by Diana Rivers
There was a moment of fearful silence, then Askarth shook her, and Nunyair said clearly, “Thank you, but all is well. I had a bad dream that made me call out and Lhiriasha has been comforting me.” Merrik had come into the room and was beckoning to us frantically.
The instant Nunyair was dressed, Askarth drew her over to a table all covered with jars and bottles. She took up a pot of dark stuff and a rag. With some quick smears she darkened Nunyair’s face and hands. Then she pulled the cape and hood around her. Just that quickly the Shokarn ‘Lady’ had become one of us, one of that immoral, nasty lot.
The guards were pounding again, calling loudly, “Lady, you must open the door so I can see that all is well with you, and you are not being compelled!”
“Please, Yargon, give me a moment to dress. It would not be proper for you to see me this way. Then Lhiriasha will unlock the door for you, and you will see that all is well.”
Merrik went to the window and opened it on what appeared to be a courtyard or inner garden. He set a chair below it and scattered some clothes there, whispering, “Let them think they have gone out that way.” Then he signaled to Rishka and to me. Together, we three pushed a heavy bureau in front of the door as Nunyair called out, “I am almost ready.”
At Merrik’s signal we all melted into the closet. Merrik shut that door, opened the other one, and we were back in the passageway. He gave a quick look up and down the hall. Then he touched something, the door shut and all signs of the doorway vanished. We went at a run after Merrik’s flickering light, more worried now about speed than silence. Soon we could hear the guards banging and shouting in back of us.
When we reached the downstairs hall, Merrik turned to Askarth and said angrily, “You can have no doubt that I will hang for this night’s work!”
“Not while I have breath in my body,” she answered quickly.
We were met in the passageway by other guards so that I froze with fear, but they merely said to Askarth, “Those others who are to go with you are ready and waiting.” We were joined by several dark-robed, silent figures. Then we all went together, this strange crew of guards and fugitives, to stand near the door in the kitchen gate.
Merrik turned to me and said, “Now, Lady, I must ask you what are we to do next, since you seem to have some sort of plan here?”
“Keep a watch at the eye-hole and listen for the cry of the Oolanth hill-cat. That is the signal. The moment you hear it, slide the bolt. As soon as you see that the Zarn’s guards are occupied elsewhere, open that door and get us out of here. I can only hope those on the wall will cover for us. That is as much plan as we have.” Then to those other women who seemed more like dark shadows or ghosts of themselves I said, “Be ready to move instantly when the signal comes. Try to follow us, but if we become separated, head for the West Gate by whatever way you can. Somehow it will be held open.” Even as I said those words with such seeming assurance, I wondered how it would really be. I saw a few of them nodding back and was reassured that there was some life there in that silence.
Then I went to the guard who watched and signaled that he should move aside. Looking out I saw that the street was quiet again. A much more dignified and organized guard was marching back and forth before the gate at a safe distance from the walls. They seemed to dominate the street, but beyond them I could see shadows moving at the edge of the refuse pile.
When I turned away from the eyehole, Askarth drew me aside and said, “There is a thing I must set right. If I am not back when the signal comes, go without me. I will find my own way clear of here.”
I grabbed her hand with a terrible rush of foreboding. “Askarth, stay with us. This house does not wish you well. It will be far worse after we leave.” Already I could hear the sounds of commotion from above us growing louder.
She pulled away and said firmly, “I do what I must, just as you do.” Then she was gone.
I went to stand again by the guard at the eye-hole, tense with listening. Out there the night seemed quiet, as quiet as I could imagine a city would ever be. It must have been close to night’s-turn. I could hear the sound of guard boots on the cobbles and a dog barking far off.
At any moment I expected the guards from upstairs to come rushing down on us. Suddenly there were shouts and thumping and the sounds of a loud argument from somewhere above us in the Great-House. Almost at the same instant I heard the cry of the Oolanth hill-cats seeming to come from everywhere at once and then the great roar of a fire close by.
