The Seeker - Isobelle Carmody [147]
Brydda looked thoughtful at this. “I don’t know. Maybe the thought of someone who can talk inside your head or make animals do anything they want would seem frightening. Yet if people are frightened, it is because of their ignorance and the Herders’ lies about mutations. They could learn,” Brydda said at last.
“Maybe, but we have to be sure,” I said. “There is no good in our exchanging one kind of tyranny for another.”
The others rose, too anxious to sleep for long, and we discussed our plans. Brydda asked Pavo where he thought we would find the Beforetime library. He frowned at the teknoguilder’s mention of ruins.
“I don’t know about a library, but there are ruins of an old city near here.”
Pavo looked excited. “That must be it,” he said, then his face fell. “But if it is near and common knowledge, the library is sure to have been found and ransacked.”
Brydda shook his head. “No one goes there.”
“Why?” Pavo asked in a puzzled tone. “It’s not in Blacklands territory. It is not even tainted badlands.”
“It is haunted by ghosts of the Beforetime,” Reuvan said.
Pavo gaped at him, then burst out laughing. “But there are no such things.”
Brydda looked at him without smiling. “So I once thought, but these are real enough. I have seen them.”
“And I,” Reuvan said with a shudder. “Terrible, monstrous faces twisted in mortal agony.”
“Ghosts?” Pavo echoed, confounded by their joint testimony. I stared from one to the other, just as astounded.
“Ghosts,” Brydda said decisively.
18
WELL BEFORE DAWN, a man rode out from the city with news for Brydda. The Black Dog’s attack on the Herder ship and the escape of three dangerous seditioners were the talk of the town. Huge rewards were being offered for information leading to their recapture. There was also a reward for a girl, escaped from custody at the Inn of the Cuttlefish, believed to have been an associate of the Black Dog.
The Herder ship had been found floating aimlessly, and those on board had described Brydda’s attack as ruthless and bloody, claiming thirty cutthroats had descended without warning.
“Now you see where I came by my terrible reputation,” Brydda said.
He was delighted with the way the Herders had linked the events. “How they will sweat wondering what a Herder novice has to do with the Black Dog,” he crowed.
More disturbing was the messenger’s report that a search party of soldierguards was combing the town. “It will only be a matter of time before they come upon the unguarded north gate and realize you have got out. There are enough of them in Aborium that they would attempt to pursue you into the plains,” the messenger said grimly.
After he had ridden away, Brydda turned to us. “There are four watchtowers with a clear view together of the plains. They will be scanning for any movement away from the main roads, and all roads will be guarded. We must go at once, while it is dark. I have no desire to visit your ruins, but right now it is probably the safest place for us.”
We packed up the camp and left immediately. Reuvan and Brydda rode the two horses they had stolen to leave the city, I rode Avra, and the rest went in the cart with Idris at the rein. We could not gallop or trot because although most of the west coast was plains, they were stony and pocked with holes that a horse might stumble into in the darkness.
To while away the time, Brydda asked me to help him devise a method of signaling that would let him communicate directly with the horses. He was intrigued by their intelligence. “I always liked animals better than people,” he confided.
Later, he asked Jik to demonstrate his empathy. He was amazed to find his emotions swayed by the boy. “Imagine such an ability in battle. He could shatter the nerve of a dozen good men without firing an arrow.”
“It wouldn’t be very fair to make brave men act like cowards,” Jik said.
Brydda gave him an incredulous look.
Pavo spotted the ruins first.
He had always seemed ageless to me, but now he looked ancient, shrunken with