The Seeker - Isobelle Carmody [169]
“The raft carried us through the mountain and down to the lowlands, though I would not want to take such a passage again. I came back through the Olden way,” I said. “It’s less poisonous than the Druid thinks. We were trying to cut through the compound when the storm struck. I saw everyone taking cover, but I thought … I didn’t realize a firestorm was coming.”
I looked at the cave opening worriedly. “I hope the others are safe. I pray this firestorm ends quickly.” I made to rise, but all the suppression in the world could not make useless limbs work.
Daffyd laid a gentle hand on my arm. “Be patient. Even when the storm front passes, there is the rain. We can’t brave that and live.”
As if his words were a signal, it began suddenly to rain with great force. For a moment, we both looked outside, watching steam hiss and billow from the dying fires. I bit my lip and hoped Dragon understood the danger of being out in the stinging rains.
The cave we were in was no more than a shallow scoop of erosion, and if the rain had been slanting from the opposite direction, it would have filled the cave. As to the fire, the blackened ground showed that it had come to within a single span of the rocks. I shuddered. The area visible from the cave was devastated, and some of the trees were still aflame with their eerie blue halo. The beat of falling rain was curiously soothing amid the sight and smell of destruction, and my eyes drooped. The suppressing was draining my reserves.
“Elspeth, Gilaine said you were trying to reach the coast. If you did get through the mountain, why did you come back?” Daffyd asked.
Forcing myself to full awareness, I looked at Daffyd squarely. I had always found it hard to trust people, but this time I did not hesitate. My infected feet rendered me useless as a messenger. Providence had brought Daffyd to me.
“The Druid’s friend on the Council,” I said. “What do you know of him?”
Daffyd looked at me closely as if trying to judge if I were delirious. Then he turned his gaze out at the teeming rain and shrugged. “A couple of years back, a boy stumbled into the camp one winter, more dead than alive. The Druid had him looked after, no doubt hoping for some useful information, or at least another set of hands. When the boy regained consciousness, he claimed to have lost his memory. Eventually, the Druid decided to let him join us.
“Though fair faced, he was not well liked. And yet he had a charm, when he chose to use it. The old man grew fond of him, began to think of him as a son. In the end, he was privy to the armsmen councils. Then he came up with a daring plan to infiltrate the Council and feed information back to us. It was a dangerous proposition, but he is an insidious sort of fellow. If anyone could carry out such an audacious plan, it was he. So he went off to Sutrium.” Daffyd shrugged. “A lot of us thought he would disappear as soon as he was out of the Druid’s sight, maybe even betray us, but he did as he had promised, supplying us with luxuries and information, working for the day the Druid comes out of hiding to challenge the powers that be.”
“Ariel,” I murmured, not believing for a minute he had lost his memory or that he truly had the Druid’s interests in mind.
“It’s strange to hear him named openly,” Daffyd said. “The Druid has forbidden us to speak of him by name. How did you come to hear it?”
“We met before he came to the Druid,” I said bleakly. “He is a Misfit, from Obernewtyn. You have heard of the seditioners there, Alexi and Madam Vega, once enemies of the Druid? He was their pet creature.
“Daffyd, I did not leave Obernewtyn and fall in with the gypsies. I and my friends came from Obernewtyn disguised as gypsies. The new master there, Rushton, has made it a secret haven for Misfits like us. I could not tell Gilaine