against the light, holding his head high and trying to look brave — he might well be deceiving anyone who knew him less well than Toby did. He scowled when he saw the baron, but his gaze flickered past the two fake monks with no sign of recognition at all. Hope surged a little higher yet.
Eight white horses brought in the viceroy's carriage, a gilded cottage on wheels. The steps were set down, but then there was a delay while the prisoner was pushed forward, looking puzzled and alarmed. Toby squeezed past the watchers and scrambled up, into a scented salon roomy enough for a dozen people. He settled himself on a silk-padded cushion and held his breath.
It was going to work!
Hamish clambered up, one foot at a time, steadied by soldiers' hands. His eyes widened when he saw the luxurious interior, but he did not seem to notice that there were was someone there already. He sat down and scowled as he tried to make himself comfortable in his fetters. The baron's bulk darkened the doorway, with the don right at his back.
'Where to, your Excellency?' called Diaz from the outside.
'To Montserrat.'
The door was closed, orders were shouted, and the viceroy's escort began mounting in a clatter of hooves and jingling harness. The baron flopped down on the bench beside Hamish, drooping like a man exhausted. Hamish frowned at him distrustfully. Whips cracked, voices shouted, and the cumbersome machine began to roll. Eight white horses clattered out through the arch into the street, and the great wheels rumbled behind them.
Toby threw back his hood.
Hamish gaped and made a croaking noise.
'I think we have just escaped, thanks to Don Ramon here, and Montserrat, and his Excellency. You know Baron Oreste, at least by sight — and by reputation of course.'
The baron looked round. 'Master Campbell? I am very pleased to meet you at last, and in happier circumstances than I could have anticipated.' He did not look pleased. He looked like a man going mad.
'The baron,' said Toby, 'is now one of us.'
Hamish licked his lips. 'Well now!' he whispered. 'Ain't that one for the books!'
The armed escort kept the population at bay, but there was booing in the streets as the freedom-loving Catalans expressed their opinion of the hated viceroy. Had they known that the coach also contained a convicted incarnate, even Captain Diaz and his troop could not have defended it. Only when it rumbled out through the city gate and began to pick up speed on the muddy highway could the flower of hope open fully.
It was going to be a strange journey. The baron relapsed into bleak silence, but from time to time he would lift his head to stare longingly at the ivory casket like a drunkard deprived of his wine. All would be lost if that lid were to open for even an instant, so Toby wrapped it securely with the girdle from one of the now-discarded robes and kept it on the bench between himself and the don.
He succeeded in breaking a rusted link in the chain on Hamish's ankles, but the manacles defeated him. Hamish contorted himself inside out so that his hands were in front of him instead of behind his back, which was an improvement. Then he had to be told the whole dramatic story. By the end of it he was grinning like his old self.
Don Ramon, as hero of the hour, was in high spirits. 'Truly,
'Crusade, senor?'
The blue eyes glittered. 'The crusade on which we agreed — to overthrow the Fiend and rid the world of Rhym.'
Oh, demons! 'The
The don scowled at that notion. Quite apart from his ghastly reputation, Oreste was an upstart, a former scholar jumped into the minor nobility by the Fiend. His lineage was nonexistent when compared to that of Nunez y Pardo.
Even if Toby had the slightest intention of going hunting for the tyrant — which he did not — there were still too many ditches in his immediate future for him to start worrying about Nevil. Dare he trust himself again to Montserrat? It had already sold him once. Why should it defy the Inquisition on his behalf? It would be defying Nevil also, for although Oreste was no longer a threat, the Fiend had many other hexers at his command, not to mention his never-defeated army. Furthermore, to succor the outlaw Longdirk now, the spirit would have to admit that it had made a mistake the first time, and that seemed even less likely.
The robes, though… the robes were evidence. With some difficulty, he roused the baron from his lethargy and asked about the robes. Oreste confirmed that inanimate objects could be hexed.
'Not for long, though,' he mumbled. 'The effect will fade in a few days or weeks at most.' He relapsed into his bitter brooding.
So perhaps Montserrat really had behaved as the don claimed!
And the other problem was the amethyst, which had been an amethyst when Diaz had placed it in the warded casket and a pebble when it came out. Neither Hamish nor Oreste could suggest a solution, and if they couldn't, Toby Longdirk need not trouble his pretty little head over it, so he put the matter out of his mind.
He wanted to practice his meditation exercises, but he began sliding into sleep as soon as he began. He was more exhausted than he could ever remember, with the strain of the last twenty-four hours piled on all the hard days before. Don Ramon went to sleep, then Hamish did the same, but Toby must keep watch on the box and the brooding baron.
By the time they awakened, the setting sun was shedding a ruddy glow on spectacular precipices ahead. Now that he did not expect to die soon, Toby could concede that the world was interesting again and peered out at the scenery. The don had no such curiosity in rocks.
'When you find that amethyst,
Toby turned to the baron. 'Would that be possible, Excellency? Can Nevil be reincarnated?'
'Hmm? What?' Oreste shrugged. 'In theory, yes. That is what Rhym fears above all. In practice, it is more likely that the boy would emerge as a slobbering idiot or a raving madman. He would certainly not be in a cooperative frame of mind, and Nevil was no mean hexer in his own right.'
'Besides, who is to provide a living body?' Toby asked. Valda had volunteered him to make that sacrifice, and the memory made his skin crawl.
'In such a cause, any chance is worth taking,' Don Ramon insisted.
'But we don't know who took the amethyst.'
This intrusion of reality made him pout. After a while he tried again: 'Then the first step must be to rally an army. An invasion of France by the combined forces of Castile and Aragon would be a beginning. You will cooperate, of course, baron, since you are still viceroy?'
'Me?' Oreste shook his head mournfully. 'You must not count on me for help. Rhym will very soon learn that I have escaped his binding. My days can be numbered on the fingers of one hand.'
There might be people in the world worse off than Toby Longdirk, which he found a stunning realization. 'Possibly Montserrat will defend you, Excellency.'
'Me?' the baron said incredulously, and that one agonized word ended the conversation.
CHAPTER TWO
Darkness fell as the carriage was inching its way higher on the hairpin road, but even before it left the
