The Pilgrims

24

The day’s march was at a hard pace, first a tense stretch through the mountain pass, locked in on both sides by dark grey cliff faces sheer and lifeless. Once through they cut across hilly terrain, the country green and picturesque with no visible threat of danger, nor people in the scoured and abandoned villages. There was only a silence eerily complete but for the wind. Even the birds there just watched without a sound, seeming to wait for something, perhaps more remains to pick over.

Case had done his best not to complain at all this exertion, but he lagged at the back of the group until Anfen ordered the giant, Doon, to carry the old man on one shoulder. Loup, the folk magician, occupied the other shoulder. The giant frequently grunted in a way Loup understood to mean scratch, please. Loup’s gnarled fingers somehow knew which spot to scratch each time. Occasionally he’d say, ‘Not there, not for me! Find yourself a lady giant!’ and laugh as though it were the first time he’d made the joke.

Doon was part of the reason Anfen had apparently considered chancing their arm against thirty armed and armoured castle soldiers, before the Invia had cleaned up that mess for them. ‘Swords and arrows won’t bother Doon,’ Sharfy told Eric. ‘Not unless he gets caught in a whirlwind of em. I seen Doon take eight spears in the back before he even slowed down. Trampled down the men who threw em and their horses, all wearing heavy plate mail. A week later, was like it never happened.’

Kiown sidled up to him and whispered: ‘You will soon be fluent in Sharfy. Translation: three spears, three men, wearing maybe hard leather or light chain mail. The horses got away just fine. I was there. Still, pretty impressive.’

Eric had tried walking with Siel, and talking with her, but she’d been too busy scouting the group’s right flank, with her bow at the ready, and he got the sense she was faintly annoyed by him being around. It was as though he’d said or done something to give away his lie: he was no prince, and perhaps now she knew …

He’d walked behind her, watching her hips sway beneath the tanned leather, but quickly felt like a stalker and made an effort to stay away. Always, though, he found his eyes returning to her, no matter what else was going on around them. He longed for another chance alone with her, to do more gently what he’d already done, to get up and put his clothes back on without a sense of guilt and shame.

As night approached the group went off road and split into two camps. Loup, Sharfy, Anfen, Eric and Case sat around a small fire. Outraged at his exclusion, Kiown sulked amongst the others some way further into the scrub, but Eric had seen the way Anfen tensed at the mere sound of Kiown’s voice, and was not surprised. Some of that group were already dozing on their unrolled mats, barely an hour after nightfall. Birds, silent in daylight, now cooed gently as though singing lullabies. Eric saw Kiown and Siel get under the same blanket, and it felt like the ground beneath him had opened up, swallowed him, and sent him plunging through some abyss with howling winds. He lay down on his unrolled mat and tried desperately to think of anything else, anything at all.

The rest of Eric and Case’s group relished their campfire as the night grew cold, using wood Loup had spent some time blessing. From a distance it had looked like he was simply talking to the wood and slapping it gently. The resulting fire’s light and smell would carry no more than a dozen metres, allowing them to camp close enough to the road to hear the boots of passing patrols. Anfen had not actually expected them to range this way, but one came not long after they’d camped, marching fast and in formation. ‘Half an hour longer on the roads and we’d have run right into them,’ he said with a sigh. ‘Eric’s luck is catching.’

‘They’ve heard what happened to their mates,’ said Sharfy.

Anfen nodded. ‘Question is whether they’re looking for us or the Invia. Who do they blame for that little party?’

‘Who would you rather they blamed?’ Eric asked.

Anfen’s smile was grim. ‘Not us. I don’t want to be feared by them. Doon’s people were feared by them. There aren’t many half-giants left. They’ll get us all in the end. Those low on the list have a chance to fit in a full lifetime, perhaps.’ He lay back by the fire and closed his eyes. ‘Though I somehow doubt they’re sending foot-soldiers after a creature that lives in the sky.’

They ate gathered herbs and stewed mule, which Loup blessed, making it taste like shreds of the finest juicy rump steak in a dozen subtle spices. When it was swallowed however the belly was not so easily fooled, and Eric felt queasy as soon as his plate was finished.

‘If they haven’t sent mages our way, they can’t be too worried about us,’ said Sharfy, whose face in the campfire light looked like a Hallowe’en mask.

