Peace, peace, I mean no harm, not to you, not to your little ones. ... At some time, she had done this before, something which menaced her, cold, fierce, in the snows. . ..
Silently, silently, step after step, withdraw, withdraw . . . peace, peace, I mean you no harm, your cubs no harm....
Then, when she was almost at the edge of the clearing, the cat moved like a streak, with a single long leap, and landed almost at Romilly's feet.
Peace, peace . . . The cat bent her head, almost laid it at Romilly's feet. Then shock struck through her.
No, no! I betrayed Sunstar to death, I swore 1 would use that laran no more, never, never ... no more of the innocent to die ...
One paw lashed out like a whip; claws raked Romilly's face, and the weight of the arm stretched her sprawling and gasping with pain; she felt blood break from her cheek and her lip. Now she has spilled my blood, will she kill me now as sacrifice to her cubs, in expiation for the death of Sunstar. . . .
The hoarse, soft snarling never stopped. Romilly rolled over, to protect her face. Then, as the cat sprung again, a fury of wings lashed down, and the hawk's claws raked at the eyes of the great cat, beating wings flapping around the cat's muzzle.
Preciosa! She has come to fight for me!
Romilly rolled free, springing up and climbing into a nearby tree. Preciosa hovered, just out of reach of the deadly claws, flapping and striking with beak and talons, until the cat, snarling softly, turned her back and vanished into the long grasses where her cubs were hidden. Her breath catching in her throat, Romilly slid down the tree and ran as far as she could in the opposite direction, Preciosa close behind her; she heard the sound of the wings and the little shrilling sound of the hawk. When she was out of range, she stopped, turned, thrust out her fist, in a gesture so familiar that she did not even make it consciously.
Preciosa!" she cried, and as the hawk's talons closed, gently, on her arm, she remembered everything, and began to cry.
"Oh, Preciosa, you came for me!"
She washed in a stream, that night, and shook the leaf-mold and dirt from her cloak. She took off her tunic and trousers, and shook them out to air, and put them on again. She had lost, somewhere, her Swordswoman's earring - she never knew where. With the hawk riding on her shoulder, she tried to orient herself.
She supposed the white Tower nearby must be Neskaya, but she was not certain. A day's walk should bring her there, and perhaps she could send a message somewhere, and know what had befallen Carolin, and what the armies did. She still flinched from the thought of joining them again, but she knew someday she must return to her own kind.
Late that night, as she was looking for a dry place to sleep, and wondering how she had managed all these days alone - she thought she must have been in the woods all of three days, perhaps - it seemed that she heard someone calling her name.
Romilly! Romilly!
Search for her with laran, only so we can find her, she is hiding...
She cannot be dead. I would know if she was dead....
She recognized, vaguely, some of the voices, though it was still not clear.
If you can find her, bid her come back to us. This was a voice she knew, a voice she loved; Jandria, mourning. And although she had never done it before, somehow Romilly knew how to reach out with her mind.
Where are you? What has happened? I thought the war Was over.
It is ended, and Carolin is encamped before the walls of Hali, came the answer. But it is stalemate, for Lyondri has Orain as hostage somewhere within the city.
And Romilly did not even stop to remember her grudge, or what it had been.
I will come as swiftly as I can.
CHAPTER NINE
She slept only a little that night, and was awake and walking by daylight, sending out her laran to spy out a dwelling of men. Once in the village she sought out a man who had horses for hire.
"I must have a fast horse at once. I am of the Sisterhood of the Sword, and I am on an urgent mission for King Carolin; I am needed at once at Hali."
"And I am His Majesty's chief cook and bottle-washer," jeered the stableman. "Not so fast, mestra; what will you pay?" And Romilly saw herself reflected in his eyes, a gaunt scarecrow of a woman in a tattered tunic and breeches, barefoot, her face savagely clawed and bleeding where the mountain-cat had swiped at her, the unkempt hawk riding on her shoulders.
"I have been through the war and worse," she said. She had dwelt among animals so long she had forgotten the need of money. She searched the deep pockets of tunic and breeches and found a few coins forgotten; she spilled them out before him.
