Lhind the Thief (21 page)

“Ready?” Kee asked when I straightened up.

I nodded and we separated.

She started walking slowly up the street. I silently
congratulated her on her control. She never once glanced back, though she
didn’t know what I was going to do.

I took up a position just below the overhang of the roof,
then turned my attention to the other end of the building. Drawing in a deep
breath, I raised my hands and readied myself. I whispered my magic-gathering
spells, once, twice, thrice, four times, each time my hands heating until they
prickled with heat, then I turned them outward, pointing, and—

BOOM! A thunderous noise made the guards jump and look about
wildly. I aimed my thumbs, and fake fire leaped toward the sky.

The men dashed into the alley several steps, peering upward
and exclaiming in shock.

Kee sped up behind them and slipped inside the door.

I leaped up and caught hold of the tiled rain gutter on the
roof, swung up, my tail twitching hard in an effort to help me balance. I
scrambled over the curved red tiles of the roof to the ridgepole, and lay flat
so I could peer inside just as Kee entered the courtyard. I was about to slip
down and join her when my sense of unease resolved into two facts.

One: the guards had stood before an unlocked door.

Two: no one waited in that courtyard.

Trap? Let’s see.

I made a shimmer of myself landing in the dirty courtyard.
My shimmer-self looked around, then swaggered toward the corner room where
Hlanan was supposedly kept.

Tir! Go to Hlanan. Be
my eyes—

The bird’s wings fluttered, and as the white shape spiraled
down into the courtyard, I wondered if the prisoners had been removed while Tir
was trying to find us. Kee eyed my shimmer-self doubtfully, then moved to join.

The corner door opened, and two more guards stalked out.

Kee went into action. I made fireworks to divert the guards;
one soon lay stunned, clipped efficiently behind his skull, and the other ran
off somewhere.

Kee and Tir sped inside the door, me trying to shut out the
starburst of Tir’s happiness at the sight of Hlanan lying on the floor. They’d
stripped him of his scribe robe, and he lay there filthy in his plain shirt and
trousers, hands bound tightly behind him, legs bound as well, a manacle affixed
to his wrists as well as the ropes, and bolted to the wall. The back of his
shirt had been cut with a knife, exposing some kind of symbol tattooed on his
shoulder-blade.

Hlanan looked up, his expression miserable. “Get out,” he
said hoarsely. “
Now
. It’s a trap.”

Then an inner door opened, and, flanked by a dozen guards
with their weapons at the ready, Geric Lendan lounged in, smiling a bright
welcome.

“Seize the thief,” Lendan commanded, pointing at my
shimmer-self.

The shimmer-me clapped its hands and disappeared in a shower
of sparks.

The warriors who’d started forward, weapons drawn, fell back
in confusion.

What now? What now?

I grabbed the necklace.

Faryana! Help me do
magic to get rid of these reekers?

I must know
exactly
what you are doing and why. And I
must have your vow not to harm any living—

“Secure them,” Lendan shouted at his troops, pointing toward
Kee and Hlanan. “The Hrethan thief is somewhere about. We’ll kill these two
unless she surrenders now.”

Kee crouched, ready to attack. Good as she was, I knew she’d
be no match for the dozen or so battle-scarred veterans who advanced
menacingly. As for Hlanan, he just lay there in those ropes and chains, his
face—still seen through the bird’s eyes—pale and hopeless.

I fumbled at my turban, and smacked the whistle so that it
touched against my forehead.
I need magic
help—

Here’s a fire spell
,
was the instantaneous reply. The voice carried warning, and beneath it, that
ever-present hint of amusement.
You’d
better be able to hold it, or it will consume you.

Then words flowed into my mind, a kind of chant that caused
my head to buzz and my hands tingled unpleasantly with heat. As I spoke the
words, the sensations of burning and buzzing intensified, my grasp on
here-and-now expanding to encompass the stream of bright fire entering my mind.

The end of the spell was difficult to get out because my
thoughts rode high in a fierce wind, my mental-image hands gripping twin spears
of lightning. The wind and the light raced headlong through a weird night sky,
pulling power in streamers from the stars. Time dissolved into meaninglessness,
drawing me outward as I struggled to control the heat and the wind and the
wheeling stars.

Hrethan!

