Riven (The Arinthian Line Book 2) (33 page)

Haylee sighed loudly. A chair screeched as someone rose. “Ugh, this place is so gross, how did your Aunt survive living alone in these … conditions?”

When Robin didn’t bother responding, there was the sound of pacing. “So you think she was telling the truth? Were they really here?”

Robin smacked the table. “I told you I don’t know! Auntie Erika was a black sheep in the family.”

“Oh? Why was that?”

“Well, for one, she was almost expelled from the academy when she was our age.”

“For what?”

“Theft. They said she stole some ancient artifact. It was a real scandal. The family leaned on the council and they reinstated her, not that they had any real proof she stole it. Anyway, she wasn’t here alone all this time, she’s had that nasty little pet of hers to keep her company.”

“Not hers anymore.”

“Whatever, I don’t care. If the gutterborns were ever here, they’re long gone now. The hounds will track them down eventually. The Legion always gets its way, and I’m learning from the best when it comes to the art of the question. Did you know I questioned five people over the last few days?
Five
.”

“Five whole people,” Haylee said, sounding bored.

“Yeah, seriously. First there was that idiot trapper, who had to be put down for desertion and impudence—so what if I accidentally lit his mutt on fire? It was only a stupid
dog
—”

Augum exchanged another look with the girls. So
that’s
what happened to poor Frankie the Trapper and his loveable hound!

“Don’t be harming any more animals, Robin Scarson.”

“Are you deaf? I
told
you it was an accident—”

“And the kitten at the academy?”

“That wasn’t my fault! Anyway, then there was that foul stinking rat that doesn’t deserve to be our great lord’s son—can’t wait to get my hands on him again. Next time I’ll make him suffer so much his dead mother will hear the screams.

“Then I had the pleasure of putting my new healer to the question. I assure you she won’t be trying to escape. Should have seen her bawl. Easier to break than a twig—”

Augum felt his blood boil. Even imagining Mya in that iron room with Robin made him want to rush in there and deliver a Dap-style beating. Almost as if knowing his thoughts, he felt Leera’s hand on his shoulder, giving it a squeeze.

“Then I trained a little on this complete moron farmer that supposedly freed all the prisoners, though how he could have done that is beyond me. Man was as thick as an oak. Probably did it by accident if anything. The only reason he still lives is his sons have signed up to the cause.” He paused. “How many is that now?”

“Don’t know.”

“Oh yeah, and now would you believe I’ve had to put my own aunt to the question? Huh?”

“Huh,” Haylee echoed in dull tones, still pacing the room.

Robin chuckled. “Truthfully though it was kind of fun. I don’t really feel sorry for her. She’s always been stingy with presents.”

“The commander says your aunt’s lying, you know. I think he’s planning on having her flayed or something.”

“Yeah well the Blade of Sorrows thinks everyone is lying half the time …”

“Careful what you say, people might get the wrong impression.”

“You threatening me—?”

“Don’t be paranoid.”

Robin sighed. “Haven’t been seeing much success with raising walkers yet, and I don’t want to return to the academy without spawning at least one wraith.”

“That’s way beyond your degree.”

“We’ll see. All I’ve managed to do was raise a bunch of old fogeys at some cemetery, and they were useless, running off almost immediately. One day though, one day I’ll raise them like Lord Sparkstone does.”

Augum wondered if it was one of Robin’s walkers he had run into by the trapper’s cabin
.

“The great lord himself is going to instruct you when he gets back from capturing the crone. You should feel honored.”

“Mind your tone.”

Haylee stopped pacing. “Excuse me?”

“You heard me, girl.”

“I’m not your ‘girl’, nor am I one of your slaves, Robin Scarson. I’m a highborn—”

“Why don’t you just shut up—”

“How
dare
—”

“You heard me. Shut. Up.”

A tense silence passed as the trio exchanged looks.

“I suppose you’re right,” Robin continued as if nothing had happened, “he
did
reward me with my own healer after all. I’m going to drag her back to the academy and make her carry all my books. Wish I brought her along today, she could have made me lunch. Probably better company too.” He cackled like a vulture.

Augum felt queasy. Robin had left Mya behind in Tornvale. Worse still, she was going to be his personal slave.

