Reign of Shadows - Deborah Chester [48]
He selected simple concoctions for common ailments such as fever, tooth pain, wart removal, wound cleanser, and some of the salves. Some of the supplies were low, as though Gunder and Beva had been busy with other matters. Caelan didn’t care. Keeping a wary lookout in case either of the two came back, he worked as quickly as he could. When the rucksack was satisfactorily filled, he laced down the top and slung it over his shoulder.
True to his word, he paused by the earnings box and tried to lift the lid. It was locked. Caelan’s mouth twisted. Trust Gunder to guard it so zealously. As though anyone in the hold would steal.
But even as the thought crossed his mind, he felt the tug of temptation. Better to put his trust in money he could clench in his fist than in the hope of receiving a gift from beneath spirits.
Caelan hesitated, his thumb sliding across the heavy, iron-banded lid. He thought he could pry it open with the dagger.
The sound of approaching footsteps made him glance up.
Breathing an oath, he ducked outside and behind the open door just in time to avoid Gunder’s return. Peering through the crack below the hinge, Caelan saw the assistant shaking his head in apparent puzzlement.
Caelan frowned at him. If Gunder had only stayed away five more minutes, Caelan’s pockets would have been full. Yes, and he’d be a true thief as well, whispered an accusing voice in his head.
He hurried away on silent feet. Less than a half-hour later he had filled a second pack with warm layers of clothing, his warmest fur-lined traveling boots, a tinderstrike, a small cooking pot filched from the kitchen earlier, and a bundle of dried jerky taken from the larder stores. Glancing around his small, plain room for the last time, he felt a pang of homesickness already.
Half angrily he shook it off. This was no time to go soft.
From a tiny casket of rosewood that had belonged to his mother, he withdrew a round bronze mirror she had bought from the Choven many years before. It was spell forged to conjure up anyone’s likeness on command.
Mother, Caelan thought and watched the cloudy surface of the mirror slowly clear. Her face so loving and kind smiled at him briefly before fading away. He drew in a deep breath and slipped the mirror into his pocket. He did not want to forget either his mother or little Lea, the two people he loved most. The other item in the casket was an old medallion of the goddess Merit, her round sunny features stamped into the worn metal. As a child he had worn the medallion around his neck on a thong.
He slipped it on now, breathing a small, surreptitious prayer to the goddess to protect him. Feeling half-reassured and half-embarrassed, he kissed the medallion and tucked it beneath his tunic. When she was alive, his mother would never let him outside the walls without wearing it. When he went to Rieschelhold he had left it behind, feeling too grown-up to need it. Now he knew better.
He put on a fur-lined tunic over his regular one, with the dagger belted on in between the layers. For once he didn’t forget his gloves, which he tucked in the pocket of a capacious fur cloak. Settling the garment over his shoulders, he arranged the folds to conceal the packs and ventured outside with a fast beating heart and a mouth dry as dust.
This time, his escape wouldn’t fail.
Chapter Ten
DANCING UP AND down with impatience, Lea was waiting for him at the gate. A food basket stood at her feet with a canteen lying atop it.
When she saw Caelan coming, she began waving for him to hurry.
He wasn’t about to do so and risk anyone glimpsing what he carried beneath his cloak. Feeling self-conscious, Caelan crossed the courtyard, pausing only at a barrel to take out a pair of apples for later. Slipping them into his pocket, he grinned at Lea.
“You took forever,” she said. “It’ll be dusk before we get there.”
“Don’t exaggerate. We’ve plenty of time.”
He glanced past her at Raul, who was waiting to open the gates.
“You two be careful,” the man warned. “Out mucking around in the