'Jadrek, how well do you ride?' Tarma asked, taking over the bundle Kethry was making and freeing her to start a new one.
'Not well,' he said shortly, folding packets of herbs into a cloth. 'It's not my ability to ride, it's the pain. I used to ride very well; now I can't stand being in a saddle for more than an hour or so.'
'And if we drugged you?'
1He shrugged. 'Drugged, aren't I likely to fall off? And you'd have to lead my beast, even if you tied me into the saddle; that would slow you considerably.'
'Not if I put you on 'Heart. Or -- better yet, Keth, you're light and you don't go armored. How about if I take all the packs and 'Bane carries double?'
Kethry examined the Archivist carefully. 'It should be all right. Jadrek doesn't look like he weighs much. Put him up in front of me, and I can hold him on even if he's insensible.'
The Archivist managed a quirk of one corner of his mouth. 'Hardly the way I had hoped to begin my career of adventuring.'
Tarma raised an eyebrow at him.
'You look surprised. Swordlady, I did a great deal of my studying in hopes of one day being able to aid some heroic quester. After all, what better help could a hero have than a loremaster? Then,' he held out one hand and shoved the sleeve of his robe up so they could see the swollen wrists, 'my body betrayed me and my dreams. So goes life.'
Tarma winced in sympathy; her own bones ached in the cold these days, enough that rough camping left her stiff and limping these days for at least an hour after rising, or until she finished her warming exercises. She didn't like to think how much pain swollen joints meant.
'Have you any plan?' the Archivist continued. 'Or are we just going to run for it?'
Tarma shook her head. 'Don't you think it -- Running off blindly is likely to run us right into a trap. We came out of the south, the Hawks are to the south and west -- I'd bet the King's men'll expect us to run for familiar territory.'
'So we go opposite?' Jadrek hazarded. 'North?
Then what?'
Tarma folded a shirt into a tight bundle and wedged it into the pack. 'North is where Stefansen went. North is where Idra likely went. No? So we'll track them North, and hope to run into one or both of them.'
'I know where Stefansen intended to go,' Jadrek said slowly, 'I did tell Idra before she went missing. But frankly it's some of the worst country to travel in winter in all of Rethwellan.'
'All the better to shake off pursuit. Cough it up, man, where are we going?'
'Across the Comb and into Valdemar.' He looked seriously worried. 'And winter storm season in the Comb is deadly. If we're caught in an ice storm without shelter, well, let me just say that we probably won't be a problem for Raschar anymore.'
'This is almost too easy,' Tarma muttered, surveying the empty court below Jadrek's window. 'Keth, is there anything you can't live without back in the room?'
The mage pursed her lips thoughtfully, then shook her head.
'Good, then we'll leave from here. Nobody's been alerted yet, and evidently Jadrek's in poor enough condition that nobody has even considered he might slip out his window.'
'With good reason, Swordlady,' Jadrek replied, coming to Tarma's side and looking down into the court himself. 'I can't imagine how I could climb down.'
'Alone, you couldn't; we'll help you,' Kethry told him. 'I can actually make you about half your real weight with magic, then we'll manage well enough.'
The Archivist looked down again, and shuddered, but to his credit, did not protest.
They'd sent Warrl for a short coil of rope from the stables; there were always lead-ropes and lunges lying around, and any of those would be long enough.
