by Candy Rae
Thalia and Daniel had prepared a story about how they were returning from leave after a visit to see her parents and she recounted it again.
“Holidays are always over too soon mores the pity,” Mrs Mellon agreed, happily wrapping up two loaves in baking cloths ready for Thalia to take with her. “There, there you are love, they’ll keep fresh for a while as long as you don’t let the air in.”
“Thank you very much,” said the grateful Thalia, accepting the gift. “You are very kind.” She knew better than to offer coin in exchange having seen Mrs Mellon’s face when her hand had strayed to her belt pouch.
“I knows my duty same as most in these parts,” Mrs Mellon smiled, “it’s a shame Master is away Miss and after him been gone for so long last time too. Why, he was hardly back and there he was, away again!”
“He was gone for a long time the last time he was away?” asked Thalia, trying to make her question casual, as if she was only making small-talk.
“Most of the summer, why, we were beginning to wonder that he had met with an accident! Never been away for so long before, but he was in a right good humour when he did get back. Said his trip had gone well.”
“Did he have a box with him?” asked Thalia, “about this long?”
“Why young Miss, he did at that! I noticed it specially when he left for Farquharstown. How did you know?”
“I think we might have seen him on the road,” lied Thalia.
Mrs Mellon sounded relieved.
“He’ll be right sorry he missed you,” she said again.
Josei’s comment said it all.
: Bingo! :
: Tell Daniel to mount up. We’re going to Farquharstown and we’re not going to dawdle about it. Ready for a run? :
: With you? Always! :
* * * * *
Out of the corner of one eye Thalia saw a little kitchen boy lurking around, listening.
She frowned but said nothing as Josei followed Daniel and Vya out through the gate.
* * * * *
THE ROAD FROM STANTON TO FARQUHARSTOWN - ARGYLL
“Something’s niggling at me,” Thalia mentioned over supper that evening. “We’re missing something, something important. Don’t you think it strange that after keeping to the shadows suddenly everyone remembers that Chad Smallhide has passed by?”
“No need to keep his presence a secret any more?” ventured Daniel.
“No, it’s more than that, it’s as if he wants us to find him now. I say, I wonder if the Chad Smallhide we’re following is the real Chad Smallhide. What if he’s paid someone to impersonate him?”
It hit her with a stab of recognition. She bit into a large slice of buttered bread and almost choked. The little kitchen boy had borne a remarkable resemblance to the dirty, tousled little boy the Gtrathlin and the other Lind had described lucking about the cave.
“We have to go back to Stanton,” she exclaimed.
* * * * *
THE FARM OF CHAD SMALLHIDE - STANTON - ARGYLL
Next morning they entered the farmyard again. A surprised Mrs Mellon met Thalia at the kitchen door, wiping her hands on her apron.
“Vadeln,” she greeted Thalia, “is there something wrong? Don’t say you liked my bread so much you’ve come back for more?”
This time Thalia did not dismount.
“There was a boy,” she told her, “I saw him when I was here, in the kitchen. May I speak to him?”
“That little varmint? Well, he’s gone. Ran off yesterday, without telling.”
“Gone? Any idea where? Does he have family nearby?” asked Thalia, her heart sinking. Were they too late?
Mrs Mellon shook her head. “He wasn’t here long. Master brought him back with him after his trip. The boy seemed willing enough but never said much. Never spoke about his family.”
“What was his name?”
“Called himself Wil but I don’t think that was his real name. Was a mite slow answering to it the first day or two. I thought he’d run away from home and the Master had found him, felt sorry for him.” She bristled. “Little varmint stole food when he went too, one of my best new-cured kura joints and a whole round of cheese. What the Master will say I don’t know.”
“Has Mr Smallhide not returned then?” asked Thalia.
“No he hasn’t Vadeln and I’ll admit I’m beginning to worry. Was expecting him back by now. Today at the very latest. I don’t expect you saw him on your way back?”
“I’m afraid not.”
“And why are you back here?”
