Arine's Sanctuary (2 page)

Chapter Two

            
 
T
he rain slid inside the neck of her tunic, a never ending ribbon of cold that trickled down to the small of her back. The recent storm was a mild
one. The larger drops falling from the trees truly irritated her, and the litany of complaints from her companion did nothing to improve her already sour mood.

              “I really think we should be using the road,” Cavon’s whiny tone grated against her very raw nerves. “The mud is slippery and making it hard for me to keep my balance. We’d stay cleaner if we used the road.”

              Arine halted mid-step. Closing her eyes, she tried to gather at least some measure of calm. Then again, her Mistress never said she had to keep him talking. Tempting as it was to just knock him unconscious and carry him, she knew it would take too long. Absently, she pushed a wet strand of hair from her face as she turned to face him. He really wasn’t more than an inch or two taller than her.

              “Domine Elsa is looking for you by now. If your mother wants to keep her position and head, she’s looking too, which means the road is going to be full of patrols, mercenaries and bounty hunters. Travel through the forest is much safer and faster.”

              Arine paused; the look in his eyes seemed almost amused. Before she could question him, it changed. His focus switched, as though he was looking past her instead of at her.

             
Instinct
kicked in. Deftly, she dropped to a crouch and swept her leg around. She felt the leg of her
attacker buckle before she saw
her fall.

              Arine leapt back to her feet, her hand drawing the dagger free of its sheath. Two more opponents rushed in as Arine’s attacker got off the ground. “Leave the boy and go, Moreja. The Domine has no quarrel with you. Return what is rightfully hers and she will guarantee you passage.” The woman Arine had kicked spoke evenly.

              Arine snorted. “Guarantee me passage to her dungeon is all. The boy has been summoned by my mistress. He belongs to no one.” Without warning, Arine lunged at the leader of the band. Her dagger left a mark on the woman’s arm as Arine danced out of reach of the counterstrike.

              The two women circled each other, daggers poised. From the
corner of her eye, Arine could see the other two slowly moving in on Cavon. There was no fear on his face, and he’d found a broken branch to use as a weapon.

              Arine’s opponent lunged at her and she pushed all thoughts of Cavon from her head. The other woman had skill -- Arine had to give her credit. Knife fights were normally over before they began, but outside of her first strike, neither had been able to land a blow for several minutes. Her opening came when the woman glanced toward her companions, taking her eyes off of Arine just long enough for her to go in for the kill. A shot of pain that ran along her ribcage as she backed away from the falling body told Arine her opponent had marked her after all. Absently pressing a hand to her side, she spun to assist Cavon.

              He stood silent, the cudgel hanging at his side. Two women lay on the ground in front of him. From the blood pooling beneath their heads, Arine knew they were dead.

              “We need to keep moving.” Arine’s breathing was labored. “There will be more.” Absently, she moved her hand from the cut on her side. Something didn’t feel right. Her arm felt leaden as she raised her hand to her nose and took a whiff. The unmistakably sweet scent of cargrada assaulted her nose. She raised her head and looked at Cavon. The forest spun around him. Blackness engulfed her.

              Fire ravaged her as the fever from the poison attacked. Vaguely, she knew she was moving. To where, she no longer cared. She sank back into darkness.

              The next
thing to she registered was the
hard surface on which she lay. The recognition that it was stone, or at least very hard dirt, slowly penetrated the fog in her brain. The pop and crackle of a small fire pierced her consciousness. Slowly, she opened her eyes enough to see her surroundings.

              She was in a cave of some kind, and a small fire burned nearby. She could hear someone moving about, but they were outside her line of vision. Whoever it was, they were trying not to wake her. She kept very still. Until she knew who was there, she didn’t need them knowing she was awake.

              A pair of legs came into her view. The figure crouched in front of the fire. With some relief, she realized it was Cavon.

              “Where are we?” she asked quietly.

              Her voice startled him enough that he almost lost his balance. “A cave, not far from where we were attacked. I thought it best to bring you here.” There was something different about his tone of voice. Fear? Perhaps sadness?

              Gingerly, she tried to put some weight on her arms to sit up. Cavon stood not far off, his back to her. Curiosity took hold as she carefully felt for the wound that should have killed her. No bandage. She twisted a bit to get a good look. The tear in her shirt remained. The skin underneath, however, was clean and uncut.

              A vision tugged at the edge of her mind
. Cavon sat near her; a strange glow emanated from his hands. The fever from the poison slowly being eaten away by cold tendrils, a sensation she’d never felt before
. Now she looked at him. He kept his back to her.

              “What did you do, Cavon? I should be dead.” Her voice was even, infused with a slight hint of
command.
She kept her eyes on him as he turned around, leaning against the far wall. Slowly, he slid down the wall and slumped onto the floor. He refused to look at her. Fear was evident across his face. “I don’t know,” he whispered. Arine could hear the wavering in his voice. Whatever he’d done, it scared him.

              She studied him for a few minutes, her blue eyes intent. The sooner she got him to Sanctuary and her mistress the better. “How many days have we been here?” she asked. Whatever secret he carried, it wasn’t for her to discover.

              Cavon raised his head, his brow furrowed in thought. “One, maybe two. I thought it best to set camp deep within the cave. Less likely the glow from the fire would be seen from the outside.”

              Arine nodded, making a mental note about the passage of time. “We need to get moving. Sanctuary’s not much farther, another day or two of travel.” She paused, shifting her legs so she could try to stand. “I don’t suppose we still have any food or water?” Her stomach felt empty as a cauldron.

              He reached over and began to rummage through her pack. “There’s still some in here,” he replied. “I figured you’d be hungry when you woke up.” He took out a small packet and handed it to her. “There’s a small stream running just outside the cave. I’ve been able to keep the water stores up.” He twisted a bit to grab a bulging water skin.