"Take these as earnest," she said, not counting them, "I swear I will send the rest when I reach a hostel of the Sisterhood, and twice as many if you will find me a pair of boots and some food."
He hesitated. "I will need thirty silver bits or a copper royal," he said, "and another as token that you win return the horse here-"
Her eyes glittered with rage. She did not even know why she was in such need of haste, but she was sought for at Hali. "In Carolin's name," she said, "I can take your horse if I must-"
She signalled to the nearest horse; he looked fast, a great rangy roan. A touch of her laran and he came swiftly to her, bowed his neck in submission. His owner shouted with anger and came to lay his hand on the horse's lead-rope, but the horse edged nervously away, and lashed out, kicking; circled, and came back to rub Romilly's head with his shoulder.
"Leronis..." he whispered, his eyes widened, staring.
"That and more," said Romilly tartly.
A young woman stood watching, twisting her long apron. At last she whispered, "My mother's sister is of the Sisterhood, mestra. She has told me that the Sisterhood will always pay debts incurred by one of them, for the honor of them all. Let her have the horse, my husband, and-" she ran into the house, brought back a pair of rough boots.
"They were my son's," she said in a whisper, "Rakhal's men came through the village and one of them killed him, cut him down like a dog, when they seized our plow-beast and slaughtered it for their supper, and he asked them for some payment. Carolin's men have done nothing like this."
Romilly slipped the boots on her feet. They were hillmen's boots, fur-lined, soft to her toes. The woman gave her half of a cut loaf of bread. "If you can wait, mestra, you shall have hot food, but I have nothing cooked...."
Romilly shook her head. "This is enough," she said. "I cannot wait." In a flash she was on the horse's back, even while the man cried, "No lady can ride that horse - he is my fiercest-"
"I am no lady but a Swordswoman," she said, and suddenly a new facet of her laran made itself clear to her; she reached out, as she had done to the mountain cat, and he backed away before her, staring, submissive.
The woman cried, "Do you not want saddle-bridle - let me bind up your wounds, Swordswoman."
"I have no time for that," Romilly said, "Set me on the road to Hali."
The woman stammered out directions, while the man stood silent, goggling at her. She dug her heels into the horse's back. She had ridden like this, with neither saddle nor bridle, when she was a child at Falconsward, just learning her laran, guiding the horse with her will alone. She felt a brief, poignant regret; Sunstar! Sunstar, and the nameless unknown horse she had ridden away from the battle and turned loose to wander in the wild. She had surely been mad.
The horse moved swiftly and steady, his long legs eating up the road. She gnawed at the hard bread; it seemed that no fine meal had ever been quite so delicious. She needed fresh clothes, and a bath, and a comb for her hair, but nightmare urgency drove her on. Orain, in the hands of Lyondri! Once she stopped to let the horse graze a little and rest, and wondered, What do I think I can do about it?
The Lake at Hali was long and dim, with a Tower rising on the shore, and pale waves lapping like stormclouds at the verge; at the far end Carolin's army encamped before a city whose walls were grey and grim. And now she was sure enough of her laran to reach
out and feel for the presence of the man she had known as Dom Carlo, and to know that he was her friend, king or no. He was still the man who had welcomed her, protected her among his men even when he knew she was a woman, kept her secret even from his dearest friend and foster-brother.
She made her way through the staring army, hearing one of the Swordswomen call her name in amazement. She knew how she must look to them, worn and gaunt, her tunic and breeches filthy, her hair a ragged and uncombed mop, the cat-claw marks still bloody across her face, riding a countryman's horse with neither saddle nor bridle. Was this any way to present herself to a king?
But even as she slid from her horse, Jandria had her in a tight embrace.
"Romilly, Romy, we thought you were dead! Where did you go?"
She shook her head, suddenly too exhausted to speak.
"Anywhere. Everywhere. Nowhere. Does it matter? I came as swiftly as I could. How long since the battle? What is this about Orain being held hostage for Lyondri?"
