Doublesight (34 page)

Budrill blinked. “Our rooms bed three at best, and only if one sleeps on the floor.”

“You don't want our money?” Lankor didn't give up.

“A room and a balcony for five might be as much as thirty clips of gold.” He tapped his fingers. “You didn't say what kinda pet.”

Lankor nodded. “A thylacine. We travel with two of the most talented trainers in The Great Land.”

“They from Brendern Forest?”

“The master trainer,” Lankor said.

Budrill shifted back and forth and was about to say no. His lips tightened as he glanced around the room. “I could fill those rooms quickly today.”

Lankor leaned closer. “Forty clips then.”

The man nodded. He walked to the end of the bar and retrieved a bluntly carved key and handed it to Lankor. He motioned to the stairs at the right of the bar. “Front of the inn, room with a seven scratched into the wood. The inn ain't responsible for nothin’ stolen.”

“I don't think we have to worry about that,” Lankor said.

Budrill smacked his lips again. “Any trouble with your beast and I'll throw ‘im over the side myself.”

“You won't even know he's there.” Lankor's voice softened and grew sincere. “Thank you.”

Budrill cocked his head curiously, then wandered back to the end of the bar and his pail of water. He began to dunk mugs again.

Zimp turned and led the way back outside, the sun blinding her vision for a moment. Squinting, she studied the alley, which led north and south several hundred yards. South dumped into the main road through the stronghold leading toward the castle proper. The northern portion split east and west. Most buildings lining the alley were two-story structures that stood thin and tall, unlike the inn, which was the longest building in the line.

“We got a room?” Brok asked.

“A room and a balcony.” Pointing behind her, Zimp said, “Big boy here got Therin in, too. Nice job,” she said, but she wouldn't look at
him for fear that he might get cocky. She didn't need trouble handling the booming voice he used inside. That was a side of him she'd not seen and didn't want to draw on until she needed to.

“Who gets the balcony?” Raik appeared as though he already knew the answer. His eyes were big and his hand unsteady.

She didn't waste a moment in answering. “You and Therin.”

“But we don't know…” Raik said, stopping his words as several guards walked out of the inn and trudged down the street.

Brok took the leash from Raik and made for the door. “I'll get him upstairs. Where's the room?”

Zimp motioned for Lankor to lead Brok, and for Raik to go next. She brought up the rear, but stayed close to Raik's back.

One group of men, and what looked to be two women – it was difficult to tell for sure – stood up and moved to a seat farther from Therin and Brok.

The stairs creaked as Lankor mounted them. Dust pushed from between the joints. Therin's tensely muscled body appeared to flow up the stairs at Lankor's heels.

Zimp thought that normally Raik would have floated up the stairs as well, his slight, wiry frame a mask of the warrior inside. But at this moment, he made small jumps up the stairs almost as though he were the small field mouse his beast image would expose. She had often noticed how beast and human became one, regardless of its present physical image. Raik's demeanor and movements exemplified her experience to its height.

She didn't like the smell of the room they were given, and opened the thin door that led to the balcony. The short partition between each room's balcony space would be easy for a thief to crawl over. The flimsy door to the room had only one inside lock and could be broken down easily. No wonder the inn wasn't responsible for anything that might be stolen from the room. Luckily, Therin would be the perfect guard.

With everyone in the room, she saw that it would be a rough night. The balcony only had room for two. Whoever slept out there with Therin would have more space because of the animal's smaller body size, but they'd be subject to thievery. She turned around. “I'll take the floor in here.”

Brok and Lankor said, “No,” at the same time.

Zimp said, “You both need to be rested more than I do.”

Lankor threw his pack down. “Not this time. I couldn't sleep in that short thing. I'll take the floor.” He walked to the balcony. “In fact, if Therin will have me, there might be more room on the balcony for me.”

“And I'm used to sleeping on the floor. It's good for my back,” Brok said.

“Fine with me,” Raik said.

Zimp shot Raik a sincere look to shut him up. She knew that Lankor missed the openness of The Lost and sensed that he had other reasons for wanting to sleep outside, personal reasons. To Raik she said, “You're off the hook, snake man.”

