Glass Swallow (17 page)

M
ikel refrained from chuckling as Rain slid back into the cabin. She wasn’t meeting his eyes. Fortunately they were alone as the two scavengers were outside loading the horses so she didn’t have an audience for her embarrassment.

‘Persuaded you, has he?’ the old bondsman asked slyly.

‘Do you want to go?’ Rain pretended to be absorbed in brushing off her dusty skirt.

He shuffled over and put an arm round her. ‘I think it best. Those beasts outside—and I’m talking the human variety—will gobble you up if they find you out unprotected and I might not always be here to defend you. I hate to admit it, but I’m not as fit as I once was.’

‘So we’re just going to give up on this?’ She gestured to the summer palace. ‘Retreat to the scavengers’ barracks?’

‘Sounds good to me. We’re lucky Peri cares enough to come fetch us.’

She rested her head against his shoulder for a moment. ‘How long will the chaos last? Shouldn’t something be done? You say we’re all right, but there must be other bondsmen, other girls on their own, who aren’t so lucky. And what about the children?’

‘I know, Rain, but we can’t save everyone.’

She eased away and tucked her straggling hair back under her scarf. ‘Where I come from, the people would go to the King, demand he take action. What about your Master? What’s he doing about all this?’

Mikel spat in the hearth. ‘No idea. Never seen him, as I told you.’

Her eyes sparked with a new idea. ‘Perhaps he doesn’t know what’s going on!’

‘He only has to look out his palace window to see the place in turmoil.’

‘But maybe he’s got bad advisers. They might be keeping it all from him. Perhaps there are guards and other soldiers around him that can be used to restore order. He should start by providing safe havens for the most vulnerable—the children and those on their own.’

The old bondsman smiled sadly and shook his head. ‘Is that what would happen in your country?’

‘Yes—but I doubt King Ramil would allow it to get so bad to start with.’

‘I like the sound of it. Perhaps we should go there, lovey.’

‘I’d like to but you know we can’t. Heaven knows what the road back to the port is like these days.’ She clenched her fists, nails grinding in her palm. ‘Oh no! My father! He won’t understand. He might try and get here—be killed like my cousin!’

‘Shh!’ Mikel said soothingly. ‘Don’t claim problems before you know they are yours. Is your father a sensible man?’ She nodded stiffly. ‘Then he wouldn’t just set off without finding out about the route and taking precautions, would he?’

‘Yes, you’re right.’ She made an effort to relax her hands, but she wasn’t finished yet. She knew her idea had merit; the roads had to be made safe at the very least. ‘How far are we from the Master’s palace, Mikel?’

‘Oh no, you don’t.’ The old bondsman pulled his ragged robe from a nail and slung it on. ‘We’re going to safety—not into the centre of this wasp’s nest.’

‘It’s the people’s responsibility to let their rulers know when something’s wrong.’

‘We’re not in Holt now, Rain.’ He jerked her shawl off the back of a chair and wrapped it round her before giving her a shove towards the door. ‘It’s not a little local difficulty we’re facing: the whole stinking country’s gone down the gutter.’

‘All the more reason to make sure the Master knows. We can go on our way to the scavengers’ barracks.’ It sounded a reasonable plan to her; she couldn’t understand why he didn’t see it. ‘We can turn back if we meet any trouble.’

‘There’s trouble all right and I’m with her.’ Mikel banged the door behind him but thought twice before leaving the latch up. ‘No point locking it; someone will only break it down.’

The three scavengers and their animals were waiting in the archway by the gates already mounted. Rogue was stowed in his travelling basket; the dog back on a tight leash.

Peri held out a hand to Rain. ‘You can ride with me. Sly said he’d take Mikel.’

‘Drew the short straw you mean,’ Sly muttered. ‘Come on, old man, get yourself up behind me.’

‘Pity the poor lad,’ Mikel said in an overly loud voice. ‘He’s got it bad for her and doesn’t even know it.’

Both Peri and Rain went red, remembering their shared kiss a moment ago. Rain passed him her bag rather than touch his hand to mount.

