“I begged them—I begged them—”
I laid my arms around her. “Poor love, I know, I heard you. Did they hurt you?”
“No, even Beltran didn’t hurt me, though I scratched and bit him.” She said, her voice coming in gasps, “I have your matrix for you. Here, quick.” She held the small leather bag out to me. I thrust it inside my tunic, next to my skin. It seemed that my vision cleared at once, the dull ringing inside my head quieted. Even my heart beat more solidly. I was still battered and aching from the terrible beating I had taken, but I felt alive again, “How did you get it?”
“Bob made me take it,” she said. “He said I was Keeper, only I could handle it without hurting you. He said you’d die otherwise. So I took it, Lew, only to save you. I swear it—”
“I know. If anyone but a Keeper had kept it long, I would certainly have died.” Not that I credited Kadarin with that much kindness for my well-being. He probably knew what too much handling of someone else’s keyed matrix would do to him.
“Where is the Sharra matrix?”
“Thyra has it, I think,” she said doubtfully. ‘I’m not sure.”
“How did you get in here, Marjorie? Are there guards watching me?”
She nodded slowly. “All the guards know me,” she said at last “Most of them were my father’s friends and have known me since they held me on their knees. They trust me … and I brought them drugged wine. I’m ashamed of that, Lew, but what else could I do? But we must get away at once, as quickly as we can. When they wake up they will know, and tell Beltran . . .” Her voice failed.
“He should thank you for saving the small remnant of his honor,” I said grimly. Then I realized she had said “we.”
“You will come with me?”
“I must, I dare not stay after what I have done. Lew, don’t you want me? Do you think I had any part in … oh!
I held her tight. “Can you doubt it? But in these mountains, at this season—”
“I was born in these mountains; I’ve traveled in worse weather than this.”
“We must be gone, then, before the guards wake. What did you give them?”
She told me and I shook my head. “No good. They’ll wake within the hour. But maybe I can do better now.” I touched the matrix. “Let’s go.” Hastily I gathered my things together. She had dressed warmly, I saw, heavy boots, a long riding-skirt. I looked out the windows. It was nightfall, but by some god’s mercy it was not snowing.
In the dim hallway two figures sprawled in sodden, snoring sleep. I bent and listened to their breathing. Marjorie gasped, “Don’t kill them, Lew. They’ve done you no harm!”
I wasn’t so sure. My ribs still ached from the weight of somebody’s boots. “I can do better than killing them,” I said, cradling the matrix between my palms. Swiftly, incisively, I drew into the minds of the drugged men. Sleep, I commanded, sleep long and well, sleep till the rising sun wakes you. Marjorie never came here, you drank no wine, drugged or wholesome.
The poor devils would have to answer to Beltran for sleeping at their post. But I’d done what I could.
I tiptoed down the corridor, Marjorie hugging the wall behind me. Outside the great guest suite were two more drugged guards; Marjorie had been thorough. I stooped over them, sent them, too, more deeply into their dreams.
My hands are strong. I made shorter work of the bolts than Marjorie had done. Briefly I wondered at the kind of hospitality that puts a bolt on the outside of a guest room door for any contingency. As I stepped inside, Danilo quickly stepped between me and Regis. Then he recognized me and fell back.
Regis said, “I thought they’d killed you—” His eyes fell on my face. “It looks as if they’d tried! How did you get out?”
“Never mind,” I said. “Get on your riding-things, unless you love Aldaran’s hospitality too well to leave it!”