Waterdance (7 page)

Chapter Two

Peri woke, panicking, to a hand clasped firmly over her mouth, a Sarkond leaning over her. Reflexively she reached for her dagger, preparing for combat—

“Hush,” Atheris said, his face almost touching hers. “Stay quiet. We have a problem. Several problems, actually.”

Atheris. Bone Hunters. The Barrier. Sarkond. The caravan. Memory returned in a rush and Peri held still, breathing heavily, until Atheris cautiously withdrew his hand. The wagon was jolting under her and Peri remembered the deep ruts in the road.

“What problems?” she whispered, despite the jolting and squeaking of the wagon.

“The blood spell on the wagon is intact,” Atheris murmured, “but the spell hiding us from the guards is gone.”

“WHAT?” Peri hissed as loud as she dared. “What do you mean, it’s gone? How could that happen?”

“That,” Atheris said softly, “is another problem. We have left the area of the Veil. The road, and the caravan, must have turned north hours ago to have gotten so far. I only woke a short time ago myself and felt that the spell was gone. I can no longer even feel the Veil.”

Peri clenched her teeth, trembling.

“Why would they turn north?” she said, forcing herself to keep her voice low. “They should’ve followed the Barrier west until they met a Bregondish caravan. That’s what you said.”

“That is what I thought,” Atheris whispered, shaking his head. “But there is another possibility. When you searched the other wagons, what did you find?”

Peri shook her head impatiently at the question.

“Typical trade stuff,” she said. “These boxes and bags are candles. There’s bolts of cloth, boxes of spices. Hams. Cheeses. Casks of wine—” Then she stopped, seeing Atheris’s expression, and she felt a chill begin somewhere at the base of her spine.

“Sarkond,” Atheris said, very, very softly, “has few such goods at all, and certainly none in such quality or abundance to trade them to Bregond.”

“No,” Peri whispered. “Oh no.”

They weren’t traveling west to meet another caravan to trade.

They were returning home after they’d already traded.

“We’ve got to get out of here,” Peri whispered rapidly. “If we start back south now—”

“No!” Atheris’s hand on her shoulder tightened. “There is nothing hiding us from the guards now, do you understand? If we try to leave, they will see us and kill us.” He hesitated. “And there is something else ...”

“What?” Peri looked into Atheris’s eyes and the chill in the pit of her stomach deepened. “The Bone Hunters?” she whispered.

“I—I believe so,” Atheris whispered back very slowly. “They are too far behind for me to be certain. Nor can I know without doubt that they are following this caravan, or this road. But I... I believe at least some of them remain between us and the Veil, and I believe they are moving north. How many and how quickly, I do not know. Perhaps none of them were fooled by my spell.”

Peri said nothing; she clenched her hands hard to stop their trembling. If what Atheris said was true, they were in very great danger indeed. If the Bone Hunters had seen through Atheris’s trick that easily, what hope of escape was there, especially now that they no longer had the advantage of Tajin’s speed?

Peri took a deep breath and sternly forced down her terror.

Panic, she reminded herself, kills more warriors than the deadliest foe. The first priority is surviving the next minute. Second is surviving the next hour. Third is the next day. Fourth, the next week.

All right. Use our advantages. Play strength against weakness.

“You’re certain,” Peri whispered, “the Bone Hunters can’t sense us here?”

This time Atheris did not hesitate.

“I am certain,” he whispered back. “I can feel the spell drawing on my energies. And if they knew where we were, they would either be here already, or they would have sent magic against us.”

“Good,” Peri murmured, nodding. “We’re safe for the moment, at least from the Bone Hunters. There’s that. Can you cast another spell to hide us from these people without using the Barrier?”

Atheris hesitated for a long moment, then reluctantly shook his head. “I could cast such a spell, yes,” he said softly. “But not—” He waved his hand illustratively. “Not like this. To perform a proper ritual I would need certain paraphernalia I do not have. I could improvise something, but for that I would require the power of a blood sacrifice.”

Peri went very still.

“What,” she said slowly, “you mean kill somebody?”

Atheris shook his head.

