The Hidden Fire (Book 2) (15 page)

‘
I’m
so sorry
,’ he signed to her.  ‘
I had forgotten myself when I kissed you
under the fallen tree.  I would never have done that had I remembered
.’

Her
confusion turned to a broad smile.  ‘
No need to apologize.  That sort of
thing happens when you go very deep, and often it is more than a kiss.  Normally
we only travel that far with those we trust.
’

‘
Do
you trust me
?’

She
looked at him gravely.  ‘
I do
.’

‘
I
know you say that you are not teaching me, but you are.  I learn something from
you every time we dream together.  I will try to remember better, so that I
will not do that again
.’

‘
You
only did it because you care about me, and because you are afraid for me.  On
the other side of the dream, we are not who we are here, so how can it be
wrong?
’  She hesitated for a moment, then went on.  ‘
I have a husband. 
He and our daughter were visiting friends in the mountains when the slavers
came to our village.  When we were still young, we would go exploring on the
other side.  There was an accident and he was killed, so now he lives only on
this side.  Our daughter passed messages between us before you and I began
traveling together.  Now we do not have even that
.’

She
took his hand.  “
If you love me on the other side, but not here, there is no
shame in that.  You are one of us.  And if I had a son, I would want him to be
the dreamer that you are
.’

They
all ate soggy fish that morning, assembling in the open ground in front of the
drawbridge when they had finished.  No one had come to lower the bridge.  None
of the overseers had taken their regular stations.  Through the dark morning
and the pouring rain they could see grey figures near the huts.  Aiyan sat
motionless on his stump.  Channels of water ran in reddened streaks down his
back.

“Maybe
there’ll be no work today,” said Lerica.

As
if to answer her, the clang of the bell and a shouted command rang out, and the
guards and overseers went quick-stepping through the mud to their posts.

“Notice,”
said Lerica as they trudged to the tables with Rolirra, “that the sharpshooters
are all on the ground without their muskets today.”

‘
Their
firearms will not work in this rain
,’ she said-signed to Rolirra.  ‘
If
the Ilven will fight, we can easily overwhelm them
.’

Kyric
saw how they could do it, but they would have to make a plan.  They would need
to assigned three or four men to each guard and attack at a given signal.

Rolirra
shook her head.  ‘
This cannot be.  We are dreamers
.’

“Stop
using that Goddess-damned sign language,” came a shout from behind them.

It
was Thurlun, double timing across the camp as if it were a fine day.  “Get up
to those tables and get ready.  We’re going to cut a lot of halos today.”

Instead
of his usual sabre, he carried Aiyan’s sword in his sash.  He wore the locket
around his neck, as Aiyan had done.  And he moved like a man driven, going from
one station to the next, shouting and kicking at them to go faster, his eyes feral
and glazed over.

He
paused where the slave hunters were covering the longboat with a tarp. 
Certainly they were not going out in this storm.  Thurlun began to berate them
as cowards, then stopped abruptly and walked over to Aiyan.  They stared at one
another for a long time.

“You
cannot dishonor me by defiling my sword and my accoutrements,” Aiyan said. 
“You only hasten your doom.”

Thurlun
held up the locket.  “I know it’s in there.  Show it to me.”

Aiyan
didn’t move.  “Say my name.”

“Candy.”

“That’s
not it.”

“Killer.”

“That
is not it.”

“Then
I don’t know it,” said Thurlun.  He wandered the camp aimlessly for a while
before returning to the work of fishing.

The
work was difficult in the hard rain, and went slower than ever.  Kyric knew
that the riverbank would soon turn into a quagmire.  The slower they went the
more Thurlun rode them, threatening to sever a foot from anyone who did not
work faster.  One of the pickers went into a panic at this, slipping and
falling right into the net that was being hauled in.  He was lucky and escaped
with only a lakka bite to his leg.

When
he next strode past the tables, Thurlun fixed his insane stare upon Lerica. 
“You’re a clever girl, aren’t you?” he said, as if he could read her thoughts
of escape.  “If she uses anymore of those Cor’el signs,” he told Tebble, “you
can cut her fucking fingers off.”

