Frozen Prospects (23 page)

"Shut
up, Dom'niv. My father was born in the Capital. He told me all
kinds of stories about how big the Guard was there. There are
plenty of people to spare; they just didn't want to send us any
help. They sit there and get fat on our work just like they always
have."

Va'del
tried to pull Jain back, hoping that if they left the guardsmen
would turn on each other, but the slight motion brought all three to
their feet.

"You
think you can just leave? Why haven't you answered us?"

Va'del
stepped around Jain, placing himself between her and the guardsmen.
"We're sorry about what happened. We've brought food, and will
do everything we can to help protect your village."

The
guardsmen were all fairly tall men but the largest one, apparently
named Vin'i, swore at Va'del and pushed him. "Shut up, you
skinny punk. You shouldn't even be breathing our air."

Va'del
saw the shove coming. His unarmed training had given him three or
four responses ranging from things that would leave the attacker
howling in pain, to ones that would leave nothing more than a corpse
at his feet, but Cindi's voice had merged with On'li's now in
telling him that he wasn't to do anything to worsen the situation,
so he didn't use any of them.

There
wasn't room for Va'del to dodge the shove, not in the close quarters
of the tunnel, not without tripping over Jain, so he absorbed the
full force of the attack, and careened into the dark stone wall,
hitting his head before somehow ending up on the ground with a sharp
pain in his chest.

Va'del
lost a few seconds as he tried to recover from the dizziness that
seemed determined to chain him to the floor. When the teenager was
finally able to open his eyes without wanting to vomit, he saw one
of the guardsmen grab Jain and then recoil as she slapped him.

Va'del
pulled himself to his feet as another of the guardsmen grabbed Jain
from behind to restrain her.

All
thoughts of trying to smooth over any differences with the villagers
had been subordinated by the need to protect Jain, and Va'del threw
himself towards the guards.

Va'del's
first kick took the nearest attacker in the right knee, causing him
to drop to the ground clutching the destroyed joint, as the teenager
slipped past and hit the next man in the small of his back.

The
flurry of blows that followed was brief and relatively one-sided as
Fi'lin's teaching proved true, and Va'del landed a punch to the base
of his opponent's throat. It wasn't a killing blow, not like an
attack to the top of the man's throat would have been, but it
stunned him and allowed Va'del to render him unconscious a few
seconds later.

A
scream from Jain brought Va'del around in time to barely deflect a
knife blow that would have otherwise taken him in the kidney.

Custom
forbid all but full Guadel or candidates from wearing swords inside the
village, but Va'del had absentmindedly buckled his dagger back on
before leaving their rooms, and he scrambled to draw it now, all the
while trying to evade or deflect a variety of attacks that left him
bleeding from half a dozen small wounds.

Fighting
solely with daggers was a more advanced course, one that Fi'lin
hadn't covered extensively yet, but Va'del knew he had to protect
his weapon until he'd immobilized his opponent's knife.

The
brutal journey they'd just completed left Va'del without his normal
reserves of strength, and now he felt what little strength remained
him slowly draining out of the wounds he'd already taken.

The
silence from where Jain had fallen also served as a goad, but Va'del
forced himself to be patient and allow the fight to develop
naturally instead of rushing in like Bi'li and getting himself
killed.

He's
a more skilled knife fighter than I am, but whatever they were
passing around has affected him oddly. His movements are jerky,
faster, but less coordinated than they should be.

A
wise fighter would have let Va'del weaken from his wounds, but Vin'i
apparently didn't have that kind of patience, instead rushing his
smaller opponent with a howl of rage.

Everything
happened so quickly that Va'del's conscious mind couldn't follow and
he instead reacted with the reflexes developed by long cycles of
training as Vin'i bore him to the ground.

It
wasn't until the larger man stopped moving that Va'del knew that
he'd succeeded in burying his dagger in Vin'i's chest.

