The Barrow (40 page)

Other groups of the household were clustered around their injured comrades. The man with the dislocated shoulder was doing okay, but the kitchen maid with the broken leg was clearly in agonizing pain despite the ministrations of her fellows. The wounded squire, Herefort Hrum, was unconscious, pale, and totally unresponsive; she didn't think he'd last much longer. The two youngest squires, Elbray and Enan, looked scared out of their minds. She shook her head, and turned away, not wanting to look if she didn't have to; there was nothing she could do, after all.

Coogan and Cynyr reappeared down the dock, their faces still half covered by their scarves; none of the dock workers gave them a second glance, and that confirmed in her mind that they'd had dealings with the Herlas before. She walked over to join them as they approached Lord Arduin and Sir Helgi talking to Stjepan.

“. . . if they can put us ashore at Vesslos, that'll put us close to home! Less than twenty miles,” Sir Helgi was saying somewhat eagerly.

“Perhaps . . . perhaps we can go to Araswell, and join my brother there,” said Arduin. “That will give us time to figure out what to do with Annwyn, and this cursed map . . .”

“Returning home won't save your sister, my Lord,” said Stjepan quietly. “The enchantment upon her won't leave her until we've found the barrow, on that I agree with Magister Leigh. If you prefer another opinion, we can try to find one for you, but we'd likely have to summon Magisters from the University of Truse, and that will take valuable time you do not have. All that will do is allow your opponents to maneuver while you sit in one place, waiting for news that will not help you.”

“Perhaps we can just go to Truse ourselves,” said Arduin, rubbing his temples.

“We should avoid the major roads and cities where possible, my Lord,” said Stjepan. “That is where word of the arrest warrant and news of the events of yesterday will travel fastest. Our best chance of safety is to make our way west by the less-beaten path, even if in the end we lose some time. Send the bulk of your household back to Araswell, my Lord, and have your brother summon his knights and raise the levy. They should be safe there under your brother's protection and the stout walls of the castle, at least until they send the Grand Duke. And then we should—”

“The Grand Duke?” said Sir Helgi, a troubled expression on his face as he cut Stjepan off. “You can't be serious.”

“He'll come, but not at first. I have no doubt that a force is already upon the road in our pursuit,” said Stjepan. “The night's confusion will have disappeared in the cold light of day, and they will know that we have escaped the city. There will be an argument over jurisdiction, but ultimately the responsibility will fall to the Royal Guard; the lands we have passed through are the High King's Demesne, and only his knights and vassals have power here. We've maybe until mid-morning before they're here.”

“I'm guessing it'll be Lord Constable Garin Highwain, who serves as the King's Sheriff in the Demesne,” said Coogan. “Maybe Duke Pergwyn, if someone's really angry.”

Arduin brought his hand to his head and rubbed his fingers into his temples again. He could feel a headache building.
Please don't let it be the Duke
, he thought.
Anyone but him, that would just be too humiliating.

“Aye, probably with elements of the City Watch, and the Templars will insist on their company of horse,” said Cynyr. “The forces of the Inquisition in the city are mostly for show, they're not the hard core like the temple knights out of An-Ydain or Dainphalia, but they're well harnessed and the city company is a hundred strong, and they'll be out for blood.” Arduin and Sir Helgi gave him puzzled looks.

“We met them in open and fair battle as knights,” said Sir Helgi. “We stood our ground and fought, as was our right by both law and custom.”

“Rodrick Urgoar, High Priest of the Public Temple, was the son of Oswin Urgoar, High Priest of the Inquisition in the city of Therapoli,” Stjepan said quietly.

Arduin groaned. Urgoar was a common enough name that he hadn't thought there might be a connection.
Fortune has turned against us so thoroughly
, he thought.

“But they'll only pursue you to here,” Cynyr said. “This is the limit of the Lord Constable's writ. If you'd gone by land toward the bridge at Grawton they might have chosen to pursue you anyway past the limit of his reach, like a dog with the fox's scent running past the fence . . .”

“Particularly the Templars,” said Stjepan.

“Aye,” grunted Cynyr. “But the river works as well for men as for dogs; once you're in the river that'll bring them up short, and they'll have to figure out what to do next. And that will buy you some useful time.”

“Two things will run in your favor then,” said Stjepan. “One is that they'll have to summon the Grand Duke back to the city. They'll think you're headed for Araswell, it'll be the first place they look, and to contemplate dispatching a force against the home of one of the High King's vassals takes more than one of the Sheriffs; that's an act of war that will require the Grand Duke as Earl Marshall to lead. Besides, everyone knows Araswell is a well-built hold and he's got the most experience at that sort of thing.”

“Even riding at top speed that's probably two days, one day for the heralds to reach him, and a day to return, but he's not likely to move that fast, so figure three or four days at the earliest before he's even back in Therapoli,” said Coogan.

“Second, your father will have to be brought into it,” continued Stjepan. “It's his hold, he's the High King's vassal, and you and your sister are ultimately his responsibility. Since you're on his lands, he can argue that he should be in charge of hunting you down. All that back and forth between nobles should allow people to calm down, and let cooler heads start to prevail.”

“My father is at a weak point in his power,” said Arduin with a heavy heart. “And he was too afraid to return to the city for Harvald's funeral. I can't imagine he'll want to return now . . .”

