Tyrant Trouble (Mudflat Magic) (7 page)

“When
our spirits are released from our bodies, remember us, Daughter of the Sun. You
eased our pain when you were with us. Ease it now, through our god. Guide us to
the land of immortality. Save us from the dark and cold.”

What
had they been thinking, those two hikers who stumbled into this place? Because
that's who they must have been, lost campers, same as me. Was she a doctor or
just a mother who knew home remedies that helped clear up a flu epidemic? Were
the chants no more than a trick to control the barbarians and keep herself and
her boyfriend/husband/whoever alive? Or had she believed them?

Oh
well, a few years in this funny farm and maybe, like her, I'd be composing
prayers to myself.

Tarvik's
followers dropped to their knees, bowed their heads and repeated the chant.
Tarvik walked slowly toward me. He wore a long cloak edged with fur and in his
outstretched hands he carried a bowl. Nestled in a silk cloth was a pile of
gold threads, not gold colored, no, real gold spun fine, like the ones Nance
wove in my hair. There was also a finger ring with a large purple jewel,
amethyst maybe? And all his trappings, the armbands and rings I had thought
were costume jewelry? I now knew the kid was a walking Fort Knox.

I
nodded and he passed by me, setting the bowl on the altar. Then he backed away,
as one of the slaves would do.

“The
Daughter of the Sun accepts your offering,” Nance chanted. “Have you a
request?”

Tarvik
stood in front of me, staring, his arms hanging limply at his sides, his eyes
wide, his mouth open. The word that popped into my mind was “besotted.” I am
average pretty and have had a fair number of boyfriends, but none of them ever
looked at me like that.

Nance
repeated her chant. “The Daughter of the Sun accepts your offering. Have you
special requests?”

Tarvik
said slowly, still staring at me, “May my gifts buy victory for my father,
Kovat.”

Nance
chanted, “The Daughter of the Sun watches over her servant Kovat.”

When
Tarvik did not move, Nance repeated her chant. The third time she said it, I
thought about snapping my fingers in front of his face.

Fortunately
that wasn't required because he blinked, lowered his gaze and backed away from
me. Then he knelt on the bare earth floor and recited long chants with Nance. I
stared down at his bent head, his hair a thick mop of gold in the candlelight.
Watching him was somewhat pleasant. Nothing else was. My legs were tired and my
ankles itched where my robe touched them. My arms ached from the weight of the
candle in its twisted holder.

Although
Nance had told me the chants comforted her people, they weren't doing a thing
for my weary bod. At least these folks all wore flat shoes and so I didn't have
to stumble around on heels.

After
a few eons, Tarvik and his men rose, backed out of the temple and then closed the
double doors. Nance flew out of the shadows, dashed across the room and dropped
the bolt. I set the candle on the floor and rotated my shoulders to loosen
them. Then I scratched the itching bits of glitter from my eyebrows and next I
bent over and scratched my ankles, all very unpriestlike behavior.

Running
to me, Nance threw her plump arms around me. She laughed until the tears ran
down her cheeks.

“Did
you see his face?” she cried. “He dares not harm you now. Nor will the others.
You are safe with me.”

“Oh,
yeah, I'm hot.”

“Are
you? I'm so sorry, is that robe too heavy?”

Explain
hot? Nah. “I mean, I feel like a damn fool.”

“A
fool? Stargazer, you look like a god, even Tarvik saw that. Indeed, I know now
you are truly a god, for the Daughter herself protects you.”

“Why
do you think that?” I asked.

“You
stood before her altar as her priest and none doubted you. If you were a false
god, she would have struck you dead.”

If
I were to be struck dead, it would not be by the Daughter of the Sun, I knew.
Much more worrisome was a ruler called The Slayer.

“How
often do we have to put on that show?”

“My
uncle and his castle guards come to the temple once every four days. In his
absence, Tarvik leads them.”

“And
the rest of the time?”

She
grabbed my hand and led me to the small chamber whose walls were hung with
draperies. We got out of our costumes and stored the velvet robes and gold
offerings behind the curtains.

“The
rest of the time, Stargazer, we do as we please so long as Kovat believes we
are in the temple. Hurry now, I will untie your hair.”

