I tweaked the nerve again, more firmly, and this time he groaned loudly enough to be heard by the priests on shore. They looked at one another. One stepped onto the deck and climbed down into the hold.
Taking advantage of their preoccupation, Brydda and Reuvan attacked with wild cries, brandishing knives. One of the priests standing on the edge of the vessel fell overboard in fright. Another Herder, with stronger nerves, reached down to unloose the dogs he had on leash. Quickly I beastspoke the dogs, asking for help. I had no strength left to coerce more than very slightly, but, to my surprise, they agreed to help. I saw that the dogs had no love for their masters, for all their savage training. As soon as they were loose, they began to bark wildly and snarl, jumping and running in circles. The look on the Herders' faces would have been funny if there had not been so much at stake.
Then Reuvan jumped onto the deck, delivered a stout blow to the emerging priest and slammed the hold shut. That left five. One of the priests held onto Jik while the others divided into pairs to attack Brydda and Reuvan. Brydda was more than a match. A blow from his fist and the first priest crumpled at his feet like a wet cloth. The other had drawn a knife and tried to sink it in Brydda's belly, but the big man was agile for all his size, and whirled on his toes like a dancer before dealing a blow with the haft of his sword. He stepped over the unconscious priests and turned around.
Reuvan had dispatched one of his attackers and was busy with the other. Brydda turned menacingly to the priest holding Jik. Calmer than his brothers, he drew a long knife from the folds of his cloak and let go of Jik's arm.
'Run!' I sent.
He lurched forward, stumbled, righted himself and stumbled again, hampered by his bound hands. Panting, he fell again as he reached the cart.
'Quick, get in,' I whispered. His nose was bleeding and his breath coming in sobs, but he clambered awkwardly into the cart and fell across my feet. I gathered up the reins. I hated to leave Brydda, but he had struck me as a man used to having his orders obeyed.
Reluctantly, I beastspoke the surprised horse, and we rode away from the wharf.
I was afraid someone would spot us crossing the dark city in the Herder cart, and slung a bag over the side to obscure the insignia. As we drew up to the gate, my heart was thundering. But the gate man barely looked at me before letting us through. There was not a soldierguard in sight.
Incredulous, we found ourselves outside the city.
Sheer relief made us both hoot and laugh like madmen the moment we were out of hearing. I laughed till my stomach hurt and tears rolled down my face.
'Who were those men?' Jik asked, when the laughter had died away.
I sobered quickly. 'The big one was Brydda Llewellyn.'
I beastspoke the horse again, telling her where we wanted to go, and promising freedom once we arrived. She was a beautiful creature to look at. I was interested to learn that she thought of her masters as Jahrahn, the cold ones. She appeared unconcerned at the strange events of the night, and even at leaving the walled city.
It seemed the Herders often rode out at night beyond the city limits to meet with funaga on the seashore. Sometimes they brought men and women and children, bound as Jik was. These were always left behind. Slavers, I thought bleakly.
I thought I saw a faint flicker of fire in the distance. Closer, we could see it was a shore camp, but we were almost on it before I saw a figure jump up and Kella's voice rang out gladly.
After the first excited greetings, Kella introduced me to a tall blond youth called Idris, who cut Jik's bonds and left us to unharness the horses. Jik and I warmed our hands, and related the details of our escape. Kella and Pavo looked amazed to hear that I had told Brydda so much.
Pavo, looking pale and fraught, told me their side of the story, meeting Brydda and then leaving the city with Idris. His feet were freshly bandaged but he refused to talk about what had been done to him, save that they had made no real attempt to make him talk.
Our talk reminded Kella of my feet, and she insisted on looking at them.
The shoes and stockings had to be soaked and cut away from the scars. I was dizzy with pain before a grim-faced Kella had finished her ministrations. Then she looked up, not with the reproof I had expected, but with tears in her eyes.
'I don't know how you walked so far on them, yet . . . if you had not . . .' She stopped abruptly and hurried down to the sea to wash her instruments.
