Grince's thoughts wound down into a small, cold silence, in which he realized all too clearly that Pendral would not forget-not while he had a breath left in his body. All at once, the thief was seized with panic. G.o.ds help me, I can't go back to Nexis, he thought. I can never go back there-I've lost everything! He threw himself to the ground and huddled there, oppressed and terrified by these vast, empty open s.p.a.ces that stretched out around him. without a building or a fireside or a person within dozens of miles. And Grince needed people. Stealing was the only thing he knew. Out here he couldn't feed himself, shelter himself, or even make a fire.

"Grince? Are you hurt?" A hand touched his shaking shoulder. Looking up, Grince discovered that Aurian had used her friends the great cats to track him down. She squatted down beside him, frowning. "What happened? Did you fall?"

It took a moment for the thief to realize that the look on her face was not condemnation but concern. "What do you care?" he snapped.

"Well, somebody has to," the Mage retorted, equally brusque. "Clearly you don't." She held out her hand. "Are you coming back to the camp? We're getting ready to leave."

Grince looked away from her. "They don't want me."

"I wouldn't be at all surprised, after the way you behaved- but whether they want you or not has nothing to do with it," Aurian told him briskly. "They certainly wouldn't leave you alone out here to starve. Anyway," she went on, "no one is really angry with you, Grince-just disappointed, that's all."

"What's the difference?" the thief muttered sullenly.

"A whole lot of bruises, for a start." A cold grey spark of anger was beginning to kindle in the Mage's green eyes, and Grince felt an obscure satisfaction at having put it there. He had been s.n.a.t.c.hed away from everything he had known, he felt lonely and scared, uncertain and helpless in this strange new world, but at least he had managed to influence something in his immediate surroundings.

Then it all went wrong as Aurian got to her feet and began 234M. aggie F u r e y to walk away without a backward look. "We're leaving soon," she flung curtly over her shoulder. "You'd better be ready, because we're not waiting for you, we're not coming back for you, and Mandzurano certainly won't let you ride with his folk now that you've been pilfering his cargo. To perish of cold and starvation on this moor would be a very unpleasant way to die, but it's entirely up to you."

She was almost out of sight before Grince realized, to his horror, that she really meant what she'd said. With a thrill of fear he thought of wandering these desolate uplands all alone. What about when night came? He'd be stuck out here in the cold and darkness. . . . Clearly the wayfarers steered clear of well-traveled trails-no one might pa.s.s by this place in months, if ever. And were there wolves on these moors?

Grince took to his heels and pelted after the vanishing figure of the Mage. "WaitV he shrieked. "Lady-wait for me!"

His reception had been cool when he had returned to the camp, but Aurian, without really saying anything much, always seemed to be between himself and the wrath of the others-Hargorn, in particular. It had been she who had selected the quietest of the ponies-the spotted mare-for him

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The feeble moon was dipping down behind the hills, and Grince was feeling the shivery, light-headed weariness that came of still being up and about in the deepest hours of the night. He s.n.a.t.c.hed at the horse's mane with a curse as Hargorn, in front of him, stopped suddenly and the spotted mare barged into him from behind. Hargom's animal let fly with a vicious kick, the mare plunged to one side-and the thief found himself on the ground once more. As Aurian had taught him he rolled to one side, out of range of the pounding hooves, and simply lay there, too miserable and weary to rise.

The Mage materialized out of the darkness and s.n.a.t.c.hed at the mare's bridle before the beast had time to bolt. "Don't bother remounting," she said-rather unnecessarily, Grince thought-"we're stopping here."

The thief awakened to a cold, grey world. He was wrapped in a blanket and the cloak that Hargorn had found for him back 235.

at the Unicorn, and he was curled up in the midst of a nest of springy bracken. Dimly, he remembered his bitter resentment the previous night, when Aurian had made him gather the stuff. He could see the sense of it now, however-it was bed and windbreak both, and far preferable to lying on the short, unyielding turf of a windswept hillside.

The thief rubbed bleary eyes and got to his feet-at least he tried to rise. To his horror, he found he was so stiff that he could barely move, and he ached as though someone had sneaked up in the night and beaten him with a stout stick while he slept. Too wretched and dispirited even to curse, Grince flopped back into the bracken with a despairing whimper.

"What's wrong withyow? Come on-you can't laze around all day. We've got to get moving soon."

The thief looked up to see Hargorn standing over him. Glaring up at the elderly warrior, Grince told him in acid tones exactly where he could go, and what he could do when he got there.

Hargorn burst into mocking laughter. "Why don't you make me?" he taunted. "You gutless, ball-less little t.u.r.d."

