From Across the Clouded Range (87 page)

By the time they made it to the huge
inn at the town’s center, Dasen could wait no longer. As they
passed the alley that separated the inn from the next shop, he
pulled her aside. He made a quick inspection to ensure that no one
had noticed the diversion then lowered his buckets and turned to
Teth. “I think your plan is a good one, Teth, but I can’t do it.
Not right now.” Teth looked at him as if he was crazy, but he held
up his hand and continued, “You heard what Ral said about my
father. He’ll be here tonight, tomorrow at the latest. I have to
see him. I have to know that he’s alright and let him know that
we’re alright.”

“
But this could be our
only chance, and you know he'd want you to escape,” Teth
begged.

“
I know, but I just can’t
do it. I have to see him.” Dasen stopped and looked long into her
eyes. He could not read her expression. “I understand if you want
to go. If you get to the city, make your way to the other side of
the river. My father has an estate there. Anyone can tell you where
it is. Once you’re there, tell the servants who you are. Ask for my
father’s secretary, Paul. He’ll know you, I’m sure. After that . .
. .”

Teth cut him off with a hand over his
mouth. She was visibly torn. She chewed her lip and started to
speak several times but never managed more than a syllable.
Finally, she looked at him in that strange way he had learned to
anticipate. She put her hand on his chest.

A gruff voice yelled down the
alleyway, sending them leaping apart and ending Dasen’s struggles
to interpret the strange gesture. Shaken, they both stared at a
large man who was standing in the side doorway of the inn. He was
looking at them and gesturing them forward. In the darkness, they
could not see his expression, but Ral’s dreadful warnings ran
through Dasen’s mind. He considered running, but the warrior
bellowed again. He motioned them to pick up their buckets then
disappeared back through the door.

With a glance at each other, they
complied. Inside the doorway, the man was waiting. He gave them
each a hard cuffing to the back of the head then led them to the
inn’s common room. The large room was crowded with Darthur – and a
few normal sized men as well – packed around a large table heatedly
arguing some derisive issue. Dasen could make no sense of it and
only had a moment to consider. Their employer-of-the-moment pointed
to an empty barrel and then to their buckets of water. The
implication was clear. Teth then Dasen poured their buckets into
the barrel. When they were done, the man led them back through the
kitchens to a small courtyard with a stone well at its center. He
pointed to the well and said a few incomprehensible words, but the
task was obvious, so Dasen used the crank to bring up the water,
and Teth shuttled it into the inn.

Countless buckets later, Dasen thought
his arms were going to fall off from the exertion of bringing up
the water, but Teth kept coming back for more. When she finally
motioned him to stop, the first drops of rain were starting to
fall. The flashes of lighting were as numerous as fireflies and the
roar of thunder was constant. They retreated to the empty kitchen
and devoured several pieces of flat bread that Teth had been given.
They did not speak for fear of the warrior who lingered just
outside the room.

As they were swallowing the last bites
and preparing to exit through the same side door, their employer
returned. He gestured harshly for them to put down their buckets
and follow. They complied without a thought, and he led them back
into the main room to the farthest end of a long table to a man in
a black robe. The man looked up at their approach, and enough light
penetrated his cowl for Dasen to see a broad smile spread across
his bearded face.

“
Thank you, Turgot,” the
man said to the warrior. “These will be fine.” Though the voice was
casual, friendly even, it chilled Dasen to the bone. He understood
the words, but they had not been spoken in any language he knew. It
was not a sensation he had experienced since his run to the rope
bridge, and he had nearly attributed it to a delusion of his
overstressed mind. But there it was again, and this time there was
no denying it. Obviously, the warrior understood as well because he
turned and walked abruptly away.

The old man watched the warrior go
then turned to them. “You, please come here.” Dasen looked up, saw
the finger pointed at Teth, and felt guilt-ridden relief rush over
him.

