The Palace (Bell Mountain Series #6) (17 page)

“Well, that’s easy enough,” Enith said. “Come on, I’ll take you to her house.”

“Foo!” He shook his head. “Turn up at the baron’s house, and me looking like this? They wouldn’t let me in! Besides, the message is a secret. I was to give it only to the baron’s daughter. I was hoping you could bring her to me, see, and then I can tell her what it is, with no one else to hear. Because it’s a secret.”

“Bring her to you where?”

“Oh, it’s no place far. There’s a little patch of woods outside the town, opposite the big oak tree by the front gate. We’ll be all right in those woods,” he said. “Tell her to come and see me there, as soon as it gets dark. Make sure she comes alone, or I’ll just sneak off and she’ll never get her message. Because I don’t want any trouble for myself, see—and I can’t feel at ease when I’m in town. I’m not used to it. So I’ll be waiting for her in the woods. You tell her that—all right?”

“I’ll tell her,” Enith said. The man nodded to her, muttered something she didn’t catch, and walked away.

Enith, after all, was new to Ninneburky and didn’t know who belonged there and who didn’t. She saw nothing suspicious in Nelligg’s story. In the city of Obann, people were mostly well-behaved and law-abiding, at least as far as Enith knew—which wasn’t very far. And a secret message was exciting—you couldn’t just ignore it.

She raced to Ellayne’s house, and soon had her friend to herself behind the stables. She gave her a honey-drop and then delivered her message. “Are you going to go?” she asked.

Of course Ellayne wanted to go. A message from Jack! How could she not go? But Ellayne had seen much more of the world than Enith had and had learned that people aren’t always what they seem. You had to be cautious. Still—if only Wytt were here!

“Who knows if that man was telling the truth?” she said. “He might snatch me, like they snatched Jack.”

“Then I’ll go with you,” Enith said. “He won’t be able to grab the two of us! One will get away and call out the alarm, and men will come running.”

“But he said I have to come alone.”

“True, but I don’t think it’d matter if I come, too. I’m just another kid. Besides which, I’ve already seen the man. I could’ve told the whole town about him, but he didn’t seem worried about that.”

Ellayne thought that made good sense. One man would be hard put to overpower two struggling girls. If they cried out, the little woods was not far from the gate: the guard would surely hear them. “All right,” she said. “Let’s go.” If there was any word from Jack, she simply had to hear it.

“Not so fast,” Enith said. “We have to wait till it gets dark.”

“Yes, but we want to get out before they close the gate. We can wait somewhere else, after we’re out.”

Martis wouldn’t have let her do it. He’d insist that she tell her father all about it, while he went ahead and caught the man, and brought him to the baron. But of course Martis wasn’t there, and if she told her father, Roshay Bault would send out soldiers to capture Nelligg, and the man would either get away or just not talk. There was only Enith’s word for what he’d said—easy for him to deny it.

Ellayne suspected she was about to do something foolish, but just about anything was better than doing nothing. Before they left, she crept into the stables and filched a little knife the groom had for trimming leather. She hid it in her boot. She was wearing boys’ clothes, hand-me-downs from her brother, Dib. The man in the woods wouldn’t expect her to be carrying a knife.

The two girls stole out of the gate while the man on guard was talking to someone else, and found a hiding place behind some shrubbery. In another half an hour it was dark enough for them to venture forth without being seen from the gate. Two men were just pulling the gate shut for the night, but a guard would be posted because these were dangerous times. Meanwhile, Ellayne thought, her mother would be coming out to the back porch to call her to come inside. Ellayne was sorry for that, but it couldn’t be helped.

Ellayne led the way to the little stand of woods. Once upon a time she’d met Jack there to start their journey to Bell Mountain. It was one of Wytt’s favorite places. If only he were with them now, he’d be able to warn them of any danger.

“I don’t like it here!” Enith whispered. She was a city girl, and not used to the kind of darkness you found under the trees at night.

“Shh!”

Halfway into the little woods, Ellayne stopped to wait for the man who brought Jack’s message. She took hold of Enith’s hand, and found it cold.

“How can you be so brave?” Enith asked.

“I’ll tell you someday. But we’d better be quiet now.”

Something stirred in the underbrush. Enith shivered, although she wore a light wool jacket over her dress. Not unkindly, Ellayne thought, “Maybe this will be a good lesson to her.”

And then suddenly she couldn’t see. Enith’s hand was torn from her grasp. She smelled a pungent odor of sheep and couldn’t fight because rough, strong hands had seized her arms, pinning them to her sides. Coarse cloth shrouded her face—someone had pulled a big burlap bag over her head, the kind shepherds use for carrying wool to the merchants. A hand clamped the burlap over her mouth. She could hardly breathe.

She heard a man say, “Two for the price of one! Well, we can sort it out later. Let’s get out of here!”

CHAPTER 18

How Martis Entered Silvertown

It seemed to Ellayne that she was carried on someone’s shoulders all night long, with the sack over her head and upper body. She lost track of time. It was hard to breathe, and the intense sheep-smell sickened her. They’d also bound her ankles with ropes.

