by R. K. Hart
Katrin closed her eyes, and Lida felt the gentle pull of illae as she reached out across the hall. ‘He’s still got some.’
‘I’ll get it,’ Lida said; Katrin looked exhausted. She walked to the door, turned the handle, and pushed.
Nothing happened.
She tried again. She tried pulling. She tried jiggling the handle around. She tried pushing it with her shoulder. Katrin watched her with a frown; after a minute, Lida felt her reach out again.
Closing her eyes, Lida rose upwards as Alys had been teaching her, shivering. The world was black and gold and she searched through it with her mind’s eye until she focused on Lorcan’s tall form as he tried their door. The golden shimmer around him grew as he drew, the illae in the air racing towards him, brightening his glow.
Lida saw him reach out to them, saw the golden waves push through the hallway, one to her and one to Katrin.
Katrin, he called, his mindvoice uneasy as it echoed outside her shield; Lida watched him run a hand through his hair. I think we are locked in.
Chapter Fifteen: A Command
Katrin went still, and something dangerous flickered in her eyes.
‘The landlord,’ she said calmly, a few moments later. ‘He’s slightly gifted. Not quite enough to be a hedgewitch, but enough to sense illae. A man came to him a few months ago, offering money in exchange for gifted captives.’ She shifted her weight from one foot to the other. ‘He’s already handed over two hedgewitches and a healer.’
‘Gods,’ Lida whispered. ‘Who is he giving them to?’
‘He doesn’t know,’ Katrin answered grimly. ‘But he’s planning how he’ll spend the money.’ She hissed through her teeth. ‘Don’t touch the food, Lida - it’s laced with enough opiate to fell a horse.’ Lida felt her reach out again to Lorcan.
Dylan ate some, he called to them both a moment later. He is a little drowsy, but he is trying to throw it back up.
Katrin nodded. ‘That’s the best thing he can do.’ Lida felt the press of Katrin’s mind outside her own. Do you have any ideas on how to get out?
There was a pause. The window is the only way, Lorcan responded. I can climb down. Where is your room?
Lida ran to the open window and leaned out. Lorcan was doing the same thing a few metres to her right. His face was very calm, though even from a distance she could see that his eyes were glittering darkly, and he’d drawn so much illae that her skin itched.
‘There are no holds under your window,’ he said quietly. Lida looked down, taking in the five-metre fall to the ground.
‘You could hang off the sill and drop down, but there would be a real chance of injury.’ He gestured, pointing beneath him. ‘But if you can make it across here to our window, there are two sets of guttering you can use to get to the ground.’
‘I’ll tell Katrin,’ Lida said.
Katrin was waking Ella. ‘It’s all right, Lida, I know,’ she said. ‘Wake Alys, please.’
Lida moved to Alys’ bed and gently squeezed her shoulder. ‘Aly. Wake up.’
In true Brinnican style, Alys sat bolt upright and grabbed Lida’s shirt, twisting her collar tight against her windpipe. Lida gasped for air and Alys realised what she’d done, releasing her grip and apologising with wide eyes.
‘It’s fine,’ Lida said, coughing. ‘Just get dressed and pack. We need to go.’
Neither Ella nor Alys asked any questions; they simply dressed quietly and stuffed their belongings in their bags. Katrin took the packs one by one and dropped them out the window.
‘Lorcan is already down,’ she said. ‘Dylan will wait until last. I will go first to find the handholds. Alys, you next, then Lida.’ She leapt gracefully onto the windowsill and lowered her body down until all they could see were her fingers. Alys and Lida stood at the window, watching Katrin’s every move.
There was one window between the men’s room and theirs: a small hallway square. Its sill was smooth, painted wood, rather than the rough scarlet tiles, and Katrin was finding it difficult to grip; her arm stretched across as far as it would go, her muscles cording as she arched her body. After a few attempts, she found a handhold.
‘There’s a crack here,’ she said quietly, gesturing with her chin to her left hand. ‘You will need to use your body to reach across as far as possible.’ She let her fingers relax on their window and hung solely from the wood sill for a moment, inching her hands and body across, before her left hand snaked out to cling to the tiled sill of Lorcan and Dylan’s room.
