Children cried for their parents. Old folks slumped, too exhausted to move.
Piro paused to catch her breath and check on Sawtree. The men had propped him against the wall.
'Are you — ' she began.
'Go.' He thrust her away, glaring across the courtyard.
She turned to look in the direction of his gaze and her eyes met Cobalt's. He was two body lengths from her, with a dozen people between them. His eyes widened in surprise, then narrowed.
Sawtree shoved Piro. 'Get away, while you still can.'
'Out of my way, old woman.' Cobalt shoved through the crowd towards them.
Piro ducked between two merchants and took to her heels. Being small and not worried who she elbowed, she easily threaded her way through the crowd. Behind her, she heard Cobalt confront Sawtree.
'Where's Piro?'
'The kingsdaughter? In Sylion, they say — '
There was a sharp crack. Piro winced and kept running. She couldn't save Sawtree. How she wished she was big and powerful like Lence and Byren.
Blending in with the crowd of frightened townsfolk, she was carried further into the castle's maze of courtyards. None of the defenders bothered to question one more dishevelled maid, and none of the townsfolk paid her any attention as she picked through the family groups squabbling over patches of ground to call their own.
She'd entered one of the inner courtyards when the rumour spread, 'They're burning Rolenton!'
Some townsfolk moaned, others objected furiously, demanding to know what King Rolen would do about it.
Piro wondered what more they thought her father could do. At least he had ensured the people got out with their lives. She headed for Eagle Tower.
Several castle servants had thought to climb it, but they were watching Rolenton and didn't pay any attention to the grimy maid in the battered cap. From here, she could see the whole of Rolencia laid out before her. Sure enough, a plume of black smoke rose from the centre of Rolenton. As the short winter's day grew dark, she identified leaping flames centred in the square. The Merofynians were burning the goods left behind by the fleeing citizens. The tower of flames grew ever taller as more things were dragged out of the homes and burned. From the looks of it, the leader of the warriors had declared 'havoc', which meant no quarter would be given and the warriors were allowed to take anything they wanted.
Though crowded, the parapets of the castle were oddly quiet as everyone watched the fire in Rolenton.
When Piro grew tired, cold and hungry she came down from the tower. She wanted to see her mother and ask the queen's advice now that the castle was under siege, but Cobalt had seen her so he would have told his people to look for her.
Her stomach rumbled and, trusting to her maid's disguise, she made her way to the kitchen, which was chaotic. Tonight the cook was too busy to approach on the sly. It was the spit-turner who spotted her. His near- blind eyes could not be fooled by a maid's costume. He recognised her by the way she moved and his ears distinguished her familiar step amidst the confusion. He caught her hand as she tried to slip past. Drawing her aside, he led her into a dark storage room.
She ducked smoked hams hanging from the rafters. 'What is it?'
'We were told you'd gone to Sylion Abbey, but they did not call off the guard who's been watching over your foenix so I wondered.' Milky eyes fixed on her face trying to make out her expression. 'Don't worry, I've been feeding your pet.'
'Thank you.' She squeezed his hands. 'Have you seen Sawtree?'
The spit-turner hesitated.
'Cobalt spotted me with him earlier,' Piro admitted. 'I… I had to leave him and run — '
'They've got Sawtree in chains in the stable yard. You must stay away from him, kingsdaughter. Promise you will?'
She nodded, meaning to go and see if she could do anything for Sawtree later.
'Cobalt said you betrayed Rolencia, but I did not believe them,' the spit-turner admitted. 'None of us believed him.'
Tears stung Piro's eyes. 'What about my mother? She's been loyal to Rolencia since she came here as a child of eight.'
He shook his head. 'The queen is Merofynian-born and under the influence of a renegade Power-worker. Poor thing.'
Piro's heart sank. How quickly they had turned on her mother.
They'd be equally quick to turn on her, if they knew she had Affinity. She shuddered as the ramifications hit her. With the castle under siege, Cobalt would be within his rights to have her executed. She shivered.
The spit-turner rubbed her hands. 'You're cold. And hungry, I expect. Stay here. I'll find you some food.'
Again, she squeezed his fingers then let him go. He returned after several moments with a calico bag containing smelly cheese and other items.
'Promise me you'll hide?' He held the bag up between them but did not release it. 'Cobalt's looking for you.'
'I know. I'll take care.'
He did not look convinced, but he gave her the bag and she slipped away, heading for the stable courtyard.
The place was so crowded, people had camped in the passages. She picked her way over bundles and through outstretched legs. She passed two old men, both veterans of other wars by the look of them. One was without a leg from the knee down and the other's hands were crippled with the bone-ache.
'They're saying all the king's old honour guard are dead,' One-leg muttered. 'I remember Temor as a boy, remember his da. Good men, both of 'em.'
'Good men,' the other echoed. 'Young Rolen lost a lot of good men today.'
It took a moment for Piro to realise they were talking about her father.
'Eh, he can't afford to. Not with the enemy at the gates again.' One-leg shook his head. 'The Bastard's brat shouldn't have punished Sawtree.'
'Aye. Good man, Sawtree,' the other agreed.
Piro's stomach lurched and her skin went cold. So the spit-turner hadn't been entirely honest with her. She wanted to ask these old men what Cobalt had done to punish Sawtree, but she didn't dare.
'I hear the Bastard's brat's offering a reward for news of Rolen's girl,' One-leg said and spat.
Piro crept away feeling guilty. What had Cobalt done to Sawtree? She wanted to go to him and help, but that would be an insult when he had chosen to sacrifice himself for her. Tears stung her eyes. She searched for somewhere safe, somewhere that if she was found she would not endanger others.
At last she settled in a store room. Everything had gone wrong. Her two oldest brothers were missing, her mother was locked up, her father was sick and had placed his trust in a trickster and now, Rolenhold was under siege.
Unable to eat, she stared out the single high window. The stars were covered by thick cloud tonight, which meant the usual dusk breeze hadn't come in from the sea. Had the Ostronite merchant escaped?
He was probably wealthy enough to cry hostage and pay for his release but his sailors and servants would not be so lucky. The best they could hope for was to be kept as seven-year slaves. Merofynians exacted seven years' servitude in return for captives' lives. Strange to think that a kingdom which considered itself the most civilised in the known world should keep slaves and hold to such harsh laws. For all that the Merofynians looked down on Rolencians as barbarians, her father had preferred a simple beheading to the hanging, drawing and quartering of the convicted.
Chapter Seven
It had taken the better part of the day for Fyn to lead the boys down the slope towards the village and now he hesitated in a hollow, out of sight of the village's gate tower. Finding Merofynian invaders inside the abbey had
