If Crows Know Best (Mage of Merced Book 1) (8 page)

CHAPTER 11

“Some number of enemy troops have come through the pass,” I said as soon as I entered our cave. “I heard two on patrol but saw no one else on my way back.”

Annora looked up from combing Morie’s hair. “You heard them?”

“Talking. Near the pass.”
And they heard me too, though Gargle saved me, and I’m not telling you about that.
“They were certainly from Keltane, so our only option is to stay secreted here, and wait out whatever is coming.”

“Oh, I’d give a lot to know if our troops were on the way to meet them!” said Virda.

“It doesn’t matter to us now whether Keltane takes the harbour or is forced back over the border. Our only need is to keep out of the way and avoid any kind of soldier.”

“You couldn’t tell how many came through?” Annora asked.

“I wouldn’t know how to tell—the ground was badly torn up from many horses passing, but how many? I’d only be guessing.”

“If we only had a way to get word to Fieldmaster Behring or his fellows—”

“Annora, are you mad? What we want to do is keep out of it.” I gaped at her, amazed at her sudden flight of wit.

“He certainly seemed in need of information when he stopped by us.”

“I’ll not argue that, but he hardly needs vague information from refugees in hiding, does he? How would we find him, anyway? He was off to hunt for Da, probably bound for parts west when he left us.”

“Any of our troops, then. He said some thought this pass would be the enemy route. Should we not confirm that they’ve come?”

“No! Any message would have to go down the mountain through the enemy troops, don’t you see? Our troops will find out soon enough, when they trip over them.”

She sat staring toward the cave entrance. “What if I could have a message carried out to them? Putting none of us at risk?”

“Not Wieser, or Gargle, either.”

“No, I was thinking of a little hawk that’s been coming every day. She might carry, but where to send her?”

“Strap a note to her leg and send her to the biggest gossip in the village,” I suggested, mocking her gravity.

“You said Virda was the biggest gossip,” Morie said.

“I never, and Virda doesn’t live in the village, and furthermore, I was not serious!” Could I feel more put upon—burdened as I was with keeping the lot of them from being killed? Wasn’t that enough to be getting on with, or did I have to run the Mercedian defense as well?

I threw up my hands. “Do whatever you can manage without bringing harm to any here. I have my own duty to carry out. If you see this as your duty, then you do it without involving me.”

I watched with lingering aggravation as Annora and Virda sat close to the lantern and composed a message they wrote on a scrap of paper. This scrap they rolled tightly and secured with a thin length of leather, leaving the ends free. Presumably this would be tied to the hawk’s leg, pursuant to my joke proposal of delivery method. Where would Annora direct the bird to deliver it, though? I had given up wondering
how
she would direct it. I did note her sorting through her leather pouch of herbs, and taking a sprig she found there to crush into a paste with some dried meat. This she patted into a small ball with the addition of flour and water, and laid to dry by the tiny fire we dared. Murr had to be shooed away from it, as well as Gargle. Annora guarded it vigilantly until it dried enough for her to wrap in a piece of cloth.

I woke to see her release the messenger hawk in the dawn light. I could not keep myself from asking where she had sent it.

“To the chapel apostate in Bale Harbour. I fed the bird a bit of the holly I picked there on my wedding day, and saved for luck. The apostate may think she is a messenger from the gods, and so look close enough to see the note. I hope.”

It made as much sense as anything else that was happening. Although I thought the lisping apostate was more likely to hide in the chapel cellar than go out and look for soldiers and deliver our message, none of us had been put at risk in sending it. “I hope so, as well. I’m sorry you had to sacrifice your memento. Perhaps good will come of it.”

She rewarded me with a smile so bright, I had to look away. I felt the worse for having shouted at her the night before.

###

We kept to the cave, and smelled smoke on the wind every day for three days. I had dream visions of burned fields and a smoking rubble that had been my home, waking at night sweating in the chill air. I would have tried to send Gargle to ride the air above our place to reconnoiter, but how would he communicate what he saw? If I had been a mage, maybe I could have flown with him by magic, and seen through his eyes. Virda said she had been told they could do such things across the sea. I envied the foreigners’ power, because I felt powerless and small. I wished for someone else to be the boss of our party, or for Da to stride in and say, “Well done, Judian. I’ll take us all home now.”

As that didn’t happen, I kept on directing the portioning of food, the use of boughs to blur our footprints stream-side, and all the other details to keep us from attracting notice. I consoled myself that at least it seemed to be working. Whatever was happening farther down the mountain, we saw no one, and no one found us.

