TIME SEEMED SUSPENDED. THE thirteen riders rode two abreast with Coransee alone in the lead. Teray and Amber rode directly behind him, still linked, but resting, no longer watching for Clayarks. There were eleven others who could watch. Teray felt his own weariness shadowily echoed by Amber’s. They had not let themselves realize how draining the constant vigilance had been, especially during the past twenty-four hours. And to have that vigilance end in capture by the very person they had endured it to escape.
Teray looked at Amber, and read not only weariness but bitterness in her face. He realized abruptly that the bargain that he and Coransee had made in no way included her. She had fled from Redhill because Coransee had denied her independence, tried to hold her against her will. And now she was his again. At least Teray had a chance for freedom, but she was caught—unless she wanted to try against Coransee her healer’s talent for swift murder. And she had already admitted that she was afraid of him.
Abruptly Teray urged his horse forward to pull alongside Coransee. He could not abandon the woman, could not let her be drawn back into captivity without even trying to help her. She had helped him. The shot rang out just as Teray moved.
Teray felt the bullet’s impact so strongly that he slumped to one side, almost falling from his horse. He held on somehow, aware of pain now, growing, but oddly dulled. It was then that he realized that it was not he who had been shot, but Amber.
The link, fulfilling its function too well, had given him so great a share of her experience that if they had been alone he could have been shot too while he was recovering. But he was not alone.
He realized from the alert, intense expressions of the outsiders and women that they were already seeking the Clayark sniper. The party had come to a stop. Teray left the hunt to them, dismounted, and went to help Amber.
She had not fallen. She sat hunched over, coughing blood, fighting desperately to keep herself alive. She had taken a bullet through the throat. As Teray lifted her down she seemed to pass out. He felt the limp, dead weight of her and only the link reassured him that she was still alive.
He carried her onto the soft sand of the beach, put her down, and knelt beside her for a moment, wondering whether it would be dangerous to disturb her with an offer of help. Did she need help? A wound like that probably would have killed a nonhealer before anyone could do anything about it. She was not only alive but working to heal herself. Teray felt a hand on his shoulder. He looked up, startled, as Coransee knelt beside him.
“You looked as though you were just about to reach out to her,” the Housemaster said.
“To help her. She might need it.”
“No. I’ve seen her badly hurt before. She manages better if she’s left alone.”
Teray looked at him doubtfully, wondering whether he knew what he was talking about. But the link was no longer transmitting distress. Amber had gotten rid of her pain and she was no longer bleeding either from her neck wound or from her mouth. She seemed in control. Teray decided to leave her alone unless she seemed in trouble again. He got up, went to his horse, and got a clean handkerchief. He wet it from his canteen and brought it back to wipe the blood from her face and neck. Coransee watched him silently for a moment, then said, “Were you speeding up a little just before she was shot?”
“Yes, to talk to you. To talk about her, in fact.”
“That’s interesting. From what Lias said—she was riding just behind Amber—if you hadn’t moved when you did, the bullet would have hit you.”
Teray thought about that, and nodded slowly.
“It was probably you they were aiming at. You were lucky.”
“Where was the Clayark?”
Coransee pointed inland toward the hills. “He was high and far back, but he waited until you and Amber were almost directly in front of him. I hope they don’t have many rifles or riflemen who can make that kind of shot.”
“Well, at least now they have one less.”
“No. We lost him.”
Teray stared at him incredulously. “All of you? You couldn’t catch one Clayark?”
Coransee lifted an eyebrow. “That’s what I said, brother.”
Teray heard the warning in his voice and ignored it. “I don’t see how you could possibly have missed him. So many of you …” He thought of something suddenly. “Lord, are you linked with anyone?”
“I’m not, but the others are linked in pairs.”
And the range of a linked pair of them would be little better than Coransee’s range alone. What good did it do Coransee to have ten people with him if he didn’t use them sensibly? Teray found himself glaring at the Housemaster in open accusation.
“Blame?” said Coransee calmly. “What are we doing out here between sectors with the Clayarks, Teray? Why are we here?”
Teray made a sound of disgust. “All right, make it my fault if you want to. But you know as well as I do that you should link up with at least some of your people. You could stand it with a couple of them even though they’re not close to you. Hell, you’re the one who wants the Pattern. That will link you with everyone.” He could see that Coransee was getting angry, but he did not care.
“You know,” said Coransee quietly, “I would have stopped you some words back if I didn’t realize you were speaking out of your feelings for the woman. But even for that, you’ve said enough.”
