Reisil paced around the cage, the man and the woman watching her with the same unnerving avian expression. At last she found what she was looking for. The spell for dampening magic on the fourth bar from the bottom. It was unfinished. There had been no room left on the bar. A small gap. It was enough.
She pulled the armband out again and set it on the floor. The flood came more slowly, more bearably, as the spells caved slowly in on each other. Even so, the freed power gushed powerfully. But this time she was more prepared and did not collapse. When she was through, the cage was equally as useless as the last.
By the time she freed the fourth plague-healer, she could hardly stand. Her eyelids drooped, and her body shook. She pointed the freed prisoners to their clothing and stumbled back to Yohuac and Saljane. There was a spatter of water and bread on the floor where he’d vomited, but he continued to eat and drink, holding more food down.
“Let’s go. We still have to get Baku. I don’t know when the wizards will start waking up. But we have to be far out of the valley.” She spoke in a rough whisper. She was surprised when the four plague-healers—three men and the woman—offered to help. She leaned on their strength gratefully, barely able to raise her feet off the floor to walk.
They took Yohuac to the horses and sat him down next to a tree. Reisil offered him an apple. “Don’t eat too fast. Your stomach is going to take some time to adjust. Rest now. We’ll have to ride soon.”
She drank deeply from a water bag and bolted down a slab of cheese and a handful of nuts for strength. From her medicine pack she drew a handful of millesti seeds and chewed them. They were bitter, but their juices restored her vigor within minutes. The exhaustion dropped away like a discarded cloak. She’d pay for using the seeds later, she knew, but by then she hoped to be far out of the valley.
The four plague-healers watched her as if waiting for direction.
“There are horses down that way. And a tunnel out of the valley. Shouldn’t be anyone to stop you. You should get out of here. Go as far as you can.”
“You open more cages?” This was the woman.
“One more. A friend.”
She nodded and turned away without another word. The others followed, disappearing into the trees. Reisil watched them go, rubbing her jaw. “Let’s hope they make it. And that no one kills them before finding out what they can do. Lady hold them in Her hands.”
After a moment she turned to Saljane, who perched in a low branch above. Reisil wished she could send Yohuac to safety, but she doubted he could manage a horse alone.
~If anything happens, you leave. Go to Juhrnus, Reisil reminded Saljane. Don’t interfere, whatever Baku does.
~He’ll be insane.
~You came around. Maybe he will too. I’d better get to work.
Unlike Yohuac, Baku had been aware of Reisil’s part in these weeks of experiments, of torture. And she’d had no way to reassure him. What must he think? The last time she’d spoken to him was before arriving at the stronghold, and then she’d ruthlessly banished him from her mind. Since then, everything about her—from her clothes to her actions—said she was no longer ahalad-kaaslane. That she’d betrayed the Lady.
“Maybe he’ll be reasonable and listen,” she muttered as she jogged up the path to the mountain laboratories. “And maybe fat pigeons will pluck themselves and fly into the cook pot.”
Chapter 41
She found Baku exactly as she had left him earlier in the day. He hunched at the bottom of his cage, his eyes sunken and staring. His hide was dull like pewter. If she hadn’t known better, she might have thought he was a statue. She came down the walkway, stopping opposite the cage. She gave the commands to neutralize the rinda on the floor. In the last weeks, Kvepi Debess had trusted her with several commands. Others she’d overheard. She approached the cage and knelt down, dropping her head so she was nearly eye to eye with the coal-drake.
“I’ve come to get you out, Baku. But before I do, I want you to listen. I’ve freed Yohuac. He’s weak and hurt. He won’t be able to survive much of what you can throw at him. I’m not sure he’s even going to survive our escape. You’re going to have to be careful until he regains his strength. I’ve drugged the wizards. I don’t know how much longer that will last. We have to get out of the valley and into hiding quickly. They can track magic. Remember that.”
If she hoped for a response, she was to be disappointed. Baku remained still as death. Reisil’s throat ached. She’d played a good part in his suffering, and she couldn’t blame him for hating her. She’d better have her say now. He might not give her the chance to do so later.