I looked at the others with faint embarrassment. 'Anyone would have done the same.'
Pavo smiled wanly. 'Would do, and have done are two different things.'
I felt my face redden and was glad of the darkness. To turn attention from myself, I asked Idris how he had come to know Brydda.
The boy said his father and two sisters had been taken by the Herders. One night he, the babe of the family, and his mother, had returned from a visit to find their house a charred ruin. Neighbours said the Herders had come and taken the husband and daughters away, but the Herders claimed Idris's mother was mad with grief, and that her husband and children must have burned to death in the fires.
Idris had never seen his father or sisters again. He met Brydda after his mother went to the rebel for help. She had died shortly after learning her husband and daughters had been sold to slavers. Brydda had taken the shattered boy in, and though Idris did not say it out loud, it was clear he worshipped the big seaman.
It was near midnight before Brydda and Reuvan found us. They had dealt with the Herders quickly, binding and locking them into their own hold, before setting the ship adrift. Brydda said in casting off he had offered up a fervent prayer that the ship would be seized by slavers. They had gone back to Brydda's hovel for supplies since they would not be returning to Aborium.
Hearing my amazement at the ease of getting out of the city, Brydda grinned and said the real gate man and three soldierguards had been tied up securely and uncomfortably in the watch hut for the night to ease Brydda's departure. All we had to do was wait for a message from the city to tell us how the Herders had reacted, and if it were safe to move.
We were all weary but Brydda's suggestion that hot food would do us more good than sleep was met with enthusiasm. We deferred serious talk until after we had eaten. 'It is bad for the stomach,' Brydda said with a comic roll of his eyes. Kella and Idris unpacked and prepared a meal and Brydda regaled us with stories of his travels on the sea and his adventures as a Seditioner. He made it sound like a game. I suspected he was telling only the brighter side of the tale, but even Pavo laughed at some of his more absurd tales and we sat to eat at last in good spirits.
With shining eyes for his rescuer, Jik asked shyly how Brydda had come to spend his time rescuing people. Brydda said it was a long tale, and refused at first but, finally, when we all pleaded, he agreed to tell his story.
'I travelled to Aborium as a lad to get a trade as a seaman. I lived in the mountains but, like many a boy, the sea called me. While I waited in Aborium for a chance to go to sea, I heard rumours of slavers. I thought them no more than another salty tale at the time, but as I grew and worked the sea vessels, I learnt that there were slave boats which called at our shores. No one said openly how the slavers got their cargo, but it was whispered that the Herders filled their moneybags by selling prisoners and innocent folk they brought in for questioning.
'I pitied those taken, but I thought it was none of my affair and meant to mind my business,' Brydda said.
Then a lad who was the son of my landlord, and very dear to me, was taken. He had simply been in the wrong place at the wrong time. I had no hope of doing anything for I did not learn of it till days after when I came back from a fishing trip.
'I swore then that I would never again stand aside and let some injustice happen, simply because it was none of my business. From that, it was not far to the next step, finding others who thought as I did, and were prepared to fight the Herder Faction.
'And so we have done these long years past, stealing their cargo and
silver when we could, disrupting their festivals and plans, rescuing prisoners and spiriting them away. And we have bided our time.'
Brydda looked into my eyes. 'You asked once why they wanted me so badly. That is why. They are afraid if I grow too strong, I will revolt openly, and that people might follow me.'
He looked at me speculatively. 'If I had a hundred like you, I would dare to try it today.'
'Don't you despise me for my deformed mind?' I asked so coolly Kella gasped.
Brydda spat into the flames. 'If the Herders are normal, then let me also be called Misfit. As to fearing you, I fear no man - or girl. Even if she can talk to dogs.'
Pavo and Kella exchanged a quick look, and Idris looked at Brydda in confusion. I took a deep breath. Then maybe one day you'll have your wish.'
Brydda's eyes flashed. 'What do you mean? Your people would fight with me?'
I shook my head. 'You go too fast. I'm not the one to decide.'