That was Tir. I found the aidlar, and held on desperately.

My mind spiraled down from the invisible skies, and there
was my body, small and fragile. I poured back into it, and as I did, I
recovered sense and sound and sight: my head ached, my hands stung as I gripped
the roof tiles, the smell of smoke burned my lungs. I remembered Hlanan. I
remembered Kee.

I opened my eyes. Swords and knives rounded the two in a
fence of steel. I moved . . .

So slow! But if I cast my mind free I can grasp the sun and
the stars . . .

I tried to move, but the
now
had stretched out into eternity. My hands were heavy as stone, vibrating with
the sparking white light. My eyes lifted for an instant—and again I was riding
through the sky, faster and faster, trailing light like a comet . . .

Hrethan!

Again Tir called me back, mind to mind, and this time I
forced my eyes open and used all my strength, straining in every muscle, to
clap my hands together.

Thunder rocked the building. Everyone below me staggered,
and the warriors looked up fearfully. Aiming my thumbs, I sent spears of light
to divide Lendan from Kee and Hlanan. Fire lanced down from my fingers and
scorched the stone floor, one bolt almost at Geric’s feet, the other striking
the chain connecting Hlanan to the wall. Red sparks exploded outward, and the
air filled with the smell of molten metal.

The men stampeded, Geric following, yelling for them to
halt, to pick up their weapons. His face, blanched and determined, turned this
way and that, until his chin lifted and he saw me sitting astride the
ridgepole.

“
There’s
the
thief,” Lendan roared. “Bring her down.”

I sent another blast of flame. This bolt splashed up a wall,
starting a blaze that spread hungrily over the old wood. Each time I used the
lightning, more surged in me, pulling at my mind and promising speed and wind
and a universe of suns . . .

I laughed, and played with Lendan’s warriors, sending bolts
among them until they had scattered fearfully hither and yon.

Geric alone stood his ground, and I saw his mouth moving: he
was doing magic.

A distant sense of alarm steadied me. I aimed a bolt
directly at him—and he leaped aside. Flames shot skyward, orange and blue and
bright, from the place he’d been standing. Smoke plumed up.

Hrethan?
The cry
held a note of despair.

Tir?

Another voice whispered to me to ignore the bird. I shut out
that voice. Hlanan and Kee were in danger. I had promised to back Kee up. I had
promised the aidlar that I would free Hlanan. I—barely—controlled the torrent
of light and heat within me. In moments, in moments, if I didn’t do
something . . . I’d fly apart . . .

“Get us out,” Kee’s voice caught my ear, tiny against the
rush of wind singing through my veins.

Need pulled my focus back into this world.

I spread my fingers and gave them a pathway bordered with
killing light. Kee had gotten Hlanan’s feet free, and he stumbled, leaning
heavily on her, but he was upright. They lurched and swayed into the courtyard
then through the open door.

Then I lost sight of them, but the urgent need to save them
was gone. Fire crackled nearby and a haze of red smeared my vision. Smoke
boiled around me, but I scarcely heeded it. I had kept my promise. Now I could
glory in the power and fire streaming faster and faster through my mind. I
could hold it, I could! Bigger and brighter, I just had to spread farther, and
faster . . . the lightning spread into a vast storm, sucking me
into its vortex . . .

The deepest instinct of all, self-preservation, forced me to
throw my hands skyward, and lightning crackled high into the clouds. Somehow I
got my inner eyelid closed, and the magic fled, leaving me spent.

I collapsed back on the roof, shaking weakly.

Ghostly, mocking laughter caused me to use my last remaining
strength to shove that whistle back into my turban so it didn’t touch my flesh.

“Lhind? Lhind?”

The voices came from the street.

Wearily I forced my eyes open.

“Come! Come!” Tir whirred right above me, wings fanning my
face.

Forcing my limbs to move, I got to the edge of the roof and
rolled off, confident in my usual ability to alight in balance—and I was
stunned when the filthy street met my face. Hands grasped my armpits, pulling
me up. Somehow my feet fumbled under me, and while the world spun nastily in
front of my dimming eyes, my body moved between two supporting hands until, at
last, I slid into welcoming darkness.

o0o

“Lhind.”

The word reached me from a great distance.

“Drink this.”

