Empire of the East (41 page)

Waking abruptly to the racketing of insects, he quickly surveyed the night-world about him before he moved. The starry powder of the Milky Way made a vast diagonal blaze across the sky. It took a second or two before he saw what had somehow awakened him. Perched high on the opposite bank of the ravine, a great bird rested motionless, its feathered bulk cutting a dark pattern from the light of stars. When Rolf turned his head toward the bird he saw the huge wings open and reach out, balancing, far wider than a man's spread arms.

Its voice was musical, and so soft he had to listen carefully to make sure of all the words. “Rooolf of the Brooken Lands, rest no moore this night. Those who pursue you are not far away, and they will come on with the first of the morning light.”

Rolf glanced up at the stars to gauge the time. He had only slept for three or four hours, but felt considerably refreshed. The riding-beasts, used to birds, were dozing on their feet where he had picketed them a little distance off. He got to his feet and began to gather his few belongings. He asked the bird: “What of my friends who fought to buy me time?”

“The one whoo spoke to me was a tall, fat wizard,” the bird replied. “He said to tell yooou that Metzgar had fallen, but that the others fared well enough.”

“Ah.” Tall Metzgar, of the long beard, and long stories…

“Also I must tell youuu that more friends, and enemies, are beginning to move into this country from the south. But all of them are kilometers and kilometers away as yet. Also, Duncan wants to know what you are doooing now.”

“Tell Duncan I am going on,” said Rolf. He shot a quick look at Catherine, but she gave no sign of having moved since she lay down. He introspected for a moment, and found something new. “And tell Duncan, and the fat wizard, that now I must angle more toward the West. I am going to travel an hour or so and try to hide again before dawn. If the pursuers can be led straight on north, or east, it will be a considerable help.”

The bird hooted once, assentingly, then rose with a silent effort and disappeared among the stars, just as Catherine stirred. A moment later she sat up, looking groggy and bewildered.

“Get up,” he ordered. “We have more distance to cover before the dawn.” She sighed and got to her feet slowly but without complaint. Only now did he notice that she had evidently not managed to find a pair of sandals. Well, if the animals held out, it would make little difference.

There was not much water left in the bag, but the country was no longer desert-dry and Rolf was not much concerned on that account. The animals seemed strong enough, but restless, as if their wounds were paining them. Catherine dozed in the saddle from time to time; Rolf would see her head start to sink forward, then jerk erect as she caught herself into wakefullness. It was not a good time for talking; the ears had to be kept free for more important matters.

Before the sky had begun to pale in the east, they came to another mud-bottomed creek bed. This was wider than the last one and filled with tall, reedy flowers. These were full-leaved enough in places to form fairly secure screens against aerial observation. Rolf made a screen for the animals against the high bank of the dry creek, under which they were willing enough to lie when he had given them some water. He and Catherine found dry spots close together at a little distance from the animals, and after bending a few flower-stalks overhead for better concealment lay down and promptly slept.

When Rolf awoke again the sun was full and bright, hurling splinters of its light between leaves into his face. Insects murmured undisturbed in the full drowse of summer day. The girl, curled up in her brown servant's dress, face hidden resting on her rolled-up cloak, still slept. Her back was to Rolf, her breathing regular, her legs pulled up inside her dress. He noticed that the bottoms of her bare feet were calloused hard.

He arose silently and went on a brief scouting expedition, fifty meters or so up and down the mud-bottomed gully, not getting far from the tall flowers. He studied the sky with great care but saw no reptiles. He found a place where it seemed a little digging might reach water. And he stood looking long to the northwest. There were some trees in that direction, and a great deal of long grass, but the cover seemed inadequate for an attempt at traveling by day. They had finally managed to lose the enemy and there was no sense in being spotted again at once. He tried to weigh in his mind the odds that the Constable would bring his men this way, find the creek-bed, follow it, and flush them out, before darkness fell again.

He could hope that Ardneh would warn him again in time, but he could not be sure. It seemed to him that he had scores of kilometers yet to travel.

