"It's a good day to die," she said, preparing for a final leap.
"No!"
A girl Astrid didn't recognize sprang in front of Tiphaine, trying to cover her body with her own; she was full-grown but younger than Astrid herself by a few years, wide blue eyes desperate, long black hair falling past her shoulders.
"No, don't hurt her!" The girl's hands moved in signs. "I'm with the Coven, you've got to listen to me-don't hurt her!"
The drawn bows remained unwavering; at this range any of them could shoot past without injuring anyone but their target. Astrid's eyes flicked to Eilir, and she nodded-the claim was true, then. That didn't mean they shouldn't dispose of so dangerous an enemy, of course.
"She saved Rudi's life!" the young woman went on.
"She did," Rudi said, calming Epona with a hand down her neck. "Twice."
Mathilda nodded vigorously, laying down a crossbow far too big for her. "She did! Joris was going to kill him! Tiphaine jumped and got her sword between them and Joris missed, but then he nearly killed her too."
That's different, Astrid thought as Tiphaine urged the black-haired girl aside.
"Go see to the princess, sweetie," the noble said to her. "These people and I have unfinished business."
Astrid closed her eyes for an instant. Threefold, she thought with a sigh of regret, and lowered her bow. The others did as well, Hordle with a low almost-grumble of protest and a roll of his eyes.
"Tiphaine d'Ath," the Lady of the Dunedain said. "I owe you nothing for your friend Katrina's death; that was honest war. But we do stand greatly in your debt for saving Rudi. Take a life for a life then, and count us quits. I am not eager to deal out death in judgment."
Their eyes met for a long instant, ice gray to silver-blue. Then the Protectorate noble shrugged; she drew her sword blade through a cloth and sheathed it.
"You can't have the princess back," she said carefully. "Not while I'm alive to guard her."
"We don't want her. Lady Juniper's orders are to leave her in her mother's care. You're not in a position to make conditions, though, are you?"
The other's lips quirked a little. "Oh, I was going to challenge you to single combat. Now, that would have been interesting."
"Yes: " Astrid said, with a momentary pang. Like Eowyn and the Lord of the Nazgul before the walls of Gondor. "Except that I wouldn't have accepted. Duty would forbid."
"With its shrill, unpleasant voice." Tiphaine bowed her head slightly and sighed. "It's time to let Kat's ghost go, I suppose. Take the brat, then. He's a good kid, but sort of spooky: and that horse is worse. And a favor for a favor; you'd better hurry. I got one of my men out before the fight started, and there'll be a rescue party heading this way fast."
The Dunedain nodded, and silently turned to go. Rudi took his hat off and waved it at Mathilda. "See you, Matti!" he called, and then whooped as the great horse pirouetted and followed.
As the hooves faded in the distance Tiphaine took a deep breath, suddenly conscious of how distant shrieks of pain cut through birdsong and the sough of wind through forest and meadow. Some of them would be her men, and the others should be given mercy.
"We'd better get to work," she said, turning towards the head of the trail. "We might be able to save some of the wounded; Joris and his merry band didn't have time to finish them."
Mathilda nodded, standing silent and forlorn, staring after the path Rudi and his rescuers had taken. Delia cried silently into her hands.
"Hey, sweetie, come on," Tiphaine said, touching her on the shoulder, urging her forward. A hug wasn't really practical, considering what coated her hands and face and much of her body. "Work to do."
Delia looked up. "I told them all about the castle, and where Rudi was-"
"Yeah, but they weren't the ones who tried to kill us and him, were they?"
"I betrayed you!"
"Funny, I could have sworn you just now jumped between me and four drawn bows," Tiphaine said gently. "And you stayed, when you could have gone with them. Just don't deliver any intelligence reports on me in future, OK?"
"I'm: I'm a witch."
"I won't tell Father Peter if you don't."
A curled trumpet sounded through the hills from the north, a harsh urgent scream: We're comings! We're coming!
"Good," Tiphaine murmured. "They'll have medical supplies and a doctor with them."
And soon Joris' head will be off to Castle Todenangst pickled in a tub, with a report nailed to it which ought to cover my ass fairly thoroughly at court unless the Lord Protector wants to break with Sandra, which I doubt. And Rudi's going back home, probably Mathilda too, and the war will start again after harvest, but there's the summer to live through first. And for the first time in a while, I'm actually looking forward to that.
"You're not angry? You don't want to punish me?" Delia said doubtfully.
Tiphaine grinned, tired and triumphant. And most of all, I'm still alive.
"Well, if you insist, I could spank you a little," she said.
And administered a gunshot slap to the appropriate location. Delia yelped and leapt, startled back into functionality.
"Come on. Get that cloak and start cutting it into strips."
Chapter Twenty-One
Near Larsdalen, Willamette Valley, Oregon
August 22nd, 2008/Change Year 10
"L ast one!" Michael Havel yelled through a mouth dry and gummy and far too full of chaff.
He turned with the wheat sheaf on the long, slender tines of the pitchfork and did what had given the implement its name originally, pitching the thirty-pound weight of grain and straw up onto the canvas conveyer belt, heads-first. The air around the machine was full of dust and powdered chaff, the harsh dry smell of it, and of the canola oil used to grease the metal parts.
Then he stepped back and stretched, feeling the good-tired sensation of hard-worked muscles, leaning on the six-foot shaft of the fork, blinking at the sun-it was still six hours to sunset, and they'd gotten a lot done today.
And it's a relief to do something besides another round of practice with the saddle-how or that goddamned lance.
Off twenty feet to his right six hitch of horses walked in a circle, pulling a long bar behind them. That turned the upright driveshaft on its deep-driven socket base, and the big flywheel attached to it; a great leather belt stretched off to another on the side of the threshing machine in front of him. Six yards of engine rattled and clanked and groaned on its truck-wheel mounting, giving off a mealy scent of grain and hot metal. The sheaves disappeared up the conveyor belt. Chaff and straw came out one long spout pitched high towards the top of the great golden mound of it already there. Threshed grain poured out of another, into coarse burlap sacks that turned plump and tight as they filled. Teams labored there in disciplined unison; some dragged the full sacks aside, some sewed them shut with curved six-inch needles and heavy hemp twine; others shouldered the sixty-pound bags and ran to heave them into wagons for the horses to haul away towards the granaries.
One month's bread for an adult in every sack, Havel thought with satisfaction, scraping sweat off his forehead with a thumb and flicking it at the yellow stubble underfoot. All nicely stowed away where nobody but us can get at it.
Signe was working there, the needle flashing as she fastened a sack with a neat, tight stitch, and the muscles moving like flat straps in her arms. Threshing was dirty work; bits of chaff and awn flew through the air like thick dust. There were two currents of thought on how to handle it, besides the kerchiefs most kept over their mouths. Some bundled up, and endured what got beneath layers of clothes and chafed; that also made the heat worse, of course, and it was near ninety today-very hot for the Willamette Valley, though he could swear the weather had warmed up a bit since the Change. Havel's wife followed the minimal-clothing-frequent-washing-down school, and was wearing an ancient pair of faded cutoffs and a halter, her skin tanned honey-brown, the curve of her full breasts and her strong shoulders liberally specked with chaff and bits of straw sticking to the sweat, her eyes turquoise gems in the sweat-streaked mask of her face. She caught his eye on her and looked up, grinned, touched the tip of her tongue to her upper lip in promise, then darted forward to claim the last sack.