If Crows Know Best (Mage of Merced Book 1) (13 page)

Perk claimed the first place I made, and the next man stepped up to help and introduced himself as Cobbel. He was tall, ginger-haired and abundantly freckled. He was made, to my eyes, out of knee bones, knuckles and elbows, with a beaky nose. He looked to me like the sort of thin man who could eat tremendous amounts of food. He settled into the second space with a tug at his forelock.

The last two were sharing mugs of brewed herbs and quiet words with Wils, who sat in Da’s chair with Annora leaning her hip on the oaken arm. Both men had wide foreheads and flat noses, and the resemblance made me think they must be related, although one was fair and the other sallow. The fair one noticed my regard and jerked a thumb at his chest. “Beckta,” he said, and then pointed at the other man. “He’s Miskin. I don’t want to say I’m glad your barn was gutted, but Wils had told us to expect to be sleeping in the hayloft. I’m not that sorry to be by a fire and within four walls.”

“Are you brothers?”

“Cousins. We served the fort’s horsemaster, until your brother recruited us for courier work.”

This remark caused Wils’s gaze to sharpen; he made a snap of a nod toward the alcove and Beckta looked chastised. “Can I help you with our beds now?”

Once they were all set up, I banked the fire for the night. I told Wieser to guard Gevarr, but Miskin carried a chair to the back door. He drew his smelly blanket around his shoulders and said, “Wils told me to take first watch.”

I looked about for Wils but found he and Annora were missing. “Leave ’em be,” said Miskin with a grin. “They managed to get away upstairs without calling too much attention to themselves.”

“Aye,” came Perk’s voice from the dim light by the hearth. “He’s waited long enough. And we’ve had miles to hear about how long he’s waited, too.”

Another man laughed, must have been Beckta, because Cobbel’s voice said, “He never talked … unseemly.”

This drew a hoot from Miskin. “It was more what he didn’t say. Go to sleep.”

A sound idea, I decided, and turned to go to my own bed. At least there would be no more talk of kissless brides, because I knew Gevarr was listening, too, from behind his barrier.

CHAPTER 19

When I went in to Gevarr on waking, he told me the dawn watch had already seen him to the washhouse. “I’m being readied for my interview, it seems.”

Wils left him in the corner while we made short work of the smithy’s eggs and some griddle cakes Annora and Virda served to appreciative appetites. Morie was indulged with extra honey on hers, and I felt a twinge for Gevarr when I carried him in another bowl of barley gruel. He accepted it with no ill-humor. I supposed Wils was putting him in his place.

When the breakfast dishes were cleared away, Perk and Cobbel brought Gevarr to the table and seated him facing Wils. The women were banished to the bedroom. Wils’s men took places on his side of the table. I refused to be sent to the other room and planted myself at the end of the table nearest the cellar. Gevarr folded his reddened, swollen hands on the scrubbed wood and waited.

It will never be known how Wils meant to start his questioning, because Wieser at that moment sprang up barking with her hair standing up along her spine. Gargle began a frenzied pecking at the front window, and continued window-to-window around the house.

Men flew instantly to every curtain, peering out cautiously to avoid being seen in return. I opened the cellar, and Wils appeared carrying Morie, leading the others.

“Three enemy, leading a pack mule up from the road. No weapons drawn,” reported Cobbel from the front window. I brought Gevarr to the cellar steps, and turned to yank down his quilt barrier. Blast all, pallets lay about everywhere in plain view.

Wils tossed cloth down to Annora below, saying, “Gag him.”

“Not necessary,” Gevarr said as he started down.

Wils gave a savage shake of his head. “You gag him, Miskin.”

The other men were gathered for their descent when three loud bangs echoed from the front door. At least they weren’t kicking it in. Yet.

Who should answer? The others disappeared down the steps and Wils closed the trapdoor on Perk, who remained on the steep, twisting stairs just below the floor. Wils and I looked at each other as the bangs came again. I pointed at myself and Wieser, and Wils nodded and stepped back into the corner so he couldn’t be seen from the front door. I saw the gleam of a long knife in his hand as I turned to go answer the knocking.

Wieser growled loud as I shouted through the wood, “Who’s there? What do you want?”

“Open the door, boy. By order of the King.”

I opened it just wide enough for Wieser to put her head through, snarling. Foam dripped from her jaws. Two of them took a step back, but the third was the one in charge.

“We’re here to take food for the guard.” He put his arm to the door, but Wieser shoved against the edge with her shoulders, straining to get at him.

