Codex Alera 01 - Furies Of Calderon Part 18

Tavi ran.

His muscles were sore and the myriad scratches felt horrible, sending curling ribbons of pain through his skin, but he was able to run. For a while, Amara ran beside him in silence, hardly limping at all-but after a quarter mile, her motion became uneven, and on her exhales she started letting out whimpers of sound. Tavi dropped his pace a bit to run beside her.

"No," she gasped. "You have to keep going. Even if I don't get to the Count, you have to." "No," she gasped. "You have to keep going. Even if I don't get to the Count, you have to." "But your leg-" "But your leg-" "I'm not important, Tavi," Amara said. "Run." "I'm not important, Tavi," Amara said. "Run."

"We need to head east," Tavi said, staying beside her. "We'll have to find a place to cross the Rillwater, but there's thick and twisty woods on the other side. In the dark, we could lose them there."

"One of the men behind us," she panted. "wood-crafter. Strong one."

"Not there," Tavi said. "The only one who has ever gotten along with those furies is my uncle, and it took him years. He showed me how to get through them."

Amara slowed and nodded, as they neared the top of a hill. "All right. You, come here." She beckoned to Fade, who shuffled to her obediently. She took the bundle from him and took out his uncle's bow and the arrows with it. She braced the bow against her leg and leaned hard on it, bending it enough to string it, then took it in hand and picked up the arrows. "I want you two to get into the woods. Keep going through them."

Tavi swallowed. "What are you going to do?"

Amara took the sword from the bundle and slipped it through her makes.h.i.+ft belt. "I'm going to try to slow them here. I'll be able to see them coming here as well as anywhere."

"But you're standing out here in the open. They'll just shoot you."

She smiled, grimly. "I think there will be a bad wind for it. Leave me some of the salt. Once that storm hits, we should be free to start evading them a little more securely."

"We'll stay here and help," Tavi said. "We'll stay here and help," Tavi said. The Cursor shook her head. "No. You two get moving. Just in case things don't go well. I'll find you by morning." The Cursor shook her head. "No. You two get moving. Just in case things don't go well. I'll find you by morning." "But-" "But-"

"Tavi," Amara said. She turned to him, frowning gently. "I can't protect you and still fight here. These men are powerful crafters. You can't do anything to help me."

The words. .h.i.t him like a physical blow, and he felt a surge of frustration, helpless anger, that raced through him and for a moment washed away the aches of his body. "I can't do anything."

"Wrong," Amara said. "They'll be using earth- and wood-crafting to track you-not me. I'll be able to ambush them, and if I get lucky I might stop them altogether. Get moving and keep their attention on you."

"Won't their earth-crafter feel you?" Tavi asked. "And if they're using wood, too, you can't climb a tree to get off the ground."

Amara glanced to the north. "When that storm gets here, the furies in it..." She shook her head. "But I can take advantage of things now. Cirrus."

She closed her eyes for a moment, and the wind began to rise around her. It made the loose clothing on her billow and flap, though Tavi, standing only a few feet away, felt nothing. Amara spread her arms slightly, and the wind gusted her completely off the ground for a moment-and then settled into a whirlwind that threw up dust and debris and specks of ice in a cloud around her legs to the knee. She hovered there, momentarily, then opened her eyes and drifted left and right, experimentally.

Tavi stared at her, stunned. He had never seen such a display of wind-crafting. "You can fly."

Amara smiled at him, and even in the dimness her face seemed bright. "This? This is nothing. Maybe after all this is over, I can show you what real flying is." She nodded. "Those storm furies you have here are bad ones, and there's not much time before they get here. But this will keep Fidel-the enemy from sensing me."

"All right," Tavi said, uncertainly. "You'll be sure to find us?" "All right," Tavi said, uncertainly. "You'll be sure to find us?" Amara's smile faded. "I'll try. But if I haven't in a few hours, then keep going yourself. Can you get to Garrison?" Amara's smile faded. "I'll try. But if I haven't in a few hours, then keep going yourself. Can you get to Garrison?" "Sure," Tavi said. "I mean. I think I will. And Uncle will be coming. He can find us anywhere in the Valley." "Sure," Tavi said. "I mean. I think I will. And Uncle will be coming. He can find us anywhere in the Valley."