Sly laughed and took Mikel’s bundle from him. ‘Tell me if you want anything else, old man. I doubt we’ll be coming back.’

‘Amazing,’ said Conal, joining in the teasing as he put the remaining food stocks into his saddle bags. ‘Peri has the gentlest touch with wild creatures, has them eating out of his hand in no time; and he just went after Rain like an ox on the rampage. I’ve never seen him so riled.’

‘I’m glad I amused you all,’ said Peri curtly. ‘Now let’s get going.’

Rain didn’t move immediately, her fingers fumbling as she retied the knot in the scarf that covered her hair. ‘There’s something I want to do before we leave the city.’

‘Here we go.’ Mikel rolled his eyes, wondering how long it would take for the little lady to get her way. Maybe she did have fey blood after all?

‘As long as it won’t take too much time,’ said Peri, glancing at the sun. It was nearly noon and the streets would deteriorate as the day progressed.

‘I’m not sure how long we need because we’re going to pay a call on the Master to ask him to help his people.’

There was silence, then all three scavengers burst into laughter, making Rogue screech.

‘You think we’d get within a mile of the Master? Us? Scavengers?’ Sly wiped tears from his eyes.

‘His Holiness doesn’t receive the likes of us,’ Conal explained more kindly.

‘Well, things have changed. And besides, I’m not one of you. He can’t be insulted by my presence as I’m not from one of your classes.’

The embers of his previous temper still hot, Peri’s anger flared up once more. Rain was putting her head in the tiger’s jaws again with no thought for her own survival. ‘You know, I think you should be locked up for your own safety.’

‘Perhaps, but only after I’ve visited this Master of yours. If you won’t take me, I’ll go on my own and meet up with you later.’ She started walking towards the gates.

Without needing Peri’s prompt, Conal manoeuvred his horse to block the way, Sniff yipping excitedly at his side.

‘Oh, for goodness’ sake, stop treating me like a sheep. I’ve got a brain. I’ve decided someone needs to do something about the chaos outside and it might as well be me.’ She quieted Sniff’s barks with a rub on the top of his head. ‘If you Magharnans get your way, you’ll keep retreating and retreating until the only safe place is your barracks and everyone else can go hang!’

‘We’ve already reached that point, Mistress Rain,’ said Conal, refusing to budge.

‘All the more reason to take action. Where’s your sense of duty to your fellow Magharnans?’

‘Our fellow Magharnans, as you call them, think we are unclean and spit if our shadow so much as touches them,’ Peri said, stamping down on his seething emotions as he watched her pace off on another reckless tangent from the path he had in mind for her.

‘Mikel doesn’t. Well, he does spit, but not because of you, it’s just that his manners need a little attention.’

‘Watch it, lovey,’ growled Mikel.

‘But it’s true—oh, never mind. Look, I’m off to the Master; you can come or not as you wish. And if you try and stop me,’ here she gave Peri a hard stare, accurately guessing what he was thinking, ‘then I’ll wait until I’m free and go anyway. At least if we do it today, we’ll get it over with. It might be that your Master’s gone—fled the city—but we’ll know we tried.’

‘I can’t believe her—can you?’ Peri appealed to his friends.

Sly scratched his chin. ‘She does have a point. It wasn’t nice seeing those people reduced to searching the rubbish for food.’

‘The bodies lying in the street,’ added Conal.

Rain nodded and turned to look expectantly at Peri.

‘Oh, get on, you infuriating fey menace.’ He heaved her roughly up in front of him. ‘I’ve got a bad feeling about this.’

Rain settled herself sideways across his lap, arranging her skirts demurely. ‘Well, I haven’t.’

‘It’s your civic duty, falcon man,’ Mikel chipped in helpfully.

‘It’s a civic pain in the behind.’ Peri urged his horse forward and out of the gates.

The jettan district was worse than the poorer areas of the city. All the mansions had been ransacked, the destruction spilling out into the elegant squares like entrails from a gutted carcass. There was no sign of anyone, though Peri suspected that there were quite a few eyes watching them from the ruins.