“Wait and I’ll bring it. I can’t hold her.” I shut the door before he could speak, and Wieser launched herself at it, clawing and howling. Next she leapt at the window as a soldier tried to peer through it; his oath as he jumped back was one I hoped Morie didn’t hear. I snagged several cabbages and a small sack of meal and shoved all in a cloth bag.

“This is all I can spare,” I said, as I contrived to shove the bag out while making a show of barely holding Wieser within.

“Are you alone up here, boy?”

“No, I have the dog.” The pitch of her barking increased to the point I could hardly shout over it.

“And what does the beast eat?” he inquired, looking into the bag without much enthusiasm. I felt the same way about cabbages, that’s why he was getting them.

“She catches her own, of late.”

He handed the bag to one of the others to carry to the mule. Which, I saw with relief, was not our Dink. I sent a wish for Dink to make himself scarce, and hoped whatever magic I had was working.

“We need hay for our horses, as well.”

“Our hay was burned with our barn
.” No, it won’t do to antagonize
. “There’s a few haystacks in the field east. You’re welcome to what you can get there.”

“Bring it down to the village livery,” he called over Wieser’s tireless assault.

“I can’t. The sled was in the barn,” I called in response.

He spat out an oath of his own. “Then I’ll send some men back up to fetch it. How much hay is left there?”

I made him repeat his question, claiming I couldn’t hear over Wieser’s racket, then shouted, “Not much since the deer have been at it,” with my hands cupped to my mouth.

“Useless folk—achh, a pax on them all!” He wheeled away and waved the other two back to the mule. Wieser continued to sound crazed; gobs of foam flecked the floor and wall.
May they give us up as too much trouble for too little return,
I thought, and leaned my forehead on the door and closed my eyes. When I opened them, Wils stood close, looking at me with narrowed eyes.

“Glad you two are on our side,” he said, and went to let the others up from the cellar.

When next we attempted to begin with Gevarr, I did not have to make my own way to the table. Wils pulled out a chair for me. Again, the first question had not been asked when Wieser gave her yipping cry. I tried to explain to Wils that this had a different meaning to the last alarm, but he insisted on repeating the drill. I saw Gevarr trying to keep from laughing aloud as he was shuttled to the cellar for the second time.

“It’ll likely be Ticker,” I told Wils, reminding him that Annora would be expected to go check the mother and baby in the village.

“Cannot Virda go in her stead?”

He looked so uneasy, I felt for him. I remembered Virda needing to rest after fixing a simple meal the day before, though. I proposed Annora and I go and take along Wieser and Gargle to guard us, since Wieser need not be left at home to look to Gevarr.

“The smith’s family will likely give us food, which we need more than ever now.”

He gave his consent as Ticker mounted the front steps. The boy was beaming. His mum felt stronger every day and the baby proved an easy feeder. He was only too happy to have Gargle atop the back of the sleigh watching for soldiers, when he learned we had been visited. He must have just missed the trio on his way to us. Wieser made us crowded in the sleigh, but did provide some extra warmth with her wooly coat. She seemed to enjoy the wind in her face as much as Gargle did, and worked her nose the whole ride.

Annora went in to check that all was in order with mother and infant. The younger boys fussed over Wieser, and fed her bits of cheese that I would have liked to have eaten myself, but she rated a treat for her performance of the morning. I pocketed a couple of bits for Gargle, who deserved reward, as well.

Either the food-collectors had not visited the smithy, or they had been given short shrift if they had, because their larder lacked nothing that I could see. As soon as Annora declared the pair fit, Donah Estegg began directing Ticker to load the sleigh for us. We were gifted with more eggs and milk, plus a haunch of venison that bespoke a better-favored hunting excursion than the one that had first brought the boy and his mother to us. A box of salted fish and a keg of nails completed our load. I couldn’t thank them enough, and prayed we wouldn’t run across the three soldiers on our way home in the sleigh.

When we swung around to the high road, the miller’s wife waved us into her yard. She and her broad-backed daughter hefted a sack of flour into the back of the sleigh. She clasped Annora’s hand, and laid a finger over her lips. “We have no wagon to get goods to the harbour, so better this goes with you.”

The village was still unnaturally quiet. I reflected that it would not be long before the soldiers suspected folk of holding out on them, and began to bring more men along so they could search out our villagers’ stores and take what they found.

“Ticker, when you get back home, you and Tarn would be wise to hide your supplies, in several places. Well hidden. Then can you go about town and advise others to do the same, but keep it very secret?”

“Like spies?” he asked, shifty-eyed.

