Glass Swallow (26 page)

Conal didn’t waste time arguing. He knew as well as Peri that they would be incredibly fortunate if the track was still intact. He vaulted inside, landing in three inches of muck and grit. Peri dug through the debris until he found a thick wooden post. Wedging it under the rear wheel, he heaved, cursing as it refused to shift. Inside the wagon, he could feel Conal rocking the car forwards to dislodge it.

‘I think it’s moving!’ Conal bumped on to the front wall, making the whole thing shudder.

Seething with self-hatred for what he had done to Rain, Peri found strength he had not known he possessed. With a final heave, he forced the wheel to turn; the wagon began to creep forward.

‘Get in!’ ordered Conal.

Pushing from the rear, Peri ran a few paces, then jumped on board. With a grinding creak and rattle, the wagon was away, heading down a sharp slope for the valley bottom.

‘Next problem is how do we stop this thing?’ asked Peri as they kept low, bracing themselves across the car. Outside, he could hear shouts as men spotted the wagon careering out of the camp.

‘No idea.’ Conal gave a mirthless laugh. ‘But I think we’re going to find out one way or another.’

Peri found he couldn’t rouse himself to care; he felt he had already crashed when he let loose that arrow.

R
et was profoundly grateful that Rain was unconscious. He ran beside Krital bearing Rain’s bundle as the bandit leader carried her into the hall near the fire and kicked a table over to clear it of the evening meal. His bodyguards set it upright so he could lay her on it.

‘Where’s the scholar?’ he shouted.

‘Coming, sir,’ answered a reedy voice. A scrawny man with two thin black plaits emerged from the private quarters at a run. He had a quill tucked behind his ear.

‘Tutor Nighman!’ exclaimed Ret, recognizing one of his former teachers who had made himself noticeably absent from the palace since the beginning of the troubles.

‘Master!’ Nighman tripped over his feet in shock, before bending into a low bow.

‘Scholar, stop that rubbish and do something.’ Krital pushed him towards Rain.

‘But I’m not a doctor!’

‘You’re the closest we’ve got. If you don’t, I’ll practise my surgery on you.’

With this threat, Nighman’s protests subsided. He huddled over Rain, pulling the collar of her dress away from the wound. ‘I’ll need boiled water—and a knife. What kind of arrow?’

‘He had a hunting bow,’ said Krital, waving to one of his guards to fetch the water.

‘Peri carries small tipped arrows, for hunting game,’ added Ret.

‘Barbed?’

‘No, I don’t think so.’

‘Thank the Master,’ Nighman mumbled automatically, before blushing.

‘Forget him,’ growled Krital. ‘Save the girl.’

‘The arrow went in high—no major organs hit,’ muttered Nighman, speaking his thoughts out loud. ‘If we can ease the head out, then I think the main risk is the wound going bad.’ He peered closer at the entry point, blinking as if trying to see it clearly.

‘Where are your glasses?’ whispered Ret.

‘Damn things broke. It’s all right: I can see enough.’ Dipping the knife in the boiled water, he gently used the tip to ease the arrow out of the wound. It slipped free, allowing him to staunch the bleeding. ‘Good, good,’ he muttered.

Rain moaned.

‘Oh no, my dear, don’t wake up just yet. I need to see to this. Does anyone have a clean needle and thread?’

The bandits looked blank but Ret dived into Rain’s bundle, knowing she kept cotton in there. ‘Will this do?’

Nighman nodded, looking distinctly green. ‘Keep her still. This needs a few stitches, I think, but I’ve only ever read about how to do it.’

‘Time to get practical then, scholar,’ bit out Krital.

The bandit leader braced Rain’s legs while Ret held her head. Nighman took a deep breath. After a few fumblings, he got the idea and managed to sew up the wound and bind it in clean cloths. Rain remained unconscious through the procedure, much to everyone’s relief.

‘Unless she’s very unlucky, I think she’ll recover,’ Nighman said when he had finished. ‘Now, Master, if it be your will, please tell me what you are doing here?’

Ret opened his mouth to answer, but Krital pushed him aside. ‘I’m master here, scholar. Get your patient into bed, then come back to me. We’ve plans to make. We’re taking over the city.’

Peri flipped on to his back and considered the stars spinning above his head. The wagon had hurtled down the hillside until it collided with a rock left on the track. The consequent jolt had tipped the car sideways and thrown the two passengers out on to the boggy ground at the valley bottom. The mud had cushioned his fall but the water was now soaking through his clothes. He knew he had to move before one of the bandit patrols found him or the men from the camp caught up.

‘Conal?’

A groan from his right told him that his friend had survived the rapid exit from the wagon.

‘Are you hurt?’ Peri felt as if his nose had taken the worst of the impact as he had gone face first into the marsh. He wiped mud from his eyes.

‘Nothing broken,’ reported Conal.

‘Let’s go.’

Holding on to each other for support, they staggered out of the patch of muddy ground and back to the path. Peri did a quick inventory of his weapons. His bowstring had snapped—good riddance to the thing—but his sword was still at his thigh. He drew it.

‘Krital must have a guard on the road,’ he said hoarsely, spitting out the rank taste of marsh water. ‘I’d prefer to slip by rather than fight through.’

Conal nodded. ‘We’ve one advantage.’

‘What’s that?’ Peri waited for a cloud to pass over the moon before crossing the next stretch of open ground.

‘We’re well camouflaged.’

It was true. No patch of skin had avoided the mud bath. Conal was very difficult to see in the dark even though he was but feet away.