With a yell of rage, Grince leapt to his feet, fists clenched- to find that Hargorn was already standing several feet away. The veteran held up his hands placatingly. "Steady, Grince-I didn't mean it. See, though-I knew you could get up if you tried. Instead of killing me, why don't you go and get yourself some breakfast, lad." He walked away chuckling.

"Poor old Grince, you look terrible."

In his rage at Hargorn, he hadn't noticed the Mage approach. "Here," she said, "sit down for a minute and I'll help you."

"I daren't sit down-if I do I might never get back up again," , Grince told her sourly. Nonetheless, he did as she asked. Aurian knelt down behind him and laid her hands on his shoulders, and immediately, the thief felt a tingling wave of warmth and well-being flood through his battered body. Within moments, it seemed, the aches and stiffness had melted away as though they had never existed.

"There." The Mage was smiling. "That should get you through the day. No doubt you'll have collected another set of aches and pains by tonight, but I can always help you again-and it will get better, 1 promise you. Why, in a few days you'll be thinking you were born in the saddle."

236Ma.ggiefu.rey "Why-why thank you, Lady." For the first time in his life, the words came easily to Grince's lips.

Aurian laid a hand on his arm. "You told me yesterday that you have no friends. Well, you were wrong about that. You have friends here, and I'm sure you'll find others when we get to Wyvernesse. But friendship works both ways, you know. You must trust folk, and they must be able to feel they can trust you. You won't need to steal from the Nightrunners. They're generous folk, and they'll provide what you need."

She rose to her feet, dusting bits of gra.s.s from her knees. "You think about it. Anyway, there's toillin in the pot and some bread by the fire. Eat quickly-Forral is getting the horses ready now, and we must be on our way again." She walked away toward the horses, leaving a very thoughtful thief behind her.

The Mage and her companions rode eastward for another three days, across the bleak and windswept moors. At last the land began to dip, and sunrise on the fourth day found them in a wild, primitive stretch of salt marsh and dune yhere a river had carved a shallow vale on its way down to an estuary. The land was grey and drear, the only vegetation sharp-edged marram gra.s.s and th.o.r.n.y sea-holly. The shrill, lonely cries of gulls and wading birds sounded on the bitter wind, as the red sun struggled vainly to free itself from the blood-tinged clouds smothering the hills to the east.

The Mage turned her horse northward along the coast and the others followed her in a straggling, weary string. Aurian chafed at their slow pace, anxious to get back on the trail of her foe. She was almost certain that Eliseth must have gone south, across the ocean, for scrying had failed to find a trace of her. At Wyvernesse, where the vast Earth-magic of the mysterious standing stone might be harnessed, she hoped to find out more. The Mage remembered the stone from her previous sojourn with the Nightrunners, but at that point, she'd had neither the time nor the need to examine it more closely. She had never forgotten it, but had stored its existence in her memory for the future.

As the companions rode northward, the coastline gradually grew more rocky, until at last they were riding along the top of a craggy cliff, looking down upon narrow beaches of shingle guarded by fanged and jagged rocks. Then, breasting one last rise, Aurian suddenly found herself in sight of her Vhia.mm3.ra.

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destination. There was the crescent bay, embraced by the reddish cliffs that rose behind it. And there, above the cliffs, was the smooth green knoll, crowned by its dark and sinister stone.

Even from this distance, Aurian could feel the stone's power beating around her like dark, gigantic wings. She inhaled deeply and threw back her hood, letting the fierce exhilaration course through her body and taking it for her own. At her side, she felt the Staff of Earth begin to pulse in time with this other source of power, and at her back the Harp began to thrum in harmony with them both. Soon, she promised them. We'll come back soon. Then she turned away from the glory and took her tired horse along the clifftop, toward the smuggler's haven.

After a short distance the Mage came to a V-shaped niche in the cliff. Looking down, Aurian could see the beginnings of a path in the crevice-a narrow ledge that followed a fault line where the slabs of rock had slipped. It doubled sharply back the way they had come. Forral, who had never been here before, looked at it dubiously. "We have to take the horses down there?"

Aurian shook her head. "No, thank goodness. There's a tunnel somewhere around here that they use to take their horses down when the weather's bad. The only trouble is, it's very well hidden, and I'm not sure I could find it again. ..."

Hargom rode up, dragging Grince's horse behind him. "If I remember rightly," he said, "it's in one of those gorse thickets, over there."

The horses, who had been here before, delivering contraband goods to the Nightrunners, also seemed familiar with the way. They pressed forward eagerly, knowing there was food and a well-earned rest nearby. But when the companions reached the thicket of tall, leggy gorse, there seemed to be no way in. "Are you sure this is the right place?" Aurian was asking dubiously, when a voice that seemingly came from nowhere, cried, "Hargornl By all the G.o.ds-what are you doing here?"

