SHADOW LEADER, page 34
The fighter frowned. “But you did not touch the boy.”
“I touched him internally,” she corrected. “It is just not something you have probably seen before,” she added simply.
Her twin chuckled humorlessly, and Kiyun regarded him with a thoughtful expression. Rhom raised his eyebrow. “You'll see her do it again if you stay with us, Kiyun.” He gathered his gear. “If it's all right with the rest of you, I'm going to turn in. After”—he looked at Aranur's sister—”Shilia and I do a little talking.”
Shilia nodded, flushing at Rhom's look. “I'll help you look after Tyrel in a bit, Dion.”
Dion shook her head. “There's nothing you could do besides worry, Shilia. And I'm doing enough of that for both of us.”
Gamon tactfully excused himself to the next room, and Kiyun followed. Aranur, his expression unreadable, turned from the balcony and passed Dion without a word. Rhom glanced after him, then smiled at Shilia and moved with her to the balustrade Aranur had just left. The two did not return until the cool night air drove them in. When Shilia finally left to go to her own bed, Rhom remained with Dion.
He dropped to the floor beside her, leaning back against the sofa and scratching Hishn on the ears. He glanced at his sister's face. “Life seems to have taken a turn for the better,” he commented.
“For most of us,” Dion said, glancing at the still form of the boy on the bed. She passed her hands wearily over her eyes.
“What do you think of Shilia?” he said finally.
She managed to smile. “I think you'll be very happy together. '' She did not want to think about the Waiting Year she would have to spend with Aranur, taking Shilia's place in his family while Shilia got to know Dion's father. Rhom had always teased her that she would get Promised first, and that he would get a new sister or brother to break in. But now it looked as if it would be Dion who went to live with a new family.
“Dion, Shilia wants to come back home with me immediately to meet our father.” He hesitated, and Dion looked down at her feet. “I don't want to leave you alone in a strange county, especially with Aranur, and especially since I know you want to come home, too, but,” he said, squeezing his sister's arm, “you know Aranur and half his family already, and as soon as Shilia meets our father, you can come home again, at least for a while.”
Dion squinted as her eyes threatened to water. Rhom's year of joy would be her year of exile. Tradition, she thought bitterly.
Wolfwalker? Hishn sounded worried as she nudged Dion's feet.
Gray One, Dion sent back, gripping the scruff of the beast. We will not be going home for a while.
Hishn gazed up, her yellow eyes troubled. The pack is your home.
Dion stroked the gray fur. The pack will be with us in Ariye, but not my other family, Hishn.
Ariye. Tradition demanded that she take Shilia's place in the other girl's household for the Waiting Year. If Rhom had had no sister, he could have paid Year's Price in place of Dion's staying with Aranur. But they were twins, and she had no choice in this without dishonoring both families.
Rhom looked at her closely. “Dion, you can't say you don't like Aranur.”
“We do nothing but fight when we talk,” she returned in a low voice.
He regarded her with irritation. “So maybe you should talk less and kiss more,” he retorted. He laughed at the look on her face.
“It isn't just me,” she protested.
“I know,” Rhom said slyly, deliberately misinterpreting her. “And if I'm any judge of the looks a man gives a woman, Aranur would rather you talk less, too. With Kiyun here, Aranur will have to decide how he feels pretty quickly—don't think I didn't see the way that fighter looked at you tonight.” He grinned. “Aranur didn't miss it either.”
“Don't tease me, Rhom.”
“I'm not. I wanted to wait till we were home again to tell you about Shilia and me, but ...” His voice trailed off.
“But I really knew about it anyway.”
“You love him, don't you, Dion?”
“It shows so much?”
“I'm your twin, remember?” He looked thoughtful.
“Rhom, don't go getting any ideas,” Dion started.
“Don't worry,” he said, getting to his feet. “I'll be discreet.”
“About as tactful as a worlag at a dinner party.”
“But much more effective. I'll see you tomorrow. I've got girls on the brain.”
“Well, that's nothing new,” she retorted. “Just make sure Shilia doesn't find out about them.”
He made a face, then left.
For a long time, Dion listened to the sounds of the feasting and let her thoughts curl about themselves. Finally, she leaned against the wolf and dozed into restless dreams.
In the darkness, she was in the prison again, but this time Hishn was with her, and the barred door of her cell was open. They tried to run out, but as they came close, Longear appeared from the shadows and laughed and pulled them out from the cell into the hall. But the hall was just another cell with another open door and another Longear beyond it. They turned and ran the other way, but Longear appeared again, pulling them through the next barred door into yet another prison cell until the dream blurred and all they saw was darkness with streaks of iron.
A small sound woke her, some sense of danger made greater by Hishn's sudden awareness. Dion lay still, calming her ragged breathing as she reached out to the wolf. What is it? Who is there? she asked.
The door. The Gray One rose silently to her feet. There is danger.
Dion sat up. She groped for her sword and realized it was across the room. Idiot, she snapped at herself. She had only her knife in its sheath, and already the door was inching open. She pulled the short blade free, keeping it down behind her leg where it would not be given away by a glint of light. Can you call Rhom? she asked in her mind.