Teray looked at Amber and saw that she was breathing normally now. For a while she had hardly seemed to be breathing at all. But she was pulling out of it. The wound was closed already. She was going to be all right. And this wouldn’t happen again, because weary or not, he and Amber wouldn’t depend on the protection, the watchfulness, of others. They would look out for themselves as before, working together, their combined, extended awareness missing nothing. For days they had traveled safely alone. Now, amid a group of strong Patternists, the Clayarks had reached them. Coransee could not even be trusted to give protection to the people he claimed as his own.
Teray touched Amber’s arm and knew that she was aware of him, that she took comfort in his presence. He looked at her silently for several seconds, then spoke to Coransee.
“You’re right, Lord, I did speak out of love for her. I … do you intend to keep her?”
“Yes.”
“I was afraid you did. If Rayal’s findings free me, will you let me buy her?”
“Buy her with what?”
“With service, brother, work. I had planned never to see Redhill again if I was freed. But I’ll go back and work at whatever you say if my service will buy her.”
But Coransee was already shaking his head. “You’re welcome to come back to Redhill, to my House, if you’re freed. But she’s not for sale.” Coransee smiled slightly. “You’d never be able to hold her anyway.”
“I wouldn’t try to hold her against her will. I want her as my wife, not as my prisoner.”
“You won’t have her as either. At least not until I’m tired of her. But you’ll have the same access to her as any other outsider if you return with me.”
Amber opened her eyes and looked at Teray, then at Coransee. She did not speak. Perhaps she could not, yet.
“Of course,” said Coransee to Teray, “you can have it all if you decide to stop fighting me. Amber will be the least of what you’ll get.”
Amber sat up, closed her eyes again for a few seconds, then opened them and stood up. Still without speaking, she walked over to her horse, took down her canteen, then went off several steps to a large rock. She leaned against the rock, kicked aside some sand, and vomited into the depression she had made. When she was finished, she rinsed her mouth, then took a long drink of water. She kicked sand into the depression, turned, and came toward them, eating something that Teray had not seen her take from her horse. Her eyes were on Coransee.
“I’m an independent, Lord.” She spoke with slight hoarseness. “I’m an independent because most people realize how much trouble I can cause them if they try to hold me.”
“You think I don’t, after two years?”
“I think you haven’t thought about it enough.”
“That sounds like a warning.”
“Good. At least you know me well enough to understand that much.”
He hit her just as she was turning away. She shielded too late to escape the force of the blow. She fell to one knee, and stared her hatred at him.
“I’ve taken you into my House,” he said. “You belong to me. You don’t give me warnings.”
“I’ll give you this one!” Her voice was a harsh whisper.
“Hit me again and you won’t have an undamaged organ left in your body!”
Teray came between them. He stepped between them physically, and emphasized the link mentally so that Coransee understood the situation.
“This is none of your business, Teray,” said the Housemaster.
“Lord, she’s just recovering from a wound that would have killed anyone else. Can’t you at least wait until she’s rested before you start on her?”
Amber came up beside Teray and said quietly, “Stay out of it, Teray. You’ve made your deal.”
“Keep quiet.” He didn’t bother to look at her. Both she and Coransee ought to be grateful to him. He was giving them a way out. A way to avoid a potentially suicidal confrontation. Or, at the very worst, he was joining the confrontation and thus making it less certainly suicidal for Amber. “We’re one,” he told Coransee. “She and I are one. Attacking her is the same as attacking me.”
Coransee looked at Teray with mild surprise. “She’s worth your life to you?”
“She is.” Not that he expected to pay with his life for siding with her. The moment of greatest tension had passed. Now Coransee would find a face-saving way out.
“Has she already agreed to stay with you?” the Housemaster asked. Had Teray succeeded where Coransee had failed?
“No, Lord. In fact, she refused.”
Coransee laughed aloud. “Then you’re a bigger fool than I thought.”
Teray said nothing, stayed where he was. Coransee said to Amber, “Would you let him throw away his foolish life for you, girl? You know I’d kill him.”
Amber did not answer.
“You might even have some chance against me since I’m no healer. He’d have none at all.” He sounded like Darah.
“Do you really want my life now?” Amber asked softly. “Are you trying to move him out of your way so you can kill me?”
He smiled. “I doubt that that would be necessary. Believe it or not, what I’m trying very hard to do is keep both of you alive.”
“Then what do you want from me?”
“For now, a link. I want you to open and let me see what slowly lethal thing you may already have done to my body. Then I want a link that will let me know if you try to do it again. Only that in place of the beating you deserve.”
“I’m linked with Teray.”