“Draw the latch, get ready to open,” I shouted to the guards as I pushed aside the watcher. When I looked out again it was on a scene of utter chaos. Flames were shooting skyward from the garbage heap. There was flaming debris lying scattered about everywhere in the streets. The guards that moments before had marched smartly in step were running every which way, either in flight or in pursuit.
“Now!” I yelled. “Now!”
The stone door creaked open again and we all flung ourselves out into the night. It looked as if all of Eezore was running about in the streets at that moment, town folk, guards, horses, dogs. The quivering red light of fires rose over the roof tops and the terrifying cry of the hill-cats echoed from all directions.
“Which way?” Rishka yelled to me as we poured out into this madness. I glanced up and down the street trying to set some course.
Instantly a shadow came forward to fasten on my arm. “This way,” Irdris said next to my ears. “Follow me.” She turned left, going swiftly away from the fire.
“You lead, you know how to go,” I told her. “I need to go back and make sure the others all are coming.” Some of those young women from the Great-House seemed as bewildered in the street as I had been. It was no easy task to get them all moving fast in the same direction.
“Come on, come on, go quickly! They will all be on us in a moment. Do not stand about. Keep your feet moving. There, follow that one, go where she goes. She knows the way,” I urged, sounding much as Askarth had sounded with me.
That is how I know what happened. I know because I went back for them and so was the last to turn down the alley. There was a bone chilling cry from in back of me. I turned and looked up to see a woman topple from the corner of the Great-House wall with flaming arrows in her back. She fell outward with a long terrible scream.
“Askarth!” I cried out. Then I clapped my hands over my mouth and ran after the others. Better if they did not know, at least not now.
As I caught up I heard Irdris saying, “From here we can start angling toward the West Gate.” I kept my mouth tightly shut on what I had just seen.
Hereschell’s lessons stood me in good stead. As we ran I knew the streets before we came to them. We had to dodge the fires that had sprung up everywhere around us. In places people were looting houses and fighting with each other. Some streets were almost blocked with overturned furniture and debris. Often we had to choose another course, zigzagging our way across the city.
Now a new cry arose to add to the cry of the hill-cats. “STAR-BORN TO THE WEST GATE!” began resounding through the streets. When I had breath enough I added my own voice to one cry or the other. “STAR-BORN TO THE WEST GATE! STAR-BORN TO THE WEST GATE! STAR-BORN TO THE WEST GATE!” rang in my head while the cry of the Oolanth cat tore along my nerves.
It seemed as if the whole city was rushing toward the West Gate in a great flood. I began running next to Nunyair, for she seemed to be tiring. Lhiri kept close to her other side. Soon she grew so winded I had to call a halt in an alley. Nunyair sank down against a wall, panting as if she would break apart, while Lhiri squatted beside her talking softly in her ear. Those who were left with us crowded around. We had already lost half our company. Sanna and Eshrell had taken some of the newly freed ones and gone on, but Rishka was still with me and so was Irdris, as well as three or four from the Great House. Rishka was leaning against the wall beside me watching Nunyair with a look of annoyance on her face, or perhaps disgust would be a better word.
I
rdris came up to me on the other side, “Do you know the way now, Tazzi? Can you get safely out of here? I need to go and see to someone if I can.”
“Well enough and Lhiri probably knows it, too. Besides Shalamith will pull us all to the West Gate like fish on a line.” Even as I was speaking Irdris vanished into the night. I realized I had let her go without asking anything of where she went or what she went to do.
“Are you sure you know?” Rishka asked sharply. I was surprised to see such fear in her face. “I thought Askarth would take us out as she took us in. I had not thought she would desert us in this way.”
“She must have had her own good reasons,” I answered quickly, biting my lip to keep back the tears. I averted my face, hoping Rishka would not think to read my thoughts, but she seemed too preoccupied with her own. She was shaking her head and looking frantically in all directions. “Well, I am as lost as if someone had spun me around in a bottle. I can find my way through the trackless dry-lands but here in this rat maze...” She shrugged, then said with sudden passion, “Tazzi, I have no wish to die trapped behind these walls. This is no place for a Muinyairin.”
“Rishka, I know where we are and where the West Gate lies, believe me. I will see you safely out of here.”
