CHAPTER 9.

I awoke to gray daylight, but the sound of voices kept me from sitting up or making any noise at all. At first I couldn't remember why it was necessary to be so quiet, except that it was often necessary in the days of my growing up on the streets, to avoid the owner of the building I'd slept in, or members of the city guard on their rounds. Then I saw Rikkan ^.ddis just below the open window, listening to what was bemg said, and it all came back.

Before whoever was outside the barn left, I was able to notice that the misty drizzle of the night before had turned into a heavy, monotonous rain, and that Rikkan Addis'

rust-colored leather shirt was no longer on him. Somehow it had gotten draped over my back instead, making it necessary for only my legs to burrow under the thick straw- The rain made the day almost as cold as the night had been, and lying there unmoving was no ch.o.r.e at all.

After the voices had stopped and sounds came of horses moving on, my companion took a quick peek out the window, then crawled closer to where I was lying.

"That's twice this place has been checked, and twice they've left satisfied we couldn't be here," he said, keep- ing his voice low but not whispering. "They know the locks can't be opened except with a key, and hoist ropes are never allowed to hang free from loft windows. Since there's no other way in, we can't be here. And since the

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rain wiped out any tracks we might have left, all they can do is ride around in circles, hoping to stumble over us where we're hiding in the fields."

"While we lie safe and comfortable behind locks that can't be opened without a key," I said, watching him lean on his elbows while I raised up on mine. "What would we have done if that rope hadn't been left out accidentally? Or if they used those sniffers the small man mentioned the other night to track us? Ones, I might add, they may still use."

"They can't use their sniffers," he denied with some- thing of a grin, his bronze eyes glowing very faintly. "Our first visitors were discussing that very point, and cursing their luck and the sniffers together. It seems that the animals have no trouble picking up my scent, but flatly refuse to follow it no matter what their handlers do to try forcing or bribing them. Very wise animals, those sniffers, to know the difference between legitimate quarry and a G.o.d."

"Anything that would go after a link-beast would have to be crazy," I said with a snort, appreciating the point.

"But you still haven't said what would have happened if we hadn't been lucky enough to find that rope."

"Luck had nothing to do with it," he answered, a strange, soft expression flickering briefly in the eyes that watched me. "That rope was left out on purpose, but the story will make more sense if I start from the beginning.

"Kadrim, Zail and I finished off the rest of those na- tives as fast as we could, but by then the ones who had taken you had too much of a lead for us to catch up with them. instead of wasting our time trying, we rode after Su and Dranna, and then the five of us sat down to do some planning. Kadrim ended up working out most of the de- tails, but we all had a hand in putting it together.

"We spent the rest of the day hiding, then at nightfall made our way back to the city. It had been decided not to take any unnecessary chances, so Kadrim and Dranna stayed with the horses while Su, Zail and I entered the city on foot. Su was following the trail of a horse carrying double, and, thanks to your friend the wizard, had no trouble following it in the dark through the streets of a

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city. To keep from being seen we practically had to inch our way along in the tavern district, but eventually we reached the place you'd been taken-a palace it didn't seem possible to sneak into. At that point Zail took over the lead, and we followed him on a tour around the outside walls.

"When he stopped in front of one wall no different from any of the others, Su and 1 thought he was giving up. It was dark as the inside of a bear on that street, but his special talent must have had a treatment like the one Su's tracking talent was given. His hand had been moving along the blank wall as we walked, and suddenly he was standing still and using nothing but that hand. Once it found what it was looking for he began using the other one. and then both of them were moving together. It was fairly clear he thought he'd discovered something, and five minutes later he proved he was right. He pressed hard high up on the wall, and the door leading to that pa.s.sage popped open. He muttered something about it being a fairly simple, fairly obvious bolt-hole, but whatever it was, it gave me a way in.

"According to plan, Zail and Su left to go back to Kadrim and Dranna, and I entered the palace alone. I waited until 1 knew they had to be'clear of the city, then 1 began prowling around, following the side pa.s.sages off the main one, trying to pick up your scent. My link-shape would have known it if I came anywhere near you, but not once did I catch any hint of your presence. After hours of getting nowhere 1 took some time out to sleep, then went to my alternate plan once I was rested enough to do it. 1 couldn't find your scent anywhere, but there was another scent all around I couldn't miss. The G.o.d-king must have inspected his secret tunnel on a regular basis, and by checking all the doors leading out, I finally found where he was. I knew they'd be bringing you to him at some time. so watching him seemed the second best way of locating you. I listened at the door. stepped out right on the cue he gave me, then went on from there.

"Right now we're following the last of Kadrim's plan, the part that was taken care of early last night. Dranna opened the locks to let them bring our horses in here. and

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while that was being done the rope was dropped out of the window. Leaving one of the locks open would have been easier than the rope, but the locks also need a key to close them, and without Dranna we wouldn't have been able to manage it- We all knew it wouldn't be possible to get you out of the city before dark, but we didn't know whether there would be pursuit or not. If we'd gotten out in the clear, we would have broken a lock, left the stolen horses here in exchange for ours, and then would have continued on to where we'll be meeting the others. With half the city looking for us and daylight not far off, we had to use the barn as a hideout- Which is just as well. Are you hungry?"

