The Seeker - Isobelle Carmody [144]
I could hardly believe myself revealing so much. Reuvan was staring at me as if I had gone mad.
“I’ll prove it,” I said desperately. “Watch Jik. I’ll make him look toward us and nod.” I sent a message to Jik, asking him to respond as obviously as he could without alerting his guardians. He turned his head slowly and nodded with a subtle wink. Reuvan hissed in astonishment.
“You can hold the dogs?” Brydda asked.
I nodded, hoping they would be as easy to convince as Kadarf. “Help me save Jik. Please.”
After a long tense moment, Brydda grinned. “Well, I’m probably finally going mad, but we’ll have a go at it. Seven men—we can handle that many between us, eh, Reuvan?”
“Seven men, yes. But those dogs …,” he said doubtfully.
Brydda clapped him on the back. “Come, man, you heard the girl. Those dogs will be all bark and no bite.”
Reuvan looked at me warily, as if I myself might bite, but such was the strength of Brydda’s personality that he nodded.
“Good lad. Now, Elspeth, tell the boy to run for it as soon as he gets the chance. Don’t wait for us. As soon as you have him, get out of the city as fast as you can. There is a gate back near the cloister. Go out that gate and no other. Wait with your friends, and I’ll find you.”
“What about you?”
“I’ll worry about me. Make sure you do as I said.”
I reached out and touched his arm. “It was a glad day when I first heard the name of Brydda Llewellyn,” I said.
He smiled. “Life is an adventure, is it not?”
They melted into the shadows and began making their way toward the Herder vessel.
I groped about until I found the mind of the shipmaster. He was in the hold, organizing the loading of the cargo. I pinched a nerve experimentally and he groaned and doubled over. I grinned, catching his thought that he must have eaten a bad fish stew.
I tweaked the nerve again, more firmly, and this time he groaned loudly enough to be heard by the priests on the wharf. They looked at one another. One stepped onto the deck and climbed down into the hold.
Taking advantage of their preoccupation, Brydda and Reuvan attacked with wild cries, brandishing knives. One of the priests standing on the edge of the vessel fell overboard in fright. Another Herder, with stronger nerves, reached down to unloose the dogs he had on leash. Quickly, I beastspoke to the dogs, asking for help. I had no strength left to coerce more than very slightly, but they agreed to help. I saw that the dogs had no love for their masters, for all their savage training. As soon as they were loose, they began to bark wildly and snarl, jumping and running in circles. The look on the Herders’ faces would have been funny if there had not been so much at stake.
Then Reuvan jumped onto the deck, delivering a stout blow to the emerging priest and slamming the hold shut. That left five. One of the priests held on to Jik while the others divided into pairs to attack Brydda and Reuvan. Brydda was more than a match for two men. A blow from his fist and the first priest crumpled at his feet like a wet cloth. The other had drawn a knife and tried to sink it in Brydda’s belly, but the big man was agile for his size and whirled on his toes like a dancer before dealing a blow with the haft of his sword. He stepped over the unconscious priests and turned around.
Reuvan had dispatched one of his attackers and was busy with the other. Brydda turned menacingly to the priest holding Jik. Calmer than his brothers, he drew a long knife from the folds of his cloak and let go of Jik’s arm.
“Run!” I sent.
He lurched forward, stumbling, hampered by his bound hands. Panting, he fell as he reached the cart.
“Quick, get in,” I whispered. His nose was bleeding and his breath came in sobs, but he clambered awkwardly into the cart and fell across my feet. I gathered up the reins. I hated to leave Brydda, but he had struck me as a man used to having his orders obeyed.
I beastspoke the surprised horse, and we rode away from the wharf.
I was