One of the bushes was pushed outward, supported at the back by a wooden frame, and revealed a narrow, thorn-fringed pa.s.sage that sloped down into the ground. From its entrance a lithely built young man with tow-colored hair stepped into the open. He gasped in astonishment as his eyes fell on the Mage. "Lady Aurian! It is you! At last you've come back to us!" His face lit up with the broadest of smiles. "And 2 3 8M. a. gg i e F u r e y Anvar too," he went on joyously. "How lucky that I was keeping watch today, dull task though it usually is. Come, come." He gestured them inside. "Zanna will be so glad to see you] I can't wait to surprise her."

The Mage leapt down from her horse and embraced Tar-nal with delight, then followed him down into the steeply sloping tunnel, the others close upon her heels. They left their weary mounts in the stable cavern, where a young Night-runner lad came up to care for them. Aurian glanced back as they left the cavern to see the youth staring with wide-eyed curiosity after them; wondering, no doubt, who these strange visitors might be.

The huge torchlit cavern with its shingle beach was astir with people, all going busily about their daily business, mending fishnets and sails, performing essential repairs on the anch.o.r.ed smuggler vessels, and transporting bales and crates ash.o.r.e from one of the ships and taking them into the storage caverns whose tunnel mouths spotted the rear of the ma.s.sive cave. Tarnal stopped a little girl, who was running along with the serious mien of someone on an importa/it errand. "Can you fetch Zanna . . . ?" he began, but the child interrupted him.

"She's just over there."

Zanna was dressed indentically to her Nightrunners, in supple, waterproofed boots and st.u.r.dy seaman's clothing. She was bending over one of the bales that had burst open, seemingly during transit, and shaking her head. "No, there's water damage here, sure enough. This fabric will be stained for good. By all that's holy, Geven-can't you be more careful? The whole bale's lost. We can't trade this-we'll have to use it ourselves for-" At that moment she looked up and saw the Mage. "Aurian!"

For the first time, Aurian became truly aware of how many years had pa.s.sed during her absence. Zanna was a woman now: capable, confident, and very much in command. She had cropped her hair short and her skin was brown and weathered by sea and wind. Yet many of the fine lines had been penciled on her face by laughter, and there was wit and wisdom in her eyes. Joyfully, the two women embraced, then, as if conscious of the palpable curiosity emanating from the folk around them, Zanna swung around to face the interested throng. "Now, you lot-no need to stand there gawking. You'll meet our visitors in good time. If anyone has no work to do, I Oh i a m m 3. r a.

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can soon find them some," she added ominously. The crowd melted away as if by magic.

Aurian chuckled. "I recognize Dulsina in those words," she teased.

A fleeting shadow dimmed Zanna's smile for an instant, and was gone almost before the Mage could notice it was there. The Nightrunner woman shrugged. "If a ploy works, why not steal it?" She turned to the others. "It's wonderful to see you, Anvar, Hargorn ..." Her words tailed off as she looked doubtfully at Grince, and the silent, shrouded form of Finbarr.

"Let's go somewhere private," Aurian suggested in a low voice. "We have a tremendous lot to tell you and Tarnal."

Zanna nodded. "I can well imagine. Besides, you must see Dulsina-I'd better let her know we have visitors, or we'll hear about it. Yanis is away at sea at present, but we're expecting him back in a day or two. ..." As she spoke, she was leading Aurian and the others up the beach and into one of the tunnels, which Aurian recognized as leading to the cozy cavern with the wide fireplace that the Nightrunners used as a general common room and meeting -hall. Zanna paused with her hand on the doorframe. "By the way, I have a surprise for you. Another visitor arrived here a few weeks ago." She opened the door and stood back to let the Mage pa.s.s first.

Aurian stopped short on the threshold, utterly thunderstruck. There, sitting alone by the fire, was one of the Winged Folk.

Dh i a. m m 2 r a.

24 1.

Chapter 17.

Snowsilver and Frost*

/vurian stared in amazement at the slender, brown-winged young woman. Something about her seemed vaguely familiar. . . . The young girl had no such doubts. She leapt to her feet and made a deep obeisance, her pointed little face wreathed in smiles of pure relief. "Lady! By the grace of Yinze you are here. This is good fortune beyond my wildest hopes!" As she straightened, the veneer of formality began to crack. "I never thought I'd get here," she confided. "I would have perished in the ocean for sure, had 1 not found Master Yanis's ship."