It so happened 1 was very hungry, but for some reason 1 wasn't ready to accept the thought of food. There were still a few things to be said, and putting them off was something else 1 wasn't ready to do.

"How did you know their G.o.d-king was someone like you, someone with a link-shape?" 1 asked, ignoring his question. "And how did you know you could beat him?"

"1 didn't know," he said with a very brief hesitation, shifting over onto his left side but still keeping his eyes on me. "Until I entered that pa.s.sageway and picked up his scent, 1 had no idea what he was. I doubt very much that he was bom on this world, most likely he came through a gate somehow, and then was stranded here. Whether he came through insane or became that way because of the long years of exile is something else I don't know, but living as a G.o.d-king certainly impaired his judgment. Just because he was still in his prime he thought he could take me, and didn't understand until the very end that I was an active fighter while his years of action were far behind him. Tearing apart helpless, terrified natives isn't the same as facing one of your own, especially not in link-shape."

"Then you came in after me without-having any idea of what you'd be facing," 1 summed up, feeling that strange feeling of anger and something else that seemed to have begun the night before without my being completely aware of it. "Without even stopping to think about it you just came charging in, determined to have things go your way, trusting to luck that you'd find a way to win. You are a d.a.m.ned fool!"

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"If I am, then the honor of the position isn't mine alone," he came back, a sudden annoyance in him as he watched me struggle to sitting in the straw. "1 wasn't the one who joined a fight against direct orders, a fight that was none of my business, and one that got me taken captive because I didn't have the good sense to stay out of it! You and I will be having a long talk about that once we're out of this, but for . . ."

"What I do or don't do is my own business!" I inter- rupted harshly, brushing my straw-decorated hair back with one hand. "If I did something to get myself captured that was my business, and you had no right interfering'

And look at you! You were hurt so badly during that fight that some of your wounds are only half-healed even after transition! Did I ask you to do that for me? Did I? I didn't, and you know it, so you had no right doing it!"

I turned my back on him and hugged myself around, trying to stop the clacking of my bead necklace caused by the trembling that was only partly due to the cold. If he had been killed it would have been my fault, just the way he'd said it would be if I kept on disobeying Graythor's wishes. He'd had no right risking his life to save me, especially not the way he had", especially not after I'd stranded us there. Why hadn't he just left me alone, to live or die by myself?

"You're absolutely right," he said after a moment of silence, his unexplainably softened voice mixed in with the sound of movement in the straw. "You didn't ask me to save you, so whatever happened to me was my fault, not yours. It was all my own idea, so you can't be blamed.

Here, you've dropped the shirt I put around you. Maybe you'd better get into it before you catch a ..."

"1 don't want the d.a.m.ned shirt!" I flared, turning to push it away as he began putting it around my shoulders again- "And it was my fault, all of it, for doing something stupid and mindless! But you didn't have to make it worse by coming after me! You didn't have to do that!"

"As a matter of fact I did have to," he answered, still nerve-rackingly calm, still messing with that shirt. "Here, slide your arms in and I'll help you put it over your ..."

I just couldn't stand any more. 1 made a sound that

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couldn't possibly be translated into words, grabbed the leather shirt out of his hands, then started scrambling to my feet. I was going to throw that d.a.m.ned shirt out the window as far as I could, not giving a d.a.m.n even if more natives rode by and found it. 1 made it to my knees with the shirt held tight in my left arm, but somehow he must have realized what I intended doing. He surged up and threw his arms around me before I could stand, then pulled me back down to the straw with him.

"Let me go!" 1 shouted as I tried to break free, wasting time pounding at him with my right fist. "d.a.m.n you, let me go!"

"Not until you calm down," he said, having as little trouble holding me still as Kadrim had said he would. "I'd use Persuasion to help you if 1 could, but you know it won't ..."

"Help me!" I nearly screamed, even wilder than I had been. "Why would you want to help me? After everything I said and did to you, why were you the one to come after me? It isn't fair, it just isn't fair!"

"To me, you mean," he said with the strangest smile, his arms holding me tight against him despite the way I was struggling. "You said every nasty thing to me you could think of, and now I'm the one who risked his life saving you. The lack of fairness in that is really bothering you, but it shouldn't. I was the one who had to come after you, and for the same reason that I was made leader of the expedition."

"I-don't understand," I stumbled, also not understand- ing how his body and arms could be so warm. It was as though the damp wasn't touching him at all, as though a small, steady fire burned under his skin.

"It's perfectly simple," he answered, using one hand to smooth my hair, his bronze eyes glowing faintly from the inner fire. "When you said I was the only one on this expedition who had no true, necessary talent that would help retrieve the balance stone, you were absolutely right.

Of the six of us, I'm the only one who's expendable, the only one who doesn't have to survive if the stone is to be retrieved. If someone has to die in order for one or more of me rest of you to live, that's my job; and since 1 know it

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