things without touching them like Master Kaplek?” The boy looked hopeful but wary. And why not? He’d seen Camsen and Lore perform marvelous feats and clearly wanted to see more marvels but was skeptical of her abilities. The only power she had, other than the two she’d just learned out of necessity, would produce no spectacle such as Camsen and Lore had provided. Neither would it kill anyone. Yet it could prove effective enough
if she used it carefully.

  So she gave an honest reply, though not what Ril clearly hoped to hear. “No, I can’t do either of those things. I can do something else, though. But how well it works will depend on how truthfully you answer my questions. So think carefully now. First, I know you left Marquez with the thieves and traveled here in our wagon with them. I need to know how long the trip here took you, so tell me when you left the inn and when you arrived.

  Ril scratched his head. “We left early, while it was still dark. But I dunno when we got here. I slept in the wagon most of the way.”

  Renni stamped a foot in impatience. “No, that won’t do. They must have woke you when they stopped and got out of the wagon. Didn’t you help unload the supplies and … things?” She couldn’t bring herself to speak of the coffin.

  He didn’t meet her intent gaze as he mumbled, “Yes, but I was too sleepy to notice the time.”

  “You had to have noticed whether or not the sun had risen. Was it still dark, or was it later?”

  His brow creased with the effort of remembering—or pretending to remember. Renni couldn’t tell how much of his show of uncertainty was due to unwillingness to divulge any information that might put him in greater danger with his erstwhile allies. “Think!” she insisted, giving his shoulder a warning shake. “I’m losing patience.”

  “I guess it was kinda late.” The words crawled from him slowly. “It was daytime, and I remember Jeppy grumbling about being hungry and asking shouldn’t we stop for breakfast. So I guess it was late morning.”

  “And did you stop for breakfast?”

  “Not then. Thorny cuffed Jeppy good and said we wouldn’t eat till we unloaded all the stuff from the wagon and carried it up into the hills to the camp. We was all sweating and near starved when we got done, but nobody dared complain. We knew we’d get worse than what Jeppy got if we did.”

  “So when you finished, you ate?”

  “Yeah, lunch by then and late at that. Thorny told Jeppy and Shiny they couldn’t eat ’til they pried the big box open.” Ril scowled. “He called it a treasure box. Huh! Some treasure!”

  Jeppy and Shiny were the two still in the camp. That was almost too convenient, if Ril was telling the truth. But why would he lie? He had no idea what she planned.

  “So they pried the box open while the rest of you were eating. How long did it take them and what happened after that?”

  “I dunno how long. I just know that we’d all finished eating and were working on storing the supplies way back in the cave where they wouldn’t be easy to find. And Shiny let out this awful howl. And we all went to see what he’d found. And we saw the body in the coffin. And Thorny got mad at me and acted like he was gonna kill me, and that’s when I took off running.”

  “All right. I know what happened after that. But what time was it then?”

  “You think I was noticin’ the time? All I was thinking about was getting out of there before Thorny killed me. Why do you want to know all this about the time, anyway?”

  “That’s not your concern.” Judging from Ril’s account, the crystal ball had shown the events in real time, not past or future. She knew the timing of the subsequent events from Zauna’s crystal gazing. “Come on, now. Let’s get up to that camp.”

  “I hoped you’d give up on that crazy idea,” Ril grumbled.

  She gave him a little shove, and he moved ahead of her. The length of the rope that bound him kept him from bolting or getting too far ahead.

  “While we go, tell me all you know about this Thornbridge,” she ordered “Just keep your voice low.”

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  NIGHT WORK

  As the ascent into the hills grew steeper, Ril stopped and looked back at Renni. “How’m I s’posed to keep my balance with my arms tied to my sides?”

  “Just do the best you can. I don’t trust you enough to untie you.”

  “Isn’t no place I could run to,” he muttered.

  “Save your breath for climbing. I’m not untying you.” Truth be told, the rope wasn’t tied so securely that he wouldn’t be able to wriggle out of it. She intended to keep a close eye on him in case he tried that.

  When they came to the charred corpses of the two men Camsen had killed, Renni called a halt and against his protests forced Ril to help her drag the blackened bodies off the trail to a point where they wouldn’t be seen from the path.

  After that grisly task, they resumed their slow ascent, stumbling along. Renni biting back curses when Ril fell and she had to help him back onto his feet. She couldn’t resist sighing softly with relief when at last they reached level ground and approached the clearing where the action Zauna had seen in her crystal had taken place. Now the clearing was quiet and empty. The cave where Shiny and Jeppy were sleeping and where the supplies were stored lay beyond it and partway up another incline, though thankfully one not as steep as the path they had just ascended.

  “Now, Ril,” she whispered, “do you know which one’s the heavier sleeper?”

