“I’m going to get your gear,” Vaseto told him. “The ship Cazio has found passage on leaves in a few hours. You will be on it with them—the countess sent funds for your passage, and Cazio believes the captain will take on another passenger.”
“You aren’t going?”
Vaseto’s face scrunched almost comically. “Go on the water? No, I don’t think so. My task was to bring you this far. No more.”
Neil bowed. “I am forever grateful, lady. I hope it was not too onerous a task.”
“Not too. But remember your gratitude when we meet again.”
“I hope we shall.”
Vaseto smiled slyly. “No, there is no doubt. It has already been seen. Now, stay here, and I’ll return with your things.”
“I can come.”
Vaseto shook her head. “You may be needed here, especially if others have followed.”
Neil nodded at the sense of that. “Very well,” he said.
Cazio plucked at Anne’s sleeve. “A word with you alone, please, casnara?” he said.
Anne started to wave him off impatiently. She needed to talk to Sir Neil. She had so many questions—but then she saw the genuine concern reflected in Cazio’s eyes, and stepped aside with him into the courtyard. Besides, Neil was talking to the strange little woman.
“Quickly,” she said.
Cazio folded his arms. “Who is this man?” he asked.
“I’ve already told you, it’s not Roderick. He is a servant of my mother’s.”
“And you trust him completely? He has something of the look of those knights who attacked you at the coven.”
“He was my mother’s most trusted servant,” Anne assured him.
“And is he still?”
Anne paused at that. Sir Neil said that he had come from her mother. But she had no proof of it. From what she remembered he had come to court only a short time before she’d been sent away. True, he had saved her mother’s life at Elseny’s party, but what if that had been a ruse? The murderers of her father and sisters had not been named in the cuveitur dispatches. What if Sir Neil had been one of them?
With a cold shock, she suddenly understood how well it all fit. Only her mother and Erren had known that she had been sent to the coven Saint Cer. And perhaps, as her mother’s bodyguard, Sir Neil. That would mean Roderick wasn’t her betrayer. Not that she had ever really believed that, but . . .
Cazio observed the change in her eyes and nodded soberly. “Yes, you see? It is all too suspicious. Just as I finally find us passage on a ship, along he comes.”
“It— Mother trusted him.”
“But you don’t,” he said. “Not now that you’ve thought about it.”
“Not now that you’ve put the idea in my head,” she said miserably.
She noticed that the little woman was gone. Neil now stood by himself, trying to appear uninterested in their conversation. For all she knew, he was fluent in Vitellian.
“Go find Austra,” she whispered. “And z’Acatto. All of you go to the ship. I will follow in a short while.”
“Why not go with me?”
“Because he’ll insist on going. Even if he is who he says he is, and he is true to my mother’s service, he won’t let me that far from his sight now that he’s found me.”
“But he may murder you the moment I am gone.”
That was true.
“Ospero,” she said. “Do you think he will help?”
Cazio nodded. “He’s still just outside. I’ll tell him to watch you,” he said.
She nodded. Then they returned to the street.
“Cazio’s going to get the others,” Anne told Neil. “I’m going upstairs to pack my things. Would you keep watch here?”
“I will,” Neil said. He looked wary. “Is there something I should know?”
“Not at the moment.”
He nodded. When she went up the stairs, she was relieved that he did not follow.
She did feel a pang of guilt. If he was telling the truth, Sir Neil had come a long, hard way to find her, and she was betraying him.
But she could not take the risk, not when she knew him so little. If she was wrong, he could return home the way he had come, and she would apologize.
She would apologize a great deal.
9
Life or Death
“He looked fine when he went into the fane, and he didn’t look hurt when he walked out. Wasn’t until he left the mound that he collapsed.”
“Still—”
“Winna.” He tried to keep his voice gentle, but he felt the harshness creeping into it, like a burr caught in his throat.
He sighed. “Winna, I’m a holter. I know nothing of fanes or saints or shinecraft. That was Stephen. All I know is how to track things, find things, and kill things. That’s what I’m supposed to do. That’s what I will do.”
“That’s what the praifec ordered you to do,” Winna said. “But it’s not like you to be so obedient.”
“He’s destroying my forest, Winn. And I’ll tell you, if I do know anything about greffyns and utins and evil fanes and what’s happened to Stephen, it’s this—things like this didn’t happen before the Briar King stopped being a boygshin story and started walkin’ around. When I stop him walkin’ around, I reckon everything will go back to the way it was.”
“And if it doesn’t?”
“Then I’ll find whoever built that shrine and kill them, too.”
“I know you, Asp,” Winna said. “You aren’t made of death.”
“Maybe not,” he said, “but she follows me close.” He put his head down then raised it back up. “Winna, here’s what we’ll do. You and Ehawk, you go back to Eslen. Tell the praifec what we saw here, and what Stephen said about it. I’m going on.”
Winna snorted. “Not likely. You’re going to drag poor Stephen around this forest by yourself?”
“He’ll stay on Angel. Maunt this—I almost lost you to the utin. I’ve had Black Marys about it ever since. I can’t think straight, not really, not with you in danger.”
“There’s only one arrow, you know. When we meet him, there’s nothing anyone can do but me, and I’ll do that best without any distractions. And you’re right—Stephen thought there was something about that fane that needed dealing with. None of us kann enough to know what to do, and if we all find our ends out here, the praifec will never know what we’ve learned.”
Winna’s lips compressed. “No,” she said. “That doesn’t make nearly the sense you think it does. You think you can do everything by yourself? You think the rest of us do nothing but drag you down? Well, you were by yourself when you came stumbling down to the monastery d’Ef, weren’t you? If Stephen hadn’t found you, you’d have died. If he hadn’t stood for you against the other monks, you’d have died. How are you going to feed yourself? If you leave Stephen to hunt, something will come gnaw on him.”
“Winn—”
“Stop it. I made the same promise to the praifec that you did. You think I have no stake in this? My father lives in the King’s Forest, Asp—at least I pray saints he still lives. Ehawk’s people live out here, too. So you’re just going to have to live with your fear for me. I can’t fight like you, and I don’t have Stephen’s knowledge, but if there’s one thing I’m good for, it’s to make you more cautious than you would be normally. That’s how I’ve saved your life, and don’t deny it, you big stupid banf.”
Aspar regarded her for a moment. “I’m the leader of the expedition. You’ll do what I say.”
Her face went cold. “Is that how it is?”
“Yah. This is the last time you go against me, Winn. Someone has to be in charge, and that’s me. I can’t spend every moment arguing with you.”
Her face relaxed a bit. “But we’re all staying together.”