A fort had been constructed around the tunnel entrance at the far end of the road, and lamps were strung along the length of the wide street, lighting the way.
Daphne kicked her heels and the stallion set off at a slow trot.
She pulled her hood over her head as they passed the first houses of the town. No one was on the street, though up ahead she could hear the sound of taverns and workshops. After passing a long row of houses, the land on the left of the street opened up and Daphne saw a large area of pasture, where dozens of gaien had been corralled. In the corner was a small paddock with a collection of horses.
Daphne directed the stallion along the side of the fence that enclosed the gaien herd. Most were sleeping on their feet, while a couple grazed in the lamplight. As she approached a small hut, an old Rahain woman dressed in the black tunic of an ex-slave came out, carrying a lamp. Daphne dismounted, and walked the stallion to meet her.
‘Selling?’ asked the old woman.
‘No, just looking for somewhere to leave him for a few hours. I have some business I need to conduct.’
The Rahain woman peered at Daphne in the lamplight. ‘What kind of business?’
‘Hunting Old Free.’
The old woman nodded.
‘You can leave the beast here until dawn. After that, if he’s still there, it’s five sovereigns a day.’
Daphne nodded. They led the stallion to the horse paddock, where Daphne and the old woman removed the saddle and harness, and hung them in a shed next to the gate. The horse looked at her with his big eyes and she fought the desire to remount, and ride back to Killop and Karalyn.
She turned and walked out of the enclosure, leaving the old woman to attach the feeding bag. She lit a cigarette and tried to focus. She needed to find Douanna. She reached the main road and turned towards the fort marking the entrance to the tunnel. As she got closer, the sounds of the town’s nightlife grew louder. Rahain voices laughed and shouted into the dark sky. Ahead, Daphne could see a queue of wagons lined up before the gates of the fort. The soldiers at the entrance were examining each as they passed, though their searches appeared cursory.
She pulled on a thread of battle-vision and scanned the dozen or so wagons in line. She blinked. None of them were the same as the one she had seen in the memories of the Rahain that Laodoc had brought to her. She stubbed out her cigarette and leaned back against the wall of a closed shop. The nearest high point was the turret at the front of the fort’s gatehouse, so she shot her vision up to it, and gazed down over the settlement for a few moments.
It was big, much bigger than she had remembered. Assuming that Douanna had not already passed through the tunnel, it would take her hours to search, even with her vision powers. And if Douanna had changed wagons, then she could be looking for days.
She spotted a tavern with outside tables on the left hand side of the main street, twenty yards ahead of her. From there she would be able to keep a watch on the wagons that joined the queue for the tunnel. She walked down the road to the tavern, and took a spare seat at a busy table, sitting with her back to the wall.
The six Rahain at the table glanced over at her.
‘Do you mind if I rest here?’ she said.
The Rahain shrugged, and resumed talking among themselves.
A serving man caught her eye.
‘Ale, please.’
‘The Kellach stuff?’ the man asked.
Daphne nodded, and the man took a note on his pad and moved on.
‘You been here before?’ said a woman sitting across from her.
‘Once. On the way here.’
‘You part of the alliance forces?’
She shook her head. ‘Are these gates always busy? It’s past midnight, and there are a dozen wagons lined up to go through.’
The woman nodded as she drank from a mug. ‘You should see it in the daytime. The queues are a mile long, stretching right out of town. That’s why some go through at night, it’s a lot quicker.’
Daphne waited while the serving man put down a mug of ale on the table before her. She picked it up and took a sip as the man scribbled in his pad and walked off.
‘You can’t get many priests around here,’ she said.
The woman opposite her frowned, and the others at the table turned to look.
Daphne raised her mug. ‘You’re still allowed to drink, aren’t you?’
‘For now,’ said a man to her left.
‘Are you from the One True Path?’ asked the woman.
Daphne laughed. ‘No.’
