«You will be safe here,' he insisted. «Kermadec's people are too well armed and this village too well fortified for anything to get to you. Even that thing we escaped. Besides, you don't know that it's still coming.»
She kept her empty eyes fixed on the sound of his voice, as if she could actually see him speaking. «Yes, I do. It's coming.»
He rose and walked to the open doorway of the room, stood there thinking, then came back to sit beside her.
«I'll have you sent home aboard theSkatelow. Someone in this village must know how to fly an airship. They will take you back into the Westland, to wherever you need to go. Kermadec will arrange it. I'll ask him to see that you are protected.»
She stared at him for a long time, as if perhaps she hadn't heard right, then shook her head slowly. «Do you wish to be rid of me, Pen? Do you no longer need me in your life? I thought you said you cared about me. No, don't speak. Listen to me. You cannot send me home. I don't have a home to go back to. My home was with Papa, aboard theSkatelow. There isn't anyone else who matters now. Only you. My home is with you.»
He looked down at his hands. «It's too dangerous.»
She reached over and touched his cheek. «I know you are afraid for me. But you don't need to be. I'm blind, but I'm not helpless. You've seen that for yourself. You don't have to make me your responsibility. You only have to let me come with you.»
«If I let you come with me, I make you my responsibility whether I like it or not!» he snapped. «Can't you see that?»
«What I see is that I can be of use to you.» Her voice was desperate, almost pleading. «You need me! I can guide you where you are going in the same way I guided you across the Lazareen and through the Slags. No one else can see in the dark the way I can. No one else has my sight. I can help, Penderrin. Please! Don't leave me behind!»
«Of course, you're coming,' Khyber Elessedil said quietly.
The Elven girl was standing in the doorway, watching them. They had been so wrapped up in their conversation, they hadn't heard her come back in.
«Khyber, you're not helping—'
«Don't lecture me, Pen. We don't need lectures, she and I. We share something that puts us in a better position to see what is needed here than you do. We've both lost someone important to us on this journey. We've lost a part of our family and, therefore, a part of ourselves. We could be diminished by this, but we won't let that happen, will we, Cinnaminson? We will use it to make us stronger. Neither of us would consider for a moment being left behind. If you think that I am better equipped to handle what lies ahead because I have the use of the Elfstones or that Cinnaminson is less able because her talent lies only in her mind–sight, then you need to think again!»
She was so vehement that Pen was left speechless. Of all the people he had expected to agree with him on the matter, Khyber was at the top of the list.
«Get out of here, Pen,' the Elf girl ordered, gesturing toward the door. «Go find something to do. Cinnaminson and I need to talk. While we do, you think about what I just said. You think about whether what you are asking of her is reasonable or not. You think about everything that's happened while you're at it. Use your brain, if you can find a way to it through all your wrongheaded opinions.» She was angry, her face flushed and her gestures curt and threatening. Pen stood up slowly and glanced down at Cinnaminson. She was staring straight ahead; tears were leaking from the corners of her eyes, streaking her smooth face. He started to say something, then stopped himself.
As he left the room, he felt Khyber Elessedil glaring at him. He walked through the house, past the surreptitious glances of the Trolls, his gaze directed straight ahead. When he was outside again, he stopped and stared into space, wondering exactly what had just happened.
Thirteen
Darkness had fallen over Paranor, deep and smothering, and the Druid's Keep was wrapped in silence. Within the fortress halls, the Druids came and went like wraiths; cloaked in black and hooded, they passed down halls that echoed softly with the scrape of slippers and the rustle of robes. Some cradled books and loose–leaf writings in their arms. Some carried materials for the tasks they had been given in the cause of the Druid order.
One carried nothing but a second cloak, neatly folded over one arm, so preoccupied that not a glance was spared for those it passed.
Bek Ohmsford looked up as the cloaked figure entered the room, and it took him a moment to realize it wasn't a Druid at all, but his wife. Rue Meridian came over to where he lay looking hot and feverish beneath his covers and laid the cloak at his feet.
She bent close to keep her voice a whisper. «I hope you don't feel as bad as you look.»
He smiled. He was hot and sticky, and beads of sweat dotted his forehead. «I look terrible, don't 1? That root you gave me really works. Traunt Rowan was here earlier to see how I was doing. I told him the fever had come back worse than before and was highly contagious. He was in and out of the room in seconds. No one has been back since. You found the robes, I see. No one saw you?»
She sat beside him, leaned over, and kissed his forehead. «Have a little faith, Bek. I am resourceful enough when it's needed. I just asked for them. I told the Druid 1 stopped that we would feel more comfortable being here if we were dressed as they were. Besides, it isn't me they're interested in. They watch me from around corners and through cracks in doors, but they don't pay close attention. You are the one who matters. So long as they think you intend to do what you were brought here to do, we won't have any trouble.»
Bek nodded. «After tonight, we'll be more trouble than they thought possible. Hand me a cold cloth and towel.»
She rose and did what he had asked. He sat up in the bed and began wiping himself down, washing away the sweat and grit, then drying off. The room was streaked with shadows, and the candles he had lit at sunset did little to chase the gloom. All the better, he thought, for what they had in mind.
«Did you have a chance to check outSwift Sure?»
She sat next to him again, keeping her voice low. There was still reason to worry that they were being listened to. «They cut loose the aft radian draws and locked down the thruster lever. I didn't see anything else. I pretended not to notice even that. I thought it better for them to think us unaware of their efforts. It might take us three minutes to make the necessary repairs. We can get away easily enough when we need to.»
He finished cleaning himself, rose, and began to dress. He moved quickly and quietly, glancing over at the door every so often, listening to the silence that surrounded them. It was infectious, that silence. Everything about the Druid's Keep was measured in layers of silence, as if sound were an unwelcome intrusion. Perhaps it was, where power resided in such quantity and struggles to control it were all done through secret machinations and subtle deceits.
«I won't be sorry to be gone from here,' she said. «Everything about this place is oppressive. How your sister stands it is a mystery to me. I wish her well, once we have her safely back from wherever she's gone, but mostly 1 wish her the wisdom to choose, then, to be somewhere else.»
«I know.» He glanced around. «I wish 1 had a weapon.»
She reached beneath her robes, brought out a long knife, and handed it to him. «I retrieved it from the ship. I have my throwing knives, as well. But I don't think weapons are going to do us much good if we have to stand and fight.»
«They might against those Gnome Hunters.» He tucked the long knife into his belt, then reached for the other Druid robe. «Any sign of the young Druid?»
She shook her head. «Nothing.»
They hadn't so much as caught a glimpse of him since he had slipped Bek the warning note on that first day. Bek had burned the note and had Rue scatter the ashes from one end of the Keep to the other, but he still didn't know who had tried to warn them or why. Clearly, the young Druid knew something about what was going on. He
