The Seeker - Isobelle Carmody [122]
“They can’t stay!” Saul broke in angrily. “They endanger the baby. They endanger us all. It was bad enough to reveal ourselves.…”
The older musician shook his head reproachfully. “Saul, we have already gone over this. Once Gilaine was revealed, it was the same as if we were all exposed. If the Druid forced her name from Elspeth, she in turn would be forced to betray us. I’m sorry, Gilaine, but it would be better for them to go.”
She hung her head.
A queer expression flitted across Saul’s intense features, and I felt certain he was thinking Gilaine’s death would solve everything.
“We won’t be staying,” I said firmly. I looked at Jow. “You’ll never have cause to regret this,” I promised. “And someday you might be glad.”
I vowed to myself that I would return to bring Gilaine and her friends up to Obernewtyn as soon as I had completed my quest to the west coast. By then, Lidgebaby would be old enough to travel.
I woke the next day to Rilla shaking me impatiently. “Elspeth. Ye sleep like th’ dead,” she scolded.
Outside, rain was falling steadily, and thunder rumbled in the distance. Hurrying across the gap that separated the washhouse from the kitchen, I glanced up at the drear gray sky with faint apprehension.
To my surprise, Emmon was sitting at the kitchen table with Kella. Seeing me, they both stood abruptly.
“What’s the matter?” I asked.
“Gilaine sent me to tell ye,” Emmon said. “Only ye mun nowt let on ye know, or she’ll be in for it.”
“I promise. Now what?”
“Yer to be bonded tomorrow,” Emmon said, refusing to meet my eyes.
“To whom?” I asked in a strangely distant voice.
He made a warding-off gesture with his hand. “To … Relward. The gatewarden. This is Erin’s doin’,” he added in a rush.
“But why?” I asked faintly.
“She’s jealous. She thinks Gilbert means to request ye in bonding. He’s gone off to hunt, an’ by th’ time he gans back, it will be too late for him to protest,” Emmon explained.
I blinked rapidly, fighting off an unexpected rush of tears. I had always used Rushton’s stern, dark face as a talisman against despair, but this time the thought of him only evoked a fierce pain in my chest and a bittersweet longing to be home.
Then the irony of it struck me, helping me gain a measure of calmness. Here was Erin, violently jealous of the fleeting and surely lighthearted interest Gilbert had taken in me, willing to go to incredible lengths to stop something I had no more desire for than she.
“I can’t let it happen,” I said, and in that moment, a daring idea came to me. With Emmon’s help, I managed to speak privately with Gilaine. She agreed the bonding must be avoided and said she would talk to the others about an immediate escape. I also told her I had heard Pavo was getting sicker and that I wanted to make sure he would be able to walk unaided. But that night, when Gilaine and her friends damped Lidgebaby’s emanations, I contacted Domick instead.
“Has something gone wrong?” he asked, responding to the agitation in my thoughts.
I told him of the intended bonding and that Kella would likely be next. I was surprised at the vehemence with which he said it must not be allowed to happen. “If I can help it, it won’t,” I sent. “Our friends here have set their plans for tomorrow night. But after we get away from here, I have an alternative to going round the mountains. It’s dangerous. Rushton would never approve. But if it succeeds, we will be on the other side of the mountains in less than two days.”
“Impossible. Unless your undisclosed Talents include teaching giant birds to carry us across the sky.”
I ignored his sarcasm. “I want you to build a raft. A strong raft.”
“A raft. But … you can’t mean …?”
“We’re going to raft through the mountains on the Suggredoon,” I sent determinedly.
12
ERIN SMILED.
“Wait in here,” she said. She opened a door off the hallway, and I entered a small, musty-smelling antechamber.
Inside the Druid’s house, it was unexpectedly quiet. The room was dark, though it was not yet evening. The day had been dreary,