On the fourth day after Annora’s messenger flew, we woke to heavy snow all about our haven. It came to Wieser’s belly, and she had to bound through the drifts. Murr had never seen snow, and shook each paw as he lifted it from the cold wet. He was still light enough that he did not sink into the depths, but ventured only far enough to do his business and then scampered back into the cave and licked his feet with a passion. The snow had washed the smoke scent from the air, and the clear sharp breeze made me feel fresh despite the dismal filthy state of my clothes.
Soon the enemy will find us by our reek
, I thought.

Virda set about filling any kind of container we could spare with snow, to let it melt in the cave. This to supplement the jugs I filled so cautiously in dark of night at the spring.

Morie was yawning and putting on her cloak for a trip to the bushes with Annora. “I need my boots,” she complained, as the boots she wore in the farmyard had not been brought along.

“I’ll carry you, if you like,” I said from where I stood in the entrance.

“You are not allowed to come with. You’re a boy!”

I laughed to see her instantly scandalized, fists on her small hips. “As if I haven’t taken you to the bushes a thousand and more times.”

“We didn’t have enough girls, then, and now we do.”

“Yah, I think now we have girls aplenty.”

“Judian,” Annora said at my shoulder, “how long before you think we can return to the house? Food is running low again, even with the hares that Wieser brings.”

I turned to her, frowning. “Better if I go see what I can scare up, while the rest of you stay here. It’s possible the war has passed us by, yet equally possible we’re still on the fringe of it raging. How to know?”

“Oh, I understand you think it all through. I just don’t know if I can face another day of you gone and no way of knowing what’s happening to you. If you didn’t come back … it would be too awful to bear.” Though she spoke softly, I didn’t want Morie to hear, and shushed her.

“Wieser and I can travel silent and quick, and Gargle keeps watch above. I can’t think how to make it safer, except if I could be invisible or turned into an animal like the mages.” She looked so worried, brows drawn down over green eyes. “At need, I’ll call wild boars to eat some soldiers,” I said with a grin, and was gifted with her smile. Morie trundled up in her bundle of cloak and scarf, and held up her arms. Annora, still smiling, bent to gather Morie up and carry her to the brush.

“Never think of setting out before we get back,” she called over her shoulder, but still quietly, as we took no chances of being overheard. Sound carries in the mountains, even though it’s difficult to tell where a noise comes from, distorted as by fog. Wils had taught me that, as we played at hiding and finding one another among the tallest trees.
Where is he now
, I wondered.
Is he coming home to his bride?

CHAPTER 12

In the end, I went no further than the middle cave, where I gathered everything remaining and carried it up the mountain. We could not go there to stay without restocking. I replenished the offering to the kavsprit, though, so they would look favorably on us if necessity drove our party there.

More snow fell that night, as if once the sky opened itself to winter, all the snow that had been like a held breath tumbled down to smother the world. It could be deep enough now to keep more troops from crossing the border through the pass. I wished I knew how to magic an avalanche, to seal the border for certain sure.

Virda’s cough came on during the night, and by the next morning she turned clammy and shaking. Annora cocooned her by the measly fire I allowed, and fed her hot broth. Her fever rose high that night, and we tucked Wieser up with Morie while Annora and I took it in turns to sit beside Virda and try to get her to drink. She sipped gamely, and slept in snatches. As Virda snored softly in the early hours after midnight, Annora came and sat beside me. “Judian, we must take her down. Living out in the weather like this, she’ll only get worse.”

“There’s no more you can do for her here?”

“She must have a warm fire and dry bed. More substantial food, and I know you’ve done your best. We just must go back home.”

I could not argue. I could not see Virda as a price to be paid for my peace of mind. “If she can walk down in the morning, we’ll all go to the first cave. I’ll scout the farm, and come back to bring her the rest of the way if all is clear.”

Annora rose and began to pack up what we would carry along. When next she spelled me at Virda’s side, I replaced our remaining stores into their rock crevices at the high back of the cave. I did not neglect the kavsprit, and discovered when I placed the offering that the cave creatures had left one for us, as well. A gleaming shard of obsidian, sharper than any man-forged blade. A considerable boon, for the black stone was a rare thing in our land, and valuable. I doubled what I left for them, and thanked them aloud. I might have heard whispery high voices like wind in dry leaves, or I might have only fancied I did. I wrapped the obsidian in my leather glove, and packed it carefully in my gear.