“I wouldn’t have done any of this if I could think of another way.” Reisil paused. What else was there to say? It all sounded like excuses. She stood.
Reisil circled the cage, examining the rinda. Kvepi Debess had been far more meticulous than Uldegas. His script was small and tight, and he repeated the rinda far more frequently. He built a good trap. But not good enough, Reisil thought. If she didn’t find a mistake, she’d destroy the cage in the same manner she’d destroyed the woman’s cage.
Reisil found an error in the rinda at last. In layering the bars, it appeared that Kvepi Debess had become confused in his patterns and switched from one spell to the other in the middle of inscribing. It wasn’t much. The rest of the spells were so imbricated that this tiny flaw made little difference to the strength of the cage. But for Reisil, it was the loose thread she needed to unravel the tapestry.
“Here we go,” she said, and then set the armband on the floor and began her work.
She woke on the floor. She became aware first of the acrid smell of burning hair. She coughed, and her body spasmed. She tasted blood. Then she felt a weight on her lower limbs and a pressure constricting her head. She opened her eyes, struggling against the crusted tears that glued them shut. She tried to lift her hand to rub at her eyes, but found herself trapped. She whimpered and arched her back, but to no avail.
At last her eyes came open, and she went still, her heart in her mouth. Baku crouched over her, his taloned claws clutching her head, his back legs holding her arms and legs immobile. She stared up into his yellow eyes.
There was a tickle in her mind. Like the wriggling of a worm. And then two. And then her skull was a roiling mass of worms. Reisil jerked against Baku’s unrelenting grip. Her moaning wails echoed from the walls, sounding like the cries of a wounded cat. Blackness washed the edges of her vision. Her throat closed and she choked on bile.
At last the onslaught ended. Reisil collapsed in on herself, her heart thumping, her clothes soaked with sweat. Blood trickled over her forehead and down her scalp where his talons had pierced her skin as she struggled. Still Baku did not speak.
Long moments ticked past. Slowly Reisil’s breathing eased, and she began to think again. How long had she been lying on the floor? How long before the wizards woke and blocked their escape? She licked her cracked lips.
“Baku. Whatever you’re going to do, do it. The wizards will come soon, and Yohuac is helpless.”
He remained still. She watched him, wondering what else she could say. Suddenly he dropped his muzzle to her chest. Reisil grunted at the sharp pressure. He let out a snort and stood. He swayed and Reisil realized he’d also gone without food and water for weeks.
“I should have killed them,” she muttered.
~Yes.
It was the first, the only word Baku had spoken. Dry and splintered as a lightning-struck tree.
“One of these days, I promise,” she said, climbing to her feet. She picked up the armband and put it back in her pouch. “Let’s go.”
Outside, the sky was beginning to lighten. Reisil heaved Yohuac onto Tapit’s horse, using the saddle straps to tie him down. She mounted Indigo, catching Saljane on her fist and lifting the goshawk to a perch on the shoulder. She turned Indigo down the valley toward the horse pens. She felt the redness of Baku’s hunger as he scented the beasts.
~Drive them through th
e tunnel and out. Scatter them as best you can, and feed before you collapse.
He lurched into the air, swerving awkwardly from side to side, his wing beats slow and clumsy. He bellowed and the terrified horses ran before him. They fled to the tunnel, breaking through the gates, stampeding to safety beyond the valley. Baku landed, chasing them on foot. He caught one near the entrance. Reisil heard the crunch of bones. Baku tore away a haunch and bolted meat and bone together. Three more gulps and he roared again, plunging through the tunnel after the rest of the fleeing animals.
Reisil urged Indigo forward, leading Tapit’s bay behind her. Both horses snorted and shied from the bloody carcass on the ground. Reisil shortened her reins and clamped her legs around Indigo, urging him past. Tapit’s horse followed, pulling away to the length of the leading rein, head thrown high, eyes edged in white.