As soon as she had a hold there, Katrin could rest her feet on the higher gutter. ‘It’s not going to take your weight for very long,’ she warned. She turned so she faced out from the tavern wall, one hand resting on the tiles near Dylan, whose arms were outstretched, ready to grab her if necessary, and edged out along the gutter. In one smooth movement - one Lida knew she had no hope of matching - Katrin pushed herself out lightly and spun her body, letting herself fall until her hands hooked onto the gutter she had just been standing on. Her feet took their place on the lower gutter.
From there, the drop to the ground was less than two metres. Katrin didn’t bother to climb down, dropping to the grass and landing lightly on her feet, crouching slightly to take the impact off her shins.
‘Alys,’ she called.
Alys mimicked Katrin move for move, with almost as much grace. Lida’s stomach began to churn with nerves: she was at a distinct disadvantage. Brinnicans were trained from birth to be warriors, and most of them moved with the surety that training brought. Though Lida was strong from years of working with her father, there was no way she could match Brinnican agility, especially with her barely-healed shoulder.
‘Lida,’ Katrin hissed. ‘Depech, peti soer. The landlord is wondering whether he should check on us.’
Lida turned to give Ella a worried grin, but it died on her lips when she saw that Ella’s face was ashen and she was visibly trembling.
‘I can’t,’ she said.
For a moment, Lida thought she was making an odd joke, but then she realised that fear was rolling from the Brinnican girl in waves that pressed against her mindshield.
‘I can’t,’ Ella said again. It was almost a plea. ‘I can’t.’
‘Of course you can,’ Lida said, trying to fight her rising panic.
‘I can’t.’ Ella sat down on her bed. ‘It’s too high.’
‘Ella, dearling, you can. You have to.’
She shook her head. ‘No.’
‘Ma soer, you are brave and strong. You can.’
‘No.’
Lida decided to try a different tack. ‘Ella, sweetling, if you don’t climb down, the landlord is going to kidnap you and sell you to a man buying the gifted. Who knows what he is doing with the people he buys? Do you wish to find out?’
Ella stared at her, clearly terrified, and Lida wondered if she had done the right thing. ‘I’ll fall,’ she said eventually.
‘Then Katrin and Lor will catch you,’ Lida said, fervently hoping that they would. ‘Come, dearling. I will help.’
Eventually, Lida managed to coax her up onto the windowsill. Quite sensibly, Ella refused to look out or down, so Lida dragged the lounge across the room, wincing at every scrape against the floorboards, so that Ella could climb up onto the sill backwards, which was a feat in itself.
‘You’re doing so well,’ Lida said. ‘Hook your hands here, just like Katrin did. Then gently lower your body down.’
Ella closed her eyes and swallowed. Her straight red hair was sticking to the sweat on her brow; Lida gently brushed it away from her face. ‘Do you know that when I did my testing at the Illarum, Tiernan wanted to teach me?’ Ella whispered. ‘I’m a shielder, as well as a healer. I was so excited to be his apprentice, to learn from the strongest Illarus in the three lands, from a famous stom-ruith. But that room, Lida.’ She shuddered. ‘Those windows. I couldn’t even go in there. I requested to be transferred to Katrin.’ She let out a shaky laugh. ‘I think Tiernan thinks I hate
him, and that’s why I left. It was the room, Lida, not him. I can’t stand being high up.’
‘I understand,’ Lida said. ‘In a few minutes, you will be on the ground again. You just have to make it to Dylan, and he will help you.’
Ella nodded, and opened her eyes a crack, then let her body fall. She hung for a moment; Lida sighed silently in relief as her left hand scrabbled across to find the next windowsill. There was an anxious moment when she couldn’t find Katrin’s handhold and swung wildly around, but she managed to grab hold once more, her fingers digging deeply into the crack in the smooth wood. Tears ran down her cheeks.
Lida leaned out the window. ‘That’s perfect, dearling,’ she crooned softly. ‘Perfect. Now bring your other hand across.’
Ella did so immediately, clearly not wanting to think about what was happening. She drew in a deep, rasping breath, and then another.
Her breaths were so controlled at first that Lida didn’t realise she was panicking again. When Ella began to sob, Lida scrambled up onto the windowsill.
