Blood of the Fold (54 page)

The second young outlaw, squatting among the packs in the snow, and as thin as the first, darted glances around at the darkening woods to each side of the little-traveled road. He checked behind, to the bend in the road not far away where it vanished behind a screen of snow-crusted fir trees. In the center of the bend, just before the road vanished, was a bridge over a stream still rushing despite the fact it was winter. “No. Just old clothes and junk. No bacon, not even any bread.”

The first danced back and forth on the balls of his feet, ready to bolt at the first sign of trouble. He brought his other hand up to the hilt to help hold the weight of the poorly made sword. “You look well fed. What do you two eat, old woman! Snow?”

She folded her hands against her belt as she sighed. She was tiring of this. “We work for our food as we go. You should try it. Work, I mean.”

“
Yeah? It’s winter, old woman, in case you hadn’t noticed. There’s no work. Last autumn the army took our stores. My parents don’t have anything to get them through the winter.”

“
I’m sorry, son. Perhaps …”

“
Hey! What’s this, old man?” He had his finger through the dull silver collar. He gave it a yank. “How do you get this off? Answer me!”

“
I told you,” she said, avoiding the silent fury of the wizard’s blue eyes, “my brother is deaf and dumb. He doesn’t understand your words, and he can’t answer them.”

“
Deaf and dumb? Then you tell me, how do you get this thing off?”

“
It’s just an iron memento that was welded on long ago. It’s worthless.”

A hand came off the sword as her assailant leaned warily toward her and with a finger lifted her cape aside. “What’s this? A purse! I found her purse!” He yanked the heavy bag of gold coins from her belt. “It must be full a gold!”

She chuckled. “I’m afraid its just a bag of hard biscuits. You’re free to have one, if you’d like, but don’t try to bite down on them or you’ll break your teeth. Suck on it awhile.”

He fished out a gold coin and put it between his teeth. He winced with a sour expression. “How can you eat these things? I’ve eaten bad biscuits, but these aren’t even good enough to be called bad.”

So easy with a young mind, she thought. Too bad it wasn’t that easy on an adult.

He spat to the side and tossed the bag of gold to the snow before patting her cape, searching for anything else she might have concealed.

She sighed impatiently. “Would you boys get on with this robbery. We’d like to make the next town before dark.”

“
Nothin’,” the second said. “They don’t have nothin’ worth the trouble of carrying off.”

“
They got horses,” the first said as he squeezed fistfuls of her heavy cape, feeling for anything it might be holding. “At least we can take the horses. They’ll bring something.”

“
Please do,” she said. “I’m tired of being slowed by leading those old nags around. You would be doing me a favor. All four are lame and I don’t have the heart to put them out of their misery.”

“
The old woman’s right,” the second said as he pulled one of the limping horse along, testing it. “All four. We can walk faster. We try to take these bags of bones with us and we’ll get caught sure.”

The first was still running his hand down her cape. It halted on her pocket. “What’s this?”

Her voice took on an edge. “Nothing of interest to you.”

“
Yeah?” He fingered the journey book from her pocket.

As he thumbed through the blank pages, she caught sight of a message. At last.

“
What’s this?”

“
Just a notebook. Can you read, son?”

“
No. There don’t appear to be hardly nothin’ worth reading anyway.”

“
Take it anyway,” the second said. “It might be worth something if nothin’s written in it.”

She looked back to the young man holding the sword on her. “I’ve had just about enough of this. Consider the robbery over.”

“
It’s over when I say it’s over.”

“
Give it back,” Ann said in a level voice as she held her hand out. “And then be on your way before I drag you to town by your ear and have your parents come to collect you.”

He brandished the sword as he leapt back defensively. “Look, don’t you go getting feisty or you’ll taste steel! I know how to use this thing!”

