The Seeker (49 page)

I
STARED DOWN
the empty street, knowing I had failed Jik—and all of Obernewtyn.

“Quickly,” Brydda said. “We will have to move fast if we are to catch them.”

He half dragged me across the street and around a corner where a grinning Reuvan sat behind the reins of a carriage embossed boldly with the gleaming Herder seal.

“Courtesy of the Herder Faction,” he said with a mock bow.

Dazed, I let myself be lifted in. The cart lurched as Brydda climbed in behind me. Reuvan shook the reins, urging the horse on to a wild pace.

“You are hurt?” Brydda shouted over the clatter of hooves on the cobbles. He nodded at my feet.

“Old wounds,” I shouted back. “You followed me?”

Brydda shook his head. “You were gone before I realized, before we could talk of ways and means to rescue your friends. But I knew where you had gone.”

“You said helping them was impossible,” I protested.

Brydda shook his head. “I said only a madman would attempt such a rescue. I forgot you did not know me well enough to realize that I am just such a man.”

I was struck dumb at his words.

“Besides,” Brydda said, “you had not meant to come to Aborium, except to deliver my parents’ message. Therefore, I
am the direct cause of your troubles and honor-bound to help you. And if the Herders are so keen to have your friend, I am just as eager to stop them.” He grinned. “We were waiting to see you arrive, never dreaming you had already magicked yourself inside.…” He hesitated, obviously curious, but I said nothing. “A lad and a girl came out stealthily leading a horse. They fit the description you gave, so we stopped them. It took us a minute to convince them we were trying to help, and then they told us you were inside. I sent one of my people to show them a safe way out of the city. I wanted them to take the cart, but I have never seen a pair more attached to a horse.”

“I don’t know how to thank you …,” I began, but Brydda held up a hand.

“No need for thanks among allies. Now, the Herders will be going to the wharf. The girl said they want to question the boy.…” For a moment, his face really did look like stone, and I understood that Brydda Llewellyn would be a savage enemy. “There’s no time for subtle planning. I meant to leave town tonight anyway, so it does not matter if the Herders think I freed the boy. It will madden them trying to understand the connection. Was he really a Herder novice?”

I nodded. “What can we do? There are five priests in that cart,” I said as Reuvan suddenly reined the horse to a slow walk. I could smell the sea and the sour odor of old seaweed.

“We’re nearly to the wharf,” Reuvan said over his shoulder.

“Go softly, then,” Brydda said. “We can handle five between us, six counting the shipmaster.”

I nodded, praying they would succeed, for I knew I couldn’t wipe Jik’s mind clean of his dangerous knowledge.

The clatter of stones ceased as the wheels ran onto board. We had reached the wharf.

The waning moon broke through the clouds but shed a
wan light, and all was darkness. The smells of oil and spices mingled with that of sea and fish scales. Moored vessels bobbed in the dark, gurgling water, bumping occasionally into their mooring posts with a dull thud.

“The Herders cast off from there,” Brydda whispered, pointing to the very end of the wharf. Lanterns swung from either end of a long, slim boat moored there. Illuminated fitfully in the gritty, shifting light was the carriage that had brought Jik. It was empty, and there was no sign of him. Priests were moving between the ship and the carriage, transferring boxes to the vessel.

“Why do they travel at night?” I whispered as Brydda signaled for Reuvan to draw the carriage into a shadowed corner.

“They are a secretive lot, and night suits their fell purposes. Most ships go out at dawn or just before. Folk know the Herders come here at night, and that is enough to discourage anyone else. People who seem too interested in Herder business have a way of disappearing. There’s the boy.”

Jik was standing between two priests, half obscured by their flapping gray cloaks. His hands were bound behind him, and his shoulders slumped hopelessly.

“Jik,” I sent.

His head jerked in surprise, but he subsided when one of the priests gave him a hard look.

“Careful,” I warned, and sensed him make an effort to maintain his dejected pose.

“Elspeth,” he sent in a powerful wave of gladness that twisted my heart.

“We are at the other end of the wharf, in the shadows. We’re going to help you.”

I broke contact, feeling Brydda’s hand on my arm. “It’s no
good. There are at least seven priests down there. And there is the shipmaster. Two of us might barely overcome the lot, and I’d take the risk but for the dogs. They are trained by the priests to tear a man’s throat out on command,” Brydda said.

