Pavel sighed. "Can't do it until tonight and will still need another day of planning. Can you have horses ready for us a mile north of town in two days' time?"
"Two days it is. Echal is with me. Don't forget to pay me a silver and be seen doing it, they can't know that I am anything more than a normal courier or they will remember when questioned later. Read them your note from home, it will give them a story for their own minds when you sneak off." She pockets the silver piece and as he's walking back to the gate in a louder voice, "Cheap bastard what no tip after I bring it all this way?"
The gate guards are good-naturedly teasing Pavel about this as she disappeared into the crowded street.
***
Memories and New Realities
Catrin lets herself back into their suite just in time to see Echal putting on the finishing touches of his new look. She let out a low whistle, "So at least he cleans up nice." She grinned to take some of the sting out of it. His face reddened a bit. "That must have cost a pretty penny, what are you going for young noble or prosperous adventurer?" she asked noticing the thigh high wyvern skin boots and matching doublet.
"This? This was just a collection of trophies over the last four years. It cost me plenty, in blood and sweat and even the life of a good sword brother, but for money not much at all." His eyes went a little unfocused as if reliving a memory of mixed emotions. "As to noble or adventurer why pick? Let people assume what they will."
Catrin felt a bit guilty for making him uncomfortable about what for him wasn't a costume but rather a story of his life for the years they had been apart. She came up close to him and rested one hand on the intricately carved bone buttons on the front of his tunic. "Well, I need to know so I can match my story to yours. I meant what I said, you do look very impressive." She went up on her toes and gave him a chaste peck on the cheek. "Pavel says we have two days to decide. I don't know how he plans to talk to Rea or how they plan to get away, but he seemed to think it could be done. We're to meet them a mile north of town with fresh horses in two days' time."
She didn't step back from him, oh she knew she probably should but he smelled of leather, steel, and recently washed man. She was enjoying being with him. "So what do you suppose we'll do for the next two days all alone?" She asked with a little smirk.
Echal laughed. "If you would have asked me that four years ago, I would have fainted dead away. You really are beautiful, but you're not already pregnant and I will not risk having a child to share my danger." He gently touched her cheek. "Maybe we should just concentrate on getting to know each other again."
Catrin slapped his chest and stamped her foot. "You certainly aren't the boy who rescued me all those years ago. I was hoping to make you blush!" she smiled at him and pulled away. "I wasn't offering anything like that, well not for real. I haven't been with a man that way. I mean at the Finishing School they taught us all the art of seduction, but the goal was to have his throat cut or have him drugged long before he could get to that point." She swept away from him and headed toward the other room of the suite, "I think I'll call for fresh bath water, yours has gotten cold."
As she closed the door Echal felt a sadness for her, it had to be a lonely life to learn the arts of love, just as a weapon of war.
***
Getting to Know Each other
Late in the afternoon of the second day, Catrin calls for Echal from her room. He opens the adjoining door and his jaw drops. She is standing in her damp translucent shift with the sun streaming in behind her, displaying the pale skin and wondrous curves beneath. She pretends that she doesn't notice but a voice in the back of her head is dancing and chanting, 'he likes it, he likes it!' over and over. She holds out two gowns, one a deep blue velvet, the other a pale green linen. "I need to know, Nobility or Merchant?"
Echal recovers his wits just in time to not say it doesn't matter. Instead, he just motions to the ring hanging on its chain between her budding breasts. "I see you kept it."
"Of course, I wear it always. On my hand when it isn't out of place or on the chain when it might otherwise give me away. I will never be parted with it; it has too many memories attached to it." She smiled at him warmly. "You didn't answer my question."
"Oh, uh the green. Merchants need guards so Pavel and I will not look too out of place and it will draw less attention if we choose to 'save money' by sleeping rough instead of in a village where someone might remember us." Echal wasn't sure how he kept enough of his brain functioning while his eyes were still memorizing every wondrous curve.
"Good, the green in cooler in this weather. Now be a dear and help me get into it. I don't exactly have a ladies' maid." she said as she casually tossed the blue gown upon the bed and slowly turned and stepped into the green gown. Every move stretching the already translucent material of her shift against the curves of her back and bottom.
Echal remembered that they had taught her how to do this and even knowing didn't lessen its impact. With a dry throat he stepped up close to her and helped her pull the gown into position. She smelled amazing. He lifted her still slightly damp hair, gathering it gently into his right hand, then with a firm grip pulled it back so that her eyes looked up at him. He just smiled and wordlessly moved it forward over her shoulder. He began lacing up her dress slowly and carefully, making sure each time to have the back of his hands remain in contact with her. She leaned back into him her breathing coming faster. He pulled tight the last lacing, leaned forward and kissed her lingeringly on her neck. Then abruptly let go and walked back to his room to finish getting ready. From the other side he called, "Don't take too much longer, we still need to get horses."
Catrin was outraged. How had it gone wrong? She planned this out carefully. She would get him all worked up and then string him on a bit. It wasn't supposed to go the other way! The fact that she could still feel his hands in her hair wasn't helping her be rational about it either. Damn him, it wasn't supposed to be like this.
