is: Across the mountains. Anyone else will tell you it’s four days march upstream. Siniava’s watchword is a challenge of apricot, and the answer is brambles. Don’t confuse them.” No one asked how the Duke knew the enemy watchwords. With the rest, Paks repeated them several times. The Duke nodded finally.
“Good. You’ll go armed, but without shields. Make sure you don’t show anything shiny. You should be back by dawn or a little after. If you have trouble on this side of the river, make as much noise as you can. I don’t want to move troops around tonight, or his agents might figure out what we’re doing, but I’ll have them ready to move fast if you call. If they do get Cal to you alive, don’t let him be captured again—whatever you have to do. Give him the death-stroke before you’re disabled, if it comes to that. Are you ready?”
Paks’s throat felt like dust. She hardly heard the boat specialists giving them a few advance instructions: sit still, don’t move around, don’t stand up, don’t trail your hands in the water, don’t talk or spit. In a few minutes they were clear of the camp, walking quickly down the lane the Duke had shown them on the map. After some minutes of walking, Paks could hear something besides the blood pounding in her ears. In the clear night, brilliant stars gave some shape to the land and trees. A vast dark shape loomed up before them: the stone barn. They turned aside. Starlight glimmered on the blossoms left on the fruit trees in the orchard; their scent was stronger in the damp night air. The first field beyond was plowed, and their boots rasped on rough furrows and clods. The next was in grass; once more they moved quietly, slipping along the margin of the field by a hedge as fragrant as a flower garden.
Trees loomed before them, and starlight danced on the river. They slowed, looking for the willow tree they were to find. Suddenly Paks felt a hand-grip signal passed back: there. She edged forward, alert for stones that could roll beneath her feet, or sticks that could crack. Once in the willow’s shadow it was even harder to see. Paks stumbled on a rock, lurching forward and biting her tongue against any sound. Someone grabbed her arm and steadied her. She did the same for another who stumbled into her a moment later. They found the limb, wide enough to walk on, and then the boat.
The boat experts urged everyone into a huddle, then loaded the boat, guiding them with nudges and handgrips. It had looked a large dark shape to Paks when she saw it empty, but once aboard it felt too small. Not crowded—but the sides were too low, and she felt too close to the water. And the boat tipped and shifted with every motion of its passengers. She tried to keep from moving in response, fearing to tip the whole thing over.
With a rower at each end, and one in the middle, they moved quietly across the current. Paks did not know how the rowers could tell where they were going. When they landed on the far side, just where they had been told to wait, she was glad to crawl from the boat to solid ground again. She crouched silently in the dark, waiting for someone to arrive. It seemed a long time.
They heard the hoofbeats coming from upstream for some time before the riders were close enough to challenge. Amisi, in a southern accent, asked, “Where lies Havensford?”
“Across the mountains,” came the soft reply. The horses had stopped, and Paks could just see two cloaked and hooded shapes swing off their mounts and move to help a third.
“You’ve got him alive?” asked Amisi.
“Aye.” Paks and the others moved toward the voice, and helped to steady the man they were supporting.
Chapter Twenty-eight
“How careless of you, Captain, to be riding alone so far from your troops.” The voice was soft and gentle. The bonds on his arms and legs were not. Cal Halveric said nothing. “You might have met with some fatal accident, you know. It is fortunate for you that my servants are not quick to kill. We do not entertain guests of your distinguished rank often, Captain.” Cal could see nothing through the hood that covered his head but the glint of light between dark threads. Captain they could have guessed from his clothes and his horse; he hoped very much that they did not know
Something, it could have been a boot or pike-butt, prodded his ribs. When he said nothing, a much harder blow slammed into the same spot. He felt one rib crack, and caught his breath in a gasp of pain.
