Firewalk (47 page)

Kayli hoped desperately that he was right; it took almost all her strength to help him push the log from the sand bar it had caught on, and she could only cling desperately to the trunk of the tree while Randon pushed it out deeper. She could not stifle a yelp of dismay, however, when the log came wholly free, floating down the river at an alarming rate.

“It’s all right,” Randon said, panting as he gripped the tree trunk beside her. “Just look at the other shore and kick your feet. Don’t worry; the log will hold you up.”

Kayli tried to obey, but when she saw the bank of the river fading behind her, she merely closed her eyes tightly and kicked, and kicked, and kicked.

1 am back in the pond,
she thought desperately.
Just a little farther, and I will be at the other bank. Just a little farther
—

The log jolted under her, and Randon gave a grunt of satisfaction.

“There,” he said. “Let go, and hurry, before the current carries you off with the log.”

That thought was enough to make Kayli open her eyes, hurriedly seize Randon’s shoulder, and slog out of the water as quickly as her shaky legs would carry her. She stumbled in the mud and fell, wanting to kiss the ground as she crawled forward as fast as she could. Laughing, Randon helped her up.

“All right, all right,” he said, pulling her into his arms. “No more swimming for a while.”

“No more swimming ever,” Kayli panted. “Never, ever,
ever,
do you understand?”

“All right,” Randon murmured into her hair. “No more swimming
ever.
Come on. Let’s go home.”

Strangely, with river water dripping from her hair and the castle wall before her, Kayli felt indeed a sense of homecoming.

Well, best that it is so,
she thought tiredly.
For good or ill, this is all the home I will ever know again.
She grasped Randon’s arm a little more tightly, and when he squeezed her hand reassuringly, she thought,
It will be enough.

To Kayli’s surprise, there were no guards patrolling the castle wall. When she remarked on the lack, Randon shrugged.

“I doubt if there’s any civil unrest at the moment,” he said wryly. “You and I were the controversy. With us gone, Terralt’s reassigned them somewhere. Never mind, it works in our favor tonight. I don’t want anyone seeing us until I’m sure they’re loyal to me. Come on, I’ll show you the family secret.”

They worked their way around the wall, Randon alternately squinting at the stones in spots and glancing worriedly up at the lightening sky.

“I haven’t used this entrance in ages,” he muttered. “I used to use it to sneak out when I should have been studying.” He grinned at Kayli. “I used to meet—ah—friends outside the wall.”

“Lady friends,” Kayli corrected, grinning back.

“Lady friends,” he admitted. “Ah! Here it is.” A small section of the wall swung inward, and Randon urged Kayli into a dusty tunnel even smaller than the passageway in the temple. Kayli found a piece of dry wood and set it alight for a makeshift torch, stooping almost double to follow Randon inside. The small passage emerged in one of the cellar storerooms.

“Well, here we are,” Randon said, sighing with satisfaction. “Bright Ones, what I wouldn’t give to fall into bed and sleep for a week. Never mind, we’ll find Terralt and settle all this, and with any luck we can manage a few hours of sleep before my advisers descend on us like a swarm of bees.”

Randon reached the door and tried it; frowning, he tried it again.

“Locked!” he said impatiently. “Locked outside. But why? We never kept valuables in here.”

“Is there another way out?” Kayli suggested. “Another secret passage, perhaps?”

Randon shook his head.

“Only back the way we came and around the wall to the front,” he said. “And I don’t want to do that unless we have to. Have you ever picked a lock?”

“Like a thief?” Kayli said indignantly. “Certainly not!”

“Neither have I, but it’s that or break the door down, and I know we can’t do that,” Randon said resignedly. “This door is two thick layers of wood with iron in between, to cover the family’s escape if we needed to use the tunnel. Well, let’s give the lock a try.”

With Kayli holding the torch, Randon tried the tip of his knife blade first, and when that proved too large, took one of the pins from her bedraggled knot of hair and tried that; after patient effort, however, he admitted defeat.

“Well, there’s nothing for it,” he said. “We’ll have to go back around. Unless you can burn through the door,” he said with sudden hope.

Kayli shook her head.

“Not without great danger,” she said gently. “To burn through such thick aged wood, with iron between, would mean a fire so great that you might lose a castle so that we could walk through a door.”

