Trapped

we follow her tracks, we might catch her before she gets there.'

'Then what?' Myoko asked. 'Start a punching match with someone who can blast her way through granite?'

'Only if necessary. We'll start by politely inquiring if this woman knows what's going on.' Impervia gave Myoko a stern look. 'I'm not completely deranged, you know.'

'Sorry, Impervia,' Myoko said. 'I didn't mean—'

'Yes, you did,' Impervia interrupted. 'You all think I'm too…' She paused, then smiled thinly. 'Impulsive. Which may be true. This time, though, I know we mustn't act rashly.' Her smile grew more fierce. 'But we must act. We've been called.' She took a deep breath. 'It's so desperately rare that one receives a call, one must seize the moment with both hands.'

She spoke with quiet intensity, low but fervent — far from the steely self-control she usually displayed. It was as if she'd finally pulled off her nun's mask, the discipline, the role… and none of us could meet her burning gaze.

'Look,' Impervia said, 'haven't we all been waiting for this? Something to do. Something that matters. A dozen times a day, I pray, 'God, God, call on me.' I don't care how often my Mother Superior says I have been called, that teaching is an honorable profession, that educating children is vital work… it's not enough. My confessor tells me I lack humility — who am I, a lowly handmaid, to think I deserve something more important? But still I've prayed, 'Choose me, God, use me. Just once in my life, let me do a great thing.'

'And can any of you say,' she went on, 'you haven't wished the same? Deep in your hearts, don't you long for a calling? A vocation so strong you can't doubt it? The voice of God crying from the whirlwind, 'Your destiny is at hand!' Not just passing the time and keeping yourself busy, but finally, finally, your true purpose. Isn't that what you want? An end to numb mediocrity?'

She glared, challenging any of us to deny it. No one did. How could we? After nights of drowning in bad ale, complaining, bemoaning the pettiness of our existence, how could we pretend we were happy with who we were? Even Annah, standing dark and silent beside me: I didn't know her nearly as well as I'd thought, but one thing I didn't question — she too had spent her life waiting, composing wistful music in empty rooms, waiting, waiting for pure sweet lightning to strike.

Passion. Meaning. Justification.

'All right,' Impervia said, 'let's not waste time. Get the horses; follow the trail; stay alert.' Pause. 'If any of you believes in God, this would be an excellent time to pray.'

The good sister could obviously pray while walking; without a second's hesitation, she strode back toward our mounts. As for the rest of us…

The Caryatid said nothing; but she had a crazy joy in her eyes, a look I'd only seen once before, when she was cuddling a flame after two beers more than usual. Suddenly she'd started hugging the fire to her breast while her clothes smoldered. Rubbing it against her cheek, kissing it over and over: tears dribbling from her eyes and instantly turning to steam in the fire's heat, a heat so intense her cheeks were red and raw the next day. The only time I'd ever seen fire come close to burning the Caryatid. Now the same expression blazed across her face… and she followed after Impervia, walking, then running, then leaping — over rubble, over puddles, over nothing at all, just jumping for the sake of the thrill.

Pelinor watched the Caryatid leaping, jumping, skipping. For a moment his face was grim; then it softened into a grizzled smile. 'Why not?' he said under his breath. 'Why the hell not?' His eyes continued to follow the Caryatid as she caught up with Impervia and the two matched step. 'There are worse things,' he said. Then he smiled apologetically to the rest of us. 'There are worse things,' he said again. Then, not jumping or skipping, but walking with a quick firm pace, he followed the Caryatid's lead.

Myoko seemed to have been holding her breath; now she let it out and turned to me. 'What do you think?'

I shrugged. Just a shrug but it felt strange, as if I were telling some kind of a lie. Feigning cool detachment.

'Yeah, well,' Myoko said, turning away. 'I always knew it would come.' She was talking to herself now. 'Sooner or later, it had to. Yeah.' She drew in a sharp breath. 'Only question was, who would start it: me or someone else? Might as well be me.' She glanced back in my direction once more and gave a mirthless smile. 'Here we go. Here we go.' Then she headed for the horses, walking with her arms squeezed tight in front of her.

Just Annah and me left. When I looked at her, she'd thrown back the hood of her cloak; her eyes met mine.

How can eyes sometimes be so alive?

'Are you ready?' she asked.

'Sure,' I answered, 'someone has to keep them all out of trouble, so—'

She put her hand on my mouth. 'Shhh.' Her fingers stayed against my lips. 'They're ready. I'm ready. Are you ready?' Her hand didn't move. 'Don't make jokes or speeches. Are you ready?'

I was too proud to nod obediently; nor could I shake my head no. After a moment, I took her hand from my lips, then leaned in and kissed her on the mouth.

It felt like a good answer. Apparently, we were all ready.