By mutual agreement, there was no more talking. The two scavengers took a leaf out of the bandits’ own book and merged into the scenery, becoming one with the muddy black shadows of night.

As arranged, Sly and Mikel were holding the horses for them at the meeting point of the broken bridge and no one wasted any time when Peri and Conal arrived, leaping into the saddle and urging the mounts into a fast retreat. Sly and Mikel did not need to be told that the attempt had failed: the fact that Peri and Conal came alone said it all.

Once out of the hills, Mikel drew his mount level with Peri, his silence asking the question for him.

‘It was a disaster,’ Peri said tersely. ‘We’re being pursued. I shot Rain.’

‘What!’ Mikel pulled on his reins to slow his horse but Peri slapped the creature’s rump to make it go on.

‘She stepped in front of Krital. But it’s no good. They’ll kill us if we turn back. Ret stayed. He’ll do his best.’

Mikel swore and tugged on the rein again. ‘They’ll kill you perhaps—you bleeding well deserve it—but I’ve got a girl who needs me.’ Without another word, he steered the horse back the way they had just come.

Conal made to stop him but Peri shook his head. ‘No, he’s right. Rain needs more than Ret at her side. If I didn’t know I would be executed on sight, I’d be following him. Come on, let’s get home.’

The older members of the Falconer family had spent a sleepless night waiting for Peri and his companions to return. Hern had kept the fire going in the common room in anticipation that the rescue party would need hot food and drink when they returned from their arduous journey. He sighed with relief when he heard Peri, Conal, and Sly at the door, but when they came in his expression shifted to unease. They were alone.

‘You didn’t find her then?’ asked Hern, seeing the look of devastation on his son’s face.

‘I shot her.’

‘By mistake,’ Conal added swiftly, casting an anxious look at Peri. He’d never seen his friend like this, all life drained from him.

‘She’s dead?’ squeaked Bel, throwing off the blanket wrapped around her legs.

‘We don’t think so. I hope not.’ Conal replaced the cover and patted her shoulder comfortingly. ‘He was aiming at Krital—the arrow went in high.’

‘And Ret?’ asked Helgis, crawling out from under the table where he had been sleeping.

‘He stayed with her.’

‘I should’ve stayed,’ whispered Peri, the mud on the back of his hands cracking as he curled them into fists. ‘I should’ve stayed.’

‘He shouldn’t have done,’ contradicted Conal, meeting the eyes of the others in the common room. ‘It would’ve meant his death. Rain will understand. And Ret will be fine. For some reason the bandit listened to both of them. From what I heard, Krital plans to enter the city.’

‘He does?’ Katia shook her head in disbelief, her gaze not leaving her oldest son as he paced before the fire. ‘But why?’

Conal shrugged. ‘Prefers a comfortable life under a roof than out in the mountains, I would guess. Rain must’ve been very persuasive.’

‘But she doesn’t realize she has a tiger by the tail,’ added Peri, his voice hoarse. ‘He’ll turn on her and us.’

Hern looked round the chastened group. ‘And Mikel?’

‘You know that old badger, stubborn as anything.’ Peri gave a grim smile. ‘Insisted on riding into the camp to nurse her—said nothing would stop him. She’d looked after him when he was sick; he wants to do the same for her. We had to let him go.’

Katia gave a groan. ‘Another one she’s led into disaster!’

‘Stop it, love,’ warned Hern, catching the flash of anger in Peri’s eyes. ‘I’m glad Mikel’s gone. She’ll need him and the bandits are unlikely to harm an old man. He did well.’

‘But next we’re going to have these outlaws on our doorstep! Did she think of that when she invited them to take over Rolvint? And who is she in any case to decide what’s best for us?’

Peri began to laugh, a sound drained of any real humour. ‘Actually, Ma, she’s doing it all with the support of the Master.’

‘What nonsense is this?’

‘No nonsense. Ret is the Master. We found him abandoned in the palace, remember? It’s really him.’

‘The Master’s a boy?’

Helgis looked suitably impressed. ‘It’s like one of them stories.’

Peri leant against the wall by the window over which Rain’s mobile hung and thumped his head on the stone. ‘Yes, but they have happy endings. The Master’s currently the captive of a bunch of thugs. I don’t think for one moment they’re interested in restoring him to power.’

Hern drew Peri away from the wall and put his arm around his shoulders. ‘You know, your little lady is quite right, we don’t have to sit back and wait for others to resolve this mess.’

‘What do you mean, Pa?’ Peri let himself sag against his father.

‘You say the bandits are about to move into the city?’

‘Yes.’

‘They will be less likely to run wild if someone else got there before them and started the job she asked them to do.’

‘Hern Falconer, we are moving to the village, not running Rolvint!’ said Katia, glowering.

‘Why not, Kati? Rain was right: soon there will be no more bolt holes. Better to take the initiative now than when it is too late.’

‘But won’t we just end up fighting the bandits?’ asked Conal taking a seat on the bench next to Bel.

‘Not if we prepare the ground so that there’s a place for them.’ Hern’s eyes gleamed with an idea. ‘Everyone has a place in Rolvint, remember? That’s the number one rule.’

Peri could see what his father was saying. Give the bandits a blank canvas and they would scrawl whatever they liked on it; present them with some attractive but limited choices, they could be channelled in less violent directions.

‘A ruling council with representatives of all the professions that are left in the city,’ suggested Peri. ‘Krital to be the general of the new army—not that we could stop him. It would just be acknowledging the inevitable.’

‘So we need a civilian force to keep his men in check,’ said Sly, coming out of the shadows to join the group at the table. ‘Do the day-to-day business of maintaining order rather than the fighting.’