They entered the tunnel, and Reisil activated the light wards for the animals. She nudged Indigo into a trot. Tapit’s horse settled in close at her knee. She glanced at Yohuac. His eyes were barely open. His head jolted and bobbed with every stride the horses took. He listed to the side, though his hands gripped the pommel as best he could. He wasn’t going to make it very far. She had to find a place to hide him. But where? The wizards could track magic. The armband in her pouch was a beacon for them, even if Baku wasn’t.
The millesti seeds were wearing off, and exhaustion pulled on her. She sagged in her saddle as Indigo jogged along the winding curve of the tunnel. Saljane weighed heavily on her shoulder, and the physical aches of channeling so much magic began to throb. It was a relief to see the circle of ghostly gray light open ahead.
“Almost there,” Reisil whispered.
Indigo tossed his head, pushing at the bit. She let him break into a canter, keeping a careful eye on Yohuac. The hoofbeats echoed along the tunnel like a hail of rocks, and Reisil winced at the noise. But she doubted it would make any difference. Baku’s departure had been anything but subdued. If the henbane had worn off, the waking wizards wouldn’t have missed it.
They broke out into an alleyway lined by gnarled trees, their leaves rustling in the cool morning breeze. The alleyway emptied into the narrow canyon just below the maze door. The steep sides of the canyon rose like iron walls. They were still trapped. The only escape was through the notch at the far end. And the canyon was warded against intruders. Was it warded against departure? But there was no sign of the plague-healers, which meant they had surely passed the wards safely.
Reisil guided Indigo up the canyon, wondering how far Baku had gone. The ground was rutted and torn in places where the stampeding horses had churned the soft dirt in their frenzied escape. She could feel the coal-drake at the edges of her awareness, a red-rimmed black maw. She didn’t reach out to him. She wasn’t sure he was entirely sane, though he’d not come out of the cage with the same disorientation and panic as Saljane had experienced.
A bolt of energy sizzled into the ground beside her, churning up a gout of dirt that pelted Reisil in clumps and clods as it fell. Saljane leaped into the air. Indigo reared and skittered away, spinning around and sinking down on his back legs as if to bolt. Tapit’s horse lunged. Reisil’s shoulder popped as the gelding hit the limit of the rein and jerked around. Pain ripped through her chest. Instantly she wrapped Indigo’s reins around her pommel, freeing her left hand to snatch the leading rein from where it tangled around her useless right hand. She anchored the rein securely around her pommel and then dropped to the ground, smacking Indigo on the rump. He gave a snorting whinny and galloped up the canyon.
~Baku, there’s trouble. Come get Yohuac to safety.
With that she slammed up her mental walls, not wanting to be distracted, leaving only a narrow opening for Saljane. ~I think we’re going to have to fight our way out.
~Yes. The eagerness in Saljane’s voice made Reisil smile harshly.
She’d never meant to fight. It wasn’t the smartest choice. Better to run and hide. But there was no choice now. And everything in her hungered for retribution: for her friends, for Mysane Kosk and the damage to Kodu Riik, and most especially for the wizards’ absolute indifference to the suffering of those still imprisoned in their cages.
“You didn’t think we’d let you walk away from us?”
Tapit stood near the open maze door. A semicircle of a dozen Kvepis ranged behind him with several more straggling through. Most of them looked pale and pinched. Only Tapit stood straight and firm. Reisil cocked her head.
“You think to stop me, then?”
“We are stronger here than we were at Vorshtar. And you don’t have surprise on your side this time. You shall not win so easily.”
She felt it more than she saw it. It dropped from above like a great black bat. An ilgas. But she had expected a surprise attack and burned it out of the air. It took more effort than she liked. Destroying the cages had dangerously weakened her, and while her magic came easily to hand, she could hardly contain it. It filled her like a river of glass. She couldn’t afford a battle of feints and parries.
“You are stronger here because of Mysane Kosk. Because of the magic you steal from the nokulas. They were people. Even wizards.” Reisil slipped her hand into her belt pouch, gripping Yohuac’s armband. Stolen magic to fight stolen magic.
