The Spirit Stone - Katharine Kerr [151]
‘Leave him alone!’ she snarled.
Laz froze, then slowly raised his head and looked at her, his mouth half-open from sheer surprise. Sidro dug her fingernails so hard into his arm that blood welled. He flinched but never made a sound.
‘Leave him alone,’ Sidro repeated. ‘By all the holy gods of our people, Laz, leave him alone!’
She caught his gaze and held it, then released her grip on his arm. He shrugged, sheathed the knife, and stepped back. Pir was watching her, she realized, with a faint trace of a smile. ‘Pir, feed this man.’ She pointed at the kneeling rider. ‘He doesn’t speak a word of our language, and as long as no one tells him who we are, he’ll think we worship Alshandra like he does. He’s no threat.’
‘No, he’s not.’ Pir glanced at Laz. ‘I’m going to do what she told me.’
‘Please do,’ Laz said with another shrug. He hesitated a moment, then turned on his heel and strode into the cabin.
Who stood behind her? She spun around and saw no one, saw in fact that the nearest onlooker stood a good ten feet away. Vek, however, had dropped to his knees, bowed his head, and stretched out both arms in her direction. The hair on the back of her neck rose.
‘Who did you see, Vek?’ Sidro said.
‘Kanz,’ he whispered without looking up. ‘She came to you and overshadowed you, holy one.’
Sidro wanted to scream at him, ‘Never call me that again.’ Bren was looking up at her in awe, his eyes full of tears. For his life’s sake, she supposed, she had best let the others think her a true priestess. She laid a hand on his filthy head.
‘May Alshandra protect you always,’ she said in Deverrian, then spoke in the Horsekin tongue. ‘All of you, listen! No matter what Laz says or does, keep this man safe.’
The gathered outlaws nodded, murmured their agreement, and bowed to her in a ripple of respect. Feeling like the worst fraud in the world, Sidro turned away and followed Laz inside.
By then she was shaking so hard with rage that she could barely speak. Laz put his hands on his hips and watched her. His mouth twitched on the verge of a smile that only infuriated her more. On his right arm the cuts from her fingernails looked like crescent moons tattooed in red.
‘That’s what you didn’t want me to know, isn’t it?’ Sidro found her voice at last. ‘You told me Zakh Gral was safe, but you were lying.’
‘I don’t see any reason to deny it. Now.’
‘You want them destroyed, don’t you?’ She paused to gulp for breath. ‘You lied to me because you didn’t want them warned.’
‘That’s exactly right.’ Laz grinned at her. ‘I want that stinking fortress and its preposterous shrine reduced to rubble. It’s bad enough that the holy fools have taken over my city and infected Braemel. I don’t want them spreading their madness any further.’
Sidro grabbed the kitchen knife from the table and threw it at him. He dodged with a quick laugh, then sprang forward as she picked up the red-brown plate.
‘No no no.’ Laz grabbed her wrist with one hand and the plate with the other. ‘Pottery’s a rare thing out here in the woods. If you hit me with it, you could break it.’
For a moment she struggled, but he twisted her wrist so hard that she yelped and let go of her improvised weapon. He set it down on the table. As soon as she felt his grip relax on her wrist she pulled her hand free. For a moment she pretended to calm herself, then dashed around him and ran for the door. He came after, grabbed her by the arms from behind, and dragged her to a stop.
‘What’s this?’ he said. ‘Surely you’re not going to try to warn the fortress.’
‘Let me go, you filthy depraved sorcerer!’
‘Shan’t.’ He began to walk backwards, hauling her with him away from the door. ‘I can’t deny that I’m both depraved and a sorcerer, but I’m quite clean, at least in summer.’
She kicked backwards and caught him on the shin with her much-calloused heel. He squawked, but his grip on her arms stayed strong.
‘Think!’ he snapped. ‘How are you going to get back, Sisi? Do you know precisely where you are?