Mystic and Rider (Twelve Houses) (57 page)

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Authors: Sharon Shinn

BOOK: Mystic and Rider (Twelve Houses)
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“I need more paper,” she said.
Kirra gave her a look of exasperation, then produced a whole sheaf of pages. “Let me know when you’re about to ruin all these,” she said.
Senneth laughed. “I think it will only take me a few more tries.”
In the end, she produced a message that seemed acceptable to her, though she did not appear delighted with it. She folded the paper, fastened it with a royal seal she borrowed from Tayse, and handed it to Donnal. “I would prefer that you give it directly into Halchon’s hands,” she said. “Though you may not be allowed so close. If you find that the king’s seal does not get you very far, use my name. It may open some doors.”
Donnal nodded and tucked the paper inside his pocket. “Should I meet you in Lochau or somewhere on the road?”
Senneth shrugged. “Start in Lochau, maybe, and if we’re not there, come look for us. We’ll be staying—” She looked at Kirra.
“The Dalian Inn, by the harbor,” Kirra said. “It’s where my father stays in Lochau.”
“And you’ll be under your own names?” Donnal asked.
Senneth laughed and did not answer. Kirra was grinning. “We’ll use Danalustrous,” Kirra said. “It may do us some good in that particular city.”
None of them had breathed the name
Brassenthwaite
since that morning two days ago. Tayse was not even sure that Justin and Donnal and Cammon knew it. Well, Donnal, surely. Cammon perhaps. And Cammon might have confided what he knew to Justin. For such a small group, they had an amazing number of individual connections. But no one had said the name again in Tayse’s hearing.
He would be just as happy if no one ever did.
D
ONNAL was gone before the rest of them were up. Cammon assumed a quiet air of responsibility, since he was now the only person in the camp with heightened sensibilities as long as Kirra remained in human form. The rest of them spent the day getting ready for travel: repacking clothes, organizing their remaining food, refilling water containers, taking a last chance to get thoroughly clean as long as they were so close to water. Tayse checked and rechecked his weapons. Senneth alternated between taking long naps to refresh her body and taking long walks to strengthen it. Tayse had to admit she looked more hearty than he would have expected, only five days after a potentially fatal wound. Her own magic or Kirra’s, he could not be sure, but magic nonetheless.
In the morning, they were on their way almost at the first sign of dawn. Tayse paused to release most of the convent horses from their tethers. He kept the bay and the dapple gray that Justin had praised so highly, herding them along with Donnal’s horse as their party headed for the road. The weather was crisp but clear and not unduly cold. A few more weeks, a few more weeks—spring might actually arrive.
They rode at a steady but not particularly demanding pace, halting frequently to give Senneth a chance to rest. During the morning, she indignantly declared that she was just fine, they should stop worrying about her, but by late afternoon, it was obvious she was weary. Tayse pulled off the road while there were still a couple hours of daylight left, insisting they make an early camp.
“I’m
fine,
” Senneth said, scowling.
“Glad to hear it,” he responded. “
I’m
tired. We camp now.”
She was stronger in the morning, though, and they covered a greater distance by day’s end. Traffic on the road was brisk, and they saw plenty of Gisseltess soldiers riding to or from the region, though no convent guards passed them. The raelynx, who had stayed very visible during their last few days at the river camp, now melted into the countryside again, not even showing up as they stopped for the night.
“Is it still with us?” Tayse asked Cammon that second night.
Cammon nodded. “Not far away.”
“What are we going to do about him in Lochau?” Justin asked.
Senneth grimaced. “I’ve been worrying about that. We can hardly bring him into the Dalian Inn with us, even if I conceal him. Lochau is too big a city to be parading wild animals down the streets.”
Kirra appeared to be thinking. “Well,” she said at last, “if one of my father’s ships is in the harbor, we can crate him and put him on board. They must have accommodations for animals if we’re going to bring the horses.”
Senneth looked at her. “And who exactly will put the raelynx
in
the crate?” she asked.
Kirra grinned. “You, I thought.”
“I’ll do it,” Cammon said.
They all switched their attention to him. He reddened a little, then shrugged. “I think it will be calm for me. I’ll wait with it outside the city limits while Kirra makes arrangements with the ship captain, and then I’ll box it up and ride back with it to the ship. I’m sure I can handle it.”
Justin was nodding. “Sounds workable.
If
we can find a Danalustrous ship,
if
it’s big enough to take us all north.
If
the captain is willing to ferry wild animals in his hold.”
Tayse shook his head. “I cannot believe we have traveled all this way and found no safe place to leave that creature behind.”
Senneth looked at him, something she had rarely done these past few days. She was smiling, but her eyes were unreadable. “But Tayse, that creature is what got you rescued from Lumanen Convent,” she said. “Surely you would not abandon it now?”
You are the one who rescued me,
he wanted to reply.
Are you asking if I would abandon you after all our adventures together?
“It is a wild thing,” he said deliberately. “We cannot ever truly know what it thinks or what it wants. It belongs to a world outside of ours, and we cannot bring it inside our own. It will always be more exotic than we wish.”
Kirra raised her eyebrows and divided a look between Tayse and Senneth. Cammon looked down at his plate. Justin seemed oblivious. “Well,” the other Rider said, “I think we owe it safe passage. And I kind of like having it prowl along beside us, nobody but us knowing it’s there or what it can do. It makes me feel—” He stopped and spread his hands. “Well, I just like it,” he said.
Senneth was smiling more warmly now. “Yes,” she said, “it’s become one of us, whether we wanted it to or not. No turning back now or casting it aside, even if we tried. No matter how strange or dangerous it is to our peace of mind.”
To Tayse’s intense irritation, Kirra was trying to smother a giggle, and Cammon was grinning into the fire. Justin was nodding. “Exactly,” Justin said. “So I hope we can find a way to get it back to Ghosenhall. The king might enjoy seeing it.”
“The king,” said Senneth softly, “will be delighted.”
 
