The Smoke-Scented Girl (29 page)

“And if I did not, would it make a
difference? I thought not. Good hunting, Mr. Lorantis.” From the
depths of her cloak she pulled out a folded piece of paper. “You
may need this, or you may not, but I believe in preparing for all
contingencies.”

Evon opened it. It was a map of southern
Dalanine and its borders, with shaded areas scattered across it and
a silver dot near Ostradon. “Areas of magical concentration,”
Mistress Gavranter said. “The silver mark is attuned to you, which
should keep you out of trouble unless you desire to wander into it.
Whether you use it to find those areas or to steer clear of them is
up to you, but you should remember that sometimes help is available
from the least likely places.”

“Thank you, Mistress Gavranter,” Evon said, a
little overwhelmed. He put the map away in his bag and mounted his
horse. “I don’t suppose you know if Miss Haylter took a horse with
her?”

“I don’t believe she did,” Mistress Gavranter
said, “which tells me that there is a part of that young woman that
wants to be found.”

Evon nodded to her, wheeled the horse around
and trotted out of the stable yard. He retraced the route they’d
taken the day they’d ridden to rescue Kerensa, and when he passed
the side road that had led to Valantis’s manor, Evon shivered a
little. With Odelia dead, Valantis might give up on Kerensa...but
it was foolish to think Speculatus had no other powerful magicians,
and Evon still didn’t know how they’d tracked her in the first
place. Kerensa headed south into the hands of the Despot, with
Speculatus following behind...Evon gripped the reins more tightly
and pushed the thoughts away. There was nothing he could do about
any of that. The only thing he had power over was finding Kerensa.
He inhaled deeply and caught her scent making a clear trail along
the coastal highway. How far could she have gotten on foot in one
day? Perhaps he would catch up to her in Belicath. It might be just
that simple.

Snow began falling around mid-afternoon, tiny
cold specks that caught on his lashes and made him blink
constantly. He pulled his wide-brimmed hat of felted wool further
down over his eyes. These clothes were unexpectedly comfortable,
though he felt a little exposed without his frock coat hugging his
body. Piercy had compensated for that missing garment by providing
Evon with a cloak as well as an overcoat. Evon thought he probably
looked a little stupid, but he wasn’t going to let that get in the
way of comfort.

By the time he reached the outskirts of
Belicath, at sunset, the snow was coming down more heavily and the
lights in the houses he passed were little more than dim halos to
either side of the road. Evon was following Kerensa purely by scent
at this point, barely aware of the wide street and the pedestrian
bridges arcing above the busiest intersections, and the appearance
of the southern gate looming up before him startled him. He stopped
his idiot horse beneath the last streetlight and looked off into
the distance. The snow was falling so heavily now that he could
barely see more than twenty feet ahead before everything simply
went gray. He cursed vehemently. If he went on that night, he’d
likely just get lost and freeze to death. He wasn’t going to catch
up to her tonight, anyway. Sleep, and an early start, and with luck
the snow would have stopped falling.

He left Belicath early the next morning, the
horse trudging through drifts four or five inches deep in places.
The snow continued to fall, but in tiny specks once again, and
despite the knot of anxiety Evon carried with him he was still able
to appreciate what a beautiful day it was. He took out his map. The
next town south of Belicath was Annaplen, probably a day’s journey
for the idiot horse and his first real chance at catching up to
her. He tried not to think about the possibility that she’d found a
ride with someone. As long as she was still on foot, he’d overtake
her soon.

Dark fell before he reached Annaplen with no
houses or villages in sight, but it was a clear night with a bright
moon and it was easy to push on to reach the city, which, when he
arrived, appeared to be host to a city-wide party. Men and women
strolled together, even after dark, and shouted greetings to others
across the street or to passing traffic. Evon was startled to be
accosted in this way by several different women, all calling out
invitations for him to join them and commenting approvingly on his
appearance. They didn’t seem to be prostitutes, but they were far
more aggressive than the women of Evon’s acquaintance in the
capital, and he felt uncomfortably exposed by their attention.