Rolling
the dead guardsman off of him, Va'del stumbled to Jain. Taking in
the large bump on her head, Va'del picked Jain up and carried her,
taking random turns until he finally found people and collapsed at
their feet.

##

When
Va'del finally regained consciousness, he was in a strange room
replete with the familiar scents he'd grown to associate with Healer
Sara. As Va'del's sluggish mind cast about for a reason why he
would be in a sick room, he remembered Jain's injuries.

The
croak that his body emitted in response to his desperate attempts to
speak wasn't recognizable as Jain's name, but it brought a pair of
people around the privacy divider that sheltered Va'del's bed from
the rest of the room.

Surprisingly
it was the Caravan Master who stood next to Jain. Relief at the
fact that Jain was okay caused Va'del to miss the first part of what
the Guadel was telling him.

"...Glad
that you're awake. Do you understand me?"

In
response to a weak nod, the older man continued. "Terrible
business that, but I questioned both of the surviving guardsmen and
this young lady myself. Of the three stories, hers best matches the
physical evidence we found. Not only that, but their stories didn't
even match up with each other. Based on that, the Headman
reluctantly agreed to confine those two beasts. You'll have to be
questioned by the Headman tomorrow, but it really should just be a
formality."

Va'del
once again nodded his understanding, and the Guadel smiled. "The
village healer and half of our women worked themselves into a state
of exhaustion patching the four of you up, something that had me
more than a little nervous considering that for a bit there it
looked like the villagers would riot and try to kill us all."

Jain's
eyes widened, like she hadn't realized just how much danger the
entire party had been in. Va'del wanted to reassure her, but the
Caravan Master was speaking once again.

"Now
that things are stable, the rest of us have to leave. I don't like
leaving the four of you here with all of the attacks lately, but the
next village on our route must be running low on provisions by now.
We'll leave tomorrow morning. If everything goes well, you should
be able to catch up with us by the time we reach the second way
cave, and I'd wager the bandits can't be operating within a three-
day radius of here. They never would have been foolish enough to
attack this village if it were anywhere near their base of
operations. Rest now—you'll have a hard journey ahead of you."

Once
the Guadel was gone, Jain squeezed Va'del's hand. "The last
thing I remembered was the sight of him going after you with a
knife. When I woke up I was so scared that I was going to find out
you were dead. They had to bring me in here to see you still
breathing before I would believe you were really alive. Even then,
I was worried that you had somehow been hurt too much for a healing
to work."

Va'del
squeezed Jain's hand and croaked out a request for water that she
somehow understood. Once Va'del had finished the cup of water he
found that he was able to speak again.

"You're
okay then?"

Jain
nodded. "I'm fine. The Healer and some of the Guadel fixed me
up without any problems. A concussion is fairly straightforward as
healings go. Restoring lost blood, on the other hand, is much more
difficult."

"What
happens next?"

Jain
shrugged uncomfortably. "I think more or less what Guadel
Si'mon told you. There will be an inquiry, but you weren't in the
wrong. They essentially started everything, and were the ones to
first use deadly force. Even if the village Headman were to decide
that you were at fault and try to discipline you, that's properly
the prerogative of the Council, so he can't keep you here."

Va'del
figured that things weren't as cut and dried as Jain was trying to
make them out to be, or she wouldn't be looking for reasons that the
Headman couldn't discipline him. "How do you figure?"

"Well
traditionally, only the sponsors of a candidate can discipline him.
In some circumstances the Council has stepped in, but no Headman has
ever been allowed to interfere in Council business like that."

"Except
that I'm not a candidate."

Jain
was flushed now, either in anger that Va'del was being difficult, or
in fear that he was right. "It won't matter. You're acting in
the capacity of a candidate, and even Cindi won't be stupid enough to
create that kind of precedent."

Va'del
nodded, but he wasn't convinced. Jain probably knew him well enough
to know that was the case, but she didn't press the issue.