Alderic and Ruyven came to stare, to clasp her in their arms. "I tried to reach you, with Lady Maura," Alderic said, "but we could not-" and Jandria cried out, "What happened to your face - your earring-?"
"Later," she said, with an exhausted shake of her head, and then Carolin himself was before her; he held out both his hands.
"Child-" he said, and hugged her as her own father might have done. "Orain loved you, too - I thought I had lost both of you, who followed me not as a king, but as an outlaw and fugitive! Come in," he said, and led the way into his tent. He gestured, and Jandria poured her a cup of wine, but Romilly shook her head.
"No, no, I have eaten almost nothing, I would be drunk if I drank half a cup now - I would rather have some food," she said. The remnants of a meal were laid around the rough table inside, and Carolin said, "Help yourself." Jandria cut her a slice of meat and bread, but Romilly laid the meat aside - she knew she would never taste it again - and ate the bread, slowly. Jandria took the rejected wine and washed the deep claw-marks on her face.
"Why, how came you to have these? The healer must tend them, a cat's claw-wounds always fester; you could lose the sight of an eye if they spread," she said, but Romilly only shook her head.
"I hardly know. Some day I will tell you all I can remember," she promised, "But Orain-"
"They have him somewhere in the city," Carolin said. He had been pacing the tent but now he dropped wearily into one of the folding camp-chairs. "I dare not even enter to search for him, for they have warned me . . . yet it might give him an easier death than what Lyondri plans for him. Rakhal's army is cut to pieces; most of them have made submission to me, but Rakhal himself, with a few of his men, and Lyondri, took refuge here . .. and they have Orain captive; he has been in their hands since the battle. Now they are using him to parley-" she could see his jaw move as he swallowed and said, "I offered them safe-conduct across the Kadarin, or wherever they wished to go, and both their lives, and to leave Lyondri's son safe in Nevarsin, and have him reared as kinsman at my court, with my own sons. But they - they -" He broke off, and Romilly saw that his hands were trembling.
"Let me tell her, Uncle," Alderic said gently. "I sent word I would surrender myself in exchange for my father, and go with them where they wished across the Kadarin to safety, to whatever place they should appoint for refuge; I also made offer of copper and silver-"
"The long and short of it is," Jandria said, "that precious pair have demanded that Carolin surrender himself to them for Orain's life. I, too, offered to exchange myself - I thought Lyondri might agree to that. And Maura said she would give herself up to Rakhal, even go with him into exile if that was what he wished, so that Carolin might have his paxman. But-" her face was grim, "Let her see what answer they sent us."
Ruyven fumbled with a little package wrapped in yellow silk. His hands shook dreadfully. Carolin took the silk from him and tried to unwrap it. Maura laid her hands over his, stroked them for a moment, then opened the bloodstained cloth.
Inside - Romilly thought that she would retch-was a calloused finger. Clotted blood caked the end where it had been cut from the hand; and the horror was, that one finger bore a copper ring, set with a blue stone, which she had seen on Orain's hand.
Carolin said, "They sent word - they would return Orain to me - a little piece at a time - unless I surrendered myself to them, and made complete submission of my armies." His hands were shaking, too, as he carefully wrapped up the finger again. "They sent this two days ago. Yesterday it was - it was an ear. Today -" he could not go on; he shut his eyes, and she saw the tears squeezing from his eyes.
"For Orain I would give my life and more, and he has always know it," Carolin said, "but I - I have seen what Rakhal has done to my people - how can I give all of them over to him and his butcher Lyondri?"
"Orain would let himself be cut into little pieces for you, and you know that-" Maura said, and Carolin lowered his head and sobbed. "Lyondri knows that, too. Damn him! Damn him waking and sleeping-" His voice rose, almost in hysteria.
"Enough." Maura laid a gentle hand on his, took the horrid silk package from him and set it aside.
Jandria said grimly "I swear, I shall not sleep nor drink wine till Lyondri has been flayed alive."
"Nor I; but that will not save Orain from his fate," said Carolin. "You come when we have lost hope, and are almost ready to storm the city, so that Orain may have a death that is swift and clean. Yet somehow we must find out where they are keeping him, and he has managed to shield the city against laran. But we still have one sentry-bird, and we thought, perhaps - we could fly her; she has not been manageable since the battle, Ruyven could not handle her."
