by Julia Knight
She manhandled Dom into her saddle, where he sat like a man hit with a sledgehammer. A glance behind told her there was no time to spare. She clambered into the saddle in front of Dom, the horse trembling but answering her nudges, grabbed the reins and with a word to Cospel they shot off down the path, out of the Neck and towards home. The not-soldiers didn’t follow them, and as far as Kacha could tell the life-warrior had vanished after he’d done whatever he had to Dom. He was waxen faced and barely even nodded when she asked if he was all right.
She stopped them far down the trail, where the path widened out, much as it did on the other side of the pass, into numerous little trails among craggy rocks and towering cliffs so that following them would be difficult. She’d asked Cospel about Voch, but he didn’t have much of an answer.
“Saw him, miss, but he barrelled past me like a man afeared for his life. Never saw me, I reckon, never saw nothing perhaps. Shot off down the path, his horse all lathered up, him hanging on like it was all he could do, and that was it. He’s out here somewhere though, I seen him make it through.”
Alicia raised an eyebrow at the fresh bandage over Gerlar’s face and the fresh hatred in his remaining eye.
“You failed with the leech.” Not a question. She’d felt it latch on, but then… gone. She supposed she could expect nothing less from a man so slippery.
Gerlar shifted uneasily, teeth gritted against what she’d say, do. “Yes, ma’am. But he’s injured, I made sure of that, and they’re one horse short.”
“Injured,” she said and blew out a breath rather than take it out on Gerlar–he was useful even if he didn’t always succeed. “And losing a horse should slow them. Well then, they should be easy enough to find. I suppose it will have to do. And I want them found, before we reach Reyes city, before they can reach Reyes. Understood?”
A flicker of his eyelid, the merest hint of a nod.
“Good. Don’t fail me this time, if you want what I promised. Now, come here and tell me. If you were to assault the city of Reyes, how would you do it?”
He approached the table, and the detailed map of Reyes laid out there. She let him ponder while she sent for Licio and Orgull.
Licio blustered in, but the wind was out of his sails, the bluff gone from his voice. When he thought she wasn’t looking, there was panic behind his eyes, which she did absolutely nothing to dispel. A foolish boy, she’d always thought him, too likely to do whatever Sabates told him. Easy to blind with the promise of his kingdom back, a promise she’d reiterated, and expanded on, and had as little intention of fulfilling as Sabates had.
Orgull sat back with his usual carefully blank face. She’d changed the rules, that care said, but he was content to see what she’d make of this, what she’d offer him. A pragmatist to the core, and one who knew how valuable the magician’s guild in his city was, working at least nominally for him.
The map, of necessity, was an intricate piece of work. Reyes wasn’t always the same city, it was three cities, each with its own vagaries and things to beware of. Gerlar studied it with the same detached calm he studied everything but she had no doubt that behind that his mind was working furiously.
“Men inside,” he said now. Much as Sabates had planned.
“In the guild, for preference,” she agreed, and signalled a guard. Two men came in, not by their own choice, who’d lately been guarding the border on the Reyes side. Leeches pulsed on their necks, latched on without hope of cutting them free. Not if they wanted to live, at least.
“What do you want them to do?” she asked Gerlar, but Licio interrupted the reply, and she noted the twitch of Gerlar’s eye as he did.
“They do what you tell them?” Licio asked with a shudder.
“Oh yes. This works so much better than tattoos. I doubt even Esti could remove one without killing the host. And they work for more than just that, too.”
“And you can suggest, as Sabates did with Vocho? Better?”
“Oh much better, my lord. Sabates had a crude way about him. These work so much more subtly. As do I.”
Orgull hid a smile behind a sip of tea at that. Oh you may smile, my lord. You may think you know. You have no idea. You think magicians work for you, but I could smear you across the ground with little more than a word. Why should magicians obey your orders? If I have my way, I’ll be giving the orders and you’ll be saying “yes, ma’am”. If I let you live.