“Good, then what are we waiting for? The sooner we are clear of the city the better.”
“I cannot go on,” Nunyair said with a groan.
“Oh, Goddess,” Rishka growled, “I am willing to save their worthless lives if I must, but not for all the gold in Eezore will I play nursemaid to one of these Shokarn brats.” Her eye fell on Lhiri as she said this and her tone was full of insult.
I turned to Lhiri, “Is there a stable near here with an outside pen?”
“Very near, on the Street of the Doves. The stable of Orwin One-eye has a large outdoor holding pen.”
“Can you go that far?” I asked Nunyair.
“I will try,” she answered weakly.
Rishka was shaking her head. “We cannot ride through that madness. We would be worse off on horseback than on foot. And these new ones probably cannot even ride.”
“Not we—you. You are the only one who has the skill. We cannot leave her here and we cannot carry her out. The gate will only be open for a short while.”
“You want me to ride out with her!?” Rishka let out a string of words that must have been Muinyairin curses.
When Rishka was finished I simply said, “Yes.” I knew I must try to get Nunyair to safety. It was the only thing I could do for Askarth now. I motioned for Lhiri to help me pull her to her feet. Then we were in the street and running again. The alley had been a respite. If anything, the madness in the streets was worse than before. I took Nunyair’s arm on one side and with Lhiri on the other we went as fast as we could, half dragging and half carrying her along. The others stayed as close to us as they could, and I was aware of Rishka running right at my elbow.
There was a fire close to the pen. In the light of it we could see the horses rearing and snorting in terror. “The rest of you get those gates open while I get the horse,” Rishka called out as she ran past me, pulling a length of rope from her pouch. Then she vaulted the fence and disappeared from sight in the melee.
As I struggled with the gate, Nunyair tugged on my arm, “I cannot ride one of these,” she said, her eyes wide with terror.
“Let loose of me so I can do this,” I growled at her. “You will hold on behind Rishka and ride for your life. Since you cannot run it is your one way out of here.” I struggled with the gate with Lhiri working beside me. On the far side I thought I glimpsed hooded figures at the other gate. The rearing horses were like great black shadows against the leaping flames. I feared for Rishka’s life in that tumult.
Then, suddenly, I heard her voice over the uproar, shouting, “I have the horse! Open that fool gate and let me out of here!”
Just at that moment a man with a patch over one eye ran out of the stable yelling and waving his stick. Others came running out of the tavern. From the opposite side I saw guards running straight at us shouting, “Stop them! Stop them!”
I pulled the last bolt on the gate, pushed Nunyair behind me, warned Lhiri back and swung the gate wide. From somewhere came the cry of the cat. Horses poured out in a wild flood, snorting and whinnying. I pressed myself to the fence to keep clear of their hooves as they rushed by. Soon I could hear the guard screaming in panic as they scattered before the crush.
Out of the dust and smoke Rishka suddenly appeared before me, laughing wildly and clinging to the same horse she had ridden earlier. She swung him around so that she was beside us. “Fate or the will of the Goddess. It was the only horse that would come to me in there. Get my baggage on so we can be off.”
With Lhiri’s help I pushed Nunyair up in back and wrapped her arms around Rishka’s waist. “Shut your eyes and hold tight for your life!” I told her.
Rishka was off at a run. Some of the loose horses that had been milling around had gathered themselves up to follow in her wake so that it looked as if she were riding off in their midst, the Queen of the Horses.
“Now for us,” Lhiri said. We were the only star-born left at that spot. The men from the stable and the men from the tavern and the Zam’s guards were all converging on us. They had been momentarily distracted by Rishka, but she was gone with no chance of capture, and they saw us trapped between them.
“They are star-cursed who have escaped from a Great-House,” called out one of the guardsmen. “Close in and keep them surrounded.”
The other men were shouting their agreement. I think we looked to be good sport for the night. I pulled Lhiri close to me. “See that man from the tavern in a red tunic. He is very drunk and unsteady on his feet. Likely he will not be able to hold his place. When I give the signal we will both run straight at him and keep on going. Hopefully those fools will end up running into each other. For now stand back to back with me so they have no chance of surprising us.”