"I hope you're right," Amara said. "He seems a good man." She turned her back on Tavi and Fade, frowning, facing back the way that they had come. She set an arrow to the bow. "Get to Garrison. Warn the Count."

Tavi nodded, then dug into his bag and got out one of the bags of salt. He threw it down, not far from Amara, but not too close to the fury holding her in the air, either. She glanced back and down at the salt and then at Tavi. "Thank you."

"Good luck."

Fade tugged at Tavi's sleeve. "Tavi," he said. "Go."

"Yeah. Come on." Tavi turned and started down the hill, picking up to a jog again. Fade kept pace with him, the slave seemingly tireless and uncomplaining. They left Amara behind on the hilltop, and the darkness of settling evening swallowed her from sight. Tavi took his bearings from the slope of the hill, a pair of boulders he and Frederic had once teased, and before another quarter hour had pa.s.sed, they had found the edges of the wood and slipped into shadows of the pines and aspen and beneath the long fingers of the barren oak.

Tavi slowed his pace to a walk then, breathing in swift pants. He held a hand to his side, where a slow, throbbing pain was starting to rise. "I haven't ever done this much running all together," he told Fade. "Getting cramps."

"Legions, run. March. Train." Fade said. The slave looked behind them, and the shadows fell over the coward's brand on his marred face. His eyes glittered. "Tavi in the Legions, run lots."

Tavi had never heard so many words from the slave all together, and he tilted his head to one side. "Fade? Were you in the Legions?"

Fade's expression barely moved, but Tavi thought he detected a sense of deep, slow pain there, nonetheless. "Fade. Coward. Ran."

"Ran from what?"

Fade turned away from Tavi and started walking deeper into the woods, making his way east. Tavi looked after him for a moment and then followed him. They made good time for a while, though Tavi tried to get Fade to talk with several other small questions, he did not respond to them. As they moved, the wind continued to rise, and it made the woods whisper and creak and groan. Tavi saw movement around him, in the branches and the hollows of the trees-the furies of the wood, restless as the animals before the coming storm, skittering back and forth and watching silently from the shadows. They did not frighten Tavi-he was as used to them as to the animals of the stead-holt. But his hand stayed close to the knife at his belt, just in case.

Soon, the sound of running water came to them through the trees, and Tavi hurried forward, taking the lead from Fade. They came out on the banks of the Rillwater, a small and swift river that rushed through the Calderon Valley from just east of Garados and raced off into the mountains south of the Valley.

"All right," Tavi said. "We need to find the ford Uncle marked. So long as we start from there, I can find our way through the woods and out the other side. Otherwise, the furies there will twist us around and we'll get lost. Uncle said that when he was young, a couple of people got lost in the twisty woods and never came out again. He found them starved to death less than a bowshot from the causeway, but they'd never found it."

Fade nodded, watching Tavi.

"I can get us through, but we have to start with the path Uncle made." He chewed on his lip, looking up and down the river. "And with this storm coming, too. Here." He dug into his makes.h.i.+ft pack and pa.s.sed the second sack of salt back to Fade. "Hold on to that, in case we need it. Don't drop it."

"Don't drop it," Fade repeated, nodded solemnly.

Tavi turned and started upstream. "This way, I think."

They made their way along the stream, and night settled over them entirely. Tavi could barely see to walk, and Fade stumbled and muttered behind him.

"Here," Tavi said, finally. "Here's where we cross. See that white rock? Uncle had Brutus set it there so it would be easier to find." Tavi slipped down the bare, chill earth of the bank to the stream.

Fade let out a yelp.

"Fade?" Tavi turned around in time to see someone moving toward him in the dark. Something hit his face, hard, and he felt his legs go loose and relax. He fell back, into the swift, shallow, chilling flow of the Rillwater, blinking and trying to focus his eyes. He tasted blood in his mouth.

