The Windsingers (21 page)

The team was slowing. Lather scraped against the leather traces and dripped down their sides. Ki heard their blowing even in the midst of the swirling winds. Her heart went out to them. They were running to their deaths and it was not even their quarrel. She could not save them.

Suddenly she felt Dresh join her vision. She could not explain how she knew that he, too, peered from her eyes, but she felt his weariness drag at her, and guessed that he sucked at her stamina as well as his own. Ki felt her anger rise, and then quail inside her as she realized the uselessness of it. She was used by him as she used her team. She did not know why he wanted her eyes, until she felt the sudden strength flood her arms. She found herself fighting her team, standing up to drag harshly at the reins. The foam at the bits went pink, and she turned them down a rutted abandoned road. Karn Hall, she immediately knew, was at the end of it. The destination of her freight was closer than she had known.

The winds clashed more furiously than ever. Twice the desperate icy onslaught broke through to Ki, once hard enough to fling her back against the cuddy door. The circumference of the storm eye shrank. The greys felt the icy blast on their muzzles. Ki heard the rattle of hailstones in the empty back of her wagon. Ki guessed that by now Dresh was exhausted. Now what? Ki did not want to wonder.

A bend in the rutted path, and Karn Hall loomed before her like a broken tooth in a mossy skull. Its white stone was stained greenish with neglect; the stone window sills in the upper tower were crumbling away. Its courtyard was overgrown with grasses and low brush, and trees clustered close to its walls. Their limbs did not stir. No gale buffeted them. Like a sudden plunge into quiet water, the team gained the magic circle that surrounded those walls. The wind and storm died behind them. Suddenly Ki was given the strength to rein in the team. They were too weary to fight her will. They slowed, trotted brokenly, then halted, their great heads drooping to trembling knees. Ki let the wet reins fall from her welted hands. She shook as badly as her team. Folding her body, she let her tousled head rest on her drawn-up knees. Blessed, blessed silence embraced her. Not even the sound of the storm that still raged outside the circle would reach her here.

When she finally lifted her head and looked about, she saw the waning storm moving off in defeat. The trees of Karn Hall still stood tall, but outside Dresh's sphere of influence the trees were wretched, battered things, weeping leaves in the wake of the holocaust. Ki thought she scented a trace of fragrance in the air. Before she could identify it, it was gone.

Ki dismounted shakily. Her stiff fingers could scarcely work the buckles on the heavy harness. The leather was warm and wet, the metal slick with lather. She let it drop away from the exhausted team. The greys did not move.

A muffled thudding reached her ears. She stumbled back to her wagon, struggled up onto the seat and slid the cuddy door open. It was the body, thudding one of its stony arm ends against the door. The head lay on the floor where it had fallen during their mad flight. A leak of blood snaked from one aristocratic nostril. Dresh's eyes were dull in his grey face.

'Tell the folk in the house to fetch me in,' he whispered. The tip of his tongue ventured over his dry lips. She noted a chip off the corner of his mounting block had crumbled on her cuddy floor.

'No need, Master!' Ki was too weary to jump at Bird-eyes' voice coming from behind her. She moved out of the old woman's way as she shouldered herself into the cuddy. Ki dropped gracelessly from the wagon to the ground. She opened her mouth to warn off the stable hand that was approaching her team with rubbing rags, but the normally fractious Sigurd was standing quiet under his ministering touch.

'And that is the strangest wizardry I have seen yet!' Ki murmured to herself. The door of the hall had been left ajar. She wandered over to it, glancing back to her wagon, where several serving men had materialized and were lifting Dresh's various parts down, under the sharp-tongued supervision of old Bird-eyes. Normally the sight of strangers swarming over her wagon would have enraged her. Now she felt only relief.

Through the open door of the hall, a bright fire burning in a huge hearth beckoned. She stepped into the cool dark of the entry hall, and through the second lofty door into the welcoming chamber. A low table laden with food and drink was surrounded by soft pillows and finely tanned skins. It drew her like a candle draws a moth. Ki sank down onto the soft cushions and poured wine for herself into a glass of cut crystal. She sipped at it and felt warmth flood her weary body. How long since she had last slept? For just a moment, she closed her eyes and let her head sag onto the cushions.

