Upland Outlaws Page 19

  Ylo’s abduction of the imperor proceeded without a hitch, aided by Centurion Eemfume (Retired) and his three friends. On the road, in bed, at board—even when he went to the latrines—Shandie was never out of sight of at least two of them. He sulked, ranted, argued, and ordered, and was treated with the polite sympathy due a deranged. aristocrat. Ylo was able to relax and enjoy the journey, wenching his way across Julgistro.

  Gradually the days grew longer. In Thume it was the rainy season.

  SIX

  Life’s young day

  1

  Snowflakes big as feathers danced in the air, tickling eyelids and turning the sun to a brilliant blur. The air was warmer than it had been for days. Hooves clopped on the smooth stone of the Great West Way, and winter scenery drifted by in a monochrome of white and gray. Even the grasses of the ditches were colorless.

  “The turnoff’s just ahead, as I recall,” Centurion Eemfume said.

  “All great friendships must end eventually,” Ylo responded. He had been lost in a reverie about waitresses, trying to decide whether he preferred the slim, energetic ones or the plump, comfortable ones. It was a difficult choice, although not a very important one. He enjoyed both very much.

  He realized that Eemfume had arranged this discussion, edging his horse aside and thus Ylo’s also. The others were several paces back, out of earshot.

  “You’ll be all right now, Signifer, I think,” the centurion said cautiously.

  Ylo laughed. “Perfectly! Did you ever see such a change in a man? “

  It had happened only three days since. Shandie had gone to bed still a wild-eyed, bearded maniac threatening terrible torments on all those who kidnapped their rightful imperor. He had awakened sane, icily furious, demanding a razor and hot water.

  Even his guards, who had never known him before, had recognized his authority from that moment on. Indeed, if he and Ylo were to give contradictory orders now, it was more than likely that Eemfume and his friends would obey the imperor.

  The Covin, in short, had given up.

  “Course we can come all the way to the door if you feel it’s needful, Signifer,” the centurion said wistfully. Never in his life had he earned money as he had these last few weeks.

  “No, I’m sure we’ll be all right now-thanks to you and your friends.” For the mythical Yyan and Yshan to turn up at the lordly estate of the rightful marquis would provoke embarrassment, to say the least, as no one there would have ever heard of them. “Yshan was talking about giving you all a bonus, if that would not hurt your feelings?”

  The old warrior pursed his lips. “‘Twenty-five years in the ranks, and you think we have feelings?”

  Ylo laughed again. “Well, it was just a thought. We are very grateful, both of us!”

  He meant that. Shandie was cured and could take charge of his quest again. Now, at last, Ylo was free to implement his own plans-return to Yewdark and Eshiala, defection and seduction.

  The turnoff appeared on schedule, a track winding off through the leafless black trees and over the iron-gray hills of winter. Somewhere along that trail Eemfume and his three friends would find their childhood homes, half-forgotten relatives, perhaps wives and future children, plus shelter for their old age. A milestone reported Mosrace itself close ahead on the highway. Somewhere thereabouts was the estate to which Ylo and Shandie were supposedly heading.

  The parting was gruff and manly. Gold clinked. Shandie thanked each man in turn, shaking his hand and making sure of his correct name. Ylo could guess that there would be further rewards in future if the imperor won back his throne. With a few final jocular remarks, the two parties separated.

  Shandie kicked his horse to a canter, and Ylo rode at his side. The fluffy snow whirled by playfully.

  “Good men!” Shandie said. “Fine men! It’s men like those that made the impire, not us fancy rulers. “

  “Believe me, those four were much better than most.” Ylo spoke from experience, having served in the ranks.

  They rode on for a while without speaking, both aware that there were things that would have to be said, now the two of them were alone together for the first time since Newbridge.

  “There’s supposed to be a fair inn at Mosrace,” Ylo remarked.

  “There is. I know it well.”

  “Food good?”

  “Superb, last time I was there. Feeling like a celebration?” Shandie shot a sideways smile at his companion.