“No,” he said. “For a sustained spell I need a living source to draw upon, as the spell on this wagon draws upon me, rather than the short but powerful burst of energies released by a death. But I am not strong enough to have two such spells drawing upon me, and were I to use your blood, then neither of us would be strong enough to defend or flee in a crisis.”

Peri forced herself to ignore the surge of despair she felt at his words.

“All right,” she said. “We’ll think about that for a while. Right now that protection isn’t critical. We’re safe enough here. Nobody’s going to go searching through a wagonload of cases of candles unless we give them a reason to. So for now we keep still, keep quiet, and we’re all right unless the situation changes.”

“Yes,” Atheris whispered after a moment’s thought.

“This caravan’s big and illegal,” Peri said, thinking out loud. “That means it’s also expensive. Merchants minimize expenses. They’ll operate out of the closest good-sized city to their trade point. That means that’s the city we’re headed for.” She turned back to Atheris. “What city and how far?”

“I believe the closest city on this road is Darnalek,” Atheris said hesitantly. “But as to distance, I cannot say. Unfortunately I am unfamiliar with this area.”

Peri stifled an impatient sigh, trying to remember the quantities of food she’d seen in the supply wagon. It had seemed like a lot. No. Wait a minute. There’s no grazing or clean water out here. A lot of that had to be water and feed for the horses. They can’t have planned for a very long trip, then. Not with only the one supply wagon. She breathed a sigh of relief.

Of course, a city’s a whole new set of problems. As far as I know, we don’t have any money at all, but that doesn’t matter, because one look at my skin and features, not to mention my clothes, would mark me as a Bregond, and I’m sure my Sarkondish is as accented as Atheris’s Bregondish. Well, if I get killed in the first Sarkondish city we come to, at least I won’t have to worry about those Bone Hunters.

She closed her eyes, clenching her teeth.

I’ve been away one whole night now. Uncle Terralt will have all the guards searching for me—the guards at the garrison, too. And most of those guards are Bregondish, they’ll be starting to wonder... Grimly Peri forced that thought away.

Right now her most pressing problem was Atheris’s wounds, but there was nothing she could do about them with the wagon jolting so. Fortunately Sarkondish merchants liked their comfort as much as did their Bregondish and Agrondish counterparts, and the caravan stopped at noon for a hot dinner, and Peri took advantage of the daylight and stationary surface. By the time she’d picked splinters and fibers out of the wound in Atheris’s side, cleaned it thoroughly with the brandy, and made a dressing with the herbs and bandages she’d stolen, she had gained a growing, if grudging, respect for the Sarkond. Although Peri knew she had to have caused him severe pain, he had held quite still and remained absolutely silent throughout her treatment, although he’d gone almost white and he’d clenched his hands so hard that he’d set the cut on his hand bleeding again. Peri cleaned the cut, decided it did not require stitching, and applied a clean dressing, then tended the cut on her own arm; then there was nothing to do but rest, eat and drink their stolen supplies, and wait.

They waited. Dinner ended and the jolting journey began again. Atheris drowsed, tired by sustaining his spell and by the pain he’d endured, but Peri fidgeted restlessly in her cramped position and thought thoughts that darkened her mood more than the hard floorboards of the wagon, the splintery sides of the box against which she leaned, the lingering ache of her bruised ribs, or the uncomfortable fullness of her bladder.

Mahdha grant that Tajin got past the Bone Hunters and that someone finds him quickly. Oh, Bright Ones, very, very quickly...

Uncle Terralt would have had guards out searching for Peri since soon after sunset the night before. They’d have ridden on to the garrison. Not all the guards were Bregonds, so perhaps the search would have been called off until morning; it was hard enough to locate someone on Bregond’s plains, nearly impossible at night, and an unskilled searcher, or one who just didn’t know the land, could easily become lost. But sooner or later the guards would have found the dead mare, the signs, the Sarkondish camp.

Not the Sarkonds themselves. Obviously the Bone Hunters had evaded detection despite their sleeping mounts, or Atheris would not be sensing them now. Perhaps they had mounts again, perhaps they were on foot; somehow, in any event, they’d managed to make enough progress to stay within Atheris’s range, whatever that might be, despite the Mare’s Sleep, despite the spell on Tajin, despite Atheris’s magical concealment.

