Friends (2013) - Adams, Robert

Emhelee began to scream. There was nothing else to do.

She knew these men, the kind they were. She had seen them often enough, villagers with airs who thought themselves Freefighters when all they were was rabble. She had heard Meehah say so many times.

As she screamed they laughed. The largest one came over and pinched her arm. “Not much meat there, is there?” he boomed. The men leered.

“No, she’s not for you,” the large man said. “For the thrice-damned Ehleenee priests, blast their black robes. But they pay well enough. Well enough for an untouched one, that is. So keep your hands off and we’ll have more than enough to feast on soon.”

Emhelee became very quiet. She understood at least a little of their meaning. They were not going to violate her, at least not now. They were going to bring her to the Ehleenee priests, of whom she had heard no good, but no real evil either. What they would want with her she couldn’t imagine, but whatever it was precluded permitting these men their natural vices. She stayed still as they bound her and set her on a pony.

“My father will pay well for my release,” Emhelee broadbeamed to the little band. She waited for an answer, for the feeling of touching another mind, and then tried again. There was no answer. Mind-deaf, they were, and that suited her perfectly. She had hoped but had not expected it.

“Midnight!” she beamed out in the direction he had gone. “Midnight, help! Two-legs have me! Stinking ones!”

There was no reply. She didn’t know where Midnight was, or if he was close enough to hear her. In panic she tried again, this time sending out broadly, trying to catch a touch of her companion.

The silence that answered her echoed in her mind. She could not find Midnight, and without the stallion, colt though he might be, she was truly alone. She began to sob quietly.

“Stop sniveling, girl,” the large man commanded her. “Or you’ll never get to the priests. Damn if we need you— there are others here. And they aren’t all that careful who they take, if you get my meaning.”

Emhelee gulped softly and pressed her eyes shut. Perhaps the priests would be kind. She knew that the Ehleenee were soft, decadent, not in the least admired among those of Harzburk. But it was possible that among them she would be unbound and could slip away. One thing she had heard was that mindspeak was rare among the Ehleenee, a thing she found hard to credit. Among those of Harzburk it was nearly as likely as not, no matter a person’s rank.

They stopped for food. The men did not untie Emhelee, but she was given a few swallows of water and a bit of cheese, which she could hardly keep down in her fear. Even the taste did not help, although it had been many days since she had had such a luxury. Her arms ached and her skin was chafed from the coarse rope that held her tight.

Then, as the band remounted and Emhelee was settled roughly on the pony, she caught a flicker of shadow between the trees. “Midnight?” she beamed cautiously.

“Sister Emhelee.” The reply was firm, though wavery and distant. It was hard to communicate over the distance, for Midnight kept himself well back in the foliage.

“Midnight, enemies, help!” Emhelee sent. “Careful, careful.” She sent again and again, hoping only that the colt could pick up her thoughts as he followed. She was aware of the black shadow behind them, far enough away to avoid immediate detection, but real communication was difficult. Still she reinforced her warning. She was not so frightened now that shfe had at least one friend who knew of her plight and who could be counted on to help. Not that Midnight was a properly trained war stallion. He was still a very young, leggy colt without the killing weight and thick bones of an adult.

Emhelee closed her eyes and her mind to such thoughts. Midnight was her best hope now. He could surely help her escape from the priests, no matter the purpose for which they wanted her.

They arrived at a large gate just past twilight. Emhelee was not familiar with this place, even where it was. She knew that they had come farther south, which pleased her, but exactly where and how far she couldn’t say. She was sure from the sun that they were slightly more to the east than when she had been captured, but there was no city here, no town or village with a name she knew. Instead there was only this large holdlike building.

A thin man with watery eyes in a black robe came out. “Oh, yes, very good,” he said, examining Emhelee. “Bring her in. The father abbot will see you shortly.”

The men grumbled, but the gate groaned and opened. A thought brushed Emhelee’s mind lightly. The priests would not notice one more horse nosing behind the rest, a black one in the quickly darkening night. “Be careful,” Emhelee repeated once more as the priests took her away.

They did not unbind her. Instead she was carried like a sack of potatoes over the shoulder of one into the stone edifice and down a flight of stairs. They had not taken her knife, strapped against her thigh in proper feminine manner. She twisted slightly so that the priest carrying her would not feel the unyielding hardness of it. Down they went again, and this time Emhelee was taken to a small chamber, where she was unceremoniously dumped.

The priests left, taking the lamp with them. She was alone in the dark, her hands still bound. “Midnight,” she beamed, knowing full well that the colt must be too far to hear. Still, against all hope she called out, the only thing she could think to do in this place. They had left her tied and had given her neither food nor water, nor even a pail to use in the comer. As her eyes became accustomed to the dark she noticed that there was no window, no spot of stars anywhere in the room. That she had expected. She was underground.

“Midnight!” This time panic boosted her sending. If she had been glad before that the men who had captured her had waited to do ill, now she was not so sure. With her knife at least she could have tried to fight or sought an honorable death so that h#r father would have been proud. Now there was only the dark and the terror of what would come. If they didn’t give her food or water they didn’t care much if she lived long, and somehow she suspected that was exactly the case. “Midnight!” It was almost a warcry, stronger than she had ever believed she could send.

A moment of recognition, of contact, and then there was nothing. Still, it reassured her. Midnight was here and had not been found. If only he lived up to his boasts, or only a quarter of them, she would find some way out.

Later Emhelee could not say if she had slept or dozed or had been awake the whole of the night. Time ran strangely locked up in the darkness without contact with any creature. When she heard the footsteps coming closer to her cell she was relieved to have the monotony broken, if only by danger.

In the flickering light, the priests’ faces were sepulchral and threatening. Emhelee shrank away from their thin-lipped grins and grasping hands. “Come, girl, it’s an honor you’re lucky to receive, ’ ’ one of the priests said, which reassured Emhelee not at all. The other shrugged, grabbed her and threw her over his shoulder. Emhelee was too exhausted to fight, even had she not been tied.

They went down a long corridor and up a flight of stairs. After another hallway they emerged into the light of day. Emhelee blinked against the brilliance of the morning sun. She could hear chanting in the distance, strange cadences in a language she could not understand. Then, from the comer of her eye, she caught a dark movement near the comer of the building.