Shadow Over Avalon (24 page)

“Your blanket is no match for autumn chills. We share when one of us is in need.”

“Is that a command?” Shadow said, suspicious of his motives.

“Yes, I believe I’ll stretch a point to make it so. I’ve no wish to share the cold you’ll catch. Cooperation has its limits.” Copper got comfortable, following her with his eyes. “I didn’t go through meditation to sleep alone. Don’t you know how fort girls tease us? They know we would be cut down in moments if we remembered our sex. It’s a very cruel game we all learn to ignore.”

Shadow decided to take his words for truth since she had no alternative. She was so cold, and his body radiated enormous heat. Despite his greasy hair, he didn’t smell that bad, nor did she mind his arms around her as they brought added warmth.

“You’re fevered,” she said.

“Never cuddled up to a brother before? We’re all hot. Sisters have another problem. Strange you’re so late coming to it.” He touched her cheek. “So smooth,” he whispered, holding tight when she started to struggle. “Relax, will you? I’m trying to get some sleep.”

Shadow didn’t relax, not until his breathing became regular. She did not know what to make of him. One moment he was outrageously suggestive and the next detached. A man who held authority over a thousand, but who traveled without an armed escort, such a man merited study. As he had chosen to take her to Outcast Haven himself, she should have many opportunities. Shadow began to wonder what problems dark sisters endured while she basked in Copper’s heat.

Over the days that followed they rode through rugged landscape. Gone were the gently rolling chalk hills, replaced by vast, dark forests, which in turn gave way to bleak foothills, scarred by protruding rocks, standing proud like time-weathered gravestones. Copper refused to speak, forcing Shadow to study the Brethren sign language. He insisted she learn how to hunt, and prepare the catch for cooking. Only once did they disagree, when Shadow found a berry bush at the edge of camp one evening. She picked a handful to provide a welcome change of fare from their diet of waybread, smoked meat and game and looked on in disbelief as Copper dumped her find into an oilskin to stow with his other goods.

“This is the sign for berries,” he said, and demonstrated. “Now go strip the bush. We could use dried fruit in the winter. Not one berry crosses your lips or I’ll make you vomit. We’re one day from the passes to Haven, dangerous at this time of year, swarming with vortai. We can’t make unplanned stops with them hunting, however urgent the need.”

“What are vortai?”

“Imagine a white snake, about twenty feet long and two feet in girth They’re blind, hunt by scent, heat and vibration. Every fall they swarm to the blanket bogs surrounding Haven to find mates. Now do you understand why we must speak by sign?”

Shadow did. The thought of enormous snakes sickened her.

“Why make base camp in such a place?” She shuddered.

“The whole area is riddled with shafts and caverns housing vortai. They discourage other unwelcome visitors. We don’t want outsiders to start taking head counts. Besides, vortai never come near the blue caverns. It’s a good trade off.”

There were cold rations for them that night, since bleak highlands sported a few stunted trees growing and no deadfall, nor enough green wood to provide even smoky warmth. Shadow snuggled up close to Copper after supper, burrowing her head into his shoulder.

“Do Shades have forts?” he said, putting an arm around her waist as he settled against his pack.

“I haven’t the words to describe their places. There are things I don’t understand, except that they work. If you make a treaty, maybe they’ll let you see.”

“So,” he mused, “If I can see their place, it means they live in air. The western Badlands, or an island, perhaps?”

“You wouldn’t believe unless you saw it for yourself.” Shadow yawned, tired, with a distinct fall off in energy. She wanted sleep.

“I’m going to miss these moonlight talks,” Copper said. He nestled his face against her hair, inhaling deeply. “You’ll never know how much I regret being too late to snatch you away while you were still a colored band.”

“Wouldn’t have succeeded,” Shadow said, yawning again.

“Wrong. I sensed no danger from the plan. One dead animal stuffed down a mineshaft out of sight to hide the deception. Large bloodstains some distance away, with no tracks between the two . . . see how easy it is to create the wrong impression of predator attack?”