For the first time, Aurian noticed that the girl's limbs bore a colorful collection of fading bruises, and that her wings were tattered and bedraggled, with pinions frayed and flight feathers missing. One wing was held at a skewed, unnatural angle, with its tip trailing along the floor. The Mage came out of her daze of astonishment to peer closely into the young girl's face-but it was the thick mop of l.u.s.trous brown curls that finally jogged her memory. "1 know who you are!" she said suddenly. "You're that child-the one who found Hreeza in the temple."

"That's right, Lady, I..."

"Come along, Linnet," Zanna interrupted firmly. "Where are your manners? Let the Lady Aurian and her friends get to the fire-they've had a long and wearying ride, and there'll be time enough for your news when they've rested a little. Run along to the kitchen, why don't you, and tell them we have five hungry visitors, then bring Dulsina back here."

Linnet looked crestfallen. "All right, Zanna." Lifting the dragging wingtip, the girl scurried away, with one last, reluctant glance over her shoulder at the Mage.

Aurian shook her head, still dumbfounded. "My dear Zanna-where in the world did she come from?"

"You'd be amazed at the things we smugglers manage to find," the Nightrunner woman chuckled dryly, "though that one surprised us all. There was a dreadful storm, near on a month ago, and Yanis was out in the midst of it. It's as well he's such a good seaman-he was lucky not to lose his ship and all hands. Linnet was lucky too, that he happened to be there. She landed on his deck during the tempest, otherwise she would have drowned for sure. The poor creature was too exhausted from battling the wind-she would never have reached the sh.o.r.e."

"But what in the world possessed her to make such a long and dangerous journey?" Aurian said wonderingly.

Zanna shrugged. "She was looking for you, apparently. It broke her heart when I told her you had vanished-but I'll let her tell her own story." Her expression clouded. "It's been nothing but grief and heartache for all of us, this last year or so."

Aurian took her hands. "Yes, I know about Vannor. Zanna, I'm so-sorry. .. ."

"Vannor brought his troubles on himself" said a harsh voice from the doorway. "Unfortunately, he brought them on the rest of us, too."

The Mage turned-and struggled to keep her dismay from showing on her face. But Dulsina wasn't old, she thought. Alas, that was no longer true. Dulsina was almost unrecognizable from the straight and sprightly woman she remembered. Time and grief had fallen heavy on her shoulders, bowing her back as though she carried some incalculable burden. Her 242M 3ggi e Furey glossy dark hair, always so impeccably neat, had turned snow-white and straggled in wisps about her face, and her once-flawless skin, of which she'd always been so proud, was now furrowed with lines of bitterness and anger When she saw the Mage her eyes flashed wrathfully, and she drew herself stiffly back as though she were about to spit in Aurian's face. "You came back too late, Mage," she hissed. "It was you who loosed the Phaerie on us, and then went away to escape the consequences of your deed. Well, it's too late now." She jabbed an accusing finger into Aurian's face. "The damage has been done, and for all your magic, you can't bring back the lives that have been sacrificed."

The stricken Mage backed away from her, utterly lost for words. What can I say, she thought, in the face of such hostility? What could I do to make amends? How can I even be angry with such a pitiful, ruined creature?

"Dulsina, you forget yourself," Zanna said sharply. "Aurian is not accountable for the evil of the Phaerie, nor is she responsible for Vannor's folly. One was brought upon us by the other, when that poison robbed my father of his wits. YoVd do better to put the blame where it truly lies, at the feet of his would-be a.s.sa.s.sin. You do neither yourself nor the rest of us any credit by carrying on in this fashion."

His eyes dark with sorrow, Hargorn stepped between the three women and took Dulsina's arm with care. "Come on, old friend," he prompted. "Don't distress yourself. Come talk with me a while instead. Hebba gave me all the gossip from Nexis to pa.s.s on to you." With gentle solicitude, he led her from the room.

The Mage stood without speaking, her face pale but rigidly expressionless. Only Forral, who had known her for so many years, saw the depths of her dismay and the distress that she so carefully concealed. He went to her and took her. arm, unconsciously echoing Hargorn's gesture. "Come on, la.s.s," he said, breaking the awkward, uneasy silence that had settled on the room. "The poor old creature is deranged-she didn't mean it." Feeling the infinitesimal tremor that ran through her body, he led her to a chair near the fire. "Come now-rest awhile, love. We're all tired."

"Aurian, I'm so sorry." Zanna's face was crimson with embarra.s.sment, and she was all but wringing her hands in distress. "Dulsina hasn't been well since-but I had no idea she Vhia.mma.ra.

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would act that way. I-I'll go and see what has happened to that food." She scurried from the room.

