"Hey!" bellowed Firefox, as his men drove the prisoners into the yard. "Whose are those carts? We need more room."
The soldiers pushed the carts aside, handling one of them so roughly that its load of sacks slipped off. A man hurried out of the inn – probably the cart's owner – a protest already on his lips, but when he saw the soldiers he bit it back and shouted at the grooms, who quickly righted the cart again. Traders, farmers, servants – more and more people came crowding out of the stables and the main building to see the cause of all the noise in the yard. A fat, perspiring man made his way through the turmoil to Firefox, faced him with a hostile expression, and let fly a torrent of angry words.
"All right, all right!" Meggie heard Firefox growl. "But we need space. Can't you see we have prisoners with us? Would you rather we drove them into your stables?"
"Yes, yes, use one of the stables!" cried the fat man in relief beckoning to a couple of his servants who were standing there staring at the prisoners, some of whom had fallen to their knees just where they were, their faces pale with exhaustion and fear.
"Come on!" Farid whispered to Meggie, and side by side they pushed their way past the muttering farmers and traders, past the servants still clearing the burst sacks out of the yard, past the soldiers casting hopeful glances at the inn. No one seemed to be taking very much notice of the prisoners, but it was hardly necessary: None of them looked as if they still had the strength to escape. Even the children, whose legs might have been fast enough for them to run, were clinging to their mothers' skirts, empty-eyed, or staring in fear at the armed men who had brought them here. Resa was supporting the pregnant woman. Yes, her mother was uninjured; Meggie could see that much, although she avoided coming too close to her, in case Dustfinger was right to fear that Resa would give herself away if she recognized her. How desperately she was looking around! She took the arm of a soldier, whose beardless face made him look only a boy, and then -
"Farid!" Meggie couldn't believe it. Resa was talking. Not with her hands but with her mouth. Her voice could hardly be heard in all this noise, but it was her voice. How could it be possible? The soldier didn't listen to her but pushed her roughly away, and Resa turned. The Black Prince and his bear were pulling a cart into the yard. They had been harnessed to it like oxen. A chain was wound around the bear's black muzzle, another around his throat and chest. But Resa had eyes for neither the bear nor the Prince – she kept looking at the cart, and Meggie immediately realized what that meant.
Without a word, she took off. "Meggie!" Farid called after her, but she wasn't listening. No one could stop her. The cart was a ramshackle thing. First she saw only the man with the injured leg, one of the strolling players holding a child on his lap. Then she saw Mo.
She thought her heart would never beat again. He was lying there with his eyes closed, under a dirty blanket, but all the same Meggie saw the blood. His shirt was soaked in it, the shirt he liked best to wear, although the sleeves had worn thin. Meggie forgot everything: Farid, the soldiers, Dustfinger's warning, where she was, why she was here. She just stared at her father and his still face. The world was suddenly an empty place, very empty, and her heart was a cold, dead thing.
"Meggie!" Farid reached for her arm. He hauled her away with him, ignoring her resistance, and held her close when she began to sob.
"He's dead, Farid! Did you see him? Mo… he's dead!" She kept stammering that terrible word. Dead. Gone. Forever.
She pushed Farid's arm away. "I must go to him." Bad luck clings to this book, Meggie, nothing but bad luck, even if you don't believe me. Hadn't he told her that in Elinor's library? How much every one of those words hurt now. Death had been waiting in the book. His death.
"Meggie!" Farid was still holding her firmly. He shook her as if he had to wake her up. "Meggie, listen. He's not dead! Do you think they'd be dragging him along with them if he was?"
Would they? She wasn't sure of anything anymore.
"Come with me. Come on!" Farid pulled her away with him. He pushed his way casually through the crowd, as if none of the hurry and bustle interested him. Finally, with an indifferent expression on his face, he stopped by the stable into which the soldiers were herding the prisoners. Meggie wiped away her tears and tried to look equally indifferent, but how could she when her heart, coming back to life, felt as if someone had cut it in two?
"Do you have enough for us to eat there?" she heard Firefox ask. "We're ravenous after our journey through that accursed forest."
Meggie saw them push Resa into the dark stable with the other women, while two soldiers released the Black Prince and his bear.
"Of course I have enough!" said the fat landlord indignantly "And you won't recognize your horses, their coats are so glossy!"
"So I should hope," replied Firefox. "Otherwise the
Adderhead will make sure you're not landlord of this hovel much longer. We ride at daybreak tomorrow. My men and the prisoners can stay in the stable, but I want a bed – and a bed to myself, too, not one I have to share with a crowd of snoring, farting strangers."
"Of course, of course!" The landlord nodded eagerly. "But what about that monster?" He pointed anxiously at the bear. "He'll scare the horses. Why didn't you kill him and leave him in the forest?"
"Because the Adderhead wants to hang him along with his master," replied Firefox, "and because my men believe all the nonsense they hear about him – folk say he's a Night-Mare who likes to take the shape of a bear, so it's a bad idea to fire an arrow into his coat."
"A Night-Mare?" The landlord chuckled nervously. He obviously seemed to think the story not impossible. "Never mind what he is, he's not going into my stable. Tie him up behind the bakehouse if you like. Then perhaps the horses won't smell him." The bear growled in a low tone as one of the soldiers pulled him along on his chain, but as they were forced away behind the main building the Black Prince spoke to him soothingly, in a quiet voice, as if comforting a child.
The cart with Mo and the injured old man on it was still in the yard. A few servants were standing around, gossiping to one another, presumably trying to work out exactly who had been captured on the Adderhead's orders. Was the rumor already spreading that the man lying as if dead on the cart was the Bluejay? The soldier with the beardless face shooed away the servants, took the child off the cart and pushed him toward the stable, too. "What about the wounded prisoners?" he called to Firefox. "Do we just leave those two on the cart where they are?"
"And find that they're dead in the morning, or gone? What are you thinking of, you fool? One of them's the reason why we went into that damned forest, right?" Firefox turned to the landlord again. "Is there a physician among your guests?" he asked. "I have a prisoner who must be kept alive because the Adderhead plans a magnificent execution for him. It's no real fun with a dead man, if you see what I mean."
Must be kept alive… Farid pressed Meggie’s hand and smiled triumphantly at her.
"Oh yes, of course, of course!" The landlord looked curiously at the cart. "It's a nuisance, for sure, if condemned men die before their execution. I hear that's happened twice this year already. However, I can't offer you a physician. I do have a moss-woman helping out in the kitchen, though. She's set many of my guests to rights in her time."
"Good! Send for her!"
The landlord impatiently beckoned to a snotty-nosed boy leaning by the stable door. Firefox called two of his soldiers to him. "Go on, get the wounded men into the stable, too!" Meggie heard him say. "Double guards outside the door, and four of you keep watch on the Bluejay tonight, understand? No wine, no mead, and anyone who falls asleep will be sorry for it!"