The Robin And The Kestrel

'And if she doesn't?' Robin asked, sharply, 'What then? How will you protect her _'

He smiled, displaying large, yellowing, crooked teeth. 'God will protect her, if she is innocent. If she doesn't return, well, then she is clearly a witch, guilty of the charge the blessed High Bishop laid upon her, and the God has sent her where she belongs. Her property will be confiscated, since all witches are traitors, and it will be turned over to the Cathedral and Carthell Abbey.'

She did not have to feign the shock she felt. No wonder Padrik was a wealthy man, able to give an entire clan of Gypsies silver and even gold! If he was getting monies this way, as well as from the gifts of the faithful_

'The shrine _' she said, gasping out the words. 'Where is this shrine?'

Brother Pierce grinned again, overjoyed to see her so discomfited, and obliged with a description.

'Ye follow this road here _' he said, pointing to the Old Road that led on to Westhaven. 'Not the newer route, but this 'un. Ye take it into the hills, till ye come to a bare-topped hill. If ye get to a village called Westhaven, ye've gone too far. On top of the hill, that's the shrine. But I wouldn't go there _' he added, as she turned to go.

'Why not?' she asked, belligerently.

He laughed, the first time she had heard him do so. It sounded like an old goose, honking. 'Because, woman, if you go there, ye'll be judged too! And be sure, if you don't return to your home and the duties of a proper woman, it'll be because demons have taken you like your sister!'

She turned away from him as he slammed the gate shut, feeling chilled, and not by the wind. The Old Road_a bare-topped hill? Between here and Westhaven? There was only one place he could possibly mean.

Skull Hill.

She ran back to the wagon as fast as her legs would carry her, the horse running alongside, but looking back over its shoulder with longing; there was a painful stitch in her side before she got there. 'They sent her to Skull Hill,' she said, panting, as she harnessed the horse up again, and flung herself into her seat. 'I don't think she's very far ahead, not if they wanted to time her arrival for midnight _'

'R-right.' Kestrel didn't waste any words; he simply slapped the reins against the horses' backs to get them moving again.

It was terrible. They wanted to gallop the horses and knew they didn't dare. It only took a single hole in the road to send both horses down_and at a gallop, that would mean broken legs and dead horses for certain, and if the wagon overturned as well, they could wind up dead.

It took a few moments for the pain in her side to leave; she breathed the cold air in carefully, holding her side, and waited, before the pain eased enough that she could speak again. 'Now we know what the Ghost meant,' she pointed out. 'About people being sent from here.'

'Y-yes,' Jonny replied, urging the horses to a faster pace than a walk, until they were moving as fast as even Gwyna considered safe. 'P-put one of th-those p-pendants on an enemy, it m-makes them c-come here. And it identifies th-them t-to th-the Ghost.'

'He'll kill her, of course,' Robin replied off-handedly. 'He won't even hesitate. He told us that himself.'

But Jonny only turned and flashed her a feral grin, teeth gleaming whitely in the moonlight.

'N-not if w-we f-find her f-first!' he said. Robin returned his grin, but uncertainly, then peered through the darkness ahead of them. She was hoping to spot Orlina Woolwright quickly, for at this pace, they could defeat their own purpose by accidentally running her down.

Through the valley of Carthell Abbey they raced, and out the other side into the hills; Robin could hardly believe that a woman on foot had come so far, so quickly. It seemed impossible_but the road was wet and muddy here, and they kept coming across the tracks of a human, pressed into the mud and visible even at a distance. They both knew how seldom anyone used this road, so who else could it be?

They were deep in the hills again before Robin realized it. And now she had the answer to another question_why tend this road so well if no one used it?

To make it as easy as possible for your victims to reach the place of ambush, she thought grimly. It isn't the Sire who tends this road; it's the Abbey, I'd bet the Ghost's silver on it.

But they were very, very near Skull Hill now; one more hill, and Orlina would be within the Ghost's grasp.

'There she is!' Kestrel exclaimed, his stutter gone in the tension and excitement. He slapped the reins over the startled horses' backs; they jerked into a canter, and she finally saw what he had seen. A fast-moving shadow