The Chained Adept (1-4)

Chapter 23

CHAPTER 23

The sound of rain on the wooden shingles of the hay loft woke Penrys before Zandaril came to get her at the end of his watch. They had split the night, watching for anyone approaching from the village. The precaution might have been unnecessary, but Penrys couldn’t maintain any sort of shield while she slept, nor was she even sure that the shield was a good idea—the wizard who ran the mirror seemed to have been attracted by it—so this was the best they could do. She checked the surroundings now. She felt Tak Tuzap, still sunk in the sound sleep of youth, and Zandaril preparing to catch another couple of hours before the sun was properly up, but no one else nearby.

She yawned, grateful for a roof this wet morning, even if only a hay loft, half-full of bales. Daylight soon—I can start with the Rasesni books!

She pulled on her boots and stepped carefully down the ladder. The horses and mules were dozing, standing hip-slung and quiet. She picked up two of the buckets that had been left behind and went out the human door on the side, calculating the driest route to the privy, and then to the well to bring back water for the animals and themselves.

When she returned, dripping, she set the buckets down inside the doorway and looked over at her pack, the one that held the bags of Veneshjug’s power stones. She closed her eyes. Yes, I can feel them, but only just, unpowered as they are. Couldn’t do that from the yard.

There was no telling what Veneshjug’s colleagues could manage. She kept her own shield up lightly, now that she was awake. Just because there didn’t seem to be a wizard within range didn’t mean none was there. We don’t know what they can do. I’m not back at the Collegium, where my range is longer than anyone else’s. It’d be stupid to think that’s true everywhere.

She’d tried to teach Zandaril to shield himself last night, but it was slow work—apparently wizards didn’t hide that way in sarq-Zannib. Their best defense was going to have to be not to draw any attention to themselves, and to find out as much as they could without alerting any Rasesni wizards.

She snorted quietly. That’ll be a neat trick.

“Listen to this.” Penrys’s voice drifted up from the far side of the stable.

Zandaril sighed. Penrys had buried her nose in the first Rasesni book from the moment there was enough light to make out the letters on the page. She’d commandeered an empty stall, opened the shutter on its window, and dragged a bench into it as a makeshift work table so she could follow along with experiments as she read.

While he and Tak Tuzap had watered and fed the animals, and set up a watch for their promised visitors, she’d been calling out the highlights of device techniques that were apparently new to her.

He’d popped in once to look over her shoulder, but he still couldn’t read it. She tried to show him something with the wooden forms and loose stones she’d brought with her, but he just shook his head and backed out again.

“Aren’t you worried about having all that… stuff out in the open with other people around?” he asked.

“I’ll put it away before they get here. The book, especially—wouldn’t do to have a Rasesni book around, under the circumstances, I suppose.”

Zandaril rolled his eyes. “Come have some breakfast.”

“Later… Who knows when I’ll be able to read it again…” Her voice trailed off as she flipped a page.

“Everywhere in Neshilik there will be Rasesni,” Zandaril muttered under his breath as he joined Tak on a bench against the wall, as far as he could get from her experiments. The boy grinned at him.

There was a sizzle and a spark from the stall, and dust rose over the partition.

“That’s how that works. What a clever idea!”

“Is she always like this?” Tak asked Zandaril.

“I hope not.” He had visions of this unbridled enthusiasm at work in the hallowed halls of the Collegium library.

“Try not to blow us all up if you figure it out,” he called.

“They’re coming,” Penrys said. She stuck her head out of the stall doorway to make sure she’d been heard. There was dirt on her forehead and down along one cheek.

Zandaril grunted. Apparently she hadn’t been so entirely absorbed in her research as not to maintain a watch. Her range was greater than his, but soon he could feel the approach of four people, the two from last night, and two others.

Penrys disappeared again, and he heard her sweeping her things into a pack. She emerged from the stall with it over her shoulder and hoisted it up the ladder to bury it in the loft.

“No sense leaving it around underfoot,” she said, as she passed.

“Wash your face,” Zandaril called up after her. “Experimental smuts.”

“The badge of a hard-working technician” drifted back down.

Tak Tuzap paced nervously, and Zandaril stopped him with a hand on his shoulder. “No fault to you if they’re difficult,” he said. “You’ve done what you could.”