Hishn growled low in her throat. His mind is not open to me, she sent. His feelings are—
A match flared. Hishn's thoughts broke off as Dion saw the oil lantern in the soldier's hand. Wha—Dion did not complete the thought before the dark man threw the lamp across the room. She screamed as the oil cast liquid flame across the carpet.
“Aranur! Rhom! Fire!” She lunged toward the bed where Tyrel still lay unconscious. “Shilia! Wake up!” As the blaze seared the rug, the wolf leapt, snarling toward the window, her animal fear of fire even stronger than her need to stay with her wolfwalker.
There were cries in the other rooms. Dion tried to pick Tyrel up, but her leg was still weak and his dead weight caused her to stagger. And then Aranur and Rhom burst into the room.
“Give him to me,” Aranur snapped. “Get the bedding off and smother the fire.”
Rhom jumped the flames and broke into Shilia's room as Dion tore the blankets from the bed. The blaze had already crawled up the tapestries against the door and was beginning to blacken the ceiling even as she hurried. In an instant, Gamon and Kiyun were beside her, trying to flatten the fire with sheets and blankets.
“We'll have to go out the window,” Gamon said. “They've locked the doors from the outside!”
Rhom returned with Shilia, shielding her from the flames as they made their way to the only window in the three rooms. But as they stepped outside, Rhom swore and dodged a wicked arrow from across the courtyard. Aranur lunged back in from the balcony, banging into Kiyun.
“What—” Gamon shouted through the smoke as another arrow skittered into the flames at his feet.
“Someone wants to make sure we stay in here to fry.” Aranur set his cousin down quickly but carefully beside the wall as the boy groaned and whimpered. “Longear's making her move, and no one's going to remember that we're in here till too late. Or else maybe Conin wants us to fry, too—be an easy way to get rid of us without scandal.” And Namina would not suspect a thing, he thought bitterly.
They were beginning to cough as the fresh air from the balcony fanned the fire inside the room, creating huge black clouds of smoke. The music from the feast had stopped, and as another flurry of arrows flashed through the opening, people below began shouting at the smoke.
Dion's arms were tight around the wolf, forcing the wild-eyed beast, to stay. She shoved Hishn's head into her jerkin, where the cloth of her tunic would help protect the wolf from the smoke. “Where did the shots come from?” she demanded, coughing.
“The roof across the way.” Rhom pointed, holding a cloth over his face. “We're a watercat's easy supper if we step outside.”
“If that sprinkler system doesn't come on damned quick, we'll have to chance it anyway.” Aranur broke toward the other room. “And those archers are serious. We're going to need weapons.” He returned in a moment, coughing and bent double, with two bows in his hands. “I couldn't get the others,” he said, closing the door between the rooms quickly and slapping at his smoldering pants. “Flames are too thick.” The heat was getting fierce, and their efforts to stop the fire's advance were futile now. Aranur tried to string one of the bows, but his coughing bent him over again. “Fire!” The cries rose from the courtyard. “Fire on the third floor!”
Dion strained to keep Hishn down as the blaze crackled into the woodwork. The Gray One's mind was incoherent, and all she could sense was panic. How much of it was herself, she could not tell; only that the wolf was beyond their bond, and she could not control her.
Seeing that Dion could not help, Kiyun grabbed the weapon Aranur was trying to string and took the arrows from the other man's hands. Rhom left Shilia and grabbed the other bow.
“On three,” the fighter said to Rhom. “One ... two ... three!”
They dropped to their knees and took an instant's advantage to sight in on the men across the roofs. One toppled slowly, falling into the courtyard below, but two more got off another volley of shots. Kiyun did not move as an arrow gashed across his arm; he merely took aim again with Rhom at a dark figure in the cover of a chimney. Both shots missed.
Men yelled at them from below. “Jump!” “Hurry!”
“They can't,” others countered. “There's someone on the roofs firing in!”
“Get that table over here,” Aranur commanded. “We're going to make a diving shield.”
“That fountain's only a meter deep;” Kiyun protested. “You'll break your neck if you try to dive from here.”
“I'm not going to,” Aranur returned grimly, tying a cloth around his face like a raider. “Rhom is.”
“Sure,” the violet-eyed twin said with a sooty grin. “I'll do it. I've always been reckless. But do I get to take this with me?” He held up the bow.
“You'll take it with you and use it.” Aranur flashed a black smile as he and Gamon dragged the table toward the window. “And if any of those shots miss, you'll be dnu meat when I see you next.”
Kiyun looked at them as if they were crazy to be joking at such a time. Then he lifted the table end away from Gamon and thrust it through onto the balcony. There were two thuds, and the tips of two shafts stuck through the wood of the table.
“They'll be expecting us to shoot from around the sides,” Aranur said, “Rhom, dive from underneath.” He paused to cough violently. “Make it quick, okay?”
“I am fast as the lepa, unseen as Aiueven,” the younger man replied, dropping to his knees on the floor where he could thrust off from Kiyun's feet like a racer from the starting block.