  “Why not?” Ylo said innocently, thinking it might well be their last evening together. He must start back to Yewdark soon, or he would miss the daffodils-not that he was about to mention those, of course.

  The horses thundered by a creaking wagon loaded with firewood.

  “Ylo,” Shandie said, speaking loudly over the beat of hooves, “I am not one for sentimental speeches … “

  “I’m not much of one for listening to them.”

  “Well, you’re going to listen to one now! At the moment I can offer you only my heartfelt thanks and my eternal gratitude. When I regain my throne, then whatever reward you want will be yours. Political office? You can be consul, proconsul, senator-name it. Lands? I offered you a dukedom once and you turned it down. I shall not be refused again, I promise you! I thought you deserved it then because of what Grandsire did, but by the Gods, Brother Yyan, now you’ve earned anything I have in my power to give!”

  Ylo found that idea funny, somehow. How about your wife?

  “What did I do? Kidnapping the imperor, you mean? You’ll set a dangerous precedent if you give me a dukedom for it.”

  Shandie turned a steady dark gaze on him. His face was windburned by the long winter journey, and he was even leaner than he had been before. His hair was longer, so he seemed more like a civilian than a soldier, but there was no hint of madness there now, only a dangerous, implacable purpose.

  “You saved me from the Covin. I was dead set on going back to Hub, absolutely determined. I was convinced the whole thing was a fraud. Mhought you’d lied to me, Rap had, Raspnex hadeveryone! At times I thought Emthoro had set up the whole thing to steal the throne. And, I’m profoundly ashamed to say this, but I even suspected you of having designs on my wife!”

  “Well, you were correct there, sire! Any man who has ever seen her majesty starts having designs.”

  Shandie laughed, pleased. “I expect so. But I wonder if those were real Zinixo thoughts? I wonder if that’s how he sees the world, with everyone plotting against him and no one to trust?”

  “Could be,” Ylo said with a yawn.

  “And you defeated him! That is a noble accomplishment.”

  “It was pure luck that Eemfume was handy. “

  “Or the Gods sent him. And you were man enough to see the opportunity and take it!”

  Shandie sounded disgustingly sincere. Ylo felt rather ashamed of how he had treated his imperor and would prefer not to discuss it. After all, he was still planning to desert and head back to Eshiala, wasn’t he? Maybe he had better wait a day or two yet, in case the Covin tried its siren call again.

  Shandie flickered another smile at him, a bashful one. “Fortunately I now know that I was wrong. I now know that there are men I can trust, and luckily one of them was with me in my hour of need. You had no need to endure what you did. You did not do it for personal gain, for I am penniless, nor for the Impire as an institution, for I am without authority. You did it for friendship alone. Ylo, from now on I am proud to regard you as my friend. “

  Ghosts of a hundred ancestors whistled warnings in Ylo’s ear. Historically, the post of Imperor’s Friend was the most dangerous job in the Impire. Everyone went after him! The one thing court factions could always agree on was the urgent need to sabotage the imperor’s best friend, whoever he was.

  This appointment must be resisted. Ylo stole a thoughtful look at Shandie and was annoyed by the appeal in his face. Imperors did not have real friends. Imperors were differentthey learned that as children. What did the man know of friendsh
ip? Friends were for fun, and Shandie did not know what fun was.

  Furthermore, Ylo himself was an imp, and imps served their imperor. Friendship would impose a different sort of loyalty. It would raise the sort of questions King Rap had asked him once, questions involving daffodils and moral responsibility. If there was one thing Ylo detested it was moral responsibility.

  “I’m honored to be your friend, of course. Tonight you’ll let me pick out a wench for you, also?”

  Shandie flushed scarlet. He turned his face away as if something very interesting had developed in the hedges. His ears were red.

  The horses had covered a furlong before he forced his eyes back to Ylo’s mocking gaze-and nodded. He smiled nervously. “Just make sure she’s pretty. “

  God of Lust! This was more serious than Ylo had thought.