‘No, no, Ella, sweetling, no. Look at me, joli soer.’
Ella did so, her clear blue eyes wild. She had two perfect circles of red on her cheeks and she was gasping for air.
‘Look,’ Lida said, and hooked her fingers onto the windowsill. She carefully lowered herself down, her left shoulder protesting with a wrenching pain across her chest. She didn’t dare let herself acknowledge it. ‘I’m coming across now. I will be right next to you. But you must keep going, dearling. Dylan is right there, waiting for you.’
Lida was scared herself, hanging metres off the ground with one arm weakened from weeks of stillness, but she was determined that Ella would not see it.
‘Come on, Ella. Take your left hand across to Dylan.’
‘I can’t.’
Lida bit the inside of her cheek so hard she tasted blood. ‘All right,’ she said. ‘I’m coming across now.’
Tentatively, Lida unhooked her left hand. Sweat immediately coated her brow and slicked her palms as she hung from her right hand only. She took a deep breath as her stomach roiled.
‘I’m coming across, Ella. You need to move to Dylan.’
‘I can’t!’ Ella cried, sobbing.
‘You have to,’ Lida said firmly, trying to mimic Cathan’s calm authority. She reached across. Her right arm and shoulder were aching from holding her body weight. Her left hand found the wooden sill and immediately slipped; her heart jumped up her throat and her toes curled. She wiped her hand on her shirt, swallowed, and tried again.
On her second try, she found the crack. It was running through the middle of the sill and she wondered uneasily how long it would hold both Ella’s weight and her own; the Brinnican girl had not moved.
Lida took another deep breath and slowly uncurled the fingers of her right hand, crying out as her left hand absorbed her full weight. She tried to hook her right as quickly as she could. With both hands one the middle sill, she pressed against Ella’s side; she could feel how quickly Ella was breathing.
‘Ella,’ she said calmly, ‘if you don’t move across, we’re both going to fall. Can you feel the crack in the wood?’
Ella nodded.
‘It’s not going to hold two of us for very long. I need you to move across to Dylan. Now.’
She wasn’t sure whether Ella’s panic had passed, or whether the bullying had worked, but Ella inched her hands across and reached for the tiles with her left hand. Dylan grasped her arm, soothing and encouraging her, his voice the gentlest Lida had ever heard it. Ella let go of the wooden sill and rested her feet on the gutter below, and Lida loosed a sigh of relief, inching her hands and her body across.
Crack.
‘Ella, get down!’ shrieked Alys.
The wooden sill started to splinter. Lida threw out her left hand wildly, catching the tiles with the tips of her fingers before the hallway sill broke entirely, sending a chunk of whitewashed wood to the ground below. Dylan caught her arm with both hands and wrenched her across, helping her properly grasp the tiles before her feet found the gutter. She heard Ella land with a thump on the grass.
‘He’s coming!’ hissed Katrin.
Lida turned around. This was the part she had been most afraid of: she couldn’t see how she was going to manage what Katrin had made look so easy. Her feet were still around three metres from the ground. Lida took a shuddering breath, and she jumped.
She was nowhere near as agile as Katrin, and her landing was hard and heavy. The impact jarred her feet and shins and she cried out, staggering. Alys caught her.
‘Oh, Lida, you did so well,’ Alys breathed. ‘You need to stand up. Lorcan is getting the horses.’
Lida turned around to see Dylan jump from the window. She opened her mouth to scream, but he landed on his feet, light as a cat. Lida stared at him, but he only shrugged.
Katrin swore. ‘He’s here,’ she shouted, no longer bothering to be quiet. ‘Get to the river. Run!’
They sprinted away into the darkness, Lida’s ankles and knees jarring with every step. She followed Ella, who seemed to have regained her normal quiet composure now that she was safely on the ground. Ella led her around the back of the tavern and through an alleyway, spilling out onto the main road. The town was deathly quiet; it was too early to be so still, Lida thought. There were no street lamps: the only light came from cracks in curtains and from the moons and stars above.
Lida heard hooves behind her and turned, terrified that they were being followed.