“Okay.” Aranur paused and looked at Kiyun; the fighter nodded. “Now!” They lifted the table a fraction, and Rhom burst out from underneath, bow in his hands. Two arrows whipped by on either side of the makeshift shield, and an instant later, two more drummed almost through the wood as Aranur and Kiyun dropped the table down again.
“That table isn't going to last much longer,” Gamon said. “What say we send a few more of us off below?”
Aranur turned to his sister. “Shilia, remember last summer at Green Lake? This is exactly the same. Don't be afraid, just do it.”
She nodded nervously and took her place on the balcony.
“Kiyun, we're going to have to give them something else to shoot at now that they know our trick,” Aranur said. “I'll show a shoulder on this side, Shilia will go down, then you show a shoulder on your side, and Dion will dive.” He paused, as if struck by a sudden thought. “Dion, you do dive, don't you?”
“You have a bad habit of asking me if I can do something just before you tell me to do it.” Dion coughed. “But, yes, I can dive.” She tried to add something, but she coughed again, and her words were lost.
“Then get going,” Aranur said over his shoulder. “Rhom's going to need help, and we're not going to last much longer up here. Gamon,” he warned, “you're going to be next.” Without a pause, he moved to reveal one shoulder, and as the enemy archers took aim, Shilia dove off. Dion dragged Hishn with her to the balcony, but flung herself and the wolf back when an arrow shot between her legs under the shield. Gamon hauled her to the side as she looked wildly around for the wolf.
“Moonworms!” Aranur swore. “Dion, you'll have to go out over the top.” As she bent with another spasm of coughing, he took her arm from Gamon and looked into her eyes for a long moment. “If you know any tumbling, you better do it on the way down, too.”
Dion wrenched herself free and grabbed Hishn, who was crouched, snarling, against the wall. You're going to have to jump too. Gray One, she insisted as Aranur swore again. But the wolf's mind was incoherent, seething with trapped and panicked thoughts of fire. Come, Dion sent urgently. Hurry—
Hishn resisted, and Dion pulled with all her strength at the gray wolf's scruff. Come—
“Dion, don't wait.” Aranur grabbed at the woman and yanked her toward the balustrade. “I'll throw her to you if I have to. Now get going!”
“She won't jump without me!” Dion tore free. Come, little one. You've got to do this. I won't lose you here— Aranur's hand closed on her arm again like a steel trap, and she took a sooty breath, doubled over coughing, let Aranur drag her toward their wooden shield, and lied. She projected an image of water, cool water, just two meters on the other side of the table. Water, Hishn, water. Come with me.
The wolf hesitated.
Aranur jerked Dion close as another arrow skittered by her feet. She tried to calm her thoughts. Gray One, look—no flames. No smoke. Only water.
Hishn yelped as a brand touched her back, and she jumped forward, only to stop, cringing, at a gust of heat just before Dion could grab her.
Aranur looked at Dion for a long second, then kissed her hard, pushed her away, and put his hands together with Kiyun. The wolfwalker stepped up into the pocket they made, crouching down before flinging herself over. Hishn! She cracked the command at the wolf, and the Gray One, with a howl, lunged up with the woman. Dion shot out in a double barrel roll, then twisted into a flip. The wolf howled again, a terrified sound as Hishn realized Dion's lie. She was falling three stories. They separated. An arrow passed through the twist they made on the way down, and Dion was bruised by the shaft of another before she hit the water and arched along the bottom of the fountain. Hishn landed with legs spread and claws and fangs extended. People leaned in to help the healer out of the water, but Hishn's furious snarling and lunging scattered them on all sides.
Shilia stepped back as Dion was hauled out. The girl was wrapped in a blanket, her eyes huge in her dripping face. Looking back up at the wall, Dion could see why. The table Aranur and the others were still holding up against the balcony railing was cracked, and a column of smoke poured from the opening. The orange light of flames could be seen stretching out behind them. Where was Rhom? Dion thought desperately.
“They won't make it,” a man standing next to the healer predicted.
She whirled, snarling, “Shut up!” He looked at the expression on her face and backed away.
And then her brother yelled from the roof behind her, “Aranur! It's clear. Get on down and join the fun.”
Dion's knees were weak with relief.
They did not wait any longer. The table was flung aside, and Gamon dove cleanly down. Kiyun followed quickly. Aranur, with Tyrel in his arms, edged out coughing and hacking onto the balcony and leaned against the wall for a moment to get a breath of air. A man ran into the courtyard with two blankets, and several people grabbed them from him. They doubled the blankets and stretched them out between them, shouting, “Throw him down! We'll catch him!” Aranur held the boy's body out over the railing and let him fall. There was a soft thud, and Dion ran, Hishn at her heels, to pull the boy off the pad and get him away from the smoke, thankful for the gleaming yellow fangs that parted the crowd for her passage.
“Jump, now!” they yelled at Aranur. He did.
“Dion? Healer?'' he shouted as he struggled free of the wool blanket. He finally saw her and dodged his way through, demanding, “Tyrel—is he all right?”