The still evening air suddenly thundered with horses’ hooves. She had been watching as the soldiers had slipped up, around the bend and over the little bridge, unnoticed by the two young men because of the rushing water, until at the last moment when they charged in. As her assailant turned in shock, Ann snatched the sword from his hands. Nathan snatched the knife from the other.

Mounted D’Haran soldiers suddenly towered above them. “What’s going on here?” the sergeant asked in a calm, deep voice.

The two young men stood frozen in panic. “Well,” Ann said, “we ran into these two, here, and they were telling us how we should be careful of outlaws. They live in the neighborhood. They were showing us how to protect ourselves and giving us a demonstration of their blade work.”

The sergeant folded his hands over the pommel. “Is that right, boy?”

“
I … we …” His pleading eyes turned to her. “That’s right. We live nearby, and we was just telling these two travelers to be careful as we heard tell that there are outlaws about.”

“
And quite a show of swordsmanship it was. As I promised, young man, you get a biscuit for the show. Hand me my sack of biscuits, there.”

He bent and snatched up the heavy purse of gold, holding it out to her. Ann pulled two coins out and pressed one into the hand of each young man.

“
As promised, a biscuit for each. Now you boys best be getting home before dark, or your parents will worry. Give them my biscuit as thanks for sending you out to warn us to be careful.”

He nodded dumbly. “All right. Good night, then. Take care of yourselves.”

Ann held her hand out. She fixed the young man with a dangerous squint. “If you’re done looking at my notebook, I’ll have it back.”

His eyes widened at the look in hers, and then he thrust the journey book into her hand as if it were burning his fingers, which it was.

Ann smiled. “Thank you, son.”

He wiped the hand on his tattered coat. “Good-bye, then. And be careful.”

He turned to leave. “Don’t forget this.” He turned back cautiously. She held the hilt out to him. “You father would be awfully angry if you forgot to bring back his sword.”

He lifted it carefully. Nathan, not about to let this go without a bit of theatrics, walked the spinning knife across the backs of his fingers. He tossed the knife in the air, catching it behind his back, and then whirled it under his armpit and into his other hand. Ann rolled her eyes as he slapped the blade, reversing the spin. He caught the knife by its blade and handed it, handle first, to the other wide-eyed young man.

“
Where’d you learn to do than, old man?” the sergeant asked.

Nathan scowled. If there was one thing Nathan didn’t like, it was being called “old man.” He was a wizard, a prophet, of unparalleled ability, and thought he should be viewed with wonder, if not open awe. She was restraining his gift by choking it off with his Rada’Han, or no doubt the sergeant’s saddle would be aflame by now. She was also preventing him from speaking. Nathan’s tongue was at least as dangerous as his power.

“
I’m afraid my brother is deaf and dumb.” She gestured to the two outlaws with a shooing motion of her hand. They waved and scrambled for the woods, kicking up snow as they went. “My brother has always amused himself by practicing hand tricks.”

“
Ma’am, are you sure those two aren’t causing you any trouble?”

“
Oh, no,” she scoffed.

The sergeant lifted his reins, the twenty men behind him doing the same in response, ready to take out after him. “Well, I think we’ll have a little talk with them, anyway. A little talk about thieving.”

“
If you do, be sure to ask them to tell you about how the D’Haran soldiers stole their families’ stores of food, and how they’re starving because of it.”

The square-jawed soldier lowered the reins. “I don’t know anything about what was done before, but the new Lord Rahl has given explicit orders that there will be no stealing of anything by the army.”

“
The new Lord Rahl?”

He nodded. “Richard Rahl, the Master of D’Hara.”

From the corner of her eye, she saw a smile twitch across Nathan’s lips. It was a smile for a properly taken fork in a prophecy. Though it had to be, were they to succeed, it brought her no smile, but an inner pang of agony for the path ahead now confirmed. Only the alternative was worse. “Yes, I do believe I’ve heard the name, now that you mention it.”