Nance
pulled a sleeveless tunic over her head, but she gave me a tunic with long
sleeves to wear, light cotton slacks, and leather boots, all leftovers from the
Daughter. Next she tucked my hair into a scarf.

“There.
Now no one will notice you.”

“Not
notice me! Wearing boots and long sleeves and a scarf over half my face in the
middle of the day!”

She
giggled, and though it was easy to see she was pleased, I didn't get the joke.
“The sun will be gone soon. And when I go out, I always drape my head in a
scarf as do all women. Otherwise our skin turns red. Does not yours?”

“What
would make my skin turn red?”

“Sun
and wind.”

“My
skin tans from the sun, doesn't often burn, it's not like we live in the
Sunbelt. And how fast am I to stride past people in these boots so they won't
see my face beneath my scarf?”

She
clapped her hands in delight and danced around me. I'd never known anyone so
easily excited.

“You
shall see!” she cried.

She
led me back to the outer room opening to her private courtyard.

Into
a large pouch she tucked cheese, bread, meat, an assortment of root vegetables,
and a flask of the mead. Enough for several days. She fussed around, rolling small
blankets and gathering items we wouldn't be using in the courtyard.

This
looked way too familiar. “Tell me we aren't going camping.”

She
ignored me. When the sun dropped beneath the far hills, she pulled a scarf over
her own head, skipped into the corridor behind the temple, stopped, turned and
listened. Smiling, she reached up to the blank wall, grasped a metal candle
holder jutting from the rock and pulled it. The rock moved, turning until there
was room for us to crawl through. When we were on the other side, she pushed
the rock back into place.

“A
secret door,” I exclaimed, stopped to examine it. I ran my palms across the
smooth rock wall, searching for the seam. “Who put it there?”

“The
castle and stables were built generations ago, before remembering, and the door
is forgotten. Kovat built the temple against this wall, unknowing of the door.
After my nurse died and I was left alone here, with nothing to do all day but
search and touch every item, I found it.”

A
horse snorted.

I
spun around to face a room filled with horses, separated from us by their
feeding troughs. They stood quietly in two neat rows, turning their heads
slowly to peer at us.

Against
a far wall slouched an old man, his eyes closed in sleep. He snored into his
short white beard. He was the first barbarian I had seen with a beard, and it
grew in thin tufts along his jaw line.

Nance
ran across the stable to him, shook him and made little trilling sounds. The
old man slowly opened one eye, peered at her from beneath his bushy brows, then
muttered vague sounds and closed his eye again. To my surprise, Nance kissed
his wrinkled cheek.

He
stretched his arms, twisted his head in lazy circles to loosen his neck, then
opened his eyes and stood up straight. Spying me, he said, “And who be she? The
new priest?”

“Her
name is Stargazer and you must pick her a proper mount.”

Rubbing
his beard, he moved cautiously toward me. When he ducked to peer beneath the
fold of my scarf, he clucked his tongue. In his slow, deep voice, he said,
“Leave her.”

“Why,
silly love? She cannot spend her days in that gloomy place, no more than I
can.”

“Outlander.
Slit your throat for you.”

Nance
jutted out her lower lip, reminding me of her cousin. “Stargazer is my friend.”

The
old man's eyes hardened. “I go with you.”

“You
cannot. Who will care for the horses? When the guards come to the door and find
you gone, they will enter, find three horses missing and come searching for
us.” Her voice softened into a wheedling sound. “There now, old Lor, old love,
you do not want to keep me prisoner in this pile of stones and I cannot leave
Stargazer alone. She will be good and do all I say, will you not, Stargazer?”

She
did not wait for my answer nor did the old man. He could barely take his gaze
from Nance. In his face shone a fierce love and fear, as though she were his
only child.

“Come
now, Lor, what can Stargazer ride? Make it gentle. She is not used to horses. I
know! Give her Black. Black will follow Pacer.”

He
grumbled and argued, but Nance ignored him. He gave up, no surprise because
Nance had the art of wheedling down pat, and at last he led two horses from
their stalls and fitted them out. I watched him buckle straps and smooth
blankets, not a skill I intended to learn.

