Days of Air and Darkness - Katharine Kerr [71]
Jill glanced at the sky, where the true dawn was just beginning to brighten. With luck, some, at least, of the town gates might never have been opened.
In a tumult of shouted orders, Elyc and Tudvulc began organizing the search. Dwaen grabbed Jill’s arm, and with Rhodry trailing after, led her round the curve of the broch where they could hear each other speak.
“I don’t like this!” he snapped. “How could she have killed the man and then just walked out the gates? There’s too many folk about, even at first light. She must have known they’d never make it to the road unseen.”
“Just so,” Jill said. “Unless she had a friend in town, somewhere she knew she could hide.”
“She’s been here weeks, and she must have left the dun now and again,” Rhodry put in. “To go to market for those herbs if naught else.”
“They must have dashed like foxes for an earth,” Jill said. “Well, if—oh, ye gods! An earth, indeed. What if they’ve never left the dun?”
“Ye gods!” Dwaen whispered. “As bold as all that, to wait till we’ve all charged out, and then stroll out after us?”
Rhodry tossed back his head and howled his long mad laugh. Yelling at the top of his lungs, Dwaen ran to fetch his warband and start them searching. As Jill jogged after him, she heard Tudvulc start to bellow, then break off. She and Rhodry reached the lords in time to hear them start yelling at their men to search the dun.
They found them in the boldest place of all, the chamber where Mallona had been imprisoned the night before, up high in one of the half-brochs. The men had charged like whirlwinds through every other building by the time that Jill found a kitchen maid, all wide eyes with excitement, who admitted seeing a lady in a cloak going in the door to that tower.
“Was it Lady Taurra?”
“I only saw her back, like. I thought maybe it was our Lady Davylla, come to bid the murderess farewell.”
“Not too likely, lass.” Jill turned away and yelled back to the others. “My lords! Rhodry! Come on!”
Shoving the lass out of the way, Jill charged inside and clattered up the spiral staircase. She could hear the sound of the men, swearing and shoving as they followed. At the landing, she hesitated, but just one door stood closed. She flung it open only to stop short at the threshold. Mallona was standing in a shaft of sunlight in the center of the room. In front of her, Babryan slumped in a chair like a heap of discarded dresses. At first Jill thought her dead, but the lass breathed, her mouth half-open. Her fevered eyes turned Jill’s way in an agony of pleading. At her throat, Mallona held the long-bladed ritual dagger.
“One more step, you little meddler, and she’ll die.” Mallona’s voice was as strong and quiet as ever.
From the oaths and boots trampling behind her, Jill knew that the men were mobbing the landing. When Tudvulc shoved his way through to stand in the doorway, Mallona turned calm eyes his way.
“Your daughter’s been poisoned, and only I know the antidote. Let me go, and I’ll give it to you. Here’s my bargain. Fetch me a horse, and that smelly silver dagger will ride with me outside the town. There I’ll give her the vial, and she’ll take it back to you. Don’t worry, there’s plenty of time, at least till noon, before Baba dies.”
“You whore to pigs and dogs,” Tudvulc whispered. “You impious bitch!”
“And if you and your men follow me and Jill,” Mallona went on, “you’ll never get the vial, because I’ll break it. Swear on your sacred honor that I go free, and Babryan lives. How would bards sing of your name if you let a child of yours die?”
Tudvulc was shaking, his face scarlet, the veins on his forehead bulging and pulsing. Elyc laid a heavy hand on his shoulder and dragged him back a step.
“If you kill me now, you’ll never know which vial is the right one,” Mallona remarked with a small smile. “I have many different herbs.”
Jill stepped back to let Elyc have her place. She bumped into Dwaen, looked round but saw no sign of Rhodry. She could only assume that he’d got stuck on the staircase in the crush of warbands.
“It gripes my very soul to