But meanwhile, back in Bregond, the guards would have found Tajin’s trail and that of the Bone Hunters overlaying it, and that trail led directly into Sarkond itself. Unless they found Tajin and read the message on his saddle, there would be only one conclusion they could draw.

That Peri had been captured by Sarkonds.

And that meant that in Bregond at least, Peri was dead—if not killed in battle by the Sarkonds, then, as custom required, honorably dead by her own hand. Her friends and kin would mourn her as dead. If she returned she could expect no welcome, no help, no acknowledgment whatsoever. She’d be an outcast even to Danber, and Mahdha, who whispered her secrets to the clans and carried the spirits of the honored dead on her wings, would forget her name. Even Peri’s mother, despite the years she’d lived in Agrond, would never wholeheartedly welcome her daughter home.

No, Peri simply had to hope that Tajin would make it past the Bone Hunters. Someone would find him, read the message, get word either to Aunt Kairi or Danber. Then they’d only think Peri had run from her responsibilities—disgraceful but not disastrous. Unfortunately her exploits were not quite heroic enough to get her out of trouble, but at least she’d be able to return to Bregond. Life as Kairi’s Heir, and later as High Lady, was no prospect she relished, but anything was better than total exile from the land she considered her home.

And she’d risked everything to rescue a Sarkond.

That thought piqued Peri’s curiosity, but just as she was about to wake Atheris and ask him about it, the wagon slowed, stopped. Cautiously Peri peered out under the edge of the wagon cloth and immediately saw the reason. The sun was low in the sky, almost down. The merchants were camping for the evening.

“That’s it,” she murmured.

“What?” Atheris said softly, making Peri jump. The Sarkond was awake and watching her anxiously.

“I have got,” she said between clenched teeth, “to piss. Not tomorrow, not after midnight when everybody’s gone to
sleep. Right now.”

Atheris gazed at her for a moment, his lips twitching suspiciously, then picked up a nearly empty waterskin. He quickly swallowed the last of the water and mutely handed her the empty skin.

Despite her foul mood, Peri had to stifle a laugh of her own at the waterskin and the look Atheris had given her; but a laugh would have brought the guards down on them, and more importantly, would have had very negative consequences on her overfull bladder. Instead she applied her wits and her knife to the problem, widening the opening so she could use the waterskin. Thankfully Atheris turned away without her having to ask—Mahdha bless me, he’s got good manners for a Sarkond—and when she finished, she just as silently handed him the skin and turned her back. When he was done she tied the skin off tightly and set it aside. Tomorrow, when she was certain nobody would see, she’d empty it out the back of the wagon.

“How’s your side?” she whispered.

Atheris pulled up the edge of his tunic and touched the dressing, raised his eyebrow, and pressed a little harder.

“Very good indeed,” he said softly. “I wondered why you did not simply use a spell, but then I realized that a mage in the caravan might have detected it, and perhaps you were wise to conserve your energies.”

Peri grimaced.

“I didn’t use a spell,” she murmured, “because I don’t have enough healing magic for spells, just a kind of knack for knowing what’s wrong and what to do about it.”

Atheris gazed at her for a long moment; then his eyes widened.

“You sacrificed your gift,” he whispered, very slowly, “for this?” He touched her sword.

Peri irritably pulled out a strip of dried meat and chewed on it; she hated having nothing to do.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she muttered.

“Why would you forsake your magic for the sword?” Atheris persisted, looking disturbed, almost horrified.

“I didn’t forsake anything,” Peri said, annoyed. She gestured pointedly at Atheris’s empty scabbard. “Why did you?”

Atheris’s brows drew down.

“That is different,” he said with great dignity. “The temple required my sword training. But you are a woman.”

Peri rolled her eyes and shut her mouth hard before she could begin an argument that would probably lead to raised voices and subsequent discovery. She’d run into that attitude often enough in Agrond. She certainly didn’t need more of it from a Sarkond.

Anyway, I’d value his opinion slightly lower than what I just put in that waterskin, Peri thought grimly.

“More importantly,” she whispered, “we need to talk about your next spell. What’ve you got that can tell us how far we are away from this city, this Darnalek, and whether or not your Bone Hunters are following us, and if so, how close they are?”