“Then you’d have no prospective treaty,” Shadow said.

“True. But I think the Shades would’ve caught another of us for their purpose.”

Shadow didn’t argue. He thought her Brethren, not a half-breed, and he called Submariners ‘Shades’. How would he look at her if he knew the truth?

Rain hammered down during the night, soaking both of them. Shadow nestled against her warm King, wishing she had his internal furnace. Both were tired by the time the sun came up. Copper signed instead of speaking. His eyes had that mole-blind look of intense concentration, so Shadow waited until he was rolling up their sodden bedding before she tried to sneak her hand into the berry hoard. She had just closed round a handful when a sharp whack on her backside made her leap away in shock.

“Don’t ever disobey a direct command again. It doesn’t signify while we’re alone, but do so in Haven and it’ll be a direct challenge to my authority. We’d have to fight then. Know that if you won a death duel, Brethren wouldn’t follow you.”

“I only wanted a few berries,” Shadow said, chastened.

“The reason isn’t important. They will turn your bowels to water after plain fare. I can’t prevent the consequences.”

“It won’t happen again.”

He grabbed her shoulders, his expression sad. Slowly, deliberately, he lowered his face to hers, touching his lips to hers. Shadow didn’t fight him, aware of his barely controlled anger.

“Don’t ever challenge a predator on his own turf again.”

When Shadow mounted up in front of him, his arm snaked around her in a tight, possessive hold. His inner tension flowing through that limb, making the muscles rock hard, matching her unease. She delved inward, seeking those memories of Brethren. How had her survival instinct functioned under Nestine torment to let her keep this knowledge? Outcasts lost gender in the eyes of others. This fact surfaced, yet what of each other? She felt dead inside, unstirred by any except Ector, who had almost earned friendship from her before Boy needed gifting. But what of Brethren? Copper’s deliberate meditation warned her that the male need persisted after sentence. His allusions to dark sisters came to mind. Did Nestine torment descend to such sublime depths? Were brothers left unscathed while sisters became neuters?

The blanket bogs spread before them at midday, smooth, flat areas of liquid ooze without even a hummock of vegetation standing proud, stinking of rot and decay. Occasional ripples in mud sent ominous warnings. Copper altered their course when clouds of steam hissed from the brown morass. Shadow fought a silent battle not to scan, not to mar Copper’s vision. All afternoon, they plodded forward at a slow pace, sometimes stopping for an age. Firm land came in sight by sunset with the rise of the dark peaks from the skirts of the bog. A brief fringe of spindly trees separated the tussocks and water from the patchy grass beyond.

A violent explosion of mud erupted in two spots to the front. The blind white head of a vortai emerged from the cascading mud. A gaping pink maw rushed toward them. Her mind clicked into a higher state. Time slowed to a crawl. A wave of sheer anger flew at the slimy head, catching it in a vise of willpower, forcing it to rear up, inch by slow inch, into a full circle to float back in a gentle curve. Walls of mud rose around it, rising like waves of part frozen water. The crash of an immense body broke Shadow’s concentration. Other vortai undulated to the thrashing mass at a frightening speed. Copper strangled a coarse oath, spurring his mount into a full gallop. Behind them a feeding frenzy began.

Copper didn’t slow or look back once, when they reached firm ground, he urged greater speed on his terrified horse. He didn’t know, couldn’t know that Shadow had taken over the minds of both mounts. Slowed time enveloped her consciousness – to her, each stride lasted an age. Her will maintained an impenetrable barrier to the senses of any other life forms. Energy flowed from every cell to preserve the effort, too great a price for any to sustain. At last, exhaustion claimed her.

Familiar, earthy, underground smells of burning pitch and cooking, along with sounds of people, awakened Shadow. Two torches burned from wall sconces, and some attempt had been made to relieve a rough rock wall. Daubed caricatures of mounted hunters decorated the uneven surface.

