Читать книгу Starborn - Katie MacAlister - Страница 10

Chapter 2

Hallow was worried.

“I don’t see that we have much to fear,” Allegria said, climbing into the cart. “Darius is weak. He can declare himself king of all of Alba, but that doesn’t mean he actually is king. After all, he couldn’t even keep the army of Starborn from disbanding.”

Hallow checked that the supplies were secured in the back of the cart, avoided Buttercup’s attempt to snap off his arm, and moved around the captain of the guard when the latter suddenly materialized in front of him. “Perhaps not, but Thorn said that Darius had help from a magister who seemed to have much more backbone.”

“Going somewhere?” the captain asked, popping up in front of him again as he double-checked the harness. Penn hated drawing a cart, but it was easier than finding another horse to do the same.

He gave Penn a consolatory pat on the neck before answering the captain. “Yes. We go to Aryia. I am placing you in charge of Kelos while we’re gone.”

The captain pursed his lips. “All the way across the sea? Isn’t that a little premature?”

“No. Two of the three moonstones are there.” Hallow tried not to allow his irritation with the ghostly captain to show. Although they’d worked out a mostly peaceful relationship since Hallow had taken over as head of the arcanists—and Master of Kelos—the captain seemed to delight in challenging him at every opportunity, throwing obstacles in his path whenever possible.

“But what of the third?” the captain asked in what Hallow would have deemed a coy voice had it been anyone else.

“A magister?” Allegria asked at the same time, clearly chewing over the idea of Darius’s treachery. “What is a Fireborn doing helping the steward of the Starborn?”

“Undoubtedly claiming some power.” Hallow turned to get into the cart, but once again the captain stood in his way.

“You do not answer me?” the captain demanded, now looking insulted. “Do I no longer matter to your grandiose plans now that you are Master?”

Hallow only just managed to keep from rolling his eyes, reminding himself that patience was his most valuable tool when dealing with the deceased. “I don’t know where the third stone is, but there are twelve arcanists besides me hunting for it, so I’m sure we’ll find it. Now if you don’t mind, we would like to get underway before Kiriah sends the moon into the sky.”

The captain pursed his lips and cast a pointed glance at Allegria. She didn’t see it, frowning as she stared at nothing, obviously thinking about Darius. Hallow got into the cart next to her, and started Penn moving forward.

The captain disappeared, then materialized directly in front of Penn. The horse was used to the spirits of Kelos by now, and simply swished his tail in irritation as he marched through the translucent figure.

Hallow had a glimpse of outrage on the captain’s face before his insubstantial form dissolved.

“I don’t see what benefit this magister hopes to gain from helping Darius. For one, magisters fall under the domain of Lord Israel, and we both know that the lord of the Fireborn isn’t going to take kindly to one of his own defecting to Darius. Especially since the latter let us all down when it came to clearing out the Harborym last year.” Allegria’s face always gave Hallow pleasure, but now, with her abstracted expression, he had an almost overwhelming urge to take her into his arms and kiss every inch of her lightly freckled skin. He particularly liked to kiss the circlet of black dots that crossed her forehead, a relic of her time as a Bane of Eris.

“Lord Israel is more than a little unhappy with Darius since he has refused to attend any of the councils of the four armies, but I don’t know that he would be overly upset by a magister working with the Starborn. It might very well be that the man is there on his orders,” he pointed out.

The captain of the guard’s form shimmered into view again in front of Penn. This time, he held out one hand, commanding, “Halt!”

Both Hallow and Penn ignored him as his form was dispersed again. Hallow’s thoughts were turned toward the arguments he would lay before the guardians of the two moonstones he and his arcanists had located, which left him little time to worry about placating the irate captain.

“A spy, you mean?” Allegria asked. “I suppose he could be acting in that role, although wouldn’t Darius be suspicious of him, and suspect that he might be working for Lord Israel?”

“You give Darius more credit than perhaps he deserves,” Hallow said judiciously. His own opinion of Darius was that the man was weak-minded, and weaker still of spirit, taking the easy path whenever it was presented to him rather than considering what was best for his fellow Starborn. He seemed to have little regard for anything but his own comfort, leaving the restructuring of Starborn society to individuals who weren’t equipped for such responsibilities.

“Oh, I have no doubt that the man is an idiot,” Allegria said with a disgusted snort that delighted Hallow. “He wanted Deo and me killed, after all. Only someone lacking in even the most basic levels of common sense would want to eliminate the very people who saved his wretched hide.”

The captain appeared in the road again, this time with his sword in hand, striding toward them with a purposeful look on his face. Penn, sensing that this time the captain had donned a corporeal form, stopped, and tossed his head in warning.

