She dared a long, sweeping turn back around to her left, through which she had to lean back into the momentum of the turn, but she’d gotten better and better at that as she’d practiced throughout the afternoon. She only had to tap the crooked stick on the ground once as she came near to overbalancing midway through that time.
It was time to test her climbing theory, so she guided the lengthy creature back toward the great lumpy mass of the old rotting tree. As it approached, at seemingly meteoric speed, she crept closer and closer to the insect’s head, so far up that her left foot was placed between its eyestalks as it ran.
Careful not to stand on them or pinch them beneath her boot, she waited until just before the bug got to the log, then slid her foot over the curving bit of shell that covered its face, the hard wedge she’d noticed earlier when she’d cast the first healing spell.
She shifted all her weight to that front foot as the bug went vertical and climbed straight up the mossy wall of the rotting tree. She balanced there upon its plated face, and then, as it crested the top of the tree, she stepped back onto its back and scooted to the tail end. She repeated the process going down the far side of the tree by standing on its armored rump, if it could be argued that it had such a thing.
The descent was a bit trickier, and Pernie nearly slipped off, but the bug was back on level ground so quickly that Pernie simply hopped forward just before she fell and came to land on its back again even as it began to move away. It wasn’t perfect, but it had worked, and with practice, she’d surely get it down.
She ran the bug around for quite some time after that, and by the time she had it climbing up and down the trees, twilight was settling toward evening.
She didn’t know the jungle at nighttime at all, and there was still no sign of the elves, so she decided to go back to the cave on her own. She knew the way well enough by now.
She turned the bug toward the cave that was her home for now, and off they went at great speed through the trees. Twice she tried to guide it through spaces that were too thick with limbs and vines, and both times she was knocked right off the creature’s back. She had a great welt over one eye after the second strike, where she hit a low branch so hard little spots swam in her vision for a time. But she got right back on the moment they went away.
She was just approaching the root-covered rise where the mantis’ body lay when she caught up with the hunt. She hadn’t even heard them, they moved so silently, but suddenly there they were, all twenty of them, running naturally together as easily as they pleased. It would have been impossible to say who was more surprised by the encounter, Pernie or the elves. For Pernie, she found herself among them so unexpectedly it seemed as if they’d jumped out at her from shadows and the trees. But for them, it was as if they’d just seen some new type of monster appear. Sandew actually had his spear up and was in the motion of the throw when another of the elves caught him by the wrist just in time.
Seawind began to laugh.
It was the first time Pernie had ever seen an elf laugh. All of the others began to laugh as well. All but Sandew, who was still staring at Pernie standing there on her bug.
He saw the admiration in his companions’ eyes, but shook his head, saying, “No.” He walked right up to Seawind and said it twice more. “No, no. This does not count. Djoveeve and Belletelemew ran with the hunt themselves. This is not the same.”
“Of course it is the same. Djoveeve ran as a jaguar on her second day. Belletelemew as a hummingbird in nine. But the young Sava does not have the power to transmute. She had to find another way.”
“Then she is the lesser of them by far. This is the work of
twenty-four
days, and it’s not even her own weak human magic helping her. How can this be the lifewatch of the High Seat?”
“What you condemn her for, I applaud.” He turned briefly and smiled at Pernie, genuine and warm. He turned back to Sandew. “Don’t you see? This human runs with elves using no magic at all. She will be the greatest of the three.”
Sandew shook his head again, looking at Pernie with what she thought was approaching sympathy, before looking back to Seawind. “She will be dead. And it will be on your count for eternity.” He turned back to her. “My people do you a great injustice, human,” he said, and then he ran off into the trees.
Some of the others seemed to lose a degree of mirth after that exchange, perhaps agreeing with the departed elf now that the novelty of Pernie’s unusual arrival had worn off. But Seawind was not among them. He came forward and placed a hand on her shoulder. “You’ve done it, Sava. You’ve run with the hunt. Something only two other humans have ever done. You’re in a very small minority amongst your kind. And now you have earned the right to begin training with the spear.” He held forth his own weapon, offering it to her that she might feel its weight.