He crossed most of the city this way and had
begun to worry that Kerensa had come and gone when her scent took a
sharp turn to the left. Gratefully, Evon followed it to a less
crowded and less noisy neighborhood that was still heavily
trafficked even at that hour, past a number of frame houses and
businesses with their names painted in the windows and up to the
yard of a small but pleasant-looking inn with a picture of a
dancing pig hanging over the front door. Here, it seemed, was where
all the noise had gone. Brightly lit windows revealed a taproom
full of people drinking, laughing, eating, and in some cases
dancing, though Evon couldn’t hear any music. Kerensa’s scent led
straight through its front door.

The taproom smelled of warm beer and warmer
bodies. Men and women sat or stood wherever they could find room,
some of them even sitting on tables. Barmaids squeezed between
customers, but cheerfully, not seeming to care if a careless drunk
waved a little too broadly and clipped the edge of someone else’s
mug. A roar went up in one corner of the room, and a woman stepped
onto a table, assisted by several friendly hands, and began belting
out a song Evon had never heard before. Everyone in the taproom
turned to watch her, and most of them joined in the raucous chorus
when it came around. Evon shoved through the crowd, scanning the
room as he did so. Drinkers kept stepping into his path, most of
them without meaning to, though some clapped him on the shoulder
and invited him to join the party. He declined with as good a
nature as he could muster after a long day on the road and his
irritation and frustration at being so close to Kerensa without
seeing her. Perhaps she’d taken a room and had gone there to get
away from the noise.

Then he saw her. She was seated at the bar,
her back to him, a mug of pale beer next to her hand. She sat a
little slumped over, though whether she was sad or simply tired he
couldn’t tell. He shoved harder and managed to make a free space
next to her. “What are you drinking, miss?” he said.

“I already—” She looked up at him and her
mouth fell open, then closed sharply. Her eyes narrowed. “I told
you not to follow me.”

“Yes, I know. Do you think someday you’ll
find a way to say it that will persuade me to listen?”

“Evon—”

“Let me see. It’s dangerous, I’ll be killed
by enemy forces, you have to do this alone, you want to sacrifice
your life for the greater good, it’s dangerous, and I can’t think
of any other objections you might have.”

“You said ‘dangerous’ twice.”

“Well, I thought it might be extra dangerous,
what with the war and all.”

She covered her mouth to hide a smile. “Why
won’t you leave me alone?”

“Is this man bothering you?” A dark-bearded
young man, very broad in the shoulders, loomed up behind
Kerensa.

“Yes,” Kerensa said, irritably.

The man looked Evon up and down and seemed to
like his chances. “Let’s see what we can do about that,” he said.
Evon felt someone else step up behind him. This might not end
well.

“I’m her
brother
,” he said, equally
irritable. “I came to take her home. Our parents are worried about
her.”

“He’s not my brother,” Kerensa said. Evon
felt hands grip his upper arms.

“Livian, why do you keep playing this game?”
he said, trying to sound exasperated and sad at the same time. “You
know Ma worries when you don’t come home. I’m just glad you fell in
with people who want to defend you, even if it’s against your own
brother. Really, fellows, it’s good to know there are decent men
left in this world who are willing to defend a lone woman’s
honor.”

The hands relaxed, though they didn’t let go
entirely. “Is this true, miss?” rumbled a deep voice from behind
Evon.

“No!” Kerensa exclaimed. She looked a little
stunned. “He’s making all of this up! I don’t want to go with
him!”

Evon projected as much sorrow into his voice
as he could. “Livian, you know how it hurts me when you say that.
Your own brother who’s looked out for you your whole life, who only
wants what’s best for you. I’m sorry you had to hear that, fellows.
I hope your own sisters treat you better than mine does. Please,
Livian, let’s just go home.”

The hands released him. “I think you should
go with your brother, sweetheart,” the bearded man said. “Come back
and have a drink with us another time.”

“No—” Kerensa began, but Evon grabbed her
hand and squeezed it hard. “Come along,
sister
,” he said,
and pulled her through the crowd and out of the taproom.

