Betrayals (28 page)

“Turn out every member of the guard,” Kambil growled to Bron, trying to ignore the chill which threatened to spread along his intestines. “I want the entire city searched, but I also want guardsmen sent after that convoy. Those people have to be found!”

Bron nodded curtly and headed for the door, and after a moment Kambil strode after him. This couldn’t be happening, not now! Not when they were just about to make everything turn out right! Curse those five, curse them! They might still be living now, but once the guard caught up to them it would be with orders to destroy them on sight!

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

It was raining the next morning, but Rion used his Air magic to put up a shield for all of us until we climbed into the coach. Alsin and Valiant Ro had returned somewhat late the night before, and now Alsin was off again with Grath. Buying a horse for Alsin had depleted our funds even more, but they couldn’t very well ride double. Aside from the fact that Grath’s horse would have been too overburdened, someone would surely have noticed.

I settled myself on the coach seat, trying to think about nothing but what was ahead of us, but the turmoil in my mind refused to allow that. Last night… last night Valiant had said things I couldn’t just dismiss or forget, and even my dreams had been filled with uncertainty and distress. Valiant had acted badly toward me after I’d gotten him out of Eltrina Razas’s house, but—was that really the same as the way I’d treated him after he’d taken care of that drunk … ?

I looked out at the rain while everyone else took their places in the coach, listening to the silent argument in my head. That argument had been going on since last night, but neither side could be considered being even close to winning. Had I really been insisting that Valiant be perfect? I couldn’t remember doing that, but I could remember all the times he’d treated me as though I were helpless. If I’d managed to give that back to him for once, was it really the terrible thing he’d made it out to be?

“Alsin said he would have Lidris increase the pace of the horses,” Rion told us as the coach began to move. “By noon we want to be as close as possible to the convoy without being discovered, so we can take advantage of the situation if the guards begin to doze. They’ll stop for the noon meal and to dose their captives, and by then we may even have help from the captives themselves.”

“But we’d better not count on that help,” Valiant said, looking out of his own window. “Even if the lingerin’ effects of the lethe doesn’t keep them from touchin’ the power, their minds may be too scattered for them to be effective.”

“Then we’ll accomplish their rescue by ourselves,” Rion said, clearly refusing to lose his determination. “No matter what happens or what anyone does to try to prevent it, our groupmates will be free again by tonight.”

“Rion, what will you do if the guardsmen aren’t as sleepy as they should be?” Naran suddenly asked, the question casual in an odd sort of way. “I mean, what if they’ve been drinking the sedative the way we want them to, but something has happened to make them more alert than usual? How will you get around that?”

“It could happen,” I said, interrupting Rion’s gentle pooh-poohing of the idea. “If this is an area where they’ve learned they have to be especially alert, or if some wild animal’s tracks have been discovered, or if any one of another dozen things has happened, they may not be as sleepy as we expect. So Naran’s question is worth repeating: what will we do if that’s what we find?”

“All right, we’ll do the only thing we can,” Rion said, now conceding the need to make an alternate plan. “I’ll render any patrolling guards unconscious by taking away most of their air, and then do the same to any others who require a similar treatment. Beyond that, it’s up to you two.”

“I think…maybe … I can do somethin’ more effective than druggin’ their water,” Valiant said slowly, now looking at Rion. “I’ve been thinkin’ about it, and it might not have been necessary to play with their drinkin’ water. That testin’ had me puttin’ water into really small containers, and last night I learned how to move the lethe around as easily as water. I don’t know if it’s possible, but maybe I can put the sedative directly into their bodies …”

“Without having to wait for them to drink it!” Rion said in delighted surprise. “What a marvelous idea! It is too bad that you didn’t think of it last night, but then you and Alsin would have had to take care of the captives all alone. Now that the rest of us are here to help… And what will you do, Tamrissa?”

“The only thing I can do,” I replied with a shrug. “I may have to spread myself a bit thin, but I’ll keep the guardsmen and drivers away from the wagons. We don’t want them threatening to kill our people to get us to surrender, so that means we’ll have to make our move only after all the wagons are empty of guardsmen and drivers.”

