Jadrek had lit a half dozen candles and stuck them over every available surface. The bedroom was as sparse as the outer room had been, though smelling a little less of damp. There was just a wardrobe, a chest, and the bed.
“Jadrek, how well do you ride?” Tarma asked, taking over the bundle Kethry was making and freeing her to start a new one.
“Not well,” he said shortly, folding packets of herbs into a cloth. “It's not my ability to ride, it's the pain. I used to ride very well; now I can't stand being in a saddle for more than an hour or so.”
“And if we drugged you?”
He shrugged. “Drugged, aren't I likely to fall off? And you'd have to lead my beast, even if you tied me into the saddle; that would slow you considerably.”
“Not if I put you on âHeart. Orâbetter yet, Keth, you're light and you don't go armored. How about if I take all the packs and 'Bane carries double?”
Kethry examined the Archivist carefully. “It should be all right. Jadrek doesn't look like he weighs much. Put him up in front of me, and I can hold him on even if he's insensible.”
The Archivist managed a quirk of one corner of his mouth. “Hardly the way I had hoped to begin my career of adventuring.”
Tarma raised an eyebrow at him.
“You look surprised. Swordlady, I did a great deal of my studying in hopes of one day being able to aid some heroic quester. After all, what better help could a hero have than a loremaster? Then,” he held out one hand and shoved the sleeve of his robe up so they could see the swollen wrists, “my body betrayed me and my dreams. So goes life.”
Tarma winced in sympathy; her own bones ached in the cold these days, enough that rough camping left her stiff and limping these days for at least an hour after rising, or until she finished her warming exercises. She didn't like to think how much pain swollen joints meant.
“Have you any plan?” the Archivist continued. “Or are we just going to run for it?”
Tarma shook her head. “Don't you think itâRunning off blindly is likely to run us right into a trap. We came out of the south, the Hawks are to the south and westâI'd bet the King's men'll expect us to run for familiar territory.”
“So we go opposite?” Jadrek hazarded. “North? Then what?”
Tarma folded a shirt into a tight bundle and wedged it into the pack. “North is where Stefansen went. North is where Idra likely went. No? So we'll track them North, and hope to run into one or both of them.”
“I know where Stefansen intended to go,” Jadrek said slowly, “I
did
tell Idra before she went missing. But frankly it's some of the worst country to travel in winter in all of Rethwellan.”
“All the better to shake off pursuit. Cough it up, man, where are we going?”
“Across the Comb and into Valdemar.” He looked seriously worried. “And winter storm season in the Comb is deadly. If we're caught in an ice storm without shelter, well, let me just say that we probably won't be a problem for Raschar anymore.”
Â
“This is almost too easy,” Tarma muttered, surveying the empty court below Jadrek's window. “Keth, is there anything you can't live without back in the room?”
The mage pursed her lips thoughtfully, then shook her head.
“Good, then we'll leave from here. Nobody's been alerted yet, and evidently Jadrek's in poor enough condition that nobody has even
considered
he might slip out his window.”
“With good reason, Swordlady,” Jadrek replied, coming to Tarma's side and looking down into the court himself. “I can't imagine how I
could
climb down.”
“Alone, you couldn't; we'll help you,” Kethry told him. “I can actually make you about half your real weight with magic, then we'll manage well enough.”
The Archivist looked down again, and shuddered, but to his credit, did not protest.
They'd sent Warrl for a short coil of rope from the stables; there were always lead-ropes and lunges lying around, and any of those would be long enough. He returned just as Kethry completed her spellcasting; they tied one end around Jadrek's waist, then Kethry scrambled out of the window and down the wall to steady him from below as Tarma lowered him. Before they were finished, Tarma had a high respect for the man's courage; climbing down from the window put him in such pain that when they untied him they found he'd bitten his lip through to keep from crying out.
