Catherine Fisher: The Lost Heiress

“We?”

“The Watch. And the reward is big, believe me.”

Galen came close to her, suddenly. “Leave the Watch, Carys! Come with us.”

“I’ve told you I won’t. You could be all wrong, Galen. Mistaken about everything.”

He smiled coldly. “Was the Crow wrong? When you saw the House of Trees break into leaf, when you heard a voice from the stars, was all that a mistake? You know it wasn’t.”

The silence was bitter.

Then, abruptly, the door banged open and Rocallion backed in, two packs in his arms and Galen’s stick thrust through his belt. A gust of leaf-dust swirled in with him.

Carys stood up. “I’ve told you. You must do what you want about it. If the Watch find the child they’ll kill it, that’s for sure.” Then she laughed at them, eyes bright. “I’m not really with the Watch, Galen. I’m for myself, I told you that. There are things I want to find out, and being on the inside is the best way. Braylwin’s lazy; he spends every winter in the Tower of Song, and I want to go with him, because that’s where all the Watch records are kept. I need to know who I am. Where I came from. But you must find the Interrex. That word was for you.”

She was at the door, but she stopped when Raffi blurted out, “You haven’t told us how you’ve been.”

“Under suspicion.” She kicked the straw absently. “I put in a report about Tasceron. It was a masterpiece of lies—you’d have loved it, Raffi. But someone must guess I’m holding back. I was hauled off surveillance and assigned to this Braylwin. For the time being I’m stuck with him. He’s as sly as they come. And odious.”

“Be careful,” Raffi muttered.

She nodded.

Galen gave Rocallion a hurried blessing; the young man knelt hastily in the straw.

“Go back with her,” Galen told him. Then, turning to Carys, he said, “Get him into the house. I don’t want him in trouble for this, Carys. He’s done nothing but save our lives.”

“Don’t worry.”

Rocallion shook Galen’s hand, then Raffi’s. “Good luck, keepers,” he said.

“And you,” Galen answered. “Both of you.”

From the door Carys gave them a strange look. “I’ll survive. But if you find this child, Galen, will you let me know? Will you trust me enough to tell me where it is? You’ll need the Watch kept away.”

For a moment he stared at her darkly. Then he said, “You’ll hear from me, Carys.”

4

It is impossible for the agent to be overcunning, or have too little conscience.

Rule of the Watch

BRAYLWIN POURED half a flaskful of Rocallion’s best wine into a glass and sipped it, licking every drop from his lips. As Carys came in, his hand hovered over the dish of spiced chicken, picking out a succulent piece.

“Well?”

She went over to the fire and stared down angrily into the flames, leaning her forehead on the chimney-piece. “You’re scum, Braylwin. Odious, stinking scum.”

He smiled an oily smile. “Ah, poor Carys. How hard she takes it! And not even to have any reward at the end of it—because all that will be mine. Anyway, it was your idea.” He spat a bone elegantly to one side and mopped his lips. “Tell Uncle all about it.”

“Galen’s gone. And the boy.”

“You got them past the guard?”

“Only too easily.”

“And they had no idea I knew about them? None at all, Carys?”

She twisted, glaring at him. “Not from me. But Galen’s . . . Well, he’s got ways of knowing. I can’t be sure.”

“Mmm. Well, it will have to do. Because if I thought you were playing your little tricks on me, sweetie, your uncle would be annoyed. Very annoyed.”

She hated him. At that moment, staring down at his sleek skullcap, she longed to put a crossbow bolt through him, and was shocked at herself. Gripping her fists, she kept her voice calm. “I told them about the Interrex—all the information we had. I’m not sure it’ll work. He won’t know where to look any more than you.”

“He won’t. But keepers have ways of finding things out. It’s said they talk to trees.” He giggled.

“As a matter of fact,” she said savagely, “they do.”

The small, sharp eyes fixed on her. “Ah, I’d forgotten you know all about them. One day, Carys, I’ll find out exactly what did go on in Tasceron.” He scratched his cheek and selected another piece of meat. She watched him, cold with fury, his fur-trimmed coat and the tiny black skullcap he wore to keep warm. “They’ll find the Interrex for us. What keeper could resist it?” He licked his thumb. “And as you say, it saves us doing any of the work. We get them, and the child, and a nice fat sack of gold. Or at least I do. Probably promotion too.”

“What about me?”

He wagged a greasy finger at her. “You get away with your life, sweetheart. And Uncle doesn’t tell about that business at Carner’s Haven.”

She turned back to the fire, knowing he was smirking behind her. “Galen is worth ten of you,” she snarled.

“He is, is he? That remark is enough to get you two years patrolling ice. Or worse. If you play games with the Watch, Carys, you pay the price.” She heard him clink his glass thoughtfully. “Does it hurt so much to betray them—the keeper, the boy, the cat-creature? Perhaps it does. Long ago I might have felt the same.”

“I doubt it.”

He glanced over. “High and mighty. But underneath, you and I are just the same, Carys.”

Suddenly her disgust was too much. She turned and stalked past him, slamming the door, pushing two of Rocallion’s house-girls aside. Upstairs, in the small room she’d taken for herself, she flung the crossbow down and herself after it, onto the bed.

How could she have brought herself to this? Been so stupid?

Rolling over, she stared up at the ceiling, thinking back to Carner’s Haven.

It had been the first time she’d seen the Watch take children, and it had shaken her. The patrol had ridden down to the village early, Braylwin on his new green-painted horse, but somehow the villagers had had warning. The place was in total confusion. All the children under ten were in hiding, the men yelling threats and the women screeching with anger and fear. “Search the place!” he’d roared, and she’d been the one to go into the barn in the last field and see the little girl wriggling halfway out of the straw.

Thumping the mattress, Carys got up and went to the window, tugging it open. Leaf-dust drifted against her lips.

Carefully she remembered that moment. The girl had been about four or five, crying, her face contorted with terror. The mother had burst out of hiding between them.

“For God’s sake,” she’d breathed. “Let her go! Let us go!”

It was only then Carys had realized the crossbow had been loaded and aimed; she’d lowered it abruptly, astonished.

Why had she let them escape? Even now she wasn’t sure. Was it that the little girl with the brown hair might have been herself, all those years ago? Had she cried when the Watch took her? She couldn’t remember. She couldn’t remember her mother or father, her village, anything before the grim stone rooms and snowy courtyards of Watchtower 547, Marn Mountain. Maybe that was why she’d lifted the baby and pushed her hurriedly through a gap in the back wall to the mother outside. Thinking about it made her feel uneasy, even now. Galen would have been pleased. Why did it matter what Galen thought?

She looked up unhappily for the moons, but they were lost behind cloud; pale strange edges and nebulous glimmers. It would have been all right, but when she had turned around Braylwin had been standing inside the barn door, looking at her. He’d seen enough; she’d known instantly that he would use it against her. All he’d said was, “Oh, sweetheart!” in that mock-surprised, stupid way he had. But he’d seen.