I moved ice-numb lips, and felt warmth trickle down the cold
well inside me. With the warmth came awareness, in slow and painful increments.
I was lying on a hard surface, and I ached in every muscle and bone.

“Again, Lhind. A little more this time.”

Obediently I swallowed. More warmth spread into arms, legs,
hands, fingers, toes. I opened my eyes, and took in a long breath.

Kee’s face, smeared with dirt and troubled in expression,
hovered over me. Opposite her was Hlanan’s equally dirty face. His tired brown
eyes were steady, his mouth a thin line.

“We’re alive,” I croaked. “Good. But I’m hungry,” I added,
making another discovery.

Kee looked relieved. “I’ll fetch the bread.” Her head swung
away.

Hlanan smiled at me. “We’re alive. You almost left us,
though.”

My eyes and lips moved, but not much else. “You tied me up
again?”

“Again?” he repeated, puzzled, then his eyes narrowed in a
kind of rueful laugh. “Oh. Rajanas’s yacht. Does that seem a lifetime ago to
you, too? No,” he went on. “You’re just desperately weak.”

“Are we safe?” I asked. “Geric?”

“We’re safe enough for now,” he said, but his expression
sobered again. “Drink.” He slid his hand beneath my head to lift it, his gaze
watchful.

Such a simple movement, the kind of thing anyone might do
for another. Humane, we call it, thought ‘human’ can mean so many terrible
things as well as good. A humane gesture that made me aware of his palm cupping
the back of my head, each finger supporting my skull. The way his thumb avoided
pressing against my ear, instead resting gently against the line of my jaw. I
didn’t have a word for how it made me feel, except both
good . . . and unsettled.

I shut my eyes as a cup gently bumped my lip. This time I
tasted the tea that I swallowed. It was strong, with a heady summer-herb scent.
My fingers and toes tingled pleasantly, and the warmth stayed with me enough to
enable me to make an effort to rise, to sit on my own. I heard the shift of
cloth as Hlanan moved away. With him went that sense of being unsettled.

“Here’s some fresh bread,” Kee said, appearing again at my
shoulder, her manner—shoulders hunched, gaze averted—embarrassed.

“I know,” I whispered. “You stole it.”

She grinned, blushing, as Hlanan gave a quiet chuckle. “I
didn’t dare risk being questioned,” she said with a look at Hlanan. “But it had
to be me who went out. Prince Geric sent out search parties.”

“I’m all right,” I said, annoyed at my weakness; when I
raised a hand, a sharp smell assailed my nostrils, making me sneeze. “Ugh!” I
dropped flat again. “What’s that stink? Is this place on fire?”

“You,” Kee said. “Or rather, your clothes. They were smoking
when you dropped down off that burning roof.”

“That’s how we managed to get away,” Hlanan murmured. “The
fire you caused had spread to three streets, enabling us to lose ourselves in
the general panic.”

“Here. Have some bread,” Kee said. “I’ll help you sit.”

Hlanan studied the empty cup in his hands while Kee slid
business-like hands under my armpits and eased me to a sitting position. I
munched on Kee’s bread, which was still hot from the oven. Halfway through my
second piece, Hlanan gave me a troubled glance. “Can you perform transfer
magic?”

“Ugh,” I muttered. “I don’t think I could do the smallest
shimmer right now. And the only thing I can move is air. I told you that
before.”

“You told me a lot of things,” Hlanan said gently, getting
to his feet. “There ought to be plenty of rainwater in the cistern by now. I’ll
brew more tea.”

He doesn’t believe me
anymore
. It hurt, and I had no defense against that kind of pain.
Intensifying the pain was the sense of moral outrage—I’d saved him. How dare
he . . . what? Not be grateful? Question me? What did he
actually owe me?

Kee held out another bite of bread, but I waved it off as
questions I’d never considered before insisted on worming their way through my
muddy, shocky mind. Physical awareness was returning slowly; I heard a deep,
intermittent rumbling of thunder, and realized I’d been hearing it since I
woke.

It was time to get up. I pushed myself up onto my elbows. My
vision swam sickeningly for a short time, then slowly righted itself. I saw we
were in some kind of room with dirt on the floor and a low ceiling. It was lit
by a fire a little distance away. All around us piled rubbish made a fence.
“Where are we?”