02 - The Barbed Rose (21 page)

“Here.” He moved closer, sandwiching Kallista snugly between their two big male bodies. “Sleep.”

Now she could.

Aisse woke with the dawn’s breaking to find Fox sitting next to the fire, staring into its flames. She groaned upright, crossing her legs at the ankles to provide support for this enormous child of hers. “It wasn’t a dream, was it?”

He turned his face to her, for all the world as if he could see her. “You felt it, too? Kallista’s touch?”

“Oh, yes. She was worried.” Aisse held her hands out to him in silent appeal.

“She was warning us.” Fox walked over, took her hands and hauled her to her feet. “But I don’t know what she was warning us against. Or what she meant for us to do.”

He escorted her to the place they’d made behind a cedar bush for a privy and turned his back. She hated the necessity, but she would need his help to stand again.

“Are you sure it was a warning?” she asked when they were beside the fire again. “I know they’ve been worried about us.”

“I’m sure.” Fox brought her a satchel. He couldn’t always find what he wanted by touch, and his
knowing
didn’t seem to work in distinguishing things from each other. She didn’t mind serving as his eyes, especially now when he served as her strength.

He frowned, waiting while Aisse searched for food supplies. “Kallista wasn’t the only one I sensed,” he said.

“No?” That surprised her. None of them could sense any of the others through the links except during those moments of…binding. Only Kallista. They’d discussed it on occasion.

“I felt—it seemed as if
Obed
warned me as well.” Fox brought her the cookpot from another bag. “That bit seemed more like a dream—not so real as when Kallista touched us.”

Now Aisse frowned. “
Two
warnings…”

“If Obed’s was real.”

“I’m not sure it matters. We should be very, very careful. And maybe go to another town to resupply.”

“Agreed. Though I don’t know the country well enough to know what would be a safe place.”

They hadn’t seen other travelers on this road. Given the uncertain weather and the upheaval in the political situation, Aisse wasn’t surprised, but it made her even more uneasy than before. People didn’t travel when there was trouble afoot. She wanted safety. “How far is it to Torchay’s family?”

“A long way,” Stone said quietly. He’d extricated himself from Merinda’s sleeping grasp and come to join them. “Torchay showed me on the map before we left. Past the Gap, across more mountains and another stretch called The Empty Lands. A long way.”

“Sounds far enough away to be safe.” Aisse liked that.

“Which means it will take a long time to get there,” Fox said. Aisse didn’t like that.

“You heard the warning too, then.” Stone looked from one to the other. “You think bandits have heard about the gold?”

Aisse gasped. She hadn’t thought of that. The blasted horse payment increased the danger a hundredfold. Or more. “Sweet Goddess—can we get rid of it?”

“We agreed to transport it.” Stone scowled at the fire. “I don’t like failing to do something we agreed to.”

“But if—” Aisse began.

“If something happens, we’ll deal with it then. I have no problem handing it over to any bandits. If they think we have it and we don’t…” Fox took a deep breath. “We should go around Sumald if we can. There’s bound to be somewhere else we can resupply, and we’ve got the goat for the girls if it’s far.”

“Agreed,” Aisse said as Stone nodded his agreement.

“What are you all whispering about?” Merinda’s cheerful early morning voice bustled with her up to the fire, grating on Aisse’s sensibilities. Aisse wasn’t necessarily grumpy in the mornings, but she didn’t see any need for too much cheer.
That
made her grumpy.

“It won’t wake the babies if you talk in normal tones,” Merinda was saying as she checked the oat porridge Aisse had set to cooking, and gave it a stir. Another thing that grated on Aisse. Merinda didn’t seem to trust anyone else to do things as well as she could, from changing nappies to stirring oats.

Still, they couldn’t have made his journey without her. Two babies seemed to require four times as much care, and before long, there would be three. So Aisse squelched her irrational irritation and smiled as brightly as she could manage. “We were deciding to bypass Sumald.”

Merinda blinked at the three of them. “Whatever for?”

“To avoid danger,” Stone said.

“Oh. If you’re sure…” Merinda didn’t sound any too sure.

Lorynda let out a hungry wail and the goat bleated. Aisse left Merinda to the cooking and went to tend their child.

