‘She sneaked in to rescue you, didn’t she?’ said Tobry.
Rannilt sniffled and wiped her nose on her arm, not successfully. Tobry handed her a piece of white linen. She smeared dirt and mucus across her face with it.
She nodded. ‘But the chancellor caught her and sent her off.’
‘How do you know?’ said Tobry. ‘Rix, go and get a cloth. Rannilt wants to wash her face. And a drink of water.’
Rix did so and she scrubbed her face and hands with it. Her eyes were huge, the sockets purple as bruises. She gulped the water, spilling it everywhere.
‘Better?’ said Tobry.
She nodded.
‘How do you know he sent her away?’
‘Was pretendin’ to be asleep. Heard them talkin’. He said he was sendin’ her on a quest.’
‘What quest?’
‘To find the wrythen. At Precip-Precipitous Crag.’
Tobry let out an inarticulate cry.
‘Why in the name of the Gods would he send Tali to her enemy?’ said Rix.
‘Stupid Wil told him Tali was the one,’ said Rannilt. ‘Chancellor thinks she can beat the wrythen and save Caulderon.’
‘Clearly he doesn’t know about the — ’
At a slashing motion from Tobry, Rix broke off. If word got out about the master pearl, Tali would be hunted ruthlessly for it. And if Lyf got it, he would win.
‘The chancellor’s taking an almighty risk,’ said Tobry.
‘Said Tali was worth the gamble.’ Rannilt hugged herself with her thin arms. ‘I’m really scared, Tobry. We’ve got to save her.’
‘We don’t know how he got her out of the city,’ said Rix.
‘I can find out.’
‘How?’
‘Tried to wake Tali’s gift with my golden mage-light, but it … um, spliced us. And when — ’
‘How do you mean, spliced us?’ said Tobry in an odd voice.
‘It leaves threads floatin’ in the air behind her. I can see where they took her.’
‘Are you saying you can track Tali?’ said Rix.
‘As long as we’re quick. Threads are fadin’.’
‘When did they take her?’
‘Hours ago.’
Rix looked at Tobry.
‘Last time, your excuse was you had the portrait to finish,’ said Tobry pointedly.
Anything to avoid that. ‘You’ve swayed me. Let’s go.’
‘Sure you’re not using Tali to escape your responsibilities?’ Tobry sniffed.
‘If she’s killed,’ said Rix, ‘if the wrythen takes — ’ Tobry was shaking his head. ‘Get Rannilt some winter gear.’
Tobry ran out. Rix hurled all the necessities into a pack, gathered bow and arrows, made sure his sword was sharp and filled a couple of storm lanterns. The urgency was a welcome distraction from the unanswerable questions. Why had he been in the cellar? Why the blood on his hands? How could he warn the chancellor without betraying his own mother?
Rannilt watched him in silence. He wasn’t sure she trusted him, and he knew damn well she did not like him.
‘Haven’t you got anything to do?’ said Rix.
She did not answer, and he was pleased when Tobry returned a few minutes later with fur-lined gear and boots in the child’s size. While she dressed, Rix studied the hole under the great tub, which Tobry must have enlarged when he had gone after her.
‘I don’t see how I’m going to get down there.’
Tobry put his elbrot to the side of the hole and screwed up his face. A high-pitched whine shook the mortar behind the tiles to dust and they fell off. Tobry put his foot on one of the stone blocks and shoved. It slid into the shaft and fell, hitting far below with a muffled thud. He sent half a dozen more blocks the same way, leaving a hole a pony could have passed through.
Rannilt went first. Like Tali, she was accustomed to making her way through tunnels in near darkness. Rix shuttered his lantern to a glimmer and followed.
The tunnel was close, humid and dripping, and he did not like it. ‘No wonder the rock rats are desperate to take Hightspall back,’ he said quietly. ‘Imagine spending all your life in a place like this.’
‘Cython ain’t like this,’ said Rannilt. ‘It’s dry and warm, and it don’t smell. And the walls are carved into beautiful places.’
‘What kind of places?’
‘The way Hightspall is supposed to be,’ she said rebelliously. She sniffled, went to wipe her nose on her arm, then used Tobry’s rag instead.
‘I would have liked to have seen it in the olden days,’ said Tobry. ‘The First Fleeters said Cythe was a paradise.’
They followed the passage for miles, up and down, through a narrow pinch like a dyke eroded out of black rock, then through a broad passage of cream limestone crisscrossed with veins of a pink mineral that twinkled as the light caught it. Finally, along a dipping tunnel where they splashed through ankle-deep water, stirring up silt, and up again.
‘Shh!’ Rannilt stopped, staring up the dark passage. The rock was greatly fissured and water dripped from every crack.
Rix shuttered the lantern.
‘What is it?’ said Tobry.
Rannilt sniffed the air. ‘Horses.’
‘What would horses be doing down here?’ said Rix, who could not smell anything save dust and damp.
‘For the chancellor’s private use,’ Tobry said drily. ‘To escape when the city falls.’
‘To run away like a coward!’ Rannilt said in a fierce whisper.
‘When Caulderon does fall, it’ll take more courage to fly and fight again than it would to lie down and die.’
CHAPTER 78
‘Rannilt, can you tell how many guards there are?’
She sniffed the air. ‘At least one, in with the horses.’
‘Wait here.’
‘Don’t hurt him.’
Rix slipped into the stables, a cross-shaped space excavated out of yellow limestone. The left-hand end of the cross was stacked with dark cubes of silage which gave off a rich, malty odour. The floor of the central area was worn in an exercise circle. A rock salt lick was set in a metal frame near the far wall, while the right-hand end contained a series of stone-walled stalls, reeking of manure and urine, each with a horse inside.
Further down, he made out a trundling squeal, a stable boy barrowing manure away. Rix waited in shadow until he returned, a stocky, brown-haired lad of twelve, then rose like a golem into the lantern light and took him by the arm.
‘Don’t make a sound.’
The boy jumped, groped for a knife on his belt, then stopped, smiling tentatively. Two of his front teeth were missing. ‘Lord Rixium?’
‘You know me?’ Rix was constantly surprised at the number of people who recognised his face.
‘Everyone’s talkin’ ’bout how you beat the enemy out in the Seethin’s,’ said the lad, breathily. His eyes were shining. ‘You’re the hero of Caulderon.’
Rix raised an eyebrow. ‘Well, we’ve come for the horses.’ He studied the stalls. ‘And we’ll need a change of mounts, so four of your best.’
‘I haven’t been told about this,’ said the boy.
‘It came up rather suddenly.’
‘They’re the chancellor’s horses.’
‘And he’s sent me, so go and rouse them out.’
The boy was starting to sweat, but he stood his ground. ‘Sorry, Lord, I can’t let them go without a docket.’
There wasn’t time for debate. Rix drew his sword, its curved blade glittering in the lantern light. ‘This is my authorisation, lad.’
The boy took a deep breath, as if to yell for help. Rix twitched the sword. The shining light vanished from the boy’s eyes. His face flushed and he looked bitterly disillusioned.
‘You’re no hero,’ he said crushingly, jerking free and scrambling away. ‘You’re runnin’ like a stinkin’ coward, and I’ll die before I let you have them.’
Rix started after the lad, the sword dangling uselessly. He could never use it on a child. The boy bolted, roaring, ‘Thieves! Traitors! Help!’