Shards of Time (39 page)

Seregil sipped at the rich broth, then nodded. “I’m sure we can find something. How did you get here?”

“I rode.”

“Alone?”

She looked amused. “I can take care of myself.”

“With your charm to protect you?”

“Oh, yes—and this.” She pulled her skirt up to her knee and showed him a shapely leg and the poniard in her boot.

Seregil chuckled, showing her the poniard he carried in the same manner. “They do come in handy, don’t they?”

“Since I’ve been on the island, I’ve never had to use it.”

“But before?”

“As I said, I traveled. You don’t always get a hospitable welcome, especially if you’re a woman.”

That had certainly been his experience when he traveled or worked dressed as a woman, but he couldn’t really tell her that.

She cocked her head slightly, which made her look that much more fetching. “I suppose it would be rude of me to wonder why a rich Skalan baron is getting himself into scrapes with ghosts and acting as a wizard’s scent hound.”

“Some might say so,” Seregil replied and left it at that.
Was it her charm and beauty, or blood loss that was making him feel so reckless?

A cart was found. Seregil tied Windrunner on behind, with Kordira’s bay gelding, and struggled to pull himself up to the seat beside her as every cut and stitch on his body cried out with the effort. Kordira caught his elbow as he began to fall back. Gritting his teeth, he made it and sat very still, trying to get his breath back.

“You really should stay in bed for another day or two,” she noted.

“You’re absolutely right, Doctor, but I’m not going to.” He gripped the edge of the wooden seat. “Let’s get on with it, shall we?”

She shook the reins over the cart horse’s back and they rattled off down the road toward Mirror Moon. They hadn’t gone more than half a mile when she reined the horse in. “You’re in too much pain, aren’t you?”

It would have taken strength Seregil was using to stay upright to argue the matter.

She produced a clay jar from under the seat and handed it to him. “This will help.”

He shook his head. Out here alone, she could easily poison him.

“Suit yourself,” she said. “Let’s see if we can get to Mirror Moon without you screaming.”

“Thanks for the thought. Tell me about Lady Zella.”

“As I told Thero, she was in and out of consciousness when I left her. Physically she wasn’t seriously harmed, but something of the madness you saw in Captain Sedge is in her. It might just be fear and shock. I’ll be able to tell better when I see her today, now that she’s safe and has had a chance to rest.”

“Indeed?” As far as he knew, Kordira knew nothing of Sedge being cleansed of a demon. If Zella was possessed, they were going to need Thero’s help to get much out of her. “So someone from Mirror Moon came to fetch you?”

“Yes, one of the young men who tends your horses. I attended to her, spent the night, and rode out to inform you and
your friends this morning. I thought it would be better, hearing the news from me, since I’m better able to convey her condition.”

“I see.” Pain was not improving his manners. “What exactly did Zella say?”

“Most of it made little sense. She talked about a shadow, and a madness coming over the horses.”

“But she didn’t say why she alone was spared?”

“I asked her about that but she wasn’t lucid enough to understand the question.”

“Hopefully she’ll be of sounder mind today.”

“I wouldn’t count on it.”

“Who found her?”

“A young man in your employ, I believe. He was on his way to the city for something and noticed her lying under the bridge.

“The bridge? That’s on the far side of the estate.”

“Does that matter?”

“I thought Klia might stop in at the house on her way by, that’s all.”

Vhadä was the first to meet them at Mirror Moon as they came up the lane by the pool. Jumping up from his frog catching, he trotted along beside the cart. “Welcome back, Baron. Are you hurt, too?”

“I did get into a bit of a scrape,” Seregil replied. “Run ahead and let the housekeeper know we’ve returned.”

Vhadä nodded and ran ahead.

“I made a much more impressive entrance last time I was here,” Seregil managed grimly as they came to a halt in the courtyard.

Dorin and an Aurënfaie man who looked familiar helped him into the house and upstairs to the chamber where Lady Zella lay, the one Sedge had occupied. Kordira came up with them and helped them settle Seregil into an armchair by the bed, then sent them out.