“If any we keep were wizards, then they understand our need. They would not begrudge what we do.”
“No? I do.”
And with that, Reisil struck. She did not aim at the wizards, but at the ground beneath them. She drove deep into the roots of the mountain. She released her full might, uncaring of the heat searing her from the inside out. Her eyes bulged, and her blood boiled in her veins.
~Saljane!
Suddenly there was a shield around her and an endless well of cool strength. Reisil drew on it eagerly, releasing the full power of the armband, emptying it into the ground.
Rocks, dirt and grass erupted into the air. Distantly she heard shouts and a cracking, like the echoing booms of river ice fracturing apart in the spring. Then there was a grinding and the ground began to tremble. Roaring filled the air, and rocks began to fall, clattering all around them. Something thumped Reisil on her damaged shoulder, and she shrieked. Still the power flowed down out of her. She had no strength to stop it. The air around her clotted with dust and debris, and still she stood, the ground starting to roll like an ocean wave.
~Saljane!
The strength was there. Reisil let go of her power, and it drained away. She lurched sideways, falling to her knees. In her right hand was a glob of hot metal—the remains of Yohuac’s armband. All around her was a thick fog of dirt. The sides of the canyon shivered and rumbled. There was a great black hole where the wizards had stood. Smoke issued from the hole, billowing as if something deep underground had caught fire and now blazed out of control. Boulders dropped off the canyon walls in long, slow arcs. Reisil caught sight of a pair of feet jutting from beneath a stony pile.
Suddenly the ground beneath her heaved up. A crack appeared just beyond her boot and widened as she watched, stretching apart with a groaning, tearing sound. The smell of rotten eggs wafted up from the gap, and she gasped, her throat and nose burning.
“Run, Saljane! Run!”
And she fled up the rippling path. All around her, the canyon walls continued to sigh and shiver, and it seemed as if the tops had begun to lean inward. Reisil held her useless left arm against herself as she lumbered along, coughing and sneezing. Saljane winged ahead, hopping from branch to branch.
Reisil’s lungs hurt, and she could hardly catch her breath as she began the ascent to the notch. The ground heaved and then dropped. Just ahead, a portion slipped away. It looked as if a giant had taken a great bite from the stone. Reisil eased out onto the remaining ledge and inched along, clutching the scrub springing from the cracks in the canyon wall for balance. She had to leap over the last two feet and then sprawled on her stomach, her left arm banging the ground like a sack of meal. Black clouds swirled over her vis
ion. Reisil struggled to her feet, seeing the lip of the canyon ahead of her.
At last she pulled herself over, the ground trembling so violently that she could not keep her feet. She rolled onto her back, gasping. But there was no time to rest, not so close to the edge. She struggled up and dragged herself down the path. The mountain continued to tremble, but with less force. Here the trees were thicker, and she went from one to the next, bracing herself upright, coughing and wheezing. Saljane called encouragement, urging Reisil along.
Dawn came, and soon the sun rose above the trees. Reisil stopped at a stream, cupping icy water in her good hand. She drank all she could and fell back against a sugar pine to rest. Her shoulder throbbed with an ache that pulsed through her bones. She panted shallowly, her lungs too raw to allow a proper breath.
What had she done?
Suddenly she heard a booming roar. The tree she leaned against shivered, and the ground jolted, pine needles sprittering into the air as if a great hand had slapped the earth and made them jump. The roar went on for a long minute, and then there was silence. Not even a bird chirped. The wind fell still, and even the stream seemed hushed. Reisil struggled to her feet, turning back the way she’d come.
~No. You must not go back.
~What has happened? What did I do?
~What was necessary. Now they will not soon follow. We must find Baku and Yohuac.
Reisil hesitated. Finally she nodded and lurched across the stream, soaking her boots.
They found Baku with the horses and Yohuac in a hollow a quarter of a league away. Baku had regained some of his color, and his hide no longer appeared so desiccated. When Reisil came over the rise, he stood, sniffing. Then he hunched back down onto the grass, watching as she stumbled down the path.
Path of Honor Page 42
