Full Circle (20 page)

There were two chairs vacant, at either end of the table. He took one and Vi took the other and there was a moment of silence.
Alston came to stand behind him, in the second’s position which, in an officer’s court, meant that there was no trust in the
host. Leof didn’t know if Vi knew that custom, but she flicked her eyes over Alston and the corners of her mouth tucked back
in a little.

“This is Reed, our leather worker,” Vi said, indicating the older man to her left. “Minnow the chandler, Sar the weaver, Drago
the ferryman, and Eel.”

Leof nodded to them all in turn, and they nodded back, silently. The lack of any trade for Eel made Leof look closely at him.
One of the Lake People, he thought, dark hair and dark eyes and skin that had spent a long time in the sun. And wise, humorous
eyes. He nodded to Leof with a smile.

Vi ceremoniously poured them each a mug of water. “Lake water, for wisdom,” she said as she passed one to Leof.

Eel dipped his finger in the water and drew a circle on the back of his hand, then drank. A sign that he belonged to the Lake?
That he respected Her power? Leof pretended not to have seen, and drank at the same time as Vi and the others. The water tasted
of nothing — or of everything: life and rock and moonlight. He shook his head to clear it of fancies. It was just water.

“What does Thegan want?” Vi asked.

“For now, he wants all the Travellers in the town,” Leof replied. There was an intake of breath around the table. “Not the
Lake People,” he assured them. “Just any Travellers who are passing through.” He had decided that it would be impossible to
sort out the Settled Travellers from the Lake People, and this partial request might possibly be granted. “There have been
massacres,” he said seriously. “Many, many Travellers have been murdered. You must have heard.”

They nodded, but kept silent, so he ploughed on. “My lord is offering sanctuary to all Travellers in his Domains. Messages
have gone to Cliff Domain, as well, instructing his officers to protect Travellers, to gather them together in Cliffhold and
keep them safe. He is doing the same in Central.”

“But we are not part of Central Domain.” It was the youngest of them, Minnow, a red-headed woman with startling blue eyes.
She was someone Leof would have appreciated before he knew Sorn.

Leof chose his words carefully. “It’s true you have not traditionally been part of Central Domain, but I think you must realise
that you are now part of Lord Thegan’s territory.”

“So, Lord Leof, are you come to tell us our days as a free town are over?” Vi asked.

There was no way to soften the truth. “They were over some time ago, Voice. My lord has had no objections from other warlords
to his intentions for Baluchston. Your independence is long gone.”

They sat for a moment, taking that in.

“Others have tried to conquer the Lake in the past,” Eel said softly.

Leof hesitated. He would not insult the Lake to these people. Not only would it make them antagonistic, Leof felt that it
was profoundly dangerous to belittle the Lake so close to it. And whether Thegan would approve or not, he was going to honour
that feeling.

“The Lake is the Lake,” he said. “But my lord is able to bring armies on either side, this time. And he will have learnt from
the last encounter. He won’t try the same thing twice. And he will not give up.” Leof spaced out the last words, because they
had to understand Thegan; they had to believe he was implacable.

“Nor will She,” Eel said.

Vi put her hand on his arm. “Eel, I think what my lord Leof thinks about the Lake and what his master thinks may be very different.”

Leof forced himself not to look at Alston. Alston hadn’t been part of the attack on the Lake, and he had no understanding
of how powerful She could be.

“The Travellers are at risk as soon as they set foot on the road,” he said. “We will take them to safety.”

“They are safe already,” the older man, Reed, said, “safer than they could ever be in a warlord’s fort!”

“Are you sure?” Leof asked. “Are you sure the Lake can protect you against the dead?”

“It’s not the dead we have to fear,” Eel said softly. “It’s what will follow them.”

Leof decided that he had said enough. “Extend our invitation to the Travellers here. We will be in the town square tomorrow,
two hours after dawn, to take them to safety.” He stood up and bowed to them all, a gesture Thegan would not have approved
of. And he could not tell them of the consequences of disobedience, or they would take to the Lake and be outside his reach.
“I wish you a good night.”