All their gear was still with the mares. When they'd left Hawksnest, they'd chosen to use a different kind of saddle than they normally chose, one meant for long rides and not pitched battles. Like the saddles Jodi preferred, these were little more than a pad with stirrups, although the pad extended out over the horse's rump. When Tarma carried Warrl pillion, he had a pad behind her battle-saddle to ride on; there was just enough room on the extended body of this saddle for him to do the same. So Kethry had no trouble fitting Jadrek in front of her, which was just as wellâ
Jadrek had mixed something with the last of his wine and gulped it down before attempting the window. He was fine, although still in pain, when they started saddling up. But by the time the mares were harnessed and all their gear was in place, he was fairly intoxicated and not at all steady.
They did manage to get him into the saddle, but it was obvious he wouldn't be staying there without Kethry's help.
Warrl?
Tarma thought tentatively.
:All is well, mindmate,
: came the reassuring reply.
: There is no one in sight, and I am distracting the gate guards. If you go swiftly, there will be no one to stop or question you.:
“Let's move out now,” she told her partner, “while Furface has the guards playing âcatch-me-if-you-can' with him.”
Kethry nodded; they rode out of the palace grounds as quietlyâthey'd signaled the mares for silence, and now Hellsbane and Ironheart were moving as stealthily as only two Shinâa'in bred-and-trained warsteeds
could
. They managed to get out unchallenged, and waited outside the palace for Warrl to catch up with them, then put Ironheart and Hellsbane to as fast a pace as they dared, and by dawn were well clear of the city.
Â
“Any sign of tracking?” Tarma asked her partner, reining Ironheart in beside her as they slowed to a brisk walk.
Kethry closed her eyes in concentration, extended a little tendril of energy along the road behind them, then shook her head. “My
guess
would be that they haven't missed the spy yet. But my guess would also be, that with all the mages I sensed in Raschar's court, they'll be sending at least one with each pursuit party.”
“Anything you can do about that?”
“Some.” She reformed that tendril of energy into a deception-web that
might
confuse their backtrail. “Listen, we need supplies; how about if I lay an illusion on you and âHeart and you go buy us some at the next village we hit?”
“How about if you spell all three of us right now? Sayâold woman and her daughter and son? Nobody knows Shinâa'in battlemares out here, and âHeart and 'Bane are ugly enough to belong to peasants: you needn't spell them.”
“Huh; not a bad thought. What about Warrl?”
: I can seem much smaller if I need to.:
Kethry started. “Furface, I wish you wouldn't just speak into my mind like thatâyou never used to!”
:My pardon. I grow forgetful of courtesy. How does the Wise One?:
Jadrek was three-quarters asleep, slumped forward in Kethry's hold, his head nodding to the rhythm of Hellsbane's hooves. Kethry touched his neck below his ear lightly enough not to disturb him. “All right; his pulse is strong.”
:If you would have my advice?:
When the kyree tendered his opinion, it was worth having. “Go ahead.”
: Rouse him up and make him speak with you. He will do his body more harm by riding unconscious.:
“On that subject,” Tarma interrupted, “how long can you keep our illusions going? What kind of shape are
you
in?”
Kethry shrugged. “I've been mostly resting my powers so far. I can keep the spell up indefinitely. Why?”
“Because I want to stay under roofs at night for as long as we can. Rough camping is going to be hard on our friend at bestâbe a helluva note to save him from assassins and lose him to pneumonia.”
Kethry nodded, thinking of how much pain the Archivist was already in. “What kind of roofs?”
“In order of preferenceâout-of-the-way barns, the occasional friendly farmer, and the cheapest inns in town.”
“Sound, I think. Pull up here, I might as well cast this thing now, and I can't do it on a moving horse.”
“Here” was a grove of trees beside the road; they got the horses off and allowed them to browse while Kethry concentrated.
Â
Warrl flung himself down into the dry grass, and lay there, panting. He was not built for the long chase. Before too very long, Tarma would have to bring him up to ride pillion behind her for a rest.
