Part 6 (1/2)
Atreus shook his head. ”Things were too confused,” he said.
”Yago told us to go,” Ris.h.i.+ said, glancing up the channel. ”I suggest we obey, beforethey recover their wits and realize what an advantage they have.”
Atreus narrowed his eyes, far from certain that he believed the sly Mar. ”Whatwere his words, exactly?”
Ris.h.i.+ frowned. ”I cannot be sure I heard him right. It sounded like, ”Both eyes,front and back!”
Atreus sighed in relief. ”Okay, let's go.”
”You are not worried about your friend?” Despite his question, Ris.h.i.+ wasted no time starting up the channel.
” 'Both eyes' is an old ogre saying. It means he's whole,” Atreus explained as hescooped a shard of broken ice out of the water and pressed it to his wound to stop thebleeding. ”And I think 'front and back' means he's going to follow the patrol. If there's trouble again, he'll attack from behind.” Ris.h.i.+ nodded. ”Very sensible, but what happens when Naraka turns around?”
”That's not going to happen. Not now,” Atreus replied, glancing back. Naraka'spatrol was already lost in the willows. ”Not until one of us is dead.”
”You see?” asked Ris.h.i.+. ”Is that not what I told you back in Bharat's wagon?”
The Mar looked forward again, leaving Atreus to tend to his wound. His shoulder felt stiff and throbbing, but there were no broken bones, and he could still move hisarm. As these things went, he had been lucky. Though he felt terribly weak andwould certainly suffer a fever later, he could keep traveling.
Of more immediate concern was his guide's loyalty. ”Ris.h.i.+, you do know what will happen if you try to open that coffer without me?” Ris.h.i.+ twisted around. ”Why would I ever try such a thing?” he asked. ”Until wereach Langdarma, the gold is not even mine.””I'm glad to hear you have not forgotten,” Atreus said. ”You were in an awfulhurry to leave back there.”
”Not at all! No, never!” said Ris.h.i.+. ”It was only that some-one had to untether the yaks if we were to make a swift escape, and you were doing so well. Did I notcome to your aid when you called?”
Though Atreus was not entirely sure the Mar's knife had been meant for the man behind him, he reluctantly nodded. ”You may have saved my life. Allow me to repayyou by mentioning that there are many traps on my coffer, the least of which is the one that blinded Bharat.”
Ris.h.i.+'s eyes grew unreadable. ”It is very considerate of you to mention this, but.i.t hardly matters to me.”
”Of course,” said Atreus.
”The gold will be mine soon enough,” Ris.h.i.+ added. ”Now that Naraka is wounded, the patrol will certainly leave us to continue our journey in peace.””Certainly.”
But Naraka did not turn back. Within minutes they heard the patrol splas.h.i.+ngthrough the water behind them, though somewhat more slowly than before. Asthe sun neared its zenith, the ice finally vanished from the channels. Ris.h.i.+ doubled back, guiding them down a tunnel-like pa.s.sage so shallow that at times they were pa.s.sing over new growth, then struck off in a new direction.
The splas.h.i.+ng of the patrol grew abruptly distant, and Atreus began to worryabout finding Yago again. The swamp was turning out to be vastly larger than itlooked from the other side of the gorge. If they were lucky enough to lose Naraka, itseemed all too possible that they would also lose Yago.
The pony began to nicker and snort more often, lamenting the growingseparation from its mates. Atreus cut the beast loose. There was every chance the poor creature would lose its way and freeze to death that night, but he couldnot afford to be compa.s.sionate. After the wounds the two sides had inflicted on each other during the last ambush, the chase had taken on a new intensity, andAtreus knew the next fight would be to the death.
They continued deeper into the swamp. The high willows blocked their view ofthe mighty peaks to the east, but every now and then the view opened up as theypa.s.sed an intersecting channel or an expanse of open water. It did not escape Atreus's notice that in these places Ris.h.i.+ stopped to study the sky-sc.r.a.ping mountains for ever-increasing periods of time.High sun came and went, and still they saw no sign of the road. If anything, theswamp seemed to close in around them. Sightings of the mountains becameless frequent, and when they did occur, Ris.h.i.+ frowned and sometimes muttered tohimself. They began to hear Naraka's patrol shouting in the distance. The hummocks grew uncommon, and the willows thickened to the point that the twofugitives had to plow through, leaving a furrow of broken and bent stalks in theirwake.
The sun lost its warmth and sank lower in the sky, and the same icy breeze Atreus had felt the evening before started to rise. His wound began to throb andburn, while the rest of him grew so cold he started to s.h.i.+ver. His feet ached with awet chill, and no amount of swinging seemed to warm them. Though the pain wa.s.safer, he longed for yesterday's numbness.
A tiny shout went up in the distance behind them. It was quickly answered byseveral others, and the flurry of voices that followed left no doubt that one of Naraka's men had stumbled across their trail. Atreus tried to console himself with the thought that Yago would not be far behind.
