Mastiff: The Legend of Beka Cooper #3, page 43
You need not try to bury them, my finest priestess. I will do so, he told me.
The god I’d been taught to call black reached out hands gloved in ever-changing colors, holding them over the murdered slaves, the guards, and the Viper. Suddenly green tendrils sprouted from the earth, twining around limbs and bodies like so many agile snakes. As they moved they grew, turning thicker and putting out leaves. Buds formed and sprouted until the bodies were covered by a riot of flowers of every shade in the god’s robe. They continue to grow solid and fat as the mound beneath them shrank and collapsed. By the time they had stopped, the ground where the dead had lain was sunken. It looked as if their remains had been placed there decades ago and only flowers remained.
I glanced back at my companions. They were on their knees, their heads bent. I wondered if I ought to do the same. Surely I’d have felt the need to bow if the god had expected it of me.
He raised a hand and pushed his hood back from his face. I say he, but he could as well have been a she. He didn’t correct me, so I continue to think of him as I have always done.
I cannot remember his face, though I do remember his words.
They are safe in my Realm. They shall have a rest, and then another chance. Continue your work, Rebakah Cooper. You are a good servant to me, and a good friend to my messengers.
Thinking of all the times I’d been wing-slapped, pecked, bitten, and splattered with pigeon piss and dung, I could not think the birds agreed with their master, but I bowed my head and nodded.
He was gone, just like that. The pigeons leaped into the air in an explosion of powerful wings, a feathered clap of thunder that made all of us duck.
We dared not let our feelings overwhelm us for too long. We still had a Hunt. The prince had been missing from that ugly pile, and the second mage reported to be with the cart was not there, either. Immediately after we returned to the road, we found horse tracks pressed into the mud, sixteen sets altogether. Could these be the killers who had left with the prince? Important to us, was the mage who had helped the Viper among them? And why had they killed the slaves, the guards, and the Viper here, particularly? Bandits would have kept the slaves—they were worth money. They wouldn’t have needed a mage of their own because Farmer’s spell would have brought down the Viper the moment she used her Gift to fight bandits. Only another, stronger mage would have left her in that pile.
I was struggling with my questions when Achoo found another midden. She caught the prince’s scent off to the side of his companions’ piddle. Had he thought to do so himself, to keep his scent from being covered by those who had taken him? I hoped so, but the lad was only four. I could not expect too much.
Shortly after that I saw a road sign ahead. Achoo turned into the road leading away from the one we’d been following. She’d gone but a couple of yards that way when she shrieked and leaped into the air, dropping to the ground like a stone. I screamed and cut across the grassy turf between me and her, running for all I was worth. It was when I reached her that everything went white.
When I roused, I was sitting upright on a horse’s back. My head throbbed and my nose ran. I felt in my breeches pocket for a handkerchief and discovered I was hobbled so tight around my waist that I couldn’t reach very far. I had to bend over to blow my nose. I could reach my saddle horn, but not the reins. My feet were tied to the stirrups and the mount was being led. I blew my nose and cringed from the pain.
“I know,” a mot’s voice said. “That spell would rip a monkey’s gut out with the monkey on the fly. Try this.” A hand gloved in fine gray kid pressed a lump of green jellylike stuff into my hand. “Doesn’t taste very grand, but it’s good for the aches.”
I was tied to a horse—not Saucebox, but one of our spares. I held my hand out and let the lump roll off his withers to the ground.
“Suit yourself,” the mot said carelessly. “It’s no hair off my head if you want to waste it.”
I squinted at her through bright sunlight that made everything sparkle, or mayhap that was just the magic that seemed to float everywhere around us. She rode beside me on a gray mare that matched her gloves and boots. The mot herself was my age, a glorious creature in pink silk leggings and a matching pink silk tunic. She had fine, shining blond hair pinned up in loops around her head, with a frivolous sheer white veil over it. When she turned and smiled, I thought I was looking at the most beautiful lady in the world, even more beautiful than the queen. Her gray eyes glittered.
