“How much of that did you hear?” he asked the Dunmer.
“Most, I think. Are you sure that was wise, telling her why we came?”
“I had to do something. At least we know that the sword is a hornet’s nest, somehow.”
“Yes, and that girl is one of the hornets. You’ve asked her to betray the rest of them, and you don’t know why or what’s at stake. For all we know, someone will be back here to cut our throats before morning.”
“I trust her,” Attrebus said. “She might not help us, but she won’t do anything to hurt us.”
“Hurt you, you mean.”
“Look, unless you’ve had another vision that tells us where the sword is, we’ve got very little chance of finding it without help. You saw how big this place is. Even if we could move through the castle at will, unobserved, it could take weeks, months. In fact, we don’t know it’s even here, do we?”
“I’m just wondering how much you thought this through and how much comes from your pike.”
“My what?” But then he got it, and felt his face warm. “Now, really-” he began.
“That woman I found you with-the one who kidnapped you. The one I killed. You trusted her, didn’t you? Slept with her?”
“Well, yes, but-”
“And this whole chase, this quest of yours-that started with a girl, too-this Annaig you’re so set to rescue.”
“Maybe that was part of it, yes, but Umbriel did rather sound like something that needed taking on.”
“Your judgment just seems a bit hasty and simple when pretty girls are involved.”
“Well, possibly,” he admitted. “But it’s done now.”
“There’s still time. Something could happen to her on the way to wherever she’s going.”
“No,” Attrebus snapped. “No, do you hear me? She’ll help us or she won’t, but I won’t have her hurt.”
“Well,” Sul muttered, “let’s hope she feels the same about you.”
EIGHT
Glim wasn’t aware when silence and darkness claimed him; he didn’t know how long they had lasted-it might have been hours or days. But after the quiet came the voices, the gentle murmur of the trees, drawing him into the dream of thought, where past and future were irrelevant illusions and his mind was unhampered by reference to anything at all. And so he remained for a time, until finally the ache of hunger and the pain of his wounds brought him nearer to the world. The voices were still there, leading him through the twisting roots, finally into the light, amidst the great boughs of the Fringe Gyre. He climbed higher, until he could see the buildings above and get his bearings.
None of them looked familiar, which could only mean he was on the wrong side of the rim. Groaning, he began picking his way from tree to tree, hoping his quivering limbs didn’t fail him.
It was nightfall before he found the place, and all he could do was collapse and hope he didn’t die before Fhena found him.
“I’ve never seen anyone hurt like this,” Fhena murmured, pressing something that looked like yellow fur against the wound in his side.
He finished swallowing the whatever-it-was she had given him to eat. “That feels good,” he said, looking around. They were in some sort of cavity in the tree, irregular in shape. Light came in from around the bend, but he couldn’t see sky.
Then her comment registered.
“You’ve never seen anyone hurt? How do you know what to do?”
“No, of course I’ve seen injuries. Ixye broke his leg in a fall yesterday. I meant I’ve never seen someone hurt on purpose.”
He coughed out a little laugh. “I don’t understand. Murder seems to be the most common pastime in Umbriel.”
“Not up here,” she said. “Not in the trees. I know below is horrible. I’ve heard about it. But bad things don’t really happen up here.”
“Maybe it’s the trees themselves,” Glim mused. “Their influence. Anyway-I’m sorry to be your first.”
“Well, if someone had to be-” she began playfully.
“I can’t stay long,” he interrupted.
“Right,” She agreed. “You need to hurry back down there and get something else stuck in you. I understand.”
“They’ll look up here for me,” he said. “I don’t want to get you in trouble.”
“They looked up here for you yesterday,” she said. “I hid you. They passed by.”
“Yesterday? How long have I been up here?”
“Three days, reckoned by this sun,” she replied. “I gave you something to help you sleep.”
“I-Three days?”
“It’s what the trees prescribed,” she said.
“The trees?”
“Yes. Our usual medicines didn’t help you very much, so I asked the trees what to do and they told me.”
“Okay,” Glim said, trying to sit up. “Three days? From now on, when the trees tell you to do something, you ask me first.”
She frowned. “There wasn’t much ‘asking you,’ ” she said. “You weren’t really in much of a state to answer. Nor would you be now, if I hadn’t done what I did, for that matter.”
She turned away from him.
“Look, Fhena-”
“And now you’re just going to go right back down there. Stupid!”
“They’ll search here again,” he said. “Besides, the skraws are counting on me. Who knows what’s been going on?”
He saw her head sink a little.
“Wait,” he said. “You know. You’ve heard something.”
“Glim, please-”
“What is it, Fhena?”
“They think you’re dead,” she said. “They’ve gone crazy, started breaking things all over the place, and the lords have been trying to pacify them.”
“Well, then-”
“I’m not listening,” Fhena said, covering her ears.
He sat up and scooted next to her, gently taking her hands and pulling them down.
“You have to understand,” he said. “I’m responsible for this and I have to deal with it.”
She looked at his hands, holding hers.
“Well-how about this?” she asked. “Send them a message. Tell them you’re okay and they need to stop. You need a little more time. Please.”
Glim blinked, realizing that actually made a lot of sense. “Okay,” he said. “We’ll see if that works, and if it does, I’ll stay up here until things calm down a little. But eventually I have to go back.”
She smiled, and then a little tear appeared in the corner of her eye.
“What’s wrong?” he asked.
“Nothing. It’s just that you listened to me. You really listened to me.”
“I did,” he replied. “But understand-I can’t stay up here forever.”
“I understand,” she replied, standing up. “But you will for now.”
“Yes.”
“Okay. I’ve got to go-more work for us with the sump in such a mess. But I’ll find time to send word down.”
After she was gone, he managed to struggle to his feet and look around. The wooden cave curved a bit, and he saw the hole above where the light was coming through, and a sort of slope going up. He climbed slowly but
