PART II Chapter 5

Ashanta settled back gratefully against the dirt and stone wall of the cave and waited eagerly for Sharra to begin her tale. They had eaten sparingly from the supply of dried meat and fruit, and the hard baked bread that she had been able to get from the kitchen, and drunk from the flasks of cold tea that they had brought with them. Once the food they had brought was gone, they would need to find some way to get more, either through foraging or by buying something in a village. The flasks, once emptied of tea, they would refill at streams and rivers they passed, thought Ashanta. Lingqui settled in next to her, stretching his legs out, and nodded to Sharra to begin.

"I had much trouble in finding the encampment of King Rafe," she began, "for he had chosen to cross the Great River at a different ford than I would have expected, further to the north, where the current is faster and the river deeper than the normal route. By crossing there, however, he would manage to cut two or three days from his travel time, for the usual crossing would require that he travel around the deep canyon between the meeting place and the castle. I might not have found him at all, had I not come across a messenger bird in the woods who had flown off course after being attacked by something, perhaps an eagle. The bird's wing was somewhat damaged, but not badly, and I used my considerable skills to heal it, though not before reading the contents of the parchment that was tied to its leg. The parchment described the location of the camp, and I realized at once that the king had planned a different route than the one that I might have expected.

"I quickly remounted my horse and turned his head toward the north, following the river until I sighted the flags of the king's camp ahead. I then dismounted, for it was late evening, and I wished to encounter the king in the morning, when he might be fresh and more likely to listen to reason. Shortly after sunrise the next morning I heard the blast of horns, and the whole company of men awakened and set their hands to their work, some preparing a breakfast for all while others tore down and packed up the tents and still others led the horses down to the river that they might drink their fill. Within the hour, all of the men were again mounted and they had ridden out away from the camp, leaving only a sea of flattened grass behind them.

"At this time, I began to ride toward the king's army, hoping to join them while the king was in a good mood and give him the letter that you wrote, Highness. And indeed I was able to do so. The king's men were fair amazed to see me there, I think, and some stared at me slack jawed and some made to stop me, but the king made signals that I should be let through, and that the others, save for the head of the royal guard and one other, ride ahead so that we might consult in private.

"I handed to him the letter that you had written, and he read it through, and again. And then his face grew nearly purple with rage, and the anger in his eyes was such that I trembled with fright. He ordered that the guardsmen seize me that I could not ride ahead and warn you, and he declared that you were dead to him, and that you would be dead in fact as soon as he had reached the castle. Then I felt truly terrified, for by the prophecy, if he killed you then he would kill the one who was destined to save the Shauvrin as well, and so I pleaded with him not to kill you, but only to imprison you. And I reminded him of the prophecy that you wrote of in your letter, and assured him that the dragon had been seen by three, including the castle gatekeeper, who was known to be a careful man and not much given to flights of fancy.

"Through many long hours of captivity that day, the lead of my horse tied to the saddle of the guard, and I, myself, tied into my own saddle, I begged and pleaded that your life might be spared, so that the child might be born. At last, perhaps wearying of my voice, he agreed that he would only imprison you until after the babe was born, and that the babe would be sent to the priests to be raised, and that if she did indeed prove to be the savior of the kingdom, then she would surely be able to do so under those circumstances as well. Highness, however, was to be executed at sunrise on the morning of the third day after the child's birth, and naught I could say would sway him from this conviction.

"I despaired of your life, dear queen, and thought and thought about how I might warn you what was to come. And then, shortly before we crossed the final river before the castle, I saw the bird, that which I had healed and sent on its way, fly directly to me, and on its leg was a scrap of parchment, and in its beak was a bit of charcoal with which I might scratch a note. I did so quickly, and sent the bird off again, asking the gods that it find its way to you, that you might have some warning of what was to come. And I hoped that we might find some way of communicating with you in the dungeon and of arranging for your escape." She paused and drank deeply from the flask of tea she had to hand.

"The bird, I think, reached you in time to warn you what was happening, though not, I fear, in time for you to plan an escape, and upon our arrival back at the castle the king dispatched several of his strongest men at arms to carry you down to the cellars and lock you up. He ordered that you be fed on bread and water from the kitchens and that a lit candle stub be provided you once a day with your evening meal. Otherwise you were to have no contact with the outside world, and none were to be permitted into the dungeons save the members of the guard and the king, should he choose to descend to that place. And therein lay a source of hope, for we could wish that Muerth, who had aided you in your attempts to escape from the guard earlier, might agree to hide secret messages to you in the bread that he sent to you.