“It may not be too easy tellin’ that,” Valiant said with a frown. “If we miss seein’ one of them enterin’ a wagon, how will we know that he’s in there?”

“I’ve been thinking about that, and I may have an answer,” I replied, trying to fight off the urge to speak diffidently. “People who are awake and active should have a higher body temperature than those who are unconscious, so I ought to be able to tell that way. Once we get there and I can look around I’ll know better.”

“We all need that look around,” Rion said with a nod, taking Naran’s hand in order to stroke it. “And if we’re prepared against an eventuality that happens to come about, we’ll have Naran to thank for warning us.”

“No, silly, I didn’t do anything,” Naran protested with a pleased laugh. “I’m just used to thinking about the possibility of the worst thing happening, because it so often does. You three will be the ones to free the others, and I’m more than happy to just sit and watch you do it.”

They exchanged a brief kiss then, which immediately made me look out the window again. It wasn’t that I begrudged the happiness that Rion and Naran had together, it was simply that I couldn’t bear to watch it. I’d had something like that once, and I didn’t like to think that I might be responsible for having lost it.

Most of the morning disappeared behind the distraction of rampaging thoughts, and the silence in the coach did nothing to dispel those thoughts. The rain continued to fall in a way that said it would probably keep up for the rest of the day, and our more-rapid-than-usual progress along the road sent water sheeting up and away from us. We should have been damp and miserable because of the glassless windows of the coach, but I had the feeling that Rion was blocking out the rain. So that means we were simply not-damp and miserable, at least as far as I was concerned….

“That’s Alsin just ahead,” Valiant said suddenly as the coach abruptly began to slow. “He’s wavin’, so he probably wants to talk to us.”

The prospect of finally getting down to it made my heart pound a bit faster, but with anticipation rather than fear. If I’d had to sit there thinking for much longer, I probably would have ended up screaming in frustrated insanity. As it was the coach slowed to a stop, and Alsin rode up on Rion and Valiant’s side of the coach.

“We have a problem,” he announced without preamble, his face looking drawn as well as wet. “The guardsmen and drivers should be ready to nod off by now, but they’re not. In fact they look more wide-awake than ever, as if they’re expecting some sort of attack. If we go up against them now, there’s no telling what will happen.”

“Yes there is,” I said at once, before any of the others could comment. “If we go up against them now, we’ll win the way we’re supposed to. If we don’t even try, I’ll probably be dead of old age before we do get around to it.”

“In other words, we’re goin’ ahead with it,” Valiant said as Rion’s expression told us he agreed with me. “We can’t afford to wait for a time when they’ll be less alert, because they may get to their destination before that happens. You do remember our discussin’ the matter last night?”

“Yes, I remember,” Alsin conceded with a sigh. “I’m sure you’re right, but I’d be happier if we at least waited until tonight. Will waiting another half day make that much of a difference?”

“You tell us,” Rion put frankly, gazing calmly at Alsin.

“Can you guarantee that they won’t reach their destination before tonight? If so, I’m sure we’ll agree to wait. If not…”

“All right, you’ve made your point,” Alsin grumbled, now looking even more unhappy than he had. “The attack goes ahead as planned, even if it isn’t the best of times. The coach can take you a little closer to where the convoy has pulled off the road, but after that you’ll have to walk.”

He turned his horse around and moved toward the front of the coach, and we could hear him saying something to our driver. After that we began to move again, and the four of us inside the coach exchanged glances. We really were about to do it, and once started there would be no turning back.

After about another half mile, the coach pulled to a stop again. Alsin was right there, and he dismounted as we all got out. I’d spoken quietly to Rion, so what we got out into was the pouring rain. Rion might need every bit of his strength for the coming confrontation, so wasting it on shielding us from the rain could end up being fatal instead of just silly. It would hardly kill us to get wet, not when we’d have no trouble drying off again—if we won.