Brydda looked angry, then he laughed aloud. 'That's me all over. My mother always said I was like a wild bull at a fence. Yet I think we will one day be allies.' His eyes had a familiar faraway look.
I was more than ever convinced Brydda had some sort of Misfit ability, a combination of empathy and futuretelling, just enough to make Brydda an infallible judge of character and a lucky guesser. But if he wanted to think of it as a 'knack', past experience told me to say nothing of my theories.
'I have always thought of Misfits as unlucky mutants. Now I see there are Misfits and Misfits,' Brydda mused. 'Life is too short for all there is in it. A man with his eyes open learns something new every day,' he added so ironically we all laughed.
Gradually, the others fell asleep, but Brydda and I stayed up talking far into the night.
His organization was very large and he agreed his was the organization the rumours we heard had indicated. 'But I have no people in the high country.' He frowned. 'You do come from the Highlands?'
I nodded.
By comparison, Obernewtyn was very small fry. But Brydda disagreed, saying more like me might shift the tide of a battle. He was taken aback to discover how young we were, but still believed we could help one another. I agreed to try to organize a meeting between him and Rushton, but I was not sure our aims coincided.
'At the bottom of everything we are Misfits, and few men would have reacted as you did. Can you say for certain all your people would think as you do? Not be disgusted by us, or frightened?'
Brydda looked thoughtful at this. 'I don't know. Maybe the thought of someone who could talk inside your head, or make animals do anything they want . . . would seem frightening.'
I had told him little about our abilities, letting him assume he had seen all there was.
'If people are frightened, it is because of their ignorance and Herder lies about mutations. They could learn,' Brydda said at last.
'Maybe, but we have to be sure,' I said. There is no good in our exchanging one kind of tyranny for another.'
We had decided it was safer for us all to travel together until we reached Rangorn. Brydda knew we were looking for a Beforetime library but this interested him less than our hope that we would find an unknown Talented Misfit in the same vicinity.
Brydda asked Pavo where he thought we would find the library. At the mention of ruins, he frowned.
'I don't know about a library, but there are ruins of an old city near here.'
Pavo looked excited. 'That must be it,' he said, then his face fell. 'But if it is near and common knowledge, the library is sure to have been found and ransacked.'
Brydda shook his head. 'No one goes there.'
'Why?' Pavo asked in a puzzled tone. 'It's not in Blacklands territory.'
'It is haunted by ghosts of the Beforetime,' Reuvan said.
Pavo gaped at him, then burst out laughing. 'But there are no such things.'
Brydda looked at him without smiling. 'So I once thought, but these are real enough. I have seen them.'
'And I,' Reuvan said with a shudder. Terrible monstrous faces twisted in mortal agony.'
'Ghosts?' Pavo echoed, confounded by their joint evidence. I stared from one to the other, just as astounded.
'Ghosts,' Brydda said decisively.
18
In the early hours, a man rode out from the city with news for Brydda. The attack on the Herder ship and the escape of three dangerous Seditioners aided by the notorious Black Dog, Brydda Llewellyn, was the talk of the town. Huge rewards were being offered for information leading to the capture of Brydda, Kella, Jik and Pavo. There was also a reward for a girl seen escaping from custody at the Inn of the Cuttlefish, believed to have been an associate of the Black Dog.
The Herder ship had been found floating aimlessly, empty but for the wounded ship's master. He had described Brydda's attack as ruthless and bloody, claiming thirty cut-throats had descended without warning.
'Now you see where I came by my terrible reputation,' Brydda said.
According to the ship's master the priests had been set adrift by the villainous Black Dog, after freeing an important prisoner, and had been taken by slavers.
Brydda was delighted with the way the Herders had linked the events. 'How they will sweat wondering what a Herder novice had to do with the Black Dog,' he crowed.
More disturbing was the messenger's report that a search party was combing the town. 'It will only be a matter of time before they come on the unguarded north gate and realize you have got out. Then they will begin to search the plains,' the messenger said grimly.