He went quietly back to Catherine, who had stirred in her sleep, stretched out her legs, and turned her face up. Now she looked very young. Her face was not pretty, he thought, even apart from the still-swollen and discolored cheekbone and a few odd scratches and smears acquired in the last day and night. Her nose was just off-shape enough to deny her prettiness in any case. And her stretched-out body now looked a little awkward.

But she was most certainly a girl. He had not had the leisure until now to consciously consider her as such.

An insect whirred close above her face. Waking suddenly, she sat up with a start, regarded him with bewilderment for a moment, and then sank back, remembering.

“I have got away from her,” she said then, softly, looking all around as if awakening from some evil dream, and making sure of reality. Then she looked at Rolf and added: “Your friends have not caught up with us. Are we to meet them somewhere?”

“Nor my enemies, either.” He regarded her silently for a few moments. “Your black eye looks better than it did.”

Her gaze dropped as if in sudden shyness. “What will we do now?”

“Eat some food. Dig a hole in this mud, we'll probably be able to get some drinkable water. It may take a while, but we'll be here all day with little else to do. Don't want to travel with the reptiles watching, not once we've lost them.”

She got up stiffly, brushing back from her eyes long hair that had come unbound. “Shall I start digging right away?”

“See about getting a little food ready. I'll dig. The animals are going to need more water soon.”

Rolf took a long knife and dug for a while in the likeliest-looking place he could fnd, a sandy area against a bank. At first only soupy muck appeared, but after some diligence in scooping out the hole and patience in letting it refill, a supply of usable water was available. After he led the animals to drink, he and Catherine sat eating dried food and finishing the contents of the waterbag.

She was not very talkative, he thought. In fact it seemed to him that the silence was definitely growing awkward, before she suddenly announced: “I am sure that my family will pay some ransom for me if you were to find a way of returning me to the Offshore Islands. We are not poor, and our city was never overrun by the East.”

Rolf munched for a while in thoughtful silence. The less he told her now, the better, he decided. She might become separated from him in some way, and fall again into Eastern hands. He said: “It doesn't seem likely that I'll be able to take you home. Not very soon.”

Eagerly she edged a little closer to him, again putting back her long brown hair. “You wouldn't have to take me all the way. If you could show me how I can reach one of the armies of the West, I would—I would pledge that my family would reward you.” When he was silent her eagerness faded. “I know, it would mean having to wait for your money. And why should you believe me at all?”

“I have heard your accent before. I believe you, about your family. But I have other business that must be taken care of, that cannot wait.”

She said no more for a while. But after they had led the animals back to deeper shelter, she said: “I do not know if you are waiting here for your friends, or what. I suppose you don't want to tell me.”

Rolf threw himself down in the spot where he had slept, and after a moment Catherine sat nearby, next to her rolled-up cloak. She went on: “Maybe you have to divide your loot with them. I don't know how such things are managed among bandits. But if you are not planning to meet them, or if you have given them up for lost, then you might come with me, and join the West. I am sure that they need sturdy men.”

“Hm. Or even if I wanted to run out on my friends, not split the loot with them at all, I could do that.” He paused, wickedly enjoying her confusion. “But there are good reasons why I cannot do that. Not right now.”

She was downcast, but persistent. “I understand, you have that great jewel to profit from. Why should you get mixed up in battles? Maybe you even were once a Western soldier, and deserted. I know some men become bandits that way. I do not know or care, I only know that you have helped me more than you can know, and I want to thank you for it. Since you have done it, for whatever reason, you might as well have the reward. My father is a burgomaster of Birgun, which as you may know is one of the chief cities of the Offshore Islands, a city never touched by the East and still powerful. Prince Duncan's home is not far from there, and I am sure that you have heard of him.”

“A friend of yours, no doubt.”

“I have seen him. Not much more than that.”

“If your city was untouched, how did you come to be a slave?”