She yanked her hand free when they were in
the yard. “How dare you do that?”

“I’m just pointing out how easily an
unscrupulous man could take advantage of you.”

“Someone as unscrupulous as you, you
mean?”

“Kerensa, you’re not safe alone on the road.
An unescorted woman is a target for every evil-minded man out
there. What were you thinking?”

“Evon, there’s no more
time
. You and I
both know those magicians are never going to find a solution before
the Despot invades.”

“What about me? You don’t think I can do
it?”

“How much progress have
you
made?”

It felt like a punch to the stomach. Kerensa
looked at him for a moment, her eyes wide, then said, “I’m sorry. I
didn’t mean that.”

“Didn’t you?” He leaned up against the porch
rail. “I can see where you might have lost faith in me.”

“No. Never that. But I’m tired of waiting and
being poked at and analyzed. I want to
act
and I want to
stop feeling like a victim.”

“Kerensa, we’re talking about your life. If
you manage to get into the Despot’s presence, which is improbable,
you won’t come back from that. That’s unacceptable to me. It ought
to be unacceptable to you.”

“Evon, every day the Despot moves a little
farther north. He’s destroying everything and everyone that gets in
his way. What I’m carrying is the only way to stop him. I don’t
want to die, but how can I rate myself any higher than the
thousands of people who will otherwise die at his hands?”

“That doesn’t mean you have to throw your
life away when there’s another solution.”

She sighed. “Then tell me what I should do.
Tell me
your
solution. And it had better not involve those
magicians, because I am not going back to them.”

“No. Some of them, most of them, are decent
people, but Mistress Quendester was right in saying they wouldn’t
find the secret before the Despot comes. But they’re looking at it
the wrong way. They still think they can extract the fire from you
and use it as a weapon. They don’t understand that the spell
is
the weapon, that breaking it down like that will only
destroy it. If we’re going to stop the Despot from tearing Dalanine
apart, from tearing any other country apart, it will be through
this spell. I just have to find a way to keep it from killing
you.”

“Can you do that?”

“I know I can. I refuse to believe
otherwise.”

“I’m going to keep traveling south. The
sooner I reach the Despot, the less damage he’ll do.”

“Then I’ll just have to figure this out while
we’re on the road.”

Kerensa turned her too-smooth face so he was
looking at her in profile. “Then what do we do?”

That “we” cheered Evon immensely. “Sleep,” he
said. “I’ve been on the road all day chasing after someone who
thinks she can get rid of me with an uninformative note. I don’t
want to think about this before morning.”

Kerensa smiled. “I knew it wouldn’t work. But
I thought, maybe for once he’ll see reason. Is Piercy with the
horses?”

“I made him stay behind. He’s more logical
than I am and an appeal to reason worked.”

“I didn’t think you went anywhere without
him.”

“Neither did I.” Right then he wished Piercy
were there with them. He was good with strategy, and if anyone
could find a way through enemy territory into the heart of the
Despot’s army, Piercy could. He’d have to ask Piercy about it when
he communicated with him that night.

“Well, we can’t go back in there, and I left
all my things in the room I rented,” Kerensa said irritably.
“Couldn’t you have been a little more discreet?”

“You were the one who told the man I was
bothering you. Did you want me to get beaten up by two half-drunken
farmers?”

She ducked her head. “I was just being
honest. I didn’t think about how they’d react.”

“And you think you’re safe out here on your
own. We can go in the back way and I’ll find someone to rent me a
room.”

He took her around through the stable yard
and in at the kitchen door, where the cook directed him to the
innkeeper’s wife, a stout woman who took his money and gave him
what was probably the smallest room in the place, little bigger
than the bedframe that filled it. Kerensa showed him where she was
sleeping, just in case, and stopped him before he left. “I wanted
you to follow me,” she said, laying her hand on his arm. “I’m glad
you did.”

“That’s good, because you won’t be rid of me
easily,” he replied. Her eyes shone in the lamplight, and his mind
replayed
I wanted you to follow me
and tried hard to turn it
into
I want you
, with no success. “Good night, sister
Kerensa.”