After the messenger had gone Brydda said, 'They want me badly because I stand as a symbol to all those who, though they don't fight openly against the Herders, wait and long for us to rise.
'For their sakes I can't take the risk of being caught. There are four watch towers in Aborium with a clear view together of the plain from the Blacklands to the Great Sea. They will be watching for any movement away from the main roads, and all roads will be guarded. We must go at once, while it is dark. I have no desire to go to your ruins, but right now it is probably the safest place.'
We packed up the camp quickly. Reuvan and Brydda rode the two horses they had stolen to leave the city, I rode on Avra and the rest went in the cart with Idris at the rein. Fortunately it was a black, moonless night but the darkness made it impossible for us to move quickly.
To while away the time, Brydda made me help him devise a method of signalling that would let him communicate directly with the horses. He was intrigued by their intelligence. 'I always liked animals better than people,' he confided.
Later he asked Jik and myself to demonstrate our abilities. He was amazed to find his emotions swayed by Jik. 'Imagine such an ability in battle. He could shatter the nerve of a dozen good men without firing an arrow. He and more like him could mean a nearly bloodless victory.'
'It wouldn't be very fair to make brave men act like cowards,' Jik said.
Brydda gave him an incredulous look.
Pavo spotted the ruins first.
He had always seemed ageless to me, but now he looked ancient, shrunken with pain; Kella told us the illness raged freely through his frail body. His hair and teeth had begun to fall out and this made it look as if he were ageing at an accelerated pace. Yet he seemed untouched by his outward transformation, in better spirits than anyone, apart from his perplexity over Brydda's ghosts.
We had been riding in silence, each busy with his own thoughts, when Pavo stiffened and pointed.
'There it is,' he said, his voice a triumphant sigh.
At first we could see nothing. Then I saw the square shapes of buildings barely distinguishable from the dark night. Up close, they were in far worse condition than the ruinous buildings we had seen under Tor. Here the walls rose only slightly above our heads, the stone cracked and grown over with a weedy beard of green scrub and moss. The faint moonlight gave the buildings an intangible look, as if they were a mirage that might dissolve any second.
We were with
in two lengths of the first building when Brydda called a halt. 'We'd better stop here. The ghosts will rise if we go nearer. I think it will be safe enough. No one would dream of us taking refuge here.'
I looked at Pavo's determined face. 'Pavo and I will be going in to look for the library. The rest of you may wait here with Brydda, or come as you please,' I said.
Idris said he would wait with Brydda but the rest, even Reuvan, said they would come. We left all the horses except Avra, who would draw the cart to bring back the books we found. Reuvan, Kella and Jik elected to walk, while Pavo and I rode in the cart. Pavo was holding his precious drawings and maps tightly on his knee. He did not look at them, knowing them by heart as he had studied and pored over them so often.
'I know where we are now,' Pavo said suddenly. From that point on, he directed us. Occasionally he led us to a road that rubble had made impassable, then he would frown and take us another way. Without his guidance, we would never have found the hidden book store.
I did not believe in ghosts, but the deeper we went into the dark maze of stone and crumbled walls, the more uneasy I became.
It was clear some disaster had befallen the ruins, for there was far more damage than to other ruins I had seen on the Blacklands fringes. In one place, pale moonlight glimmered on a charred wall showing the shape of a man running. I did not know what it could mean, but I felt a deep chill in looking at it. Jik stared at it, his eyes bulging.
I began to think of all the stories I had heard of ghosts, how vengeful they were supposed to be when their territory was invaded. If there were ghosts, the ancient ruin would be the perfect place to find them. I wished we had waited until dawn to begin searching.
Though the previous day had been cold, the early morning was icy and when a faint breeze blew across from the sea, smelling of damp stone, the cold began to seep into my bones.
My apprehension increased with each step yet there was no overt reason for it other than the strangely compelling atmosphere of the city, as if it were alive, and watching us pass. The others were showing signs of disquiet too.