The Farseekers (10 page)

It was an odd, strained occasion.

The Druid and his guests ate long and late into the night. They were formally attired and the courses of food were lavishly presented. It was hard to believe we were in the middle of the White Valley.

The Druid's armsmen, as those of Gilbert's type called themselves, drank heavily, both red and white fements as well as a spicy warmed cordial. The latter could be made anywhere, but the Highlands were no place to grow the delicate fement grapes. Like the dresses Kella and I wore, the fements could only have come from the Lowlands, probably Arendelft.

The Druid's daughter, Erin, sat by his side, clad in a dazzling blood-red dress. Her long hair was elaborately plaited and beaded around her head.

Beside her, Gilbert smiled welcome. 'So, gypsy girl, how are you finding our rough and ready camp?'

Laughter met his words. All the Druid's captives were probably as astounded at the lavish way the Druids lived. Gilbert himself was hardly recognizable in a fine white shirt and black velvet jacket, though he was less extravagantly clad than many of the other armsmen. None of the white-robed Druid acolytes were present.

'What? No words for us, gypsy girl? Have we disarmed you at last? Perhaps the fire was quenched when the dirt was washed off,' Gilbert teased.

Erin laid a dainty hand on his arm. 'Dirt will wash away, Gilbert, but that particular hue of skin will remain the same grubby gypsy colour, no matter how hard she scrubs.'

The table fell silent, but before I could draw breath to respond, Gilbert laughed, smoothly drawing his arm from beneath hers. 'I find that dusky tone more pleasing than the fashionable pallor of a fish underbelly,' he said, smiling into my eyes.

I found myself seated some way down the table. On either side, the men spoke only a few polite words to me. Their eyes said they shared Erin's attitude. It was funny in a way. If they had known I was a Misfit, I would be far more despised.

A while later, Erin's voice rose above the buzz of talk. 'Father, I am only saying that this desire to bond the armsmen is going too far. Surely you want to maintain some sort of standard. Yet you permit grubby gypsies to dine with us.' I had no doubt she had raised her voice deliberately.

I stood abruptly. 'Lord, my father told me enough' to make me admire Henry Druid, but I will not be insulted by a painted doll!' There was a gasp from some of the men, and Erin's pouting mouth fell open in astonishment.

There was a long silence. I did not take my eyes from the Druid's, but I was not to hear his reply since someone had begun to clap.

'Well done, Lady Erin. I salute you for your wit,' Gilbert said. He raised his mug to Erin. 'I feared our gypsy girl had lost her tongue.' He drank deeply, and a few hardy souls around him laughed.

Erin's face filled with rage, but the Druid laid a restraining hand on her arm. I wondered at Gilbert's recklessness. Why had the Druid let him make sport of Erin? It was clear Gilbert had some rank in the camp, but now I wondered exactly what his position was.

He grinned at me down the length of the table, but I did not smile back. Beside him, Erin's eyes glittered with malice. Perhaps Gahltha's cynical comment that poisoned trees bore poisoned fruit was right, for I was certain the Druid shared his daughter's prejudice.

I finished my meal, ignored by my companions. I had a fierce longing to be back at Obernewtyn where people were judged by their actions rather than their ancestry. Rushton would laugh to know how much I hungered to be home. He had seemed really disturbed by my desire to leave. With a painful lurch of my heart, I realized I missed him.

A young boy and an old man played a merry dance tune on a drum and a small flute. I was not surprised to see people rise to dance. I had never learnt how. Orphan Homes did not organize such frivolous pursuits. On both sides of me the seats were empty, my dinner companions having deserted me for less controversial partners. My outburst had made me an outcast despite my finery.

I looked up to find Gilbert standing beside my seat. 'Come, let me see if you dance as well as you talk.'

I lifted my chin, 'I wonder you dare ask a gypsy to dance.'

Gilbert frowned. 'Hatred of gypsies is a foolish, unfounded prejudice which I do not share.'

'It seems you are alone in that. Who are you, that you can safely voice such unpopular opinions?'

'I lead the armsmen. The Druid values my expertise. But I am known for my outspoken nature. It has not got me killed so far.'