He
started to walk away then turned back.  “Wait,” he said, suddenly unsure,
“don’t do that.”

When
Thurlun was out of earshot, Lerica said, loud enough for Tebble to hear, “He’s
gone mad you know.  He’s lost his mind.”

“Shut
up,” said Tebble, “or I’ll shut you up.  He didn’t say anything about not cutting
tongues out.”

The
three of them became less clumsy as the day went on and they began to learn the
tricks of their work.  The ground in front of the table was soon churned into a
pit of mud.  Even with the bad footing, the hard rain made them safer from the
ray venom, washing it away wherever it spurt.  At the noontime break, Kyric saw
that the river had risen a little.

The
afternoon turned dark as black clouds gathered in the west, and when the
evening came it was upon them before they knew it.  All of the overseers began
to shout for the slaves to hurry, but the Ilven had already stepped up the
pace, eager to be done before dark.  By the time the last two angel rays had
been tied down at the tables, the haulers had hung up their nets and were
plodding towards the bridge.  Guppy had just started to lower it, so the Ilven
hunkered down in the rain to wait.

Harlon
was having his pickers move the racks for their poles and hooks away from the
river bank.  Ral and the guards at the river bank made for the cover of the
huts.

At
the tables, Tebble and the other overseer, a man called Ott, shouted at their
crews like they were horses in a race.  “Yah!” roared Tebble, swatting at Kyric
with the knotted rope, “get it tight there!”

The
other crew finished first.  When Rolirra had taken the last halo and tossed it
into the receiving barrel, Tebble had Kyric free all the ties, then he called
to the cart man, “Get the ray off the table at once and get the carcasses
dumped.”

The
cart man, who Kyric had come to know as Lioffin, hesitated, not sure if the ray
had had time to die.  But he went ahead when Tebble lashed him with the rope,
setting his hook and pulling.  As it began to slide into the cart, the ray’s
stinger got caught on a loose tie-down.  Its tail whipped side to side as it
died, and the rope became hopelessly tangled.

Rolirra
still had the knife in her hand.  Tebble gave her a nod.  “Just cut the rope
and let’s be done with it.”  He pantomimed it for her.

The
creature lay dead still.  Rolirra had to saw the rope vigorously to get through
it.  With her final stroke, the angel ray jerked once more and thrust its
stinger between her ribs.

She
didn’t cry out.  She stood there staring at the stinger with a look of
fascination.  Tebble leapt back, in case of another spray of venom, but Ott
dashed to Rolirra’s side drawing his machete.  He cut the ray’s tail off with a
single stroke, and Rolirra crumpled to the ground, two feet of stinger
protruding from her chest.  Kyric ran and threw himself down beside her.  She
took one shallow breath and held it, and that was all.  She never breathed out.

“Son
of a bitch,” said Tebble, spitting into the hard rain.  “At the very end of the
day, too.  What bad fucking luck.”

“Good
thing she never got shackled,” Ott said, “or we would have that to deal with.”

“Alright,”
announced Tebble, looking at Lerica, Lioffin, and Kyric in turn, “it’s all over
now.  Get that fish and her body on the cart and get them dumped before it gets
any darker.”

“No!”
said Kyric in a harsh, torn voice.  “No, you will not — “

He
leapt to his feet, ripping the stinger from Rolirra’s body, and plunging it
into Tebble’s throat.  There was plenty of poison left in it.  Tebble made a
gurgling sound as he sank to his knees and fell face first into the mud.

Lerica
sprang into action at Kyric’s first move.  One-hand on the table, she kicked
high with both legs, wrapping the shackle chain around Ott’s neck, bringing him
down hard.  She tightened her stranglehold and he dropped his machete, clawing
at the irons.

Kyric
left Tebble where he fell and knelt over Ott, the stinger still in his hands.  He
thrust it into his heart.

