“A troop of Redeemers has taken Arbell Swan-Neck.”
Cale’s face reddened in astonishment and confusion.
“Why?”
“It doesn’t say. The point is that she was staying at Lake Constanz. It’s about fifty miles from here. The quickest route back to the Sanctuary is through the Cortina pass-that’s about eighty miles north of here. If that’s the way they’re going, we have to find them and get word to the troops Vipond is sending behind us.” He looked worried and confused. “This doesn’t make any sense. It’s a declaration of war. Why would the Redeemers do this?”
“I don’t know. But there’s a reason. This wouldn’t have happened without Bosco’s nod. And Bosco knows what he’s doing.”
“Well, there’s no moon, so they can’t travel at night, and neither can we. We’ll pack now, get some sleep and start at dawn.” He drew in a deep breath. “Though God knows we’ve got little chance of catching them.”
21
The next day IdrisPukke would not start until it was light enough to see clearly. Cale argued it was necessary to take the risk, but IdrisPukke would not budge.
“If one of these horses goes lame blundering about in the dark, we’re stuck.”
Cale realized he was right, but he was desperate to be on the move and groaned in dismissive irritation. IdrisPukke ignored him for a further twenty minutes and then they were on their way.
For the next two days they stopped only to rest the horses and eat. Cale continually urged IdrisPukke to go faster. IdrisPukke calmly insisted that the horses, and he himself, could not take it even if Cale could. All four of them needed to catch the Redeemers, if indeed they were to be caught. And they had to have one of the horses at least in a fit state to ride quickly back to the Materazzi to give the information about numbers and direction.
“You don’t seem worried about the girl,” said Cale.
“It’s precisely because I am worried that we’re doing this my way-because I’m right. Besides, what’s Arbell Swan-Neck to you?”
“Nothing at all. But if I can help to stop the Redeemers, then the Marshal will have a good reason to feel more generous to me than he does. I have friends in Memphis who are hostages, too.”
“I didn’t think you had any friends-I thought it was just circumstances that brought you together.”
“I saved their lives-I’d have thought that was pretty friendly.”
“Oh,” said IdrisPukke. “I thought you were a reluctant hero in all of this.”
“So I was.”
“So what are you, then, Master Cale, noble by calling or merely by circumstance?”
“I’m not noble at all.”
“So you say. But I wonder if there isn’t an incipient hero growing in there somewhere.”
“What does ‘incipient’ mean?”
“Something beginning to appear, something beginning to exist.” Cale laughed, but not pleasantly.
“If that’s what you think, let’s hope you aren’t in the position where you’re going to find out.”
And with this, IdrisPukke decided to be quiet.
On the second day, they descended onto the main road to the Cortina pass. It wasn’t much of a road.
“No one uses it these days and they haven’t for sixty years-not since the Redeemers shut the borders.”
“How far to the Sanctuary from the pass?” asked Cale.
“You don’t know?”
“The Redeemers didn’t leave maps lying around-nothing to make it easier for us to escape. Until a few months ago I used to think Memphis was thousands of miles away.”
Had IdrisPukke not been distracted by a beautiful vermilion and gold dragonfly, he would have seen a liar’s expression on Cale’s face, just in the moment he thinks he’s given himself away. “I mean,” added Cale, “before I came here and realized it wasn’t.” Now IdrisPukke noticed the awkward tone.
“What’s the matter?”
“Nothing’s the matter.”
“If you say so.”
Terrified that he had revealed something he was very anxious not to reveal, Cale stayed wrapped in alarmed silence for the next ten minutes. When IdrisPukke next spoke, it was as if he had forgotten the whole thing-which indeed he had.
“The Sanctuary is a good two hundred miles from the pass-but they don’t need to get that far. There’s a garrison twenty miles from the border-Martyr Town.”
“I’ve never heard of it.”
“Well, it’s not so big, but its walls are thick. It would need an army to take it.”
“What then?”
“Nothing. Materazzi adores the girl. He’ll give them what they want.”
“How do you know they want something?”
“It doesn’t make sense otherwise.”
“What makes sense to you and what makes sense to the Redeemers is a white horse of a different color.”
“So, you’ve come up with an idea-I mean about what they’re doing?”
“No.”
“It doesn’t have anything to do with you?”
Cale laughed. “The Redeemers are a bunch of bastards-but do you really think they’d start a war with Memphis over three kids and a fat girl?”
IdrisPukke grunted. “Not if you put it like that. On the other hand, you’ve been lying to me for the past two months.”
“And who are you to be demanding the truth?”
“The best friend you’ve got.”
“Is that so?”
“Yes-as it happens. So there’s nothing you want to tell me?”
“No.” And that was that.
Twenty minutes later they came across the remains of a fire.
“What do you think?” asked Cale, as IdrisPukke sifted the remains of the ashes through his fingers.
“Still hot. A few hours, that’s all.” He nodded at the flattened grass and lightly scuffed earth. “How many?”
Cale sighed. “Probably not less than ten-not more than twenty. Sorry, I’m not much good at this kind of thing.”
“Neither am I.” He looked around, thoughtful and uncertain.
“I think one of us should ride back and tell the Materazzi what the score is.”
“Why? Will it make them ride quicker? And even if it does, what are they going to do when they get here? Any kind of pitched battle and the Redeemers will kill her. They won’t surrender, I can tell you that.”
IdrisPukke sighed. “So what are you suggesting?”
“Catch them up, stay out of sight. Once we know the notch-up, we can work out what to do. Bring in a small number of Materazzi and do it quietly. That’s what I think until we catch them up. Things might be different then.”
IdrisPukke sniffed and spat on the ground.
“All right. You know them best.”
Five hours later, as it was getting dark, Cale and IdrisPukke crept toward the top of a small hill just before the entrance of the Cortina pass-a huge cleft in the granite mountain that marked out the northern border between the Redeemers and the Materazzi.
The hill overlooked a depression about twenty feet deep and eighty yards long in which they could see six Redeemers preparing camp. In the middle of the group sat Arbell Materazzi, presumably tied because she did not move once while they watched. After five minutes the two of them drew back to a clump of bushes about two hundred yards away.
“Just in case you were wondering why there are only six, there’ll be another four guarding the rim at least,” said Cale. “They’ll have sent a rider ahead to the garrison to meet them on the other side.”
“I’ll ride back and try and get the Materazzi,” said IdrisPukke.
“What for?”
“If they’re close, they’ll take the risk of riding in the dark. Even if the Materazzi lose half the horses on the way, there are only a dozen Redeemers at most.”
“And if you aren’t here and deployed before dawn, they’ll be into the pass and out of reach. And even if they’re not-an attack in daylight means the girl is dead. We stop them before they leave or not at all.”
“There are only two of us,” pointed out IdrisPukke.
“Yes,” replied Cale. “But one of the two of us is me.”
“It’s suicide.”