Thalia had to think very fast to get out of that one!
* * * * *
“So where has the boy gone?” queried Daniel as they waited for Vya and Josei to lap their fill from the well-bucket again. Josei told Thalia that the water was very clear and pure and refused to leave until his thirst was quenched. He also insisted they empty their water bottles and refill them from the well.
A young girl was lingering around, watching the four of them with wide-eyed envy.
“You looking for Wil?” she asked.
Thalia looked up.
“Yes we are,” she answered.
“I saw him,” she offered, “least I think it were him. He was heading that way.” She pointed north-east.
“My thanks,” said Daniel, tossing her a small silver coin. The girl’s eyes nearly popped out of her head as she had caught it, why it was a fortune! She smiled her thanks and pocketed it.
“He was odd,” she added, “never talked to us. Thought he was too good for the likes of us.” She snorted, adding, “and him working in the kitchen and all. I work in the sewing room. Good riddance he’s gone I say.”
After making this comment, she smiled a shy smile in Daniel’s direction and sped away.
Thalia and Daniel looked at each other then at Vya and Josei.
“North-east it is,” said Vya.
* * * * *
-33-
THE NORTH CARAVAN ROUTE - ARGYLL
“Do you hear something?” whispered Thalia to Daniel as Josei stopped running.
Daniel hadn’t expected Vya to halt. He hadn’t the advantage of instant telepathic thought as had Thalia and Josei. Vya stopped so fast that Daniel banged his nose on her neck again. It began to bleed … again.
“What?” he asked, placing his kerchief to his nose in an attempt to stem the blood.
“Trouble,” declared Thalia, Placing her helm on her head. Daniel heard the hiss of steel as she drew her sword.
He loosened the hilt-guard of his own, borrowed sword. It was a Vada rapier and he wondered, not for the first time, if he would be able to use it effectively alindback. He wasn’t really used to either its length or its weight despite the instruction Thalia had been giving him every evening.
“Listen.”
Daniel strained his ears and thought he just might be hearing some faint sounds that might represent some sort of a scuffle in the undergrowth.
“Josei and Vya hear it,” Thalia whispered, “they say it belongs to humans fighting.”
“Out here? Chadwick?”
“Doesn’t matter who,” she informed him. “Me and Josei are Vada. We have a duty to keep the peace. This area of Argyll isn’t known as the safest. There have been reports of brigands and of honest travellers being set upon on the road.”
“Highwaymen?” he queried with growing excitement.
“Highwayman is a romanticised term for thief, murderer or brigand.”
Josei was edging forward, his paws making little sound on the undergrowth.
“Let’s go.”
He nodded and the four edged forward to where the sounds were coming from, picking up silent speed as they went.
: Two men : Josei telepathed to Thalia : I can hear beating of bushes. They are hunting for someone. They are angry :
“Take us there,” whispered Thalia, holding tight to her sword and Josei quickened his steps. Vya followed, Daniel copying Thalia’s actions. He might not be able to ‘hear�
�� Vya but he realised that his companions had committed themselves to the fight.
“Watch out,” growled Vya suddenly.
Seven lindlengths away a boy burst through the undergrowth, almost knocking into Josei. He looked terrified and he was breathing in great gasps.
Thalia and Josei didn’t hesitate, they swept past the boy, Josei’s back lags keeling at an angle to avoid him as they rushed towards the tree-gap from whence the boy had sprung.
Daniel shouted at the boy to stay where he was as he and Vya followed. The boy gulped and nodded, sinking to his knees.
Fast as Vya was, Thalia and Josei were faster.
He and Vya passed one of the boy’s attackers, lying on the ground, a deep and bloody gash on his head. Daniel rather thought he was dead. The man had that peculiar, surprised look that Daniel recognised, the look of a man slain in battle.