“Very well, slave. You may continue.” Licio gave a lofty wave of his hand, and she wondered how much Gerlar would enjoy killing him, how much that disdain burned at the man inside. It was impossible to tell.
“Thank you, my lord.” Alicia said before Gerlar could say anything rash, and gathered herself. “Two men, inside the guild. Others will be inside the city. Reyes will be on First Threeday, meaning this is the layout. Our men will disable the clockwork at this gate here, giving us safe passage through to both the palace and the guild.”
“You’re quite sure of this news of the guild?”
She smiled and snapped her fan out. “Quite sure. Eneko means to take over the city as we march, and confront us with a rallied populace to defend the city. I have taken steps to ensure he doesn’t. But he will need dealing with, and carefully.”
Chapter Twenty-two
Vocho didn’t know exactly where he was or why he was going on anyway. If he had a sensible bone in his body, he’d probably get the hells out of Reyes and stay out. He considered it as he let the horse go on at its own pace down a road that was more a dusty track along the bottom of a valley. The Spice Islands were nice this time of year, he’d heard, and had the added advantage that no one would be trying to kill him. He was getting very bored with that now.
But there was Kass–there was always Kass. She was annoying as hells, but he couldn’t go anywhere without her. Even now there felt like a gap at his side where she should be, defending his flank as he defended hers. Scowling at him for not taking things seriously most likely, but he thought he’d probably even miss that.
Do what seems good to you.
It seemed a very long time ago he’d sworn that, and with it to defend Reyes, the guild the city’s last defence. He’d never taken it especially seriously, instead been more concerned with outstripping Kass in the glory stakes and making a name for himself. But things were different now, and so was he.
Sweat dried on his skin, crusted his shirt to his stinging back. What was it Dom had done, and before him Esti? At least the pain had gone, mostly anyway, though he’d been left with the shakes and a damnable thirst for Esti’s syrupy jollop.
He reached the end of the valley, where it opened out onto the hills that would, he hoped, lead him down onto the plain and Reyes. Home. To start with he’d wanted nothing more than to get his name back. And Kass’s life for her. He didn’t think he was ever likely to get either of those, not now. Now he’d be content with not getting involved in a war, maybe stopping that war if he could. And he could, couldn’t he? He had Esti’s antidote, if that’s what it was. If he could get close enough, he could do it–cure Bakar of the poison that Sabates had sent leaking through him, turning his mind. He might not be the best ruler ever, but Bakar sane had to be better than Bakar mad, and averting a war…
He perked up as a thought struck him. Vocho the Great, fighting magicians at every turn, saves the day and the city. That seemed very good indeed to him. All he had to do was do it. He nudged the horse into a faster pace and tried to ignore the remnants of pain in his back.
Kass had to be out here somewhere, didn’t she? If she’d made it through the Neck, she had to be here somewhere. She was here; he wasn’t going to start thinking about the alternative. And she wouldn’t wait–she never waited–and besides waiting with an army about to march through here would be stupid at best. She’d expect him to get to Reyes, if he could. She’d got past, and she’d be heading for Reyes as fast as possible, just like him. He’d find her and, no matter the whys of her motivations, the end result would be th
e same. They would both get what they wanted, and, what the hells, he’d even be grown-up about it and not complain about Petri being back in his life again.
OK, not much.
Kass called a halt at dawn, when it was clear both her horse and Dom couldn’t go much further. He’d held on to her with a grim determination and a grip that was both close and oddly disturbing, but his hands had slackened this last half-hour, and the horse was stumbling with weariness. She couldn’t honestly say she was much better.
She found a hollow at the end of a valley and slid from the horse, helping Dom down after her. He looked worse than ever, but he managed to keep his feet and give her a wan smile. Cospel all but fell off his horse and set about taking care of the two animals with a dreamlike slowness, paying special attention to Kass’s where it had taken a blow. The beast was too tired to put up a fight. It didn’t take Cospel long to pronounce the wound “Not so bad, miss, but the horse needs rest, not you two on its back.”