She snatched it out of his hand and hurled it straight through the air, pinning a moth that had been fluttering past to a tree some fifteen paces away. “I already know how to use your stupid spears,” she said. “You said you’d teach me to kill that orc, and then I could go home. I’m ready to kill him now.”
He turned back behind him and, with a flicking motion of his fingers, gestured for two of his companions to hand him their spears. He gave one to Pernie and kept the other for himself, nodding only slightly in the direction of the one she now held.
She frowned at it, then back at him, and then, with speed she didn’t have time to see, he swept her feet out from under her with a snapping movement of the bottom of his spear. He struck her ankles so hard and so quickly that she flipped a quarter turn and landed hard on her ribs atop her bug, who, being startled and injured both, took off at a run. She rolled off it the moment it bolted, and it dragged her half under a bush by the rope around her wrist before she could gather her wits enough to send it pain messages to make it stop.
She lay there in the leaves and twigs beneath the bush, panting heavily. She would make him pay for that.
Chapter 14
A
lean, straight figure of a man watched from beneath a broad-brimmed black hat as the Earth people and the Queen’s pet mage returned to the silvery spaceship resting atop the cliffs above Murdoc Bay. The watcher’s coal-black eyes squinted above a hawkish nose despite being shrouded in shadow beneath the hat. Unlike the rest of the crowd, murmuring and ogling the vessel, he was silent. His interest in a ship that could travel to the stars was not rooted in awe or curiosity. No, not this man. His interest was, as always, appraisal. The appraisal of value, certainly, but mostly he appraised it for difficulty.
He’d already watched several of the young lads from town approach the two burly women standing guard at the base of the ramp. While a few of the boys were simple, uncouth drunkards, one of them had been a well-built deckhand with pockets heavy with coin. His ship, the
Hestra’s Sea Hound
, had come in yesterday from a successful Pompost run. With his share jingling in his pocket, the salty youth had sashayed up to the women and made his suit with abundant confidence, for which he was politely but instantly declined. When the youth stepped closer to make a second, more insistent appeal, the nearer guard, a shapely brunette with shoulders and arms easily as cut and toned as the young sailor’s were, turned the muzzle of her weapon toward him and, with a polite smile, said something to him in the alien language of planet Earth. The words were nonsense to Prosperion ears, but no one witnessing needed translation magic to understand what she had said.
The watcher beneath that wide, dark hat nodded as he observed. Pretty though these Earth creatures were, they were not the sporting type. He supposed there would be more collectors interested in an alien girl, but for now he had no orders for one. And, truth be told, the last one had been more trouble than she was worth. Three times he’d been less than a half step in front of the Royal Assassin’s blade for that job, and now that the heat was off, or at least handed off to the Queen’s simpletons, he figured he’d had enough of Earth women. At least until there was an offer that made the challenge worth the risk.
He lowered his head and quietly mumbled a seeing spell, doing his best to keep the gestures at a minimum. When it was cast, he pushed his magical vision toward the glistening ship, hoping for a peek inside. It was just out of his range. He cursed the gods that gave him a lowly D-class rank in Sight. Imagine what greater wealth he could have acquired over all these years with just another thirty spans.
Unwilling to move out of the crowd, he let the spell go. He saw after that the man in the purple coat had returned, the man who he presumed was the captain of the ship. He’d returned, and in his entourage still was Sir Altin Meade, the Galactic Mage, another of the War Queen’s most dangerous minions. The complexity of the challenge presented by that ship was rendered all the more difficult with the young Seven in attendance. And all the more appealing. What profit could be made from the alien items on that ship, the watcher thought. If he could only see inside! What rare objects were in there that would be a first for anyone on Prosperion, the first and finest that only he could find? Things that not even the Queen herself could have, things the alien people might not even want her to know about. Oh, the thrill of it. Just thinking of it. There hadn’t been anything that piqued him so thoroughly as that spaceship since he was but a boy. Not since carving the wagging pink tongues of endless prohibitions from his parents’ mouths had he felt such a rush inside. That had been a long time ago. But now the thrill was back. Now he could pilfer an entire alien world.
