“Tomorrow,” said the Master.
“I’ll still be here,” said Savn.
“You will?” asked Polyi.
“Yes.”
Master Wag left without another word, taking one of the torches to guide him out. Savn made a pillow out of Vlad’s pack, another out of one of the blankets, and stretched out on the hard cave floor. “I’m tired,” he said. “We’ll talk more after I’ve slept.” Actually, he doubted that he’d be able to fall asleep, but he didn’t know what to tell his sister.
As it turned out, he was wrong; he fell asleep almost at once.
Savn woke up to a not-unpleasant, wet warmth in his ear, accompanied by a nibbling that was almost affectionate and tickled. He rolled away from it, but the hard floor of the cave woke him more fully, and as he realized what was licking his ear, he sat up abruptly with a half-stifled scream. The smaller of the jhereg scurried away, then turned to look at him, its wings folded in tightly and its snakelike head bobbing up and down. Savn had the feeling that he was being laughed at.
“What happened?” said Polyi.
“Nothing,” said Savn, feeling himself blush and hoping Polyi couldn’t see his face in the dim light. The fire had gone out and so had one of the torches. The other torch was burning strongly.
Savn glanced at Vlad, who was awake and staring at the ceiling, apparently oblivious to the comedy being performed around him.
“How do you feel?” asked Savn.
“Water.” His voice seemed no stronger than it had be—
fore. Savn wondered how much time had passed, and was surprised to learn that it had been almost four hours.
“A moment,” said Savn. He lit a new torch and replaced the one that had gone out, then stepped into a side cave and relieved himself. When he returned, he found the skin and made sure there was still water in it, then helped Vlad to drink. Vlad seemed to have some difficulty swallowing. When he had done so, he said, “Weak.”
“Food?”
“Later.”
“If you need to ease yourself, there is a place not far from here, but you’ll have to get up and—”
“I’m all right for now,” said Vlad.
“Over there?” said Polyi. “I’ll be right back.”
The jhereg who had nuzzled Savn did the same to Vlad, who attempted a smile. Savn, watching, had mixed feelings. A little later, Vlad announced that he was ready to eat, and Savn and Polyi helped him do so. The bread was going stale but was still edible. Vlad had another drink of water. Then, with Savn’s help, he pulled himself over to the nearest wall so he could sit up and lean against it.
With no warning or explanation, both jhereg suddenly turned and began flying out of the cave. Vlad did not appear surprised. Savn wondered if they could see in the dark, like bats and dzur.
“What are we going to do?” asked Polyi.
“I don’t know,” said Savn. “It depends on Vlad.”
“Do?” said the Easterner weakly. “About what?”
“Well, they must still be after you.”
“Yes.”
“Can you teleport out of here?”
“Not now.”
“Why?”
Vlad searched Savn’s face. “Too weak,” he said at last.
“Oh.”
“Must recover first,” said Vlad.
“And then?”
Vlad looked slightly puzzled, as if Savn had asked him whether harvest came before or after planting. “Then I
must kill Lord Smallcliff, of course,” he said, and, as if producing such a long sentence had exhausted him, he fell back asleep.
She felt his unhappiness as if it were a cord that connected them, though she didn’t express it to herself that way. But there was a feeling of painful unease that made its way into her consciousness, and it was connected to the Provider, to his injuries.
They spiraled up from the caves, stopping below the overcast, and they began their search out over the bare fields between the town and the woods.
She hated hunting.
She enjoyed flying, and she enjoyed searching the ground for food, but she didn’t like chases, and she certainly didn’t like fights. In one case, she was certain to get tired; in the other, she might get hurt. And—
There was a movement, small and furtive, almost directly below her. She told her lover, but made no sudden moves. They rose and described a slow, leisurely turn. Her straining eyes picked out a patch of brown that didn’t quite blend with the surrounding grass and weeds. They continued past it once more, dividing up and selecting the best angles from which to attack. If one had to hunt, it was better together.
And sometimes, one had no choice.
I will not marry a fat old cook,
I will not marry a fat old cook.
For the larding pan I’d be forsook.
Hi-dee hi-dee ho-la!
Step on out ...
After the silence that followed Vlad’s declaration, Polyi echoed Savn’s own thoughts: “He can’t mean it.”
Savn stared at the sleeping Easterner, but the things he’d said while delirious wouldn’t go away. “I don’t think so either,” said Savn at last. “But ...”
“But what?” said Polyi when he didn’t continue.
“But I don’t know. Let’s get the fire going.”
“All right.”
They managed to get the fire started, and after some discussion, decided there was enough wood to keep it going for a while without having to leave the cave again, which neither of them felt inclined to do.
“Mae and Pae must be pretty worried about us,” said Polyi.
“Yeah,” said Savn.
“Well, I think we should tell them where we are,” said Polyi.
Savn shook his head. “They’ll tell Speaker, sure as drought in summer.”
Polyi stared at the sleeping Easterner, and Savn could practically feel her thinking, So what! And the worst of it was that he didn’t know how to answer that thought.
A few minutes later there was the sound of flapping wings. Polyi jumped and stifled a shriek, and the two jhereg landed on the floor of the cave.
“It’s all right,” said Savn. “They’re tame.”
“Tame?” said Polyi, sounding on the verge, of hysteria.
“Well, I mean, they’re friends of his.”
She stared at the Easterner wide-eyed, while the larger of the jhereg deposited what looked like a dead norska. They walked triumphantly over to Vlad and sat down near his head.
Polyi looked a question at Savn, who said, “I guess he wanted meat.”
“But how—?”
“Let’s find something we can use as a spit.”
Polyi looked at him, questions dancing on her face, but she didn’t ask any of them. They looked through the wood they’d collected and found something suitable, while the two jhereg seemed to be arguing with each other about whether the norska should be eaten right away. Savn settled the issue by taking it away from them and proceeding to skin it as best he could, which earned him an angry hiss from the larger jhereg.
“Sometimes,” said Savn, “people say really funny things when they’re feverish. Once Needles had the Dry Fever for almost two days, and she—”
“It doesn’t matter,” said Polyi. “He can’t mean it.”
“Yes. No one can kill His Lordship anyway, because of the box.”
“That’s right.”
Savn set the bloody skin aside for the moment, wondering what to do with it so it wouldn’t attract pests. They worked the makeshift spit through the norska.
“What should we set it on?” asked Polyi.
“I don’t know. Two of the logs?”
“What if they catch fire?”
“Well, we don’t have any big stones or anything.”
“We could just sit on each side of the fire and hold it.”
“I guess. How long will it take to cook?”
“I don’t know.”
“Can you tell when it’s done?”
“Can you?”
“Maybe,” said Savn, and motioned Polyi over to the other side of the fire. “Best to keep it as high as we can, so we don’t burn it.”