"And he did agree to aid us, in full knowledge of the fact that, were he caught, his life would be forfeit.

"We hid many messages written on scraps of parchment in the rolls and loaves of bread that he baked, though we were unable to find any way for you to send us messages, and so our communication was necessarily someone one-sided."

Sharra stopped, and looked at Lingqui, "There is more to tell," she said, "and Highness must hear it, but I think that we should rest now for a few hours, and then leave again, walking through the water during the height of the sun so that we do not take cold."

Lingqui nodded at the suggestion, and Ashanta felt a deep need for sleep welling up inside her. "Do we need to post a guard?" she asked sleepily.

"I do not think so," said Lingqui, "for I do not believe that anyone will notice our absence for some hours yet, and even then it will take much time to discover our trail, starting as far from the castle walls as it does. I believe that we have set them a fair puzzle, at least to begin with, and that we need fear no chase yet."

"And," added Sharra, "should we be discovered here, there would be little that the three of us could do against many. Nay, our best hope is to sleep now and put as many miles as possible between us and the castle when we awaken." She yawned and stretched before curling up to sleep on the floor of the cave. After a moment, Ashanta did likewise.

She was awakened by Lingqui gently shaking her by the shoulder. "The sun has risen high in the sky," he said to her, "and we had best be moving on. It will not be many more hours before the king realizes that you are gone, and discovers that we are missing as well. We can eat as we walk, and refill our flasks before we leave the river." He looked her over carefully, "If you do not mind my saying so, Highness, you may wish to remove your boots and stockings before we begin, so that you can put them on dry when we leave the river."

Ashanta saw that Sharra and Lingqui were already barefoot, and she obediently removed her shoes and placed them into one of the sacks carried by the pony. "Let's go," she said, walking out of the cave and stepping gingerly into the stream. The water was so cold that she gasped. "How far are we supposed to walk through the river?" she demanded. "The water feels like it should have ice floating in it, for all that it is late spring."

"The longer we keep to the water the better," Lingqui replied seriously, "for the huntsmen will search on either side for some miles to see where we might have left the water. If we can walk for two hours in the water, then I think that we may be able to elude them. The water will seem less cold once your feet have had the opportunity to adjust to it."

"That may be," said Ashanta, "since they will be completely numb in a matter of minutes."

The three of them continued to walk in the shallows of the river, Lingqui holding the pony's lead. At first they spoke quietly together, but the river took them gradually away from the shelter of the forest, and as they began to pass nearer to villages and cultivated fields, they fell silent. As Sharra pointed out, there was no point in drawing unnecessary attention to themselves, and three people, one of them pregnant, walking through the shallows of the river would certainly attract notice. By the time that Lingqui deemed it safe to leave the river, the sun was well past its peak, and beginning to descend into the tops of the trees that were still visible on the horizon. Ashanta shivered with cold and stress.

Sharra noticed immediately, "We must find a place to rest now," she said, "and someplace we could build a fire would not be amiss, if possible. Highness is soaked through and shivering, and we would all do well to be warmed up. There is little point in escaping from the executioner to die of cold and exposure in the middle of a field somewhere."

"But where?" demanded Lingqui. "The smoke from a fire will attract…."

"It will," Sharra interrupted him, "but a fire we must have if we are not to perish. We found one cave along the banks of the stream. Perhaps there is another, and the fire need not be large in order to provided needed warmth. Else we can search for a copse of trees on the plain and build a fire there. It is not uncommon for travelers to build fires, you know, and the people in the villages are unlikely to think much of it until they have word of Highness's escape. And that cannot be for some time yet. I expect that the king will keep it quiet until he recognizes that he needs more help."

Lingqui nodded grudgingly. They would hunt for a place to rest and make a fire, though it was clear that he, at least, was not happy about it. They continued to follow the course of the river until Ashanta, searching the opposite bank, noticed the dark shadow of a cave, fairly high on the bank, but accessible by a path wending its way through the tussocks and scrub that grew alongside the river.


