As the path led up and up, I wondered if I had chosen well. The few trees we passed were twisted and gaunt, the leaves hanging limp in the hovering storm’s aura. The flesh of the earth gave way to bony stones. I knew my refuge when I saw it. It was not a true cave, but was more a deep undercut in a cliff. We had to dismount to coax our horses the rest of the way up to it. I led Myblack in. It was cooler beneath the undercut and water oozed from the rockface at the back. Perhaps at some times of the year it had been responsible for carving the undercut, but now it did little more than leave a damp, green streak on the cave floor before it dribbled away down the hillside. There was no feed for the horses. It could not be helped. It offered us the best shelter and it looked defensible.
‘We’ll spend the night here,’ I announced quietly. I wiped sweat from my brow and neck. The storm was lowering and the air thick with the threat of rain. I pointed to a spot near the back of the cavern. ‘Get down and sit there,’ I told my prisoner. He spoke not a word, but sat, staring down at me. I gave him no second chance. I reached up, seized the front of his shirt, and jerked him off the horse. Anger has always multiplied my strength. I let him almost stand, then flung him hard from me, so that he hit the back wall of the cave and then slid down it to sit flat on the floor, half-stunned. ‘There’s worse to come,’ I promised him harshly.
Laurel stared, white faced and wide-eyed, probably shocked at my taking command. I took her horse from her and Lord Golden helped her ease herself down. My captive showed no inclination to try to flee, and so I ignored him as I unsaddled the horses and set up our makeshift camp. Myblack lipped and then sucked at the traces of water. I scraped away sand to deepen the depression at the bottom of the wall and, gratifyingly, water began to pool there. Lord Golden was seeing to Laurel’s shoulder. Deft as the Fool had always been, he had cut and peeled the clothing back from the injury. Now he held a dampened cloth to it. The blood on the cloth looked dark rather than bright. Their heads were bowed together over it in quiet talk. I drew closer. ‘How bad is it?’ I asked quietly.
‘Bad enough,’ Lord Golden replied succinctly, but it was Laurel’s glance that shocked me. She stared at me as if I were a rabid beast. It was far more than the affront she might take at one who had rudely interrupted a private conversation. I withdrew, wondering if the baring of her shoulder before me was what bothered her. Yet she seemed to have no qualms about Lord Golden touching her. Well, I had other things to tend, and would intrude no further.
I considered the small supply of food that remained to us. Bread and apples made up most of it. There was little enough for three, and not enough for four. I coldly decided our prisoner could do without. Like as not, he’d had his own provisions, and had probably eaten better today than we had. Thinking of him made me decide to check on him. He was sitting awkwardly, his hands still bound behind him, considering his lacerated ankle. I glanced at it, but offered no sympathy. I stood silently over him until he spoke.
‘Can I have some water?’
‘Turn around,’ I ordered him and was impassive as he struggled to obey. I untied his wrists. He made a small sound as I jerked the leather thong free of the clotted blood there. Slowly he moved his hands around in front of him. ‘You can get water over there, when the horses are satisfied.’
He nodded slowly. I knew well how badly his shoulders ached by now. My own was still throbbing from striking the tree branch. His scraped face had darkened and scabbed from the damage taken in our fall. One blue eye was shot with blood. Somehow, his injuries made him look even younger. He studied the forearm the wolf had mangled. By the set of his jaw, I knew he was afraid even to touch his injury. Slowly he lifted his eyes to me, and then looked past me.
‘Where is your wolf?’ he asked me.
I nearly backhanded him. He flinched at my aborted gesture. ‘You don’t ask questions,’ I told him coldly. ‘You answer them. Where are they taking the Prince?’
He looked at me blankly and I cursed my own clumsiness. Perhaps he had not known the Prince’s identity. Well, too late to call the words back. I’d probably have to kill him anyway. I recognized that thought as Chade’s and set it aside. ‘The boy who rides with the cat,’ I clarified. ‘Where are they taking him?’
He swallowed dryly. ‘I don’t know,’ he lied sullenly.
I wanted to throttle the truth out of him. He threatened me in too many ways. I stood up abruptly before I could give in to my temper. ‘Yes, you do. I’ll give you some time to think about all the ways that I could make you tell me. Then I’ll be back.’ I walked a few steps away from him before I forced a grin onto my face and turned. ‘Oh. And if you think this is a good time to make a run for it … well, two or three steps outside, and you’d no longer be wondering where my wolf is.’
A white blast of light suddenly flared into our shelter. The horses screamed, and two heartbeats later, thunder shook the earth. I blinked, momentarily blinded, and then outside the mouth of the cave, the rain came down as if someone had overturned a bucket. Abruptly, it was dark outside. A puff of wind carried rain into our cave mouth, and then shifted away. The warmth of the day departed.
I took food over to Lord Golden and Laurel. She looked a bit dazed. He had dragged one of the saddles and a blanket over to make a backrest for her. She pushed her straggling hair back from her face with her left hand. Her right lay in her lap. She had bled more than I thought, for blood had trickled down to clot between her fingers and outline her nails. Lord Golden accepted the bread and apples for both of them.
I glanced at the downpour outside the cave’s mouth and shook my head. ‘This storm will wash every bit of trail away. The good of that is that perhaps the villagers will just take their dead and go home. The bad is that we lose the Prince’s trail, too. Making our ambusher talk is our only hope of finding the Prince now. I’ll tend to that when I get back.’ I unbuckled my sword belt and held it out. When neither reached for it, I drew the blade and set it on the ground beside them. I lowered my voice.
‘You might have to use it. If you do, don’t hesitate. Kill him. If he gets away and manages to warn his friends, we’ll have no chance of recovering the Prince. I’m letting him think for a bit. Then I’ll get the truth out of him. Meanwhile, I’m going out to get a bit of firewood while there’s any still dry. And I’ll check to see if anyone is following our trail.’
Laurel lifted her good hand to cover her mouth. She suddenly looked sick. Lord Golden’s glance went to the prisoner, and then met mine. His eyes were troubled, but surely he knew I had to look for Nighteyes. ‘Take my cloak,’ he suggested.
‘It would only get as wet as the rest of me. I’ll change into dry things when I get back.’