“That’s your problem—and his. To keep you from murdering me, I need a link with you. You warned me, after all. Refuse, and I’ll have to kill you here and now.”
She stared at him for several seconds, then looked at Teray helplessly.
“If you decide to fight, I’ll stand with you,” he said.
“No.”
“We have a chance. Your strength coupled with mine …”
“No, Teray.” She coughed and then was still for a moment, as though making some inner adjustment. “Not now. Not unless I have to, and especially not with you. I’m too tired, drained. I might fail you.” She hesitated. “Shall I break our link?”
“Break it? No, of course not.”
“But you’ll be joined with him through me.”
“Only incidentally. He won’t be able to read me any more than he already does. He and I are too far apart.”
“But … he’ll be more aware of you. You won’t be able to …”
“Take him by surprise? I probably couldn’t anyway. Besides, if you want our link broken, you don’t have to ask. You can just break it.”
“I don’t want to. I should, for your sake, but I don’t want to. I want you with me.”
He only looked at her, loving her, wanting her, knowing that somehow he had to take her from Coransee. As he had to have his own freedom, he had to have her.
She turned away from the intensity of his gaze and he felt a flickering of fear in her. Fear of him?
A moment later she opened to Coransee. Teray had no awareness of the exact communication that passed between them. That they held private. Only through the link could he feel her fear suddenly expand, grow momentarily to terror, then lessen just as he was about to interfere. It lessened to anger, humiliation, hatred.
Then, as her emotions settled, Teray became aware of Coransee as a part of the link. The Housemaster was an intruder, unwelcome, bringing discomfort to the link for the first time. Teray tried to rid himself of the sensation of being mentally invaded. He knew that Coransee could not reach his thoughts unless he opened. Yet the feeling would not go away.
Teray ran his hand through his hair, wondering how he could ever learn to live with such a sensation. The constant feeling of being watched, spied on, by a hostile presence.
Amber, jaws clenched, caught his hand and held it. Teray realized how much more aware of the sensation she must be. She was linked directly. He was only receiving through her. Through his link, he offered her sustaining strength. After a moment of hesitation she accepted it.
With a start, he realized that she was near collapse. Healing such a serious wound when she was already so tired had weakened her greatly. And despite whatever she had eaten, she was ravenously hungry. He put his arm around her.
“Can we rest here for a while?” he asked Coransee. “You can probably feel how far gone she is.”
“Is she?” Coransee glanced at Amber. “Tell him what you were going to do to me.”
“What difference does it make? I can’t do it now without alerting you ahead of time.”
“I said tell him!”
She glanced at Teray, then looked down at the sand. “I was going to try to kill him tonight while he slept. The way we kill Clayarks. It might have worked if I could have caught him completely off guard.”
Coransee nodded grimly. “Anytime you want to try your luck, healer, you can face me. But it will be face to face, with both of us wide awake.”
She said nothing.
“Now, are you ready to go on or are you too tired?”
“I’m tired, Lord, but I can go on.”
Teray started to protest, but the look Amber gave him kept him silent.
“Get to your horses, then,” said Coransee. He went away, shouting to the others to mount up.
“At this point,” said Amber softly, “I think he would have killed me regardless of the damage I’d do him before I died. Killed me and left me here. He’s angry enough to take the risk. He still has the nerve to be outraged when he finds someone else trying to take unfair advantage.”
“Would you really have done it?”
“Of course I would have done it. That’s why he’s so angry—and that’s why he’s more than a little worried. He’s starting to think. He’s thinking about how far he is from the nearest healer—other than me. God, I wish I didn’t feel so weak!”
“I should have attacked him the moment I saw him.”
“You haven’t given up, have you?”
He looked at her, startled. “Of course not.”
“Good. Because I think he’s planning something for you. I got something from him while he was snooping through my thoughts. Not much, but it was hostile, and it was against you.”
“That’s not surprising.”
“But … I don’t know. It feels as though he’s lied to you about something.”
“About what? Letting me go on to Forsyth, or …?”
“I don’t know. I have to think about it more. I’ll tell you as soon as I think I’ve figured it out. Hopefully, I’ll tell you before I have to tell him.”
Teray glanced back toward Coransee. “You think you’ll have to open to him again?”
She smiled tiredly. “If you were him, Teray, would you trust me?”
They traveled for the rest of the day, Teray offering Amber as much of his own strength as she needed. She accepted only until she found in her rations enough readily edible food to steady herself. She refused Teray’s offer of his rations.
“If that sniper is still around, you might wind up needing them yourself,” she told him.