“What a scruffy thing you are,” she told me, her voice soft, pretty, and playful. “I can’t believe so much worry and thought has been expended on you. Does Farmer keep you going? I never thought he was so dedicated a Hunter, myself, but I have never had a chance to speak with him at length. Sabine’s just a crude brawler, mad for sex and fighting. I can’t say much for her latest toy, but maybe he’s more clever than he looks.”
For a moment rage filled my head over her saying those things about my friends, but suddenly my mood reversed. I wanted her to like me. She was so beautiful and sweet. If she didn’t like me, why would the friendship of those other three dirty, tattered people matter? I was confused by the change of my own feelings, so I looked around instead.
My fellow Hunters were alive. Like me they rode upright in the saddle, tied to it as I was, their horses each led by a guard. Farmer rode a little way behind me, a small frown on his face, staring into the distance. Sabine and Tunstall were ahead in our line of riders, encircled by rough-looking huntsmen, those behind and on both sides holding crossbows aimed straight at them. Sabine happened to glance back as I was looking at her. She gave me a tiny nod before the guard at her side punched her arm.
The warriors beside and behind Farmer also bore crossbows. Another row of archers rode farther out, their bows pointed at Farmer as well. Far behind Farmer’s guard rode a small group of men, but the light was too bright for me to make out their faces. Either I was not regarded as a threat or no one wished to risk shooting my riding companion, because we only had a cove to lead my horse. Nowhere did I see Pounce or Achoo. I closed my eyes and sent a brief prayer of thanks to the gods. Then I looked at the delightful creature beside me again.
“Who are you, what have you done to Farmer, and where are we going?” I demanded. All those archers told me how they kept Sabine and Tunstall under control. I just couldn’t see a mere clutch of archers slowing Farmer, even a double ring of them. I’d had a sense he held more of his power back than he was letting on. Why wasn’t he putting it to use?
She simpered. “I am Dolsa Silkweb. Farmer is fine, such as he is. Really, is he the best you people could get?”
Part of my mind said, He’s better than you, while another part said, He certainly isn’t as good as you! I didn’t know which was real, not entirely. I settled for blandness. “I’m not sure what you mean.”
“I know all about your little Hunt,” Dolsa told me. “We tried and tried to stop you, but it never pays to use hirelings. My lord said to cut our losses and bring you four straight to him. For days I rode in that stinky little cart with your brat of a prince and that bossy woman! My lord had best remember my sacrifices for this.” Her gray eyes slanted sidelong with a glitter like ice. “Or I’ll help him remember.”
So she had been aiding the Viper.
“What have you done to Farmer?” I insisted on asking. It seemed she would only talk at length about herself.
“Oh, he still thinks he’s riding along the road after you. He’s terrible at illusions, I’m sad to say. Why don’t you call in that hound?” She asked it quickly, without warning, her charm gripping me so tight that my mouth instantly opened to call Achoo. I remembered Achoo lying on the ground, the killing wound open in her side, Farmer with his hand on her, and shut my mouth. For good measure, I ground my teeth together.
Dolsa looked at me for a long moment, her slender brows knit. I could feel the need to please her press on me, wrap around me, even seek ways into me through my nose, ears, and eyes. I bit the inside of my cheek until it bled to fight her Gift, forcing myself to see Achoo beg me for scraps, curl up with Pounce, and chase her toy in the park with Tunstall.
At last Dolsa sighed. “I suppose you have some charm or other on you, to fight my spells. Or you’re like most common dullards, not imaginative enough for my Gift. We’ll have any protective magic off you before nightfall, you know.” She tugged her gloves until they sat her hands more neatly. “Truly, the hound isn’t necessary. I just thought you’d be more pliable, if we had your animal to work on. Still, the woods aren’t kind hereabouts. Something will get her, eventually. Maybe even one of our own hunters.”
“Where do you come from, Lady Silkweb?” I asked, letting her spell squeeze the lady out of me. “Who do you serve?”
