Ambition and Alavidha (27 page)

“Watch out,”
growled Vya suddenly.

Seven
lindlengths away a boy burst through the undergrowth, almost
knocking into Josei. He looked terrified and he was breathing in
great gasps.

Thalia and
Josei didn’t hesitate, they swept past the boy, Josei’s back lags
keeling at an angle to avoid him as they rushed towards the
tree-gap from whence the boy had sprung.

Daniel shouted
at the boy to stay where he was as he and Vya followed. The boy
gulped and nodded, sinking to his knees.

Fast as Vya
was, Thalia and Josei were faster.

He and Vya
passed one of the boy’s attackers, lying on the ground, a deep and
bloody gash on his head. Daniel rather thought he was dead. The man
had that peculiar, surprised look that Daniel recognised, the look
of a man slain in battle.

“Hold on,”
yelped Vya as she carried Daniel down the game trail to where the
noise of the fighting was coming from, Daniel desperate to go to
Thalia’s aid. It sounded as if she had a serious fight on her
hands. He was worried she would come to harm. She was slight-built
and the dead ruffian he had passed big and burly. She and Josei had
probably taken him by surprise but his accomplice? What if there
was a whole group of them?

He cursed his
ineptitude at riding.
I don’t want to lose her
. Fear for
that plunged to the pit of his stomach.
Little bit of a
thing
.

His fears were
proved to be without foundation. He and Vya arrived at the scene to
see Thalia just about to dismount.

At Josei’s paws
was another prone figure, as dead as a doornail.

Thalia seemed
quite composed if a little pale.

“I asked him to
surrender,” she answered Daniel’s unspoken question. “He wouldn’t.
He was going for Jose’s legs. I had to kill him. Now we’ll never
know what they wanted with the boy.”

“Common
footpads,” was Daniel’s guess, dismounting and bending over to
check that the brigand was, in fact, dead. He was.

“No.”

Thalia was
definite. “They were hired. Josei deciphered that at least, from
his death-rattle.”

“Chadwick
Smallhide again.”

“Almost
definitely and the real one this time. He most assuredly doesn’t
want anyone following him. My guess is that he paid them to watch
out for the boy, it
is
him, Josei recognised his face.”

Daniel searched
through the man’s pockets and belt-pouch. In it he found a pencil
likeness of the boy. “He must have guessed Wil would work out where
he was going and come after him. What now? Do we bury them?”

“No, we’ll
report it, in fact Josei has and leave them. Let’s get back to the
boy.”

“I have a great
deal of questions,” said Daniel, “but he’s probably scarpered.”

“He’ll know
there’s no point in trying to run,” she disagreed. “Lind can find
anyone who tries to hide from them in woodlands or anywhere else.
He’ll be waiting where we left him, you’ll see.”

How right
Thalia was Daniel found out.

Zeb was
standing waiting for them; a defiant pose; not two steps away from
where Daniel had left him.

“Let’s light a
fire and have some hot kala,” suggested Thalia, shivering a little.
Her recent encounters had shaken her although Daniel realised, she
would never admit it.

“Sure thing,”
he drawled and set about gathering dry twigs.

“Sit down,”
Thalia told Zeb, “are you hurt?”

“Bumps an’
bruises is all,” Zeb answered, “they surprised me.” He sounded
annoyed with himself. “Shoulda' guessed, ‘twas too quiet.”

Thalia
nodded.

“Thank you,”
said Zeb, all of a sudden, remembering his manners and realising
that Thalia and Josei had probably saved his life.

“All in a day’s
work,” answered Thalia, “kala will be ready in a mo and then
perhaps you could tell us what you are doing out here, alone.”

“I was running
away,” was Zeb’s swift response.

“Don’t lie to
us boy,” said Daniel, lifting his face from the incipient fire.

“Not
lying.”

“That’s two
lies so far,” said Thalia, extracting her bag of dry kala grains
from Josei’s saddlebag. “My Lind here knows when a human tries to
pull the wool over his eyes, so do I.”

Zeb gulped but
said nothing. His wary eyes moved from one rescuer to the next.

“Perhaps we
should introduce ourselves,” said Thalia pleasantly, “I’m Vadeln
Thalia and this is Josei.”

“You’re Vada.”
It was a statement.

“The uniform
does rather give it away doesn’t it?” queried Thalia, still in that
pleasant tone.

