The Seeker - Isobelle Carmody [141]
I left Jik for a moment to locate the others. Kella and Pavo were in a cell together, and I let Kella know I was coming. Avra was in a stable near the perimeter of the grounds.
She responded with relief to my probe, and I realized she had been afraid we would abandon her. Quickly, she outlined the arrangement of the stables. I told her Kella and Pavo would come to get her shortly.
Returning to Jik, I was glad to find him calmer. “I’ve found Kella and Pavo. I’m going to free them first, because they’re on the top level, and they can free Avra,” I sent.
“If the Herders come for me …,” Jik sent fearfully.
“I’ll get back in time,” I sent.
“Promise you won’t let them take me to the Isle,” Jik urged.
“I promise,” I sent.
I looked down at Kadarf and probed him to locate a lesser house door. Following me, Kadarf stretched himself outside the door to wait.
Inside was a short hall branching in two directions. I took the left way, leading to Kella and Pavo, noting the other way would bring me to stairs leading down to Jik’s level. Passing numerous closed doors, a slight farsense probe was all I needed to warn me if anyone was coming.
My limp had grown worse, but there was no time to rest. Turning warily into another hall, I jumped at the sound of voices, but no one was visible.
I could hardly believe I was creeping through a dread Herder cloister. I would not have imagined I would have the courage, but Jik’s fear of being taken to the Isle and my own fear of having to erase his mind spurred me on. I stopped abruptly, realizing I had found them. A brief straining, and the lock clicked. Kella and Pavo looked up, relief flooding their faces.
“There’s no time to talk,” I said, forestalling their questions. “I’ll take you to an outer door. There is a dog there who will lead you to the stables where Avra is kept. Avra said you can get out of the stable to an exercise yard, and from there to the street. Leave at once, and get straight out of the city. You might have to bribe the gatekeeper. Head for Murmroth until the lights of Aborium dim. Camp on the beach. I’ll find you. Now let’s hurry.”
“I will slow you down,” Pavo said faintly. I was shocked by his ravaged face. He seemed to have aged years in a few hours.
“Help him,” I said to Kella brusquely. She looked hurt at my tone, but some of the dazed horror had faded from her eyes.
Moving back down the hall, I was puzzled to note how awkwardly Pavo moved. Had the disease begun to affect his limbs? Then I saw a bloody streak on one ankle and understood. He had been interrogated.
For a second, I was overwhelmed by a black tide of hate. This dissolved into fear as my senses warned that a priest was approaching. There was no door near enough to offer refuge, and the hall was long and straight with no turnings. Neither Pavo nor I was capable of running fast enough to get back inside the cell before he came round the corner.
Desperation gave me an idea.
“Get close to the wall and face it. Don’t move, no matter what happens,” I whispered. I blew out the candles on either side of us, throwing our hall into shadow. Flattened to the wall in the dimness, I mustered my strength and sent out a fine coercive probe. I let it mesh with the priest’s mind. The alignment was perfect, and for a time, I simply mirrored his thoughts about the power-hungry manipulations of an ambitious senior priest. Then, gently, I began to exert my own force beneath the conscious level and into the semiconscious region of the mind.
My brother, Jes, and I had played hide-and-seek as children, and I had always won when he searched, no matter how bare the boundary we set, because I could make his mind look everywhere but directly at me. Our only hope was that this child’s trick would work on the priest.
He came around the corner, and Kella quivered with fright. I willed her to be still as he came nearer. It would only work if we were completely