She laughed. It was a musical sound that made a number of the guards turn to smile at her. She snapped her fingers imperiously. Every one of them yelped and flinched, as if that dull snap of the fingers—it didn’t work in gloves—had the power to hurt them. I had the feeling it had done just that. “Idiots!” she cried. She’d made her voice louder somehow, so everyone could hear. “Keep your eyes on your prisoner! Next time it won’t be a bite on the ear!” She looked at me. “That’s the punishment,” she told me, her voice at its normal loudness for only me to hear. “I took the pain from the time a horse bit me and tucked it into a little spell. I touched each guard on the shoulder as we readied to go, and …” She shrugged one shoulder, very pleased with herself.
“Like brats pulling wings off flies,” I said, meeting her eyes.
She gave that sparkling, musical laugh again. “You’re very brave, aren’t you, Dog?” Silkweb asked when she stopped laughing. “You think you and your friends have a chance? Lady Sabine will be lucky to live, since she’s so entrenched on the king’s side. You Dogs? Trash. Farmer? I can dance rings around your Dogs’ mage, and I’m not the only one here who can. Tell me, brave Dog—”
If she said Dog that way again, charm spell or no, I was going to do my best to bite her like that horse she’d mentioned.
She did not hear my thoughts, so instead she finished what she was saying. “Does Farmer’s master still give him gifts of power?”
My skin crept. “What are you talking about?”
“Everyone knows,” she said and giggled like a gixie telling secrets with her friends. “It’s said Cassine tucked power all around him. He can draw magic out of things, at least he’s not inept there. That’s why it was so important to burn his packs, so he couldn’t use his emergency stores.”
“How could you know about that if you were with the cart?” I asked, thinking, No, no, no. I won’t believe her.
She rolled her eyes. “That was the plan. Farmer is the biggest threat, so we sent a man in to set the fire. I know because I was in touch with the others through my scrying crystal. Without his little bag of tricks, he’s nothing.” She glanced back at him. “I had the boys take that shoulder pack and his belt, boots, and necklaces off as soon as we dropped the four of you.”
All those dead. Linnet on the garbage barrel, the bandits, the poor mumpers forced to travel with the Viper, the sleepers at the inn. “Is it worth it, what you’ve done?” I asked her. “Do you know how many you’ve killed just to ‘drop’ us four?”
“Is it worth it?” She acted as if she hadn’t heard the second question. “You silly thing, don’t you know? Your precious king has put taxes on mage work. He’s taxing items we need badly if we’re to create anything of real meaning. Now he’s demanding that we be licensed—licensed!—and in exchange for this precious license, we have to guarantee so many days a year in work for the Crown.” There was a blush of rage on her cheeks. “We are mages, not piddling jewelers or sellers of greens! We won’t submit! We must be free to work as we please!”
“Why don’t you go to some other realm?” I asked. Had I seen a bit of cream-colored fur off in the trees?
“Because all the best places in all the realms that matter are held, or there are fifty competitors for them at least. Because this is my home.” Her hands trembled as she arranged them prettily on her reins. “Because if Randy Roger gets away with this, the other kings will do the same. Because no one tells a great mage what to do. Not ever.”
I heard the jingle of reins behind our group and twisted to see who was coming out of the group at the rear of the train. When he passed Farmer, I recognized him. Farmer gave no sign that he even saw the man, though he rode right before Farmer’s eyes.
It was Master Elyot, dressed in a cream-colored tunic and brown breeches and looking too poxy cheerful. The fire opal on his chest blazed as it caught the sun. “Dolsa, my dear, I don’t believe you’ve stopped talking to this poor captive since she came around. Whatever do you have to say to her?”
Dolsa treated him to her simper for a change as he brought his horse up on my opposite side. What a delightful trio are we, I thought, sick with what Dolsa had said about Farmer and her reasons for rebellion. All this because the mages didn’t care for work?
“We’ve been talking of every manner of things,” Dolsa told Elyot. “I don’t think she knew Cassine used to feed Farmer extra magic.”
Elyot frowned at Dolsa. “I didn’t see that in him.”
Dolsa laughed. “You didn’t look at his packs, silly. They half blinded me! Where else could it have come from if not Cassine? Certainly not from him.”
“I don’t know,” Elyot said. “He struck me as well enough. Not on our level, but how many mages are?” He looked at me. “I’m glad to have the chance to take a closer look at you, Gershom’s pet. I’ve met Lady Teodorie a few times at court. I’m surprised she actually let you live in her house.” He chuckled. “I’m surprised she let you live. She never struck me as the sort to let her man keep his child mistress under her roof.”
