The Shadow Roads

Eleven

They lay in the long grass, trying not to breathe. Lord Carllooked over at Jamm, his battered face turning slowly crimson. With ribs thatwere either broken or badly bruised, thanks to the ministrations of the Dukeof Vast, Jamm could hardly keep his breathing quiet. Carl was terrified thatthe thief would cough and give them away, for he had coughed much the nightbefore.

A dozen feet off, a small company of men-at-arms had stoppedto water their horses. They wore the livery of the House of Vast and were,almost certainly, searching for Carl and Jamm.

The dawn had only just broken, the coarse grass slick withdew, the ground beneath them a cushion of moss. They had slept here for a fewshort hours, Jamm unable to continue. Their stolen mount had been abandoned inthe night, set loose in a field with some other horses in hopes that she wouldnot be discovered for some hours yet.

We should have cut her throat and left her in a wood, Carlthought, somewhere she wouldn’t be found for a day or two. If she were foundthat day, Vast would know where to send his men-at-arms. Escape would be nearlyimpossible with Jamm so injured. What a beating he had taken!

But even so, the little thief’s instincts remained intact.He reasoned that the Duke would assume they would go to Kel Renne. Best to dosomething unexpected, that was the rule Jamm lived by-do the unexpected. Sothey set out for the river, hoping to cross over and make their way toWestbrook. The Isle was large enough that Vast could not keep it all under hiseye at once. And Jamm was clever enough to keep them out of sight for some timeyet, unless luck turned on them-which it might at any moment if the little mancoughed.

“They won’t have gone this far,” one of the men-at-arms saidfirmly. He had a deep voice, thick and heavy like the rumble of distantthunder. “That little thief couldn’t go more than half a league, even onhorseback. We saw to that.”

The others laughed.

Carl saw Jamm bury his mouth in the sleeve of his jacket.

Don’t cough, Carl willed him. Don’t cough...

“Who’s this, then?” one of the others asked.

Carl heard the men all rise to their feet, swords slippingfrom scabbards.

“Ah,” the deep-voiced one said,” ’tis only some Renne,hoping to find the last few men of Innes to hone their blades on.”

Carl dared not look at his guide, fearing what he would see.

The Duke’s men greeted the Renne.

“So what game has Carl A’denne been playing?” one of thenewcomers asked.

Carl could hear the stir of excitement among the horsesbeing watered as the other horses appeared. The grass stirred over him in thebreeze, and a wren scolded. He felt like it was only a matter of time, perhapsonly a moment, before they were discovered. Jamm could not run, and how farwould Carl get, chased by mounted men? He closed his eyes and tried to calm hisheart. It was over. They had only this last moment of freedom.

“Seems he was spying for the Prince of Innes, or so we surmise.But he must have been playing both sides. He came over the canal the othernight with a little thief guiding him. Someone knew the thief by name, and Vastsoon had the story from him. A’denne and his thieving friend slipped away bynight, a sure sign of his guilt, I say.”

“Well,” the Renne said, “we’ll soon have the story from A’dennehimself.”

“Not if we find him first,” the Duke’s man growled. His companyall laughed.

“We’ve been ordered to bring him to Lord Kel alive,” theRenne said.

“We’ve been promised a reward to bring back his head andleave his body for the crows,” the man of Innes answered. There was silence fora moment, and Jamm coughed.

He’d muffled the sound as best he could, but not wellenough.

“What was that?” one of the men asked.

Carl heard blades being drawn, followed by footsteps throughthe long grass.

Jamm looked at him, eyes wide. He knew he couldn’t run.Would the men of Innes kill them before the Renne could intercede?

Suddenly something shot through the grass.

“There!” someone yelled.

Carl rose to his hands and knees, prepared to fight or run.

A small pig flew out of the grass onto the road, and the menof Innes took after it. Swords flashed, and the pig squealed and screamed. Thelittle animal dodged this way and that, as the men flailed away at it, finallylanding a blow and spraying them with blood. The pig still ran, and a secondblow brought it down, but it was up again, struggling forward on three legs. Itonly went a few feet before one of the shouting men raised a sword over hishead, two-handed, and finished the little animal. The men were all laughingand pointing at the swordsmen who’d missed.

A wind sprang up then, combing through the grass. Carl andJam went crawling off, the sound of their progress lost in the wind and thecruel hissing of the fields.