“Your father will be summoned back, he won't have a choice, and unless he's completely blind he'll realize that this is the future of his line that's at stake. Remember what word our friend brought us last night; arrest warrants, yes, but signed and sealed in the name of the High King's
Court
, not the High King himself,” said Stjepan in as reassuring a tone as he could muster. “That's a key detail and an enormous difference. In other words, it was some other official that put his name and seal on the warrant, probably Lord Chancellor Reiner or his second, Lord Baldwin of the Keys, if you're lucky. They do that often for minor matters, or when the High King needs some wiggle room. So someone's trying to keep the doors open here. If the High King's personal seal had been on the arrest warrant, then you'd be fucked, if you'll pardon my language, my Lord. That'd be a sign they were willing to take your whole family down.”

Arduin paced back and forth, his gaze sweeping over the activity buzzing the docks and riverboats. “Small things to be thankful for, is that it?” he asked bitterly.

“Despite the scandal and decline of your family, my Lord, you still have power, and friends, and a honored name, enough to give them pause,” said Stjepan. “Your father's patrons nowadays are the Crown Prince and King Colin of Dainphalia, yes?” Arduin nodded, and Stjepan grimaced. “Unfortunately they're part of the traditionalist wing of the Aurian nobility, so chances are your sister's fate is probably sealed. His sons can carry on the family line, but no matter how much he might love her, a scandal-ridden daughter is, at this point, a liability, and she'll be sacrificed to save the rest of you.”

“My father would never allow my sister to come to harm,” said Arduin vehemently, but he did not believe the words even as he spoke them.

“The only thing that can save your sister now is for the enchantment to be lifted from her before she is in the hands of the Inquisition,” said Stjepan. “If they have her in custody, and that map is still appearing upon her, it will be all the proof they need that she is a witch and consorts with the Devil. The priests of the city temples hate witches and anything that smacks of the Old Religion, and she'll be more important to them than you will, even with Urgoar dead. Rodrick Urgoar himself had been leading the hunt to find someone to try for witchcraft; there haven't been any trials or burnings since 1462, when the High King felt the Templars had overreached and were threatening to destabilize the general peace.”

“The Court didn't care when it was witch burnings in the Danias, but when they started in on Atallica, oh, they didn't much like that, when it was Aurian nobles starting to complain,” said Cynyr with a grimace.

“And the Earl of An-Athair was close to war, then,” said Coogan. “That would've made the fight against the Earl of Blackstone look like a walk in the park.”

“Aye, but memories are short when hate and religion are concerned,” said Stjepan. “The Inquisition doesn't care if we slide into civil war; they know only their holy mission, which is the persecution of idolatry and heresy and all the forbidden things that the Divine King does not tolerate, and they will be most eager to bring an accused witch to trial. But there will be enough reasons for the High King and the Court to find
some
accommodation with your father. If I know how the Court works, they'll bargain hard with him, but in the end he'll be allowed to accompany the Grand Duke to Araswell. He will plead with your brother to surrender the keep and the members of the city household under his protection, upon promise of their safety. Your brother will do it. There will be some hard questioning, but once they realize that you and your sister and your knights have fled onward, your household will be safe, and allowed to testify as to the actions that you took that night. The Grand Duke won't pursue further, he's not going to be interested in a simple manhunt, shit like that bores him to tears and he's got a summer campaign against the Rebel Earl to plan, but the warrant will be allowed to stand until such time as you have presented yourself for trial. The High King's heralds will spread word of the warrant, and seek your arrest by local powers if they should discover you.”

“And you know all this how, exactly?” asked Arduin icily. “Are you an enchanter like your former Magister, here to divine the future?”

“We are clerks and cartographers at the High King's Court, my Lord,” said Stjepan, indicating Coogan and Cynyr with a nod of his head. “We see the inner workings of the royal household on a daily basis. We write its warrants and record its every thought, word, and deed. And as a cartographer I have been thrice assigned to the company of the Grand Duke when on campaign, serving under his Quartermaster, Lord Alefric.”

“You've served with the Grand Duke?” asked Sir Helgi, a look of surprise on his face.

“Aye,” said Stjepan with a casual nod. “I was with him in Huelt in '65 when he was putting down the peasant rebellions there, in Angowrie in '68 enforcing the High King's peace between King Euwen and King Derrek, and this past summer in the Manon Mole hunting the Rebel Earl. We give him his maps, scout the land, and help him make sense of what is before him; where to move men and supplies, how to get his army to where he wants it. I can't claim to know with absolute surety what they will do, but let's call this my best educated guess.”

Arduin and Sir Helgi eyed each other for a moment.

“Let's say you're right,” said Arduin finally. “The High King and my father come to some sort of understanding, the Grand Duke accepts the surrender of my brother and Araswell, and does not directly pursue us further. What would you have us do?”

“Cut south and west along the edge of the Manon Mole,” said Stjepan. “There are old paths there that can take us all the way to Reinvale. Our ultimate goal is the barrow, and it will be somewhere in the Bale Mole, so we'll have to be find a way across the Danias; but if we can keep off the West King's Road, we'll avoid the most likely initial route of the High King's heralds. The heralds and the news they bring tend to move due west first, straight to Truse, to Westmark and the Erid King, to Newgate, and then to Aprenna and the Dain King, and finally on to Warwark and King Derrek.”

“The Bale Mole,” said Sir Helgi quietly. “Islik's
balls
.”

Stjepan studied Arduin and Helgi for a breath, before speaking in a low voice. “If we come back with her freed of the map, and bearing
Gladringer
as a gift for the High King, then you'll be able to ask for anything you want, including her safety from the Inquisition and yours from blame in the death of Rodrick Urgoar,” said Stjepan. “I'll testify that I struck the blow, and will accept the blood-price, even exile if they impose it. I'll even write out a sworn confession, to be witnessed by my companions here, that you can carry upon you in case I die.”

Arduin looked at him for several moments. “Write it out, then,” he said. “I'll follow your plan for now.” He turned and walked off down the dock, Sir Helgi in tow.