Dagger's Point (Shadow series) (11 page)

When I first heard that, I thought he’d swallowed a skinful himself, and not water, either. But a couple years later I met a warrior who’d seen one of their camps—like any camp it was, firepits and trampled grass and flat spots where they’d likely pitched tents. He showed me an arrowhead he’d found there, half hidden in the weeds. It was the oddest metal—pale and light so the arrow had to be weighted with clay rings, I’d wager, and sharp as a fishwife’s tongue.” She showed Jael a scar on the pad of her thumb. “Cut myself near to the bone just testing the edge. Since that time I’ve heard tales hereabouts. It wasn’t so easy to laugh after I’d seen that arrowhead.”

She had heard tales, too, of the Book of Whispering Serpents.

“Duranar the Pale passed through, aye, and bearing such a book, or so it’s said,” she said. “I’ve heard it told he rode on the back of a demon horse whose coat shone like gold and whose feet were claws instead of hooves. But he went south and disappeared into the wilderness there. None’s heard from him since, not that I’ve been told. Some say he went south all the way to the sea, but I’d wager he met his end in a shifter’s or a dragon’s belly long before that, and likely his book moldered into dust.”

Jael nodded agreement, but privately she disagreed. Any mage powerful enough to bind demons would come to no such ordinary end.

There was plenty of game near the forest, but the hunting trips became less frequent as Karina would not allow the guards to leave their posts. A forest offered too much cover for highwaymen. Unfortunately, as they neared the forest, the ground dipped and became quite swampy, forcing the group to camp nearer the trees than Karina would have liked. Because of the increased danger, Karina insisted that Jael and Tanis camp near the wagons so that the guards would not have to widen their perimeter.

This time Durgan included himself in the night watches but not Cesanne, stating that as his sister had more forest experience, on the morrow she would command the guards and would need to be fully awake and alert. Jael imagined that Cesanne gave Tanis a significant look when Durgan said this, and Tanis blushed and quickly looked away. Jael thought to herself that she probably had more forest experience than all the guards in the caravan combined—though doubtless Cesanne had far more experience in finding private, cozy thickets—but there was no point in saying that to these guards, who would certainly follow one of their own rather than some half-grown elf; besides, Jael’s knowledge of combat certainly did not include group command.

Jael personally found the night noises of the forest familiar and soothing, but everyone else was nervous and sat around the fire later than usual; at last there was only Jael, Tanis, and Cesanne. Jael resignedly excused herself, but was surprised when Tanis politely said good night to Cesanne and accompanied Jael back to their tent.

When they reached the tent, however, Tanis reached into one of the packs and pulled out one of the bottles of Bluebright.

“Have you had any of this since that night more than a year ago?” he asked, gazing thoughtfully at the syrupy blue liquid inside the bottle. He spoke very softly so that his voice could be heard only inside the tent.

“Uh-uh. Father doesn’t like me to use it.” Jael lay back on her bedroll. “Why? Were you wanting to try it? It won’t hurt you. Mother and Father have both tried it.”

“It cures you, doesn’t it?” Tanis asked, tilting the bottle and watching the liquid roll slowly. “Makes your soul whole for a while, right?”

“Something like that.” Jael shrugged. “Father says some potions can temporarily create a sort of balance inside, like the el-ven dreaming potion. I don’t know if it actually does anything to my soul, or just makes my soul
think
there’s nothing wrong. I don’t understand how such things work. All I know is when I drank it, I could shape stone. Not very well, but that’s just because I hadn’t had practice. But at least I could do it.”

“Did it cure your other problems, too?” Tanis asked her. “So that you could use your beast-speaking, for example?”

“I don’t know.” Jael shrugged again. “We never had a chance to test that. As I said, Father doesn’t like me using it. After the demon was killed, Father took all the Bluebright and kept it. He and Mother have tried it a few times, and he’s tried to learn how it’s made, but he’s never let me have any of it back until I started packing supplies for this journey.”

“When you drank it with Urien,” Tanis asked slowly, looking at the Bluebright instead of Jael, “did it make you want him?”

“Gods.” Jael sighed. “Tanis, is that still itching under your skin? I swear, Urien and I never did
anything,
even when I was silly drunk on Bluebright.” The memory of that night made Jael flush with embarrassment; she
had
gotten pretty silly, Urien feeding her tidbits and whispering compliments while she simpered and giggled like a fool. And they “never did anything” not out of any fortitude of Jael’s, but likely because Urien had no intention of risking his greater plan.