“All right, then.” Randon sighed. “We’ll just go—”

The sudden scrape of a key in the door lock interrupted him. Kayli froze, her gaze meeting his. There was no time to seek a hiding place among the casks and crates, but she grasped the hilt of her
thari
firmly in one hand, the torch in the other, and she and Randon flattened themselves against the wall on either side of the door.

The door opened slowly inward, and the thick wood blocked Kayli’s view even as it concealed her; she held her breath and listened for Randon’s attack. To her amazement, however, after the first bootstep, she heard a low, bitter chuckle and a familiar voice.

“Well, brother,” Terralt said, closing the door behind him and holding up a lamp, “I wish I could say I was wholly surprised. But with the way my luck turns, it could have been nobody but you anyway. No, no!” He held up his hand as Randon stepped toward the door. “Stay where you are. I have half a dozen guards outside, all outland mercenaries with no loyalty but to the coins I’m paying them, who will gladly rush in on my word and tie the two of you if necessary.” He turned to Kayli and bowed. “My lady. Somehow it seems that every third or fourth time I see you, you’re in a draggled and exhausted state. Still, I’m delighted to see you both alive.”

“Terralt, there’s no time for these games,” Randon said impatiently. “Now let us out of here, or we’ll go back out the tunnel and—”

“And run into the rest of my mercenaries at the exit,” Terralt said calmly. “I’ve had a guard on watch outside this door ever since I got word you’d been killed, and as soon as he heard noise in this room, he put the other guards in place and sent for me. I knew it could only be you, Randon. But you’re not getting out of here until I figure out exactly what it is you’ve done—and what I’m going to do about it.”

“Listen to me,” Randon said impatiently. “There’s an army heading for the border—”

“Oh, I know that,” Terralt said carelessly. “But when they try to cross the border, they’ll find we’re soon ready for them. I’ve been sending troops west ever since you left. We’ve got eight garrisons now on the border, just waiting for the first attack, and there’s a steady flow of soldiers moving west, too, to join those garrisons. I think we can deal with any advance force Bregond could have mustered by this time.”

“You fool,” Randon exploded. “It’s not
Bregond
that’s attacking! How, without a High Lord and Lady to gather the troops?”

Terralt raised an eyebrow, but only said mildly, “The guards that searched the camps didn’t find the High Lord’s body. Nor yours, of course. But you’d have me believe it’s Sarkond that’s poised at our borders? How, then, do you explain Bregondish warriors attacking your camp?”

“They were not,” Kayli said, stepping forward. “Bregondish warriors would not have slain their High Lord and Lady, no matter how they disagreed with their rulers’ policies, nor would they have slaughtered the royal family down to the merest child, when telling the enemy rulers would have sufficed to assure their goals. Nor would any Bregondish warrior have believed that a simple grass fire could kill an Initiate of the Order of Inner Flame—nor, in fact, would
Bregondish
warriors set fire to the very land across which they must ride! But Sarkondish warriors riding Bregondish horses and dressed in Bregondish clothing might well do such things.”

Terralt’s eyes narrowed thoughtfully, but he said, “I can see how such a ploy might fool Randon’s guards, but what about a girl born in Bregond? She swore the raiders were Bregonds.”

Kayli closed her eyes briefly. The thought was still a sharp pain in her heart.

“Seba was no slave,” she said quietly. “She was a spy sent to stop the alliance between our countries in whatever manner she could. The heads of the guilds did not poison me at dinner; I was poisoned before dinner, with the
arrabia
in the wine Seba brought me.”

“But she’s the one who brought you the antidote,” Terralt said slowly.

Kayli nodded.

“I cannot tell you who was behind that poisoning,” Kayli told him reluctantly, “but they wanted the alliance dissolved to preserve their power, and they wished me returned to Bregond, not dead.
Arrabia
is a slow poison, and it has the added advantage of leaving its victims barren for some time afterward.” She shrugged. “Have Seba questioned under truth spell and she will confirm what I tell you.”

“I can’t do that.” Terralt shrugged. “She vanished almost as soon as she’d told me her story and the guards had confirmed it. Ridden back to Bregond, I thought. Besides, I can’t have a truth spell cast at all. When word came that you were dead, and I took the seat of Agrond, Stevann gave up his post at the castle and left. Said he couldn’t in good conscience serve under me.”