I waited, watching carefully for our chance. They did not rush us. For all their loud talk they were not too certain of how to deal with the star-born though there were only two of us to their more than twenty. Then I saw our man in red waver slightly on his feet and look uncertainly at the others.
“Now!” I said to Lhiri. She spun around next to me and we both set out at a run, heading straight toward him. For good measure I let out the cry of the cat. As he saw us almost upon him, his eyes flew wide in fear. With a cry of alarm he leapt hastily out of our path. The others were shouting at him, cursing him for a fool. We ran past him and kept running till their voices faded behind us.
When I stopped, gasping and heaving to catch my breath, Lhiri threw herself down beside me. We had run for as long as we could run and had come to some quieter place. There were few fires nearby and not such a crush of people.
After a while Lhiri sat up and looked about. I saw a look of amazement on her face, “I am lost! For all the years I have lived in Eezore I have never been here before.”
I took several deep breaths to quell the panic that instantly threatened to take hold of me, then I shut my eyes, cupped my pendant in my hand and waited till I could see Hereschell’s map as clearly as if it had been printed in red on my eyelids.
“Never mind,” I said to Lhiri with a grin. “I think we are at the crossing of Stone Cutter’s Way and Viyaire Street. If so, we are not very far from the Avenue of the West Gate.”
We set out again, but more slowly now. No one in that vast chaos seemed intent on pursuing us anymore. Besides, I could not run another step. They would simply have to hold the gates open for us. As we approached Merzia Street I could feel a strange vibration, a rumbling underfoot. It felt as if the city itself rocked and shook on its foundation. As we turned into the Avenue of the West Gate, the rumbling turned into words thundering out over our heads and yet coming with such sweetness it made one want to cry.
“OPEN THE GATES, OPEN THE GATES, OPEN THE GATES OF THE CITY.” Over and over a
nd over those words resounded. They rang out like the tolling of a great bell, louder than the death bell itself, or like my heart beating outside of me as well as inside, or really like nothing I have ever heard in this life with the terrible compulsion it laid on me. It had to be Shalamith. She had said she would open that gate for us one way or the other. If I had ever imagined the Goddess speaking that would have been her voice. “OPEN THE GATES! OPEN THE GATES! OPEN THE GATES!”
All of Eezore seemed to be rushing down the avenue. Before us I saw Kazouri turn out of a side street. She was running, hauling along a woman under each arm. Beyond her I thought I glimpsed Rishka riding in a mass of horses. “OPEN THE GATES, OPEN THE GATES!” I felt a sense of urgency and began to run again, suddenly finding new strength. Lhiri caught hold of my hand and held it tight. The ground shook underfoot as we went. Before us the gate rose higher than most buildings and the gate was closed. “OPEN THE GATES! OPEN THE GATES! OPEN THE GATES OF EEZORE!”
Just as it seemed that all that humanity would crush itself against its solid metal, the great gate, closed and sealed by orders of the Zarn, swung wide, and the voice stopped. There was a roar from those running. It looked like a living river pouring out of the city: highborn, tradesmen, slaves, Shokam and Kourmairi, guard and townsman, Star-Born and thieves, as well as horses and donkeys, cows, cats, and dogs. All, all poured out of the city as if the dam had broken and we were the fish in the flood or perhaps the floodwaters themselves. I saw several dark cloaked figures in the crowd, one of whom I thought to be Pell, before I myself was carried out on the human tide.
I had lost all my companions, even Lhiri, and could barely keep my feet under me. Before me I saw what looked like a golden shining figure riding away. I followed as if on a leash. The voice had changed its message but not its power. Now it was calling, “The Star-Born come forward, all else go back, the Star-Born come forward, come forward, come forward!” That terrible compelling voice was pulling, pulling, pulling at me, making my teeth ache and my head throb. I had no choice but to follow. If both my legs had been broken I would have crawled after that shining being on my hands and knees. “THE STAR-BORN COME FORWARD, THE STAR-BORN COME FORWARD, ALL ELSE GO BACK.”