Before he could recover, rough hands dragged him up from the ground and tightened the hood around his neck until he could barely draw a breath. A hand felt over his face, applied pressure to the eyeballs, the angle of his jaw. When he tried to twist away, the cloth around his throat tightened. He tried not to react, but at last breathlessness overcame his control and he choked, fighting the halter and the merciless hands. Instead of release, he got hard blows to the belly. When he was reeling, the tightness eased slightly, and he gasped for breath, unaware of anything else. When he could hear again, the soft voice was speaking.
“You see, Captain, I must be sure I have your attention for our very important conference—do I?” When Cal did not answer, the cloth at his throat tightened again, slowly. His throat moved convulsively and he choked. “Was that a ’yes,’ Captain?” the voice went on. “You must speak clearly, so that we do not mistake one another.” Cal fought back a desire to speak all too clearly to this scum, and thought instead of Seliam, dead in his first command. This time the choking continued until he passed out completely.
Someone was calling his name. “Cal—Cal—” the voice went on. A soft voice. He couldn’t think who it was. “Cal—wake up.” He stirred and took a long breath. Pain stabbed his ribs; his throat was sore—it was dark. He started to reach for his dagger, as always when he woke, and realized that his arms were bound. And his legs. He was flat on his back, and cold. He shifted his head, trying to remember, to think.
“Caliam Halveric,” the voice mused. “Oldest living son of Aliam Halveric—his second in command—his heir, I understand. Cal, they call you, don’t they?” A hand brushed his body and he realized he was naked—then remembered the hood—and what had come before. The hand traced some of his old scars, slowly. He shivered, telling himself it was from the cold. The voice began again, brisker. “Caliam Halveric. What are you worth to your father—” the hand touched his manhood, “—whole? What would he give for you? Anything? Or—would you fetch a better price elsewhere? As a gelding, perhaps. Or perhaps his enemies would pay for you—” the hand touched here and there, “—piecemeal, so to speak. Eh?”
Cal smiled grimly under the hood. He knew his worth to his father well enough, and the price someone would pay for his death. “I have sired sons enough,” he said, answering that oblique threat.
“Ah yes.” The voice carried amusement. “You are married, are you not, to—now what is her name?” Cal did not answer. “Five sons and three—no, four—daughters, as I recall. But Cal—what makes you think I have no agents over the mountains. Are five sons enough, if you cannot get more?”
He had not thought of that. Surely they were safe, so far away—young Aliam, only fifteen but furious at being left behind, Berrol the stubborn twelve year old, Malek and Kieri and baby Seli, born just a month after his uncle’s death. And the girls: tall Tamar, wild as Aliam, and Zuli, and Volya and Amis. Surely they were safe. But his breath came quicker. How did they know this? Were some of his own men traitors?
After a long pause, the voice went on. “Your father, Cal—he has made a very unfortunate alliance with that crazy dukeling, Phelan.” Cal suppressed a snort. Phelan was as crazy as his nickname of fox. “But perhaps, if he values you, he might be persuaded to—to forget that alliance, at least for awhile.”
“He will not be likely to forgive your murdering one of his sons because of your threats to another,” said Cal calmly.
“Murder? You aren’t even harmed—yet—barring a rib you might have bruised falling off your horse.”
“You mean your spy system does not extend to knowing all his captains? How incompetent.”
“But when did—oh. Was that your brother, last fall? I had been told a hireling captained that troop. Then is that why—?” Cal was silent, willing enough to let him think his brother’s death was the only reason for the Halveric-Phelan alliance. That reason might be public knowledge; the rest were secrets he did not care to have probed. The voice went on.
“The loss of one son should not harden a man to the loss of others, surely? You must be even more dear to him—or your sons must be. We must convince him, Cal, that his desire for vengeance will condemn you, too. And to no such quick death as your brother. I do wish I’d known who he was. Even so, he would be alive had he released his prisoners to me, as any sensible person would have done. That nonsense you mercenaries spout about honor— ridiculous!” With no warning, scalding liquid splashed Cal’s chest. “Oh—” the voice said archly. “How clumsy of
