Dalip was just over the rise, telling his captain that she’d lied to them all, and the maps were right there. They’d be swarming back any moment to find her and force her to hand them over. Or run her through and prise them from her cold, dead hand.
She darted left, into the gap between the high walls of two opposing compounds, and stopped at the corner, opposite the round building. She had to cross the open space between the two, yet she could hear the pirates’ horn sound to signal yet another change in direction. She hung on to the wall, back pressed to the sharp stones, head tilted back towards the slit of sky. She was overlooked by the windows of the next compound down, and she thought she could see a flicker of movement behind one of them.
How long before the robed creatures regrouped and came after her as well? What if they decided to use force themselves, rather than rely on their servants? They’d outnumber the pirates then, and they certainly hadn’t revealed more than a fraction of what they were capable of.
She swallowed hard, and ran to the side of the domed building, flattening herself against it as if her red dress might disappear when turned sideways. She crept carefully around half of it, and there was no door.
The other half was exposed◦– no sheltering walls to hide her. The pirates had headed back towards her stone shelter. She could move another quarter of the circumference around.
Still no door.
If she stepped out any further, she’d be seen. It’d take them a little while to spot her, and a little longer to reach her. There was nothing for it but to show herself and hope.
She was almost back to where she’d started when the cry went up. Which would have still given her time, if there had actually been a door for her to open and bar behind her. There was nothing. The circular wall was as blank as the roof. No door, not even the hint of a door. No way in, no refuge.
That, it appeared, was the end of that idea.
She was out of viable options. Time to just pick something and do it. So she ran down to the road, turned left and along to the sharp bend, where the track met the ridiculous stepping stones and wound up the side of the valley. The noise of rushing and clattering told her that the pirates were behind her, and she didn’t need to look back to check.
She skipped off the road, her skirts flying. The Lords and Ladies were all watching her now, openly from their first-floor windows, every one of them seemingly crowded with faces. Could she use them? Dare she?
‘What are you waiting for? Come and get me!’
The slope speeded her up. She drew level with the building by the river as the door was just opening. Her path flattened, and the chasm the river rumbled through was right in front of her, the thin pillars of stone looking increasingly dangerous as she closed on them.
She couldn’t hesitate. She pushed off from the edge, hit the first square on, took the second one safely, and very nearly missed the third completely. Stumbling was out of the question. It was a long way down, and she was carrying the wealth of Down in one hand.
‘That’s quite far enough, young lady.’ It was Simeon.
She stopped, halfway across. The pillar she was on was wide enough for both feet, but not much more than that. She looked at the far shore: three more pillars to go. She could manage those. If she reached the bottom of the stairs, she could climb up to the top of the cliff, and back into the magic.
Tempting, but no. She shuffled around to confront the pirate band. Dagger in one hand, maps in the other, she held her arms out either side.
‘Anyone starts to cross, I jump. Got it?’
The captain lowered his loaded arbalest, the pointed bolt now aimed at the surging river far below her feet rather than at her heart. The whole crowd of pirates was gathering behind him. Some found themselves on the brink of the gorge, and pushed back, even as others were pressing forward to see what was happening. The captain leaned forward and looked askance at the drop, and the narrowness of the stepping stones.
‘We appear to be at somewhat of an impasse.’
‘If I knew what one was, okay. That.’
The captain leaned into the man next to him and muttered a brief instruction. The man disappeared into the crowd behind, to be replaced by Dalip.
‘Mary. What are you doing?’
‘I am trying,’ she said, ‘to do my best.’
‘You could come back over here and we could try together.’
‘Right now, standing on this stupidly thin piece of rock is the best I can do. Also, you’re surrounded.’
They were not quite surrounded, but it sounded dramatic. The figures in robes lurked at the back, their servants in front. The men had swords and clubs. They stood between the road and the river, blocking it and sending the pirate chosen for special duties by his captain back towards his own group.
‘Mary,’ said Dalip, ‘please be reasonable…’
‘I am being fucking reasonable. These maps don’t belong to you, and they don’t belong to them either. None of you made the fucking things◦– everybody who drew one, except me, was killed by the geomancers to protect their precious knowledge. I’m the only person here who can say any part of this is theirs. So, on behalf of all those poor fuckers who can’t speak because they’re dead, I claim the right to say what happens to them.’
‘Brave words, madam,’ said the captain, ‘possibly even true ones. However, I find that possession is nine-tenths of the law: once your property becomes mine, your rights over said chattel become moot.’
‘And if that means what I think it means, come and get it. Dare you.’
‘Very well. Never let it be said that I abrogated my responsibilities.’ He passed the crossbow to the nearest sailor, and drew his cutlass.
‘If you take one step I’ll throw myself in the river, and the maps are coming with me.’
‘I’m going to call your bluff. I think you’d rather I had them than lose them to the water. Did the dead labour in vain? We shall see.’
He started to size up his first jump when Dalip put his arm across the captain’s chest.
‘I’ll go.’
‘Captain’s privilege, Singh. Mine the risk, mine the reward.’
‘She’ll jump.’
‘She won’t.’
‘I bloody will.’
‘Stand back, Singh. I believe I have the advantage here.’
But before he could leap to the first stepping stone, a murmuring from behind him distracted him. Exasperated, he turned, and found himself face to mask with a red-robed figure.
‘You will not risk the maps.’
The captain lazily raised his sword, contemplated the edge, and pressed the point into the angle between carefully sculpted jaw and cloth-wrapped neck. The figure raised its head slightly to accommodate the intrusion, but made no attempt to back away.
‘You will not risk the maps,’ it repeated. ‘We can fight, or we can talk.’
‘Fight,’ said a pirate, and other voices immediately agreed.
‘Aye, we came to fight, not parley.’
‘Loot their houses, and head for the sea.’
‘Fight them. Ain’t so many that we can’t take ’em.’
‘So say my crew,’ said the captain. He added a little more pressure. The point grated against something hard. ‘You do bleed, don’t you? Are you men or monsters beneath your disguises?’
‘We are monsters far worse than anything Down can imagine.’
Mary seriously considered running away. No one was looking at her. It wasn’t as if the Lords and Ladies of the White City would let the pirates chase after her: neither were the pirates going to stand back and allow the robed figures to pass. This was what she wanted. This was why she’d lied. She, and only she, should determine the fate of the maps. Not these robed clowns. Nor this motley crew. She looked up at the cliff and judged her next jump.