“Well
done,” said Lerica, regaining her feet.

The
Ilven raised their eyes to Kyric.  ‘
What are we to do now?
’ signed
Lioffin.

He
quickly scanned the camp.  Almost everyone had gone to the huts.  Thurlun stood
talking to Pacey near the longboat, and Guppy’s back had been to them as he
lowered the bridge.  No one had seen what happened at the tables.

His
heart was racing.  It was hard to focus.  He had to think of how to say it in
Cor’el. 
‘Place the men on the cart and go dump them in the usual spot. 
Bring the cart back and cross to the island like you always do
.’

The
crew of the other table stood there wide-eyed.  ‘
You
,’ he signed to the
larger of the two men, ‘
go with Lioffin.  You other two, take Rolirra to the
island.  Lift her up and get her arms across your shoulders
.’  He didn’t know
the word-sign for pretend.  ‘
Make like she is sick and you are only helping
her
.’

“Lerica,
slide that machete into a trouser leg — you’ve hurt your knee.  Cross over with
the others and wait for me.”

She
whirled to face him.  “What?  Look at the chance we have here.  All is in
disorder and it’s getting dark.  Let’s go kill every damned one of them right
now.”

Her
eyes were hard as stone.  She really wasn’t afraid of anything.  “How can we
fight them while in leg irons?” he said.  “We won’t be able to move well
enough.”

“We
moved well enough for these two.  And in the mud it may not matter.”

Kyric
kept his eye on Guppy, who could turn around at any moment and see them
standing there arguing.  “There’s still a dozen of them  One to six are bad
odds.”

“We’ll
take them unawares,” she said, fetching Tebble’s machete and offering it to
him.  “Come on.  In a few minutes the chance will be lost.”

He
placed one hand on her shoulder and leaned in, speaking evenly.  “Lerica.  Your
blood is up and your mind is working too fast — like the first night we were
here.  Remember that?  I need you to do as I’ve asked.”

She
hissed at him, making her hands into claws like she wanted to strangle him, but
turned away nevertheless, unfastening her waist band and trying to find a
workable place for the machete in the leg of her breeches.  Lioffin snapped a
few words at the other Ilven and they fell to their tasks.

“And
what about you?” she asked him.

“I
have to tell Aiyan about this.”

Kyric
slipped Tebble’s machete half into his trouser leg, against his hip, leaving
the other half under his shirt, holding it against his ribs with his elbow.  He
waited until they made it past Guppy, fearful that Lerica would pull her blade
if anything went wrong, but Guppy stayed under the tree where the block and
tackle were fixed, his wide-brimmed hat pulled low over his eyes.  He winced as
they dragged Rolirra’s lifeless body over the bridge.

The
last of the pickers were heading to the island, and Kyric mixed with them as he
crossed the open ground. 

“Hey,”
called Guppy.  Kyric pretended not to hear.  “Hey you, arrow boy.  I’m talking
to you.”

Kyric
cursed silently.  He would have to deal with this.  “Me?”

“Yes
you.  Where did Ott and Tebble go?”

Kyric
looked back to the tables.  The men with the cart had made it to cover behind
the trees.

“Tebble
went with the cart to make sure they dumped it properly.  The last I saw of
Ott, he was heading for the huts.”

Guppy
shook his head.  “Bastard.”  He pulled his hat lower.

When
Guppy didn’t ask why Kyric had not crossed over yet, he kept walking like he
had a purpose.  Aiyan looked up as he approached.  Kyric quickly told him what
they had done.

“I’ve
got most everyone on the island.  Lerica smuggled one machete across and I have
the other one.  What do I do now?”

Aiyan
looked at him for a long moment, then everything in him changed all at once. 
His smoldering glare vanished, his eyes becoming clear and cool.  The hardness
around his mouth soften a little.  He took his rain-soaked shirt and put it on,
even though the back was in shreds.  He was muddy, sunburned, beaten, and a
little starved, but when he spoke to Kyric it was with the same dignity he had
showed with Princess Aerlyn.