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"Do you know how I can do that?"
"Without a lifemage? No. The holadil got the centers to heal a bit, but they
are healing wrong."
Skree nodded thoughtfully. "I will see what I can do."
"I'm going with you tomorrow."
"Is that wise? The drink..."
"Is destroying my liver. But one more round of drinking will not kill me yet.
Cedarbird will not get away with hurting her."
The sound of a body being dragged, bumping into furniture broke their talk
and they turned to see Becca dragging the struggling sa'necari towards the
door.
"Where are you taking him?" Skree asked.
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"Lock him in the cellar downstairs."
"Don't put him with the other one. The blind one. Put him in a closet."
"Okay."
Skree walked over, hefting the little man to his shoulder. "Let me help you.
Lead the way."
"I wish we had some real dungeons," Becca muttered ruefully. "When Aejys
builds that new place, make sure there's some dungeons."
* * * *
Josiah sat in the chair nearest the bed, his upper body bent forward so that
his forehead rested against Aejys' cheek. He could feel the fever burning in
her. Skree called it a sign that her body was resisting the venom. He had told
Skree that the locals called that particular viper the 'ten-step' because
humans rarely took more than ten steps before the venom killed them. That
sa'necari and Cedarbird had planned very well, using one of the few vipers
deadly enough to take down a Sharani and then using that attack as a
distraction to come at the rest of them. Had Josh possessed Josiah's knowledge
and reflexes when sober Aejys would never have been bitten.
The bells in the Ishlani temple rang the hour. Josiah counted three rings and
sighed heavily. So far Aejys had outlived everyone he had ever seen bitten and
Josiah Abelard had had a very long life. "I keep failing you. I'm sorry. You
held us together on the long march to Shaurone. Kept more of us alive than
anyone else could have under the circumstances. We need you. I need you. You
pulled nearly every one of us out of the gutters and gave us something better.
Tomorrow we start giving something back. Cedarbird's going down hard. Then
Skree and I will find a way to shield you from Mephistis and you can heal so
you can take him down. And your sister with him. There is going to be an end
to this madness."
Josiah felt Skree's arm slide around his shoulders, gripping him tightly on
the left. He had not heard the triton return. "Yes, there is," Skree said. "I
swear to you and to her on my honor most precious and before My God to do
everything in my power to help achieve this."
Josiah turned slightly, his head pressing Skree's side as he looked into the
triton's face. "It is good to have family again after so long, godfather."
Skree's heart filled with gladness at Josiah's words and he gave his shoulder
another squeeze before letting it go. "Now you need to move so I can Read her
again."
Josh pushed the chair back, rose, and moved to the window seat. Skree took
his place. He lifted her wrist and held it for several minutes, reading as
deeply as he could, then laid it down again.
"Any change?"
"None."
* * * *
The attack had come at closing with little more than a handful of the
regulars lingering for a last round and those of the household, mostly caravan
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guards and drivers, who liked to cage a second dinner from the kitchen
leftovers. They had proven tougher than Cedarbird and Dinger had expected,
especially with Skree and Josiah on hand. Nonetheless, four regulars, three
servers, two of the kitchen staff and three of the general household workers,
including Molly, were dead. Zacham had arrived with reinforcements around the
time that Skree and Josiah brought the situation under control.
Becca sent Cook and those of the kitchen staff still hale to fetch the
families of the wounded and the dead regular customers. Becca made it her
place to inform the families that Cedarbird was responsible for this atrocity.
Becca knew that their loud weeping and wailing and general air of helpless
bereavement would quickly turn to anger and they would have the word on the
streets by morning. She encouraged their anger, seeded it. Becca covered all
of her opportunities to get at Cedarbird. There would be chaos, but she
intended to see that it worked to Aejys' advantage.
Becca was still up and running on adrenaline when Fezelbaum entered her
office in the wee hours of the morning to inform her that not only did they
have Darlbret secured in the stable loft, but they had taken every book and
paper from Cedarbird's office as evidence.
* * * *
Becca threw on her heaviest cloak, following Fezelbaum to the stable. She
climbed the plank stairs into the loft at the west end. The sight of
Clemmerick's table and chairs where they had held a last council about how to
defend Aejys on the long march last summer made her feel very sad and lonely.
She missed the big ogre terribly, as well as Tagalong and the others. They
would get home eventually, but the home they were coming back to would be much
different from the one they left.
The pixies had thrown Darlbret onto Clemmerick's bed. The small mon was bound
and gagged. His large frightened eyes appealed to Becca to release him, or at
least make sense of his kidnapping.
Darlbret was a tiny matchstick of a mon with mousy brown hair, an angular
face with a long thin pointy nose which ended in a tiny up-turned knob that
jutted out over his gag made of stained, dirty socks. He wore a stripped blue
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