Fall of Angels

CVIII

NYLAN DISMOUNTED AND led the brown mare into the stable. His working clothes were almost tatters, and damp through, either from sweat or water, and his feet squished in his boots with each step he took. Mud streaked his arms and hisclothes. As always, his arms ached, and so did his legs, and most of his muscles.

Still, the footings and the base of the millpond wall were completed, and he had another day before he had to return to smithing. Behind him, Rienadre led her mount into the stables. If anything, she was damper and muddier than Nylan.

The engineer-smith struggled with the cinch and girth, and finally unsaddled the mare. Mechanically, he brushed her, occasionally patting her flanks or neck. After stalling her and ensuring that her manger was full, he walked silently down the road and past the now-deserted smithy. The sun was almost touching the western peaks. Behind the faint chirping of insects and the intermittent songs of the green and yellow birds came the low baaing of the sheep grazing around the cairns.

He shivered slightly, knowing there would be more cairns, and hoping that he would not be laid under those rocks.

He crossed the causeway, entered the tower, and paused. Ryba, Fierral, and three guards were clustered around the last table in the great room. Nylan extended his perceptions, feeling faintly guilty for his magical eavesdropping but being curious nonetheless.

“The second canyon over-the one that looked like a dead end? It’s not,” declared Istril. “It’s narrow. Then it climbs before it widens, and it’s almost a flat run down to the trading road. I can’t say that Gerlich was there, but there are some marks on the trees, a good four to six cubits up in places, small crosses, and they were made recently.”

“How recently?” asked Fierral.

“Last spring or late winter. The bark’s puckered a bit. In one place, there’s a broken limb that has growth buds that died.”

Hryessa nodded.

“Anything else?” asked Ryba, her eyes circling the table. After a long silence, she continued. “We’ll need a place for an outpost-one that can be watched, but isn’t in the canyonitsetf-and a clear route to get back to the tower. I want two guards there all the time from now on.”

“Two?”

“One to watch, and one to get back the warning to us.”

“Why don’t we just block the canyon?”

“Because then I don’t know where Gerlich will attack from,” pointed out Ryba. “Oh … there’s a back path from the canyon to the stable-or a way Gerlich’s men will take to try to fire the stables. Find it, and work out the best place for an ambush. That will be a quick way to take out four of his armsmen, and they won’t be expecting it at dawn.”

Fierral and Saryn exchanged glances.

Nylan slipped past the stairs and headed for the north door and the bathhouse. He hoped that Ryba’s visions were correct, but he wasn’t about to question her, not when her perceptions had been so accurate so far. And this time, if Gerlich did as she foresaw, there wouldn’t be any question of guilt.