It turned out they couldn’t bypass Sumald after all. The road they followed wound down through the unfamiliar pass without branching one way or the other. Fox and Stone discussed taking off cross-country, but with Aisse in her state and two infants to deal with besides, they decided there was less risk in taking their chances with Sumald. The warning had not been very specific. It could as well warn against ambush on the trail. Or nothing.

All the same, Fox and Stone rode unencumbered, leaving the babies to the women’s care. Merinda knew nothing about fighting and Aisse was in no shape for any. Fox took the lead, throwing his odd
knowing
sense as wide as he could to search for danger. They could do no more.

Sumald seemed peaceful late that morning as their small party came down off the narrow mountain trail onto the flatter plateau where the town was built. The wide Heldring Gap spread out below them where it cut between the Shieldbacks and the Okreti di Vos Mountains to the north. Fox surmised that Sumald had been built here on the mountainside to make it more defensible. Or perhaps to be nearer the iron mines. They’d passed more than one abandoned mineshaft on their way down.

Fox rode ahead, widening the gap between himself and the women, all of his senses heightened. People moved about the town, mostly loitering in the streets, near buildings. Not like workers busy about their tasks. He slowed his horse, held up his hand to slow the others. Stone moved forward, in front of the women, and Fox turned his mount to ride back and join them. He did not need to face a thing to know where it was and what it did.

“What do you see?” he asked when he was close enough to be heard without shouting.

“Nothing.” Stone backed his horse nearer the others. “I don’t like it.”

“Nor do I. Especially since there are…” Fox paused to count. “Eight people in the streets.”

“Not good. Is there another way out of here?”

“Don’t know. All I can sense is space. Those in the town, the buildings, and space—the mountain falling away. If there’s another way down, it’s going to take eyes to find it.”

“I have eyes,” Aisse said. “I’ll look.”

“Carefully,” Fox warned her. He turned his horse again to face the village. “They’re moving around. Getting restless. I don’t think they like us stopping out here.”

“Too bad.” Stone controlled his nervous mount.

“We don’t want them attacking before we’ve found a way out.” Fox started toward the village again at a slow amble. “Let them think we’re still coming on.”

After a moment, the others followed. Aisse and Stone rode nearer the drop-off than made Fox comfortable, but then the sense of
nothing
was so great as to be almost overwhelming. Perhaps true sight made it easier.

Motion in the village caught his attention. They were coming, rushing to the attack. Fox drew his sword, the magic-forged blade that had been matched to him. “Find the way down. I’ll hold them off.”

Stone spurred his horse forward. “No, Fox. Let me—”

“No!” Fox cut him off. “I can do this. You know the way. They need
you
.” He shouldered his horse into Stone’s, urging him back toward the others.

With a last, brief pause, Stone went. “Find the way down,” Stone ordered. “A goat track. Anything. Let’s go.”

Fox clucked to his mount and trotted toward the troop of rebels forming ranks on the edge of the town. They would not harm his family. Not while he had breath in his body. He kicked up the pace slightly, charging the rabble. Except they didn’t behave like rabble.

The enemy lined up two deep. Did they have pikes? Fox couldn’t tell. Then he caught the faint aroma of gunpowder. Dear Goddess, they had
muskets
. He angled his approach, turning his attention back to “see” Merinda disappear over the edge of the plateau. They’d found an escape. Too close to the rebels for his comfort, but it would have to do.

Only eight rebels. Surely he could hold them off, keep them from following. A musket fired—someone got too anxious—the ball whipping past as Fox ducked low over his horse’s neck. The others fired in reaction, while he was still far enough away that the muskets’ notorious inaccuracy kept them from hitting him. One ball grazed his horse’s rump, sending it leaping forward with a squeal.

They wouldn’t have time to reload before he was on them, even if they’d been Tibran warriors. But they weren’t, weren’t even proper Adaran soldiers. They’d never have fired early, if they were. Fox broke through their ranks, his trained warhorse kicking out, rearing, wreaking havoc, as he laid about him with the sword.

“Don’t let them get away!” One of the rebels pointed back up the shallow slope behind Fox.