Leof left without looking back, but he could hear, and they said nothing until he was outside the shop. “Come on,” he said
to Alston. “Let’s eat.”

Alston paced silently by his side over to the inn. Just outside, he turned and said, “My lord, is the Lake so powerful?”

Leof paused, weighing his words. “I believe the Lake and the gods work together for our good. And that their power is Hers.”

“Hers?”

Leof grinned. “Oh, yes, sergeant. She’s definitely female. And that should be enough to tell us not to cross her!”

The town council was waiting in the square in the morning, the Lake behind them blindingly bright in the morning sun. Leof
shaded his eyes and looked around the square, but of course there were no Travellers waiting compliantly to be herded off.
Just the council, and behind them the people of Baluchston, standing in family groups, waiting. They didn’t seem concerned.
He noticed that some of them wore that smirk that meant they expected a good show. Leof’s pride flicked at him. They seemed
to think he was negligible, that Thegan could be flouted with impunity.

They would have to learn.

“Voice of Baluchston,” he said formally, pitching his voice so it could be heard right across the square, “I am come to escort
the Travellers of this place to safety.”

“Sure enough,” Vi said. “We’re here and ready.”

She swept a hand to indicate the people behind her. All of them.

He kept his face under tight control. “I informed you yesterday that we are inviting only those of Traveller blood to the
fort.”

Aye,” Vi said. “So it is. All of us in Baluchston have the old blood, one way or another. There’s been a lot of marrying with
the Lake People over the years. If your lord wants to protect all of the old blood, he’ll have to take us all. The whole town.”

Leof fought down a smile. Swith, she was a cunning old fox! She knew Thegan couldn’t possibly accommodate all of them. But
they had, in a way, defied his lord, and he could not allow that, so it was time to fall back on the second part of Thegan’s
orders.

He had given his instructions back in camp, so when he raised his hand and dropped it the men went forward smartly, two to
a councillor, riding them down and scooping them up without warning. It was a trick Thegan had used in battle before, to isolate
the Ice King’s officers from their men. They whooped as they split into pairs and targeted a councillor, bending down and
grabbing one armpit each. Once the man was in the air, the right hand rider bent further to get an arm under the knees and
flip him up over the opposite withers. It was a little harder with a woman, Leof noticed, and the men with Vi were having
some problems, she was so stout. The red-headed woman fought tooth and nail and drew blood with both, but the men hardly noticed
and dumped her face down with a slap on the rump for good measure.

Leof sat implacably, although something in him cheered when Eel wriggled out of the way like his namesake and ran for the
Lake. The soldiers followed, but the townspeople were in the way; they shifted unwillingly aside, and boys ran under the horses’
hooves, startling them into rearing.

Leof kicked his horse and chased him — he couldn’t let Eel escape. His speed made even the boys jump out of the way, and he
was gaining on Eel as they came to the end of the square, where the long piers stretched out into the water.

His gelding’s hooves drummed onto the wooden boards of the pier and the horse spooked, planting his forefeet solidly, refusing
to move, shaking all over. Leof almost fell. He jumped off instead and ran flat out after Eel, but there was a moment, just
a moment, when his legs had to adjust to being on solid ground, and he was a pace or two behind when Eel, still running, flew
straight off the end of the pier, and leapt high in the air, arms flailing. He hit the water and disappeared and only then
did Leof realise that the people of Baluchston had been cheering Eel on, as now they fell silent, waiting for him to come
back up.

Leof scanned the surface methodically. The water stayed an unbroken silver plain, except where the current stirred up choppy
waves. Everything other than the ferry boats was swept away in that current, to the waterfall that fell hundreds of feet to
the Hidden River. Leof wondered if even the Lake could save a man from that. He waited until there was no possibility that
Eel was still holding his breath, still swimming under water, and then turned and walked slowly back, leading the gelding
gently onto the solid earth and mounting. The stories of old battles said the Lake could move a man through time, into the
future or the past — he wondered if she had done so to Eel, to keep him safe, or if he were drifting down the Hidden River,
food for the fish.