“Hold on,” yelped Vya as she carried Daniel down the game trail to where the noise of the fighting was coming from, Daniel desperate to go to Thalia’s aid. It sounded as if she had a serious fight on her hands. He was worried she would come to harm. She was slight-built and the dead ruffian he had passed big and burly. She and Josei had probably taken him by surprise but his accomplice? What if there was a whole group of them?
He cursed his ineptitude at riding. I don’t want to lose her. Fear for that plunged to the pit of his stomach. Little bit of a thing.
His fears were proved to be without foundation. He and Vya arrived at the scene to see Thalia just about to dismount.
At Josei’s paws was another prone figure, as dead as a doornail.
Thalia seemed quite composed if a little pale.
“I asked him to surrender,” she answered Daniel’s unspoken question. “He wouldn’t. He was going for Jose’s legs. I had to kill him. Now we’ll never know what they wanted with the boy.”
“Common footpads,” was Daniel’s guess, dismounting and bending over to check that the brigand was, in fact, dead. He was.
“No.”
Thalia was definite. “They were hired. Josei deciphered that at least, from his death-rattle.”
“Chadwick Smallhide again.”
“Almost definitely and the real one this time. He most assuredly doesn’t want anyone following him. My guess is that he paid them to watch out for the boy, it is him, Josei recognised his face.”
Daniel searched through the man’s pockets and belt-pouch. In it he found a pencil likeness of the boy. “He must have guessed Wil would work out where he was going and come after him. What now? Do we bury them?”
“No, we’ll report it, in fact Josei has and leave them. Let’s get back to the boy.”
“I have a great deal of questions,” said Daniel, “but he’s probably scarpered.”
“He’ll know there’s no point in trying to run,” she disagreed. “Lind can find anyone who tries to hide from them in woodlands or anywhere else. He’ll be waiting where we left him, you’ll see.”
How right Thalia was Daniel found out.
Zeb was standing waiting for them; a defiant pose; not two steps away from where Daniel had left him.
“Let’s light a fire and have some hot kala,” suggested Thalia, shivering a little. Her recent encounters had shaken her although Daniel realised, she would never admit it.
“Sure thing,” he drawled and set about gathering dry twigs.
“Sit down,” Thalia told Zeb, “are you hurt?”
“Bumps an’ bruises is all,” Zeb answered, “they surprised me.” He sounded annoyed with himself. “Shoulda' guessed, ‘twas too quiet.”
Thalia nodded.
“Thank you,” said Zeb, all of a sudden, remembering his manners and realising that Thalia and Josei had probably saved his life.
“All in a day’s work,” answered Thalia, “kala will be ready in a mo and then perhaps you could tell us what you are doing out here, alone.”
“I was running away,” was Zeb’s swift response.
“Don’t lie to us boy,” said Daniel, lifting his face from the incipient fire.
“Not lying.”
“That’s two lies so far,” said Thalia, extracting her bag of dry kala grains from Josei’s saddlebag. “My Lind here knows when a human tries to pull the wool over his eyes, so do I.”
Zeb gulped but said nothing. His wary eyes moved from one rescuer to the next.
“Perhaps we should introduce ourselves,” said Thalia pleasantly, “I’m Vadeln Thalia and this is Josei.”
“You’re Vada.” It was a statement.
“The uniform does rather give it away doesn’t it?” queried Thalia, still in that pleasant tone.
“I’m Kellen Daniel Ross from the Kingdom of Murdoch,” said Daniel and this is my companion Vya.”
“Your Lind?”
“I do not have that honour,” answered Daniel, “she is my friend and companion for the time being. I hope however that she will always be my friend.”
“Nicely put,” said Vya with a toothy grin.
Daniel inclined his head, saying, “my pleasure, My Lady.”
“Now that these formalities are done, perhaps you might like to tell us your name and your reason for being here? The truth if you please.” Thalia’s voice was sharp and Zeb jumped. His wariness turned instantly to nervousness.
“Names’s Zeb and I’m looking for someone.”
“Yes, we know. Chadwick Smallhide. We’re looking for him too.”
Zeb’s thin shoulders slumped.