"Things
will be okay. Just get some more sleep for now."

Va'del
was about to tell her there was no way he was going to be able to sleep
again after just having woken up, when she reached out to touch
his forehead. Darkness claimed him before he could get the words
out.

##

The
Headman, who had looked solemn and tired before, now looked like the
only thing keeping him up and moving was fear that if he stopped to
rest something catastrophic would happen.

Va'del
had been saved from talking to Cindi earlier that morning. The
village healer had refused her entrance to the sick room on the
basis that Va'del needed to be checked over to ensure that he would
be in a fit state for the inquiry, which had been moved to early
afternoon.

Looking
at the heavy-set Guadel now, Va'del wondered if he should have
convinced the healer to let Cindi in earlier.
She
looks like she's going to try and kill me with her bare hands.
Maybe if I'd taken the verbal beating she wanted to deliver then,
she wouldn't be quite so mad now.

The
Headman looked at Va'del and sighed. "Please describe the
events which led to the death of guardsman Vin'i. As you know..."

Cindi
interrupted whatever the Headman had been planning on saying. "This
is not a trial. This
candidate
does not fall under your jurisdiction, and consequently this whole
procedure is nothing more than a farce!"

The
scowl that flashed across the Headman's face should have intimidated
anyone—it certainly scared Va'del—but Cindi seemed entirely
oblivious.

"I'm
very well aware of the traditional immunity granted your people,
Guadel! I do, however, have the right to ask for testimony from
anyone in my village up to and including the cursed Council. If for
no other reason than to determine what levels of punishment are
appropriate for those individuals who are under my jurisdiction.
Now, you'll kindly shut up and let me get on with this or I'll lodge
a formal protest to the Council."

Satisfied
he had Cindi temporarily cowed, the Headman turned back to Va'del.
"Please proceed."

Relieved
that Cindi was indeed treating him as a candidate for the purposes
of the investigation, Va'del explained what had happened as
carefully as he was able.

The
Headman rarely interrupted, despite the fact that it was obvious he
wasn't interested in the parts of the testimony surrounding how the
two teenagers had ended up in the cavern with the three off-duty
guardsmen.

Instead
most of the questions concerned what had happened just before the
fight broke out. "So they were angry with you?"

Va'del
shook his head. "Not quite, they were more angry with the
Council and the Capital in general."

Cindi
made as if to protest that point, but the Headman again fixed her
with a glare. "You may find it hard to believe, Guadel Cindi,
but there is currently a great deal of ill-will towards the Council
among my people. I'm doing what I can to defuse the situation, but
nearly a third of the village was all but ready to try some kind of
ridiculous march through the snow to the Capital, so kindly remain
silent."

Turning
back to Va'del, the older man continued with his questions. "And
you didn't do anything to make the situation worse? I was a young
man once and know how hard it can be at times to swallow a slight
like that."

Va'del
was startled by the seeming softening of the Headman's manner until
he realized that it was probably an attempt to trap him into saying
something that would make him look worse. "No, sir. I think I
apologized and told them we were here to try and help."

The
Healer, who had been sitting next to the Headman the entire time,
spoke up for the first time. "Please tell me about the dust
you said Vin'i and the others were passing around."

"I
didn't really get a very good look at it. I think it was gray."

If
the poor woman was exhausted and irritable from having spent the
better part of two days healing Va'del and the damage he'd caused to
the surviving two guardsmen, she managed not to show it. "Can
you describe the effects it had on those three?"

Va'del
thought for a second before nodding. "Their eyes were
different than they should have been, I think. And they moved fast.
Faster than I expected, but their reflexes weren't right."

The
healer sat back and nodded. "By the time we found them there
wasn't any sign of the dust, and they'd had time for it to work its
way out of their systems, but he's describing the effects of White
Out almost perfectly. Especially the increased strength that would
have led to faster movement, and the loss of coordination that he
would have thought was problems with their reflexes."