She looked off into the distance. “A long story, like many others you must know. I was traveling away from home, and caught up in an Eastern raid…I am sure my kinsmen must be searching for me, and their gratitude will be great toward anyone who brings me back.” Her eyes came back to Rolf. “And no one in the Islands would think you a thief for having taken some Eastern jewels at the same time.”

Both were silent for a little while. Then Catherine went on, as if more to herself than to Rolf: “There is also the man to whom I was pledged in marriage, but it has been so long…more than a year since I was lost. He may well be married to another by now, or dead, for he was a soldier.” She seemed calm enough about it, as if all that former life were decades behind her instead of only months; and Rolf understood her; his life too had been broken off in the same way.

Evidently encouraged because he was at least tolerating her talk, she asked: “Do you know anything of how the war is going?”

He thought a little, and made an answer that any alert bandit should be able to give. “Duncan keeps an army in the field, keeps the fight going. Ominor can't seem to drive him off the mainland, or plant him in it either.”

A sparkle shown in Catherine's good eye. “I tell you, the West is going to win. If they have not been beaten by this time, it never can be done.”

“The same thing might be said about the East,” Rolf said drowsily, and closed his eyes. “I'll think on what you've said. No more of it for now. Try and get some more sleep. Later in the day the Constable may be coming near, and we'll need to be alert.”

They spent the remaining daylight hours in their hideaway, resting, watching, trying to help the animals. The beasts were in pain from their infected wounds, and one of them was limping noticeably. Rolf glimpsed a reptile in the distant sky, but he could not tell what business it was about. In the last hour before sunset he grew restless and impatient, listening intently at every far-off sound. As soon as it was dark, having eaten again, they set off into the northwest, leading the animals until the day's stiffness should be worked out of their muscles.

At the first rest stop the girl said to him: “Let me ask you bluntly. Do you mean to keep me with you? What will you do with me?”

“Have I not used you better than your previous master did? Of course. What are you worried about? The less you know of my business, the better off you are, I think.”

“I see that.” She spoke softly and reasonably. “It is only that I have hopes of traveling west, of getting home. I did think of running away from you, but I do not fear you anymore. And I know nothing of the land here, or where the armies are.”

“Let me think about it, I say again. Don't worry. You are not getting any farther from your goal.”

For the remainder of the night Catherine said no more about her hopes and fears, and had very little to say on any subject. Rolf set a steady pace that covered a good many kilometers, though now both animals were limping and the humans walked more than they rode. Toward dawn they came upon a running stream with tree-lined banks. After drinking their fill, they were searching for some good cover against the coming hours of daylight, when out of nowhere a great gray bird came down, first a soundless shadow and then a somehow unreal though solid presence, big as a man, squatting in the grass before them. Catherine half-raised one hand, as if to point, then froze.

“Greetings, Roolf.” The bird's voice was as soft and musical as that of the previous night's messenger, but Rolf thought this was a different bird; most of them looked much alike to him. The bird went on: “Strijeef of the Feathered Folk sends his greetings.”

“Take mine to him, good messenger, if you will. What other news?”

“Only that, to the south of you, humans and powers are gathering still, of the East and of the West. It seems that both armies may follow yooou intooo the north.”

“Are there any orders for me?”

“Prince Duncan sends you this word: I am to take what you are carrying, and fly on with it ahead, if you can tell me where to go with it; if Ardneh does not object.”

Rolf thoughtfully fingered the pouch wherein the great jewel lay. “No. Tell the Prince the answer must still be no. If it seems I am about to be taken, then come to me if you can, and I will give you this. Not otherwise.”

The bird was silent for a bit, then fixed enormous yellow eyes on Catherine. “I must take a report back on this one whooo travels with you.”

“She does so by Ardneh's will. She is an enemy of the East, that much I am sure about. And a former neighbor of Duncan's, it would seem. Come, bird, the light is growing. Rest with us through the day; we can find some good place among these trees. We will talk. Then tomorrow night you can bear my answers back to Duncan.”