Vengeance

CHAPTER 45

‘How are we going to do this?’ said Rix. ‘I can’t think of any plan save going at them full gallop, and we can’t do that carrying a kid.’

‘With respect, Lord Rixium,’ said Tobry, ‘full gallop is the only plan you ever have. Subtle you are not.’

‘It’s worked in the past.’

‘Not this time. Once they see us, they’ll cut Tali’s throat just like that.’ Tobry mimed it, his face a death mask. ‘Two seconds. Gone!’

Rannilt jerked in her sleep and let out a muffled cry.

‘Sorry, little one, I’m a stupid old fool.’ He stroked her hair and she settled. ‘Rix, next time I open my big mouth, do me a favour and put your boot in it.’

Rix studied the girl, sidelong. ‘She’s a tough little thing.’

‘Tougher than I am. Suppose slaves have to be.’

Tobry delved in his saddlebags for the map and conjured a small light above it. ‘There is one place we might ambush them.’

Rix nudged his horse closer.

‘The quickest way to the Rat Hole,’ said Tobry, ‘is via the track between this cluster of salt lakes.’ He traced it with a fingertip. ‘If we were to race out west, this way, then get to this point first, we might manage a surprise attack. They’ve been going all day and night — they’ll be worn out and not as vigilant as they should be. Not expecting an ambush, hopefully.’

‘We’ve been going longer.’

‘We’re used to long days of travel. They can’t be.’

Rix frowned at the map. ‘Looks risky. For Tali, I mean.’

Tobry’s eyes went black for a moment and his arm tightened around Rannilt. He was expecting the worst.

‘If you can come up with a better idea, we’ll try it,’ he said.

‘What about Rannilt? If we’re caught, they’ll kill her.’

Tobry tightened his grip around her tiny frame. Rannilt sighed and snuggled, without waking. ‘I — We’ll have to leave her with the horses.’

‘What if we’re killed?’

Tobry’s eyes went that desolate black again.

There was just enough starlight to see. Soon they were winding between the bubbling lakes and steaming mud pools of the Inner Seethings, where the air was almost too foul to breathe and pungent vapours bit at their mucous membranes until their noses ran and their eyes wept.

Tobry was wrapped in his own thoughts. Rix studied him in the dim light, marvelling at the change in Tobry since they’d escaped the wrythen’s caverns, and especially since they’d met Tali and the child. Barely a trace remained of the reckless Tobry he’d grown up with, the man who had thought about nothing save friendship and pleasure. He seemed older, sadder, yet deeper and more subtle. And he cared!

Rix knew he was changed, too. The encounter with the wrythen had shaken him; it knew who he was and he felt sure it planned to avenge itself on his house. Now every day brought a greater burden of responsibility; every day it became clearer how disastrously his parents were managing House Ricinus. Whether the war went well or badly, his house could well fall, as Tobry’s own ancient house had been crushed in a few terrible years. Rix had to save it.

So why wasn’t he racing home as fast as his weary horse could carry him? If he were killed trying to rescue Tali, who would rally the palace guard? Not his father, who could not stay sober to save his life, and certainly not Lady Ricinus. Rix could not name one servant who did not fear her monthly flogging tithe, and loathe her. When he became Lord Ricinus, he would turn the palace upside-down to scour away the taint of its previous lord and lady.

‘Where did we go wrong, Tobe?’

‘What kind of a question is that?’

‘We were happy when I was little. Oh, Mother was always sharp-tongued, Father always drank more than he ought, but life was good. Then I got sick, and after I was well again everything had changed.’

‘Sometimes terrible choices have to be made — as in my house.’

Rix said no more. Compared to the catastrophe that had crushed House Lagger, the problems between Lord and Lady Ricinus were insignificant.

As the first glow of dawn touched the eastern horizon, they were walking their horses across the broken country between the simmering salt lakes of the Inner Seethings. The earth here was baked like a burnt biscuit, and just as lifeless. Rix felt a sudden terror that the beautiful estates of House Ricinus would soon look this way. The enemy had terrible new weapons, ones Hightspall did not understand. How could they fight chymie when they did not know how it worked?

All the more reason to rescue Tali, who might know some of the enemy’s secrets. Surely even his mother would see the sense in that. Ha!

‘Where are we?’ said Rannilt, yawning.

‘Not far now,’ said Tobry. ‘Hungry?’

‘Always hungry.’

He handed her hard bread and even harder sausage. She gnawed at one, then the other in the dim light.

‘You’re goin’ to save Tali,’ she said with childlike certainty.

‘We’ll try. Have you known her long?’

‘Two days. I asked her to be my mother. She said I was being silly.’

‘What happened to your mother?’

‘The enemy killed her when I was five, because she could do magery.’ Rannilt said it without a trace of self-pity.

‘Is that where your gift comes from?’

‘Suppose so. Never knew my father. He was minin’ out a sunstone and his heart burst.’

‘What can you do with magery, apart from that golden light?’

Rannilt shrugged. ‘Scared to try. If you say magery in Cython they beat you. If they know you have it, they kill you.’

‘You’re in Hightspall now and you can use magery all you want,’ said Rix, amazing himself. Until he had saved them both with the enchanted sword, he’d had a deep-seated fear of magery.

‘Do you know anything about Tali’s gift?’ said Tobry.

‘It’s different. Strong. Buried deep and she can’t find it.’ Rannilt frowned at Rix, who pretended he hadn’t been listening. ‘Do you have a palace too, Lord Tobry?’

He let out a barking laugh. ‘No, child. I’m not rich like Rix.’

‘I could be a servant in your house. I’d love that … you don’t beat your servants all the time, do you?’

‘I have no servants. But when I did, I didn’t beat them.’

‘I’d work all day, every day, and all I’d want is a little tiny room. Ever since Mama died I’ve dreamed about having a room to myself.’

‘Is that your only dream?’

‘I dream about Mama and Papa, but they’re gone. Until I met Tali, nobody cared about me. No one in the world.’

Tobry hugged her and she closed her eyes. Rix looked away, swallowing.

After another mile, ahead of them the land rose several hundred feet to a doorknob-shaped hill whose flanks were covered in grey-leaved bushes, though the knob itself was bare rock the rich, reddish hue of iron ore.

‘From the crest we should be able to see the other track,’ said Tobry.

‘Let’s pray they’ve taken it. If they took some other route, we’ll never find them.’

As they climbed the hill, concealed from the track by tall scrub, Rix felt his pulse rise and the backs of his hands prickle. If they’d guessed wrong, Tali would die in Cython and everything she knew about the enemy would be lost.

‘Rannilt?’ Tobry roused her with a touch on the shoulder.

She woke with a start, flinched as though expecting a blow, then a lovely smile transformed her thin features. ‘Lord Tobry.’ She turned towards Rix and the smile slipped a little, though it did not go out.

Rix felt an ache in his chest, that a child should be wary of him. ‘We’re going to try and rescue Tali now, and you’ve got to stay here.’

Her eyes widened in alarm. ‘Don’t leave me. I can help. I’m quick and quiet.’

And brave, Rix thought, but clumsy. ‘No.’

‘But it’s out there. Huntin’.’

‘What’s out there?’ Tobry said sharply.

‘The thing in the dark. Shadow and shape, shiftin’, always shiftin’.’ She shuddered. ‘Please don’t leave me.’