Teth did as asked without trepidation.
Head bowed, she covered the few steps separating her from the old
man. Dasen remained back, wanting to run but not willing to abandon
Teth. He tried to blend in with the wall as he slowly edged toward
the open door a few paces away. Teth stood, rapid shaking breathes
betraying her apparent calm, as the man finished stamping his seal
onto an intricately folded piece of paper. He handed the paper to
Teth and whispered, but Dasen heard his words clearly over the loud
alien conversations that pervaded the room. “Take this message to
the large house on the northern edge of town. When you have
delivered it, wait for a reply and bring it back to me. Do you
understand?” Teth nodded nervously. “If any of the night guards
stop you, show them the seal, and they will let you pass. Be quick
and you will be rewarded.”

Teth nodded again, took
the message, and turned. The old man grabbed her wrist before she
could go and pulled her back to face him. He examined her for a
long time, looking into her downcast eyes and studying her
features. Dasen’s heart pounded, but he was too paralyzed to do
anything other than silently pray for the Order to protect them.
“Have you been tested,
boy
?” the man finally asked, saying
the last word in a way that exposed the lie of it.

Teth looked confused by the question
but recovered quickly. “Yes, sir, in Rycroft where I’m
from.”

The old man shook his head. His long
fingers remained clamped around Teth’s thin wrist. Then there was a
flash in his eyes. He pushed Teth away and focused on Dasen. The
gaze hit him like a hammer. He gulped hard to keep himself from
choking. The old man’s eyes lit, and his scraggly beard was cut by
a broad smile. “Come here,” he demanded sweetly.

Dasen gulped again. His mind yelled at
him to run, but he knew that he would not make it two steps, so he
compelled his feet forward until he was within the reach of the old
man.

The man clasped his chin with a bony
hand and looked deep into his eyes. It seemed the longest time that
Dasen was trapped by his black, black eyes. The old man’s smile
grew and grew. “Now, you,” he chuckled, “I know that you have not
been tested. How is that?”

Dasen took a shaky breath. “I was just
brought here today, and there was no mention of
testing.”

“
Sloppy, sloppy.” The old
man nearly giggled. “We will have to rectify that oversight.” He
looked around the room and began to rise from his seat. His hand
clamped on Dasen’s shoulder, holding him firmly in place with the
skeletal claw.

As if on cue, a young man at the
middle of the table yelled, “Belab, vol tröcht palörgh turah te-am’
eiruh? Vacht sol da’ stoche wächse?”

The old man glowered across the table
annoyed. “The te-am’ eiruh are ready. We stand as always at your
command.”

The response did not seem to satisfy
the young leader – a memory hit Dasen of that man sitting on a
horse overseeing the slaughter in Randor’s Pass, and his hackles
rose even as the old man held him in place – and he sharply
addressed the old man again. The old man looked anxiously at Dasen
then back at the man at the other end of the table. He growled low
in his throat, and Dasen could almost feel his teeth grinding. “My
apologies,” he finally said to the man. His voice held none of the
anger from a moment before, was measured and servile. “One moment,
and I will provide a full accounting of our forces and give you my
thoughts on how we can be of best use.” With a small bow, he
gestured toward the man and reached for another piece of
paper.

He scribbled a few runes on the paper,
folded it, and handed it to Dasen. “It is your lucky day, boy,” he
whispered sweetly. There was a yell from the other side of the
table, but the old man just held out his hand. “Go with your friend
and deliver this message to the same place. The people there will
give you both a hot meal and a soft bed for the night. Now run
along, and be quick about it.” The old man looked at Dasen one more
time, the longing clear in his dark eyes, and waved them
away.

Dasen did not need any further
prompting. He ran out the door with Teth on his heels. Outside, the
rain was falling in sheets, and they both ducked back under the
eaves to avoid the torrents. Teth tucked her note into her pants
and pulled her shirt down over it.

Dasen began to copy her
but was interrupted by Teth hitting him hard in the upper arm. “You
idiot!” she yelled over the roar of thunder and pounding of rain.
“When are you going to learn that you don’t always have to tell the
truth?” She began to mock him. “
No, I just
got here today and haven’t been tested yet.
Argh! Do you realize we are trying to keep from drawing
attention to ourselves?”

