“I should love to! I find that carriage very bumpy. How about you, Inos, dear?”
“Of course!” Inos agreed, amused at the expression on Yggingi’s face, and Andor’s. They did not know of Aunt Kade’s unlimited ability to astonish.
Kade rose, determined. “Then we shall ride. Our habits are in that green box, Proconsul. If you would be so kind as to have it lifted down, we can change in the carriage. “
Yggingi actually smiled—a gruesome sight. “And we can leave this wreck where it is. We should reach Pondague tomorrow, and after that you can travel by sled. “
Aunt Kade beamed up at him innocently. “Oh, I think we can ride in the forest if we have to. I am a little out of practice, I admit, but I used to be a very keen horsewoman. “
It would do her figure no harm, Inos thought, and a horse could be no more tiring than that bone-shaking carriage.
Yggingi, about to speak, stopped suddenly and peered into the trees. ”What was that?”
Andor frowned. “I thought I heard something, too. “
Inos had heard nothing, but her skin tingled—all the horses had pricked their ears in that way, also. The proconsul bellowed for silence in the ranks. The shout ran out along the line in both directions, and then there was only a steady dripping, and restless splashings of hooves.
“There it is again,” Yggingi said, and this time Inos had heard something, also.
“Goblins?” she asked nervously.
“They don’t shout. They keep quiet and ran. If I’d thought there was the slightest chance of goblin sport, I’d have brought the dogs.”
A distant voice. “Princess Inosolan!”
Inos jumped. Her heart continued jumping.
Faint though it was, they had all heard it this time-Inos, her aunt, Andor, Yggingi, and the dozens of mud-splattered legionaries.
“It’s a long way off!” Andor’s face had gone very stem. He pushed back his cloak to free his sword hilt.
Yggingi clicked his sword up and down in its scabbard, once, then again. ”Maybe not so far. The trees deaden sound.”
“Princess Inosolan!” No mistake this time . . .
They were all staring at the woods now. Aunt Kade stepped close to Inos and gripped her wrist, as if fearing she might run off into the forest to investigate. Nothing was less likely. Inos shivered. Yggingi’s sword hissed as he drew.
“You had better go back to the coach, ladies!” He shouted an order and swords flashed out, while other men pulled bowstrings from waterproof pouches. Work on the axle had stopped.
“No, wait!” Inos said as her aunt began to move. That voice? ”Princess Inosolan!” Closer yet.
Who? There was something familiar about that voice. “Yes?” she shouted.
“Inos!” her aunt cried.
And the voice replied: “It’s Rap!” Rap? Rap who? Rap?
“No!” It couldn’t possibly be.
“Back in the carriage!” Andor shouted, and he also drew his sword. ”It must be some sort of demon, I think. You agree, Proconsul? “
Yggingi’s eyes had narrowed to slits. “I never met any forest demons. Old wives’ tales!” He cupped his hands to shout. “Come out and show yourself!”
“Tell your men to lower their bows!” The voice was much closer, although there was nothing in sight. “I am alone and unarmed. “
“I think it must be a demon!” Andor insisted. “They can look like anyone-very dangerous to trust a demon.” He appeared more upset than anyone. He sounded almost shrill, and that was surprising, somehow.
Yggingi seemed to think so. He eyed Andor curiously, then called to his men to lower their bows. “Come out!” he bellowed, more loudly than seemed necessary.
And a man stepped from behind a tree right in front of them. How he had come so close without her seeing, Inos could not guess, but there he was—a slim young man in soiled leather garments, holding out empty hands to show his lack of weapons. He was panting.
“Inos!” he said. Rap!
He had grown—taller and wider. His clothes were incredibly filthy and his face impossibly grimy, especially around the eyes. It seemed greasy, with the rain running down it in droplets, and it looked much thinner than she remembered, making his jaw look bigger than ever, his nose wider. He had a youth’s thin moustache and patchy beard. He was bareheaded, his brown hair matted in slimy tangles. Ugly! But it was Rap.
She began to tremble, stupidly.
“He’s no goblin, certainly,” Yggingi said to no one in particular. ”That’s close enough! Who are you?”