Zella lay motionless under the coverlet, hair loose over the pillow, her plain face pinched and pale. There were several livid bruises on her face.

Seregil watched as Kordira felt the woman’s brow and pulse and smelled her breath. “How is she?”

“A bit better, I think. I left the same decoction that I made for Sedge here, to be given to her by your housekeeper. Mistress Khiria is very kind.” She stroked Zella’s cheek. “Wake up, my dear.”

Zella’s eyes fluttered open, and she looked up at the doctor with recognition and relief. “There you are! Oh, Doctor, I’ve had the vilest dreams.”

“It’s all right. You’re perfectly safe here.”

Zella looked around in confusion. “Where am I?”

“At Mirror Moon,” Seregil told her. “You don’t remember coming here?”

She shook her head. “I don’t understand. Why am I here?”

“Baron Seregil has come to see how you are and discuss what happened to you,” Kordira explained.

“Happened?” Zella looked from her to Seregil. “Please, my lord, what do you mean?”

“Do you remember leaving the encampment with Princess Klia to go to Deep Harbor?”

“Yes.”

“What happened on the road? Where are Princess Klia and her escort?”

Zella looked at him with mute horror.

“They’re gone,” Seregil told her. “It appears that only you were spared. Don’t you remember telling the doctor about demons? Shadows, with no faces?”

She shook her head, clutching the edge of the coverlet with trembling fingers. “But that was just a dream.”

“No, my lady. Something happened, something very bad, and I need you to remember. When you were brought here yesterday you told Kordira that you’d seen demons.”

Zella looked up at him in horror. “No! That was a nightmare. Tell him, Doctor, please!”

“Something bad happened on the road between here and Menosi,” Seregil pressed. “Only you can tell me what that was.”

Zella burst into tears. “If it wasn’t a dream—By the Maker, how can such things be?”

“Did you see the demons take the others?” asked Seregil.

“No, my lord, in my dream—That is, what I saw—”

Kordira took her hand and gave Seregil a warning look. “You’re doing very well, Zella. Can you tell the baron what you did see in your dream?”

Zella shuddered and covered her eyes. “Black evil things with long arms and no faces. They appeared on the hill by the road.”

That certainly sounded like dra’gorgos, but how had they taken Klia while she was wearing Thero’s amulet, thought Seregil. “Can you tell me anything else? There must be something.”

“That’s all I remember, my lord. I swear by the Four!” Zella sobbed. “Please, that’s all I can tell you!”

“That’s quite enough for now, Seregil,” Kordira said firmly. “Perhaps you should speak with the man who found her?”

Seregil didn’t appreciate being ordered about in his own home, but it was clear that Zella was useless to him as she was now.

“Very well.” He rose painfully from the chair and limped from the room.

Dorin was in the corridor and offered his arm at once. “My lord, tell me what I can do for you!”

“I think I need to lie down.”

“Your things are in the purple suite.”

Seregil shook his head and crossed to the room where he and Alec had seen the ghost woman. “This will do.” It was closer to Zella.

He made it inside. “Thank you. I’ll take it from here.”

“Let me help you.”

“No. Go fetch me some tea, please. I can manage. Oh, and send up whoever it was who found her.”

As soon as the door was closed, he leaned against it with a hiss of pain. He wasn’t quite sure why he’d sent Dorin away like that except for the underlying dislike he had for the man. He took a deep breath, knowing that if he didn’t get to the bed now, he was going to be sleeping on the floor. He set a course and unbuckled his belts as he went, letting them fall
behind him. Kicking off his boots was agony but he managed it, then lay back on the bed with a sigh of relief.

“May I come in?” asked Kordira through the door.

“Yes,” Seregil rasped.

Vhadä opened the door for her, and she came in with two mugs of tea. “I thought you could use this,” she said, taking the chair by the bed and passing him a mug. “And no poison, I promise,” she added with a wry smile.

