Inkdeath

19. SOL DIERS' HANDS

Ombra seemed more than ever like a city of the dead as Resa went back to the stable where she had left her horse. In the silence among the buildings she kept hearing Orpheus saying the same words over and over again, as clearly as if he were walking behind her: But I hope that when his head's on a spike above the castle gates you'll remember I could have kept him alive. Her tears almost blinded her as she stumbled through the night. What was she to do? Oh, what was she to do? Go back? No. Never.

She stopped.

Where was she? Ombra was a labyrinth of stone, and the years when she had known her way around its narrow streets were long gone.

Her own footsteps echoed in her ears as she walked on. She was still wearing the boots she'd had on when Orpheus had read Mo and her here. He had almost killed Mo once already. Had she forgotten that?

A hiss overhead made her jump. It was followed by a dull crackling; above the castle the night turned as scarlet as if the sky had caught fire. Sootbird was entertaining the Milksop and his guests by feeding the flames with alchemical poisons and menace until they writhed, instead of dancing as they used to for Dustfinger.

Dustfinger. Yes, she wanted him to come back, too, and her heart froze when she imagined him lying among the dead. But it froze even more when she thought of the White Women reaching their hands out to Mo for a second time. Yet wouldn't they come for him anyway, if he stayed in this world? Your husband will die in this story…

What was she to do?

The sky above her turned sulfurous green; Sootbird's fire had many colors. The street down which she was walking, faster all the time, ended in a square she had never seen before. Dilapidated houses stood here. A dead cat lay in one doorway. At a loss, she went over to the well in the middle of the square – and spun around when she heard footsteps behind her. Three men moved out of the shadows among the buildings. Soldiers wearing the Adderhead's colors.

Now what? she wondered. She had a knife with her, but what use was that against three swords? One of the men had a crossbow, too. She had seen only too often what bolts from such a weapon could do. You should have worn men's clothes, she told herself. Hasn't Roxane told you often enough that no woman in Ombra goes out after dark, for fear of the Milksop's men?

"Well? I suppose your man's as dead as all the rest, right?" The soldier facing her was not much taller than she was, but the other two towered more than a head above her.

Resa looked up at the houses; but who was going to come to her aid? Fenoglio lived on the other side of Ombra, and Orpheus – well, even if he could hear her from here, would he and his gigantic servant help her after she'd refused to do a deal with him? Try it, Resa. Scream! Perhaps Farid at least will come and help you. But her voice failed her, as it had when she'd lost it in this world for the first time…

Only one window showed a light in the surrounding houses. An old woman put her head out, and hastily retreated when she saw the soldiers. Resa seemed to hear Mo saying, "Have you forgotten what this world is made of?" So if it really consisted only of words, what would those words say about her? But there was a woman there who was lost twice in the Inkworld, and the second time she never found her way back again.

Two of the soldiers were now right behind her. One of them put his hands on her hips. Resa felt as if she had read about what was now happening already somewhere, sometime… Stop trembling, she told herself. Hit him, claw at his eyes! Hadn't Meggie told her how to defend herself if something like this ever happened?

The smallest of the three men came close to her, a dirty, expectant smile on his narrow lips. What did it feel like to get pleasure out of other people's fear?

"Leave me alone!" At least her voice was obeying her again. But no doubt such voices were often heard in Ombra by night.

"Why would we want to do that?" The soldier behind her smelled of Sootbird's fire. His hands reached out for her. The others laughed. Their laughter was almost the worst thing of all. Through the sound of it, however, Resa thought she heard something else. Footsteps – light, quick footsteps. Farid?

"Take your hands off me!" This time she shouted it as loud as she could, but it wasn't her voice that made the men spin around.

"Let her go. At once."

Meggie's voice sounded so grown-up that at first Resa didn't realize it was her daughter's. She walked out from among the houses, holding herself very upright, just as she had walked into the arena that was the scene of Capricorn's festivities.

The soldier holding Resa dropped his hands like a boy caught doing something wrong, but when he saw no one but a girl step out of the darkness he made a grab for his victim again.

"Another one?" The smaller man turned and sized up Meggie. "All the better. See that, you two? What did I tell you about Ombra? It's a place full of women, so it is!"

Stupid words, and they were his last. The knife thrown by the Black Prince hit him in the back. Like shadows coming to life, the Prince and Mo emerged from the night. The soldier holding Resa pushed her away and drew his sword. He shouted a warning to the other man, but Mo killed them both so quickly that Resa felt she hadn't even had time to draw breath. Her knees gave way, and she had to lean against the nearest wall. Meggie ran to her, asking anxiously if she was injured. But Mo just looked at her.

"Well? Is Fenoglio writing again?" That was all he said.

He knew why she had ridden here. Of course.

"No!" she whispered. "No, and he won't write anything, either. Nor will Orpheus."

The way he was looking at her! As if he didn't know whether he could believe what she said. He'd never looked at her like that before. Then he turned without a word and helped the Prince to haul the dead men away into a side street.

"We're going back through the dyers' stream!" Meggie whispered to her. "Mo and the Prince have killed the guards there."

So many men dead, Resa. Just because you want to go home. There was blood all over the paving stones, and when Mo dragged away the soldier who had been holding her, the man's eyes still seemed to stare at her. Was she sorry for him? No. But it sent a shiver down her spine to hear her daughter, too, speak so casually of killing. And what did Mo feel about it? Did he feel anything anymore? She saw him wiping the blood off his sword with one of the dead men's cloaks and looking her way. Why couldn't she read his thoughts in his eyes now, as she used to?

Because it was the Bluejay she saw there. And this time she had summoned him herself.

The walk to the dye works seemed endless. Sootbird's fire was still lighting up the sky, and they twice had to hide from a troop of drunken soldiers, but finally the acrid smell of the dyers' vats rose to their nostrils. Resa covered her mouth and nose with her sleeve when they came to the stream that carried the effluent away to the river through a grating in the city wall, and as she followed Mo into the stinking liquid she felt so sick that she could hardly take a deep enough breath to plunge down under the grating herself.

As the Black Prince helped her to the bank she saw one of the dead guards lying among the bushes. The blood on his chest looked like ink in the starless night, and Resa began crying. She couldn't stop, not even when they finally reached the river and washed the stinking water out of their hair and clothes as best they could.

Two robbers were waiting with horses farther along the bank, at the place where the river-nymphs swam and the women of Ombra dried their washing on the flat rocks by the waterside. Doria was there, too, without his brother, the Strong Man. He put his shabby cloak around Meggie's shoulders when he saw how wet she was. Mo helped Resa into the saddle, but still said not a word. His silence made her shiver more than her wet clothes, and it was the Black Prince and not Mo who brought her a blanket. Had Mo told the Prince what she had gone to do in Ombra? No, surely not. How could he have explained without telling him what power words had in this world?

Meggie knew why she had ridden to Ombra, too. Resa saw it in her eyes. They were watchful – as if her daughter were wondering uneasily what she would do next. Suppose Meggie learned that she'd even asked Orpheus for help? Would she understand that the only reason had been Resa's fears for her father?

It was beginning to rain as they set off. The wind drove the icy raindrops into their faces, and above the castle the sky glowed dark red, as if Sootbird were sending a warning after them. Doria fell behind on the Prince's orders, to obliterate their tracks, and Mo rode ahead in silence. When he looked around once his glance was for Meggie, not her, and Resa was thankful for the rain on her face that kept anyone from seeing her tears.