“For the love of Bellias, you will not treat me as if I am a mere lackey, one who is unimportant in the functioning of Kelos and Genora!” The captain’s voice echoed off the broken buildings, stirring little swirls of the grey dust that covered everything around them. “You will heed me!”

Hallow pulled his thoughts from the concerns that plagued him and turned his attention to the irate spirit. “What is it you want? I left you in charge—you can have no complaint that I have usurped your position by placing another spirit, perhaps one who doesn’t wave his sword in my horse’s face, in charge of Kelos.”

“Ask the priest!” the captain said, crossing his arms despite the fact that he still held his sword. “She swore she would tell you after I allowed her access to the crypt so she could hone her skills, which naturally stirred up the Eidolon. I expect the thane will be speaking to you of her scurrilous actions.”

Hallow raised an eyebrow at Allegria. “You went into the crypt to stir up the spirits?”

She spoke a very un-priestly word under her breath, glared for a few seconds at the captain, then turned a smile on him. “Of course not.”

“You didn’t go into the crypt?” he asked.

“Well…yes, I did, but not to stir up the thane and his followers. In fact, the captain didn’t bother to tell me the ghosts down there were Eidolon. He just said that if I wanted more of a challenge than what his people provided, I could find seasoned warriors sleeping in the crypt. And since we’d talked about searching there—and decided against it, because Thorn said Exodius gave the crypt a wide berth, having no wish to deal with the powerful spirits who resided within.”

She cleared her throat and cast another quick glare at the captain, whom Hallow couldn’t help but note was looking smug.

“Since we talked about searching there, I thought I’d combine two tasks into one, and get in a little sword practice while also making sure that the moonstone wasn’t there.”

The captain sniffed. “And after you woke up the thane’s entire contingent of soldiers and enraged them by attacking their king before their eyes, you escaped and swore you would relate to the Master our conversation.”

Hallow went so far as to raise his other eyebrow at Allegria.

“My heart, I assure you that you are more than proficient with both your swords and bow. Challenging the spirits who sleep beneath Kelos will only end with the thane and his people seeking to avenge themselves upon us.”

“It wasn’t like that at all—oh, never mind. It doesn’t matter now that we’re leaving for Aryia.”

Hallow sent up a little prayer to Bellias Starsong for more patience than he seemed to have of late.

“The captain wants you to beg him for his help,” Allegria added with a little sniff of her own.

“Does he, indeed,” Hallow said mildly, and turned his gaze back to the captain.

“What is it you want?”

“You need my aid,” the captain said, a stubborn set to his jaw.

Hallow sighed to himself. He wished to be on his way. He had spent long months locating two of the three moonstones, and now that the time had come to act, he was anxious to be underway. “For what?”

“That I cannot tell you until you seek my assistance.”

“I think we should run him down,” Allegria told him. “He keeps saying things like that, and it’s extremely annoying. Or I could lop off his head. It’ll take him a good hour to recover enough energy to put it back on, and we should be a long way away from Kelos by then.”

Hallow’s shoulders shook but he managed to stifle the laughter that he knew from experience would only enrage the captain.

“I was addressing the Master, not you,” the spirit said with injured dignity.

“Captain,” Hallow said with as much composure as he could muster, “your assistance in maintaining Kelos is vital—”

“Not Kelos,” the captain interrupted. “I serve the Master, not just Kelos.”

Hallow frowned at him, for once wishing that Thorn was present so he could ask him what it was the captain wanted.

“As the Master, I appreciate your assistance, but we are hours later starting than I wish, and—”

“It’s the stone, you insane arcanist!” the captain bellowed, waving his hands—including the one bearing the sword—around wildly. Penn tossed his head again, backing up a few steps. “I’m talking about the stone you seek! The third moonstone! You ask me for aid, and I will tell you how to locate the third moonstone.”

“You know where it is?” Hallow asked in disbelief. “How?”

“Exodius told me. He had no qualms asking me for my help.”

Hallow turned his gaze to Allegria. She looked as astonished as he felt.

“I had no idea that’s what he was yammering on about,” she told him. “He said something about a talisman, but nothing about the moonstone.”

They both looked back at the captain. “Where is it?” Hallow asked.

The captain stared back at them.

Hallow sighed again, then handed Allegria the reins and climbed down from the cart before making a bow that his former master had told him would charm even the hardest heart. He said in a voice that belied his growing sense of frustration, “Please, captain, take pity on this poor Master, and lend me your aid in locating the third of the moonstones that Exodius hid.”