Stupid! What a stupid fool she was! If two grown men, Martis and that fellow Herger, hadn’t been able to protect Jack, how could she have expected Enith to protect her? This was exactly the sort of thing that Martis always said would happen, and now it had. How could she have been so flaming stupid?

Just when it seemed this part of the nightmare would go on forever, the men stopped, someone tugged the sack off her, and the lout who’d been carrying her dumped her to the ground. Beside her sat Enith.

Eight men surrounded them. They were in a little clearing ringed by trees on three sides. Above them shone the stars.

“So far, so good!” said the man who seemed to be the leader. Ellayne had never seen him before, but she would have known his name: Ysbott the Snake. In Lintum Forest last year, a few of Ysbott’s men had captured her and Jack and Martis. But it was the outlaws who’d wound up being prisoners, and Ysbott never saw or heard from them again. It would have cheered Ellayne to know that this was the same gang. The ruse she’d used against them once, she might use again. As the fresh air cleared her head, she found herself already thinking along that line. But Ysbott had given his men strict orders not to speak any names in front of the prisoners, so Ellayne didn’t know who they were.

Enith recognized the man she’d met in town. “Nelligg!” she cried. “You said you’d be alone!”

“He lied,” said the leader, grinning. “Indeed, Nelligg is not really his name. And if you’re as wise girls as I think you are, you won’t ask any questions. Really, it’s much safer for you not to know who we are.

“Now, if all goes well, you’ll come to no harm and soon be back in Ninneburky. We’re only interested in money—your father’s money. If he has any sense, he’ll pay to get you back, and back you’ll go.”

“My father will hunt you down and hang you, every one,” Ellayne said.

“Not if he wants you back alive,” Ysbott said. “Meanwhile, we may as well get down to business. Can you read and write?”

“Of course I can!”

“Good. In the morning, you will write a little note to Roshay Bault. Who’s the other girl, by the way?”

“My friend. Her mother works for us.”

“Two ransoms, chief!” spoke up one of the men.

“Don’t be greedy,” Ysbott said. “I doubt a servant would have much money for us. But perhaps the baron will be noble enough to pay a little something for this one, too. For now, tie their hands and gag them, and let’s get some rest.” He pointed at two of his men. “You and you,” he added, “keep watch. I don’t think I need to tell you not to fall asleep!”

Still locked up in his room—he’d lost count of the days—Jack received another visit from Goryk Gillow.

“Good news, Jack. We’re going to go to Obann,” he said. “All has been arranged. We have a safe-conduct from the ruling council, and they’re eager to make peace. Have you ever been to Obann?”

“No, sir,” Jack lied. “I’ve heard it’s very grand, sir.”

“And so it is,” said Goryk. “You’ll see it all for yourself before the summer’s halfway through. They’ll have a nice room for you in the palace.”

“That’ll be very nice, sir.”

“It’s a long way to Obann,” Goryk said, “so we’ll have to start our journey soon. Along the way, you’ll be tutored by a man who was a servant of the Temple, so that you’ll know everything that King Ryons would be expected to know. The Temple’s burned down, alas, but this man knows the palace, too—and everything else about the city. We’re lucky to have him.”

“No end of traitors!” Jack thought. Was anyone in Obann, outside of Ninneburky and the forest, loyal to the king? But he only said, “I’ll try to learn everything, sir.”

“Good boy!” Goryk got up and rapped on the door. “Come in, Jayce, and meet your new pupil.”

And into the room stepped Martis.

In the end, boldness seemed best. So after the Zephites with their blinded mardar marched away from the city, Martis marched right up to the main gate and asked to see the First Prester. The Wallekki guard took him to Iolo.

“And who are you,” the captain growled, “that you should see the First Prester? He’s a very busy man, and we don’t need any extra mouths to feed.”

Martis convinced him, though, and soon he was seated and having trappers’ tea with Goryk Gillow in the chamber house. Goryk listened attentively to all that Martis had to say, and much of it was true.

“I was, for many years, a confidential servant to Lord Reesh. Among other things, I was his assassin. It was Lord Reesh’s policy that the Temple must always come first. Sometimes he found it necessary to remove certain heretics, and persons who had come to be an embarrassment to the Temple, and others who sought power and wealth at the Temple’s expense. I also served him in collecting intelligence from all regions of Obann, and even from beyond the mountains. I’ve come to you because there is a new First Prester whose ways are not Lord Reesh’s ways, and him I cannot serve.”

Goryk was keenly interested in all that Martis had to say, and they spent most of the day together.

“You’re just the kind of man I’ve been looking for,” Goryk said. “I think you’ll be a great help to me in getting my master’s New Temple securely established. And as you know, the Temple cannot have two First Presters.”

“Lord Orth doesn’t believe in the Temple,” Martis said, “and I can only serve one First Prester. I’d prefer to serve you, my lord.”

“And serve me you shall! And you’ve come along just in time, too. Another few days, and you’d have missed me.”

For Goryk was going to Obann to meet the councilors, and although he didn’t say so, Martis understood that before the summer was out, there would once again be only one First Prester in Obann.

But the rest of Goryk’s plan he found even more interesting.