Sasharia En Garde (7 page)

Sun leaned against the moldy wall.
Tall, many braids. Hawk nose
. Sasha was here. She was alive. She
was also free, and had escaped Canary’s clutches, in spite of a fight.

All right, then. Food first. Sleep. Where to begin the
search? The brief reference to a pirate made no sense, but “the Eban brats”
did. Obviously Sasha was on her way to Steward Eban.
And so thither go I.

One of the many euphemisms for chamber pot is ‘necessary.’
I can introduce the necessary topic once and then never again. It was a relief,
oh, what a relief, to be able to use the Waste Spell.

When I was ten and new to Earth, I had to learn about
toilets. Let me sum it all up in one word: yuk. The Waste Spell did
work—sometimes—as magical influence ebbed and flowed through the Gate. But
since using the spell involves saying the word at the same time you let go,
well, you can imagine how trustworthy that spell turned out to be on Earth.

We paused and drank from a stream, after which I used the
spell, celebrating inwardly at the notion of no more restroom hunts.

We rode on.

Conversation was tense and desultory, mostly between Elva
and her brother as they brangled about where to go. I was so tired I only
wanted to sleep, so I was content to follow, listen, and breathe in the fresh
air. Zathdar seemed busy keeping watch.

When it was too dark to travel, we camped in a small
clearing under a clump of low-hanging willow. When Elva and Devli began yet
another argument about whether or not they could risk a fire, Zathdar said,
“You have a Fire Stick, right?” And on their twin nods, “No one will search for
the same reason we’re camping. They can’t see to travel at night any better
than we can. As soon as we get these animals rubbed down, I’ll pace the
perimeter, make sure the fire isn’t visible.”

Elva pulled the packs off the horses before Devli and
Zathdar led the animals a few yards away to where a stream trickled. Elva took
a Fire Stick from her pack. She snapped it into flame and made a gesture that
would keep the flame low.

Presently Devli returned and sank down with a sigh. “Horses
are fine.”

Zathdar returned shortly after. “As I thought, these woods
are dense. Fire’s invisible on all side but from up the trail. Whichever of us
is on guard could probably hear any pursuit before they could see the glow.”

Devli mouthed the word “Guard?” and Elva scowled again.

Zathdar hitched the rapier over his shoulder on a baldric,
checked the other blade, then chose a grassy spot from which he could see the
trail and us. While the siblings exchanged low-voiced talk about bedrolls,
feedbags and stored food, I took out my splendid embroidered blanket to spread
on the soft green grass.

In the sudden silence, foliage rustling in the summer breeze
and the snap of the low fire were distinct. The ruddy glow revealed three faces
staring at the glinting firebirds embroidered in gold thread on the scarlet
background, surrounded by silver-edged white blossoms.

“If anyone wants proof of who you are,” Zathdar commented,
“that banner is it.”

“Right now,” I said, fighting a yawn, “it’s a bedroll. In
the morning it goes back into my bag. And no, I won’t ditch it. My father gave
it to me.”

Devlaen stared at me, Elva stared at the firebird blanket,
and Zathdar glanced in the direction of my bag, then away into the darkness.

Nobody spoke.

I fell asleep so fast I don’t even remember stretching out.

Crackling twigs woke me, and the smell of fresh tea. The sky
through the trees was low and gray, the air cool and misty. I sat up,
shivering, and accepted gladly a somewhat-battered travel cup from Devli, whose
face looked as grimy as mine felt.

The tea tasted like a fine Gyokoro green tea at home,
refreshing and above all, warm. I’d forgotten that summers on this world were
usually cooler than Earth’s. Khanerenth lay at the eastern end of the enormous
continent that stretched a good way around the southern hemisphere. Most people
lived on this continent, I’d learned, in part because there was more sun, but
in part because some of the northern lands were weird and wild, not conducive
to humans building cities.

Elva snapped the fire out, and picked up the Fire Stick to
stow away in her pack.

“Where is Zathdar?” I asked.

“He was gone before we woke.” Elva grinned. “Hope that means
he’s gone for good.”

“No.” Devli cocked his head.

We all heard the thud and crunch of horse hooves on the
trail.