“Here,
Stargazer, you ride Black,” Nance said, in a tone as calm as if she were asking
me to put on a scarf.

“I
would rather die first,” I said firmly, thinking I would die anyway if I got
onto a horse by myself.

The
old man's lip curled. What busy faces the barbarians had. I might have laughed
if they had not been trying to hustle me to my death.

“Afraid
of a little mare, Stargazer?” He probably thought he could shame me.

He
guessed wrong.

I
told him, “Yes. I have never been on a horse except when dragged onto one by
that wretched Tarvik.”

He
made a hiccuping noise, his weird attempt at laughter, then grabbed me about
the waist and before I could struggle, he swung me up onto the horse. The
strength of the barbarians always caught me by surprise. Although he was no
taller than me, he lifted me as easily as he might lift a loaf of bread.

“Hold
tight, catch Black between your knees. That's right, dig in, lean forward and
you won't fall off,” Nance coached.

I
protested, moaned, and searched for a way to get down without falling. Lor
raised his hand and brought it down hard on the horse's rump.

Black
flew out of the stable. I grabbed its mane and buried my face in its neck, at
the same time digging my knees into its sides. The horse lurched and swayed
beneath me and I expected to be thrown to my death at every flying step.

Black
settled into a rhythm I remembered from the dashes across valleys on Tarvik's
horse, Banner. When I dared, I lifted my face and peered through the whipping
mane. Ahead of me was the gray one, Pacer, with Nance sitting easily on it. If
I really had been a god as she thought me, I would cheerfully have struck her
down with a lightning bolt.

The
animals followed a path they seemed to know, down an edge of the hillside away
from the huts and cook fires, and then across the shadow-dark plain. Pacer
slowed to a walk and Black did also. I sat up, trying to retain some pride in
front of Nance. She did not laugh. Perhaps she sensed my fury.

“We
need not hurry now,” she said.

I
glanced back at the city, already faded into dusk. A scattering of torches
flickered on the hillside.

“Very
clever of you. And suppose I had fallen off this dumb beast? How would you keep
your secret then?”

She
shrugged. “A tame horse is not a beast.”

“I
don’t know which of you is worse, you or your cousin,” I sputtered.

She
wrinkled her nose. “He is.”

She
led the way across the valley until we reached the low hills. We moved on
steadily, with the horses following a winding path that all but disappeared in
the shadows. Low trees brushed at me. The freshness of the evening air filled
my lungs, sweet and clean after the smoky temple. I held tightly to the horse's
mane and gripped its sides with my legs. When I could no longer see through the
dusk, I kept my face close to its neck to avoid being hit in the head by low branches.

When
we stopped I could just about make out a clearing in the dim moonlight. Nance
slid off of her horse and ran back to me, reached up to help me down from
Black, then held me until my legs steadied. Good thing, because it was that or
pick me up after a major sprawl.

“We'll
camp here for the night.”

What
a surprise, lucky me, another camping trip. “And the temple?”

“No
one enters unbidden. If they knock and are not answered, they go away. They
think I spend days alone at prayer. But the Daughter never told me to do that.
Old Lor protects my secret.”

While
she moved about collecting wood and lighting our fire, then warming our evening
meal, Nance chattered happily. “You will see. We will have great fun. I am
truly glad to have you as my friend, Stargazer. Always before I have had to
journey alone and how I wished I might have a friend but how could I when I am
forbidden to leave the temple?”

“So
do you cut out often?”

“As
often as I can. I cannot exist alone within walls forever.”

“No
one sees you ride out?”

“Wives
and daughters of guards are allowed to borrow horses from the stable. I only
ride after sundown. In the shadows and from a distance, no one recognizes me.
And if they did meet me on the path, who would know me? They have only seen me
dressed in temple robes, my face painted and my hair wound with ornaments.
Here, stir the pot while I rub down the horses and tether them. How clumsy you
are. Do you know nothing of cooking? If you burn our food then we must eat it
burnt. We have no extra. Must I teach you everything? See, I have put no meat
in the pot, only grain and roots, so you will eat it.”