Terralt was silent for a long moment. At last he shook his head.

“I can see you’ve put a lot of thought into this story,” he said. “And when I have time, I’ll listen to the rest and try to sort out what might actually be true. But for now, whether it was all or part of Bregond responsible for the attack at the border doesn’t really matter.”

He turned to Randon.

“I’d be lying to you if I said I was glad to see you, little brother,” he said wryly. “At the same time, while we both know I’m the one who more than earned the throne of Agrond, we also both know that gaining it by assassinating you isn’t to my taste. And it wouldn’t do much for my popularity, either. So I’m willing to give you a choice.

“In two days my advance force is marching into Bregond,” Terralt said. “By the time they engage Bregondish troops, the second wave of soldiers should have arrived. When the Bregondish army has fallen, I’ll have it told about that my troops found the two of you, captured but alive, and brought you safely back home. You’ll have your throne back, little brother, and two countries to rule from it.”

“You know I can’t agree to that,” Randon said, his face flushing darkly. “I signed that alliance with High Lord Elaasar, and I know he’s done nothing to break his word.”

“Then you have another choice,” Terralt said, turning the wick of his lamp up slightly so he could see Randon more clearly. “You leave Agrond and take another name. I don’t care where you go as long as you swear you’ll never return. With you dead, at least as far as the people are concerned, I marry Kayli. There’s nothing I couldn’t do with a wife like that at my side. In return, I’ll pull back my army or send it against Sarkond, whatever she wants. It’ll be years before Bregond chooses a leader and works its way back up to being a threat again anyway.” He grinned at Randon. “Well, little brother? What do you say? You’ll keep your word, protect your precious alliance, and you’ll lose the onerous responsibility of ruling Agrond, all in one blow.”

To Kayli’s consternation, Randon actually looked as if he was considering Terralt’s offer. Of course, she realized, Terralt had no idea that Kairi had survived, or that she had already taken the throne of Bregond and begun to gather an army of her own. Randon was only buying time while he thought.

“There is a third choice,” Kayli said coolly. “We kill you and your mercenaries and walk up those stairs to reclaim our thrones.”

Terralt grinned.

“By the time either of you draws a dagger, I could have six guards in here,” he said. “And I don’t see any other weapons.”

Kayli held out one hand; fire leaped into life in her palm.

“My weapons are seen only when I wish it,” she said. “Before you open your mouth to call your guards, I could burn you to ash. By the time your guards drew their swords, their ashes would join yours. Believe that this is true, for it would grieve me greatly to prove it”

Terralt’s slightly mocking grin never faltered.

“You expect me to believe you’d stand there and kill me when I haven’t so much as drawn a dagger?” he taunted.

“I expect you to believe that I will never again be bartered like a horse or a wagonload of grain,” Kayli said icily. “You have no power to release Randon from the oath he swore as High Lord of Agrond, or me from my marriage vows, and before we break those oaths, yes, I would take your life. It would be the first human life I have ever taken, and it would weigh heavily on my soul, but by the Flame I swear I will do it if I must.”

“Then it appears we have a stalemate,” Terralt said, not moving. “If none of us will yield, then at least one of us is going to die here.”

“It need not be so,” Kayli said levelly. “Give me a chance to prove what Randon and I have told you, and you will quickly see that it is not Bregond who is your enemy. I ask—no, I beg that you will give me this opportunity before kinfolk spill each other’s blood. You lose nothing by doing so.”

Terralt stood there silently for a long moment, so long that Kayli was certain he would refuse, but at last he nodded slowly.

“All right,” he said. “Just how do you plan to prove what you say?”

“I will need my forge, and my grimoires as well,” Kayli told him. “And then you can see with your own eyes.”

“Kayli,” Randon began hesitantly. “You promised—”

“I promised to say nothing,” Kayli said gently. “I did not promise to show nothing. And when Terralt sees the truth, I believe he will use that knowledge properly.”
At least I pray so,
she thought. She was playing a game of trust with Terralt more dangerous than any Randon had dared, for while she knew at least that Terralt would never take any action which would harm Agrond, she had no such assurance where Bregond was concerned.