Bittan of Kordholt leaned down enough to drag him up by the front of his s.h.i.+rt and hit him again, another hot flash of pain. Tavi yelped and tried to throw up his arms to protect himself, but the larger boy's fists landed with a cool, s.a.d.i.s.tic precision, again and again.

"Enough," Kord's voice rumbled. "Get out of the d.a.m.n water, Bittan. Unless you want to get drowned again."

Tavi looked up, blearily. He could see Kord hulking on the bank, his lank and greasy hair swinging as he turned his head to look at the stream. A form lay on the ground before him, motionless: Fade.

Bittan hauled Tavi out of the water and threw him at the bank, an ugly smile twisting his handsome face. "Climb out yourself, freak."

Tavi climbed out of the water, s.h.i.+vering, even as the wind began to shriek and howl overhead. The storm, he thought numbly. The storm was on them. Tavi moved to Fade and found the slave still breathing, though he didn't move. He could see blood gleaming on Fade's scarred face.

Bittan followed Tavi up from the stream and kicked him, knocking him forward and back to the ground. "Looks like you were right, Pa."

Kord grunted. "Figured they'd send word to Gram about that little fracas the other night. Didn't figure they'd send the freak and the idiot, though."

Aric's voice came to them quietly. Tavi looked up to see the tall, slender man, a dark shadow a bit separated from the other two. "The boy's smart, Pa. He can write. You have to write to file legal charges."

"Doesn't add up," Kord said. "Maybe they would send him in good weather, but not with this storm coming." "Doesn't add up," Kord said. "Maybe they would send him in good weather, but not with this storm coming." "Unless Bernard's dead, Pa," Bittan said, spiteful. "Maybe that b.i.t.c.h died trying to save him. He looked like a dead man." "Unless Bernard's dead, Pa," Bittan said, spiteful. "Maybe that b.i.t.c.h died trying to save him. He looked like a dead man." Kord turned to Tavi and nudged the boy with his boot. "Well, freak?" Kord turned to Tavi and nudged the boy with his boot. "Well, freak?"

Tavi thought furiously. There had to be a way to stall for enough time for Amara to catch up to them, or for his uncle to find them-but what were they talking about? A fracas the other night? Had something happened when his uncle came home wounded? That had to have been it. Had they tried to kill Bernard? Is that why they would be concerned with someone filing legal charges with Count Gram?

Kord nudged him again and said, "Talk, boy. Or I'll bury you right now." Kord nudged him again and said, "Talk, boy. Or I'll bury you right now." Tavi swallowed. "If I tell you, will you let us go?" Tavi swallowed. "If I tell you, will you let us go?" "Us?" Kord asked, warily. "Us?" Kord asked, warily. Aric said, "He means the idiot, Pa." Aric said, "He means the idiot, Pa." Kord grunted. "Depends on what you say, freak. And if I believe you." Kord grunted. "Depends on what you say, freak. And if I believe you."

Tavi nodded and said, without looking up, "A Marat warrior injured Uncle. He got hurt protecting me, and I got away. One of the First Lord's Cursors came to Bernard-holt, and now I'm trying to get to Count Gram to warn him that the Marat are coming and that he has to rouse the garrison and prepare to fight."

There was a moment's stunned silence, and then Kord guffawed, a quiet, hoa.r.s.e sound. Tavi felt a hand grip his hair, and Kord said, "Even a freak should be smarter than to think something like that would fool me."

"B-but," Tavi stammered, his heart hammering with a sudden panicked terror. "It's the truth! I swear to all the furies it's the truth!"

Kord dragged him down the bank and said, "I'm tired of your lying mouth, freak." Then he shoved Tavi's head into the freezing water and bore down with all of his strength.

Chapter 20

Amara tried to still the frantic pounding of her heart and to slow her breathing. Cirrus swirled and spun beneath her feet, though to her the air beneath her felt almost as solid as the ground itself. Even so, the wind fury's best efforts moved her ever so slightly from side to side, up and down, and would make shooting impossible if she wasn't calm and focused.

The pain of her injured ankle and arm, though lessened by Isana's ministrations, was by no means absent. She tested the pull of the bow and felt it in her arm, her left, in which she held the heavy wooden weapon. She would not be able to hold it drawn for long-not surprising, since it was probably made with the thews of the enormous Stead-holder in mind.

