Janice Hardy - Darkfall

Lanelle was sitting outside the coffeehouse. She rose when we approached, but I shook my head. She stopped, watching us with worried eyes.

The soldiers took us into the guardhouse. One guard sat at a worn table, eating lunch. Shaggy hair a bit too long, worn uniform. Perhaps a local, one of the farmers’ sons. He glanced up, then looked again and jumped to his feet.

“Afternoon, sir.”

The soldier holding Danello’s arm frowned. “Prisoners.”

“Yes, sir.” The guard hurried over to a rack by the door and pulled a key ring off a peg. A reward poster hung on the wall next to it. My reward poster, the same one Vyand had nailed up in Geveg to flush me out. It wasn’t the best drawing, but it was accurate enough. Heart pounding, I angled my face away and let my much shorter and blacker hair fall across my cheek.

What if they recognised me? What if they’d been told to look for me?

The soldier glanced around the room, his lip curling in distaste. “Where’s the other guard? Betaal told you to maintain two at all times.”

“And I keep telling her we only have two.” He unlocked the cell and stood to one side. “She wants to send some of you soldiers over to help us out, I’ll be happy to take a day off.”

The soldier grunted and pushed Danello forward. He stumbled into the cell, a typical ten-foot-square box with two cots. The soldier on my arm let me go, and I walked inside. If they saw that poster and looked at me closely…

“What did they do?” the guard asked, his gaze on my bloodstained shirt.

“Theft.”

A puzzled frown. “What’d they steal?”

“Healing.”

“You arrested them for—”

The soldier stepped close to the guard. “That’s the same as stealing pynvium.”

The guard gulped. “Yes, it is.”

“Stay with him,” the soldier told the other.

“Yes, sir.”

I sat on one of the cots, my back to the soldier and guard. Danello sat next to me. The guards had no reason to look at that reward poster. It was at least four months old. As long as I didn’t do anything foolish, we could bide our time and wait for a rescue.

By now Lanelle had told Aylin and Quenji what had happened. The cell lock would be easy for Quenji to pick, but getting him inside and the guards outside wouldn’t be. All three were probably studying the jail right now, looking for weaknesses, ways to get inside, tricks to play on the guards. Well, maybe two. Lanelle was probably trying to get them both to run.

I took Danello’s hand. This time it was up to Aylin to come up with the plan.

Unless Lanelle didn’t tell her.

I jerked, every muscle tense. What if Lanelle had run? What if she hadn’t even tried to find Aylin or Quenji? They might not even know we’d been arrested.

My guts twisted. Were our lives really in Lanelle’s hands?

Saea have mercy on us all.

Rumbling of dozens of wheels broke the silence. The light had left the windows hours ago, and an orange sunset lit the trees I could see. The soldier rose and looked outside.

“What’s going on?” asked the guard.

“Horses. Go see what’s going on.”

“Me?”

“Or stay here and deal with whoever attacks if that happens to be a distraction.”

The guard rolled his eyes. “I’ll be right back.” He slipped outside.

The soldier stood by the door, hand on his sword. Mere feet from the reward poster.

“Doesn’t sound like the Duke’s men,” whispered Danello. Didn’t to me, either.

“Refugees?”

“On horseback?”

Voices rose and fell, not arguing, but more than simple conversation. Maybe the guard was telling them they had to leave.

The door opened a few minutes later and the guard returned. He looked nervous.

“Well?” the soldier asked. His hand still hadn’t left his sword.

“Undying,” he said, voice quivering. My heart stopped for a beat.

The soldier glared at him, his blue eyes narrowed. “You mean the Wardens ?”

So the Undying had an official name. I was surprised I’d never heard it before.

The guard nodded. “Wardens, yes, that’s what I meant. Six of them, plus a dozen soldiers.”

Saints, no. If Lanelle hadn’t run, she sure as spit would now.

“What did they want?”

“They didn’t tell me, they just demanded to see my commander. I sent them to the traveller’s house.”

I looked at Danello. Hoped I didn’t look that scared.

“What do we do?” the guard said.

The soldier frowned and glanced over at us. “We follow orders and guard the prisoners.”

Sunset turned to dusk. I couldn’t see what was going on outside, but the noises came and went. After a while, the door opened and another soldier came in, sergeant bars on her collar. The guard leaped to his feet; the other soldier rose casually.

“We have trouble,” she said. “Looks like the Shifter might be in the area.”

Shiverfeet raced down my back.

“Coming after the Healer?”

“Wouldn’t be the first Healer she’s killed.”

Danello squeezed my hand. They thought I was here to kill Healers? What in Saea’s name had the Duke said about me?

“She didn’t kill them, she saved them,” the guard said. Both soldiers turned their gazes on him. He stepped back. “Well, that’s what I’ve heard.”

The woman snorted. “Tell that to the dead.”

The guard said nothing. I wanted to say something to defend myself, foolish as it was.

“The Wardens told Betaal that the Shifter was seen at a farm a few days’ ride from here,” the woman said, “but the place is abandoned now. They’re convinced she came this way.”

They must have arrived at the farm right after we’d left. Someone must have told them I was there, one of the aristocrats who’d seen me. A spy in Little ’Crat City with some message birds maybe. They couldn’t have got there so fast otherwise.

“I’ll keep my eyes open. What am I looking for?”

“A girl, short black hair, sixteen or so.” She paused, then reached over and yanked the reward poster off the wall. “Like this, actually. Memorise this face, but do not approach her on your own.”

“She’s really that dangerous?”

“Ask Gemid. She almost killed his whole squad.”

“Of Undy – I mean, Wardens? I thought they were invulnerable.”

“No one’s impervious to everything.” She glared at him and slapped the poster against his chest. “You see this girl, you find us. Clear?”

“Yeah.”

She raised an eyebrow.

“Yes, Sergeant.”

The guard sank on to his stool the moment the door thunked shut. “I like my sergeant better,” he muttered.

Danello looked over, but his it’s-all-going-to-be-OK smile didn’t make me feel any better. The guards had looked at the poster. As soon as they looked at me again, they’d recognise me.

I had no pain to use unless we hurt ourselves. Even if we did, they might see me before they came close enough for me to shift it. And if one of them got away and told the others…

Hurry, Aylin, hurry.

* * *

Dusk turned to dark. Nervous murmurs and the occasional scream drifted in through the window. The Undying were probably questioning everyone in the town. Folks had seen me in the coffeehouse and when we’d gone to see Soek. If they told the Undying about a dark-haired girl who’d been arrested…

“I can probably handle the soldier if I catch him by surprise,” Danello whispered. “Can you take out the guard?”

“Maybe. Definitely if he stabs me.”

“Are you allowed to play cards?” the guard asked the soldier. “Or will your sergeant disapprove?”

“You got coin?”