Kethry got Jadrek leaning back against her, then spread her hands wide, palms facing out. A shell of faint, roseate light expanded from her hands outward, to contain them and their horses. Tarma could see her lips moving silently in the words of the spell. There was a tiny “pop” like a cork being pulled from a bottle; then Tarma felt an all-too-familiar itching at the back of her eyes, and when she looked down, she saw that she was wearing a man's garb of rough, brown homespun instead of her Kalâenedral-styled black silks. So Keth was going to disguise her as a young man; good, that should help to throw off nonmage spies.
Jadrek was now an old, gray-haired woman with a face like a wrinkled apple, and a body stooped from years of hard work. Behind him, Kethry was a chunky, fresh-faced peasant wench; brown-cheeked, brown-haired and quite unremarkable.
“Huh,” Tarma said. “This's a new one for
you
. You look like you'd make some dirt-grubber a great wife.”
Kethry giggled. “Good hips. Breed like cow, strong like bull, dumb like ox. Hitch to plow when horse dies.” As Tarma stifled a chuckle, she turned her attention to her passenger. “Jadrek, wake up, there's a good fellow.” She shook his shoulder gently. “Open your eyes slowly. I've put an illusion on us all and it may make you dizzy at first.”
“Huhnn. I ... thought I heard you saying that....” The Archivist raised his head with care, and opened eyes that looked a bit dazed. “Gods. What am I?”
“A crippled-up old peasant woman. Warrl says you'll do yourself more harm than good by riding asleep; he wants you to talk to me.”
“How ... odd. I thought I heard him speaking in my head again. I seem to remember him saying just that....”
The partners exchanged a startled look. Evidently Jadrek had a mage-Gift no one had ever suspected, for normally the only folk who heard Warrl's mind voice were those he
intended
to speak to. That Talent
might
be usefulâif they all lived to reach the Border.
“Let's get on with it,” Tarma broke the silence before it went on too long, and glanced at the rising sun to her right. “We need to get as far as we can before they figure out we've bolted back there.”
Â
They stopped at a good-sized village; there was a market going on, and Tarma rode in alone and bought the supplies they were going to need. By mercenary's custom, they'd kept all their cash with them in moneybelts that they never let out of their sight, so they weren't short of funds, at least. Tarma did well in her bargaining; better than she'd expected. Even more encouraging, no one gave her a second glance.
Poor Jadrek had not exaggerated the amount of pain he was going to be in. By nightfall his eyes were sunken deeply into their sockets and he looked more than half dead; but they found a barn, full of new-cut hay, dry and warm and softer than many beds Tarma had slept in. The dry warmth seemed to do Jadrek a lot of good; he was moving better the next morning, and didn't take nearly as much of his drugs as he had the day before.
And oddly enough, he seemed to get better as the trip progressed. Kethry was wearing Need at her side again, after having left the ensorcelled blade with her traveling gear in the stables. Tarma was just thanking her Goddess that they
hadn't
ever brought the blade into their quartersâno telling what would have happened had it met with the counterspell on their rooms. Of a certainty Raschar would have known from that moment that they were not what they seemed.
Fall weather struck with a vengeance on the sixth morning. They ended up riding all day through rain; Rethwellan's fall and early winter rains were notorious far and wide. Jadrek was alert and conversing quietly and animatedly with Kethry; he seemed in better shape, despite the cold rain, than he'd been back at the palace. Now Tarma wondered âremembering the enigmatic words of Moonsong kâVala, the Tale'edras Adeptâif Need was working some of her magic on Jadrek because Kethry was concerned for him. It would be the first time in Tarma's knowledge that a
male
for whom Kethry cared had spent any length of time in physical contact with the mage while she was wearing the blade.
As for Kethry caring for himâthey were certainly hitting it off fairly well. Tarma was growing used to the soft murmur of voices behind her as they talked for the endless hours of the day's ride. So maybeâjust maybeâthe sword was responding to that liking.
As the days passed: “Keth,” she asked, when they'd halted for the night in the seventh of a succession of haybarns. “Do you remember what the Hawkbrother told you when we first met himâabout Need?”