“The princess knows me.”
“Do you?” the proconsul asked.
“Yes,” she said. “He’s one of my father’s stablehands. Rap? What are you doing here? And what’s that on your face?” Then she caught a whiff of an unbearable stench. “What’s that smell?” Her stomach churned.
“That’s goblin stink!” Yggingi said grimly. “Stand back from the ladies, you!”
Rap did not move, except to put his hands on his hips. He had obviously been running and he spoke in short bursts. “Sorry about the perfume. No bathtubs in the forest. I came to warn you that your father is dying, Inos. But I see that you already know. “
Had Rap also come all this way to warn her? She glanced up at Andor, who had his jaw clenched and was scowling. “Sir Andor told me. “
“Oh, it’s Sir Andor, is it?” Rap frowned fiercely. “I have another warning for you, then.” He raised a hand and pointed. “Don’t trust that man! He’s a—”
“Rap!” she shouted. “What do you know of Sir Andor?”
“He sold me to the goblins, that’s what I know about him.” Sold him to . . . Again Inos caught a whiff of that terrible smell.
Andor raised his sword and took a step. She laid a hand on his arm to detain him. “Andor, do you know Rap?”
“This is not whoever you think it is, my darling. It’s a forest demon. They can take many shapes. Don’t trust a word it says. They are very evil.”
“Andor! Rap, how did you get here? Aunt Kade, it is Rap, isn’t it?”
“I don’t know, dear. I never met him.”
“What are you?” Yggingi demanded. “You’re not imp and you’re not goblin.”
“It’s a demon!” Andor insisted. “Or a wraith!”
A wraith? Inos shuddered convulsively. Surely not?
“I’m a faun.” Rap was still watching Inos. “A jotunn-faun mongrel, and goblin by adoption. But not by choice—that was his doing.” And again he pointed at Andor.
Inos wondered why she could not just quietly faint, as ladies of quality were supposed to do in moments of stress. Rap had always been so dependable! Others might make up fantastic stories or play elaborate jokes, but Rap never had. And it certainly seemed to be Rap, an older version of the boy she had knownexcept for the moustache, and those barbaric tattoos.
“Rap,” she said, forcing her voice down from the squeaks it wanted to use, “what are those marks round your eyes?”
Rap gaped for a moment, raising his hand to his face as if he had forgotten the tattoos were there. “These?”
Andor stepped back with a laugh. He sheathed his sword. “I did meet him!” he said. “I didn’t recognize him in that goblin disguise. I met him in Krasnegar. Tell her Highness how a goblin earns his tattoos, lad.”
“I didn’t!” Rap shouted.
“Didn’t what?” Inos asked.
“You tell her, Proconsul,” Andor said.
“No, you tell her.” Yggingi was scowling. “He tortured a boy to death.”
And Inos said, “No!” just as Rap repeated, “I didn’t!”
“He must have done,” Yggingi said. “It’s their custom.” Then Andor put his arm around Inos, and she was very grateful for it. “And he’s the one who sold me the horses.”
“Sold you the horses?” she repeated idiotically.
He nodded, still staring at the apparition from the woods. “I asked some people where I could acquire horses, and I was directed to that boy. We met in a bar and he sold me two horses.”
Rap! They must have been her father’s horses. There were no others in Krasnegar. Of course Andor would not have known that. Rap, selling the royal horses? In bars?
“Liar!” Rap shouted. “He’s lying, Inos! We left Krasnegar together and he sold me to the goblins. He bought safe passage for himself by selling—”
“Rap! No! I won’t listen to—”
“Inos, he’s a sorcerer!”
She had rather liked Rap once, she remembered, when she was younger. Of course in those days she had known very little about men and almost nothing about gentlemen. Fortunately she knew better now, after Kinvale, and she could appreciate the way Andor was keeping his temper in spite of the insults being shouted by this filthy derelict. Rap had obviously reverted to some sort of savage state-his faun ancestry coming out, probably.
“If you were sold to the goblins, you’re in remarkably good shape!” Yggingi said. “Spying for them, are you? Come forward here with your hands high. “