Suddenly there was the sound of boots on the stairs, ascending quickly. He and the girls barely had time to meld back in the shadows, hoping the soldiers did not advance beyond the room.

“My lord, Commander Tridian found some tracks he thinks might belong to the fugitives. You are instructed to come at once.”

“Finally! Come on, Hayles, let’s get out of this miserable dump.” The sound of movement. “Well, you coming, girl? Silent treatment, huh? Whatever, you can stay here and rot for all I care.”

He blew by with a gang of guards. At last, Haylee followed, sniffling quietly.

The Chase

“Here—have one of these.” Leera handed Augum a piece of buttered bread, the remains of the food the Legion had not confiscated or eaten.

He took it and stared at it dully, envisioning sweeping back to Tornvale and rescuing Mya from the Legion’s clutches.

“How are you feeling, Aug, ready to press on?” Bridget asked, riffling through a cupboard. The girls had been searching the kitchen trying to find anything they could take for the coming journey. So far they had found two loaves of journey bread, raisins, nuts, sunflower seeds, dried cherries, two winter apples, and some dried strips of salmon. All he had done was slump in one of the ebony chairs.

Bridget sat down across from him, leaning forward while he played with the chunk of bread. “Aug, I’m really sorry about Mya, I really am, but you know we can’t go back. We have to find Mrs. Stone. Don’t be sad. Now come help us find food for the journey.” She gave Leera a look.

Leera strode over and slapped him on the back. “Come on, you warlock, we could use your help here.”

He sighed and took a bite of the bread, knowing the girls were right. They couldn’t go back to get Mya, it’d be foolish and dangerous, not to mention it’d send them even further away from Mrs. Stone, and if there was anyone who could save Mya now, it was Nana.

He finished his bread and half-heartedly helped search the place. After some more rummaging, the trio found flint and steel, but nothing else of use. Bridget and Leera then tried using Unconceal. Strangely, both were guided to the same spot underneath the table.

Leera dropped to her knees and crawled under. “Oh, it’s just one of Erika’s earrings …”

“Maybe it’s valuable and we can sell or trade it,” he said.

She tossed it to Bridget, who raised it to the light of the candelabra.

Augum, who at that moment happened to glance at Erika’s seeing orb resting on a chair, saw an eye open within. He recoiled away. “I think Erika just saw us …”

“Oh no …” Leera whispered.

“Wait a moment,” Bridget said. “I just saw
you
,
Aug, but from down low, almost as if I was looking
through
the orb.”

“Well, I just saw an eye open in the orb …”

There was a communal sigh of relief.

“The earring must be the key then!” Leera said. “She must have hidden it so the Legion wouldn’t confiscate it. She probably thought she could get it back later!”

“It’s kind of easy to use too. Here, you try it.” Bridget handed the pearl earring over to Leera. A moment later, an eye opened inside the orb.

Leera inspected the earring closer. She popped the pearl out of its clipping. “Hey, look at that—she had it mounted on an earring to conceal it. Clever …”

“Now all we have to do is figure out how to see through it without the eye showing up in the orb,” Bridget said.

“And how to lock it into place,” he said, receiving it from Leera. It was finely engraved, much like ivory carvings he had seen at the village market. He practiced watching through the orb. It was bizarre to see from a wholly different location that had nothing to do with his body. The actual visual was kind of like closing one eye and viewing through curved glass. He couldn’t look through his own eyes and the orb at the same time either—it had to be one or the other, which explained why Erika had not checked in on them. She was too busy paying attention to her questioning.

Then he realized something. “We just have to remember that when we use the orb to snoop, someone can listen in on us.”

Bridget began gathering the supplies into a tablecloth. “We’ll just have to be careful then.”

Leera covered her eyes with her hand. “Okay, I can’t watch your eye anymore, Aug. It’s kind of freaky.”

“How about now?”

“That’s better, it’s gone.”

“But I can still see you!” He said, thinking he may have just figured out one of the mysteries.

“What? How?” She inspected the orb.

“Hi!” he yelled, opening his eye at the same time.

She shrieked. “Ugh, you foul—” and punched him hard on the shoulder.

“Come on, it was funny,” he said, rubbing his arm.

“Anyway, how did you do it?”

“Best way I can describe it is I just thought the word ‘hide’ while still watching through the orb.”