What in the name of perdition had that been all about? the swordsman wondered. Once more he cursed Death for blocking his access to the Well of Souls and preventing him from observing the world he had left. There were so many hidden undercurrents in this place-so much was going on that he didn't understand. When he had been Commander of the Garrison, for instance, he had never known that Wyver-nesse existed-and he would have paid good gold for the information. These blasted Nightrunners had been a thorn in his side for years, and it had never occurred to him what good people they might be.

That winged girl, too, had been a shock. She had left him reeling. Though he had once glimpsed Raven, Aurian's former winged companion, in the Well of Souls, that was a far more detached experience than actually meeting one of the legendary Skyfolk face-to-face. And how can I help Aurian if I don't know the half of what's going on? he thought despairingly.

Well, he would do what he had always done-his best. Looking around, Forral realized with a twinge of unease that both Grince and the eldritch creature who had once been Finbarr had managed to lose themselves somewhere between this common room and the cavern where the ships were anch.o.r.ed. Then he put them out of his mind. Save for the two great cats, he and Aurian were left alone for the first time since their initial meeting in the Mages' Tower.

The Mage was gazing bleakly into the fire, and Forral, desperate to comfort her but unsure of her reaction, knelt down beside her and reached out a tentative hand to ruffle her hair, as he had done when she was a child. Aurian turned sharply- but there was grat.i.tude in her eyes, not hostility. With a sigh, she took his hand and rested her head against his shoulder. "I know I find it difficult to show you, Forral," she said softly, "but truly, I'm glad to have you back.

Grince had taken advantage of everyone's preoccupation with the mad old woman to slip away and do a little exploring on his own account. It's all very well for the Mage to tell me to trust these folk, he thought, but I'd prefer to know a little more about them first. Where would I possibly fit into a place like this?

244Maggie Furey Retracing his steps, he made his way back to the huge cavern that berthed the Nightrunner fleet. He had been intrigued and entranced by the ships-even before Nexis had lost its river, he had never seen vessels such as these, with their intricate figureheads and sleek, rakish lines. Also, it wouldn't do any harm to see what was in those bales they had been unloading. .. .

On the busy, crowded beach, no one noticed one small, extra figure. Grince loitered for a time near the men who were unloading cargo, but to his disappointment they did not open any of the boxes and bales, but carried them away just as they were. After a while he lost interest and wandered off along the curving beach, giving a wide berth to an old man who was seated on a low stool at the water's edge, gutting a pile of slimy, smelly fish. For a time he watched the men and women who mended the nets and sails, but it was a dull activity that soon palled.

The thief was just about to leave them to it and go in search of something to eat when his attention was drawn to a whole spate of swearing coming from one of the ship* that was anch.o.r.ed nearby.

"b.u.g.g.e.r it! The b.l.o.o.d.y main gaff's jammed solidl"

"Well climb up and free the cussed thing then."

"Me? Not on your life, mate. My mast-climbing days were over long since. That's a young man's game."

"Well there's a young man, across on the sh.o.r.e. You! Hey you! Hop in a dinghy and get your lazy backside over here!"

To his horror, Grince realized that they were shouting at him. "Me?" Hastily he backed away from the water's edge. "But I don't know how ..."

The two old shipwrights exchanged a look of disgust. "I'm not having this. You go and get him."

"No, you go."

The greybeard who was gutting fish looked up from his work and spat into the water. "Don't strain yourselves, will you?" he said derisively. "I'll bring the lad." He grabbed hold of Grince, covering his tunic with smelly fish scales, and bundled him into a small boat. Before the thief knew what was happening, or could explain that he didn't even know how to swim, he was afloat and heading out into the deeper water of the bay.

Ignoring his protests, they hauled him aboard the smuggler ship. One of the old men looked at him, a slight frown Dhiammara.

245.

creasing his forehead. "Whose lad are you?" he demanded in puzzled tones. "You know, I can't quite place you...."

"Oh, come on, Jeskin," the other cut in, "or we'll be here all b.l.o.o.d.y night. What difference does it make whose lad he is, so long as he can climb." He turned to Grince. "Lad, can you climb?"

"Can I climb?"The thief couldn't conceal his grin. Perhaps these Nightrunners would have some use for his unorthodox talents after all. "Can a fish swim?"

The two old men looked thoroughly unimpressed. "Well climb up that mast and cut the gaff free."

in that moment, Grince regretted showing off. What in the name of all the G.o.ds was a gaff supposed to be? Why and how was it stuck up the mast? And that mast seemed awfully high and spindly, and the ship was rocking on the water in the most unnerving way .. .