Virda walked slowly next morning, leaning heavily on my staff at first, and then on my shoulders as we neared the lowest cave. Her cough sounded deep in her chest and her breath came in wheezy gasps. I charged Annora with wiping out the footprints we left as we moved through the snow. And Morie—who for a change had seen fit
not
to complain of how much she had to carry while Annora worked and I helped Virda—led her from the entrance to lie down within. The floor was drier than the cave we had left, since no one had been tracking in snow for days. Wieser and I set out with Gargle, to make a cautious roundabout off the regular path.

The thick snow obscured any evidence of horses and men who might have passed prior to its fall. The icy edge of the stream bore only deer tracks and bear paw prints next to the black water. Swollen clouds piled overhead, leaden gray; more snow in the offing. I walked slowly, having to bough-sweep my footprints away as I went, so no one could follow my tracks back to the cave. I had left my gear there with the women, but taken Da’s sword with me, though unwieldy. I was no swordsman, but better than Annora, surely. They’d be more likely to have a sword used against them than to defend themselves successfully with it, so I told myself as I snuck through the pines. When I paused below the last ridge, which I must climb to get a view of the road and the farm, I recalled discovering the fieldmaster and his men on that very stretch of road what seemed like an age ago.

I crouched at the base of a wide trunk to catch my breath before starting up the rise. The wind stirred the branches above, and with a
whumph
snow buried me utterly. I sputtered as I fought my way to the surface, to hear Gargle cackling above me, bouncing on a branch. I had learned my lesson previously, and made no remark aloud, but did offer a rude gesture in his direction. Crows always think they know best, indeed!

I started to brush off, then thought better of it. A snow-covered figure in a gray cloak was less likely to be noted by any observer
. Still, Gargle, I could have preferred less ice water down the back of my neck
. I tossed some snow over Wieser’s black coat, which she tolerated with better grace than I might have. We climbed the slope.

The road stretched past, an undisrupted expanse of white. No mud or wagon tracks marred its surface. I back tracked below the top of the ridge and moved to where I could overlook the house and barn.

Snow covered the yard and orchard, pristine. But jutting up from the pure white, the charred beams of our barn leaned and tilted awkwardly where they weren’t collapsed altogether. I caught the scent of the wet burnt wood. The stones of the house still stood, the back garden and stoop covered in snow but without evidence of fire that I could see from where I cautiously peered from the trees. The house still bore its roof, the washhouse stood as before. But the chicken coop lay broken and scattered. The goat pen? I could see nothing but snow where it should be. Though I crouched a ways away, I could see no sign of folk about, no tracks in the snow leading to the pump, no smoke from the chimney, no footprints by the woodpile.

“It could be worse,” I whispered to Wieser. Maybe it was worse under the snow. I decided I would bring Virda down, even so. When I turned to withdraw down the ridge, I came face to face with Dink, and only barely kept from shouting. He snuffled at me, looking with his liquid brown eyes. Hooves muffled by the snow, he had made no sound coming behind me. I sent a look Wieser’s way. “Just a shove with your nose would let me know something was up.” She wagged her tail at me, and touched noses with Dink. I sighed, and supposed Dink was no stranger to Wieser to trigger an alarm.

“Come on, Dink. I have to suppose Virda will welcome a ride down, even bareback. Did I call you, I wonder? Perhaps I’ll call some goats or chickens later.” And off we went.

###

Although I furrowed my brow and tried to summon a nanny or hen from the wood, we collected no more of our stock on the way back to the house. I led Dink with Virda astride, and the others followed. We made for a rag-tag procession, and none too fast, besides. I charged Wieser and Gargle with alerting me to anyone lurking, but they raised no alarm.

We found the back door kicked in but not splintered off its hinges. Snow drifted and eddied on the kitchen floor. Snow also mixed with scattered foodstuffs in the larder. I could see anything that required cooking lay scattered, spilt and spoiled, whereas anything that could be carried away and consumed was missing. Much of the crockery lay smashed on the flagstones, but not all of it. Furnishings were overturned but not broken, for the most part. They had not troubled to knock out window panes, I was glad to see. Glass is difficult to come by, Da always said. Our leaded triangle panes kept the snow out, still.

I bade the rest of them stand by a ready escape at the back door, while Wieser and I made a tour through all the rooms. I carried the sword to stab under beds and in behind curtains. No soldiers.

Annora helped Virda to Da’s big bed, after replacing the straw-stuffed mattress they had dragged off the frame. I found some dry woolens to cover her, and began to debate in my mind about the advisability of a fire. Would smoke from the chimney alert nearby Keltanese to our presence? Just how nearby were they, by this time? All the damage had been accomplished before the snows commenced, I reckoned from the lack of fresh tracks.

