Trial of Fire (45 page)

Never. He would not allow it, and tomorrow, he would begin to take steps to make sure it stopped here and now.

‘You did well,’ he said, in a voice too wooden for his liking. ‘Go find Finnlay and Micah and we’ll get this mess cleaned up.’

*

Finnlay took one last look around the hayloft, content that everyone was either asleep, or at least, close, then climbed down the ladder to the stable. The farmer had turned out all his animals into fields nearby, leaving the building for the rebels, giving them fresh straw to sleep on. It was probably the most comfortable bed they would enjoy for a while.

It was a big barn, holding twenty horses down one end, leaving the other end to sleep a few more weary fighters. Payne’s men had taken the stolen gold to Casterlane, where Owen was hiding a barge to ship it south. Where it would be hidden after that, Finnlay didn’t know. He just knew his body was aching, exhausted, and needed to get horizontal as quickly as possible.

He paused at the door and glanced outside to where the fire was no more than a handful of glowing coals. Robert sat there, staring into them, his eyes reflecting red. Opposite him was McCauly, frowning down at a notebook he was trying to read. After a moment, he gave up, got to his feet and said something to Robert. Robert looked up, nodded and smiled, and let the Bishop go to his bed.

Finnlay turned and made for his own, close by the door, the first line of defence should they be attacked. The straw was sweet and fresh, soft enough to make him sink down into it. He wrapped his blanket about him, rolled onto his side and let out a long, deep breath.

‘Finn?’

The whisper was timid, almost inaudible, but it came from Andrew lying close beside him. ‘Yes?’

‘Is everybody all right?’

‘I think so. Why?’

‘Just wondering.’ A pause, then, ‘What about Robert?’

‘He’s sitting by the fire.’ Finnlay kept his whisper as quiet as possible – there were tired men here who needed their rest before their next mission. ‘He’ll be in shortly.’

‘Good.’

‘Goodnight, then.’

‘Goodnight, Finnlay.’

He closed his eyes a moment, then opened them again. ‘Are you all right?’

‘Of course,’ Andrew replied, a little too quickly.

‘Well, if you’re not, you just say so.’

‘I will. Goodnight.’

‘Goodnight.’ Finnlay readjusted his blankets again, closed his eyes and let his mind wander.

But try as he might, sleep would not visit him so quickly. How could it? Today had seen, after so many years, the first strike in the rebellion. For the first time in his life, Finnlay was at last fighting the war his heart had longed for since the day his father had died and Selar had claimed the crown. How could mere sleep compare to that?

The smoke was choking him, tasting hard and sharp and revolting. But he had to keep breathing it. The flames grew as tall as the sky, brilliant, orange, yellow, violent and deafening. He was burning up, attacked from all sides. But at least this time she was out of it. His mother stood apart from the flames, wounded, pale, hurting, eyes wide with fear, but she was alive and not dying. But this time, he was. On top of the tower, black smoke and blood, flames driving him up, flames inside him, burning his soul, leaving a blackened husk. Below a sheer drop, and he would fall, would fall to his death if she moved, if she stopped watching.

Aiden collected his small bag and picked a path through the bracken down towards the stream. He had no idea how far it was, but since he could hear it, he couldn’t be breaking Robert’s rules about going too far when they stopped to rest.

The ground became rocky beneath his feet, so he slowed down, turned around a big tree – and came up against the edge of the stream. Fresh sparkling water made him thirsty and he dropped his bag, knelt down, dipped his hands in the water and took a long, deep drink.

It was bitingly cold, but wonderfully refreshing. Quickly, before Robert could call everyone back, he dipped his hands in the water again and splashed it over his face, again and over his hair, rubbing in his ears, along his forearms, around his neck. It was almost as good as taking a bath.

Done with his quick wash, he rummaged through his bag for a towel and was rubbing it over his hair when he realised he wasn’t alone. Micah Maclean knelt a dozen feet away, doing much the same as he was.

Micah looked up, gave him a quiet smile and said, ‘You have to take your chances where you can.’

‘That much is true. Does Robert have something against washing?’

‘He never used to,’ Micah replied, the smile vanishing as he got to his
feet. He dried his face and hands and did up the buttons to his jacket. ‘I’m surprised he hasn’t insisted you go back to Bleakstone. How did you change his mind?’