I spat on him. Sadly, it stopped partway to him, halted by his scummer magic, and dropped to the road.
He slapped me hard, rocking my head back on my neck. I growled and threw myself at him, forgetting I was tied in the saddle. One of the guards seized the bridle and Dolsa the back of my tunic as an invisible mask slid over my face, cutting off my air. I fought it as long as I could. Finally, as my sight went black, the mask vanished.
A cruel hand gripped the hair at the back of my head and Dolsa said in my ear, “Mind your manners or we’ll drag you the rest of the way to Halleburn. And I have to warn you, Lord Thanen is not as good about keeping his roads as he should be.”
I took some deep breaths, then nodded. She pulled me straight in the saddle with one arm, gave my hair an extra twist with the other hand just for meanness, and released me. Too bad she hadn’t grabbed me by the braid, but like as not she’d seen the spikes sticking from the strands.
I took inventory of my condition. My scalp ached. I ignored it. My left cheek was swelling, including the side of the eye. A slap from a gem-decorated glove is no joke. I’d wrenched my arms fiercely, trying to yank free of the rope bindings. One of my wrists ached in a dull way I did not like.
To take my mind off the pain, I kept my head down and looked at Elyot under my lashes. “When did you get here?” I demanded. “We left ahead of you.”
This time he grabbed my ear and twisted it hard. Again, I bit the inside of my cheek till it bled rather than cry out for this nuncle’s tarse. “I don’t care who you were in Gershom’s house, any more than I care that you’re a Provost’s Guard,” the mage said, breathing garlic into my face. “Gershom is dead when we succeed. And I wouldn’t give a cracked kernel for the lives of you and your Hunting party, do you hear? So mind your manners, or I’ll kill you in such fashion as they never find your bones.” He let go of my ear. “We were only a day behind you, stupid bitch, riding hard. We passed you by night and took the other route to Halleburn. How did your creature track the boy?”
“Elyot, why are you abusing my poor Beka so?” Sabine called from her place in our train of riders. “She’s wonderful with hounds and she knows the rules of the Guard, but she doesn’t have two thoughts to rub together. Come and tell me why you’re mauling her about. This is the forest road to Halleburn, isn’t it?” To hear her, we were just on a tour of the estate.
Elyot looked at her, then at me. He glanced at Farmer and raised an eyebrow at Dolsa, who shrugged. Then he spat on me and rode up to Sabine.
His spit landed. There was naught I could do but watch it soak into my tunic.
“Elyot’s furious because none of the traps he planned for you worked and mine did. He feels it reflects badly on him. I think you’re going to die in very unpleasant ways.” Dolsa shrugged. “Maybe if you promise to give me your blood freely, I can talk him into letting me kill you. I’ll do it nicely.”
I stared at her. “You truly think I would do that?” I asked, not sure that I’d heard her right.
Dolsa rested a gentle hand on my shoulder. Her glove was scented with some kind of perfume. “If you knew the ways Elyot kills people, you would,” she assured me. “Oh, look, there’s a rabbit!” She pointed gleefully at the animal, which ran for its life, dashing to and fro as if it knew it was hunted. Something gray and glittery darted from her pointing finger to chase the rabbit, missing just as it made the shelter of the woods.
“See, that’s the difference between Elyot and me,” Dolsa explained. “I know sometimes you lose. And if you study your losses enough, you get a big, fat, victory.” She kicked her pretty mare into a trot, turning to ride with the group in the back.
I looked at Farmer. Never more had I wanted him awake and aware. I could face anything if Farmer rode beside me, talking away. If I hadn’t known what was happening to my feelings about him before then, that was the point at which I realized it whole. To keep from thinking about the bad things ahead, I tried to work it out in my mind, how he was different from other men I’d known.
He liked me to help him when he did things. He explained what I didn’t know, warned me when to stand aside, never told me to get out of his way because he could do it faster, and thanked me for helping. There were moments when he needed me to rescue him, and he never blamed me for it, or got angry about it.
