“Look, Kaetha,” whispered Donnan. “They’ve all been marked.”
Some of them had cuts on their cheeks, some on their foreheads and many faces she saw were bruised. However, despite their injuries, people talked, smiled, even laughed as they ate. Clearly they were being well looked after. A man with dark hair and a close cropped beard sat a little apart from the others. There was no cut on his face. Kaetha frowned, wondering if she’d seen him before, but looked away when she caught his eye.
“How many Murdo Macomrags are out there?” Kaetha felt like she would burst with anger at the injustice of it all.
“Murdo Macomrag?” asked Naru as he poured water. “Was he the one who did that to you?”
“Aye,” she replied. “He’s Thane of Mormuin now.”
“It’s the king’s new decree,” said Naru. “People like us have long been misunderstood and feared in Dalrath. In some parts of Shamlakah too.”
“Cutting above the breath was something done long ago,” said Branna who took a seat opposite Kaetha. “Like now, it was said to protect people from the witch who was cut. Though, in fact, it simply served to identify people who could be blamed for all manner of misfortunes and grievances. Surely that’s what Svelrik’s decree is really about.”
“Perhaps he feels genuinely threatened by the idea of people using magic wrongfully,” said Meraud.
“Or maybe he’s creating a tempest of fear to serve his own purposes,” said Branna. “But whatever the reason behind it, we’re living through dark times.”
“So we must be the light,” added Meraud, bowing before walking away to serve food to others.
“We broke those two out of a gaol in Calamor.” Branna nodded towards a man and woman sitting together at the end of the table. “But we couldn’t save the eight who were hanged the day before.”
“We listen out for news,” said Naru, “and, whenever we identify a good chance of saving people, without being discovered ourselves, we go in.”
“You were going to break Catrin, Roddie and Meg out of their prison,” Kaetha realised.
Naru smiled at her. “Only you got there first.”
“You’ll have hot food later,” said Branna, handing them bread.
“Goat stew, I believe,” said Naru.
“Goat?” said Donnan.
“It’s mostly either goat or hare up here,” said Naru.
“And the odd dragon, I expect,” said Donnan.
Naru chuckled, slapping his hand on the table. “Are you ready for some dragon hunting then, young Donnan?”
Kaetha was watching Deorsa and Meraud across the room. They were discussing something, their eyes flitting now and then to look at Kaetha. When she stared back at them, Deorsa walked away but Meraud kept her eyes fixed on hers. She tried to read Meraud’s thoughts, whispering her name under her breath, yet she heard nothing clearly, perhaps because the roomful of people was too distracting. However, she suspected that Meraud’s calm, swan-like languor belied a fevered racing of thoughts.
“So, you want to leave, Donnan,” said Branna matter-of-factly.
“Did you hear that from his thoughts?” said Kaetha with a scowl.
“I apologise. Those in the Order are generally used to it; they know I never pry too far. Though it’s easy for me to forget how uncomfortable it can make normal people feel.”
“I wouldn’t quite class this one as normal,” muttered Donnan.
“No,” agreed Branna with the hint of a smile. “Perhaps not.”
“As if it’s normal to send people out with weapons to capture unsuspecting travellers?” said Kaetha. “To send people who don’t say a word so their captives go along with them, afraid for their lives?”
Branna’s smile faded. “You may not have known it then but the important thing was that you were safe. We usually send out others who are granted permission to speak, in fact I thought I had, only something went wrong with our organising.”
“One of our group is still out there in the forest,” said Kaetha. “She’ll be worried. We have to find her. Besides, we don’t have time to waste, we must continue on our journey south.”
“You would do better to wait until you were healed and strong,” said Naru. “But I will go now, in search of your friend.”
“She’s my stepmother – Mairi Baird – and I’ll come with you.”
“Let Naru lead a search party. He’s most capable. You need treatment for your burns and breaks,” she said, looking at Kaetha’s and Donnan’s hands before letting her gaze linger on Donnan’s face, “amongst other things.”
Naru got to his feet.
“If you take one of the—,” she stopped herself from calling them ‘silent ones’, “Appointed who brought us here,” said Kaetha, “tell them our shelter was a little north-west of where they found us, not more than a couple of hundred yards. And she may have a— a dog with her. And, Naru?” She looked into his big, dark eyes. “Thank you.”
He nodded then left, motioning four silent ones to follow him.
Later, they were led up a twisting staircase into a room that smelt like a meadow. Water sloshed as it was poured into tubs and a silent one took Kaetha behind a screen to her bath. Her smile and her round, dark eyes were so like Naru’s that Kaetha wondered if they were related.
“But Ma, I don’t need to bathe!” she heard Roddie say.
“After all those days in worse than a gaol cell, you can’t object to getting a wee bit wet,” said his mother. Kaetha smiled.
She removed her clothes and sank into the hot, herb-strewn water with a sigh, trying to ignore the pain in her hand so as not to spoil the moment. The silent one returned, attached a basin of water to the side of her tub and lowered Kaetha’s injured hand into it. The cold water swirled