Maura said, "And Ranald was killed in the final charge, where we thought you too had died. But Ruyven said you were not dead, that he would have felt you die - and the Swordswomen could not find your body. But we knew not where you had gone. Yet perhaps, if we can find out in what part of the city they have kenneled for their filthy work - if we enter the city, they have threatened, they will start to cut him to pieces at that moment, and we may have what is left by the time we have searched long enough to find him." Her face twisted with dread and horror. "So we cannot search at random, and - and somehow his leronyn have guarded the city - but perhaps they would not notice a bird."
"They would see a sentry-bird at once," said Romilly. "Their leronyn would be aware of just such a plan."
"That is what I told them," Ruyven said, "but it seemed a chance - if you can handle Temperance-"
"Better that I should send Preciosa," said Romilly. "She would not come into the army with me, but flew away - but I can call her." Had she ever believed that she would not use her laran again? It was, like her body and her life, at Carolin's service. No land could survive with a mountain-cat like Lyondri at its head. No; the cat killed because it was its nature from hunger or fear, but Rakhal and Lyondri for power alone.
"That might do," said Carolin, "They might think her only a wild hawk - the Gods know there are enough of them in the country round Hali, and you might spy out where Orain is being held, so that we can make directly for that place, and they will have to surrender Orain or kill him quick and clean."
Somewhere a horn blew; Carolin started and cringed. "That is their accursed summons," he said weakly, "It was at this hour - just before sunset-that they came on the other two days, and while I sit here trying to summon courage to storm the city, Orain -" his voice failed again. Again the horn sounded, and Carolin went out of his tent. A common soldier came toward him, with insolent bearing. In his hand he bore a little packet of yellow silk. He bowed, and said, "Carolin, pretender to the throne of the Hasturs, I have the honor to return another portion of your faithfully sworn man. You may take pride in his bravery."
He laughed, a jeering, raucous laugh, and Alderic leaped forward.
"Wretch whom I will honor by calling dog, I win at least rid you of that laugh-" he shouted, but Jandria flung her arms round him.
"
No, Deric, they will only revenge themselves on Orain."
The soldier said, "Do you not want to see what token they have sent you of your paxman's bravery and devotion?"
Carolin's hands were shaking. Jandria said, "Let me," released Alderic and unwrapped the horrid packet. Inside there was another finger. The soldier said, "This is the message of Lyondri. We weary of this play. Tomorrow it will be an eye; the next day, the other eye; and the day after that, his testicles. Should you hold out beyond that, it will be a yard of skin flayed from his back."
"Bastards! Sons of bastards!" cursed Carolin, but the soldier turned his back and, to the sound of the trumpet again, walked within the gates of the city.
"Follow him with laran!" commanded Carolin, but although Ruyven, Maura and Alderic all sought to do so - Romilly could sense it, tried to follow the man with her special senses - it was as if her body rammed against an impregnable wall of stone; as soon as the man was inside the gates, she could not reach him. Carolin was shaking with horror, unable to even shed tears; Maura held him tightly in her arms.
"My dearest, my dearest, Orain would not have you surrender."
"Avarra protect me, I know that - but ah, if I could only kill him quickly-"
Inside the tent again he said with implacable fury, "I cannot let them blind him, geld him, flay him. If we can think of nothing this night, tomorrow at dawn I storm the city with everything I have to throw at them. I will send word that no citizen will be harmed who does not raise hand against me, but we will search every house till we find him; and at least there will be a swift end to his torment And then the tormenters will come into my hands."
Yet Romilly knew, watching him, that Carolin was a decent man; he would do nothing worse, even to Lyondri Hastur, than to kill him. He might hang him, ignobly, and expose his corpse for a warning, rather than giving him a nobleman's swift death by the sword; yet Lyondri would still be in better case than Orain, should it go on so far. Carolin sent word quietly through the army to make ready to storm the gates at dawn.