“But you could have, couldn’t you?” Tanis asked deliberately. “When you drank the Bluebright, you could have if you’d wanted to. And you could want to, too, couldn’t you?”

Startled by something in Tanis’s voice, Jael peered at him through the darkness. His face was turned away from her, but his fingers clutched the bottle so tightly, like a shield—or a weapon.

“What are you saying?” Jael asked slowly. “Are you wanting me to take a potion to make me want you?”

“It’s not the same,” Tanis muttered. “It’s not like a love potion or something. If all this stuff does is make you whole, and then you want me, what’s wrong with that?”

Jael sat up.

“Tanis, at the risk of making you more jealous than you already are, when I drank some of that Bluebright I wanted Urien, too. For all I know the stuff
is
a love potion of some sort. Either that or—” Or she’d been an awfully easy mark, as Aunt Shadow would say. It was embarrassing to think she could be that undis-criminating, or that stupid, either.

Tanis might have followed the rest of her thought, but he kindly said nothing. He sat silently, holding the Bluebright and gazing at Jael in the darkness. At last he tucked the bottle back into the pack.

“Forget I asked,” he said rather remotely. “It was a bad idea.” He lay down, turning his back to Jael.

Jael flopped back on her bedroll, sighing.
Now
what should she do? What could she say? She couldn’t tell Tanis the real reason she’d been reluctant to use the Bluebright. What if, even with her soul whole, she still didn’t desire Tanis? What would he do if he learned that he’d stood by her all this time for nothing? But, gods, was she being fair to him? Didn’t he deserve to know—and didn’t she deserve to know, too?

But what if he learned she didn’t want him and decided to leave her? Much though Jael might admire Aunt Shadow, Jael herself was no such wily traveler; she might as well turn back for Allanmere and hope she could make it even that far alive. But at this rate, with Tanis getting so upset, maybe he’d just leave her anyway.

He’d promised to be patient, knowing Jael couldn’t give him any promises in return. He’d
promised.
But he could promise to stop the sun rising, too; that didn’t mean he could necessarily do it. Gods, what harm could there be in one night’s illusion, even if it was nothing more than that, even if it dissolved like dew in the sun’s light?

Jael hesitated, looking from the pack to Tanis’s back. In that moment of hesitation, Tanis sighed, sat up again, and crawled out of the tent without a word.

Jael sat up, too, listening. Maybe he’d just gone to use the privy pit. Maybe—

Tanis’s voice, low. The crackling of the fire. Cesanne’s voice, soft and rich. Then footsteps and laughter.

Then silence.

Jael turned over, pulling Tanis’s blankets and her own over her. All right, this wasn’t quite the same as a tumble with some whore in a brothel. But Tanis was sensible, practical—usually more practical than Jael herself. He knew better than to let a strange woman on the road become too important to him, even if she was tall and well favored and so very, very
whole.
This changed nothing.

Jael pulled her head farther under the covers and shivered. There was, of course, nothing to worry about. But fear was a bitter taste in her mouth, like tears.

Green. Green.

Jael’s spirits lifted as they moved through the forest, although this was not the Heartwood she knew so well. Many of the animal sounds were different, and different plants lined the edge of the trade road, different leaves arched over the wagons, but the warm, rich spring smell of damp earth and growing plants was

the same, and the filtered afternoon sunlight trickling through the

leaves made familiar emerald-stained patterns on the ground. Jael pulled the packs and saddle from her horse and rode beside the wagons, singing elven ditties for Karina’s entertainment.

Tanis had ridden ahead with Durgan and Cesanne to try to find a suitable campsite. He’d ridden with them all day. That fact, and the fact that he’d hardly said a word to Jael as they’d loaded their horses that morning, was all that marred Jael’s joy at being in the forest again—any forest at all.

Jael’s singing faltered as she thought of Tanis. Karina sighed.

“That was lovely,” she said. “Sing another.”

Jael grimaced, but obediently began “New Leaves.” She’d barely finished the first verse, however, when searing pain speared through her, choking off her voice. Jael reeled on her horse’s back, barely clinging to the mane to keep her seat. The piercing agony continued only a moment longer, gradually fading, but it was some time before Jael was once more aware of her surroundings. She gasped for breath, realizing that the caravan had come to a halt and that Karina was standing beside her, steadying Jael on her horse and peering at her with a concerned scowl.