'And there she has slept, like a dirty stray dog, in the middle of the best room, since yesterday afternoon! Master, she acted as if. . .'

Ki did not hear the sotto voce reply. She opened her eyes and lifted her heavy head to see voluminous black skirts whipping out of sight around a corner. Dresh stood alone in the doorway. He looked peculiarly tall to her, with his head atop his body. He smiled mockingly at her as he raised his hands, rubbed his wrists lightly, and then waggled his fingers at her. 'All in working order!'

'So I see.' Ki struggled to a sitting position and tried to gather her scattered thoughts. 'Is my team all right?'

Dresh frowned lightly, as if he found her concern for mere beasts inappropriate at this moment. But he replied, 'They are resting as comfortably as you have been, and no great harm to them. I regret I had to force such speed out of them, but they have taken no permanent damage from it.'

'I suspected you had a hand in their new-found stamina. As to damage...' Ki remembered her manners and calmed her voice. 'Thank you for the hospitality you have shown my team and me.'

'You are more than welcome. And was I right?'

'About what?'

'That I am a well-made man, when I am in one piece.'

His voice was confident. He smiled his contagious smile, which was more attractive with his head atop his body. She was suddenly aware that he was a well-made man. The sleeveless brown jerkin trimmed in gold set off his olive skin and his smooth arms. His belly was flat, without apparent effort or binding; his hips were of a flattering narrowness.

She kept her voice casual. 'As well-made as many I have seen.'

'Thank you!' he responded imperturbably. He crossed the room with an easy stride, to drop down on the cushions beside her. He leaned his elbow on the low table beside hers and brought his grey eyes close to her green ones.

'There is a lovely chamber upstairs, with a tub of steaming water in it. There are perfumed oils to choose from, and two trunks full of soft gowns of many colors, trimmed in Kerugi lace. You could bathe and change, and return to dine with me here. Time enough after dinner to settle our, ah, accounts.' Fascinated, she watched his small even teeth nibble at the wedge of cheese he plucked from the table. The bath was tempting. Despite her sleep, her body was still weary. Hot water would soothe her bruised and aching muscles. She owed herself a little time to relax after the trials of the last few days... was it only days?

'I'd like to, Dresh, but I've an appointment to keep,' she remembered belatedly. 'I'm to meet someone in False Harbor tomorrow or the next day.'

'Let him wait,' Dresh suggested. 'You're already late, you know. Or do you? Do you realize just how much time our little detour took? By late tonight, I imagine Vandien will be up to his nose in cold water, trying to fish up that chest. Not that I have the faintest hope of his doing so. Still, it seemed an amusing idea at the time, and who knows?'

Ki straightened up from the cushions. Her stomach roiled with dread. 'What had you to do with Vandien's errand in False Harbor?'

'Me?' Dresh smiled smugly. 'Why, who do you think steered Srolan to him? Who but Dresh could have told her what bait to hook him on? One glance at Vandien, and I knew what he would risk all for: the lifting of that scar from his face. It was so obvious to me, and yet she would never have thought of it.' Ki was silent, staring at him with wide eyes. Dresh grinned, delighted at amazing her so. 'You'd never guessed it? How could you not see it? Have you not seen him sitting thus, his hand held before his face?' Dresh fell into a posture Ki knew well. Thus did Vandien sit, thumb at the side of his jaw, his index finger stretched beside his nose to touch the center of his forehead, his other fingers curled before his mouth. It was a pose he adopted when deep in thought, or exceptionally tired, the way another man might rest his chin on his fists. It had never before occurred to her that the gesture also covered most of the scar down his face. But now it did. It was more than she could bear to see Dresh's sly grin around his hand as he struck the pose.

'Stop that!' she growled.