“I’m Kellen
Daniel Ross from the Kingdom of Murdoch,” said Daniel and this is
my companion Vya.”

“Your
Lind?”

“I do not have
that honour,” answered Daniel, “she is my friend and companion for
the time being. I hope however that she will always be my
friend.”

“Nicely put,”
said Vya with a toothy grin.

Daniel inclined
his head, saying, “my pleasure, My Lady.”

“Now that these
formalities are done, perhaps you might like to tell us your name
and your reason for being here? The truth if you please.” Thalia’s
voice was sharp and Zeb jumped. His wariness turned instantly to
nervousness.

“Names’s Zeb
and I’m looking for someone.”

“Yes, we know.
Chadwick Smallhide. We’re looking for him too.”

Zeb’s thin
shoulders slumped.

“What do you
wan’ to know?” he asked, succumbing to the inevitable.

“Everything,”
answered Thalia, “from beginning to end and don’t leave anything
out.

So Zeb told
them.

“I’m chasing
Chad,” he said in a sullen voice. “He owes me Uncle.”

“Why are you
travelling this way?”

Zeb gave them a
pitying look.

“Stands to
reason, don’t it? Chad said he was going to Farquharstown to put us
off the trail like, I don’t nither think he’s going to Murdoch
nither. I ain’t caught up with him yet but I will or my names not
Zebediah Nathaniel Randall White.”

“What a
mouthful!” exclaimed Thalia.

“Zeb for short.
Was me mum who named me, she allus liked fancy names. I gotta find
him see. M’uncle’ll kill me if he finds I’ve let him outa my sight.
I’m serposed to keep an eye on him.”

“So how did he
steal the box from the Gtrathlin’s cave?” asked Thalia in a
conversational manner. “The truth again now, all of it.”

Zeb gulped.

“Wasn’t him,
was me, weren’t too hard. Chad described it right proper so he did,
even showed me a picture. All I had to do was to take the box from
the shelf at the back. I replaced it with one hidden to one side.
That was me own idea and Chad was right pleased about it.”

“Did you open
the box?”

“Naw. It was
sealed with some sort of waxy stuff. There was writing on the side
too. Was easy but gawd, it was awful in there, all sort o’ spooky
and dusty. Strange objects too.”

“What things
did you see?” asked Thalia in a deceptively don’t care less
manner.

“Were books on
a shelf at the back,” I saw that, all wrapped up they were. There
was a picture of a Lind sitting on top.”

“He was there,”
whispered Thalia to Daniel, “the books and the portrait, I bet you
that we’re the only two humans alive apart from our young thief
here who know exactly where they are.”

“Now Zeb, how
exactly did you manage to enter the cave, take the box and get out
without being noticed, leaving neither track nor smell?” asked
Daniel.

“I was
wondering about that too. Couldn’t understand why the Gtrathlin
didn’t realise some person had been in there,” agreed Thalia.

“And how did
Chad manage to distract the guards?” added Daniel.

Zeb grinned.
“He started noises and a fire, that’s what and the guard, there was
only two, went to investergate. Firecrackers and the like and he
set one of the cabins alight. Gosh, what a sight it were. People
running about all over and the Lind too.”

“The old ones
are the best,” commented Daniel with a wry grin, “and the tracks
and smell?”

“Chad gave me
some sort of furry shoes. They flapped a bit and smelt awful.”

“Vuz,” declared
Thalia, “of course, I should have thought of that. He fabricated
the ‘furry shoes’ so that they flapped to negate the tracks and
probably impregnated them with vuz urine too. Zeb’s right, it does
stink and there are bound to have been vuz scuttling around in
there.”

Daniel opened
his mouth to ask what a vuz was but Thalia forestalled him.

“They’re like
your rudkta, probably the same species once upon a time.”

“No,” said Zeb,
“they were zarova, left behind sorta paw marks like.”

“So why did you
come to the conclusion that Chad’s not going to Farquharstown?”
asked Thalia. The type of shoes Zeb had worn were really quite
immaterial to the investigation.

“Watched him
leave and thought about it later,” Zeb answered, “decided he was
carrying too much for a short trip and he had a pack horse wif him.
Didn’t see what was in his packs but looked bulky and his story
about the southern duke never did sound right. Didn’t suspect
nuffing until later, should have done.”