  2

  Gluttonous as cattle looting a grain field, the close-packed winter clouds drifted over the Sea of Sorrows. Black and bloated, they moved on into Thume and no hedge or fence impeded them; but then their way was blocked by the thorns of the Progiste Mountains. The leaders balked, but the followers pressed in behind, driving the front ranks to destruction. Day after day the slaughter continued. The turgid herd was butchered on the peaks, and none escaped to reach the desert of Zark beyond. Muddy torrents coursed the slopes.

  It was the rainy season.

  Thaile awoke at the first contraction, but for a few minutes could not think what had roused her. Even then, when enlightenment arrived with a little shiver of joy and excitement and fear-even then, she could not be sure. She moved her awkward shape on the ferns, seeking a long-forgotten comfort, and waited to see if there was going to be another. Beside her, Leeb stirred briefly and then sank back into deeper sleep.

  From the smell of the night, dawn was near. Rain pattered doggedly on the leafy thatch of the roof as it had done with hardly a break for weeks. Leeb’s handiwork was sound, though, and water had found no chinks. Even beetles fleeing a flooded world had trouble penetrating the tight weaving of his walls, and he had completed four whole rooms before the rains began. He was planning another room also, although Thaile could think of no reason why she should need a house so huge. He made rooms much faster than she could make babies to fill them.

  But maybe she had almost completed this one.

  Kaif if he is a boy, Frial if she is a girl. That was what they had decided before going to sleep. Yesterday it had been Shaib and … someone. No matter. Hurry, Kaif, or Frial, or you may be somebody else when you arrive!

  She jerked in needless shock as Leeb twitched, then realized she had been drifting back to sleep again. Leeb was dreaming. She could Feel the muddly emotions of his dreams, punctuated with wrenches of pulsing lust. Oh, my poor love! The last few weeks had been hard on him, since the baby had come between them. He needed her and wanted her so much! Leeb was such a happy, peaceful man, so gentle a lover, that she was always astonished to Feel the heat of his desire. At first it had frightened her, but now she knew him and understood that he would never loose the beast she Felt in there. She had learned to love the beast, also, and tease it a little …

  Soon, soon, my love! She adjusted the cover over him and again tried to ease her aching back into an easier position. Alas, there was no easier position for a pixie shaped like a mango.

  Kaif, she thought, not Frial. Lately she had been able to Feel some of that new little person inside her, and he had a boy’s temper. Sometimes when he kicked her, he was utterly furious. She was quite sure it was a boy, and Leeb wanted a boy very much. He wanted a boy to take fishing with him, as he had gone fishing with his father. Thaile knew she was too fidgety to be a good fishing companion, although he had never told her so.

  Nine moons had come and gone since Leeb had shown her the place he had found by the river. She had never doubted his descriptions of it, though, and the journey from her parents’ house had been a torment for both of them. Even when they arrived, exhausted by the long walk, there had been a worse delay while they both ran frantically around in search of the one ideal spot to be their Place. Too far to carry water … too close to the river, it will flood … not enough shade …

  As darkness fell, they had found their Place, among the cottonwoods, and had made it theirs forever. True, that cataclysmic moment had not been quite as joyous or soul-inspiring as she had hoped. Leeb had been too impatient and anxious, she too nervous, and the twigs on the ground very unromantically prickly, but with a little practice they had been doing it much better in a couple of days-doing it well enough to bring Kaif into the world.

  Nine moons. She thought she could Feel his impatience. Definitely a boy.

  Nine moons, and the recorders had never found her. It would be very sad if Kaif never met his grandparents and even sadder for Gaib and Frial never to know their grandchildren. Coming from a Gifted family, she might bear more than two babies. Leeb didn’t know it yet, but Thaile had decided that in a few years, when they had produced two-or more-children, then she would take them on a visit to the Gaib Place. Surely by then it would no longer matter if the recorders found her, no matter how strong her Faculty? Surely even they could not be so cruel as to drag a mother away from her family, off to the College?

  So even if Kaif had Faculty, as she did, he would never have to keep Death Watch, as she had been required to do-never have to learn a word, as she had.

  Oooo!

  She had been asleep again. The window was showing gray. And that had definitely been her tummy doing something she had not told it to do, something it had never done before. Kaif was on the way.