  Even in the moonlight his puzzlement was written clearly in the wrinkles of his brow and the wide-eyed stare he turned on her, no doubt wondering whether she’d lost her mind. “Whatcha want to know that for?”

  “So I know which one to have you wake first. Now answer the question.”

  “You’re gonna wake them up?”

  “No, you are. One at a time, lighter sleeper first.”

  “They’ll kill me!”

  “Not if you do and say exactly what I tell you to. I’ll have to untie you, but I swear if you try to run instead of following my instructions, I’ll kill you—or worse.” Renni left it to his imagination what “or worse” could mean, since she could actually do very little. “Now here’s what you are to do. Go in, gently shake the shoulder of the one who’s easiest to awaken, and whisper to him that you have a message from Thornbridge. That it’s just for him, and you’ll give it to him outside where the other man can’t hear. As soon as you’ve said that, scoot outside. I’ll be right outside the cave waiting. Get behind me. Understand?”

  “Yeah, but it don’t make sense. And what if when I’m telling Jeppy this, Shiny wakes up?”

  “Just hope that doesn’t happen. No more questions now. Just do as you’re told.” Renni led him to just below the cave entrance and removed the rope that bound his arms. “Get busy.” She accompanied the command with a shove that sent him scrambling up to the cave entrance. He gave her one last pleading look before disappearing into the dark maw.

  She waited only moments before Ril darted from the cave and dodged around her just as a man stumbled from the cave rubbing his eyes and sleepily peering around. The man, who must be Jeppy, saw her and his eyes widened in surprise. She dived into his mind and erased his most recent memories back to midafternoon, shortly after Blue had ridden off with Kyla and Lore had followed him. She felt the mental shock and saw a stunned and puzzled look come over his face. He hugged himself in fright, no doubt wondering why it was dark when his mind told him it had been broad daylight only moments ago.

  She stepped forward. “I have a message from Thornbridge,” she said. “He’s down at the wagon. There’s been a change of plans. He wants all the supplies taken to the wagon.”

  “Who are you? Why didn’t Thornbridge come and tell us this himself.”

  “Because he’s got prisoners down there. I’m Thorny’s new girlfriend, and I’ll be going with you. Now go get Shiny and get busy.” She put all the authority she could muster into the command.

  “How come I never saw you before?” Jeppy’s question dripped with suspicion, but it brought Renni relief. She’d feared he might have seen her at the inn.

  She gave a girlish giggle. “I haven’t known him very long. Actually, we just met, and he promised me I’d have lots of adventures if I came with him.” She doubted that she sounded convincing. She despised the type of woman she was pretending to be.

  The ploy worked. Jeppy nodded and turned back to the cave. She barely
had time to glance behind her to be certain Ril was there when a loud roar issued from the cave, followed by a voice shouting, “You idiot! It’s the middle of the night. You just had a dream. Go back to sleep and lemme alone.”

  She couldn’t hear Jeppy’s answer, but more shouted words followed. “I’m going out there, and if I don’t see anything, I’m gonna wring your scrawny neck.”

  Renni readied herself. A very large man came barreling out of the cave, fists clenched. He turned his head this way and that before settling his startled gaze on her. Moonlight gleamed on his bald head.

  She took a deep breath and plunged into his memories, winnowing here, snipping there, erasing everything up to his recollection of Thornbridge’s departure.

  He shook his head and slammed a palm against it as though trying to dislodge the confusion that had suddenly filled his mind. “Wha’? What happened? Why’s it night?”

  No girlish giggle this time. Renni put her hands on her hips and said, “Well, if you two aren’t something. You’re given a job to do and decide to take a nap instead. And sleep through the whole rest of the day and more than half the night.”

  Without giving Shiny a chance to ponder what she’d said and realize it made little sense, she turned and grabbed Ril’s arm. “Go on back to the wagon and tell Thorny we’re coming. It may take a little while. I’m going to make sure these two idiots bring down as much as they can carry.”

  The boy stared at her, open-mouthed. Of course he had no way of knowing what she’d done. She grasped his shoulders, dug her fingers into it, and mouthed, “Go. Wake Camsen.”

  Though he couldn’t know what she’d done, he had to know that she did something. He nodded and took off running. She hoped he’d do as she told him. She risked the possibility that he’d go instead to where they’d left the horses, take one, and ride off to find and warn Thornbridge. She didn’t think he would. For one thing, he couldn’t take Dark Star. He’d said no one but Thornbridge could ride him. But he’d learned that she could ride the horse and would be afraid that she’d follow and catch up to him on the faster horse and punish his transgression in some horrible way. Furthermore, he was too curious not to want to see how all this strangeness played out. Clearly fascinated by the weird powers Camsen and Lore and she possessed, the boy would be drawn to witness the unfolding scene like iron filings to a magnet.