Dark Mist Rising (44 page)

The words were said quietly, without looking at me. All at once the fight left me, replaced only with a sick coldness that reduced my voice to a whisper. ‘What is he?' I whispered. ‘What is my son?'

‘He is our last hope.'

‘He is but an infant! Not even that yet!'

‘Nonetheless,' Mother Chilton said, and said no more. I wouldn't have listened anyway. I was going home to Maggie, to tell her I loved her. We would marry, and then I would take her and my son away from all this strife, from the war fought on both sides of the grave, from anything that would threaten them. Finally I knew what precious good I had in Maggie, and I would not lose her again.

Mother Chilton turned her old face away from me and towards the fire. ‘Ah,' she said, a soft desolate sound in the piney darkness.

Almost I could hear Tom's voice saying, ‘Three to one on your grandmother, Peter.'

I said goodbye to Jee as he huddled beside the fire. ‘Jee, I cannot go with you to the palace.'

His small face was solemn. ‘I know. Ye maun go to Maggie.'

‘Yes. And you must tell no one at court about Maggie, not ever. Not even the princess.'

‘I know. They maun not find ye.'

‘That's right.'

‘Roger,' he said thickly.

I peered at him more closely. In the fitful light from the fire his small face contorted with anguish. Jee put one hand on my good arm and I had the sense that he did not even know he was doing so. He burst out, ‘I maun go with my lady!'

‘Of course you must. Princess Stephanie needs you.'

‘But Maggie ...'

Now I grasped his struggle. I said gently, ‘You think that by going with Princess Stephanie, you will be deserting Maggie.'

Jee's fingers tightened on my arm.

‘Hear me carefully, Jee. Maggie loves you and she will miss you. But she does not need you in the same way that Stephanie does. Maggie will have me. Stephanie will have Mother Chilton, but you can see how very old she is. Look at her. There will be much that Mother Chilton is unable to do. And you are the only one who understands what Stephanie has had to endure in the Country of the Dead. Who else could understand? Whom else could she talk to about that? The princess
needs
you, Jee. You must go with her, and I will see that Maggie understands that.'

It was the reassurance he wanted, and the excuse. His face relaxed, and in the firelight I saw his rare smile.

At least I had been able to ease the heart of one child.

And so I set out. I had a white fur cloak. I had Tom's knives, Jee's snares, a water bag and both gold and silvers from Mother Chilton, more money than I had ever possessed in my life before. But both coins and the fur cloak could be markers, and I intended to shed them as soon as I could. I wanted neither web women nor
hisafs
tracking me. This journey would be mine alone.

Floundering through the snow, screened by trees, I skirted the meadow and climbed the next hill to the north. Now I could see all the way to the vast plain of The Queendom. Far below, the advance guard of Lord Robert's army rode hard, with the main body marching one valley behind. They would reach the pine grove before nightfall. Tomorrow, or perhaps the day after to allow for rest, they would return east to the capital.

I would travel in the same direction as the army, towards Glory, but by a slightly more northern route, and much faster. An army escorting a princess is a more cumbersome thing than a lone traveller. And perhaps I could buy a donkey along the way. Maggie would find good uses for a donkey.

In the near distance rose the smoke of an isolated farm. It was as yet only the beginning of winter, and the farmhouse would hold preserved meat, dried fruit, stored cheeses. I would wait until I saw the farmer and his sons, if he had any, leave the cabin, and then I would deal with his wife. I would buy provisions, and I would trade my white fur cloak for something simpler and unmarked. The farmwife would be at least half savage, but she would sell me what I needed. It is old women who are most willing to talk to me.

‘
There are terrible times coming
,' Mother Chilton had said. ‘
More terrible than you can imagine.
'

But not for me. What I had done to Katharine would stay with me all my days. but now I was going home to Maggie and my son.

I started down the snowy hill towards the farmhouse.