The sergeant stood in the stirrups and turned back to his men. “Ogden, Spaulding!” Their horses kicked up snow when they leaped ahead. “Go after those boys and take them to their families. Find out if what they say is true about their stores being stolen by troops. If it is, find out the number in their families and if there are any others in the neighborhood under the same circumstances. Take a report back to Aydindril at once and see to it that they get what they need to eat, to see them through the winter.”

The two men saluted with a fist to the dark leather and mail over their hearts and then galloped their horses down the tracks leading into the woods. The sergeant turned back to her. “Lord Rahl’s orders,” he explained. “Are you headed to Aydindril?”

“
Yes, we’re hoping to find safety there, like the others traveling north.”

“
You’ll find it, then, but it comes at a cost. I’ll tell you the same as all the others. Whatever your former homeland, you will now be subjects of D’Hara. Your allegiance is required, along with a small portion of what you earn in your labor, if you wish to come to territory held by D’Hara.”

She lifted an eyebrow. “It would seem the army is still thieving from the people?”

“
It might seem so to you, but not to Lord Rahl, and his word is law. All pay the same in order to support the troops who have been charged with protecting our freedom. If you don’t wish to pay, you are free not to seek that protection and freedom.”

“
Seems like Lord Rahl has things well in hand.”

The sergeant nodded. “He is a powerful wizard.”

Nathan’s shoulders shook with a silent laugh.

The sergeant’s eyes narrowed. “What’s he laughing about, if he’s supposed to be deaf and dumb?”

“
Oh he is, but he’s also a half-wit.” Ann strolled toward the horses. As she crossed in front of the broad-shouldered wizard, she landed a sharp elbow in his gut. “Laughs like that at the oddest times.” She scowled up as Nathan coughed. “He’s liable to start drooling in a moment, if he keeps at it.”

Ann stroked a gentle hand along Bella’s sleek, powerful, golden flanks. Bella danced with delight at her touch. The big mare hopefully stuck her tongue out; she liked nothing better than having someone tug on it. Ann obliged her and then scratched behind an ear. Bella whinnied with a horse giggle and stuck the tongue out again, hoping for the game to continue.

“
You were saying, Sergeant, about how Lord Rahl is a powerful wizard?”

“
That’s right. He slew the creatures you’ll see on pikes before the palace.”

“
Creatures?”

“
He calls them mriswith. Ugly, scaled, lizardlike things. They’ve killed a number of people, but Lord Rahl himself cut them to pieces.”

Mriswith. That was certainly not good news.

“
Is there a town near, where we could find food and lodging for the night?”

“
Ten Oaks is just over the next rise, maybe two miles. There’s a small inn there.”

“
And how far to Aydindril?”

He appraised their four horses as she stroked Bella’s ear. “With animals as fine as those, I doubt it will take you more than seven or eight days.”

“
Thank you, Sergeant. It’s good to know there are soldiers about in case there are outlaws in the neighborhood.”

He glanced over at Nathan, taking in his towering form, his long white hair that brushed his shoulders, his strong, clean-shaven jaw, and his hooded, penetrating, dark azure eyes. Nathan was a ruggedly handsome man filled with vigor, despite the fact that he was close to a thousand years old.

The sergeant looked back to her, clearly preferring to exchange glances with a squat old woman rather than with Nathan. Even with his power choked off, Nathan presented an intimidating presence. “We’re looking for someone: the Blood of the Fold.”

“
Blood of the Fold? You mean those pompous fools from Nicobarese in the red capes?”

The sergeant snugged the reins as his horse tried to step sideways. Others of the twenty horses pawed the snow, looking for grass, or nibbled hopefully at dry branches to the side of the road, tails lazily swishing the cool evening air. “That’s them. Two men, one the lord general of the Blood, another officer, and a woman. They escaped from Aydindril, and Lord Rahl has ordered them brought back. We have men out everywhere scouring the countryside.”

“
Sorry, but I haven’t seen a sign of them. Is Lord Rahl staying at the Wizard’s Keep?”