“Oh, that’s all? So I suppose in order to lock it you just have to think the word ‘lock’?”

“Let’s find out. Try and pick it up.” While peering through the pearl, he thought of the orb being locked.

She groaned trying to pick it up. “Locked. Hmm, I wonder if …” She kicked the chair out from underneath. The orb hung in mid-air, unmovable.

Bridget stopped gathering supplies. “Good job, you two. Now I hate to spoil the fun, but we should probably get going. The Legion will be back when they realize whatever tracks they’re following aren’t ours.”

Augum and Leera agreed. It was afternoon already and they had to put some distance between themselves and the Legion before nightfall, preferably without being followed.

“Let’s hope they didn’t find our stuff,” he said, grateful he had hidden the rucksack.

They wandered downstairs, briefly listening at the ground level door before walking through.

“Of course they took the horses …” he muttered upon spotting the empty spot where their palfreys had been.

His father would surely get to Mrs. Stone first now.

Losing the horses was one thing, but what about the rucksack? He searched for it while Bridget and Leera went for the barrels of blankets and biscuit beef.

“Found it,” he said, immediately checking the contents. Luckily, everything was still there—the Dreadnought dagger Blackbite, Tridian’s sheepskin map, a small leather bag of coins, Mrs. Stone’s blue book on arcaneology, and the yellow book on elements. Additionally, he packed in the orb and the supplies Bridget had wrapped in a tablecloth.

The girls rescued nine Dramask blankets and enough linen-wrapped biscuit beef to last them at least seven days. They turned him around and stuffed the beef chunks and three blankets into the rucksack. It bulged, straps already digging into his shoulders, exacerbating the pain in his chest.

The warmth was worth it, he told himself.

The trio then hurried to the iron gate, the girls burdened with three folded blankets each. They soon spotted a group of seven soldiers patrolling the outskirts of the ruins, black armor glinting in the sun. The soldiers seemed more preoccupied with a conversation they were having than being on the lookout, something Augum planned to take full advantage of.

“Leera, mind grabbing the map out?” he asked quietly, kneeling by the gate. She tugged at the rucksack and produced the sheepskin, splaying it out before them.

He traced with a finger. “All right, here’s what I’m thinking—we follow the river east a bit then head up north and cut through Blackwood here.” He tapped the bony trees.

Leera bit her lip. “I wish there was a way to arcanely message Mrs. Stone …”

“Must be possible,” Bridget said. “Although … I’ve never seen a warlock deliver a message arcanely. Come to think of it, they all used messengers or heralds.”

“Yeah and they didn’t mention anything at the academy about it,” Leera said. She nodded at the patrolling soldiers. “Let’s just steal their horses.”

“I think that’s too dangerous,” Bridget said.

“But we can’t race his father to Mrs. Stone without them.”

The girls turned to him.

“It
is
risky to steal their horses,” he began, “but the way I see it, it’s only a matter of time until the Blade of Sorrows returns with the dogs. I think we need to put as much distance between them and us as possible. That means horses. And for sure there’s no way we’d catch up to my father, who already has a head start, without them. Besides, we can take the river.”

“I suppose taking the river
would
eliminate our scent,” Bridget said. “Make it hard for the dogs. All right … let’s do it.”

Leera rolled up the map and stuffed it back into the rucksack. “Now we just have to find where they tied up their horses.”

They waited until the soldiers passed from sight behind the ruins before sneaking around the opposite side of Evergray Tower, using tracks made by the guards.

The sun warmed Augum’s face, something he had missed in Ley. Every branch on every tree wore thick coats of snow. Other than the trickle of the river and a very light breeze, it was winter quiet.

There behind the tower, they spotted the soldiers tending to their horses. They waited until the soldiers returned to their patrol back around the opposite side of the tower. As soon as the soldiers were out of sight, he and the girls crept up on the horses, some of which whinnied.

“Relax and stare at the ground,” he said to the girls. He made calm sounds, trying to appear unconcerned, something Sir Westwood had taught him. There were nine horses in all, two of which were the chestnut Bridget named Spirit and the gray he had ridden. The rest were warhorses, powerful chargers that overshadowed the two palfreys. They decided to ride as before, the girls on Spirit, Augum on the cloud-gray.