“Regroup,” he ordered his men, and they came, four of them with struggling councillors across their saddlebows. Three, rather.
Vi just lay there like a sack of meal. He couldn’t stop to check on her now. He pushed his gelding to a trot and the others
followed, the people in the square running after them, some pleading, some cursing, some threatening.

“The Lake will save them!” one old woman screamed, eyes blazing, and Leof believed her, which was why they were not stopping
anywhere within wave’s reach. He managed to manoeuvre his horse to Vi’s side and found that she was stoically staring upwards,
mouth compressed.

She glared at him. “Didn’t warn us about this, did you?” she accused him.

“Would you rather I had razed your town?” he asked. “I follow my lord’s orders.” He moved away before she could elicit more
guilt from him.

Three miles out, when he was sure the Lake could not reach them, he halted so that the councillors could climb on double with
their captors. He looked at Vi, perched precariously on the rump of a piebald mare, and his lips twitched. “Give the Voice
her own mount,” he told the soldier in front of her. “You double with Bandy.”

“Aye, my lord,” the soldier said, half resigned and half relieved.

Leof looked severely at Vi. “If you try to ride off, you’ll be shot,” he said, but he didn’t really mean it and she knew it.
The problem was, the five archers with them heard too, and put their bows at the ready. Leof looked at them and back at Vi.
“Don’t try,” he said.

She nodded. “Thegan’s orders, eh?” she said. “So you’re following a man who doesn’t even believe in the gods?”

Alston took a shocked breath. Leof paused. It would be stupid to reply directly. “Criticising the Lord Thegan is not permitted,
Mistress Vi,” he said firmly.

She sniffed, but stayed silent. She was a little pale; the ride couldn’t have been easy for her. And it wouldn’t get any better
before Sendat. Leof sighed. When he had dreamt about being a warlord’s officer, it had never been like this.

“Sendat,” he said, and his men moved off immediately, in perfect formation, with perfect trust.

Too many people trusted him, Leof thought. He couldn’t possibly satisfy them all.

It was slow riding, and instead of camping, they stayed at inns along the way. He had no orders to treat the council with
anything but respect, and rumours would soon reach the other free towns. He didn’t want to add fuel to an already dangerous
fire. If Thegan wanted to keep both Baluchston and Carlion, he had to be seen to act as though he had no choice. And he could
not treat the councillors of a free town like prisoners.

So he did not commandeer the rooms, he paid for them, as Thegan usually did, with a tax chit, and he allowed the councillors
to sleep without guards; although some were posted at the outside doors. He didn’t think they’d try to run.

Over dinner, he had asked Vi, “Did the Lake not give you instructions?” — not trying to be provocative, but wanting truly
to know.

May be she sensed that, because she stared at him steadily for a moment, and then said, “Aye. She did. We’re buying time,
lad.”

“Time for what?”

“Time for the enchanter to be defeated,” Reed answered for her.

Leof had leant forward, as focused as he was during battle. “How?” he demanded.

Vi patted his hand, for all the world like she was his grammer. “Don’t you worry, lad, the gods have it in hand.”

“How many people will die before they settle it?” he said, remembering the bodies in the farmyard, his men at Bonhill, screaming
as the wind wraiths feasted.

She paused, her face clouded. “Well, now, the gods don’t worry much about deaths,” she said. “Death and life, it’s all the
same thing to them. But coming back from death — that’s a worry, and no mistake.”

“There’s things unseen in the world, lad,” Reed broke in, his voice husky. “And things that aren’t meant to be seen. The Lake
says the enchanter could open the doors to the cold hell, and let the soul eaters in.”

Leof could feel the blood leave his face. “They’re
real?
” he said. He had always believed the soul eaters were a fireside story, a terror made up to scare children into being good:
“If you don’t do what you’re told, when you die the soul eaters will get you and you’ll never be reborn!” Horrible images
filled his mind, ghouls that waited beyond death and ate the souls of the evil, the vain, the cowardly… There was no
compact with the soul eaters as there was with the wraiths. If they entered the world of the living, it would not stay alive
very long.

Vi gazed at him. “Aye, lad, they’re real. And they’re hungry. So it seems to me that your lord should concentrate on finding
that enchanter.”