He timed their approach and went to open the human door for them as they entered the farmyard. Zau Tselu paused to look around the yard first, as if seeking traces of their presence, then led the way into the stable. He was followed by a middle-aged woman and a young man, and Nek Kazu brought up the rear. Between them they carried two leather sacks and a couple of covered baskets.

Zandaril bowed to them and Penrys and Tak came up to help with their wet cloaks and hats. Penrys found pegs for everything, and soon the scent of wet wool joined warm horse and loose hay.

The woman c****d her head at Zandaril, and he felt the full force of her inspection. When she got a better look at Penrys’s face, an eyebrow rose.

“Introduce us,” she told Zau.

“This is Wan Tawa, the yankatmi of Lupmikya,” he said. “Her nephew, Wan Nozu.”

He looked over at Tak. “I’ve told her what you told us.”

With Tak’s help, Penrys pulled the benches into a rough open triangle. “Thank you for coming, yankatmi-chi. Please, won’t you take a seat?”

Wan Tawa and her nephew took the middle bench, Zau and Nek the second, and only then did Zandaril join Penrys on the third bench, patting the seat beside him to encourage Tak to roost there instead of pacing behind them nervously.

Nek offered the baskets to Zandaril. “A meal, for after. More food…” He waved a hand at the two wet leather sacks.

Penrys took the baskets and put them down at their feet. “Thank you, Nek-chi. We’re in your debt.”

“I shall explain, yes?” Zandaril asked Wan Tawa, and she waved her hand for him to proceed.

He shifted on the bench to face her squarely and sketched out his story with his hands as he spoke.

“In Yenit Ping they heard the story of Rasesdad invading your fair Neshilik. Early reports traveled downriver quickly, and the garrison at Jonggep didn’t wait for orders to prepare a first probe, to find out just what had happened.”

He glanced at Wan Tawa’s face, firm and expressionless. “It is a very long way, and though a force left Jonggep not long after, they are only just now approaching the Gates.”

“There was even enough time, apparently, to send to sarq-Zannib for a wizard,” Wan Tawa commented, dryly.

“It was so, yankatmi-chi. When the ships along the coast brought the news to Ussha that there were rumors of wizards with the Rasesni, they sent couriers to my tribe’s camp in the north, and word reached me. ‘Could we send a wizard,’ they asked, ‘to the gathering in Jonggep.’ I volunteered, and crossed the Low Pass with my horses. I caught them not long after they left.”

“And you?” Wan Tawa’s attention turned to Penrys.

“I’m an addition to the expedition, a couple of weeks after Zandaril joined. From the far North, from Ellech.”

It was a simple answer, but Zandaril hoped this local headwoman had no clear concept of the tall, fair-haired Northeners, since Penrys wouldn’t match that expectation.

“The soldiers reached the river south of Shaneng Ferry, a few days ago,” he said, “and the Commander gathers information.”

He gestured at his companions. “We’re part of that. It was thought useful for wizards to explore the presence of Rasesni wizards, if any, and report back.”

He laid his hand on Tak’s shoulder. “We picked up Tak Tuzap here on the river at the same time, and he told us his story.” He looked over at Zau. “The death of his uncle, and how he got out through the Gates.”

Wan Tawa pursed her lips as if digesting the story. “There must be others scouting this side of the Red Wall, not just you two.”

Zandaril shrugged. “I know little about that, yankatmi-chi.”

“And will tell us less,” she said. “But that’s the way it should be.” She glanced at her nephew. “So, what do you want with us? You can’t stay here, people will notice.”

“We won’t stay, to make it dangerous for you. We want to know, first, what is the truth? What happened?”

Wan Tawa raised her head and looked away from him. “Rasesni have been here before. When we pushed them out last time, some stayed. Many of us have Rasesni lines not far back, if we’re willing to admit it. They came back, is all we know, and brought the hill-tribes with them.”

“Was there fighting?” Penrys said.

“Of course, but not… not like an army. More like pushy neighbors, bullies. They wanted us out of the Song Em, especially, but they’re not as bloody as last time, if the old tales are to be believed.”

Nek spoke up. “That’s not what they say who escaped up here. Lost everything, they did.”

“But not their lives, mostly,” Wan Tawa said. “Poorer, but alive.”

She looked at Zandaril. “We’re taking in as many as we can. It helps that some of our own fled north themselves, or out through the Gates, like these folks.” She waved her hand around the stable. “If they’re not back soon, we’ll be settling some of the southerners here.”