Raik was insulted. “Don't ridicule me.”

“These walls are thin, my good friends,” Brok said. “I might be careful saying a lot of things.”

“You're right.” She reached for Raik's hand. “That was uncalled for.”

Raik dropped his pack onto the other bed without acknowledging her gesture. “I'm not happy with this. I don't feel safe.”

“Neither do I,” Lankor said. “Something strange is definitely going on here. But at this point we don't have a choice; we have a mission.”

Zimp unrolled her bedroll over the straw cot. “Can Therin be trusted while we get to know the stronghold better? I want to listen to the streets.”

“You'll get nothing,” Raik said.

“Then what do you suggest, we just sit in here stuffed together?”

Raik shook his head. “I suggest we rest for a few hours. Tonight's supper and a few hours of drink will bring about more talk than the vendors will offer during their greatest selling time. Unless you're bickering price, you'll get no attention. Tonight they'll be spending their take. A good day brings a good drunk for many of them. A good drunk brings a loose mouth. It can all be accomplished here, tonight.” He bowed his head toward Zimp. “If you will.”

“You lost your stutter,” is all she said.

Raik turned away. “I know.”

“We'll rest.” She looked up at Lankor. “Can you get sleep with that sun out there?”

“Gladly,” he said. He snapped his fingers to get Therin's attention, as though Brok's brother was a pet.

Brok let go of the leash and Therin lifted onto his toes and danced outside behind Lankor. On the balcony, he curled into a ball with his tail over his nose, looking comfortable in the afternoon sun.

In little time they were all settled and asleep, Zimp being the last to nod off. Each time she heard a voice, whether in the physical realm or the next realm, her eyes opened and she perked her ears. “Dangerous,” she heard once. And another time, although the words were muffled, she thought she heard someone say something about gathering their things. Then she heard a loud voice in her ear that said, “Run.” She popped up from the bed, disoriented and slow.

“What is it?” Brok said from the floor between her bed and Raik's.

“Nothing. One of those voices you hear just before you wake up.”

Brok rolled to his side. “One of those voices you hear, you mean.”

Zimp noticed the dim light around the balcony door. “How long have we slept?”

Brok got to his knees. “All right, all right. Sleep is over.” He sat back on his haunches and shook his head.

Like a thylacine, Zimp thought. “The door,” she said.

Brok reached out and shoved the door open a crack. The evening glow threw an orange light into the room. The sun, although it couldn't be seen, had not dropped below the horizon. Brok patted his stomach. “Dinner time,” he said.

“Did you sleep well?” Zimp said.

“Very,” Brok jumped to his feet and twisted his neck to loosen it. “Felt good.” He shook Raik's bed until he noticed a stir. Then he shoved his bedroll to the side with his foot and opened the balcony door farther. “Hey, Lankor, dinner.”

Zimp heard the big man get up.

“Ahh. The air is fresh out here. A comfortable sleep, a comfortable sleep,” he said.

Therin whined for a moment at everyone's disruption.

“I'll bring some meat up for you later,” Brok said.

Zimp heard Therin huff and imagined his head falling back onto his paws. She wondered what he was going through, the knowledge that he couldn't shift into human image, the confusion as to why,
and perhaps the great sorrow knowing that he would never be in human image again. Therin never appeared to be angry about his predicament. Somehow he was able to take it in stride. Like an animal's sense that things just are as they are and no amount of thinking or analysis can change that. Yes, that was it. In beast image, even she had a strange sense that little could be affected. The weight of human image life fell away for a short time. Or loosened its grip.

“You're thinking again,” Brok said. “Or hearing voices.”

“Hearing voices? Are they loud?” Lankor poked his head around the door and squeezed through the opening.

“I was thinking just then. Earlier I heard voices. Not Zora. I don't know what I'm hearing.”

“Oronice,” Raik said. He had his eyes open wide as he lay on his side. “You knew she'd come to you.”

Zimp shook her head. “I don't think so. Zora is my twin. I'm just hearing her through some kind of filter, a tunnel or cave. Something's muffling her sound.”

“You don't want to face the truth,” Raik said.

Zimp lunged toward him, stopped only by Brok's arm reaching out to take her shoulder.