“Are you well, youngling?” Karina asked worriedly. “You didn’t get a bellyache from my cheese, did you? Zanafar help me, I inspected every single cheese in this shipment myself. We don’t have a healer in the train, but if—”

Jael rested her forehead on the back of her hands, still gripping the horse’s mane tightly, and breathed in the comforting scent of the horse: dirt and hair and sweat.

“I’m all right,” she said. It was true; she was well enough now. “I’m sorry I frightened you. I take these fits sometimes.” She couldn’t tell Karina the true reason for her “fits”; most folk had never heard of beast-speaking, and such an ability would make Jael very memorable indeed. And Karina spoke very freely to anybody who would listen.

“Well, if you choose to take another,” Karina said, disgruntled, “best take it in the wagon, else you’ll split your skull.”

Jael managed a weak grin as the portly woman returned to her wagon and waved the other drivers to continue. Jael wiped the sweat from her forehead and sat up. Somewhere nearby Tanis and his friends had made a kill—a doe, even though it was springtime and no self-respecting hunter would take a doe in spring. And Tanis knew very well what making a kill so near Jael would do to her.

Once more the caravan found their campsite prepared, the doe roasting over the firepit. At least the carcass was fairly plump; Jael hoped that meant there’d be no starving fawns left behind. Durgan was clearing the last bit of brush from around the firepit; Tanis and Cesanne had brought buckets of water from a stream Jael could hear nearby and now were stripping the branches from saplings to use for tent poles, chatting amiably as they worked. Jael slid down from her horse’s back, but when she stepped toward the pack horse, Karina shook her head.

“Sit,” Karina commanded sternly. She glanced around, then pointed to a fallen log. “There! Sit!”

Jael sat meekly.

“You!” At Karina’s shout, Tanis and Cesanne both looked up, startled. “Caden, or whatever your name is. Come here.”

Tanis hurried over.

“Merchant—”

“Get your horses and your gear and your friend and take care of them,” Karina said implacably. “Hear me? And next time it’s wise to tell a merchant that your friend takes fits. Some folk hereabouts would’ve thought her bespelled.”

Tanis’s eyes widened and he glanced at Jael, then hurried forward to take the horses.

“I’m sorry,” he murmured to Jael as he passed her. “I didn’t think.” He selected a site for their tent near Karina’s wagon and quickly arranged their small shelter, waving aside Jael’s offer of help.

“Maybe you’d like some more tea,” Tanis suggested awkwardly when he was finished. “I’ll put the pot of water on for you.”

“I’m all right,” Jael said embarrassedly. “It was just—well, you know. It was only a moment or two.”

“We got off the road,” Tanis said apologetically. “To be honest, I didn’t realize we were so close to you. I suppose I wasn’t paying attention.”

Jael shrugged.

“No harm to me,” she said with a sigh. “I just wasn’t expecting it. It wasn’t usually this bad when I was younger.”

Tanis held out his hand.

“Can you eat some supper, even though—”

“I’d have starved by now if I couldn’t,” Jael said wryly, accepting Tanis’s hand and his apology at the same time.

The venison was tough but good, and chewing on the stringy meat gave Jael something to do besides watching Tanis and Cesanne; she didn’t want Tanis to know that she was worried. At first Tanis was attentive to Jael, as if in atonement, but before supper was over he had once again devoted all of his attention to Cesanne. Jael excused herself as soon as she was finished eating, not surprised when Tanis remained at the fire.

It was far too early for sleep, and Jael had no desire to lie in their small tent listening to Tanis and Cesanne at the fire again, so she strolled around the perimeter of the campsite. The sounds and scents of the forest were so sweet and familiar that Jael could not resist a visit to the stream; the moon was out and there would be enough light for her to have a quick bath.

Karina’s guards were reluctant to let Jael wander off to the stream by herself, but she insisted, and as the stream was no more than a few dozen paces from the camp, the guards on watch would certainly hear her if she cried out. In the end Jael had her way, although the guards made Jael take her sword and dagger, and she delightedly picked her way through the brush to the streambed, carrying her spare clothes and a jar of soft soap.