Shaking and unable to aim for long, she would have to wait until the enemy was close before she shot-and she would have to take down the swordsman, first. She would never defeat him with the blade she carried. His experience and fury-crafting would make him a living weapon, unstoppable to someone not equally gifted.

If she had time, Fidelias would be her next target. Cirrus could defeat even her old teacher's formidable wood-crafting-enhanced archery. His earth-crafting, however, would give him strength she could not hope to match. It would be all he needed to shatter her defense and defeat her, in an absence of other factors. Even with Cirrus lending speed to her strikes, she was only marginally his equal with a blade.

The sword was for the water witch, though it would suit Amara equally well to shoot the woman. Though she was not, in open battle, the threat the other two were, she was dangerous nonetheless. Even though Amara would have the freedom of concentration to smother the woman, she could not likely accomplish it before if the witch could cross the distance between them-and if she managed to touch her, Amara was done for. Of the three, she was the only one Amara could reliably overcome with the blade.

Poor options, she thought. A poor plan. She was unlikely to be able to shoot a second arrow, even presuming the first arrow managed to strike down Aldrick ex Gladius, a man who had faced some of the most skilled warriors alive-Araris himself!-and defeated them, or at least lived to tell the tale. But if they were allowed to catch up to the boy, even if they came close, he was certain to be killed-and the boy was the only one whose testimony could convince the Count at Garrison to mobilize and raise the alarm.

Amara stood facing the darkness behind the already departed boy and the slave with him and realized that it was very probable that she was about to die. Painfully. Her heart raced with a frantic terror.

She bent down to pick up a pair of arrows from the ground. She slipped one through her belt and set one to the bow. She checked the hilt of the sword with one hand, reasonably sure that she could draw it forth without slicing her own leg off or cutting the belt that kept the clothes she'd stolen from flapping like a banner.

She looked to the north and could feel the storm furies out there, up by the ominous form of a mountain whose tip held the last purple light of sunset upon it, like some balefully glowering eye. The clouds moved down, swallowing the mountain's head as they did, and Amara could feel the freezing fury of the coming storm, a true winter howler. Once it arrived, presuming it didn't kill the boy, it would make pursuit of him impossible. She didn't have to win. She only had to slow down those behind them.

So long as she provided a delay, death was an acceptable outcome. So long as she provided a delay, death was an acceptable outcome. Her hands shook. Her hands shook. Then she waited. Then she waited.

She couldn't feel the earth-crafting move past beneath her, but she saw it-a barely perceptible wave in the earth, a ripple of motion that flowed through the ground, briefly unsettling it as a wave does water. The wave flashed by and moved on behind her. Her feet hadn't come within a hands-breadth of the ground as it went past. It couldn't have detected her.

She took a slow breath and blew on the fingers of the hand that would hold the string, the arrow. Then she lifted the bow, ignoring the twinge in her arm, and willed herself forward and a bit down the slope ahead of her, so that she would present no profile against the purpling sky or the storm-lighted clouds.

She saw motion against the dark earth and remained as still as she could, willing Cirrus to hold her steady. Another pulse went by in the earth, this one stronger, nearer. Fidelias had crafted such a search before, and she knew how effectively he could use it to find someone not wise enough to get his feet off of the ground.

The shape came closer, though she could not tell who it was, or how many there might be. She drew the bow as tight as she comfortably could, held with the strung arrow pointing at the ground. The motion came closer, and she could hear footsteps, make out the shape of a large man, the glint of metal in the darkness. The swordsman.

She took a breath, held it, then drew, aimed, and loosed, all in a single motion. The bow thrummed, and the arrow hissed through the darkness.

The shape froze, one hand lifting toward her, even as the arrow leapt across the yards between them. She heard the wooden shaft shatter, an abrupt crack of sound. She reached for the other arrow at her belt, but the man in the darkness hissed in a quiet voice, and something caught her wrist in a sudden, crus.h.i.+ng grip.