The woman nodded. ‘Now don’t get me wrong, I worship the Creator like everyone else, it’s only that we needed a break from Tahrana City, and we knew you could still get a drink up here. Besides, we’ve all been called up. Again. Have to report in a couple of day’s time.’
‘What for?’
‘Governor Ghorley’s orders,’ the man said. ‘He said that the lands of the central highlands were now secure, and that the next objective was to put down an Old Free rebellion in Jade Falls.’
‘You’re going west? In the next few days?’
The Rahain glanced at each other.
‘You’re a bit nosey, aren’t you?’ the man said.
‘Come on,’ said the woman. ‘No Holdings would work for the Old Free.’
‘Have you seen any?’ Daphne asked.
‘Any who?’
‘Old Free. I’m hunting one.’
The woman raised an eyebrow.
‘Nope,’ said the Rahain man. ‘Not seen any Old Free. There’s always peasants passing through, them that can’t bear the thought that we’re free, and their equals. There’s never any trouble though, we’re happy to see them leave Rahain.’
‘Any this evening?’
He shook his head. ‘Don’t think so. None that stood out anyway.’
‘Is there a place in town where they gather?’
‘By the east well,’ the man said, ‘though I wouldn’t go out there. They’d cut your throat as soon as look at you.’
She pointed across the street. ‘That way, I assume?’
‘Yes,’ the woman said. ‘Follow that road, then turn left at the market stalls. The east well is straight ahead.’
Daphne finished her ale.
‘Thanks.’ She got to her feet and threw down a few coins. ‘Get yourselves one on me.’
The Rahain at the table grinned, and turned to watch her go.
Forty minutes later, Daphne lay upon the roof of a three-storey tenement block overlooking the east well. The circular stone-rimmed structure sat in the centre of a cluster of streets, with five separate ways leading off. The small square in the middle was filled with late-night taverns and bars, packed with brown-robed Rahain peasants. Daphne had seen a few fights break out among them, as frustrations boiled over. Wagons and carts lined the narrow streets, some closed up with shutters and locks, while others had Rahain sitting up on them, arguing politics and discussing their impending exile.
Daphne had noted the locations of several other wagons, parked in the back yards or side alleys of the peasant quarter. Of these, she was focussing on one in a small courtyard down to her right. It had been covered in a large canvas, but was the right shape. None of the others fitted the memory she had seen, and she was starting to believe she was too late, and Douanna had already fled through the tunnel.
She needed to be sure, and so kept a watch on the courtyard. A group of drunken peasants were close by, staggering down the alley where the covered wagon was parked. They stopped to urinate against a wall, laughing and calling out to each other.
A woman emerged from a nearby building.
‘Hey,’ she shouted. ‘Don’t piss on my fucking wagon.’
A man turned, laughing, an arc of urine curving through the air.
‘I’ll piss on you,’ he cried, then fell over. His friends yelled as the spray hit them.
‘Go on, get out of here,’ the woman shouted, shooing them away. The man pulled up his tuni
c as his friends hauled him to his feet, and the group shambled off.
Daphne caught a glimpse of the woman’s face as she turned back towards the building.
It was one of the servants from Douanna’s group that she had seen in the vision.
Daphne smiled. She wasn’t too late.
She shifted her weight to compensate for the steep angle of the roof, and crawled to the edge of the building. She examined the windows of the tenement that the woman had re-entered. Most were shuttered or draped with heavy curtains, leaving no gap for her to penetrate the interior. She gazed down at the door and located the keyhole.
She sent a trace of vision to the cobbled street, then directed it up at the door, passing straight through the narrow slit. Inside was a cramped entrance hall, piled high with luggage and crates of supplies. Against a wall, three Rahain sat at a table, talking in low voices. One of them was gazing in the direction of the door, so Daphne aimed her vision at his eyes and passed into his mind, where she remained silent.
‘Thanks for the help out there, guys,’ the woman was saying to the two men. ‘Next time a bunch of drunks come stumbling by, you can bloody well deal with them.’
The two men smiled at each other.
