As Mar was pulling the door shut behind them, she heard Dhulyn Wolfshead say, “I wonder. Can the Shadow enter the Racha?”
“I hope neither of you are afraid of heights.” Dhulyn looked with approval at the packs Mar and Gun were carrying. The little Dove’s bag was much the same style-if better quality-as the one she’d had on the trail, but without winter clothing, it was less than half the size. Parno was tying their packs to a climbing rope, light but strong, taking care that they would hang true, without twisting or binding. “Boots off, my Doves, put them into the front of your harness.”
“I thought we’d go through the old kitchens,” Gundaron said, handing his pack over at Parno’s gesture and sitting down to get at his boots.
“We’d have to pass through too much of the Dome to get there,” Parno told him. “We’re supposed to be gone already, remember.”
“We little thought we’d be taking you with us this way, my Doves,” Dhulyn said, looking out the window of their bedroom. “But it’s not so difficult. If you don’t look down.”
She looked with longing at her saddlebags. Everything she couldn’t do without-including the set of vera tiles-had been transferred to a travel pack, but uncomfortable wouldn’t begin to describe their journey if, by ill luck, they lost the bags. And there was her second-best sword, to say nothing of the axes and the longbow. She gave a mental shrug, put her most cheerful smile on her lips. Either Dal-eLad would get them their horses and saddlebags, or he wouldn’t. No point in giving the youngsters anything more to worry them. Under her breath, she ticked off a list of weapons. Knives-in boots, wrist sheaths, back sheath under her shirt and the public one at her belt-with short sword, throwing star pouch, and disassembled crossbow, all attached to vest harness, and tied down so as not to snag on anything or tangle the ropes. Parno had, in addition to his own body weapons and sword, the cavalry recurve bow that came apart into three pieces, and the arrows they’d brought back from the Great King’s court, steel arrows that unscrewed, patterned after relics of the Caids. Everything else was either too heavy or too long to take by this route. She’d just have to hope that Dal came through for them. She turned her back on the pile of books and scrolls stacked neatly on the room’s side table. If she didn’t look, she wouldn’t think about them. Much.
Her inventory finished, she helped Parno move the roped packs to the window.
“I’ll get these up now,” he said. “And come back to help with the youngsters.” He was out the window and up the wall in a moment, trailing the rope with the packs attached behind him. Dhulyn knew he’d reached the roof when the rope grew taut, and she eased the packs over the windowsill, watching them rise as Parno pulled them up.
She turned back into the room and smiled when she saw Mar and Gun eyeing herself, and the window, in disbelief.
“If you’re ready,” she said, attaching ropes to the front and rear of Gun’s and Mar’s harnesses, until they were strung out, herself to Gundaron, Gundaron to Mar. “The ledge is wider than it looks. Follow me out, then Parno will lead us all.”
As if hearing his cue, Parno swung himself back into the room and, seeing they were ready, linked himself to Mar with the rope he’d used to haul up the packs. He looked up with a nod as he finished checking the knot.
“Ready?” Instead of just stepping out onto the ledge as she would have done if she were alone, Dhulyn sat on the edge of the window casement, swung her legs out, turned to face into the room, and, gripping the edge of the casement tightly, lowered her legs until her toes felt the ledge.
“You see?” she said. “Just like that. I’ll be out here to steady you.”
Gundaron followed her out, trying his best to ape her actions exactly. He had a shaky moment when his toe couldn’t find the ledge, but once Dhulyn had guided his foot down, he managed well enough.
“Move over here, Gun, and mind the ropes,” she said, allowing him to pass between her and the wall. “Let Mar out.”
Anyone would have thought that Mar had been climbing out of fifth-story windows all her life-as, indeed she may have been, for all Dhulyn knew to the contrary. The little Dove slid out of the window onto the ledge and over next to Gun without hesitation or sign of nerves. Parno followed her out, drew the casements shut behind him and, using a bit of wire tied onto the end of a string, pulled the latch over as he did so. From the inside, at least, there’d be no sign that they’d left via the windows.
“Eyes on me,” Parno said. His tone was even and calm, the same tone, Dhulyn thought, that he’d used to coach Mar in table etiquette when they were on their way to Gotterang. “Watch where I put my hands and feet, and you put yours the same. Don’t start up until you see me wave at you. I’ll be anchored, so you can’t fall, but be careful all the same.”
As Dhulyn knew from her own reconnaissance, there were no windows directly above theirs, so Parno could climb straight up until he’d cleared the two stories above them, and reached the battlements at the top of the tower. These were decorative only, intended to match the style of an older tower, with no place for guards or archers to stand behind them, Dhulyn knew, only the shallow-pitched peaked roof of the tower itself. Parno swung himself over the edge of the stone, and after a few moments, they could see his hand waving.
“Up you get, children, fingers and toes now.” Dhulyn had tested the route herself only the day before, and knew that there were many finger- and toeholds in the rough stone wall, and more than a few places where the whole foot could be placed to take the weight off the hands.
This time Mar went first, scrambling up the wall like one of the monkeys Dhulyn had seen in the jungles of the northwest. Gun lifted his arms to start up almost as soon as he had room to do so.
“Wait.” Dhulyn said, her hand on his shoulder. “Let her reach the top; you would pull her down as well if you fell.” And me with the two of you, she didn’t say aloud. No point in frightening the boy any more than he was already.
Still, his fear didn’t stop him from starting up as soon as Mar had cleared the top, and Dhulyn found herself nodding in approval for the first time. He’d learned somewhere not to let his fear stop him. He might make a worthwhile human yet.
Halfway up, he froze, and Dhulyn bit back her thought. “Don’t look down,” she told him. “I’ll be right there.” She pulled herself up until she was nearly on top of him, covering his legs with her body, careful not to tangle the ropes. “Take a deep breath and move up. Parno’s there, see him? He’s got the slack of the rope. You can’t fall, just help him bring you up, don’t let him do all the work.” When he still didn’t move, she added, “Look within, Find your courage.”
Dhulyn’s fingers were just beginning to feel the strain when the boy nodded as though his neck were made of oak, and began to move, first his right hand, then his left, his right foot, his left. Dhulyn held herself back a moment, checking the rope, keeping out of the way of his lower limbs, but not letting Gun get so far ahead that he couldn’t feel her presence between him and the long fall.
“Keep breathing,” she said. “Let the air move in and out, in and out.”
It could not have been more than minutes later that Parno was helping Gun roll over the battlement onto the roof, but Dhulyn was sure that it felt much longer to the boy.
“Not to worry,” Parno was saying. “We’re only going to walk along this wall to that other tower you see there. No more climbing.” Mar had hold of the boy’s hand, and his grip on hers was so tight her fingers looked white.
Gun swallowed, but whatever he wanted to say didn’t make it out of his lips.
“We’ll still have the ropes,” Dhulyn said, in her most matter-of-fact tones. “There’s still no way for any of us to fall. You keep your eyes on the spot where your rope attaches to Mar, and you’ll be fine.”