I smiled a little despite myself. Another place and time, I would have liked the smiling armsman as a friend. But the knowledge that he was the leader of the Druid's fighting force made me nervous. His friendship might be no more than a strategy to put me off guard.

As if reading my thoughts, Gilbert slid into the seat beside me. 'I am my own fellow,' he said softly. 'I am no whisperer of other's secrets. If you will not talk, then dance with me,' he invited.

I found I did not want to hurt his feelings with a plain refusal. I lifted the hem of my skirt and showed him my scarred legs and feet. His face tightened at the sight of the scars. 'And I made you walk back to camp. Why didn't you say something?'

I smiled and shrugged wryly. 'You didn't seem the sort to worry about a prisoner's feet.'

'Then we will talk,' he said firmly. 'You may direct the course of our words.'

The opportunity was too good to miss. 'Tell me how you came to be here.'

Gilbert smiled and obliged. It proved an unexpected tale.

He had been born to a seafaring family in Aborium, but his father had been taken by slavers and his boat sunk. As a child, Gilbert had worked as a harbour labourer to support his mother and sister, until they died of a mysterious plague that swept the coast one year. Weary of the sea and lonely, he had gone inland to seek his fortune as a hunter. He had been searching in the White Valley when the Druid recruited him. He smiled wryly at the euphemism.

'At first I was determined to escape but what was there to escape to? I had no home to go back to and I loathe the Council. And, as you see, this is a pleasant enough life for one so skilled and useful as I.'

The Druid has a good supply of luxuries,' I said.

He grinned. The Druid has a friend in Sutrium.' He stopped abruptly and I babbled on, pretending not to have noticed his slip.

'Are there really such things as slavers?' I asked.

He nodded. There are at that, black-hearted souls. They prey on small fishing vessels like those belonging to my father, shanghai the crew and sell them. Those taken are never heard of again. I have heard it said the Council sells Seditioners they do not want brought to open trial. Who knows where they end up? It is a wide strange world.'

'But . . . what do you mean? There is only this Land and the two islands,' I stammered. The rest is Blacklands.'

Gilbert shook his head. 'A myth spawned by the Council who have a vested interest in ignorance. There are other places on the earth where the White Death never reached, or where the poisons have faded. I remember once my father told me the Land was but the tiniest portion of a huge island. It is possible there are parts of it untainted just as the Land is clean.'

I stared. 'But how is it no one knows this?'

Gilbert smiled, and it was not a pleasant smile. 'Any seafarer stupid enough to talk of such things disappears, no doubt himself sold to the slavers. It's a convenient way for the Council to rid itself of troublesome babble-mouths.'

'But why?'

The Council do not want their subjects sailing off in search of greener pastures and freer lands,' he answered simply.

I was fascinated. I had never dreamed of questioning Council teachings claiming the Land and two islands were all that remained of the world after the Holocaust.

'Why not take to the sea yourself and go where there is no Council?' I wondered.

Gilbert sighed. 'I could have done that, but a harsh law is better than none. What lies beyond our horizons are, by all accounts, wild lawless places where there has been no attempt to establish normal growth, a world where incredible mutations of plant and beast run riot. No, better to work here with the Druid to overcome the Council. Besides, I get seasick,' he added.

I laughed then sobered quickly. 'You think the Druid and his acolytes are any better than the Council?' I hardly expected an answer to such a question, but he was as outspoken as he had promised.

'I don't know. I hope so. He is hard, but there is always hope of change. At least he has standards and rules to live by.'

I looked at him sharply. 'The world is full of mutations. Who has the right to decide what is normal?'

Gilbert looked taken aback at the change in my tone. 'I do not believe gypsies are inferior,' he said, mistaking my words. 'In fact, I don't mind mutants. But don't tell the Druid. He is fanatical on the subject. Most of the others think as he does. Perhaps I'm not fine enough to distinguish between the smells of people as if they were so much spoiled meat.'

I frowned, deciding whatever the Druid knew or guessed about Misfits, Gilbert knew nothing. Perhaps only the Druid's acolytes knew about the machine blocking my abilities.

'And what about freedom? He would not let you leave here.'