Aiden said, ‘I didn’t.’ And he hadn’t. In fact, Robert hadn’t said a word to him about how he shouldn’t be there, which was completely unlike him. Why? He certainly had enough to say about Andrew’s safety, and Jenn’s, and he’d been particularly specific about Patric remaining with them until he’d seen Joshi with a sword. But this time, for some reason, Robert had made no point of telling Aiden it was time to go home.

‘Ready?’

Aiden followed behind the younger man, seeing determination and not a little sorrow in the set of his shoulders. He hated seeing Micah like this, and could remember the friendship he’d had with Robert only too well – but he knew both men enough to know neither he nor anyone else could mend the rift between them. Only they could heal what they’d broken.

‘How long do we ride today?’ Aiden asked, more for conversation than anything else. Robert had forbidden idle chatter while they were travelling, in case somebody should hear them as they rode by. ‘Where is the next destination?’

‘We’ll ride all day today, then another hour or so tomorrow. Tomorrow we hit the silver mine at Tereg Targgam. After that? Well, we hope we don’t get caught.’

‘Or killed,’ Aiden added with a laugh. They’d arrived at the clearing as everybody was mounting up. Though he felt Robert’s eyes on him, he studiously didn’t look back. He simply put the bag on the horse, untethered the reins and hauled himself into the saddle.

One thing was certain: when he’d taken his final vows so many years ago, and pledged himself to be a priest, he’d had no idea that plying his devotion would require him to ride so many leagues behind a rebel who questioned everybody’s motives but his own.

*

‘When you hear that bell, you retreat. Don’t stop to look back, just get out of there and get to the meeting point by whatever route you can. If you don’t, you’ll likely be trapped in the mine and nobody will be stopping to get you out.’

Aiden copied the map Robert had drawn into his notebook and spoke without looking up, ‘But how are you going to get in?’

‘Andrew and I will take care of that. Once the gate is open, you all know what to do.’

Robert paused but it was actually Jenn who asked the next question. ‘What will they have in the way of guards?’

‘Well,’ Robert looked down at his dirt map. ‘I haven’t been there for more than a year, and then there was a garrison of fifty Guilde soldiers. It’s possible there could be more now.’

‘A garrison?’ came one voice.

‘Fifty Guildesmen?’ came another.

‘But I wouldn’t worry too much about that,’ Robert said, and Aiden could see how his confidence soaked into everyone else. ‘We’ll have some help from the villagers. Just remember, we’re not there to wipe out the Guilde presence, just to close down the mine. If you have any questions, we’ll cover them over breakfast. Goodnight, all.’

As the group began to break up, Aiden collected his notebook and headed for his bed. He’d chosen a good spot, between two raised roots of some kind of fir tree. The ground was covered in thick needles and the scent of the place was wonderful. Of course, the ground was still hard and his hips always hurt by morning, but what more could he expect at his age? Most men of sixty-two were crippled or bed-ridden. He still had excellent health, so he had no convenient excuse.

He put his book away, shook out his blanket and sat, ready to remove his boots. He knew he shouldn’t, that if they needed to run during the night, then he’d likely have to do it barefoot, but he simply couldn’t wear his boots all day and then all night, not even to save his feet in an emergency.

He paused when he heard a brush of cloth, the tell-tale snapping of a twig. Without looking up, he said, ‘I had a feeling I was being stalked.’

Robert’s voice emerged from the darkness. ‘Then you should have challenged me.’

‘What? Only to have you laugh in my face? I think not.’

But Robert’s chuckle reached him anyway. It grew closer and then the face itself appeared as Robert stepped over one of the raised roots and sat down on it. ‘You’ve found yourself a nice spot here. Much more comfortable than my lumpy bed.’

‘Well, I’m not swapping. Move your feet before you get my blanket muddy.’

‘Are you always this grumpy in the evenings, or is it a show just to impress me?’

‘Don’t you have a rebellion to fight? Surely you have more important things to do than harass an innocent priest.’

Robert snorted in laughter, then held up his hands, his expression – what Aiden could see of it – open and equally innocent.

Aiden sat on the other tree root. He clasped his hands together and studied the man who had become a son to him, no matter their ages, nor their wildly different lives. ‘What’s wrong?’