Teray’s awareness of Coransee’s link had dulled, was nothing more than an annoyance now. It kept Teray tense, made him do more looking over his shoulder than necessary, but that was just as well. The canopy of his awareness, spread as he had vowed it would be, covered even less of the area around him than it normally would have covered unassisted. This was not only because he had given part of his strength to help Amber, but because he was tired himself. He was worried about the Clayark sniper. If the creature fired again from as far away as he had when he hit Amber, Teray would have no chance of sensing him.
Then there was the possibility that Teray had not had time to think about. The possibility that Coransee had been more right than he knew when he suspected that the Clayark had been aiming at Teray.
They made camp that night against a long rocky ledge. They had not heard or sensed anything more from the Clayarks, but one of Coransee’s women had sensed a doe back in the hills and lured it out. After everyone had eaten, Teray called Coransee aside.
The Housemaster had apparently gotten over his anger—or he remained angry only at Amber. He followed Teray away from the group far enough along the rock ledge to be out of earshot. There he told Coransee of the Clayark he had talked to before leaving Redhill.
“Lord, it recognized me,” he finished. “It knew me as a son of Rayal.”
“So you think the sniper today really was shooting at you specifically, rather than at the handiest Patternist.”
“I think it’s possible. And I think it might happen again—to either of us. After all, they’ve captured at least one of your mutes, so they probably know you’re a son of Rayal too. They might even know just how near death Rayal is.”
Coransee frowned, thinking. “They’ve captured more than one of my mutes over the years, but that last one … you’re right. He would have had quite a bit to tell them. But as for the Clayark who identified you, you did kill it, didn’t you?”
“No.”
Coransee raised an eyebrow.
“I should have, but I didn’t. No excuse.”
Coransee looked away, exasperated. “You know, those four extra years in school didn’t do a damn thing for you.”
Without a word, Teray turned away to go back to the fire. He had delivered his message. Only hours before, Coransee had made a mistake that had almost cost Amber her life. A mistake that the Housemaster not only did not want to be told about, but that he had not yet bothered to correct. He had certainly not linked with Amber to widen the range of his awareness.
“Brother!”
Teray looked around at him.
“Back,” said Coransee simply. As though he were calling an animal, Teray thought. Or a mute.
“Brother!”
Teray trudged back.
Coransee leaned against the ledge, relaxed. “You will send the woman to me.”
Teray stared at him, speechless, for a moment. “Amber?”
“Of course Amber. You will send her to me.”
It was his right since he had claimed Amber. No woman of his House had the right to refuse him. His women could refuse any other man if they wished, but not him. “If you want her,” said Teray, “call her yourself.” Coransee could have called her without moving from where he was or saying a word aloud. But he preferred to humiliate Teray.
Coransee smiled. “She’s less likely to do anything foolish if you send her to me.”
“You’re the one who’s doing something foolish. You’re pushing her even though you know that if she attacks you out here, miles from anywhere, you might kill her, but not before she’s mortally injured you.”
“I’m pushing her all right. I’m pushing you, too, brother.”
Teray glared at him, hearing the challenge, ignoring it.
“You stood beside her today and tried to talk her into attacking me. You offered to help her. Do you expect me to thank you for that? If you were anyone else, you’d already be dead. Now go and convince the woman to come to me quietly—unless you want to find out just how badly I can hurt her without being hurt myself.”
Teray completely surprised both himself and Coransee. He smashed his fist hard into the Housemaster’s face.
Caught off guard, Coransee stumbled and fell to the ground.
Teray turned and, without hurrying, walked back to the group. He was tensed and ready to defend himself if Coransee attacked, but surprisingly the Housemaster let him go.
Amber was not beside the fire. He looked around and saw her preparing their pallet a short distance away from the others against the ledge. He went over to her and she turned to look at him apprehensively.
“I couldn’t help feeling some of that through the link,” she said. “From the emotions on both sides, I thought you two were going to have it out now.”
“He wants you,” said Teray tonelessly.
She was on her knees on the blankets, looking up at him. Now, after a moment of surprise, she rose and walked a few steps away and stood with her back to him. The contained fury he sensed in her alarmed him. He went to her and put his hands on her shoulders. She turned and was in his arms.
“I’d like to break his legs and leave him here alive for the Clayarks,” she muttered. “I’m sorry, Teray.”
“Sorry for what?”
“Sorry to be of use to him against you.” Her voice grew bitter. “He doesn’t give a damn about me now except to break me. He’s doing this to humiliate you.”
“I know.”
“And that’s not all he’s doing. I finally realize how he was lying to you. I should have seen it from the first.”