  She wanted to jump up and clean out the whole room and put in all new ferns and get out the new bed cover she had woven … And that was silly, because she spread all new ferns just yesterday, and the cover was in the basket in the corner. She had cleaned the whole house with her broom yesterday, twice. There was lots of time yet. Leeb would have to go and fetch Boosh from the Neeth Place, and he could not paddle a boat in the dark. The river was in spate, but that was good, because he could take a shortcut across the flooded grassland and then have a fast run home. It wouldn’t take very long, and Kaif was going to be hours yet.

  As she twisted again to find a more comfortable position, her hair fell all over her face. Amazing how much her hair had grown in nine moons! She wasn’t sure that long hair was worth the bother, but it was a sign of womanhood, and she wore it proudly. Leeb liked it. She tickled him with it, sometimes, and that roused him almost faster than anything. Perhaps that was why mothers wore their hair long and kept their daughters’ short. Oooo!

  Kaif, you are too impatient! Or maybe not. Thaile had been dozing again. The window was quite bright now. And the rain had stopped. Good.

  Oooo-ooo! Getting serious, are you?

  Thaile rolled over with a grunt and munched on her goodman’s ear. Leeb did not have nice, flat, pointy ears like pixies should have. He had big, round, stick-out ears, very suitable for munching.

  “Mmmph?” Leeb said, brushing her hair off his face.

  “Darling?”

  “Mmmph.”

  “Baby. “

  “Mm? What?” Leaping up from the bed, Leeb missed the doorway and ran straight into the wall. Disregarding his goodwife’s shouts, he regained his balance, found the exit, rocked the house again as he tore open the front door, plunged out into the dawn, rounded the chicken coop too closely, lost his balance, and sprawled headlong into the mud, narrowly missing the woodpile.

  She Felt his emotions-confusion, panic, shame …

  A few moments later he followed the sound of laughter back to the window.

  “How long have I got?” he asked sheepishly.

  “At least enough time to put some clothes on. Boosh is quite a prim old dear, you know, and may not want to get in a boat with a naked man-beautiful though you are.”

  “You are very cruel to, mock me! “

  His eyes were twinkling, though. No matter how clumsy or inept he might be on occasion, Le
eb never took himself too seriously. That was one of his better qualities-not that any of his qualities were inferior.

  “Mock you? I am completely serious, my darling man. If I did not think you beautiful, would I ever have consented to let you sire this baby that I am about to, er, produce?”

  Thaile passed out his breeches and a kiss, and he accepted both. “Go and wash off the mud before you put them on,” she said, preparing to close the shutter. “And you don’t want your shoes, do you? They’re not dry yet from yesterday. You don’t need hat and cloak yet. And don’t forget … “

  “Yes?” he said urgently.

  She smiled. “To milk the goat and let out the chickens and then come back and have something to eat. After that, we’ll decide whether you have to leave yet.”

  Then she said, “Oh! ” and sat down hurriedly as Kaif rattled the latch again.

  There was a watcher in the woods. There were two watchers in the woods. “No complications?” asked the newcomer.

  “Perfectly nonnal,” the first said. “Good-size boy. I’m tempted to do something about its ears before anyone sees them. “

  “I was reminded that the child is also precious.” The other sighed. “So was I-several times.”

  “Her Faculty is as strong as they said?”

  “It must be. She can Feel those families up on the ridge. Keep your guard up.”

  “Go and have your break, then, and I’ll stay here. Bring the body back with you.”

  There was only one watcher in the woods.

  Rain began falling again as Leeb departed in the boat. It did not wet the watcher, though.

  3

  Leeb was poling the boat across the wetlands in the drizzle. Thaile could Feel his nervous urgency-poor Leeb was much more worried about what was happening than she was. Women had been having babies since the world began. She was healthy, barely sixteen. The younger the better, the old women always said. Lying contentedly on the bed, she could even Feel old Boosh herself, rousing to her morning chores, grumbling amiably at Neeth as she always did. Thaile could Feel his tolerant amusement.