“
It’s not like I had a
choice. He already knew the answer to the question. There is no way
I could have lied. You’re lucky you weren’t caught. You didn’t even
know what you were lying about.” Teth glared at him, but Dasen
brushed it off. “We should get out of here before he decides to
come after us. You heard how he talked and the way he looked at me.
I think he has something to do with the creatures, and I don’t
think we’re going to get a warm meal and soft bed at that house, do
you?”

“
No. So what do we
do?”

“
We get out of here. And
we do it now.”

“
So you’re coming with me?
We’re leaving?” Teth nearly tackled him as she grabbed his
arms.

“
There’s no choice now.
Come on, we can talk about this later. Who knows when he will come
after us or have some more of his
friends
do it for him.” With that,
Dasen ran into the deserted streets. Teth followed close
behind.

Outside of the shelter of the
building, any part of Dasen that had been dry became not just wet
but completely drenched. The rain fell in sheets of big drops, the
streets ran with water, the wind blew from all directions, swirling
so that Dasen wondered if a tornado were looming in the darkness.
Through that morass, they ran up the empty street leading north
until the inn was entirely lost in the fury of the storm. When he
was certain that no one could still be watching, Dasen turned down
a side street heading west.

“
This is the wrong
direction,” Teth sputtered through the rain. “We need to go east.
We’re not actually delivering these messages, remember.”

Dasen led them around a corner and
pulled to a stop. He waited for a flash of lightning and checked
the street behind them. It was empty. With that assurance, he
pulled the note from his pants and tore it to shreds. Teth tried to
do the same, but he caught her hands. “Put that away. The old man
said it would get us past the guards. The way he said it, it sounds
like the invaders guard the camp at night. That’s probably why none
of the boys escape.” Dasen looked back around the corner, wiping
streams of water from his face, but there was still nothing.
“Alright, you lead. Let’s go straight east, get to the common lands
as fast as we can. Once we’re there no one will be able to find us
in this.”

Teth smiled, looking most like a
drowned cat. “As long as we don’t get struck by lightning,” she
laughed then sprinted down the rain-soaked streets toward the rows
of tents in the distance.

#

Between the darkness and the rain,
Dasen could barely keep Teth in sight though his feet nearly
clipped hers with each step. They ran to the outskirts of the town,
water streaming off their heads and splashing to their knees. As
they passed the last of the shanty buildings that defined the
city’s end and prepared to pick their way through the rows of
tents, Teth came to a sudden stop. Dasen nearly ran her over,
before he arrested his momentum and looked up at the huge shadowy
figure holding her shoulder.

“
Vo larägh tu sei flarcht,
te-adeate?” the figure screamed.

Heart suddenly pounding beyond that
required for the exertion of the run, Dasen almost panicked. He
searched for an escape, but Teth kept her wits. She stammered for a
second then pulled the note from the front of her pants. The guard
snapped the parchment from her hand – somehow the rain seemed not
to touch it, bouncing off of it as if hitting an unseen barrier.
The guard turned the paper over until he saw the black seal. His
face blanched. He looked at his captive with wide eyes and motioned
them to move on.

Teth took a deep breath, tucked the
note into her pants, and sped away. Dasen followed, but the going
was slow. The tents were made of a tan hides and were easy enough
to see, but the guidelines stretching across their path were all
but invisible. Two other guards stopped them as they went, but they
lost interest as soon as they saw the seal Teth carried.

When they reached the last row of
tents, they stopped and waited for a lightning strike to illuminate
the field before them. The rain had slowed only slightly, and Dasen
felt like he would never be dry again, but they were within steps
of their escape. Lightning danced across the sky in a brilliant
display that lit the field for an eerie heartbeat. There was
nothing moving along the perimeter of the camp or in the fields
below. It was now or never. They were at the point of no return. If
they ran across the field, no seal in the world would convince
anyone that they were not attempting to escape. They looked at each
other. Teth dropped the note and pulled a short knife out of the
back of her pants. Her other hand found his and clasped it hard.
They looked at each other for a long moment. Finally, Dasen nodded.
Teth released his hand and leapt from behind the tent.