“Much like. The soldiers who came to our place looking to take food and hay, are sure to make the rounds to you, as well. Better they find empty shelves and apparent want than leave your family really without means. Soldiers are always hungry, my da says. They won’t care if they leave enough for you.”

“But you must be careful,” Annora put in.

Ticker nodded and clucked to his horse. Wieser and Gargle both seemed more interested in what was in the back of the sleigh under the canvas than in smelling the air on the way back. Even if they were distracted from their guard duty, we in any case met no one on our road home.

Ticker helped unload and asked good questions about potential hiding places. Rafters? Under the floor planks in the forge? I shared my methods of keeping out mice and vermin. He seemed eager to get about his task. As I had been, preparing the caves, I thought. Didn’t that seem longer ago than it was!

Annora carried the eggs and milk, and I went in to corral some help in carrying the heavy things to the cellar. We found Virda and Morie braiding loaves on the kitchen table.

And no one else at home at all.

CHAPTER 20

Annora called after me when I banged out of the back door. “Oh, please wait, Judian! You don’t know they took him away to be rid of him. Wils would have told Virda something, surely!”

They had left none of the snow shoes, and taken Gevarr on the sled, apparently.
Fine, look for me at your backs
, I thought grimly, and set off staggering in the sled track. Wieser and Gargle joined me, but I sent Wieser back. Annora stood on the stoop where I pointed. “Wieser, you must stay. Nobody is home but the women. What if the soldiers come again?” She wagged at me, and turned for home with the bounding, leaping way that made her look like a shaggy horse jumping hedgerows. Annora lifted a hand, in acknowledgment that I would not be dissuaded, I guessed.

I floundered on, thoughts pumping as furiously as my heart. What could Wils be thinking, not waiting for me? Why drag him so far into the wilderness to kill him, if that was what they were about? Had Gevarr been obstinate when Wils questioned him? Or, worse, said something about Annora to enrage Wils? By gods’ teeth, this was hard going. Was Gevarr already murdered? To think I had once considered murdering him myself, and now I prayed to all the gods I would be in time to save him.

Gargle flew ahead from one treetop to the next. He swooped to my shoulder when I struggled to the top of a ridge.

“Don’t peck!” I panted, when he seemed to be choosing a place to poke his beak. “Do you mean you see them?” He squawked in my ear and took wing again. As I crested the ridge I saw four men pulling a fifth, who was sitting upright, praise gods for good fortune. They were having a job dragging him up slope. I was faster coming down to them, found Wils first and shoved him hard in the chest.

“What madness is this? I’m not gone an hour and you’re leaving Virda and Morie alone to chase off into the woods?”

Wils shoved me back, but lost his balance and fell sideways onto Gevarr.

“
Somebody
grab him by the scruff of the neck, will you?” Wils said to his mates.

“If you think you can catch me.” I glared at them all. None of them reached for me, so I turned again on Wils. “Tell me what’s happening right now!”

“Gevarr led us to a cache the invaders left. You’re a bit full of yourself since you’ve been on your own,” Wils snarled, trying to shift an arm under himself to rise.

“I haven’t been on my own, have I? I’ve been hauling your wife and sister around the mountain trying to keep us all alive. Towing Gevarr around in the cold is only going to set him back. And what did you all have to come for? Where is Cobbel?” For I noted now he was the one not among the party.

The others said nothing, but opened their cloaks to show arrows, knives and swords tucked about their persons; the weapons from the cache they had been led to, I surmised. Wils regained his footing, with a solicitous push from Gevarr, whose mouth was twitching.

“Shut it, Judian. This doesn’t involve you,” Wils said harshly.

I had plenty to say about that, and drew breath to begin, but Gevarr said, “Not prudent to be out here shouting.” He looked about him at the drifting snow. “I think if Merced had an army of boys like Judian, things might have gone another way.”

Perk laughed, and got a look from under Wils’s brows that could have scorched a plank.

“Yah, they have some fierce boy warriors in these parts, I’ve heard,” Beckta said, lips twisting. “I’ve never seen anybody get close enough to strike you first blow, Wils,” he continued with exaggerated innocence.

Wils cast his eyes skywards, and the two hauling on Gevarr’s sled took up the rope again. I fell in behind, and we toiled uphill.

“Are you all right? Have you gotten too cold?” I asked Gevarr.

“You sound like somebody’s mother. Hot stone,” he nodded toward his feet, then held up his wool-swathed hands, “and baked whole squash. I’ve been coddled, in truth.”