Dried rushes covered the floor to a passage outside, which she could just see under a leather door-hanging. The place had enough room for a rough-made stool and a fur-covered bed, on which someone had dumped her, fully clothed.

Angry voices shattered the peace; a woman’s shrill tones of outrage and Copper’s voice growling in answer came within earshot.

“Our area. You’ve no right in here,” the woman said.

“Active members are under my authority, regardless of gender.”

“She’s a Shade spy with their magic, not one of your men. It doesn’t make her any different from us,” the same woman argued, much closer now.

“Helga, I caught her after Grimes field duty. They thought she was worth hiring. I’ve seen her battle scars, not the sort you get peeling tubers. She was a War Maid, now she’s an active member, to whom I have full rights, wherever she’s billeted.”

There was an ominous pause, as if the two faced each other down.

“If I find my way blocked again, I’ll move her to our section, which I might do anyway. She’s a potential danger far better placed among those fitted to subdue her.”

“Copper, no! We tolerate Colored Band pleasure women. We ignore catamite behavior among the men, but this is our
sister
. She can’t move from the women’s quarters.”

“Out of my way.” This last came in the chilling tones of Brethren. The curtain wrenched aside to admit the Outcast King, his face set into angry lines.

“So you are awake. Heard all of that?”

Shadow nodded, recognizing the killer in him for the first time.

“No arguments?”

“I’m a singleton, a sport. This is a Brethren place with Brethren rules. Whatever your wish, my King.”

“My wish . . .
my
wish? I wish I’d caught you before sentence, before Shade interference.” He hooked the stool with one foot, sitting down to confront her on a level. Some of the tension appeared to seep out of him.

“I am here as ambassador for Shades,” Shadow reminded him. “Not to cause trouble. It matters little where I sleep.”

“Truly, those are the most sensible words spoken in the last few hours. Helga expects new sisters to fit in a standard mold, but I can’t see you peeling tubers or washing clothes. Would an alcove, just like this one, in our space be acceptable? Or am I going to hear another hysterical tirade?” He poured water from a flagon into a single tankard and passed it to her.

Shadow sipped, using the time to organize her thoughts. “Colored Bands are pleasure girls, the other thing, men loving each other . . . it happens in armies. I trust you. Can I trust men to leave me in peace? Forget it. The suggestion wouldn’t have been made otherwise.”

Copper looked at her with much greater respect. The harsh lines vanished from his face. “Would moving now be possible? I’d rather not have another scene with my headwoman.” He eased off the stool.

Shadow tried standing. She was bone tired, and her legs threatened to crumple under her. Copper scooped her up into his arms as if she weighed no more than a child. He carried her through women’s caverns, while the pressure of outraged stares struck them from behind alcove curtains. She shifted self-consciously.

“Won’t your wife be even more upset? I’m sure I could manage to walk.”

“My wife?”

“Helga, the headwoman.”

Copper laughed – a harsh outpouring. “Sisters are purged of natural needs at sentencing, as I thought you’d know from personal experience,” he said, confirming her suspicions. “We try to provide as normal a life as possible for them, and that doesn’t include unwelcome relationships. Helga is an able administrator, and my friend, as I hope you will be.”

“And the pleasure women?”

“Are those we were able to snatch away before sentencing. They are free to form any liaisons they please, or none, as the fancy takes them. Not one of them would swap their life for that of a full sister.”

“You came for me,” Shadow said. “How did you know?”

“All fey brothers have this ability. There’s a disturbance in normal emissions for a particular area when we think of it. We always get stronger sensations when a woman’s involved. Never once have we managed to rescue a male before sentencing.”

“The earrings don’t inhibit your ability to foresee,” Shadow guessed.

“Clever, sister.” His arms squeezed just a fraction tighter.

They came to a large cavern where brothers were lounging, some drinking, some eating, and some playing dice.

“Hungry?” Copper asked.