‘Who to?’
‘I’d say the chancellor, and you don’t want to fall into his hands.’ Tobry reined in. ‘Get off and over the wall, quick! Hide. I’ll come back when I can.’
‘Is this — ?’
‘Torgrist Manor? Yes, go!’
Tali half fell to the ground, scrambled across the footpath and through a break in a high stone wall. Long grass and tall weeds on the other side ran up to a broken tower, a ruined manor most of whose roof had fallen in.
Rannilt woke with a cry. ‘What’s happening? Come back.’
‘Sit up, child!’ Tobry said urgently. ‘Try to look like Tali. Hold on tight!’
They galloped off. Tali had lost her hat somewhere in the night and the sky was rocking again. Hearing hoof beats approaching, she crawled along a rabbit track and into a spreading, thorny bush. There she hunched into a ball, fought the panic and tried to stop her crashing heart from giving her away.
CHAPTER 60
‘You’ve no idea what it’s been like here,’ said Rix when Tobry turned up at the guarded door of Rix’s tower a day after his own arrival. ‘I’m confined to barracks. Lady Ricinus even wanted to bar you on the grounds of being a bad influence.’
‘I was a bad influence,’ said Tobry, who looked thinner than before and rather drawn.
‘What’s the matter? There’s barely a laugh in you these days.’
‘It’s different now. I’ve got responsibilities.’
‘Considering how often you encouraged me to neglect mine — ’
‘Leave it out. I’m not in the mood.’
‘You need a drink.’ Rix drew him into the vast salon and looked for a corkscrew. ‘Sorry about the miserable hospitality. I’m only allowed one bottle a day, guests or not.’
‘No thanks,’ Tobry said curtly.
Rix rocked back on his heels. ‘You’ve never refused a drink before. What’s the matter?’
‘I told you.’
Rix poured two drinks anyway. ‘Can the man who doesn’t believe in anything be lecturing me?’
‘Remember all those weapons we don’t know how to combat? The enemy has waited a thousand years to fight this battle and it’s a holy war to them.’
‘I don’t understand.’
Tobry sat down. Rix put a goblet at his elbow and sat opposite, facing the heatstone. He did not like to look at it but it felt worse at his back.
‘I’ve been in the Caulderon archives, reading ancient enemy documents,’ said Tobry. ‘They believe Hightspall is tainted because of the illegitimate way we came by our land.’
‘We won the war.’
‘They say we won through trickery, treachery, fraud, murder and foul, illegal magery. They call Hightspall the Tainted Realm and they don’t just want victory — they want our annihilation.’ He picked up the goblet, put it down again, said, ‘What the hell?’ and took a small sip. ‘How’s the portrait going?’
‘How’s Tali?’ said Rix at the same time. He had been fretting about her ever since they had separated.
‘Sore, but — ’
‘Did you find Rannilt?’
‘Yes, though it was a near thing. Several near things, for both of us.’
‘You’d better explain.’
Tobry related what Tali had told him about her family’s enemy, and the call that was being used to track her, then paused.
‘This call …’ said Rix, struggling to comprehend something so far beyond his prosaic existence. ‘The way you say Tali’s blocking it … surely it’s got to be coming from her … from her own head.’
Tobry stared at him. ‘Out of the mouths of babes and innocents.’ ‘What do you mean?’
‘I thought she was echoing the call, reflecting it back. But from the way she described it, Tali must be originating it.’
‘How can that work?’ Rix’s ignorance of magery was so profound that he did not know where to begin.
‘I don’t know, but I’m really worried now.’ Tobry began to pace in front of the heatstone. ‘How could it come from her? Is it a part of her hidden magery?’ He sat down again, but rose at once. ‘And then there’s the one.’
‘What one?’
‘It’s what Wil, the blind seer, called her. The one. That’s why the matriarchs want her dead.’ Tobry told Rix all he knew about that.
‘The call. The one. The wrythen. It’s all a bit worrying, Tobe.’
Tobry told him about the mental attack on himself, the boiling heat in his head, the voice urging him to bring Tali to Caulderon and how she had barely managed to save him.
‘Is her enemy the same wrythen we fought in the caverns?’
‘So it would appear.’
‘And he’s killing the women of her family. Why?’
‘I can’t guess.’ Tobry rubbed his forehead, took another sip and told Rix about the rescue of Rannilt, the attack by the shadow-shifting facinore and their race for the gates of Caulderon.
‘A facinore?’ said Rix, gulping his wine and pouring another. ‘A new kind of shifter, part phantom and part flesh — or perhaps one alternating with the other? Are you seeing the connection I’m seeing?’
‘To the caitsthe and the wrythen’s caverns?’
‘Yes.’
‘It’s hunting Tali for the wrythen and it’s almost impossible to kill. What are we to do, Rix? How can we protect her?’
‘I don’t know.’ Rix raised his goblet, had a sudden image of his father swilling brandy from the bottle and put it down again. ‘When I got home and they refused to let me fight, I didn’t think things could get any worse. Now you’re saying they’re disastrously worse.’
‘And I’m not sure how long the city gates can hold.’
‘This doesn’t seem like a simple war any more. It’s starting to look like a conspiracy.’
‘But who’s manipulating whom?’
Rix took a deep breath. ‘Tobe, I need your help.’
‘You want me to guard Tali and Rannilt. I was planning to do that anyway.’
‘Er, that too,’ said Rix, who had been focusing on a different crisis. ‘I’ve got to get the palace defences ready and the men trained to fight this new enemy.’
‘How do you propose to do that?’
‘I’ve been training with Commander Horkoran since I was thirteen. He’s a worrier, but he listens to me.’ Rix smiled mirthlessly. ‘He’s got to, since Lord Ricinus takes no interest in anything beyond range of his drinking arm.’
‘What do you want me to do?’
‘First we need to make a list of all the enemy’s new weapons and tactics, then start thinking about how we can counter them.’
‘Our generals should be doing that,’ said Tobry.
‘They aren’t going to tell us though, are they? Maybe I can’t fight in the army until I’ve got an heir, but no one’s stopping me from defending my own people. If you can take Horkoran my written instructions …’ Rix trailed off. ‘Pathetic, isn’t it, but it’s the best I can do.’
‘Your fanatical attachment to this house confounds me,’ said Tobry, ‘but no one can argue with your knowledge of military matters.’
‘Then you’ll do it?’
‘With all my heart.’
Rix embraced him. ‘Thank you. We’ll beat the devils yet.’
‘Of course we will,’ Tobry said unconvincingly.
‘What did you do with Rannilt? Is she all right? Being trapped by a shifter, used as bait … I think I’d lose my mind.’
‘I know I would,’ said Tobry. ‘But she’s a tough little creature. She seems in better shape than I am. I took her to Luzia.’
Rix smiled. ‘That was kindly done. Rannilt will be good for her. It’s a struggle for Luzia now, living all alone.’
‘I know. I often visit her …’
Rix took the hint, subtle though it was. ‘I’ve neglected her. I’ll go and see her … as soon as the portrait is done.’
‘How’s it going?’
Rix sighed. ‘Not well.’
‘Why not?’
‘I hate it. What’s wrong with me, Tobe? My father was a good man once, and he deserves my respect. Why can’t I honour him with my art?’
They went up to his studio. Tobry stared at the huge portrait, walked back and forth, and studied it up close. Rix noticed that his coat hung lower on the left, as if he had something heavy in his pocket.