9: WE MUST GO DOWN TO THE SEA AGAIN

The stand of spruce beyond Death Hotel wasn't big enough to be called a forest — it was just a thick windbreak separating the mausoleum from the farm fields beyond. Even so, the woman we pursued must have had trouble pushing through, thanks to snarls of undergrowth and drifts of un-melted snow. We couldn't take the horses into those woods; we had to go back to the road and trot to the far side while Impervia followed the tracks under the trees. She came out damp and disheveled, spruce needles clinging to her long black coat… but one look at the taut expression on her face, and none of us said a word.

'The tracks went straight through,' she reported, pointing downward. The mystery woman's bootprints were visible in the mud at Impervia's feet. 'And look at this.'

She lifted the lamp she'd been using to follow the tracks. With the other hand, she held out a few scraggly threads of crimson, frayed on the ends. 'I found these snagged on bushes.'

The Caryatid shucked off one sleeve of her overcoat and laid her arm close to the fibers. The red of the threads matched perfectly with the Caryatid's crimson body sheath. When she looked up, we nodded in understanding. Centuries ago, the first Sorcery-Lord of Spark designated that particular shade of red as the 'Heraldic Hue of the Burdensome Path' (i.e., the proprietary color of sorcery). There was no explicit law against others wearing that color, but nonsorcerers still avoided it. You shouldn't pretend to be something you're not; it's even worse when your presumption annoys people who can cast powerful spells.

'So our quarry is a sorcerer,' said Pelinor. 'Or rather a sorceress. And a powerful one, if she could blow out the side of that mausoleum.' He glanced my direction. 'You're the history buff, Phil; was there ever a major sorceress entombed hereabouts? You know the type — wickedly strong, diabolically evil, locked up for all time because not even the Sparks could kill her.'

I made a face. 'I haven't heard such stories, and wouldn't believe them if I did. The Sparks can kill anyone… and if by some miracle there was somebody they couldn't rip into constituent atoms, they wouldn't just leave her in an unguarded crypt. They'd bury her ten klicks underground, and surround her with the most god-awful traps they could devise, not to mention alarm systems, sentries, and heaven knows what else.'

'Enough chat.' This came from Impervia, who'd hopped back onto her horse while Pelinor and I were talking. 'The trail goes this way. Let's move.'

We moved: into the dark muddy field, the horses' hooves making soft sucking sounds through the wet.

The bootprints led in a straight line for fifty paces, then turned toward the road. Those fifty paces must have been how long it took the sorceress to admit that slogging through muck was a waste of strength — the winding road might not be as direct as trekking cross-country, but its OldTech asphalt made travel much faster. Once the sorceress reached the pavement, her footprints left a dirty trail for another twenty paces. After that, the mud had worn off her boots and there was nothing for us to follow.

At least we knew which direction she'd gone: toward the lake and Dover-on-Sea, the same way we'd been riding before we got sidetracked. We headed forward with all due haste… which wasn't too quick, given that the horses had to move carefully to avoid potholes in the road. It didn't help that we were traveling with minimal light to prevent the sorceress from seeing us; all we had were candle-sized flames tight to the ground, guided by the Caryatid at the speed of a shuffling walk.

In this manner we proceeded — silently peering into the darkness. Each time we rounded a bend my nerves would tighten, expecting to spy the sorceress ahead… but nary a sign did we see of her, ever. She too must be traveling in near darkness: walking fast, perhaps even jogging, and always keeping at least one bend farther in front.

Thus it continued all the way to Dover.

Dover-on-Sea is several hundred kilometers from the nearest ocean. The so-called 'sea' is actually Lake Erie, entirely fresh water… for a sufficiently loose definition of the word 'fresh.' (Lake Erie is actually quite clean these days, now that it isn't being poisoned by run-off from OldTech mega-cities; but the people of Simka love to infuriate Doverites by pretending the lake is still a stinking cesspool. One of those regional rivalry things.)

Dover's harbor is the center of a thriving fishing industry and home to what the town council calls the largest inland fleet in the world. I view that claim with suspicion — the councilors have been known to invent spurious accolades ('Voted the prettiest village on the Great Lakes' or 'Universally regarded as the best source of handicrafts in all Feliss'). The council then disseminates these accolades at genuine tourist attractions like Niagara Falls in an effort to attract gullible visitors to Dover's overpriced 'country boutiques.' Nevertheless, Dover's harbor is filled with a huge bevy of boats… many of which catch fish only one day in ten. The rest of the time, they devote themselves to grand-scale smuggling.

Dover-on-Sea is definitely the Smuggling Capital of Feliss province… though the town council never mentions that distinction in their advertising. Each time Governor Niome tries to stimulate the provincial economy by taxing imports, the benefits are first felt in the back streets of Dover: each new tax creates a new line of business for the smugglers. On any given night, so-called 'fishing' boats drop anchor in shadowed inlets along the nearby shore, offloading contraband liquor and linen, not to mention all manner of illegal substances from narcotics to necromancy aids.

At least, that's the gossip I'd overheard in sordid places like The Pot of Gold. I had no actual proof of unlawful activity, or I would have been obliged to tell the proper authorities. Assuming I could find some customs agent who wasn't in the pay of the smuggling cartel. Also assuming I didn't care if I