“Not the chief magian?”
Rannilt didn’t answer. She was breathing heavily. The blizzard squall passed and suddenly the night was ablaze with stars. Rannilt cried out, and at the same moment Tali felt a piercing pain pass through her from top to bottom. Suddenly she felt naked, exposed, vulnerable.
“They’ve killed him,” Tali said dully.
“Chopped his poor old head right off. How did you know?”
“The shield broke. They’ll be able to use magery to find me now.”
Who else were they going to kill? Grandys had already condemned Tobry, and if they had Glynnie, as Tali assumed, she would probably die as well. Grandys might put the whole camp to death. He had the reputation for it.
A tremendous flare of emerald green fire lit the night, bursting up and out in all directions and carrying what looked like dozens of people — or bodies — with it. Pain jagged through Tali’s skull.
“What was that?”
“Powerful magery,” said Rannilt. “Chief magian’s.”
“But he’s dead.”
“Must’ve left a booby trap behind. Killed dozens of them.” She paused. “They’re goin’.”
The raiders raced up the slope, over the ridge, and disappeared.
“Gone to their horses, I expect,” said Rannilt sagely.
“Do you think it’s a trick?” said Tali once they were gone. “Are they lurking nearby in case I go back?”
“Don’t know.”
Tali waited another ten minutes, then said, “I’m not game to go back, just in case. Come on.”
“Where are we goin’?”
“Down the ridge to the mouth of the valley. The horses stampeded that way, but I don’t think they’d go too far.”
“Are we leavin’ the wicked old chancellor?” said Rannilt. “Goody.”
“In a way. We’re going to Tirnan Twil.”
CHAPTER 83
“I just heard about the chancellor,” said Tobry as he entered the healer’s tent at dawn. He was grey-faced and covered in snow. “How is he?”
“Rage doesn’t begin to describe his mood,” said Holm exhaustedly. It had been an eternal night and the day didn’t promise any better. “Grandys cut down his guards, stabbed the chancellor in the left arm with Maloch and left without saying a word.”
“Why?”
“A warning. I could have killed you but this time I chose not to. But wherever you go, and no matter how many guards and magians you surround yourself with, you’re at my mercy.”
“Bastard!”
“Did you find Tali, Rannilt or Glynnie?”
“Yes and no.”
“They’re not — ?”
“No,” Tobry said quietly. He took Holm by the arm and led him outside where they wouldn’t be overheard. “Tali and Rannilt are gone.”
“What do you mean, gone?”
“I lost their tracks in the falling snow, so I went down to help round up the horses. There was one missing, the one Tali and Rannilt had been riding. And I found this, tied into my horse’s mane.”
He handed Holm a little twisted strip of paper, unsigned. It said, You know where we’ve gone.
“Tirnan Twil?” said Holm.
“Where else?”
“It’s about eight hours’ ride from here. They’d be halfway there by now. Is there any point — ?”
“We’d never catch them,” said Tobry. “Besides, we can’t go after them without alerting the chancellor — and Tali’s search is something we definitely don’t want him to know about.”
“What about Glynnie?”
Tobry let out his breath in a rush. “I’m pretty sure Grandys has her.”
“Why would he take Glynnie?”
“To get at Rix,” Tobry replied. “Maybe he won’t do what Grandys wants. It’s no secret that Rix and Glynnie are close.”
“No chance of a rescue, I suppose?”
Tobry shook his head. “What a rotten, lousy night.” He turned back to the tent. “How’s his arm?
“Not good. When Grandys uses Maloch, it’s cursed, and with the chief magian dead, nothing can be done about the curse. It’s as though the arm is poisoned.”
They went into the tent, where the chancellor lay on a stretcher. Several healers were gathered around, applying one balm after another to the livid gash on his upper arm, but his twisted fingers had already gone black to the second joints and even as they watched the blackness inched up.
“Enough, dammit,” he said roughly. “You’re making it worse. Bandage it up and get out.”
“Bandaging such a wound can do no good,” said the first healer through pursed lips.
“Do you think I don’t know that? You’ll have to come back and cut the arm off. Get out!”
He looked up at Holm and Tobry. “What the hell do you want?”
“Tali and Rannilt have run off,” said Holm.
The chancellor cursed. “Take a squad and find her.”
“No tracks. The snow fills them in in minutes.”
“Wonderful! Have you got any other good news?”
“Grandys has taken Glynnie, presumably to get at Rix.”
The chancellor tried to shrug and gasped with the pain. “Nothing — I can do.”
“Why did he attack you?” said Tobry.
“He holds me in contempt.” The chancellor smiled through his pain. “It’s how I like to be held.”
“Why?”
“Contempt is a mind-addling emotion that obscures reason. The more contempt he feels for me, the more he’ll underestimate me — to his cost.”
“Then you have a plan,” said Tobry.
“I’ve always got a plan. Most of the time I have too many. Grandys is more dangerous than a wounded caitsthe.” The chancellor shot Tobry a sardonic glance. “Yet he commands fanatical loyalty.”
“But surely, after this — ” said Holm.
“Don’t think it for a minute,” said the chancellor. “The common people, who have been suffering under the nobility for centuries — ”
“And under the chancellors too,” said Tobry.
“You’ve no idea what a pleasure it’s going to be to see your blood spilled, shifter.”
“Death is like an old friend. I’m looking forward to opening the door to her.”
The chancellor scowled. “As I was saying, the common folk will be delighted to hear that Grandys strikes down and humiliates the mighty. They’ll forgive him anything.”
“What are you going to do?”
“He’s gone south, back to Gordion, I assume. We’re riding west with all possible speed, to meet my army near Nyrdly.”
CHAPTER 84
“Are we there yet?” said Rannilt, snuggling up against Tali. The child’s capacity for sleep was almost infinite.
“Nearly,” said Tali for the tenth time. The horses had been unsaddled when they stampeded, and after nine hours of riding bare-back her hips and backside ached abominably. “We’ll have to leave the horse in a minute. It’s a steep climb from here.”
She wasn’t looking forward to the cliff track, though this path into Tirnan Twil — the way Tali and Holm had departed last time — was shorter than their eternal first approach, and much of the way passed through a series of tunnels.
Tali wasn’t looking forward to Tirnan Twil, either, and wished she had not brought Rannilt with her, though there had been no alternative. A tower full of corpses was no sight for a child. A part of Tali hoped that the great tower, that spike impaling the dome of the sky, had collapsed into the ravine and buried the bodies decently under ten thousand tons of rubble.
Near the bottom of the first cliff path she found a safe place to leave the horse — as safe as anywhere could be in a land at war — woke Rannilt and dismounted wearily.
“Why are you walkin’ like that,” said Rannilt, who had spent most of the ride on Tali’s lap.
“It feels like all the skin has been chafed off my bottom.”
It was snowing gently, though there was no wind and it wasn’t as cold as the past few days had been.
“Come on, then,” said Tali. “The sooner we begin, the sooner we’ll get there. Are you afraid of heights?”
“No.”
“Well, I am, so I may need to hold your hand later on.”
When they finally emerged from the last tunnel onto the high cliff path, however, the snow was falling so thickly that they could only see a few yards ahead, and the precipice on their right was invisible. It helped.