Just me, Lorcan called, emerging from the darkness atop Midnight. He held Sacred’s reins in one hand. Lida took them from him and climbed into the saddle gratefully, bringing the reins over Sacred’s head and holding them in her better hand. Lorcan held an arm out to Ella and she swung herself up behind him in one smooth movement.
‘Katrin has Bright Eyes,’ he said quietly. ‘We will meet her at the bridge. Come, Lida.’
Sacred followed Midnight, and Lida began to shiver uncontrollably. She was not dressed for the cold and her head and shoulder were throbbing.
They reached the bridge after a few minutes. Unlike the rest of the town, it was made of ancient stone, spanning solidly over the fast-flowing river. The light of the moon silvered patches of moss growing on some of the massive bricks, a patchwork of greys and blacks that Lida fixated on tiredly as they rode closer.
Katrin had already arrived, holding Bear and Bright Eyes. Ella slid from Midnight and gave her mare a kiss on the nose before mounting.
They waited in silence for Dylan and Alys. The only sound was running water, and unease weighed heavily on their shoulders. Lida’s pack was hooked to the side of her saddle and she distracted herself by pulling out her coat and settling into it. She was wondering whether lifting the hood would be sensible when Dylan appeared from the darkness.
Katrin jerked her chin at the bridge. ‘Go,’ she ordered. ‘Cross the bridge. Dylan, you wait half way.’
Lida didn’t want to leave her, but she didn’t dare refuse, especially when the other apprentices obeyed her without comment. The horses’ hooves clipped quietly on the stone.
It didn’t take long to cross. They moved away from the mouth of the bridge, pulling the horses up on the riverbank. Lida could see the slim figure of Katrin across the water, standing still and straight, shining in the moonlight.
There were scuffled footsteps in the dark, and three men appeared. One led Alys’ mare, Silk. Something bulky was clung across her back; it took Lida a moment to realise that it was Alys herself. Her mouth went dry with fear, but when she closed her eyes, she could see the gold moving through Alys’ still form, and she realised her friend was unconscious, not dead.
The men’s voices carried across the water as they jeered at Katrin. Dirty sluah bitch, they taunted, again and again, as if repeating it would make it true. Katrin did not respond; she simply waited.
One rushed at her. Katrin was so quick that Lida missed seeing her move, but she heard the crack as
a fist connected with a temple and the man crumpled to the ground in a heap.
Katrin straightened, and went back to waiting.
The man leading Silk let go of the reins and pulled something from his pocket; metal flashed, and Lida guessed it was a knife. The two remaining men darted towards Katrin.
Not so fragile, Lida thought dazedly as she watched Katrin. She’d worried about how tired and sick the mentor had been, but Katrin moved with dizzying speed, weaving easily away from blows and kicking the man with the knife in the ribs. He dropped the weapon and she kicked him again, this time in the jaw. Lida winced at the sound it made.
The third man lost his nerve, clearly deciding that he could not win, and he sprinted into the dark. Katrin calmly bent to pick something up from the ground. She turned, and she threw.
The something was the knife, and it evidently found its target; the sound of running feet stopped abruptly. Katrin bent to the first man and put her hand to his forehead.
Without warning, Lorcan grabbed Sacred’s reins and pushed Midnight into a canter. Sacred wheeled around, snorting, given no choice but to follow, and Lida almost fell from the saddle, grabbing the pommel with two hands to right herself.
‘What are you doing?’ she shrieked. She couldn’t see a thing in the darkness, and her throat closed with fear as Midnight pushed into a gallop. Pain laced through Lida’s shoulder as Sacred’s wild movement jarred her body.
‘Strengthen your shield, Lida!’ Lorcan shouted.
‘Lorcan!’ she cried, almost hysterical, fighting for balance as the night whipped at her face and at her clothes.
‘Shield!’
The command was illae-called as well as roared aloud, and a wave of power slammed into Lida with such force that her head snapped back. Her body was drawing to obey before she knew what was happening. Lorcan’s directive overrode all else: Lida stopped noticing the frantic gallop, stopped being afraid of the unseen dangers of the cloying dark, stopped thinking about the pain in her shoulder and in her chest. All she could think of - all she could do - was reinforce her mindshield with layer upon layer of illae.
