The Seeker - Isobelle Carmody [68]
“But … but is that all? For that I am to risk wild beasts and capture?” I asked.
“You risk no more than I,” Rushton said coldly.
“But what if you don’t come? Where is the refuge you mentioned?” I faltered.
He shook his head regretfully. “Understand this. I have already told you too much. If I tell you any more and you are caught, I will endanger others. It is my decision to risk my life for you. I will not decide that for them.”
Chastened, I nodded, for what he said was surely the truth.
“You do not know what an irony it would be if you betrayed me,” Rushton said cryptically, moving to the door. He pressed his ear against the dark wood and listened before opening the door and looking out. He motioned for me to go into the hall. “Go quickly. Ariel will be coming from the other direction. I will try to direct the search toward the front of the house.” Rushton looked into my eyes, and I marveled at how green his were. Like deep forest pools.
“Perhaps someday we will have the chance to talk properly,” he said. “There are many things I would like—”
He stopped abruptly. We could hear footsteps again. “Go quickly,” he said urgently.
“Goodbye,” I whispered as I slipped away from him and descended into the darkness.
23
I FELT MY way along the hidden passage, walking as carefully as possible, but there were several unpleasant crunches under foot that made me wonder what I was treading on. The smell and the veils of dusty cobwebs I pushed through told me that the tunnel had not been used for a very long time, and I wondered again how Rushton had known about it. The darkness was total, and I only hoped there was not a fork or turning I had missed.
Then I heard voices coming from the other side of a wall. I stopped and listened.
“She must be found,” said a voice. “If it weren’t for the Council …” It was Madam Vega.
“I am glad they came,” said Alexi. “They have shown me that she is the one we have been seeking.”
Ariel spoke. “She won’t get past my hounds.”
“I want her found, not torn to pieces. That affair with the other girl was quite unnecessary. You are a barbarian,” Alexi added, almost as if he found that amusing.
“She will be found alive,” Madam Vega promised soothingly.
It terrified me to hear her certainty. It did not enter any of their heads that I might get away.
“The beasts have been trained to mutilate,” said Ariel sulkily. “They kill only on command.”
“She must not be allowed to die,” said Alexi in a flat voice that sent ice into my blood. “It might be years till another like her is found. A pity we wasted so much time on that last defective. I was so certain, but she had only minor abilities after all.”
They passed out of my hearing, and despairingly, I knew they meant Cameo. What had they done to her?
I forced myself to continue. The tunnel seemed endless, but after some time I bumped headlong into a stone wall. I gave an involuntary cry as I staggered back, and then stopped to listen anxiously, fearful that someone might have heard.
“Greetings,” came a thought.
My body sagged with relief and astonishment. “Sharna?” I asked incredulously.
“I dreamed you were in danger, so I came,” he sent. “If you make yourself low, you can come through the wall.”
I did as he suggested and felt a low gap in the wall. I reached my hand through it and brushed the soft scratchiness of a tapestry. I had never noticed it before, but when I crawled past it, I saw that I had come out in the kitchen pantry.
Sharna pressed his nose against my leg as I emerged, and I remembered what he had said.
“What did you dream about me?” I asked.
“I dreamed your life has a purpose that must be fulfilled, for the sake of all beasts,” he answered.
It was late at night, and I squinted into the darkness of the kitchen, trying to see his face and thinking of the dreams Maruman had experienced in which I had figured. The old cat had always insisted that