The spirit smiled and reached inside his armor to pull out a small metal object. It was covered in strange runes and consisted of a gently curved narrow pipe strung on a hide thong. He offered the object to Hallow. “Find the one known as Quinn the Mad. He lives on the Cape of Despair, in the town of Aldmarsh.”

“Does he have the stone?” Hallow asked, thinking that although Exodius hadn’t been the most mentally stable of individuals—all arcanists had a touch of madness about them—the old man wasn’t flat out crazy. Hallow doubted if he’d entrust anything so powerful as a moonstone to someone who wasn’t worthy of such an honor.

“Find him. He is a traveler, one who has seen more battles than you can conceive of. He will guide you to what you seek,” the captain told him with cryptic finality.

“That means he has the stone? Or does he know where it is?”

The captain’s form shimmered as he returned to an incorporeal state. “Find him, and he will guide you to all you seek.”

“What interesting runes it has,” Allegria said, taking the thong bearing the strange whistle from Hallow as he climbed into the cart again. She traced a finger along the delicate silver pipe. “I don’t know some of them, but this is a rune of clarity, and the one here is of understanding.”

“The others aren’t exactly runes as you know them. They are sigils, a type of symbol used by ancient arcanists to reach beyond the mortal world,” Hallow said, glancing at it when she slipped the thong over her head so that the whistle hung between her breasts.

“It’s a ghost whistle?” she asked, looking at it askance.

“It is a talisman,” the captain said abruptly. “A most important one that—no!”

He lunged at Allegria when she raised the whistle to her lips, clearly about to sound it, but in his incorporeal form, he simply dissolved into nothing when he ran through Penn, causing the horse to rear up.

“The only one who may use it is Quinn the Mad!” the captain’s voice came from nowhere. “For anyone else to do so is to court disaster. Heed me well, Master of Kelos—it won’t be easy to convince Quinn to help you. Do not waste your time offering the talisman to lesser beings.”

And with that, the captain took himself off to wherever he went when he wasn’t busy patrolling Kelos and ensuring that the spirit citizens who dwelt there abided in peace. Hallow eyed the pipe, and took the reins from Allegria, telling Penn to walk on. “Why do I have the feeling that the captain’s talisman is going to give us endless grief, rather than resulting in locating the third moonstone?”

Allegria smiled and pressed a kiss to his jaw. “Because you’re not only the most brilliant of men, but you’re also well aware that everyone who lives in Kelos is a bit twisted.”

He pursed his lips.

She laughed and patted him on the leg. “Yes, that includes us, although we’re not nearly so bad as the captain. I assume we’ll go find Quinn the Mad once we have the other stones?”

Hallow hesitated a few seconds before answering.

“I think perhaps we’ll head south rather than west.”

She frowned. “To this Cape of Despair place?”

“Yes.”

“But you don’t know for certain that the talisman will lead us to the third stone. The captain didn’t come right out and say Quinn had it—which is just like him, speaking in riddles instead of answering the question put to him. Hallow, I want to find that third stone just as badly as you do, but at least we know the locations of the other two. I’m not saying it’s going to be easy to convince Sandor to give up the stone she holds, but I’d much rather have the two stones we can set our hands on than chase after the third, which may or may not be in the possession of Quinn.”

“Exodius told the captain where the stone was,” Hallow argued. “Or at least he left a clue that I could follow, although I really wish the captain had seen fit to tell me that three months ago when we started the search in earnest. Still, he told me, and handed over what is obviously an ancient talisman. I believe we must tackle Quinn first. It’s only a few days’ ride to the coast, and with luck, we can find a ship sailing to Aryia from a nearby port.”

“You’re putting a lot of faith in the captain,” Allegria warned him.

“No.” His lips twisted into a wry smile. “I’m putting my faith in Exodius. Which is far, far more worrisome, my heart. Now, do you think if I was to wrap the reins around the brake, you and I could go into the back of the cart, and indulge ourselves in a little sport celebrating the fact that we’ve been wed almost six months?”

She laughed, her dark eyes lighting so that the little gold flecks in them glittered like sunlight. She pressed her lips to his, the warmth in them instantly lighting little fires of desire.

“I think that would be an extremely ill-planned idea, although I appreciate the thought. Perhaps later, at night—Hallow! You can’t possibly mean to—anyone who rode up could see us!”

He lay back on the soft furs and blankets that lined the bed of the cart, his heart singing a little song of happiness while Allegria sat astride him. He had no idea whether or not the captain was sending them on a chase that would end in success or sorrow, but he was content to face whatever befell him with Allegria at his side.

He just really hoped for a success. Sorrow they’d had in abundance.