‘We knew you could handle it,’ said the man whose mind Daphne had entered.
‘We had complete faith in you,’ said the other, sipping from a cup of wine.
The woman scowled at them. ‘We’re just lucky they didn’t wake up you-know-who. She’s in a foul enough mood as it is. The last thing we need is her screaming at us about her sleep getting disturbed.’
‘It’s just as well we’re getting paid a small fortune for this job,’ said the other man. ‘I’m starting to hate the bitch.’
‘You got that right,’ said the man Daphne had linked to. ‘I can handle guarding her, but her temper’s out of control. She speaks to us like we’re shit.’
‘It’s not for much longer,’ said the woman. ‘Be patient, guys. Just think of what we’ll be able to do when she pays us.’
‘If she pays us,’ the man said. ‘I think she’s cracked. Maybe she’s been lying to us about how much gold she has.’
‘She’s cracked all right,’ said the other man, ‘but let’s face it, if she’s lying then we can always hand her over to the New Free. They’re bound to give us something for her.’
‘Think very carefully before you say anything else,’ said a voice from the corner of the room.
The three Rahain turned to see another man standing by a doorway, a flight of stairs leading up behind him.
Daphne felt fear rush through the mind of the man she was linked to. She looked out from his eyes at the man who had arrived, recognising him.
‘Jaioun,’ cried the woman. ‘We didn’t see you there.’
The man smirked. ‘That’s clear. I doubt you’d be speaking treachery against her ladyship if you knew I was standing here listening.’
He walked over to the table, and the three Rahain shrank back in their seats.
‘So,’ he said, ‘which one of you little cowards has got any more suggestions?’
The three others remained silent, lowering their eyes.
‘Thought so,’ said Jaioun. He picked up the jug of wine from the table and took a long gulp. He placed it back down, and shook his head at the three others.
‘Get to bed soon,’ he said. ‘We have a long journey tomorrow.’
He walked to the door and began to climb the stairs.
Daphne pulled her vision back from the Rahain man’s mind, and followed Jaioun. He reached the first floor landing and put his hand on the door.
Daphne cried out as her vision powers failed. Her legs flailed on the roof tiles and she slipped, tumbling over the edge. She dropped through the air, falling three storeys, and landed on the cobbles next to the covered wagon, her right leg snapping above the ankle. She rolled over, winded, her mouth open in a silent cry. She tried to draw on her battle-vision, but there was nothing to pull on, and an empty void was in the place of her reserves of power.
A pulse of panic surged through her.
Where were her powers?
The door to the building opened and the woman came out.
‘Who’s making that bleeding racket?’ she shouted, then looked down and saw the Holdings woman writhing in agony.
‘Yikes,’ she said. ‘Guys… come and see this.’
Daphne tried to focus her eyes, but the pain in her lower leg was blinding. The fingers on her right hand clutched at the wound. A bone had broken above her ankle, sending spikes of agony shooting up her body.
‘Quick,’ said one of the Rahain men. ‘Get her indoors. Her ladyship’s going to want to know about this.’
‘Well I ain’t touching her,’ said the woman.
‘Fuck it, I’ll do it. Imagine the grin on Douanna’s face when she sees who’ve we got.’
The man leaned over, and Daphne struck out with her right fist, punching him on the chin and sending him falling backwards.
‘Shit,’ the woman cried. ‘She’s still dangerous.’
The other man pulled a short club from his belt.
‘Not for long.’
Daphne came to with a new pain to match the one in her right leg. The back of her head throbbed as she tried to open her eyes, and she could taste blood in her mouth. Her body was seated upright, but her arms had been tied behind her. Her left leg had been bound to the chair, and her right foot hung limp.
‘Well, this is a surprise,’ she heard a voice say. ‘Coming to kill me, were you? I must say, I thought I’d trained you better than that. To allow yourself to be captured by those hired fools? I mean, really. I might laugh, had my life not fallen to ruins about me.’