Echal smiled as he heard the door slam.
***
Leaving Archive
The afternoon passed with Catrin in a snit and Echal pretending not to notice. Echal also was trying very hard not to let his self-satisfaction show. She had tried to use her training on him and he had turned the tables. Oh, he wished it were possible for the situation to be different, he would have enjoyed just surrendering and letting her catch him, but until the future was more secure, those long unfulfilled dreams would just have to remain that way.
Two hours after dusk, Pavel came cautiously up the road and was all too excited to see the others waiting right where they had planned. After a back-breaking hug for Echal, and a more careful one for Catrin, Pavel filled them in.
"Sha will be along soon." Pavel began.
"Sha?" Echal interrupted him.
"Shadrea. You know your sister." Pavel snapped frustratedly. Then hesitated, "Sorry forgot you've not been around for a while. She started demanding everyone call her Sha after an incident two years ago. One of the new girls had taken to bullying her because she is so much smaller than all of them. Said 'Rea' sounded like a symptom of dysentery. Well Sha wasn't having any of that, and while I don't know the details, the vengeful practical joke has become a bit of a local legend." Pavel grinned, and then shrugged, "As was the ensuing punishment." He chuckled, "She says it was worth it."
Echal grinned, he remembered Rea's twisted sense of justice and for that matter humor. "If she says it was worth the punishment, it must have been something on a grand scale."
Pavel and Catrin both just grinned at him, "Well as I was saying Sha says escaping the Eternal Spire is possible, but she was fairly confident she could pull it off. From what I gather, her magic can't make her float, but she can hang the bed sheet out of the window, and as she climbs down, just lower the top end of the sheet so it is carrying her weight and for some reason the spell allows for it. He laughed. The first time she snuck out to visit me on my birthday, she scared me to death telling me how she did
it."
Echal and Catrin both looked startled. Pavel laughed again. "Sha is a lot more powerful than they give her credit for. They treat her like a child because of her size and she hides behind that when it serves her purposes but let her fool you, she's a very intelligent woman, and a powerful Tzadi."
Just past the second hour, Echal was on watch and noticed the horses start to panic. Just as he was gathering them to calm them he sees what is driving them wild, a tiny figure is calmly riding on the back of a large black panther. Recognizing Echal she claps her hands and just like that the panther disappears and she runs over to hug her brother.
"You're here!" She squealed. "Oh, but I have missed you so much!" She gave him a quick kiss on his cheek.
Echal, still in shock over the panther and the affectionate charge of a very excited Rea wasn't able to get out much more than a laugh.
Just as fast as she had come, she was gone. Pavel hearing the noise had stood and came to where the horses were tied. Rea seeing him took off at a run and nearly flew into his arms. Catrin was roused at this point and making her way over and both she and Echal were stunned into silence as Pavel was given and returned a very lingering and passionate kiss.
"They will never separate us again!" Sha said in a determined whisper.
Pavel just held her tight. "Never again." He agreed.
For all of his life Pavel had always viewed Rea as an annoying little sister, the shift in this relationship was more than Echal could wrap his mind around.
Sha looked up at Echal and smiled innocently at him, "It's been a long night and I've used up a lot of power escaping from the Spire, can we catch up on the road in the morning?"
He managed a very confused, "Um yeah" before Sha had led Pavel back off to his bedroll. The sounds coming from it for the next couple of hours had both Echal and Catrin reassessing what they knew about the people they thought they had known all of their lives.
Dirty Tricks
Ignorance is Bliss
The ride in to town in the morning felt like a family trip to a village faire. Despite the knowledge that they would be hunted by the full resources of this kingdom very soon, it didn't seem real on this golden morning. Catching up on old times. Sha amazing them all with simple magics when they had the road to themselves.
Pavel explained how despite the strict over watch of both the commanders of the Guardians and the watchful eye of the Tzadi they had spent every evening together for the last two years. Ever since Sha had learned how to Dream Send. Catrin having spent the last four years in a similarly strict environment was impressed with her ingenuity.
Pavel looks at his little brother, "Fine ettin cloak you've bought yourself. It's a wonder you've saved any coin back."
Catrin cut in, "I thought so too but he says he killed it himself. For the wyvern skin as well, though there he claims to have had help. I suppose I believe him, he had to save his money for his, ah hem, charity work." Echal shot her a dangerous look, but she just grinned at him. "Ask him about Elly."
Pavel was looking at Echal like he had grown two heads not the ettin. "I want to hear more of this boast about him single-handedly killing an adult ettin!"
Echal shook his head. "I did kill it by myself and had witnesses before I had to pretend to be dead." He grinned for a moment. "Ok you want the whole story, the one no one but Master S'ven ever heard?" Heads were nodding all around. Echal took a deep breath and shifted in his saddle a bit. "Well you see it was like this, I had tracked him back to his cave. Anyone who's ever hunted ettin will tell you that tracking them isn't the hard part. I could hear him in there but I knew an ettin's reputation as well, so I took some precautions." He hesitated negotiating his horse dramatically around an imagined rough patch of road.