Alsin tied his horse to the coach, then he led off into the woods. Just a short distance up the road it was possible to see the disturbance of the mud where a large number of wagons had turned off, so we followed silently into the trees. Letting them know we were there would have been stupid—assuming they didn’t already know. If I’d put people out on guard, they would have been people with the ability to know what the approach of other human beings felt or looked like. Naran had made no effort to go along with us, not when we might be needing to defend ourselves in just a few short minutes. Having someone else to protect in addition to ourselves could mean the difference between victory and defeat.

It had been raining too long for it to be any drier under the trees. The grass under my feet kept trying to sink my shoes into the mud beneath, the bushes showered my clothes with water as I passed, and the leaves overhead dripped, dripped, dripped. It was the most exciting and enlivening time I’d ever had, which means I really had to work hard to control my excitement. I needed to be calm and in possession of myself….

And then it came to me that I might be able to help us get closer without the sentries noticing us. In this weather the best sentries would have Fire magic as well as Earth magic, but there was nothing I could do about those with Earth magic. Fire magic, though, was another story….

“Hold up a minute,” I whispered to Alsin, causing him to pause in the cautious way he’d been advancing. We’d just passed Grath’s horse, tied to a tree, so the convoy couldn’t be all that far ahead. “Just how close are we now?”

“We’re almost there,” he answered in a return whisper, his face creased into a frown. “If you’ll just be patient—”

“No, no, I’m not being impatient,” I interrupted, wiping my face with one hand. “If we’re almost close enough to be detected, I think I can arrange a distraction.”

“Then go to it,” he said, losing the frown. “We’re almost close enough to step on them.”

I nodded to acknowledge that, then took a better grip on the power before sending out my ability. What I now used was the fingers of my talent, trying to touch with them what I couldn’t yet see. I didn’t know if it would work, but it couldn’t really hurt to try… especially if I… diffused the strength I used, making it hard to tell from which direction it came….

All these new ideas were something I wanted to think about, but right now there wasn’t time. My searching fingers of talent had found something, and it took no more than a moment to understand what. There were a large number of sources of heat, the stronger sources undoubtedly horses. The lesser ones had to be the guardsmen and drivers, and the least were surely the captives. There was also a pattern of sorts to their placement, especially the one lesser source of heat closest to us. That must be Grath, watching them while Alsin brought us back.

There were other individual sources of heat ranged around the area where all the others were, and those must be the sentries. I could tell just where they were, so I picked two places, one on each of the far sides of the camp, and heated patches of air in those places. The patches ought to be obvious to anyone with Fire magic, even Low talents, and also ought to distract those talents from our approach.

“All right, let’s continue on now,” I whispered once it was done. “And since the distraction won’t be good for more than a few minutes, let’s hurry.”

“What did you do?” Alsin asked, his expression more than curious. “I think I hear some shouting … No, never mind. You can tell me later, once this is behind us.”

He turned and hurried on then, and in another moment we reached Grath where he stood and watched the camp. The scout turned to look at us, his expression almost a match to the one Alsin had worn.

“Is one of you responsible for that minor riot?” he asked, gesturing toward the camp we could just see through the trees. “They were alert but quiet a minute ago, and now they’re all running around because someone shouted an alarm.”

“Yes, Dama Domon supplied a distraction,” Alsin answered softly with his own distraction in his voice. “If none of them are coming our way, this may be the best time to do whatever it is you three mean to do.”

“None of them are coming this way,” I confirmed, able to tell that easily. “The only problem is, three of the wagons have people in them who aren’t captives. And now that I’m really looking, I can see that the captives’ body temperatures aren’t as low as sleeping peoples’ should be. Some of the captives are apparently coming out of it more rapidly than others, but they all seem to be coming out of it.”

“We should have thought of that,” Valiant said, speaking primarily to Alsin. “By takin’ them off the sedative and lettin’ them come awake, we’ve brought attention to them. Those who give them the sedatives have to have noticed, and that may be why they aren’t fallin’ asleep. Their victims aren’t being good, docile captives, and they’re worried.”