Dave Duncan – The Living God – A Handful of Men. Book 4

“Fugitives?” Rap said. “You must get them through here all the time, surely?”

“A woman with child!” Thaile said. “She has a child with her and she is herself with child. There is a prophecy!”

He wanted to shrug. He wanted to say: But I helped you three nights ago, and what good did it do me?

Instead he said, “What do you want me to do? Again I point out that you must get fugitives dropping in all the time. Why four archons for this lot? Why me?”

“You do not see?” Raim said. “Look in the ambience.” Powers preserve us! Faint, like smoke, two great eyes hung in the sky. They were insubstantial, and yet stony, a ghost of a cliff face, a hint made up of cloud and shadow against the blue. Of course it was illusion. It was only Rap’s own mind trying to make sense of the inconceivable, but the image was enough to chill him to the marrow. It was the same symbolism his brain had used when the Almighty had come searching the ambience for him in Ilrane. He was sensing the Covin. The Covin, too, was watching the drama unfolding in the valley. Why?

The audience grew larger as more archons materialized at his side.

“Well, it seems you do have a problem,” Rap said. “Not an hour ago Thaile was telling me that only sorcery could injure Thume. Those folk down there are all mundane, aren’t they?”

“Seemingly,” Thaile said. “But why are they of interest to the Almighty?”

“You expect me to know?” Rap exclaimed. “Just like that?” Had the pixies any idea of how big the outside world was or how many people lived in it?

The first pursuer jumped his horse over the gate by the watcher and went down in a gruesome tangle. Certainly that man was—or had been—no sorcerer.

It was the Azak problem all over again. If the Keeper used power to repel the invaders, then the Covin would notice. If the fugitives were allowed to cross the river they would vanish behind the inattention spell, and the Covin might wonder.

Who could these runaways be that they should merit such a pursuit and such an observer? Rap focused his superhuman vision on the woman. His shock alerted the other sorcerers. “Who is it?” Thaile cried.

He could not believe it himself, but he said it. “It’s Impress Eshiala. The child is her daughter, the princess imperial.” How in the world had Eshiala managed to come to Thume? Shandie had left her in a safe house close to Hub. Why would she have come here?

“And the man?” one of the archons demanded.

The man? The civilian by the gate? He had his sword out. He was making no attempt to rescue the injured legionary, whose horse was obviously now crippled and who might be dead himself. Had the civilian contrived that fall? If so, he was fighting a very dirty battle.

Gods have mercy—it was Ylo! Signifer Ylo. His face was scratched bloody and streaked with dust and sweat also, but there was no mistaking it. Good looks like that were rare enough to be unforgettable.

Oh, of course.

“The man is Shandie’s signifer.” Thumian lacked such a word and Rap spoke the impish term. “That’s an assistant . . . He’s a lecher, a woman chaser. When I met him, he was after the impress. Apparently he got her.”

Ylo had been with Shandie when the goblins caught him. Rap had not thought to ask Inos what had happened to him. There had been many, far more important things to discuss than Shandie’s signifer.

“Then it is the woman the Almighty hunts?” Raim asked. “It must be. Or the child. Ylo’s a pretty lad and he has some good qualities, but there’s nothing much to him.” Rap pulled his wits together. “Look, call my wife here.”

“Why should we need her?” a quiet voice in the background asked.

Without turning his head, he glanced behind him. The Keeper was standing back under the trees, a dark shape leaning on a staff, a shadow in the shadows.

“I am only trying to be helpful, Holiness,” he said. “I am a friend of Thume’s, remember?”

“Bring her,” the Keeper said.

But the second legionary was nearing the gate, and apparently that civilian was about to tackle an armored, mounted opponent. Nothing much to him? That could not be the same Ylo Rap had met. Or else he’d gone crazy.

The impress cleared the gate into the water meadow and her horse stumbled and went down under her. The child rolled free.

“Good!” the Keeper said.

The opponent approaching would wield a legionary’s short sword. Ylo wore no chain mail and his rapier was a gentleman’s weapon. He must use his advantage in reach immediately, before his blade could be knocked aside or perhaps even cut through. He was on the man’s right, and much would depend on whether the man had already drawn his sword. This battle was turning into a very dirty fight, but the Imperial Army had never cared much for rules except the one that said The good guys must win and we are always the good guys.

The knell of hooves slowed. The rider must have seen his predecessor go down and might be expecting an ambush. Or perhaps he was merely watching his footing. The fragment of hurdle remaining was no great barrier, but it could trip a weary horse.

He put his mount over it in proper jump style, which meant he was crouched low in the saddle. Possibly his attention had wandered to the casualty sprawled in the dirt, or possibly he expected a conventional attack from the left. Ylo leaped forward and lunged upward. The point of his rapier screeched on chain mail and went through the gap in the armpit. That was not a stroke to kill a man instantly, but it could do a lot of damage and it certainly served Ylo’s purpose. The rider keeled over with a bubbling scream. The horse shied from the sudden attack and bucked. Ylo’s sword came free. The downed horse tried again to rise and again collapsed on its motionless rider.

The second horse reared, tipping the legionary off completely. The wounded man flailed and screamed as he fell into the hedge. Ylo grabbed the cheek strap. There was a wild skirmish with clattering hooves and loud cursing. Then Ylo more or less had control of his new mount. Holding its reins, he grabbed up the rapier he had dropped. The horse backed away from him, whinnying with terror and rolling white-rimmed eyes. Fortunately it backed itself into the hedge; he was able to move in close and mount from the wrong side.

In the saddle he was master.

The wounded man had fainted, or was stunned. He was probably fated to drown in his own blood anyway.

Fury roared in Ylo’s head. He felt wild exultation. Two down! He was invincible, irresistible!

The third rider was coming, galloping across the pasture, crouched over his horse’s neck. Another two had come over the skyline. Eshiala . . .

Eshiala was staggering across the meadow on foot, carrying Maya, heading for the river. Oh, Gods! She had fallen? She could not be seriously hurt if she was walking. Could she? She had a long way to go.

For a moment Ylo dithered.

Then he turned to face the pursuit. There was no hope of faking any more accidents, but he must hold the gate to give Eshiala time to reach the forest. The good guys always win!

Beyond the hedge the third opponent reined in and straightened up in his saddle. Ylo saluted with his rapier.

“You crazy popinjay!” Hardgraa roared, drawing his sword with a blood-chilling scrape. “Think you can stop me, do you?”

There were ten watchers in the forest now, for all the archons had arrived.

“That is the one!” the Keeper said. “That soldier is the one the Covin watches.”

How she could tell that, Rap had no idea and no chance to ask. With a squeal from Inos and a shriek from Kadie, his womenfolk appeared at his side, still huddled together as if lifted straight out of their chairs. They staggered. He clutched Inos’ shoulders to steady her.

“Shandie!” he said. “When he was captured—did he say anything about Ylo, his signifer?”

Inos glanced over the audience and the geography and raised her eyebrows. ”We have another emergency? No, not then he didn’t.”

“Later?”

“Kadie!”

Ignoring her mother’s exclamation, Kadie rushed to Thaile’s side. The pixie gave her a distracted smile and put an arm around her.

Inos said, “Later he said he thought that his companion had escaped.”

“Nothing more?” Rap asked. “Not that he had given Ylo any special instructions, for instance?”

Inos frowned in annoyance at being thus interrogated when she did not know what was going on. “—He hinted that he didn’t trust Ylo not to go chasing after his wife. That was all.”