Pavel had finally had enough. "Well!"
Echal grinned knowing his story had hooked them. "Well then, I just made the worlds biggest rabbit snare out of the rope I had in my saddlebags. I went into the cave very quiet like. I put an arrow in his backside." He grinned at them. "Oh, you should have heard that howl. All thought of caution went right out of his primitive heads and both of them finally agreed on something for the first time in their life, I would pay for that." He glanced over at his audience to make sure they were still hooked. "I ran out of the cave being very careful not to snag on my own snare. Ran just outside of the range the snare would let him reach me at. Then readied my axe, ok started to ready my axe truth be told it was bellowing like a stuck boar and charging me just as carelessly. The snare caught and yanked tight. I'd only snared one head, but it was enough to completely distract the creature. While it was trying to figure out what had it and how to make it let go, I ran behind it and took my axe to its large tendon behind the heel. Needless to say it let out another echoing bellow as that leg collapsed under it, putting even more strain on the snared head. I ducked in and was able to use my axe to slice both necks very deep." Echal shrugged nonchalantly, "After that it was just staying out of reach until the beast bled out. By the time the rest of the hunters reached us I had use the rope snare and my horse to hoist up the monstrous frame and was ready to begin skinning it." He grinned at them. "Yeah, I killed it by myself, but I didn't fight its strength. I fought its intelligence."
Pavel just scratched his great shaggy beard. "Ever since we were kids, you always found a way to cheat." Though his big grin said he approved.
Catrin chuckled. "You might have made it through the Finishing School too."
Sha said nothing, she never doubted Echal killed the ettin. She never doubted there was more to it than he told. He'd been that way since they were kids. She was just glad to have him and Pavel on her side, and unless she was reading the signs wrong she would have Catrin, for as long as she had Echal.
***
The Price of Ignorance
Just up the block from the smithy Jayen had purchased all those years ago, Catrin stops everyone. "Look I'm probably just being paranoid but it is bad trade craft for us all to just walk in there and present ourselves as a ripe target. Let me go in first and if all is good, I'll signal for the rest of you. If you don't get my signal, then we know we have a problem. I'll escape later and meet you back at the campsite from last night."
Echal snorted, "You don't give the signal we come in and take the place apart." Pavel just grunted his support.
Catrin shook her head and turned to Sha. "That's the worst thing they could do. I'll escape, they can't hold me for long, and it's not like they will kill me if they think that I'll lead them to you, or that you will try to rescue me. I'm probably worried for nothing but don't let them get stupid if things go wrong."
Sha just smiled and shrugged her shoulders. "Men, what can you do?"
Catrin grinned at her and slipped into the normal flow of traffic in the street. When she came back out of the smithy, you could tell things weren't right. For one, she didn't come straight back to the rest; instead she meandered off as if she were shopping. Sha was just about to lose the battle of standing on Pavel and Echal when Catrin unexpectedly popped up behind them. "No tail following me, our arrival must have gone undetected."
Sha's face fell, "What's happened to Mamma and Da?"
Catrin made a face, "They've been arrested. Seems there was some typical merchants struggle, and one of your Da's competition decided to have him checked out." she shrugged. "They tied him to your home village, and from there getting warrants for his arrest were fairly easy. Troops have been dispatched to bring them to the capital but haven't arrived yet. In the meantime, this village being too small for a proper prison, they are being kept at the town guard barracks."
Sha looked at her in awe, "You learned all of that since we made it to town?"
Catrin got a crooked smile, "It's what I do."
Pavel grunted. "So we bust them out!"
Echal nodded to his brother. "Of course but there are fifty men in that garrison. Remember the ettin, let's do this smart."
Pavel just growled. Catrin just winked at Echal
. "You come up with a plan. I'm going to get us some more information and a few supplies."
***
Fighting Smart
Echal and Pavel had made it to the rooftops across the road from the garrison. The count was fifty-two men, eight grooms and four general servants. The only reasonable place to be holding prisoners was in the weapons locker at the far end of the barracks. It was a tough nut to crack for just the four of them, but assuming the roving night guards could be taken down quietly and Rea, Sha, he corrected himself, could handle the sleeping guards in the barracks as she was confident she could do, then they could pull this off. He hated putting so much on Sha like that but Pavel didn't seem to have any doubts.
Sha and Catrin were back at the wagon, quietly preparing for the night's adventure. As far as Catrin could tell, Sha was just mumbling for a few minutes and then resting for an hour. Then she would get up and do it all over again. Catrin on the other hand was focused on the more practical needs of readying the wagon and the pack horses and spare axels and extra provisions. If this plan worked, they wouldn't want to be seen in any town for a sixty-mile radius. Taking wagons overland was not undertaken easily and moving mostly at night would only add to the difficulty. Still it was the only real option.
Heir's Legacy Page 5