“Yes?”
“He’s not taking you to Forsyth to be judged by Rayal. He’s already judged you himself. He’s taking you to Forsyth to kill you. He’s as wary of you as he is of me, and he wants someone around to heal any damage you might do to him. Meanwhile, he’ll make do with just humiliating you.”
“You interpret the little you got from his mind to mean all that?”
“Yes. And it fell right into place. I know him, Teray. I know how he lies. You should, too, by now.”
“But he could have killed me back at Redhill.”
“Why should he have? You were still being a good, respectful outsider. Still doing as you were told. There was always the chance that you might come to your senses and submit. But then you had to go and run away—to Forsyth, yet, and with me.” She took a deep breath, slowed down. “Well, think about it. I admit it’s guesswork, but I couldn’t be more positive that I’m right. If you decide you agree with me, you’d better start thinking about what you’re going to do.”
She bent to pick up a blanket. He caught her arm. They straightened, facing each other.
“You haven’t said it all,” he told her. “There’s enough anxiety coming through the link to tell me you’ve left out something important.”
Without speaking she severed the link.
Solitude came to him jarringly. “Why did you do that? What’s the matter with you?”
“You want me to stay linked to you while I’m with him?”
Understanding Teray grimaced. For the second time that day, their extreme closeness made the link a handicap. “All right,” he said. “You had reason to break the link. But you didn’t break it soon enough. I know something else is bothering you.”
“It’s personal,” she said. “My business.”
From anyone else, that would have been enough to stop him. But he knew her better than he had ever known anyone else. He did not believe she really wanted him to stop.
“Tell me,” he said quietly. He was still holding her arm and she wrenched away from him.
“You’re as big a fool as I am,” she said. “Looking for more trouble when you’ve already got plenty.”
“What have you done that you consider foolish?”
She gave a short, mirthless laugh. “It’s only my timing that’s foolish, Teray. I decided that I wanted a child by you. And since I didn’t know how long we’d be together, I didn’t want to wait.”
For a moment Teray’s surprise left him without words. Finally, “You mean you’re pregnant now?”
“Oh yes. And believe me, I wouldn’t have told you if Coransee hadn’t already found out. He realized it when he made me open.”
“But you’ve opened to me and I haven’t seen …”
“You don’t snoop the way he does. It’s practically an art with him. Open to him and he lifts your whole life.”
“He’s the last person who should know.” Teray frowned. “Hell, he has the right to kill it if he wants to—since he claims us and he hasn’t given us permission to have a child.”
“It’s barely a child yet. It’s only a few days old—just a ball of cells growing.”
“You should have told me. I can’t understand why he hasn’t killed it already.”
“I haven’t let him,” she said. “Because the way things are going, I wasn’t sure you’d be around to replace it.”
Teray winced. “That’s encouraging.”
“Just don’t let him get you to Forsyth.”
“How did you keep him from killing the baby?”
“I let him see how determined I was to have it. He decided to let me wait until we get to Forsyth, too.”
“He told you he would kill it in Forsyth?”
“No, he withdrew without comment. He withdrew in that special way of his that means, ‘Later.” She sighed. “I think he only wants to kill it out of vindictiveness—because I refused to have a child for him.”
Teray frowned. “I should let you know that I’m not ignoring the warnings you’re giving me about Forsyth.”
“I didn’t think you were. You don’t have to say anything more about it.”
“Good. And I want you to know that I consider protecting an unborn child a responsibility for two. If Coransee reads that in your thoughts, fine.”
“I’d feel the same way,” she said softly, “if you and I had talked about it ahead of time. If we had both decided that it was a reasonable responsibility to assume at a time like this—which it isn’t.”
“No, it isn’t.” He hugged her and suddenly found himself smiling. “And I wouldn’t have asked it of you until we were a lot more secure. But I’m glad you did it. Why did you refuse to have his child?”
“He waited too long to ask me. He waited until I had gotten to know him.”
Teray laughed softly. She had given him a kind of victory. Not a large victory but one he could savor. One that Coransee’s humiliations could not destroy. And the child would be a living link between them even if Teray was unable to convince her to stay with him. Or it would be a part of him that survived even if Coransee succeeded in killing him. But he did not want to think about that last. Living suddenly seemed more important than ever. Living and keeping Amber and the child alive.
“Teray?”
He looked at her, knowing that she was about to leave him.
“What did you do to Coransee a while ago? I felt him almost lose consciousness.”
He told her.
She smiled a very small smile, kissed him, gathered up a blanket, and went to Coransee.