Elva flushed, though we could all see that he was as yet too
far away to have heard.

Zathdar appeared, leading his horse by the reins. “Time to
move briskly. The king investigated the tower himself last night. And he knows
you are here.” A glance my way.

Elva put her hands on her hips. “You found this out how?”

“I dispatched watchers before I met up with you. I also set
up a possible rendezvous, which I kept while you were all asleep.”

“Watchers.” Devli said only the one word, but the look he
gave his sister made it clear that once again they’d forgotten an important
detail in their own plans.

Elva scowled as we mounted up. The horses, refreshed after a
night of rest, trotted with head-rocking enthusiasm down the narrow trail.

We were low enough now to see the broad stream that all the
mountain trickles were feeding into. The constant rush of white water
paralleled us as the trail twisted between steep slopes, green with tough
grass, gnarly pine and moss-covered rocks. The mist increased to drifting
streamers of fog; the forest canopy was so thick we heard the constant splat,
splat, splat of water on leaves.

I stayed out of their sporadic talk, which was mostly about
the trail and where the searchers might be.

I was awake and alert enough to consider my options. The day
before all I could do was follow along and try to keep my eyes open. Now,
though I was hungry, thirsty, and still tired, at least I could think.

So . . . what should I do? No use in going
back to the castle. Even if I knew any World Gate transfer magic, which I
didn’t, if the king’s men were there, I’d walk straight into their clutches
without them having to break a sweat. And while we’d managed to fight our way
free of yesterday’s guys, I wasn’t going to count on that twice. Especially
alone.

That left me with my companions. Should I ditch them? Good
thing: they had rescued me from capture in the courtyard. Bad thing: at least
two of them had been part of forcing me through the World Gate in the first
place. Therefore I did not owe them anything.

We paused once on a cliff, and I drew up beside Zathdar. He
slanted a questioning look at me. I said, “I assume the World Gate tower is
guarded.”

“You can’t go back. They’re watching for you to do that.”

I laid the reins along my horse’s neck. The animal
obligingly swung round and stopped, blocking the trail so the brother and
sister drew to a halt. “Before we go on, I wish you would tell me why you
forced me through that Gate.”

Devlaen sent a pleading look at his sister, but she studied
her saddlebag as though it held the One Ring.

“I told you.” Devlaen fiercely rubbed grit from his eyes.
“It was a promise made to your father. If he vanished we were to wait ten
years, then perform a specific spell. It brought us a letter he’d written,
telling us where you and your mother were. But the letter disappeared, and we
were afraid the king also got that information. We thought it best to get you
two safely back here, where we could guard you.” His face reddened. “I know
what that sounds like. But we were going to bring you only for your own good!”

I decided against a pithy opinion about what they could do
with their notions of ‘my own good.’ “Go on.”

“My mage tutor was certain they were ordered to offer you
anything you wanted if you would go back with them. They were not well
prepared. I don’t think anyone was surprised when they came back empty handed,
but rumor has it the king demanded that they cross over to that world before we
could. So when they returned without you or your mother, they had the World
Gate transfer magic to build all over again.”

My father had told me that transfer magic took weeks and
weeks to make. It was actually a complicated layer of spells put on those
transfer tokens. “The king’s mages being two older guys? One gray haired?” I
asked.

Devli grimaced. “Magisters Perran and Zhavic.”

“My mother mentioned them once or twice. It seems weird that
they knew my mother, yet came after me first. And tried to trick me! Truth,
honor, sinister castles, secrets—”

Devli shrugged. “All that is in the records. When your
mother first came, she said she liked such things. So the mages tried to lure
you with them, the fools.”

“Yes, but at least they tried truth and justice. They didn’t
pretend to be a lawyer!”

“Heh.” Devli’s shoulders now shrugged up around his ears,
which were as red as his face. He said with the air of a guy picking his way
over a minefield, “When your mother wouldn’t come with me, I had to find you.
It took some time, because you’d changed location. And, see, we’ve notes from
your father. About what he really saw on that world. So I had to find you, lay
a false trail for Perran and Zhavic, and put together a plan. And. Um.”

