Romilly had not thought of that – Jandria was Orain’s kin, and Lyondri Hastur could use her for hostage, too, even if he did not, as Jandria had feared, mean to put her to death. She said formally, “A ves ordres, mestra,” and finished saddling her horse.
“Go into the hostel and get yourself some bread and cheese,” Jandria said, “We can eat as we ride. But be quick, little sister.”
Is there need for such haste as that, or is Jandria afraid without reason? But Romilly did not question her; she did as she was told, returning with a loaf of bread and a great hunk of coarse white new cheese, which she stowed in her saddlebag – she was not hungry now, Jandria’s message had effectively destroyed her appetite, but she knew she would be glad of it later. She had a bag of apples, too, which the cook had given her.
She did ask, as they led out their horses to mount, “Where are we going, Janni?”
“I think it would be safer if you did not know that, not just yet,” said Jandria, and Romilly saw real fear in her eyes. “Come, little sister, let us ride.”
Romilly marked that they rode northward from the city, but the trail soon curved, and Jandria took a small, little-travelled road, hardly more than the track left by mountain chervines, which wound upward and upward into the hills. Before long Romilly had lost all sense of direction, but Jandria seemed never to hesitate, as if she knew precisely where she was going.
Before long they began to ride under the cover of heavy forested slopes, and Jandria seemed to relax a little; after an hour or so she asked for some of the bread and cheese, and ate it with a good appetite. Romilly, chewing on the coarse crust, began to wonder again, but did not ask.
At last Jandria said, mounting again and taking the lead-rope of the pack animal, “Even a sentry-bird cannot spy us out here. I know not if Lyondri has such birds trained to his use – they are not really all that common – but I thought it better to keep under cover till the trail was well and truly lost; all Gods forbid I should lead him straight to Carolin’s armies.”
“Is that where we are going?”
“The Sisterhood has a cohort of soldiers there,” said Jandria, “and your skills may be needed to train horses for the army. And I doubt not that the Sisterhood with Carolin’s army can make use of me, somehow or other. If Lyondri knew I was in the hostel – as he must have known or he would not have sent that message – then he might think, or Rakhal might think for him, that if he kept watch on me, I might lead him straight to Carolin’s rendezvous; even if he could not tear the knowledge of that rendezvous straight from my mind without even a leronis to aid him. So I hastened to get out of there, and into the cover of the forest, so that he could not set watch on the hostel and give orders to have me followed. I may possibly have moved faster than he, for once; and it may be that we are already safe.” But she glanced apprehensively down the trail where they had come, and then, even more apprehensively, at the sky, as if even now Lyondri’s sentry-birds could be hovering there to spy them out And her fear made Romilly frightened too.
That night they camped still within the shelter of the forest, and Jandria even forbade a cooking-fire; they ate the cold bread and cheese, and tethered the animals under a great tree. They spread their blankets beneath another, doubled for warmth (although the mountain-bred Romilly found it reasonably warm) and Romilly slept quickly, tired from riding. But she woke once in the night to hear soft sounds as if Jandria was crying. She wished, wretchedly, that she could say something to comfort the other woman, but it was a trouble far beyond her comprehension. At last she slept again, but woke early to find Jandria already up and saddling the horses. Her eyes were dry and tearless, her face barricaded, but the eyelids were red and swollen.