Bram, she thought. Rip. She could do anything she had to do.
‘I wish Jimmy were here,’ Flora said nervously.
‘Nobody’s seen hide nor hair of him,’ Lorrie said.
‘They wouldn’t, if he didn’t want them to,’ Flora said. ‘But we’ve got to do something now.’
Lightning rolled again, showing the grim bulk of the manor ahead, outlined against the night sky; rain hissed down unceasingly. She squinted. ‘That’s a light!’ she said. ‘Look, there, in the tower at the corner.’
A wavering yellow glow came from the narrow windows there; narrow enough to double as arrow-slits.
‘Maybe they won’t notice us, then,’ Flora said.
As they approached the grounds, a vague uneasy feeling visited them. It seemed to get stronger with every second as they neared the entrance. ‘Something’s wrong,’ whispered Flora.
Lorrie said, ‘Maybe we should go look for Jimmy?’
Flora said, ‘I think you’re right.’ She was verging on turning around the dog cart, when she said, ‘Wait a minute!’
‘What?’
‘Do you really want to abandon looking for Bram?’ Flora asked.
‘Well, we wouldn’t be really abandoning him, but we’d be . . .’
‘Putting it off just a little?’
‘Yes, that would be exactly what we’d be doing,’ Lorrie agreed. ‘And, besides, maybe the weather will be nicer tomorrow and I think we’d do better looking . . .’ She stopped when she saw Flora get a strange expression on her face.
Flora’s forehead was lined in concentration, and she set her jaw as if she were trying not to yell out. She narrowed her gaze and said, ‘Damn it!’ and flicked the reins. Flora urged the horse forward until they came to the wrought-iron gates; there was a small room beside them, built into the wall that circled the garden. It was only six feet tall, although topped with spikes; built long after the manor, and to keep out game and livestock rather than enemies. As if willing the words out, Flora asked, ‘What is it you’d rather be doing than going in there right now?’
Lorrie pressed herself back into the leather of the seat as if trying to put as much distance as she could between herself and the gate. ‘Anything, actually. Just about anything you could name.’
Flora nodded emphatically. ‘Yup. I’m thinking we just ran into one of those wards rich people sometimes pay old Alban for.’
‘Who’s Alban?’
‘Magician I knew once,’ was all Flora said. ‘You put this thing called a ward around something you don’t want people to bother, and they come up with reasons why they don’t want to bother with it, just like they thought it up all on their own.’
‘I think I understand,’ said Lorrie, ‘but wouldn’t this be better if we found Jimmy first?’
‘It would,’ said Flora as handed the reins to Lorrie. She got down from the dog-cart, one hand in the pocket under her cloak which held more of the powder that hit men like a fist, and walked over to the gatekeeper’s room. Over her shoulder she said, ‘But if we did find him, we’d find other reasons not to come here. Right now I want to be anywhere else more than I want to be here, so that tells me that this is where I need to be.’
Lorrie didn’t fully understand, but she said, ‘So we go anyway?’
‘Having Jimmy here would be better, but we go anyway.’ She stuck her head into the window that was the only opening on this side and looked around. ‘Nobody here,’ she said, pulling her head out. ‘But it stinks: someone’s been living here.’
‘How do we get through?’ Lorrie asked, looking at the tall iron gates with a worried look. I might be able to climb that with both legs working proper, she thought unhappily. With this, I’d have trouble getting on a horse again, once I’m down on the ground. Maybe we should wait until my leg is better . . .
‘Not a problem,’ Flora said, interrupting Lorrie’s next reason for not going inside.
She took off her cloak and pushed it through the gate’s grille, then unbuckled her borrowed—stolen—swordbelt and did likewise with that, fitting it through carefully.
Then she backed up half a dozen steps, ran forward lightly, and jumped like a cat. That put her nearly head-high on the iron; she swarmed up the rest of the slippery metal as if it were a ladder, and flipped herself neatly over the top before clambering down on the other side. She jumped free when still higher than her own height, and landed lightly, perfectly in control as she took the force with bent knees.
Lorrie goggled. What was it she did for a living in Krondor? she wondered. Set up for a mountebank and tumbler?
Flora was grinning as she heaved at the long bolt that kept the gates fastened from the inside. ‘No lock!’ she said. ‘Just this bolt, and a chain looped through it.’