“Think what you will. I'll think what I will,” Raik said. “Are we heading downstairs? The place should be filling up. We need to get a corner table where we can hear clearly.” Raik threw his blankets back. He stared at Zimp. “It might help if I were better prepared.”

“We should kill you now so that you're not part of the problem,” Zimp said. She shot her next look at Brok who she expected to say something about letting her personal feelings interfere with their mission, but he said nothing. Good.

“Not right now,” Lankor said. “Let's go. Everybody ready?”

Brok sat on the floor to pull on his boots. Zimp and Raik followed suit from the edge of their beds.

Lankor held up the key and let them go ahead of him before locking the door. “Not that we need to worry,” he said to no one in particular.

The place was half full with about forty people spread throughout the room. Raik scouted a corner table and the four of them sat together. Six to eight people could sit around one of the odd length tables. Lankor and Brok took the bench that allowed their backs to be against
one wall. Raik sat at the head of the table against another wall. Zimp settled perpendicular to Raik, her back to the bar and other tables. Two other seats were available in the corner, one opposite Raik and one next to Zimp.

“What do we do now?” Lankor said.

Raik shook his head.

Lankor reached across Brok to point at Raik. “You might not last until she can kill you.”

“I just love our friendly chatter,” Brok said as a warning and a reminder.

Zimp couldn't see if there was any reaction from the people who were behind her at other tables, but she did agree with Brok. Things had escalated enough and she was part of the problem. Her nerves were rattled, her senses piqued.

Lankor pulled his arm back and a broad smiled crossed his face. “Just kiddn’, my little friend.”

A heavyset waitress with thick curled hair that hadn't been washed in days approached the table. She wore a sack of a dress with a braided belt around her middle. “Yous eatin’?”

Lankor nodded.

“Five clips each,” she said. “Seven if you washin’ it down wit’ ale.”

The four of them pulled seven clips of gold from their pouches and pockets. Raik asked for water and dropped five clips into the woman's stained palm. Zimp wished she had requested water, but it was too late.

Once the woman walked away, Brok said, “I wonder what we're eating tonight.”

“Meat and squash,” Raik said. “Maybe bread with it.”

Zimp looked at him.

“What? So I know what crops they were growing,” Raik said.

“I've never eaten squash, or seen it. What's it like?” Lankor asked.

“Looks like a pile of dung, but tastes sweet,” Brok told him with a smile. “Trust me. You won't like the looks of it, but you'll ask for a second helping.”

Zimp hardly heard Brok's final words. They were already being drowned out by the sound of fluttering wings. She shook her head and placed her palms over her ears. “Well, well,” she said so that she could listen to her own voice echo inside her skull. Perhaps that
sound would be louder than the other. Perhaps that would bring her back to the table and the inn and the mission. She said it again, “Well, well.”

Lankor reached across the table and squeezed her shoulder, bringing her back part of the way from the other realm. There was still an echo of fluttering in her head. She heard a familiar voice, then, but the fluttering was gone. “What?” she said.

A plate of food dropped in front of her.

Lankor jerked his arm away. “Eat,” he said.

“All right,” Zimp responded in a weak voice. Then she shook her head. “Maybe I'd better go upstairs.”

“You need to eat,” Lankor said.

Brok agreed, “Try.”

Zimp let the sound of their voices retreat into the background as she began to shovel food into her mouth. In very little time, Lankor ordered another plate just as Brok had said he would. He emptied his ale mug as well and let it slam against the tabletop. Zimp sensed that the others were listening to the crowd, even though she could hear nothing behind her. She hardly heard her friends talking, getting only bits of a fake conversation. It all felt wrong and crazy to her at the moment. She lifted her mug and drank deeply from it. “Danger,” she heard, but she'd heard that before, for days, and there had been no danger. She wanted to cry and felt an enormous rush of blood run through her body and into her face. Lankor's arm squeezed her shoulder again. “What's happening?” she said. The words came out of her mouth slowly. She could barely hear them now. “Listen,” she said. “It
is
Oronice.”

Lankor got up and came around the table. “Come with me,” he said.

Zimp pulled away. “Did you hear me?”