She pointed to it excitedly and then groaned. "I suppose that cave would be perfect, but I don't know that I can stand to go through the river one more time. My clothes are finally beginning to dry out a little bit, at least on the top, and I would almost rather be caught and taken back to the dungeons to await my execution."

Sharra looked at her strangely, "It is highly unlikely, Highness, that you would be permitted to go back and await your execution. Nay, you have shown that you will flee, and that you have the means to do so. They will not know how you have escaped, for the cell door will have been locked when they checked, and the keys will appear never to have left the guard's belt. The gatekeeper will report that he opened the gate to nobody. Under such circumstances, they will kill you immediately. You will have to brave the river once more."

Lingqui nodded, "Looking at the territory around us, it is perhaps better that we be on the other side of the river here anyway. There seems to be more cover on that side, and there are no villages in sight. We have, I believe, food enough for several days yet if we are careful, and so we need not risk encounters with farmers or villagers for nigh on a sevenday."

Ashanta looked unhappy, but sat and once more removed her boots and stockings. "Might we at least scout a bit downstream for a shallower place to cross," she asked. "The river here is narrow and quite deep, and seems to be moving fast. At least we might find somewhere where the river would wet us only to our knees instead of our necks!"

Lingqui seemed reluctant for, as he said, "We lay more scent trails for the hounds in that way," but Sharra immediately nodded her agreement. "There is little point in avoiding laying scent trails if we drown in the process. If needs be, we can wade through the shallows on the other side and emerge just below the cave. Besides, it seems to me that beyond that bend in the river," she waved her hand over to the left, "there is likely a gentler spot. There often is beyond big curves in my experience."

They set off down the river with Lingqui muttering beside them. When they had reached the bend in the river, Sharra darted ahead to scout the river and came back looking triumphant. "The river spreads out greatly on the other side of this bend, and is quite shallow, perhaps only a few feet deep most of the way across. Better still, there is another cave there, I think, though it is mostly hidden by bushes and small trees. If I am right, it is a better location than the earlier cave."

It was a matter of minutes until they had reached the other side of the river, and Lingqui went ahead to investigate the cave, for it seemed wise that one person ensure that it was uninhabited while the others prepared for a quick getaway should that be needed. The cave, as it turned out, was empty, though it was clear that it had been used by travelers in the past. Stacked in the back of the cave was a pile of dry wood, and a circle of stones in front of the cave bore signs of having been used recently. He returned to the others and expressed concern about the fact that it had been recently used. "In fact," he said, "it would not shock me to learn that it has been used within the last sevenday, and perhaps even as recently as last night. I think we should not stay there, for though it may not be in current use, it may be, and we do not know what sort of people are using it. I think that we should return to the other cave, and hope that it is not also in use."

Ashanta groaned, and Sharra sighed, but both agreed that Lingqui spoke wisely, and they began to walk back along the river to the cave that Ashanta had spotted. By the time they had reached it, the sun was beginning to dip below the horizon. Lingqui made a cursory inspection of the cave, declared it empty, and began to search along the banks of the river for wood that they might use to build a fire. Meanwhile, the women removed their clothing and wrung as much water from it as was possible before putting it back on. "It would be better to put on dry clothing," Sharra observed, "but we have none to put on. If Lingqui finds wood, we can start a fire and our clothes will dry of the heat."

Lingqui arrived back at the cave soon thereafter, with his arms filled with sticks of wood. He arranged the smaller branches just inside the cave and struck a match to light them. Soon there was a small fire burning in the entrance to the cave and the three of them gathered around it, grateful for the warmth it provided. "We must put out the fire as soon as we are dry," he warned, "for the light will act as a beacon to any that may be searching for us. I dared not build it further inside the cave lest we be asphyxiated by the smoke, though it would have been less visible there." After an hour of carefully turning herself before the fire, Ashanta declared that her clothes were dry, and Sharra agreed. Lingqui climbed down to the river and came back with a flask filled with water, which he poured on the fire, creating a great puff of smoke and steam. "The smoke will not be visible in the darkness," he said, "though the fire would be. And now, I suggest that we sleep. We must travel many more miles tomorrow and we had best be rested when we set out." He wrapped himself in a blanket and was quickly asleep. The women soon joined him in slumber, and they slept deeply through the night.