Fox
saw
Stone holding Aisse’s hand as she scrambled over the edge. Stone’s other arm held a wriggling bundle. A pair of rebels started toward them.

“Cowards!” Fox spurred his horse to go after them and it collapsed beneath him, blood pouring from its neck. He leaped free and charged on foot, slicing through the man who would have stopped him.

Stone passed the baby to Aisse and turned to meet the onrushing rebels. Pain blasted Fox’s shoulder and he turned, thrust through the man behind him.

The seconds it took allowed the others to reach Stone. He fought well, holding his own with a flurry of blows Fox’s
knowing
couldn’t follow. Then he fell—tripped, Fox thought—and vanished with a shout over the edge of the cliff. A woman’s scream joined the shout, then another. Then silence.

“No-o-o-o!” Fox tried to run, to reach the spot where his family had vanished so he could know what had happened, could join them in whatever it was, but his feet wouldn’t move. Other pain joined the agony in his back. He stumbled forward a few paces and fell to his knees. The warm wet on his back—and his arm and there across his ribs—must be blood.

Clutching his sword in one hand, Fox crawled on hands and knees. They couldn’t be dead. Not now. Not after all this. He had to know. First, before he died, he had to know.

But his circle of awareness shrank with the ebbing of his strength. He realized feet were in his way before he crashed into them and turned to crawl around them. A hand—related to the feet most likely—gave him a hard shove and Fox toppled over. He dug his fingers into the grass to haul himself forward and one of the feet stepped on his hand.

“Die, damn you,” a rough voice growled.

“Stop.” That voice was female. “Go find the ones that got away. The Naishan wants them alive.”

Why?
Fox had no chance to consider an answer as his strength trickled away with his blood to nothing.

CHAPTER TWELVE

T
he distant scream coming in the middle of a practice session jolted Kallista hard, so hard that she almost lost her hold on the braided magic, almost let it backlash in a way that would’ve been worse than what Obed had caused. Her family was in trouble.

She grabbed for more magic, a mother’s fear for her children giving her strength, making her rough. She scrabbled for the links, frantically counting them. Still five, since Joh’s had not formed yet—two close, three so desperately far away. She shoved magic hard down those distant links.

“What is it? What’s wrong?” Torchay kept his voice quiet, as if afraid to distract her.

“Trouble.” Kallista didn’t say more, didn’t know enough to say.

Part of her flew with the magic, chivvying it along, dragging it when needful. Part of her knew the men had gathered close, supported her, lent her their strength.

At the last gasping end of the magic, she found them. She couldn’t sense where they were or what was wrong, but they were alive. Hurt, afraid of some danger, but alive. Kallista
reached
back down that long endless strand for more magic from those close to her, but it took so much strength, so much time to travel so far, and too much of it was used just making the journey.

Fox was badly hurt, bleeding his life onto the rocks. Kallista shunted as much magic into his healing as she dared. Not enough, not nearly, but Aisse needed help and—

Hide
. The need came strongly from both Stone and Aisse. Kallista twisted the driblet of magic remaining her into veiling. As the magic left her to do its task, it took her senses with it, leaving her in darkness.

She woke, jerking herself upright in terror. Before she could move again, Torchay was there, holding her, murmuring nonsense in her ear. Fear ate at her, but it was a moment more before she could remember why.
Links
. She reached inside, touched, named them. Torchay. Obed.
Stone. Aisse…Fox
.

All there. Though Fox seemed faint. Weak from his injuries?

“Dreams?” Torchay brushed her tangled hair from her face.

They were in the suite again, in one of the bedrooms. Kallista shook her head. “Reality is bad enough. I don’t need dreams to make it worse. Where are the others?”

“In the parlor. Training.” He didn’t stop her from sliding off the bed, though his lips tightened in disapproval. He followed, catching her arm when her knees threatened to buckle. “Obed isn’t much for sitting still when he’s worried. What happened?”

Kallista shook her head. She only wanted to tell it once. She opened the door and the sounds of men wrestling stopped instantly. Obed and Joh, stripped to the waist, glistening with sweat, released each other and straightened, staring. Then Obed flew across the room, leaping the furniture in the way, to grab Kallista by the shoulders and peer into her eyes. “Praise be to the One,” he whispered.