There wasn’t much she could do about that because time to rest was something they had precious little of. The Ikaran army would be heading down these valleys any time now, ready to swallow them up if they stayed there too long, and that chaffed. By rights she should wait for Voch…
Cospel’s eyebrows waggled in a comforting manner as he went on, as though she’d said that aloud, “He ain’t stupid, miss. Vocho, I mean. He got through and so did we. But we can’t stay here and wait for him, same as he can’t stay and wait for us. Ikarans will be through that pass any minute, and none of us can afford to be here when they come. If he’s got the sense he was born with he’ll be hightailing it to Reyes and look to find us there. Which is what we should be doing.”
“Yes, but—”
“No buts, miss. You know I’m right. And he can take care of hisself good as you or I can, mostly. Now you go and sort that Dom out. I got work to do with these horses, miss, and you fretting about don’t make it no easier. Vocho’s got as good a chance as we have, but we won’t have none if the horses give out.”
“Thank you. I think a month off with double pay if we make it out alive?”
“Won’t say no, miss. Now bugger off; you’re right in my light there.”
While Cospel got on with rubbing the horses down, humming and clucking comfortingly under his breath, Kass dealt with Dom. He’d sunk down onto a grassy bank and was poking gingerly under his collar with one finger and wincing.
“Are you hurt?” she asked and made to look, but he flinched away.
“Not as such, no. That life-warrior works for Alicia, that’s for sure. With Sabates dead, I suspect she’s running things now, directing Licio. She was always good at that, and learning magic won’t have made her any worse.”
He poked some more, and a stream of blood soaked his collar.
“Let me look.”
He did, reluctantly. A wound like she’d never seen before–not from a sword or a bullet. “What is it?”
“Bastard had a leech.”
“A leech?”
“Blood magic, Kass. And how better to get to me? He tried to put the bastard thing on me, but I managed to kill it before it latched on properly.”
“To do what, exactly?”
“Anything. For all I know, she’s taken a leaf out of Esti’s book and wanted to poison me slowly. Maybe she wanted to get me to do something like Sabates did with Voch, or it’d kill me at some point, nice and quick. Or maybe it’d just tell her where I am. You try taking it off or cutting it out… Well I’ve heard of people trying, but the person with the leech never survives. So I’m pretty glad he didn’t get it on properly.”
They stared at each other.
“Not our most pressing concern, however,” Dom said. “Which is getting out of here, finding Voch if we can. Maybe stealing another horse. Avoiding the army that’s about to land on our heads. You let me worry about this and Alicia. You worry about the rest of it.”
What was there to do? Nothing except snatch a bit of rest and go on. She found a spot where she could look back over their trail while Dom and Cospel tried to rest. The mountains loomed behind them, still shadowed in places from the rising sun. Little plumes of smoke and dust told her all she needed to know–the army was moving. Their only hope was in staying one step ahead, somehow reaching Reyes in time. Avoiding any scouts that they sent out. And they needed to find Voch. How in hells were they going to do that?
She turned to look the way they were heading. Rolling hills fading into a plain dry with dust. Patchy woodland. Farmhouses. Villages here and there. They needed a horse. Cospel was right: Voch was bound to head for Reyes, if he could. It was all she had.
She woke the pair of them after an hour or so, gave Cospel her complaining horse and took Dom up with her on Cospel’s horse. Turn and turn about was the only answer for now.
Once his head cleared properly, Vocho realised he felt better than he had in a while. Whatever Dom had done had worked, mostly. He was still bone-achingly tired but now he had a fresh sense of purpose. The track led to a more well-travelled road, which he followed. With a fresh horse it was a day or so’s ride to Reyes. With his tired beast it’d be longer, but armies couldn’t travel that fast.