I decided to warm stones in a fire built in the ruin of the barn, where rising smoke might be expected past the actual blaze that consumed it. What cooking we must do could be accomplished there as well. The stones I could carry by bucket to Virda to keep her warmed, and we would all sleep in the room under the stairs.

I took Wieser along to the wood pile, and gathered enough for an armload. Wieser set up a whine, and would not go in the barn’s foundation with me. “I know it’s queer, Wieser. Let’s just get a fire laid. It’s not as if we can damage it further.”

She would not come closer, though, and whined all the louder. I got the fire going, and placed my warming rocks along the edge. “Back to the house, then. You can stay with the women next time.”

Murr shot out between my legs when I opened the back door, zipping into the garden under the snow-laden bean vines. Morie appeared next, anxious to chase him, but I would not hear of her wandering out alone.

“We haven’t had a chance to look at the state of the place, you could fall in a hole or gods know what else could happen. You’ll stay in here, and come with me when next I go out. Lay the cloaks out to see if they’ll dry.”

She laid Iggle’s out first, of course. Wouldn’t want Iggle to catch a chill. When I brought more bedding for us down the stairs, I found only Virda and I were accounted for—no Annora or Morie.

“She’s wheedled Annora into going out to find Murr. She never minds!” Gargle pecked at the back window, followed by Wieser renewing her whine at the threshold. I yanked open the door, set to yell for them, when Annora appeared, dragging Morie by the arm.

“There’s a soldier in the barn, Morie says.” Annora, wide-eyed and out of breath, turned and pointed.

“He’s maybe dead,” Morie said, equally breathless.

“Did I not say to stay in the house? What makes you think he’s dead?”

She would not answer, pouty since I had scolded her. Annora said, “I understood her to say she pissed in his ear.”

“Morie! Did you do that?” She nodded, still refusing to speak. Morie, who would not be taken to the bushes by her brother, had pissed in the ear of an enemy soldier. I could not credit it.

“Show me!” I commanded, meaning show me where he is. Instead Morie dropped to her knees, and before I could say anything, leaned forward and said, “Pssst, are you dead?”

Annora burst out laughing, and I could not help laughing, too. “And when he didn’t answer, you thought he was maybe dead?” I said, passing a hand over my brows.

“He didn’t answer, he just went
unnngh
,” she said, imitating a guttural moan. Relief fled as quickly as it had flooded me. I snatched my sword, snapped, “Take me to him,” and strode out ahead of them. “Wieser, come on. Is that what you’ve been whining about? For gods’ sake, you’re going to have to be clearer. What’s the use of vague unease? How is that a message from you?”

I stalked toward the barn, Annora and Morie with me, Wieser wagging her tail now, of all things. I quit talking and shushed everyone including Gargle, who flew over to join the procession. I crept in at the place Morie pointed, under the shelter of one of the tipped walls where snow drifted in lightly. The water trough stood with a skin of ice on it, holding up one side of the charred wall. He lay in the pallid light that filtered in, Keltanese tunic plain to see, gore-clotted cloth wrapped around his throat. I could not see if he was breathing, but Morie had claimed he made a sound. I eased closer, and saw a knife lying just where it might have fallen from his grip, near his hand on the stone floor. His uniform was filthy, ripped at one shoulder. He wore one boot, and rags wrapped the other foot, the protruding toes waxy pale. Frostbite.

I pitched my voice fierce as I could, as I did not plan to piss in his ear in my turn, and said, “You! Are you living yet? You can be dead quick enough, if so.” I prodded him with the sword, having first kicked his knife away from his easy reach if he showed able to move.

He moaned, tried to open his eyes, and said, “Water,” in thick-voiced Keltanese. I repeated my warning in Keltanese, then, but he only repeated his request, nay plea, for water.

“Can you speak Mercedish?”

He made a minute nod, and croaked again, “water” but in our tongue. Annora, who generally had shown sense on our adventures, squatted by his side, dipped a bit of cloth in the trough, and held it to his cracked lips. She squeezed it to drip in his mouth, when he acted too weak to suck it.

“What are you thinking? Get up!” I shouted, and he was undead enough to stay her hand as she began to withdraw it. “Angel, please,” he groaned. I laid hold of her arm and pulled her out of his grasp before he could hurt her, or take her hostage. Though, in truth, I had to admit he looked unable to do much at all.

I dipped the rag again, and shoved it roughly into his fingers. Preparing to withdraw with Annora and Morie, I saw him feebly shift toward his mouth with the cloth. “Bah!” I said, and lifted his hand by his cuff to set it over his lips. I chivvied the two girls and Wieser out into the dim winter light.