Amara looked down to find the arrow's shaft wrapped around her wrist and just winding about the belt, so that her hand was fastened to her middle. She spun, gathering momentum to throw the bow at her a.s.sailant, thus freeing her left hand to make an awkward draw of the sword. But even as she turned, the bow in her hands abruptly warped and slithered around her arm, more swift and lithe than a serpent. It wasn't long enough to wrap about her torso as well, but once about her arm it hardened, straightening her limb, until her hand was held well out and away from the sword at her waist.

Amara turned her head to see the man rus.h.i.+ng her, and she flung herself straight up, over his head, Cirrus a.s.sisting her. She flipped in midair and managed to bring her heel down onto her attacker.

She missed her target, the nape of his neck, and her scything kick landed on his shoulder instead. Cirrus stopped her feet from touching the earth, but even as she regained her balance, a hand, brutally strong, wrapped around her ankle, swung her in an arc overhead, and brought her cras.h.i.+ng down onto the frigid ground.

Amara struggled, but the impact had stunned and slowed her. Before she could escape, the man had pinned her, full weight of his body on hers. One hand had closed around her throat and twisted her head aside, to near the breaking point, as easily as though she had been a weak kitten.

"Where is is he?" Bernard snarled. "If you've hurt that boy, I'll kill you." he?" Bernard snarled. "If you've hurt that boy, I'll kill you."

Amara stopped her struggling and willed Cirrus away, so that she lay quietly beneath the enraged Stead-holder. She could see the dark-haired giant out of the corner of her eye, dressed only lightly against the weather, bearing a woodsman's axe, which had been let fall before he seized her. She had to struggle to breathe, to speak. "No. I didn't hurt him. I stayed back to stop the men after him. He and the slave went on ahead."

The granite grip on her head eased, marginally. "Men after him. What men?"

"The strangers. The ones who came in when you carried me into the hall. They'll be after us, I'm sure of it. Please, sir. There's no time."

The Stead-holder growled. He kept her pinned with one hand and with the other drew the sword from her belt and tossed it aside. Then he patted at her waist, until he found the knife she'd stolen from Fidelias inside her tunic, and roughly tugged aside her layers of clothing to remove it as well. Only then did he let his grip on her jaw and throat ease. "I don't know who you are, girl," he said. "But until I do, you're going to stay right here." Even as he spoke, the earth curled up around her elbows and knees, turf and roots twisting into place, locking her limbs to the ground.

"No," Amara protested. "Stead-holder, my name is Amara. I'm one of the Crown's Cursors. The First Lord himself sent me here, to this valley."

Bernard stood up, away from her, and rummaged in a pouch at his side. He took something from it, then something else. "Now you're not a slave, eh? No. My nephew's out in this mess somewhere, and it's your fault he is."

"It's because I led him from the stead-holt that he isn't dead already!"

"So you say," Bernard said. She heard water gurgle from a flask into a cup or a bowl. "Where is he now?"

Amara tested the bonds of earth, uselessly. "I told you. He and Fade went on ahead of me. He said something about a river and a twisty wood."

"Fade went with him? And these men chasing him? Who are they?"

"A traitor Cursor, Aldrick ex Gladius, and a water witch of considerable skill. They're trying to kill anyone who saw the Marat moving in the Valley. I think because they want a Marat surprise attack to succeed."

"Crows," Bernard spat. Then he said, raising his voice a bit, "Isana? Did you hear?"

A voice, tinny and faint, echoed up from somewhere near at hand. "Yes. Tavi and Fade will be at the Rillwater ford. We must get there immediately."

"I'll meet you," Bernard rumbled. "What about the girl?"

Isana's voice came a moment later, as though she spoke under a great strain. "She means no harm to Tavi. I'm sure of that. Beyond that I don't know. Hurry, Bernard."

"I will," Bernard said. Then he stepped back into her vision and drank away whatever was in the cup. "This man after you, with the swordsman. Why did you expect him instead of me?"

Amara swallowed. "He's an earth and wood-crafter. Very experienced. He can find the boy." She lifted her head, looking at him intently. "Let me up. I'm the only chance you have to help Tavi."