Daphne opened her eyes.
Douanna stood before her, a long black robe over her shoulders and a cold smile on her lips. Jaioun stood to her side, his arms folded.
‘Whatever shall I do with you?’ Douanna said. ‘I confess that my first instinct is to torture you to death, slowly over a couple of days, then chop you up into small pieces and bury you in the cellar.’
She smirked, but Daphne said nothing.
‘Alas my dear,’ Douanna went on, ‘I simply don’t have the time. And, more importantly, you’re worth nothing to me dead. I understand the One True Path in Rainsby would pay good money to get their hands on you. Or maybe I could use you as a hostage, to buy me safe passage to Plateau City, where I could present you to the Emperor in exchange for my life.’
She paused. ‘Which of those would you prefer? Jaioun here disagrees with me over this, but his imagination has always been somewhat limited. He thinks we should simply cut your throat and move on. After all, the Severed Clan is nearby, and most likely won’t look too kindly upon me for making off with the chief’s woman. You are still his woman, aren’t you?’
‘My lady,’ Jaioun said, ‘we should hurry. Let’s kill her and get out of here.’
Douanna frowned. ‘You’re not thinking ahead. Fate has delivered us a gift, and you want to throw it away? No. We keep to our plan except for two points. First, we’ll secure Miss Holdfast and get her and the rest of our things loaded onto the wagon. And second, we leave now. The queue at the gates will be short, and I’ll only have to share my hiding space with her until we’re past the fort.’
Jaioun sighed. ‘Very well, my lady. I’ll get the others to start loading the wagon.’
He turned and left the room.
‘Did you see what I did there?’ Douanna said. ‘I just saved your life. Well, prolonged it at least.’
Daphne tried to draw on her battle-vision, focussing her mind despite the excruciating pain coursing through her. She remembered her terror at finding her reserves empty when she had fallen from the roof, but persisted.
Something was there, a trace, a small amount of her power, not enough to use, but still she wept in relief. She could feel it growing at a gradual and slow pace, but anything was better than the void she had felt before.<
br />
‘Tears?’ said Douanna, raising an eyebrow. ‘Realising the error of your ways at last? Or has it just dawned on you that the rest of your life will be painful and short, and that you’ll never see your daughter again?’
Daphne remained silent.
Douanna tapped her foot. ‘Too injured to talk, eh?’ she sneered, her eyes full of bitterness. ‘You do look a little worse for wear. That leg is certainly broken, and my guards may have acted a little over-enthusiastically when they bashed you on the head. And your poor old left arm, crippled and useless, what a dreadful shame. Nice to see you kept the armour I gave you. Very expensive it was too, I’ll be sure to remove it before I sell you.’
Her tongue flickered. ‘Right,’ she said, reaching into her purse and taking out a weedstick. ‘Some of this should loosen you up.’
She lit the stick, and placed it on Daphne’s lips.
Daphne inhaled with a hunger, feeling the keenweed and dullweed mixture hit her within seconds. Her pain faded away, and she panted in relief.
‘Good old Sanang, eh?’ Douanna smirked. ‘Where would we be without their narcotics? Whatever ails you, they’ve got a cure. And now it looks like they might be the rulers of the world by the time we get to the Plateau. Their army must be reaching the imperial capital about now. I might be greeting Empress Keira Kill-Kill for all I know.’
Daphne kept all emotion from her face, but her heart stirred at the words. Keira?
‘A mad fire mage on the throne of the world, imagine that!’ Douanna laughed. ‘You know, I still remember the day I discovered she was Killop’s sister. Your face when I told you! Happy memories of a happy time.’
‘I feel sorry for you.’
Douanna’s face turned red.
Jaioun opened the door.
‘The wagon’s ready, my lady.’
‘Excellent,’ she said, recovering her poise. ‘Please come in. I need you to prepare fate’s gift for her journey. Make sure you tie her up nice and tight. Oh, and knock her out first, would you?’
The Magelands Box Set Page 139