I blinked at him, trying to reconcile the savage picture his words evoked with Kadarf’s simple kindness. “But you said … we’ve got to get him away from them. I … I …” I stopped, gulping back tears.

“It’s not possible, lass. You see that, don’t you?” Brydda asked.

“You don’t understand. He … he can tell them about us, and about you and your parents.”

Brydda shook his head. “That’s bad, but there is no way to help the boy or silence him. Getting ourselves killed trying won’t help anyone.”

I threw caution to the wind. I felt I had no choice.

“Brydda, I am a Misfit,” I said. “I can stop those dogs from attacking. You think—everybody does—that Misfits are only true dreamers and defectives. Useless. But there are other kinds, too. Misfits like me and my friends. I can make those dogs do what I want, and I can talk to Jik from here, inside his head. If you can handle the men, I can deal with the dogs.”

I could hardly believe myself revealing so much. Reuvan was staring at me as if I had gone mad.

“I’ll prove it,” I said desperately. “Watch Jik. I’ll make him look toward us and nod.” I sent a message to Jik, asking him to respond as obviously as he could without alerting his guardians. He turned his head slowly and nodded with a subtle wink. Reuvan hissed in astonishment.

“You can hold the dogs?” Brydda asked.

I nodded, hoping they would be as easy to convince as Kadarf. “Help me save Jik. Please.”

After a long tense moment, Brydda grinned. “Well, I’m probably finally going mad, but we’ll have a go at it. Seven men—we can handle that many between us, eh, Reuvan?”

“Seven men, yes. But those dogs …,” he said doubtfully.

Brydda clapped him on the back. “Come, man, you heard the girl. Those dogs will be all bark and no bite.”

Reuvan looked at me warily, as if I myself might bite, but such was the strength of Brydda’s personality that he nodded.

“Good lad. Now, Elspeth, tell the boy to run for it as soon as he gets the chance. Don’t wait for us. As soon as you have him, get out of the city as fast as you can. There is a gate back near the cloister. Go out that gate and no other. Wait with your friends, and I’ll find you.”

“What about you?”

“I’ll worry about me. Make sure you do as I said.”

I reached out and touched his arm. “It was a glad day when I first heard the name of Brydda Llewellyn,” I said.

He smiled. “Life is an adventure, is it not?”

They melted into the shadows and began making their way toward the Herder vessel.

I groped about until I found the mind of the shipmaster. He was in the hold, organizing the loading of the cargo. I pinched a nerve experimentally and he groaned and doubled over. I grinned, catching his thought that he must have eaten a bad fish stew.

I tweaked the nerve again, more firmly, and this time he groaned loudly enough to be heard by the priests on the wharf. They looked at one another. One stepped onto the deck and climbed down into the hold.

Taking advantage of their preoccupation, Brydda and Reuvan attacked with wild cries, brandishing knives. One of the priests standing on the edge of the vessel fell overboard in
fright. Another Herder, with stronger nerves, reached down to unloose the dogs he had on leash. Quickly, I beastspoke to the dogs, asking for help. I had no strength left to coerce more than very slightly, but they agreed to help. I saw that the dogs had no love for their masters, for all their savage training. As soon as they were loose, they began to bark wildly and snarl, jumping and running in circles. The look on the Herders’ faces would have been funny if there had not been so much at stake.

Then Reuvan jumped onto the deck, delivering a stout blow to the emerging priest and slamming the hold shut. That left five. One of the priests held on to Jik while the others divided into pairs to attack Brydda and Reuvan. Brydda was more than a match for two men. A blow from his fist and the first priest crumpled at his feet like a wet cloth. The other had drawn a knife and tried to sink it in Brydda’s belly, but the big man was agile for his size and whirled on his toes like a dancer before dealing a blow with the haft of his sword. He stepped over the unconscious priests and turned around.

Reuvan had dispatched one of his attackers and was busy with the other. Brydda turned menacingly to the priest holding Jik. Calmer than his brothers, he drew a long knife from the folds of his cloak and let go of Jik’s arm.

“Run!” I sent.

He lurched forward, stumbling, hampered by his bound hands. Panting, he fell as he reached the cart.