“What was this
southern duke called?”

“Duchswood or
sommat like that. I got to thinking you see, I did go to school
once, to learn my letters. We did jografy too and I don’t remember
a duke called that. Chad spoke anofer word too, said he was maybe
goin’ to Rhanan.”

“Rhianan,”
breathed Thalia, “it must be. It’s the main port on the Island of
Galliard.”

“Duchswood
could be a mix of Duchesne and Brentwood,” agreed Daniel.

“And also the
name of the port. I think Mr Chadwick Smallhide slipped up here. I
have a feeling that he’s inadvertently given away his destination
to our young friend here.”

“Friend?”
challenged Zeb, his voice filled with suspicion.

“Travelling
companions are by definition, friends,” Thalia informed him,
“you’ll be coming with us.”

“Where to?”
Zeb’s nose was twitching, with a peculiar mixture of suspicion and
excitement.

“The Island of
Galliard. You did say you wanted to chase down Chadwick Smallhide
did you not?”

“Yes, yes, I
did,” replied Zeb, his face brightening, “can I really come wif
you? I ain’t got a horse.”

“Horses are too
slow. You can ride pillion behind me on Josei. You’re all skin and
bone, Josei’ll make nothing of the extra weight if we shift the
saddlebags around a bit.”

Daniel had been
thinking ahead.

“How much will
it cost for passage?” he asked, jingling the few coins that
inhabited his belt-pouch.

“I’ll sign a
chit. Vada’ll honour it,” replied Thalia, “as long as it is on an
Argyllian or Vadathian vessel.”

“And
later?”

“We’ll pick up
coin at Port Lutterell. Me and Josei know the vadeln in charge of
the Supply Station there.”

“An
ex-comrade-in-arms?” Daniel hazarded.

“My elder
brother as a matter of fact,” she replied with an impish grin as
she turned to redistribute the bags attached to Josei’s harness.
“We’ll pick you up a better sword too. You might need a good one
where we’re going.”

“Me too?” asked
Zeb hopefully.

“Small boys
don’t fight with swords,” she informed him.

Zeb bristled.
He no longer thought of himself as a small boy. In his profession
one emerged into manhood after one’s first successful theft.

“I’m ten,” he
argued, “eleven ‘most.”

“Wait a couple
of years or so,” Thalia advised, “then I’ll teach you, if you’re
still around.”

* * * * *

“Up you come,”
Thalia ordered, holding out a long arm to assist Zeb as he
clambered on to Josei’s back. “Hold on tight.”

“I will,” Zeb
acquiesced with a gulp. Never in his wildest dreams had he imagined
that one day he would be riding a Lind. Of course, he was sitting
behind Thalia. Perhaps it didn’t count riding pillion. Still it was
better than nothing, more, more than better than nothing if he was
honest with himself.

“Let’s go,”
said Thalia and Josei loped off, Vya barely a paws breath behind
him.

To say, like
Daniel before him, that Zeb was in a seventh heaven of delight
would have been an understatement. He could barely contain his
excitement. Both Thalia and Josei felt it.

: Another
convert! He’s not scared at all :
Josei telepathed. He sounded
surprised.

: Perhaps it
is because he is young :
Thalia surmised.

: Young? This
one has never been young as you and I understand it :

The days, as
they ran towards Port Lutterell were the most tremendous of Zeb’s
young years. They were life changing. For a boy raised in the slums
of Stewarton, who had been taught to regard stealing as a way of
life and to not consider what effects such thefts might have on the
victims; it was a revelation.

Both Thalia and
Daniel had been brought up to consider others, with a respect for
property; especially for those who had worked hard to buy their
possessions. Without saying anything specific about his life so far
to Zeb, they managed, with Josei and Vya’s help, to transfer this
ethos to Zeb.

And there was
more.

Thalia, once
she had vadeln-paired with Josei, had taken this respect for others
much further. The Lind believed that they had been born on their
planet for a purpose; to protect and care for others, especially
those who needed their care and protection. It was deep-embedded in
the psyche of each and every Lind. This was why, in times past
entire Lindars had laid down their lives to defeat the Larg of the
southern continent when they had attacked the northern; to save
their rtathen and those of other rtaths. Thousands, even perhaps
millions had died throughout the eons of Lind history so that
others could live.