‘Wrong?’ Robert frowned, his aspect entirely one of a man who had no concerns at all. ‘Why should something be wrong before I come to talk to you? I was simply wondering how you were coping with the travelling. Whether you had any questions you wanted to ask without everybody listening. You usually do.’

‘Oh?’ Aiden said, not believing the innocent act at all. ‘Very well. In that case, why am I here?’

Robert frowned quizzically. ‘Haven’t we had this conversation before? You’re the priest, you should know all the philosophical answers to that question.’

‘If you don’t stop it, Robert, I will hit you, I swear.’

‘Says a man of the cloth.’

Aiden could only laugh with him, the soft sound gentle as the fir needles beneath his feet. Eventually, he asked again in the quiet, hoping this time for the answer he needed. ‘Why am I here?’

‘Don’t you want to be?’

‘Of course I do. And I’m not complaining. I just don’t yet understand what you want from me this time. Usually I have no trouble seeing my role, but now?’

‘You tend to our wounded, say prayers for us every morning.’

‘John can and does all that too.’

‘John wouldn’t be here without you.’

‘True. But none of these are things he
can’t
do. So why am
I
here? You don’t need me as you once did.’

‘Don’t fool yourself, Bishop.’ Robert looked away, and a faint touch of firelight reflected in his eyes, glinting in the darkness, and Aiden could see so many other things reflected there. ‘But you’re right. You’re not here because of me.’

It didn’t take Aiden long to find his answer. ‘Andrew?’

Robert looked down at his hands and for a moment, Aiden thought that might be the end of their conversation, that Robert would stand, bid him goodnight and go – but he didn’t. He lingered, and Aiden was not so sure that Robert didn’t need him after all. When he spoke, however, Aiden was surprised at the question.

‘As a priest, is what I say to you held in confidence?’

‘Of course.’

‘Then could I discuss with you something to do with your role as a priest?’

‘What is it?’ Both concern and worry filled Aiden then. Robert had never spoken to him like this, not in all the years they’d known each other.

‘If I asked you …’ Robert paused, the question obviously not easy for him
for reasons Aiden could only guess at, he continued, ‘Would you be able to perform a marriage?’

‘Marriage?’ Aiden queried, ‘Who?’

Robert’s head lifted, his face lit faintly on one side, his expression so hopeful it tore Aiden’s heart in two.

‘You and Jenn?’ Aiden already began to smile as Robert nodded. ‘When?’

‘Well,’ he sighed, ‘I have to get her to say yes.’

‘You haven’t asked her?’

‘Oh, I’ve asked, she just keeps telling me the Key won’t let me get that close to her.’

‘But you won’t let that stop you.’

‘No.’

‘Well, of course, if she says yes, I’d be delighted to marry you two! I’ve been waiting for years for you to ask me.’

‘Well, just be ready, you know, for when the time comes. And nobody knows about it just yet. Not even Andrew.’

Aiden frowned; he couldn’t say anything. Andrew’s true parentage wasn’t his secret to tell. ‘Perhaps you should tell him sooner rather than later.’

‘There’s too much going on in his head at the moment. He has other questions that need to be addressed first. If I confuse him any more, he’ll combust. Besides, I don’t want him trying to guess my motives for everything. He needs to be able to trust me.’

‘And of course he’ll do that when he finds out you’ve had designs on his mother all this time.’ Aiden bit his tongue then. He was not one to be lecturing Robert on being honest and open. ‘Just be careful with him.’

‘Oh, I can’t afford to be careful, Aiden. That’s what you’re here for.’

‘Well, in that case,’ Aiden said, phrasing his question carefully, ‘I want to do more than tend wounds and be careful with Andrew. I need to be seen.’ Aiden continued softly, already hearing Robert’s objections, ‘All these years I’ve spent in safety in Flan’har, writing all those books and essays on sorcery and how everyone should accept it as a gift and the like. But I haven’t been here, with our people, suffering as they have – and they know it. If I am to have any effect on how they think, how they feel about you, about Andrew, about all Salti, they need to see me, hear my voice directly and not just through rumour and hearsay.’

‘They need to know I didn’t coerce you into saying all those things.’ For a moment, Robert stared at him, then he looked away. ‘You know I don’t want you in any danger, I would rather ensure nobody recognised you until this whole war was over, but—’