To Darkness Fled (49 page)

"Time to go, eh?" Kurtz snaked one arm around Achan's waist and carried him to the outer edge where the rope dangled to the ground. Inko and Verdot stood holding the end.

"Will any of you be coming down finally?" Inko asked.

Achan lowered himself over the edge. He tried to walk down the wall, but his boots had no traction on the icy stone. So he went hand over hand for a moment, then slid the rest of the way, thankful for the leather gloves.

Inko caught him at the bottom and shoved him to the dogsled. Kurtz hit the ground seconds later, then Elk. The two men hurried to the sled. Elk took the reins. "Sit, Your Highness. Kurtz, run with me."

Elk said, "Hike!" He and Kurtz ran and pushed the sled over the snow. The dogs took off.

Achan watched Ice Island as they slid into the darkness, barely able to glimpse the rope stretched between the Pillar and the outer wall before it faded from sight.

They arrived at Stormwatch and waited. Sir Gavin didn't answer Achan's knocks, so he called out to Inko instead.

I'm approaching Stormwatch now.

What about Sir Gavin?

He was hitting his head on the wall, but is breathing.

The second sled arrived. Sir Caleb, face drawn, jumped from the bed and pulled Sir Gavin limply to his feet.

Achan ran forward to help. He positioned himself under Sir Gavin's arm and supported the weight on his right side. "What happened?"

Sir Caleb started toward the horses. "He struck his head on the wall."

Inko untied Sir Gavin's horse. "Be helping us to be boosting Gavin up."

Achan panted under Sir Gavin's weight. The knight could not ride alone. "Inko, take Scout. I'll ride with Sir Gavin."

Achan handed Sir Gavin's arm off to Elk and mounted Sir Gavin's horse. Elk, Sir Caleb, and Verdot lifted Sir Gavin up. Achan grabbed him under the arms and pulled while Elk pushed Sir Gavin's leg over. Achan settled the knight onto the saddle in front of him and held him in his arms.

Sir Gavin? Don't leave us, now.

The men all mounted the horses. Achan itched to ride, to get Sir Gavin to a bed to rest, but Sir Caleb spoke. "Thank you, Verdot, for helping us."

Verdot nodded. "It does not repay my mistakes."

"Your mistakes are in the past."

"I do not deserve such mercy, Caleb."

"Neither did most the men in the Prodotez, eh? But the prince pardoned their crimes, he did," Kurtz said.

"And I pardon you as well," Achan said.

Verdot's face glowed crimson in the wavering torchlight. He bowed to Achan. "Best of blessings, Your Highness."

Achan nodded.

Sir Caleb looked to Elk. "To the
Ivory Spit
. Do you remember the way?"

"Like I remember my own name," Kurtz said.

Sir Caleb nodded. "We'll split up then. You two take the east gate, Inko and Achan come with me."

"I will be riding with Kurtz," Inko said. "Three and three are being more favored numbers than two and four."

"Fine." Sir Caleb nudged his horse toward the distant lights of Tsaftown. "Stable your horses, then come to the room with a stag on the door. Do
not
stop in the tavern, Kurtz."

"Wouldn't dream of it, eh?" Kurtz said. "Not without a bath first."

29

The warmth of their room in
The Ivory Spit
hit Achan like a word from Arman. He and Sir Caleb laid Sir Gavin on the bed by the fireplace. Sir Gavin moaned but did not open his eyes.

Sparrow poked his head in through the adjoining door. "Praise Arman! I feared you were--what has happened?"

"I'm not certain," Sir Caleb said. "He hit his head, I know."

Sparrow's green eyes flitted over Sir Gavin and the boy darted back into his room.

Achan fell to his rear before the fire, pulled off the too-tight boots, and stretched his toes. He held his pink, stinging fingers toward the flames.

Sparrow scampered back into the room with his satchel.

"What do you see?" Sir Caleb said.

"His leg is bleeding," Sparrow said. "Could you go to the tavern and see if they have any clean linen we could purchase?"

Sir Caleb shot back out the door.

Achan examined Sir Gavin's trousers. They were soaked from the snow, like everyone else's. How did Sparrow see--

"Help me get his clothing off," Sparrow said. "I shall need water too. There is a kettle on the hearth in the other room."

Achan jumped up, darted for the door, then jerked back to help Sparrow with Sir Gavin's clothes. Balls of snow and ice clinging to the fur tunic had started to melt, dripping water onto the bedspread. Achan draped the tunic over one of the chairs and came back to Sir Gavin's side. The man was lethargic, eyes partially open, mouth gaping.

"Sir Gavin," Sparrow said. "Sir Gavin, look at me."

The old man's eyes flicked to meet Sparrow's.

"Good. Can you speak? Tell me your full name."

"Theowin Gavin Leofrick," came, barely a whisper.

Sparrow frowned. "I think he is stunned."

Achan snorted. "What gave it away?"

"I mean, his mind is frozen with the shock of pain to his body. It happens sometimes, physically. It happened to you with the Poroo arrows."

Achan had little memory of that day. "Oh."

Sparrow dug in his satchel. "His boots, Achan, please?"

Achan tugged off Sir Gavin's boots, then his trousers, which streaked blood down the old man's leg. At first Achan couldn't see where the wound was, then he saw black seeping into the green blanket just above Sir Gavin's right knee.

Sparrow stood. "Help me turn him over."

Achan jumped around to the other side of the pallet, and he and Sparrow rolled Sir Gavin to his stomach. A dark hole bored into Sir Gavin's right thigh. Blood trickled down his inner leg and pooled in a new place on the bedspread.