But he had to act fast, for it would only be a matter of time. Soon enough, the War Queen and her counterparts on Earth would open trade routes. They’d negotiate contracts. Start guilds. Objects from Earth would become commonplace in only a matter of years, perhaps a decade on the optimistic side. Then it would be too late. The greatest opportunities would be gone, the windows closed, shuttered, and barred. It would be all cronyism and inside deals afterwards. Everyone else would fight over scraps.
It occurred to him even as he thought it that the same could be said for trade going the other way. In fact, the more he considered it, the more it seemed likely that was the reason for the appearance of this ship, why it was here in Murdoc Bay. It was here to start trading Prosperion goods on Earth. The fact that it was here and not Crown City, where the deals were being done, said a lot about Her Majesty. For he knew full well it was she and not the Marchioness of South Mark behind the appearance of that ship. Had it been the marchioness, he would have known.
Which meant he was already behind the game. And worse, he had no requests. Not even that dusty old shrew in Galbrun Hall had summoned him for anything. There was no doubt the marchioness at least had wind of this sort of thing happening. But nothing from her. Nothing. He nearly spat for the indignity of it all. And it wouldn’t do to go calling on her to solicit an arrangement of some kind. He might as well start hawking candies and sweetmeats in the market square.
But, that was fine. He’d find his own way. He always had. And the gods do shine their favor on the ready and the prepared. And it was then that, as if by divine design, a gentle telepathic nudge pressed upon his mind. He recognized it immediately.
“Black Sander,” came the demanding telepathic voice of the Earl of Vorvington. “Lady South Mark wishes to see you immediately. We have business to attend.”
Black Sander’s mouth cut a thin line across his angular face, like a cut made by the tip of a rapier. And out from it, like a pale drop of blood, slid his tongue, licking his lips hungrily. This was going to be fun.
Chapter 15
P
ernie stood on Knot’s faceplate, halfway up the ancient crater wall and looking down at Djoveeve, who was easy to see as she made her way slowly through the chest-high reeds. The wrinkled old assassin pushed apart the green blades with outward sweeps of her arms, and from where Pernie was three spans above, it seemed as if the old woman were swimming through high grass.
Pernie cast a quick glance over her shoulder, making sure she hadn’t gotten too high up. If she got too close to the crater’s edge, she’d stick up and be visible against the sky. The old wizard-assassin would spot her then, for Pernie’s powers of illusion were not very strong. “You’re only a C,” Djoveeve had said nearly a month ago when she’d revealed what Pernie’s third school of magic was. Even Master Grimswoller hadn’t been able to tell what her third power was. But now she knew, and she’d been practicing with it since. Djoveeve said she’d never be very good with it, but it was good enough for a crude sort of invisibility.
She crouched low, gripping her blunted spear, an elven shaft with a sap-filled silk bag where the spearhead should be. She was supposed to “kill” the old assassin if she could. Another ten steps and Djoveeve would get the blunted spear right in the face.
Djoveeve stopped moving for a time, listening. She turned her head from side to side, her eyes narrowing as her vision dulled to give favor to her ears. She waited patiently for a time. “Good, child,” she said after a while. “You are as quiet as a mouse.”
Pernie smiled. She knew she was. Knot was too. All his little feet made no more noise than leaves settling to the forest floor. She sent him a thought for motionlessness, just enough menace to freeze him but not enough to roll him into a ball. She’d done that only a few days ago, when Seawind had finally allowed her to try fighting from atop the insect’s back. She’d been high up a cave wall and been a bit too aggressive in sending it a painful thought, frightening poor Knot into spherical form. She’d fallen almost six full spans. Knot had bounced and taken no injury, but for her, well, that was the first time she’d ever seen her own shinbone so closely before, burst right through the skin and all. If it hadn’t hurt so much, she would have enjoyed looking at it more.