‘Did you notice it took some while for their mages to come and guard the door?’ Anfen replied. ‘They’re probably busy trying to find whatever it is that wiped out an entire company of the castle’s soldiers and left no trace of itself but holes in the ground.’

‘What did that? And when?’

‘The same thing that’s been attacking travellers and wagon trains in the far south. A small patrol of our own was wiped out too, out in the middle of nowhere. We thought it was the castle’s doing. Then last month an entire mining station was slain near World’s End. And those were the castle’s assets. Probably the very cart you three robbed underground came from there.’

‘Ah, enough of that talk,’ Loup suddenly interjected. He rattled the charm’s dull silver beads and grinned, the firelight casting ghastly shadows on his face, making him look like he regularly dined on human flesh. ‘I figured her out a little, just a little, now that you stopped pestering me to make your dinner taste better, and the firewood blessed and all.’

‘Stop whining and tell us what you know, you old poser,’ said Sharfy.

‘Poser nothing! I saw you gobble that soup. And that mule we just ate was prettier than you, alive or dead or digested!’ They both laughed, but Sharfy’s rang a touch false, as though a nerve had been struck. ‘This kind of charm,’ said Loup, ‘oh aye, ten charms in one. All pretty handy on their own, mind! She’s a nice old girl.’ He lovingly stroked the necklace and grinned his toothless grin. It made him look none too wise at all. The others patiently waited. ‘Been alive longer than most of the cities. She’s an old darling, she is.’

‘We’ve established that she’s a nice old girl,’ said Anfen sleepily. ‘What else can you tell us?’

Loup flashed his gums, clearly enjoying centre stage. ‘See these little beads? Each one’s a charm by itself. Some of em are active, some aren’t. You can switch em on or off, if you know how. I don’t. Could learn, maybe … problem is, we don’t know what we’d switch on! Maybe some aren’t friendly at all! Best to leave her rest a little, she may want her sleep. Right now there’s three of em working. This one …’ he picked out a bead no visibly different from the others ‘… keeps the wearer from being seen. Just like that! Handy trick? Oh, aye. Powerful, too! Wager it’ll keep you hidden in bright light, in a room full of people. I can’t ever do that, nor most mages I knew. Hiding out in the wild, see that’s different. Half that spell’s done by the trees and scrub.’ Loup gave a friendly wink to no one in particular, then picked out another bead.

‘This one here, see, this does something else. There’s power flowing into it, not out from it or around it like a whirlpool. Can’t be sure, and I’m nervous to toy with it, but I’d guess something from the wearer goes into the charm. What does? Well, hey now, that’s your guess much as mine. Right now it’s almost full. Real weak stream going in, just a trickle. Maybe I can get out again whatever’s inside. Maybe it’s something to do with this third switched-on bead, right here.’ He pointed at the dull silver knob. ‘This one I can’t seem to figure out at all. Strange old patterns she makes in the air about it. So let’s hear a little from the lucky gent who got to court this old darling.’

Case had to be woken, and was not pleased about it, but he cleared his throat and told everything he could remember, in as good an order as he could, not even sure what he was leaving out nor what his memory had distorted. He didn’t recall much of the conversation between Vous and the Arch Mage. Sharfy and Loup were most intrigued by descriptions of Vous’s chambers, and by the story of his daughter. ‘Don’t know, I think my head was playing tricks,’ said Case. ‘Wouldn’t be the first time in my life I saw things that weren’t really there.’

‘She’s real,’ said Loup, grinning. ‘That’s young Aziel, like a bird in a cage. Talk is, Vous planted seed in one of them lady servants, in their silly grey robes, whether or not she wished it, no surprise at all. A hobby of his from way back. The Arch Mage talked Vous out of killing the mother, so the talk goes. He sees far ahead, that one. But only with a man’s eyes, mind, and so not in all directions at once!’

‘That Arch Mage didn’t look like the type to save anyone, to me,’ said Case. ‘Looked worse than those horned things near the door.’

‘Oh aye, he is,’ said Loup earnestly. ‘Worse cos he’s greater than them, but worse yet cos he’s saner than them. Enough magic’s poured through him as would cook any honest mage’s brain, but his brain’s still raw as fish! And rightly said, didn’t save anyone’s life from the goodness of his heart, that one. They got grand plans at that castle, and Aziel may have her part.’