‘Where’s everyone gone?’ Rain asked, her voice quavering. She had little imagined conditions had got so bad so quickly.

‘I expect the jettan families have retreated to their country estates where they can defend themselves,’ said Peri. ‘Seen enough? Want to go back now?’

Rain shook her head. ‘We might as well finish this.’

He sighed and clicked his tongue to make Nutmeg go a little faster. ‘You know my mother and father might not forgive you for making me do this. I’m not sure I forgive you.’

She squirmed in his arms, preparing to get down. ‘Then go your way, falcon man, and I’ll go mine.’

He tightened his grip. ‘No you don’t: we made a bargain. I’ll take you to the Master’s palace and when you’ve seen how futile that is, you’ll come home with me with no more complaints.’

‘I don’t remember promising not to complain.’

He gave a huff of laughter into her hair. ‘You’re worse than Rogue.’

‘Your falcon?’

‘He’s a contrary beast.’

‘But you like him.’

‘Yes, I like him.’

As they approached the Master’s palace, Rain’s hopes plummeted. Built on the high cliffs overlooking the River Rol, the building was separated from the rest of the city by an intricate wrought-iron fence. It was shaped like a barrier of trees as if an enchanter’s spell had thrown it up to keep mere mortals away from the one who dwelt inside. Until a few days ago, silver stars had been embedded in iron branches, beautiful leaves that were never shed, but these had been gouged out, leaving gaps like eyeless sockets behind. The gardens beyond were trampled and scattered with litter. Someone had lit a bonfire in the orchard, using the wood from living trees in pointless waste. The upper reaches of the palace were miraculously unmarked, still floating with cobweb delicacy above their heads, walls pierced with eyelets, decorated with carvings; but the lower floors where the vandals had been able to reach were tarnished with mud and smoke. The tracery in the windows had been kicked in; everything that could not be taken had been defaced.

‘To come here carried the death penalty,’ Peri murmured, equally depressed by the destruction around him. He urged his horse through the open gates.

‘I suppose this shoots down my theory that the Master doesn’t know. He must have fled.’ Rain’s resolve was failing; there seemed little she could do here.

Peri brushed a hand over her back in comfort. ‘I’m not so sure. We were always taught that the Master
is
Rolvint. If any of that was true, the soul can’t leave the body.’

‘Maybe he has; maybe that’s why it all seems so dead outside, so hopeless.’

Sniff was the only member of their party who seemed unaffected by the sights around them. He was on the trail of many exciting scents, nosing in the debris. Conal summoned him back with a whistle.

‘What now, Mistress Rain?’ the dog handler asked. They’d reached a semicircular forecourt screened from the garden by a wooden lattice. The flowering vines that had once covered it lay beaten into the earth.

‘I … I’m not sure.’ She looked at Peri. ‘Is there any point going inside?’

Peri’s curiosity had got the better of him. He didn’t feel under immediate threat and knew this chance would never come again. ‘We won’t know unless we try. I seem to remember someone saying that to me earlier.’

Rain gave him a half smile. ‘That person didn’t know what she was talking about.’

‘I think all of us are making things up as we go along in this situation, sweetheart.’

A tender feeling uncurled inside Rain when she realized what he had said. She wasn’t sure Peri had even noticed his casual endearment because he immediately slipped down off Nutmeg, looking around the courtyard to gauge if it was safe for her to dismount.

‘Let’s leave the horses here.’ Peri held out a hand to help her down. ‘They’re out of sight of the gate so should be safe enough.’

‘All the same, I think I should stay behind on guard,’ volunteered Sly. ‘We don’t want to get stuck in the palace with no means of escape.’

Peri nodded. ‘We’d appreciate it.’

Mikel dropped to the ground with an oath. ‘Look at it!’ He swept his hand at the palace. ‘Rotten at the core. All show and no substance. No wonder we went down so hard and fast.’

Rain could see what he meant. The buildings looked beautiful from a distance but closer to they reminded her of white-lace fungi that grew on oak trees back in Holt, a frill of deceptive beauty that needed a decaying host to flourish.