"The water, Achan," Sparrow said. "There is a basin of cold beside my hearth. Add hot water from the kettle until it is warm to your fingers."

Achan ran to the other room and did as Sparrow asked. He heard the front door scrape over the floor in the next room and several sets of boots clump over the wooden floor.

"I'm glad you've booked rooms above
The Ivory Spit
, I am," Kurtz said. "I nearly died for lack of ale and female companionship in the Pit all those--"

"What is wrong with him?" Elk's voice.

"A barbed arrowhead is buried in his thigh." Sparrow's voice, eerily calm.

"Ouch, eh?"

"Do you have an arrowspoon?" Elk asked.

"I do not," Sparrow said.

Achan carried the basin to the floor beside Sparrow. The boy held Sir Gavin's wadded trousers against the wound.

Elk stood looking over Sparrow's shoulder. "What are you planning to do?"

"Stopper up the bleeding until Sir Caleb returns with linen."

Elk nodded.

Inko stood on the other side of Sir Gavin's bed, eyes wide as he took in the scene. "How is he being?"

"He has lost much blood." Sparrow glanced up at the faces watching him. "Is anyone else wounded?"

"A bit scraped up," Kurtz said. "We'll manage, eh?"

Elk peeled off his guard's fur cloak and slung it over an empty chair. "I was once a healer. Would you like assistance?"

"Have you ever removed a barbed arrowhead?"

Elk raised his dark eyebrows. "I have. Many times."

Sparrow sighed. "Praise be to Arman, then, for I have only ever removed bodkin arrows."

Elk tucked his beard into the neck of his shirt. "You are young to have accomplished such a feat." He took a small bowl off the mantle. He dipped it in Achan's basin of water and set it on the table, then plunged his hands in to wash them. "I shall need two small blades I can sterilize in the fire."

"I'm having some in my pack." Inko slipped past Achan and into the other room.

Sir Caleb burst through the door carrying a stack of white linens.

Elk took them from him. "All of you go into the other room to clean up. Allow us some room to work."

Achan cast one more concerned glance at Sir Gavin's leg and retreated with the others. Inko sat on the bed nearest the door. Sir Caleb sat on the edge of the other bed which Kurtz lay on. Achan squatted before the fireplace and held out his numb hands. He slapped at a twitch behind his ear and searched for the cursed mosquito. Wasn't it too cold for mosquitoes?

"Whoo!" Kurtz screamed.

Achan spun around on his toes, still squatting.

Elk appeared in the adjoining doorway. "Do you mind?"

Kurtz turned on his side, head propped on one hand. "We're free, Elk. Free, we are!"

"I realize that. Do try to keep it down." He closed the door with a soft clump.

Kurtz sat up. "Going off that tower...thought I was dead. But then I flew, eh?"

"I thought I was dead when you dropped me," Achan said. "Again when I hit the wall."

"I could not stop myself either," Sir Caleb said. "Perhaps the hooks did not need oil."

They talked more about the rescue. Kurtz's glowing rendition of Achan's time in the Pit so enhanced the story it sounded like something a minstrel might turn into a song.

Kurtz jerked his head to the door. "Who's the minnow, eh?"

"Vrell Sparrow joined us in Mahanaim," Sir Caleb said. "He's a bit of a healer."

Kurtz's brown eyes raked Achan up and down. "And you're the mirrorglass image of your old man, you are. Couldn't tell so much in the pit, but here..."

"Aye," Sir Caleb paused to look at Achan. "I thought the same when I first saw him."

Kurtz grinned and folded his arms across his broad chest. "I'm sure you've heard many tales of me, eh?"

Achan scratched behind his ear. "Nothing, actually."

Kurtz clapped a hairy hand over his chest. "Caleb, you wound me. How could you not tell him of the Chazir, eh?"

"I didn't want to give the lad nightmares."

"Bah." Kurtz stood. "I'm starved, I am. Let's go down to the tavern, eh?"

"No, Kurtz," Sir Caleb said. "There will be no tavern."

"But tavern food is hot, it is. And I can dance while I wait."

Achan scoffed. "I can't imagine any woman would look at you. You look like a scavenger."

Sir Kurtz clapped his hands. "The prince raises a good point, he does. We need water in here for a shave, eh?"

Sir Caleb walked to the door. "I'll have some food brought here. After we eat, we'll go to the bathhouse. No tavern."

Achan went to check on Sir Gavin while Sir Caleb was gone, but Sir Eagan and Sparrow looked to be in deep concentration, so he left them to their work.

Sir Caleb returned with two serving girls dressed in white blouses and red skirts. One carried a smoking pot, which she hung on an iron hook above the fire. The other held a stack of wooden bowls. "Where's your table?"

Inko took the bowls. "It's being in the next room. We'll be bringing it back before we are leaving."

"Try these." Sir Caleb handed a pair of brown leather boots to Achan. He turned to the girl at the door. "Might you bring up a bathing tub next?"

"Aye, but that'd be too much water to haul for all you men. Wouldn't you rather use the bathhouse?"

"We will. But we have a sick man who'll need a tub."

Achan pulled on the boots. They didn't fit as nicely as the pair Trajen had given him, but they would do. He wasn't picky.

The women left and Sir Caleb dished up a bowl of stew for each of the men and set out a stack of clean clothing for Achan. After everyone ate, Kurtz, Sir Caleb, and Inko left to go down to the bathhouse. Achan, not permitted to leave the room, was to bathe in the tub as soon as it arrived.