“What do you wan’ to know?” he asked, succumbing to the inevitable.
“Everything,” answered Thalia, “from beginning to end and don’t leave anything out.
So Zeb told them.
“I’m chasing Chad,” he said in a sullen voice. “He owes me Uncle.”
“Why are you travelling this way?”
Zeb gave them a pitying look.
“Stands to reason, don’t it? Chad said he was going to Farquharstown to put us off the trail like, I don’t nither think he’s going to Murdoch nither. I ain’t caught up with him yet but I will or my names not Zebediah Nathaniel Randall White.”
“What a mouthful!” exclaimed Thalia.
“Zeb for short. Was me mum who named me, she allus liked fancy names. I gotta find him see. M’uncle’ll kill me if he finds I’ve let him outa my sight. I’m serposed to keep an eye on him.”
“So how did he steal the box from the Gtrathlin’s cave?” asked Thalia in a conversational manner. “The truth again now, all of it.”
Zeb gulped.
“Wasn’t him, was me, weren’t too hard. Chad described it right proper so he did, even showed me a picture. All I had to do was to take the box from the shelf at the back. I replaced it with one hidden to one side. That was me own idea and Chad was right pleased about it.”
“Did you open the box?”
“Naw. It was sealed with some sort of waxy stuff. There was writing on the side too. Was easy but gawd, it was awful in there, all sort o’ spooky and dusty. Strange objects too.”
“What things did you see?” asked Thalia in a deceptively don’t care less manner.
“Were books on a shelf at the back,” I saw that, all wrapped up they were. There was a picture of a Lind sitting on top.”
“He was there,” whispered Thalia to Daniel, “the books and the portrait, I bet you that we’re the only two humans alive apart from our young thief here who know exactly where they are.”
“Now Zeb, how exactly did you manage to enter the cave, take the box and get out without being noticed, leaving neither track nor smell?” asked Daniel.
“I was wondering about that too. Couldn’t understand why the Gtrathlin didn’t realise some person had been in there,” agreed Thalia.
“And how did Chad manage to distract the guards?” added Daniel.
Zeb grinned. “He started noises and a fire, that’s what and the guard, there was only two, went to investergate. Firecrackers and the like and he set one of the cabins aligh
t. Gosh, what a sight it were. People running about all over and the Lind too.”
“The old ones are the best,” commented Daniel with a wry grin, “and the tracks and smell?”
“Chad gave me some sort of furry shoes. They flapped a bit and smelt awful.”
“Vuz,” declared Thalia, “of course, I should have thought of that. He fabricated the ‘furry shoes’ so that they flapped to negate the tracks and probably impregnated them with vuz urine too. Zeb’s right, it does stink and there are bound to have been vuz scuttling around in there.”
Daniel opened his mouth to ask what a vuz was but Thalia forestalled him.
“They’re like your rudkta, probably the same species once upon a time.”
“No,” said Zeb, “they were zarova, left behind sorta paw marks like.”
“So why did you come to the conclusion that Chad’s not going to Farquharstown?” asked Thalia. The type of shoes Zeb had worn were really quite immaterial to the investigation.
“Watched him leave and thought about it later,” Zeb answered, “decided he was carrying too much for a short trip and he had a pack horse wif him. Didn’t see what was in his packs but looked bulky and his story about the southern duke never did sound right. Didn’t suspect nuffing until later, should have done.”
“What was this southern duke called?”
“Duchswood or sommat like that. I got to thinking you see, I did go to school once, to learn my letters. We did jografy too and I don’t remember a duke called that. Chad spoke anofer word too, said he was maybe goin’ to Rhanan.”
“Rhianan,” breathed Thalia, “it must be. It’s the main port on the Island of Galliard.”
“Duchswood could be a mix of Duchesne and Brentwood,” agreed Daniel.
“And also the name of the port. I think Mr Chadwick Smallhide slipped up here. I have a feeling that he’s inadvertently given away his destination to our young friend here.”