“Lied and tricked me. Yes. As I just said. What I’m trying
to get at is why.”

“I told you, they’re
after
you—”

Zathdar had been watching the sky, the fog-blurred treetops,
and the shadowy trail that vanished under the forest canopy. I couldn’t see or
hear anything amiss, but apparently he heard enough to cut in, “I think the
rest of the explanation should wait on more trustworthy surroundings.”

Without waiting for an answer, he urged his horse down the
trail, and we followed, Elva with many backward glances. Beyond the next bend
we found the white water of the river where our mountain stream poured in. The
bend after that revealed that the river had smoothed and widened. We rode along
its bank. I clutched my gear bag to my side, wishing I had more answers. One
thing seemed certain, on land I had more freedom of movement. On a ship, I’d be
stuck.

We rounded the last hill and there, anchored fore and aft in
the middle of the river, lay a pirate ship.

I had the haziest memory of ships from childhood, due to
nighttime smugglings on and off, and being hidden in holds. Since then, I
hadn’t learned much more beyond what I’d read in the novels of Patrick O’Brian,
but when I saw that graceful, wickedly lean schooner with its tall, raked-back
masts, the long gaff mainsails and the reefed topsail, the narrow hull with the
half-deck forecastle and aftcastle, I knew instantly it could be nothing but a
pirate ship.

And I longed to be on it.

“Like my
Hurricane
?”

Reluctantly I shifted my gaze, to find Zathdar riding beside
me, smiling. I asked, “What chance would you give for me sneaking back into the
tower?”

“Why?” he countered, his smile fading, his eyes watchful.

“Because at the very least I need to send a message to warn
my mother. I vanished without leaving any word. I know she’ll be after me,
soon’s she figures it out.”

He stared down at his ship, brow furrowed. “If you go back
to that tower and transfer between worlds, I’d say your chances of leading the
king’s mages straight to her would be high.”

“Oh.” I didn’t bother telling him I couldn’t even do a
transfer.

He moved forward again, a kind of nonverbal coercion, and to
test it I said, “Aren’t you in a bit of a hurry to get us aboard that ship? I
mean, I don’t see any danger on the road back up on the hill.”

Elva’s head turned sharply, her mist-washed face wary.

“Just because you don’t see it doesn’t mean it isn’t there.”
Zathdar lifted a hand, indicating the forest-covered mountain we’d just ridden
out of. “The search will be going out in rings. With the king there himself,
instead of War Commander Randart, they will be even more determined to be the
ones to nail you down. Then there’s the fact that they will have heard from the
defeated warriors that I was there.”

“And?” I winced, realizing the implications at last. “Oh, I
didn’t think of that. What, a blockade?”

“I expect the king’s messengers are riding belly flat to the
ground to all the signal points right this moment, yes. And while I don’t mind
running a blockade, I prefer to choose the time, and the place, if I can.”

“So what you are proposing,” I said, “is that we all take
ship, and you’ll let us off somewhere out of the range of the search?”

“Yes.”

“Sounds fair to me.” I was relieved at having made a
decision. “Lead on.”

Elva sighed in disgust. Devlaen did not hide his relief.

We soon reached the pirate ship, which the crew had edged
downstream while we were closing the distance. The lee rail had been anchored
fairly close to an outcropping. A gangplank had been extended to a broad,
mostly flat granite rock. A young boy ran over experimentally as Zathdar rode
ahead of us.

Zathdar dismounted and handed his reins to the boy. He
hefted his travel pack from the horse and slung it over the opposite shoulder
from his sword as he waited for us to dismount.

The boy, maybe twelve, grinned as he collected my reins. The
other two left their horses with him and retrieved their packs. I tucked my
gear bag tightly under my armpit.

Devli trod first over the gangway. One by one we jumped onto
the deck, Zathdar last. Behind us, the boy mounted a horse and led the other
animals back up the trail, where they were soon swallowed by the woods.

“That kid going to be okay?” I asked.

“Okay?” Zathdar repeated the English word.

“Safe. Fine. Good.”

“Ah. Yes. He’s my local eyes. His uncle runs an inn, so the
horses will become part of his lending stock before we clear the estuary.”