“Isn’t that what a poisoner would say?” asked Seregil. The tea was just what he did need and he sipped it gratefully. “Do you think Zella is telling the truth?”

“Why in the world would she lie?”

“That’s what I’m wondering.”

“I don’t think she’s clear enough in her mind to lie. May I check your dressings?”

“Later, thank you.”

A knock came at the door and a young ’faie man with dark, short-cropped hair stepped in. “You sent for me, my lord?”

Seregil let the title pass. “I don’t think we’ve met.”

“I arrived after you and Baron Alec left for Menosi, my lord. My name’s Syrel. You took in my brother, Anri the weaver.”

“Ah yes. So, tell me about finding Zella.”

“I was riding to Deep Harbor to fetch some friends of mine back to Mirror Moon. I was coming down off the bridge when I noticed her lying on the riverbank below.”

“She was on the far side of the bridge?”

“Yes, my lord.”

“Go on.”

“I went down to her and found she was alive. I got her up on my horse and brought her back, then Steward Dorin sent me for the doctor.”

“Did Zella say anything when you found her?”

“No, not a word. She was unconscious.”

“And what was her appearance? Was she bloody? Were her clothes torn?”

“She had bruises on her face, and she was muddy from
where she lay in the mud and reeds, but that’s all. Oh, and she was missing a shoe.”

“Has that been found?”

Syrel looked surprised. “No one thought to look, I guess.”

“Did anyone look for signs of what had happened?”

Syrel shook his head.

Seregil suppressed a growl of annoyance. Two days lost for tracking. He’d be lucky to find any useful signs. “Thank you. You may go.” He managed a smile. “Oh, and welcome to Mirror Moon.”

“Thank you, my lord. I’m glad to be here.” The young man bowed and went out.

“Is there anything I can do for you?” asked Kordira, rising to go.

“Thank you, but I think I just need to rest.”

“Very well. I have a room down the corridor if you need me.”

“Thank you.” Seregil was asleep before the door closed behind her.

I
T
was dark when Seregil woke, except for a crackling fire on the hearth. Grateful as he was for the warmth, he always disliked sleeping so deeply that someone could come and go without him waking. The small window was open, but the room was not unusually cold or damp. Perhaps the drowned lady had taken his advice.

Getting out of bed was a challenge. The bandages were stuck to his skin in places and pulled painfully as he moved. His back was getting better, but he still felt like he’d been beaten with fuller’s bats.

Not bothering with boots, he found the pot under the bed and used it, then went to the door in his stocking feet and opened it. Vhadä, who’d been sitting just outside, jumped up and made him an awkward bow.

“Hello, Seregil. Mistress Khiria sent me to watch for you. She says you’re to stay in bed and she’ll have Mistress Sabriel send up some supper for you. I’m to take word of what you want.”

“Did she now? Well, I think I’ll do just that. Please tell Sabriel that I would like meat and lots of it, any fruit she might have, and very strong tea.”

“She has some honey cakes, too,” Vhadä informed him, looking rather hopeful.

“Well, then, I guess we better have some of those. Ask her to send up enough for two. And if you see the good doctor, please tell her I’m in need of her.”

He found some thin wax tapers in a cup on the mantel and
used one to light the candles nearest the bed. As he settled in the armchair, he noticed that Alec had left the journal on the table. Opening it, he turned to the page with the portrait of the ’faie ghost the journal’s owner claimed to have seen at the oracle’s cave. Could this be Khazireen, Alec’s ghost in the dark? And if so, who was he?

A knock came at the door, and Kordira entered with a mug and her simples bag. Willow followed bearing a steaming basin and a pile of flannels over her arm.

“Will you let me change those bandages now?” Kordira asked.

Seregil nodded and accepted the mug. The contents smelled of brandy and herbs this time. He took a sip and made a face.

“It is bitter,” Kordira said with a laugh, “but it will make you feel better much more quickly than willow bark.”