Did having more weapons do any good if you had no more hands to wield them? I remembered thinking I was happy to hand all my responsibilities over to Wils now he had returned. Believing he’d be better at it than he was proving to be … I schemed to find him alone and prise his plans from him. He must have something in mind besides hanging about the farm with his lot of men through winter solstice. Beckta had said Wils recruited them for couriers. I would find out about that. Perhaps Cobbel was on such an errand now, and they didn’t like to say in front of Gevarr.

As usual when I returned from anywhere of late, Virda and Annora were frantic and Morie wasn’t sure what the fuss was about, but was pleased to whine as her contribution. Murr, grown lean and leggy now, found the charged atmosphere ideal for stalking people’s feet and pouncing on their skirts, and so stirred the pot of distress that attended our arrival.

“Glad to be home?” I overheard Gevarr say in Wils’s ear as my brother helped him to his pallet. I only barely caught the remark, since everyone else chattered at us in high female voices that made my head squeeze.

Just as Wils bellowed “Enough!” the other three men came in. They had hidden the scavenged weaponry somewhere outside, I gathered. Next, Wils pointed at me and then at the ceiling.

I headed up the stairs and heard Wils trying to put Annora off from coming along. “Oh, no. At least you must be kept from fratricide,” she said as she swept past him to follow me. We three faced each other in the watery winter light slanting into the bedroom.

Wils opened his mouth but I spoke first. “Where’s Cobbel? Gone on a courier errand?”

It appeared this wasn’t the start Wils expected. “Gevarr warned me you don’t miss much. I told him not to tell me about my own brother, and he predicted I’d underestimate you to my peril.” Wils sat on the bed. “I was trying to let Gevarr think Cobbel stayed home with Virda and Morie, until you came plowing up to announce the women were left alone. Did you really think we took Gevarr out to kill him?”

“I thought you might. He’s too valuable, as you have discovered in time. He’s not told nearly all he knows, no matter how much he gave you when you questioned him. Did he tell you about the mages?”

He had not, evidently, so I did. “That’s the only reason their plan to use the northwest pass worked. Virda thinks the sorcerers came from across the sea to help Keltane delay the snow and keep the pass open. I’ve never heard of any skilled with weather-working who come from Keltane or Merced.”

“You’ve not heard of many things, being only twelve.”

“Have you heard of any?” I said, stung.

He shook his head. “I sent Cobbel to deliver a message to any of our troops he can find in the cliffs above Bale Harbour.”

I thought it more likely he would find some Keltanese troops there. “Did you know Annora can send messages with hawks, and direct the birds where to deliver them by magic?” I might have sprouted another nose, the way he looked at me. “Wouldn’t it be better to put your messages in code and send them by animal courier, than risk your men each time?”

His head swiveled to Annora, who said eagerly, “I will just need a bit of something that comes from where I’m sending the bird, so I can feed that to them with the proper spell.”

“Have I come to the right house?” Wils wondered aloud.

“We may not be able to fight in a battle, but we can fight in other ways. You don’t have to do this work alone,” she told him.

“Apparently not, what with you two suborning enemy soldiers for the greater glory of Merced. Gevarr told us their scouts chased a boy in the forest one day. He thinks that must have been you. Was it?”

“Likely, yah. You see? Gevarr never told me he knew of that or suspected it was me.” Had I forgotten to mention that incident when I told Wils our story? “Does Cobbel know his way? It’s far to walk in this heavy weather.”

“I put him up on Dink and gave him one of Da’s maps. He has a good sense of direction, better than most.”

“Send me along next time. I have Wieser and Gargle to aid with direction, and also with avoiding enemy troops.”

“So I should send my younger brother out into hostile territory?”

“A boy traveling is less likely to attract notice than a soldier-age man, I think.”

“I think you can count on Judian, at least until we work out the ways I can help,” Annora suggested, taking his hand. He never actually said yes, but allowed her to pull him to his feet. She walked us back belowstairs to the fireside and gave us hot drinks. Beckta, Miskin and Perk had stowed the smithy’s gifts I left standing out when I took off after them. Each of them gave me a grin, I think glad to see me reappear without blacked eyes or swollen, cuffed ears.

Virda gazed out the back window, waiting for the braided bread to finish proofing. “Just look, will you? Gods’ teeth and toenails, the spring melt is going to be havoc this year. I never remember seeing such snows. It’s blowing up again.”

I sent a wish for Dink to make it home safe with Cobbel astride, and sipped my mug. Morie came and climbed on my lap with one of her books Annora had made for her, rediscovered on the hearth. It was the tale of the dancing rabbits, and I read it to her, thinking all the while of how to help Wils and keep us all safe, as well.