learn from me that Lord Dakon wasn’t there. But...he would have worked that out anyway. I...I am...I am glad you were gone.”
The slave’s babble was about Mandryn, Jayan suspected.
“I forgive you,” Tessia said. Jayan looked at her in surprise. She looked relieved and thoughtful. “You’re free now, Hanara. You don’t have to serve anyone you don’t want to. Don’t . . . don’t punish yourself for your master’s crimes.”
The slave shook his head, then looked around furtively, bent close and whispered: “I serve him to stay alive. If I didn’t, I would not live long.” He straightened. “You go home. Get married. Have children. Live a long life.”
Then he hurried past them and disappeared through a doorway. Tessia turned to look at Jayan, then let out a short laugh.
“I suspect I’ve just been given orders by a slave.”
“Advice,” Jayan corrected. He moved through the same doorway, glanced up and down the empty corridor, then shrugged. “Good advice. Add teaching magicians to heal to it. And helping me set up the guild.” He shook his head. “I’m going to have to work with Lord Hakkin. I’m going to need all the help I can get.”
“Yes,” she agreed as they started walking along the corridor. “I noticed you didn’t mention to the king that I’d worked out how to heal with magic.”
“No. It didn’t seem the right time. And now that I think of it... I’d rather the teaching of healing didn’t begin in Sachaka. It should start in Kyralia, and be part of our new guild.”
“Incentive for magicians to join?”
“Exactly.”
Her eyes narrowed. “You know, for a moment there I was worried you were going to offer to take on my apprenticeship.”
He blinked in surprised. “Worried? Why? Don’t you think I’d be a good teacher?”
“A reasonable teacher,” she replied. “But I suspect Kyralian society would frown upon a master and his apprentice being . . . well... romantically entangled.”
He smiled. “Depends how entangled you want to be.”
Her eyelids lowered and she regarded him in a way that made his pulse speed up. “
“I see.” He looked up and down the corridor. It was still empty. Reaching out, he drew her close and kissed her. She tensed, then relaxed and he felt her body press against his.
Footsteps suddenly echoed in the corridor and he felt someone brush past him. Belatedly, he and Tessia sprang apart.
“I’m going to have to keep an eye on the two of you, aren’t I?” Lady Avaria said, not looking back as she strode away.
Tessia smothered a giggle, and then her expression grew serious. “Where are you going to live?”
“I don’t know.” Jayan groaned. “Not with my father!”
“Well, we have plenty of time to work these things out,” she said.
“Yes. And plenty to sort out here, first. Like eating. I’m starving. Though I suppose we should find Mikken first.”
She nodded. “That’s what we’ll do next. We’ll do what’s needed, one thing at a time, until there’s nothing left to do and we’re old and grey and we can leave it to someone else to fix.”
He reached out and took her arm. “Come on. The sooner we start, the sooner we get to the good parts.”
Stopping to catch her breath, Stara looked up at the steep slope of rock before her. Like the one she and the women who followed her had just climbed, there were angled creases in the surface that a climber could shuffle along to get to the top. This slope was larger than the previous one, though. It ended at a jagged crest some way above her. Beyond that she could see the top of another sheer wall of stone, and another behind it. Past them, the peaks of the mountains loomed over all with cruel indifference.
Chavori was a tougher man than he looked, she thought for the hundredth time. He must have climbed all over these slopes to take his measurements. And he must have had assistance. Definitely slaves. Possibly also other magicians or free men. We’ll have to keep watch, in case any ever return.
As the other four women caught up, panting and gasping, Stara decided they could all do with a rest. She shrugged her pack off her shoulders. Strapped to it was a tube made of a hollow reed – much lighter than Chavori’s metal tubes. She unstoppered it and drew out the map.
Spreading it out over the flat rock face before her, Stara held the corners down with magic. The women crowded close to examine it. She could smell their sweat. Only the fittest of them had joined her for this exploration, after it became clear what the path to the valley demanded. She’d left the others in Vora’s capable hands at a camp further down the mountain.
One of the women, Shadiya, pointed to the zigzag path they were following.
“I think we’re nearly there.”
Stara nodded in agreement, then rolled up the map and stowed it away. “Let’s have a drink and a bite to eat first.”
The women were quiet as they rested. With backs to the rock wall, they gazed out at the Sachakan plains, stretching into the haze of the distance. Stara stared at the horizon. Somewhere beyond it was Arvice. After two months, how had the city fared under the rule of the Kyralians? Was Kachiro still alive? She felt a weak pang of sadness and regret, then a vague guilt for not feeling more. I would if I wasn’t so tired, she told herself, though she knew it wasn’t true. It wasn’t as if we married for love. But I did like him and hope he survives. She wondered if he’d received news of her mother. I’ll have to send my own messenger, once we’re settled. Perhaps she can come and live with us.
All the women ate sparingly, not having to be reminded how low their supplies were. Stara had been able to supplement their meals by catching birds with magic, but the vegetation that grew in this harsh place was sparse and inedible. She was beginning to worry that Chavori had exaggerated when he’d described the valley they were heading for.
Rising, she hauled her pack onto her back. The others followed suit. Without speaking a word, they sought the start of one of the long creases in the slope, then began to shuffle along it, Stara in the lead.
After a seemingly endless stretch of time, she finally reached the top of the ridge. Dragging herself over the edge, she crawled forward, relieved to have the weight of the pack off her shoulders. She paused to catch her breath, then realised the air she was sucking in wasn’t the dry air that had parched their throats these last weeks. It tasted of damp and mould. Her heart skipped a beat and she pushed herself up and onto her knees.
The next wall was a few strides away. At the base of one of the creases in it was a dark triangle. A gap. She moved closer. From inside came the sound of water, and a gust of damp air.
The entrance was low – she would have to crawl to enter it. Hearing a sound behind her, she restrained her curiosity and moved back to the edge to watch over the next two women as they climbed up to join her. As they reached the top, their eyes went immediately to the opening.
“Sounds like a river inside.”
“Shall we go in?”
“No. Wait until we’ve all made it up,” Stara said.
Finally the last of the women had been helped up over the edge. They stood back and waited to see what Stara would do. She smiled and dropped to the ground like a slave, then crawled through the opening, sending a globe of light ahead of her.
The roof was low for several strides, then it and the floor curved away. She slid forward, then pushed herself up into a crouch. Her light failed to penetrate far in two directions, and from the way the sound of her movements echoed she guessed she was in a tunnel. It was like being inside a long, squashed tube, wider than it was high and on an angle that matched the creases in the rock walls. Along the bottom water rushed.
