The Seeker - Isobelle Carmody [124]
My knees felt weak with relief. Blocking the hall behind her were Kella and Jik. I smiled at them in greeting.
“That is an old trick,” Erin sneered. “Trying to make me think there’s someone …” She stopped abruptly as Kella’s knife pressed into her neck.
Jik reached round and took the knife carefully out of her fingers.
“Get inside the room,” Kella ordered, her face pale but determined. I was momentarily astonished to see a healer waving a knife in such a businesslike way. Erin obeyed, shock turned to fury.
“You will all die for this. My father will burn you,” she snarled.
“Did you bring the rope?” I asked Jik, ignoring her. He nodded. “Tie her up.”
Erin stood rigidly erect as Jik bound her hands and feet. “What do you think this will get you?” she grated. “There are men in all the watchtowers and guards at the gate. And even if you did get out, my father will come after you. You will be caught, and then you will wish bonding was the only fate awaiting you.”
I touched Jik’s arm, sending a swift thought. The next time she opened her mouth to speak, he thrust a ball of cloth into it, then tied another round her head to stop her spitting it out. It was a relief to have her quiet. I checked the ropes. They were tight, and I guessed Erin’s hissing threats had made Jik more efficient than he might otherwise have been.
I forced myself to face her. “Daughter of Henry Druid, we are gypsy folk and not meant for staying in one place. My father waits for me in Arandelft, and I mean to meet him. I bear no ill will to the Druid, but I cannot stay. That is why you have to be tied up. To stop you raising the alarm too soon.”
“Perhaps we should kill her,” Jik said, obeying my covert prompting.
I pretended to consider it, gratified to see the first sign of real fear in Erin’s eyes. Slowly, as if reluctant, I shook my head. “I would be just as happy to kill her, but that might make her father annoyed. Besides, we will be long gone down the main road before they find her.” I had no doubt Erin would faithfully relay all I had said, sending her father off in the wrong direction.
I nodded to Jik, and he opened a large chest under the window.
Erin’s eyes widened with real horror. I did not like the idea of locking anyone in a trunk, even someone so detestable, but we had to make sure she was not found too quickly. If the Druid came home early, he was unlikely to think to look for his daughter inside a box in a spare room. With Kella’s help, we lifted her into the trunk, leaving the lid slightly askew so she wouldn’t suffocate. Then we went into the kitchen, where she would not be able to hear us.
“Phew,” Jik said. “If eyes were knives, we’d all be dead.”
Jik went to fetch Jow from outside. We gave the all-clear signal, and Jow came in the back door. “Where is she?” he asked in a low voice. I told him and, unexpectedly, he grinned.
“Do her good,” he murmured. Then his face became serious. “Now, you know what you have to do?”
I recited the route he expected us to take, and he nodded.
“You’ll be a bit ahead of schedule now. You might have to wait in the wilds until the soldierguards leave their camps. I wish we could give you more help.”
“We’ll be all right. Gypsies know a few things about hiding,” I said, sorry to be deceiving him.
He opened a bundle and handed me boots, stout trousers, and a jumper and coat. I threw aside the silky red dress Rilla had made me wear, without regret. Fine clothes were no substitute for freedom.
Outside, thunder cracked loudly.
“This is an ordinary storm?” I asked Jow.
He nodded. “An ordinary storm, but bad all the same. Worse for the armsmen who will have to track you.”
I pointed to the dress. “You could use that to lead them astray.”
Jow shook his head. “You can’t go in two directions at once. If he eventually found your tracks, the Druid would know for certain you had help.”
“What are we waiting