The armsman smiled. 'No one keeps me where I do not want to be. But freedom is not a matter of that. You are a gypsy, so you think freedom is only the freedom to move from place to place. Real freedom is a thing no one can take from you, because it is a freedom of the spirit. I keep it here.' He tapped his head, then rose. 'I have promised a dance, but we will talk again.'

I watched him go, surprised to find myself wishing we could have gone on talking. I had meant only to extract information, but he was astonishingly free with his words and opinions, and he had allowed me to question him without asking me questions in return. With a sudden depression, I wondered if he was as open simply because he believed himself invulnerable in the camp.

I shook my head. He was an enemy, yet I had liked him. And I was as certain he had liked me. It had never occurred to me that I might be found desirable. Yet clothed in the fine dress, I had only been able to gape at my reflection. The girl who looked out of the mirror at me with her cloud of dark silky hair and mysterious green eyes had been a dazzling stranger. Passing through a room into the Druid's dining hall, I had caught sight of myself in a long mirror and, in that moment, had the curious wish that Rushton might see me so transformed.

To my relief, the meal ended without talk of bonding. Like all farseekers, I knew bonding for me would be more than a physical communion. A mind meld would be far more intimate than any bodily merging. It would be an ultimate kind of nakedness with one of my own kind; to bond with an unTalent would be like bonding to a statue.

I found myself thinking of Gilbert as I prepared for bed. If one had to bond with an unTalent, he would at least be kind and funny. Rushton's dark, brooding face came into my mind like a dash of cold water.

Dismissing all thoughts of the nightmeal from my mind, I concentrated my senses for an attempt on the static barrier preventing me from reaching the others. Kella had been housed in a separate room so there was no chance for us to make plans.

The block lay like a wet blanket over my senses. I felt suffocated as I tried to farseek. I used more strength, but the blocking seemed to respond, strengthening in direct proportion to the force I used.

Finally I lay back with a defeated sigh. It was no use. I would have to find the machine and somehow damage it.

'What are ye up to, Emmon?' Rilla demanded suspiciously of a slight boy with a lop-sided grin who had entered the kitchen.

He looked exaggeratedly hurt. Th' Druid sent me to bring the gypsy called Elspeth,' he said in a wounded voice.

I had spent the morning with Kella helping to do the encampment washing. I had tried questioning Rilla, but she appeared to know no more than Gilbert about the blocking static preventing me from using my abilities. But she had told me the Druid acolytes worked in a shed forbidden to all others. Kella told me Rilla's dead bondmate had been one of the Druids slain in the last Teknoguild expedition.

'I don't think she knows much about it,' Kella had said. 'It seems as if the Druid only tells people what he thinks they need to know. Rilla has no idea the people they ran into were from Obernewtyn. But she did say the Druid suspected the explosion had been caused deliberately using a Beforetime weapon. I think his reaction to Obernewtyn means he suspected Rushton, at least.'

I wondered what the Druid wanted of me.

As we left, Emmon stole a slice of meat and got a hard smack for his troubles. Outside he rubbed his ear and grinned broadly. 'T'was worth it. Come on.' We had not gone far when I realized we were going in the wrong direction.

'Well, that's true . . .' Emmon admitted. 'As a matter of fact, I were nowt told to bring ye at once, so we've time to spare. I'd rather walk about than wash clothes or work at spellin' an' th' like. Wouldn't you?'

'Won't we get into trouble?' I asked warily.

He shook his head. 'You won't. If we gan caught, I'll say ye knew nowt of it.'

'Will you show me around? I haven't had much chance to see the camp,' I asked.

Emmon nodded enthusiastically. He marched off, at once beginning to describe the variety and uses of buildings we passed. I tried leading him to talk of the Druid, in the hope of getting a clue about the block over the camp, but he seemed to know as little about it as I did. I concentrated on memorizing the camp.

We passed a long windowless series of buildings which Emmon pronounced as storehouses.

'Where do all the Druid's supplies come from?' I asked.

Emmon grinned. 'From th' Council's own stores. Th' Council dinna know their own trusted agent is a friend and oath kin to th' Druid.'

Oath kin? That meant someone as close as blood without being related. The Druid had an oath kin on the Council. The Druid was as canny a strategist as ever. With a chill, I realized the rumours about Obernewtyn could have been generated by the Druid's friend.