“Quick, get in,” I whispered. His nose was bleeding and his breath came in sobs, but he clambered awkwardly into the cart and fell across my feet. I gathered up the reins. I hated to leave Brydda, but he had struck me as a man used to having his orders obeyed.

I beastspoke the surprised horse, and we rode away from the wharf.

I was afraid someone would spot us crossing the dark city in the Herder cart and slung a bag over the side to obscure the insignia. As we drew up to the gate, my heart was thundering. But the gatekeeper barely looked at me before letting us through. There was not a soldierguard in sight.

Incredulous, we found ourselves outside the city.

Sheer relief made us both hoot and laugh like madmen the moment we were out of hearing. I laughed till my stomach hurt and tears rolled down my face.

“Who were those men?” Jik asked when the laughter had died away.

“The big one was Brydda Llewellyn,” I said, and tried to untie his wrists, but they were too tight. They would have to be cut off.

I beastspoke the horse again, telling her where we wanted to go and promising freedom once we got there. She was a beautiful creature. I was interested to learn that she thought of her masters as jahrahn, the cold ones. She appeared unconcerned at the strange events of the night and even at leaving the walled city.

It seemed the Herders often rode out at night beyond the city limits to meet with funaga on the seashore. Sometimes they brought men and women and children, bound as Jik was. These were always left behind.
Slavers
, I thought bleakly.

I thought I saw a faint flicker of fire in the distance. Closer, we could see it was a shore camp, but we were almost on it before a figure jumped up and Kella’s voice rang out gladly.

After the first excited greetings, Kella introduced me to a tall blond youth called Idris, who cut Jik’s bonds and left us to unharness the horse. Jik and I warmed our hands and explained Brydda’s role in our escape.

Pavo looked pale and fraught. His feet were freshly bandaged,
but he refused to talk about what had been done to him, save that his tormentors had made no real attempt at questioning him—they’d only meant to assert their dominance.

Our talk reminded Kella of my feet, and she insisted on examining them.

My shoes and stockings had to be soaked and cut away from the wounds. I was dizzy with pain before a grim-faced Kella had finished her ministrations. Then she looked up, not with the reproof I had expected but with tears in her eyes.

“I don’t know how you walked so far on them, yet … if you had not …” She stopped abruptly and hurried down to the sea to wash her instruments.

I looked at the others with faint embarrassment. “Anyone would have done the same.”

Pavo smiled wanly. “ ‘Would do’ and ‘have done’ are two different things.”

I felt my face redden and was glad of the darkness. To turn attention from myself, I asked Idris how he had come to know Brydda.

The boy said his father and two sisters had been taken by the Herders. One night, he and his mother had returned from a visit to find their house a charred ruin. Neighbors said the Herders had come and taken the husband and daughters away, but the priests claimed Idris’s mother was mad with grief and that her husband and children must have burned to death in the fires.

Idris had never seen his father or sisters again. He met Brydda after his mother had gone to the rebel for help. She had died shortly after learning her husband and daughters had been sold to slavers. Brydda had taken the shattered boy in, and though Idris did not say it out loud, it was clear he worshipped the big rebel.

It was near midnight before Brydda and Reuvan found us. They had dealt with the Herders quickly, binding and locking them into their own hold before setting the ship adrift. Brydda said in casting off he had offered up a fervent prayer that the ship would be seized by slavers. They had gone back to Brydda’s hovel for supplies since they would not be returning to Aborium.

Hearing my amazement at the ease of leaving the city, Brydda grinned and said the real gatekeeper and three soldierguards had been tied up securely and uncomfortably in the watch hut to ease Brydda’s departure. All we had to do now was wait for a message from the city to tell us how the Herders had reacted and if it was safe to move.

We were all weary, but Brydda’s suggestion that hot food would do us more good than sleep was met with enthusiasm. We deferred serious talk until after we had eaten. “It is bad for the stomach,” Brydda said with a comic roll of his eyes. Kella and Idris unpacked and prepared a meal, and Brydda regaled us with stories of his travels on the sea and his adventures as a seditioner. He made it sound like a game. I suspected he was telling only the brighter side of the tales, but even Pavo laughed at some of his more absurd stories, and we sat to eat at last in good spirits.