 
TAYSE had the middle watch that night, taking over from Cammon. By habit, he first checked all the sleepers to verify that they were still breathing, then stepped away from the circle of firelight to make a slow tour of the perimeter. They were only half a day’s ride from Lochau now; he would not have been surprised to find other travelers settled nearby. Indeed, he could see a few campfires in the distance, because most of the countryside here was hilly but open, undulating away from the road in gentle brown waves. None of the other campfires was close enough to be in hailing distance, however, and Tayse felt relatively secure. Though he would not truly feel they were all safe till they were back in the barracks at Ghosenhall—and some of them would not be safe even then.
What would Senneth do after she made her report to the king? Set off on her random wandering again, or pursue a more specific mission for the court? What would the king do? Call up his loyal armies and prepare for war, or assemble his councilors and make plans for peace? Whom would Tayse himself follow and protect, if he were given a choice? He could not bring himself to answer the question. He tramped on in a widening circle around the camp, intent on providing what sanctuary he could for those currently under his protection. He could not, at the moment, do better than that.
When he turned to make his way back to the campfire, he was brought up short by a dark silhouette standing in his path. His body tensed, and his hand went automatically to his knife hilt. But the figure moved until it caught the faint starlight, and its outline was entirely familiar. He knew by the color of her hair, the shape of her shoulders, the response of his own body, who had come to find him in the dead of night.
“You should be sleeping,” he said.
“I was restless.”
“Are you still in pain?”
A shadow of a shrug in the starlight. “Now and then. Less every day. If I lie on my left side, pain is what wakes me.”
“Kirra might have something for that.”
“I’m always fine by morning.”
He came a few steps closer, and Senneth fell in step beside him. Much more slowly than was necessary, they made their circular way back toward camp. “Are you worried about this meeting with Halchon Gisseltess?” he asked.
“A little,” she said. “He’s powerful, he’s unpredictable, and I don’t know what he wants. Is there any way to turn him from an enemy to a friend? And will I be able to discover that way? These questions keep me awake much longer than pain does.”
“You should try harder to sleep when you can,” was all he could think to say in response.
He was looking straight before him, but he caught her quick sideways glance. “What keeps you awake at night, Tayse?” she asked softly. “For you look grim and exhausted every morning.”
He found himself unable to reply.
“You should at least make to my face the accusations you have been making to me silently,” she went on.
“Is your own name an accusation, then?” he said heavily. “Senneth Brassenthwaite. You tell me.”
“I have not gone by the name Brassenthwaite since I was seventeen,” she said. “I have not been in my father’s House since that time—I have not made any claim on my heritage or my blood. There is nothing Brassenthwaite about me except the brand on my skin.”
“Brassenthwaite is branded into your soul.”
She stopped and twisted around to face him; by her quick movements, he knew she was suddenly flushed with anger. “Magic is branded into my soul,” she said in a hard voice. “Magic is what shapes and defines me, and magic is why you distrusted me from the very beginning. Now you find that I bear a noble name and come from a haughty lineage, and you despise me even more. Tell me, Tayse, what would I have to be—who would I have to be—for you to allow yourself to love me?”
“Riders allow themselves to love no one but their king.”
“You could at least do me the favor of not lying to me.”
“You could do me the favor of unenchanting me,” he whispered.
She made a small sound of exasperation and looked away. He could tell by her stance, by her profile, that she was still furious. “If I had that kind of magic, do you think I would bring it to bear on you?” she asked. “Do you think I would try to cast a spell that brought you misery and grief? I might wish for you to love me, but I would trust to older magic than any I possess to make that happen. I have not ensorceled you, Tayse. I have only made you unhappy. Surely you would not think that is something I would try to do with witchcraft.”
“No,” he said, “but I thought you might be able to undo it if you wanted to.”
“I would make you stop hurting, if I could,” she said. “I can’t honestly say I would cast a spell that would keep you from loving me.”
“Why did you lie to me?” he said. “Why did you not tell me who you are?”
“I didn’t lie,” she said. “You know who I am.”
“No,” he said. “I have discovered you, bit by bit. You are a woman made up of many parts, all of them concealed. As the truth has been forced from you, you have reluctantly showed one side of yourself, and then another. I have assembled you in pieces.”
“And have you truly hated all of those pieces?”
“I have hated none of them,” he said. “But none of them has put you within my reach.”
“None of them has put me outside your reach, either,” she said.
“You were always too rare for me,” he said. “So many days I have felt like Donnal, a mute dog following at the heels of a glorious mistress. But I am not fashioned like Donnal is. I am just as loyal, but not nearly so humble. You asked once before what it might take to break me. That would do it, I think—to be around you so long, and be so despairing. That would tear me right in half.”

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