She smoothed her skirt over her thighs. “I think they’ll be staying, again. They’re rededicating the temples, like last time. The priests are already here, sneaking about.”

“What about north of here, where most of the people are? Like his uncle?” Penrys said, c*****g her head at Tak Tuzap.

Zau said, “We keep in touch, as we can. It’s just another twelve miles or so to Gonglik, and it’s very quiet right now. Some folk made trouble, and some got killed, like Tak Paknau, so most everyone else is keeping out of the way and waiting to see what’s next.”

“What happened to Linit Kungzet, the border fort, under the Horn?” Zandaril asked.

The four villagers looked at each other. “No one knows,” Wan Tawa said. “We’ve seen no soldiers at all, and heard no rumors about it.”

Wan Nozu said, “There are Rasesni soldiers quartered in Gonglik, and all the towns around there, but not here yet. Just some officers…” He trailed off.

Wan Tawa said briskly, “The officers take over the best properties in the outlying towns and displace the families. Rewards for them, if they stay, and control over us. That’s how it works.”

Zau glowered. “And they keep the young folk there to serve them.”

“Hostages?” Penrys asked.

Wan Tawa shrugged. “It was expected, it’s their way. So far, they haven’t abused them, and we keep the peace. But that’s why you must move on. They might see you. Even some of our own, fearing for their children, might decide to turn you in. We won’t risk reprisals, not until there’s no other choice.”

Nek added, “They’re better armed, and we have more to lose.”

“And they already hold the south,” Zandaril said. “Well, it’s not our job to plan strategy, that’s for more military minds.”

“What about wizards?” Penrys said. “Have you seen or heard of anything like that?”

Zau looked at Wan Tawa and hesitated.

“Tell them,” she said.

“The towns east and north of here, to the Gates… They talk of wizards. Especially in Gonglik, with all their temples. We don’t know the truth of it.”

Penrys looked at Zandaril. “Then that’s where we must go.” His stomach clenched, but he nodded.

“Can you help?” he asked the villagers.

“You’ll never pass in daylight,” Wan Nozu said. “But if you travel at night and remain indoors during the day…”

“I can guide them,” Tak Tuzap said, popping up from the bench.

“No, lad, you’re back home now. Time for you to stay put.” Zandaril tried to push him back down, but the boy eluded him.

“That’s not why I came back. You need me. I know those towns.”

Wan Nozu looked at his aunt. “I could go with them, make them look less conspicuous. With their hoods up…”

Before Wan Tawa could draw breath to rebuke him, he added, “If I don’t get out of here, I’ll end up a hostage, too. Better to be out there doing something.”

She hesitated. “This wizard business… The Rasesni never had that before, and we don’t understand it. It’s worrisome, it is.” She examined Zandaril and his companions and came to a decision.

“You may go, nephew, to guide them.” She turned to Tak. “Can you find the big mill on the left, at the end of Lupmikya, along Gonglik road?”

When he nodded, she said, “Take everyone there, an hour after full dark. My nephew will meet you. You’ll have to leave your beasts behind—the Rasesni will take them otherwise. The mill needs horses and mules to deliver its grindings—you can leave them there. Might still be there if you come back. He’ll bring cloaks with hoods for you two.” She gestured at the wizards. “Use them.”

She looked around at the packs placed against the walls. “If you can’t carry it on your backs, you’ll have to leave it behind. The miller can help with that. I’ll talk to him today.”

She rose abruptly. “Anyone about?”

Before Zau could get to the door, Zandaril checked the vicinity, and he suspected Penrys did as well. “No one’s out there in the rain, yankatmi-chi.”

She stared at him, grimacing in distaste at the wizardly assurance.

“So. I wish you good fortune, and entrust you with my nephew’s safety.”

She glanced at Tak. “Can I not make you stay behind, boy?”

“No, yankatmi-chi.” Tak sidled closer to Wan Nozu and glanced up at his face, and Zandaril thought the two of them would partner up soon enough on the road.

Penrys fetched cloaks and hats while Zau, ignoring Zandaril’s words, peered carefully out through the rain, looking for witnesses.

They swept out of the stable into the muddy yard and Zandaril shut the door behind them.

“Well,” Penrys said. “If anyone can survive this invasion, she can. Let’s hope it gets no worse for them.”

“Or for us,” Zandaril said, contemplating trudging through the mud with a heavy pack.