Ris.h.i.+ stopped his yak and stood, balancing himself precariously on its shoulderhump. He did not look back in the direction of the shouts, but eastward toward thehidden mountains.
”What a relief!” Despite his words, he did not sound relieved. ”We are certainlyalmost there.”
”Certainly?” Atreus scoffed. ”You have no idea where we are, do you?”
”The good sir may certain*ah*he may have every faith in his guide,” said Ris.h.i.+.”The road is very near. I have seen it.”
Scowling, Atreus swung his numb feet up, then stood wobbling on the yak's back and looked toward the ma.s.sive mountains in the distance. He saw nothingahead but a ribbon of open water.
”There's no road out there!” he snapped. ”There isn't even a dry place to spend the night.” Before Ris.h.i.+ could reply, a distant voice cried out behind them. Atreus looked backto see a tiny pony rider in the bend of a channel, pointing a lance in his direction.The man turned his mount toward Atreus and disappeared into the willows, and amoment later the whole thicket began to quiver.
Atreus cursed, then squatted down and swung his legs over the yak's side. ”The man is a bloodhound,” he said. ”Naraka and his patrol are about half a milebehind. They saw me.”
”No matter. We can easily lose them again.” Ris.h.i.+ turned his yak toward the ribbon of open water.
They had no choice except to plow straight through the willows, leaving an easytrail to follow. This did not concern Atreus nearly as much as the apparentimpossibility of finding a dry place to spend the night. Though he and Ris.h.i.+ had more or less dried out after their morning ambushes, they were both hungry andfar from warm. After the sun went down, the bitter cold would be a steady drainon their strength*strength that in Atreus's case was already being tested by a throbbing wound.
Soon, the yak*s feet began to plunge deeper into the water. Small, arrow-shaped ripples appeared at the base of the willow stalks, and it grew clear they were approaching a river. Ris.h.i.+ continued to plow forward until the water rose above theyak*s knees. Finally, he turned upstream, ducking in and out of a network of narrow pa.s.sages that ran parallel to the main channel. Every now and then they crossed abroader clearing that opened into the river itself, framing a picture-like panorama ofwater, willows, and sky-sc.r.a.ping peaks.
Naraka's patrol made good use of the pa.s.sages and the now obvious bearing of their quarry. It was not long before Atreus began to hear the occasional shoutedorder.
Even with Yago behind the patrol, Atreus did not want to risk a battle this close todark. Without a dry place to start a fire, the winners would escape death for only aslong as it took to freeze. ”We're going to have to cross,” Atreus said.
Ris.h.i.+ shook his head. ”The river is very deep.”
”Yaks can't swim?”
”Of course they can,” Ris.h.i.+ replied. ”And we will be soaked, with no place to camp.””We can't camp on this side either.” Ris.h.i.+ shrugged and said, ”Who can say, but at least we will not be wet.”They continued along the sh.o.r.e, and the sky grew steadily grayer. Naraka's patrol closed the distance, until their voices became a steady murmur creeping upfrom behind. Atreus began to roll his shoulder and gently swing his arm back and forth, preparing his wound for a battle that now seemed inevitable.
The willows were just beginning to stripe the water with late afternoon shadowswhen more murmuring voices sounded ahead. Atreus's first fear was that some of Naraka's men had circled around to cut them off, but then he also noticed a faint, sporadic clanking. Ris.h.i.+ cursed quietly in Maran and peered back toward Naraka's patrol.
”What's wrong?” Even as he asked the question, Atreus fathomed the source of theclanking. ”Have we reached the road?”
”Some time ago,” Ris.h.i.+ whispered. ”And now we must leave it.”
”What?” Atreus peered through the willows and saw nothing but river. ”Do you mean*”
”The good sir understands very well. And soon, so will Naraka.” Ris.h.i.+ started toturn away from the river. ”We must lead him away from the river before he seesthe boats.”
”Boats!” Atreus nearly shouted the word, and the willows fell silent as Naraka's patrol stopped to listen. ”We have no boats. How are we to use a river with no*”
”Ssss.h.!.+” Ris.h.i.+ held his finger to his lips, then hissed, ”The Swamp Way is like anyroad. There are inns spread along its course, and at those inns boats can often bepurchased.”
Atreus listened a moment, then groaned. The clanking and voices upstream were growing louder.
”We're going the wrong direction.”
Ris.h.i.+ scowled and glanced nervously upstream and down. ”Certainly the good sirhas sound reason for claiming to know more than his guide?” he said. ”Perhaps hehas been in this swamp before, or perhaps he has a divine map from his G.o.ddess such as the one that shows him how to reach the fabled valley, but not the mountainswhere it lies?”
”The boat is coming downstream,” Atreus replied, ”so, unless these river-men make a habit of running in the dark, the nearest inn is not far behind us ... on theother side of Naraka.”
Ris.h.i.+'s face fell, and Naraka's voice began shouting orders. It did not soundnearly distant enough to please Atreus.”He's found our trail.” Atreus turned his yak toward the river and urged it forward.”Maybe we can catch a ride.”