Some time later he came to a patchy wood. On one side was a cottage all tumbled down, its garden a mess of weeds and small trees, with vines snaking out over the road. Someone was in the garden, someone familiar…
The vines snapped around his horse’s leg as it went to step over them. Another shot up and yanked Vocho from the saddle, dumping him in a heap on the road, winded. When his head cleared, a familiar face was leaning over him, looking concerned.
“Esti?”
She held out a hand and he took it before his brain got into gear. By then he was on his wobbly feet.
“What the hells did you do to me?”
She backed off, hands out as though to ward him off. “What I needed to. I’m on your side, really I am. I had to make sure you’d go through with it.”
“Through with what?” He patted himself down and found he had no new injuries past a bruise or two. Still, given his old injuries had not been helped in the least by Esti, he wasn’t feeling very charitable. He laid a hand on his sword hilt and repeated his question.
Esti sagged at the shoulders. “Damn. I thought you were just some scout. If I’d known it was you I’d have let you ride on.” She took a furtive look up and down the road. “Look, there’s not much time. Come with me, off the road. And where’s your sister?”
She backed into a tangle of plants that moved out of the way to let them past, and back again to hide them. In the middle of what had once been a garden was a camp, where she’d been for a day or so by the look of it. She waited for him to tie up his horse, then gestured for him to sit, but he stayed where he was, ready to run if he had to.
“You’re the magician; you tell me where she is,” he said when she asked again. “And what are you up to? Try the truth this time.”
She twisted her hands until she realised her supposed nervousness wasn’t having the desired effect. “The truth? I was waiting for you. More truth–I was waiting for you in Ikaras too. I wanted you to find me because I knew I could get you to help if I just gave you a nudge, the right incentive. I want what you want, indirectly. You need to stop a war. I wanted Sabates dead; I still want Alicia dead. We can do both if you just listen to me. Because your sister is in serious trouble.”
“Who isn’t? I mean I’ve only got a whole army trying to find me, and kill me. Along with some freakish one-eyed warrior who looks like death itself couldn’t beat him. And the Clockwork God only knows what you did to my back or put in that jollop. What makes you think she’s in any worse trouble?”
Esti’s hands started twisting again, and Vocho now had the feeling she wasn’t acting. The way her eyes went wide and sad, the way she pinched her lips as though to stop the words coming out wrong–if she was acting, she was a hell of an actress. “You know that man you were travelling with? Dom.
You know he’s Alicia’s husband?”
Oh so that was it! It explained quite a lot but posed more questions than it answered. “Why are you telling me?”
“Because you and Kass trust him. Do you think he doesn’t care for Alicia any more? That he might even be working for her?”
Well, he’d certainly looked like a love-struck sheep. “He didn’t know it was her; I’d swear it was as much a surprise to him as anyone.”
“Huh. I wouldn’t put too much faith in that. You still have the antidote?”
“Of course, safe in my pack.”
“Give it to me.”
“Now hold on. You poisoned me! Why should I trust you?”
“Because… Look, Vocho, we all have to do things we don’t want to sometimes. But I didn’t poison you; I was saving you. What happened with your back–the tattoo–it’s like a failsafe in case someone tries to take it off. It’ll do what it can to kill you. The jollop, yes, it’s not that good for you, but it’s the only way. Like Bakar’s antidote. The jollop was the only way to stop what’s left of the tattoo. I took away as much as I could, but there were remnants, and those are the danger. They’ll worm their way in until they reach your heart, and then… You stop taking that syrup before the tattoo’s totally gone, I can’t answer for what’ll happen.”
“No choice. I haven’t any left. Dom threw it away, said it was poisoning me–you were poisoning me. That the jollop was what would reach my heart.”
“And what does he know about magic? About tattoos and wards and what happens when you take them off? And he hasn’t exactly been entirely truthful with you either, has he? I don’t know much about him except what you’ve told me and that he’s married to Alicia. I bet he never told you that, did he?”