Dresh flung himself back against the cushions with a laugh. 'I knew it the first time I saw him. I spotted him as soon as he came to Dyal, and I knew you would not be far behind. I had, ah, shall we say, arranged for an errand to bring you there. Why Ki, you may ask? A friend pronounced you the soul of discretion and recommended you; something to do with a sealed book that you transported for him some years back, under rather tricky circumstances. So, favors being owed, Ki was given a cargo of beans that would bring her to Dyal. But there was the matter of this Vandien. He was an unknown in my equation. I could not tolerate that. He could be a thief or worse. So, I arranged for him to be busy elsewhere, and made certain that you would be receptive to a generous offer for a simple task. More than half my skill as a wizard, Ki, comes from my being able to have people do as I wish them to, all the while believing that they are following their own best judgment. So, whilst we were about our little detour, Vandien aimed his steps to False Harbor, in the hopes of being rid of that scar. I doubt not that he'll do his damnedest tomorrow to drag up that mythical chest. But that need not concern us. For now, let us... Ki!'

Ki had risen. Her heart was pounding and tears stung her eyes. The desolation in her heart was an actual physical pain in her chest. That was what he had not told her; that was what had been proffered him over any coin. That was what had prompted him to volunteer her team, to overstep the carefully set bounds of their friendship. She suddenly despised herself for ever letting those bounds come into being, for being so careful of the mines and thines. Vandien wore that scar in her stead, had taken in his face the Harpy claws intended for her. He had not paused to consider if he would interfere with her life, had not weighed the merits of his face over her death. But when she should have been the giving one... it choked her. That he had not even told her was salt on the wound. Damn him a thousand times for the words he held back behind that crooked smile! And damn herself ten thousand times for not seeing what this twisted little wizard was throwing in her face. She whirled on Dresh.

'Wizard, I've an appointment to keep. I must be on my way.' She cursed her shaking voice.

'Let him wait,' Dresh repeated. 'We've our accounts to settle.'

'They'll keep!' she growled. The wagon was still fully supplied; time enough to worry about cash later.

'No. They won't.' Dresh was smiling insistently. 'The gowns will keep, the dinner will keep; even the bath can wait. But I wish to settle our accounts now.' The door before Ki swung soundlessly closed. Even before she put her hand against it, she knew it would not yield.

Whirling, she advanced on Dresh angrily. 'I've had enough of your wizardry shows. Open that door!'

Dresh smiled at her. 'Certainly' The door swung open.

She turned to the door. As she stepped toward it, it closed again.

'Damn you, Dresh! This isn't a game!'

'Isn't it?' He laughed.

Ki longed to smash that smile from his face, to rend his grinning lips from his face. She swallowed her fury. 'What do you want of me?' she grated.

'To settle our accounts,' he explained calmly. 'As I said. If you'd only sit down and listen...'

'I listen fine standing.'

Dresh sighed. 'The renowned Romni stubbornness. Listen then, Ki. Listen well. Come here, Ki!'

Never before had her name sounded like that. She stepped toward him, then stopped, frowning. But she could not stop. She circled her steps away from him. He watched her in amusement. Like iron drawn to a magnet, she moved ever closer to him, no matter how she diverted her steps. Her heart hammered in her throat. No words came to her. Why had she never noticed the soulless look of his eyes? She slowed her steps, she bridled and shied, but at last she stood before him. She stared down into a face that smiled joylessly at her.

'That's better. Sit down with me, Ki.' His soft voice lapped over her.

Her legs trembled beneath her. Her knees bent to his command, not hers. She balanced herself stiffly as she sank down onto the cushions before him. She found herself leaning into Dresh, relaxing into the arms that awaited her. As her mind fought like an unbroken filly on a lead, she found herself tasting those narrow lips, running the tip of her tongue over his even white teeth. She tasted the smell of funeral herbs. His mouth was wet and cold. Disgust and fury blazed up in her as her traitorous hands slipped behind his shoulders. Anger freed her tongue.

'You have no right!' she growled through clenched teeth. Dresh pulled his head far enough back to smile into her face.

'No? I said we have accounts to settle. How else do you propose to repay the agreed-upon portion of the advance? I know you have not a coin to your name. As I told you, due to our little detour, you are a full day late delivering your freight. In scarcely perfect condition, I might add. How else shall I reclaim what you owe me?'