              Opening the packet, Arine resisted the urge to devour the dried meat and cheese. Deliberately, she took small pieces as she spoke. “Why the disguise, Cavon? Why hide who you are, your intelligence?”

              He opened his mouth to protest, but abandoned the idea with the knowing look she gave him. He picked at his own meal. “It seemed safer. I was told as long as I can remember that I had to marry Domine Elsa. And that she didn’t like her men too smart. My entire childhood was geared to making me into the kind of man she’d be happy with. I tried, once, to question my lessons. Mother was furious. She told me I wasn’t to question anything. I had no future unless I married the Domine, and she wanted me educated only in certain subjects.” He shifted his legs a bit. “I still learned things I wasn’t supposed to. I just stopped questioning the rest of it.” A small grin split his face. “And I got very good at hiding both my books and intelligence.”

              Arine chewed on a piece of dried meat, her mind busy re-evaluating him. “I don’t think you need to hide anymore, Cavon. I’d rather know you could defend yourself than have you complain about a sliver in your finger. Sanctuary’s someplace you can relax and let that part of yourself come out. It will be better for both of us if you dropped the act.” She chuckled. “You really don’t want to know how close I was to knocking you unconscious just to get you to stop whining.”

              He laughed. “No, probably not.” Arine felt the tension in the cave shift. His guard dropped slightly, replaced by a small measure of trust in her.

              Arine started to stand up, anxious to test her legs. Cavon darted across the small space between them to help, but she waved him off. “If I can’t stand alone, I won’t be able to walk alone and time is running out. The longer it takes us to get to Sanctuary, the more of Domine Elsa’s minions
we’ll have to avoid.” A wave of dizziness threatened to overtake her, but she held fast against it. There was more strength in her than should have been after being
poisoned.
I shouldn’t even be alive
, she thought,
let alone standing
. Questions bounced about in her head, screaming for answers. Resolutely, she pushed them away. There was time for that when she was back in Sanctuary.

              No rain met them when they emerged from the cave. Bright sunshine filtered through the thick forest. Steam rose from leaves as the remaining water evaporated. Squinting, Arine looked up and took note of the sun’s position. It was still early morning.

              “Up for a long day?” She looked over at Cavon. An expression of puzzlement crossed his chiseled features. “If we keep a good pace,” she explained, “we should be in Sanctuary tonight.” Taking his nod as assent, she led him away from the cave.

              Hours later, the forest began to thin out. Ahead, through the trees, a massive peak loomed. Sheer rock sides gleamed from the recent rains. Arine stopped dead at the edge of the wood. Motioning for Cavon to be silent, she scrutinized the surrounding tree line.

              “I don’t see anyone, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t there. Domine Elsa wants to know where Sanctuary is more than anything. When we move out, stay with me. There won’t be time for explanations. They will open the door for us only if we can get in and they can close it again before it’s discovered.” She turned her head towards the tor briefly before continuing. “They already know we’re coming and will be ready for us.”

              Without further explanation, Arine grabbed Cavon’s hand and pulled him forward as she crept the remaining few feet to the edge of the forest. The tunnel was only fifty feet away, but if someone was watching them they both could be dead before reaching it. “Now!” she whispered as she launched
into a dead run toward the tor.

              A startled cry of alarm from the woods to her left reached her ears. She was right--they were watching the perimeter for Moreja returning to Sanctuary.
Forty feet to go. She heard Cavon running hard behind her. The first arrow came at them with thirty feet to go. Twenty feet. More arrows rained down towards them. Quickly adjusting their course, she glanced over her shoulder long enough to make sure Cavon kept pace with her. Ten more feet. The tunnel mouth gaped in welcome. Their attackers screamed out for foot pursuit. Arine drew up short at the entrance to the tunnel, motioning Cavon through. Diving in behind him, she grabbed at his hand as she darted past him. “Stay with me now. Don’t ask questions, just move when I tell you to.” Timing now was critical. They needed to reach the door quickly.

              The darkness in the tunnel didn’t hamper Arine a bit as her familiarity with the passage told her where she was. Cavon stumbled here and there, doing his best to run in the dark. She rounded another bend, stopping quickly. Reaching back and grabbing him by the arm, she shoved him toward a gaping hole in the rock. She followed behind him as the stone door closed seamlessly behind her.

              “You’re late,” a voice gently teased.

              Arine turned to the source of the voice. “We ran into some problems.”

              A torch flared to life. Several women stood nearby, the mechanism to open and close the stone door visible behind them. “Is this the boy?” the one with the torch asked.

              “Of course it is, Mestra. I don’t make mistakes.” Arine put her hands to her knees as she caught her breath.

              Mestra laughed. “You’re out of shape, Arine. You need to spend time working on that.”

              “I can still outrun arrows, and that’s what counts.” Straightening a bit, she nodded at the group. “Who does she want to see first? Me or him?”

              “You. We’ve got a room ready for him. She wants to hear what went on from you before talking to him.” Arine stepped up next to Mestra, motioning Cavon to walk behind them.

              Arine walked calmly with Mestra, keeping up a litany of small talk. Nothing more would be said about Cavon until Mistress Bryn decided to share with the rest of them. They walked up a tunnel, keeping an even pace. All the women had made the same run she’d just made several times, and knew how exhausting it could be. None of them rushed up the tunnel.

Almost imperceptibly, the dim light in the tunnel began to increase and the roar of falling water reached Arine’s ears. Smiling slightly, her heart lightened with the knowledge that she was so close to home. The tunnel bent one more time, opening up to reveal the hidden city below.