The Margrave Read Online Free PDF Page B

managed a proud smile. “Either I was to make up the quota or I look young for my age.”
    “You look very young,” the Sekoi said politely. It had unwrapped a parcel of small green berries and dried apple and was sitting with its back against a tree stump, long legs stretched out.
    Alys nodded. “As if you would know, master. But yes, I was in the smaller group. We walked for two days, up the road.”
    “Where does the road lead?” Galen’s voice was quiet.
    She shrugged. “Some say to a castle. A great castle.”
    Raffi sat up. “The Castle of Halen?”
    “I don’t know.” She flipped the sizzling, delicious-smelling fish over easily. “I was in a group of ten. No, eleven. We picked a girl up on the way.”
    Raffi felt the sense-lines shiver.
    The Sekoi paused with a slice of apple halfway to its mouth. “A girl?”
    “Yes. Quist brought her out of the wood. They let the razorhounds go, as if there had been someone else with her.”
    The creature scratched its stitches. It looked smug and then, barely seen, a flicker of terror went through it. Raffi dared not guess what such a chase had been like.
    Galen edged forward, urgent. “This girl, Mother, is a friend of ours. Can you tell us what happened to her?”
    “First, you eat. Both of you.”
    The Sekoi grinned. Galen almost hissed with impatience, but he had to wait while Alys divided the food, sorting the bones out, pushing the largest pieces to Raffi’s corner of the pan. Ravenous, he ate quickly, tearing the dried bread from the pack to mop up every morsel.
    Galen waited while the woman ate; she obviously needed it. But before she had finished, his patience had run out. “We need to know.”
    “You need to look after yourselves more.” She licked her fingers and nodded at him. “All right. Quist was the patrol captain. He seemed to think the girl was important. When they searched her they found some discs on a chain around her neck; he sent them on ahead.”
    Raffi swallowed hard bread. “The insignia!”
    “Was there anything else?” Galen snapped. “Did they find anything else?”
    Raffi looked at him curiously, but the woman said, “No. She was a clever lass. I spoke to her once, but she never told us her name. Kept herself apart from the rest, kept her eyes open. And she wasn’t scared of them, not at all. Spoke up for me when I fell.”
    “That’s Carys.” Raffi scraped up the last scraps. “But the Castle of Halen? For a start it’s a ruin.”
    “Maybe not.” Galen tossed sticks on the fire. “Not if it’s being rebuilt. It would take a lot of men. And why?”
    “A supply base.” The Sekoi spat out a pip.
    “Supplying what?”
    “Is Carys all right?” Raffi turned to the old woman. “Is she hurt? And how did she get away?”
    “She didn’t. No. But I did.” Alys smiled coyly. “Kept stumbling and coughing, making out I couldn’t keep up. It was Quist, you see. I’ve lived a fair time; I can tell how a man is. He acted hard, but there was something about him. Last time I fell, I just didn’t get up. So he cut me loose and marched them on.”
    “They left you for dead?” Galen laughed his harsh laugh. “So much for the mercy of the Watch!”
    “Don’t judge too quickly, keeper. For now I’ll tell you a very strange thing. Quist yelled at them to go on, but he waited beside me. When the patrol was out of sight I felt him lift me. For a moment, yes, I thought I’d go over the cliff, but then, masters, he laid me down soft in the wood and said, ‘Keep off the road,’ just as if he knew I could hear him. Then he went. When it was safe, a while after, I lifted my head. There was this bag beside me. With water. And a knife.”
    In the astonished silence the flames crackled comfortably. Then the Sekoi gave a low purr.
    After a moment Galen said, “You do right to chide me. Even in the heart of the worst it seems the Makers still move.” He looked at her sidelong. “And the girl?”
    “I saw no more of them,