To Case’s surprise, the part Anfen seemed most alarmed by was the mention of Stranger. He questioned Case about her many times — what she wore, how she spoke — but Case didn’t have much more to tell.

‘I felt her all right,’ said Loup in a lowered voice. ‘She’s never far away. Been on us since the fight. Sometimes far back, sometimes a stone’s throw.’

‘Who and what is she?’ Anfen demanded, sitting up and looking quietly furious.

‘Hard to say, but she’s a handy mage,’ said Loup. ‘Making a cup of wine taste better? Well, I can do that kind of thing. I did it to the stew tonight! Creating a cup of wine right there on the spot? See, I never heard of that. Only summoning I ever saw took three mages and nearly a full day’s work, mind you that’s without all the old books and such to guide em. But she’s game enough to do her trick right in front of the castle, too?’ Loup whistled. ‘Can look after herself, I’d reckon. We’d be worried if she meant us harm!’

‘Wouldn’t we?’ said Anfen. He rubbed the bridge of his nose and seemed suddenly to have aged another year or two.

‘If she did, she’s had her chances to get us,’ said Loup.

‘She seemed nice enough to me,’ said Case, a little rankled.

‘Sure she did.’ Loup flashed his gums. ‘Nice of her not to take this old necklace, too. She’d have known it was a good one! Maybe she knows what the other beads do, and doesn’t want to touch it. Maybe she wants to get it as far away’s she can, and is watching to make sure we get rid of it. Nice old girl, but maybe one with a bad temper! Your Stranger must know a thing or two about it.’

‘Is she nearby, now?’ Anfen demanded.

‘Nope,’ said Loup. ‘But she came and had a look at where we set up camp.’

‘Why didn’t you tell me about her?’

‘Oh, I’m watching out for her,’ said Loup, unperturbed by his anger. ‘She never got too close yet. I told Siel to keep an eye out. I don’t care what tricks our Stranger knows, a goodly aimed arrow’ll put a stop to her, if we need to, ’less her skin’s made of rock. I don’t reckon she means us ill. Plenty of patrols she could’ve steered our way. Wouldn’t surprise me if she had a hand in the scrap back at the hilltop, somehow. A few strange turns in that scrap and we come out the other side just fine. She’s handy enough, believe that.’

Anfen lay back down and sighed deeply. ‘If she sees through a spell the Arch Mage of the castle didn’t, handy is an understatement.’

Loup gave his beg to differ smile. ‘No mage is great at everything. It’s why they had five different schools, back in the old days! Doing some kinds of magic don’t let you do the others, though you can get away with some mishmash. Some mages kill good. Some do things with the dead. Some, great with charms, making and using em. That ugly bastard isn’t, by the sound. No matter, a lot else he’s good at. Plenty of dead people to tell you that.’

For another half hour Anfen, Sharfy and Loup asked Case various details of his trip inside the castle. The more Anfen heard, the more troubled he seemed, though he wouldn’t say what bothered him.

Eventually Case’s composure slipped: ‘I told you all I know! Enough questions. And yes, I probably forgot big parts that are important. I can’t remember every word I heard in there, I’m not a tape recorder.’ At their puzzled looks, he sighed. ‘It’s a device, back home … look, forget it.’

‘No matter.’ Loup grinned and held up the charm necklace. ‘Our nice old girl might know some things too. We’ll have to ask her, polite as can be.’

‘Where to, tomorrow?’ said Sharfy as the folk magician laid a blanket across the flames.

‘We stay off road,’ said Anfen. ‘We’re going to have to head towards Faul’s house until things settle. There is more going on here than we know, that’s all I’m sure of.’

‘We’re not going through those woods?’ said Sharfy, incredulous.

Anfen smiled. ‘It’s our safest bet. You know who to thank that the roads aren’t safe.’

‘What’s the matter?’ Eric whispered to Sharfy, surprised at the rare display of fear.

‘Woods’re haunted,’ Sharfy answered. ‘No one who gets in gets out, unless you can speak to the dead.’

‘Loup can,’ Anfen murmured drowsily. ‘So relax.’