Raven's Strike (Raven #2)(74)

"What do you mean he won't get past the wards?" Lehr asked.

"He's tainted," said Jes. "Didn't you smell it? Not so badly as Bandor was, but he still stinks of shadow."

"You two need to slow up," said Rinnie. "Emperors don't run through forests like some peasant farmer's boys."

Phoran grinned.

Willon was alone in his shop and looked up with a smile to welcome Tier and Seraph.

"My friends, what can I do for you?"

Seraph let Tier do the talking, and turned her attention to the display shelf that Willon had set up near the front counter. Small animals of blown glass in bright colors danced across the scarred wood shelf.

"I brought those back from Taela," Willon said. "Broke half of them getting here, but I thought they'd sell well. You didn't come in here for glass animals, though."

"No," Tier agreed. "We need forty pounds of salted dried beef or venison. I'd also like to look at any other food you've got that will keep."

"Are you going out trapping already?" asked Willon as he led Tier to the section where he kept foodstuffs.

"No. Seems I made some friends among the young lads that helped overthrow the Path. A group of them came down and persuaded me to give them a guided tour of the Ragged Mountains. They want to see Shadow's Fall, but I suspect I'll be able to talk them out of it once they see the country they're going to have to walk through."

Seraph left the glass animals and began sorting through the herbs on the shelves.

Pepper, she thought, and took one of the small packets. She and Tier would stop by Loni the Herbalist's shop before they left town, but Willon carried exotic spices and Loni only the things she could grow in her garden. That meant Loni's herbs were fresher, but Willon's were more diverse.

"I'd like to see Shadow's Fall myself," Willon was saying.

"No," Tier shook his head. "It's a rough trip, Master Willon. I'll take these young rascals and wear them out - it'll be good for them. But the mountains are no place for someone not ready for them. I'll take you next year, if you'll spend the summer hiking with me to get into shape. I've already promised Bandor."

"I travel a lot," said Willon. "You might be surprised at how tough an old man like me can be."

"I'm sure that's true," Tier said.

For a moment Seraph thought Willon wasn't going to let the matter drop. But then he laughed and patted Tier on the shoulder.

"All right, all right. Next year then, mind. I won't forget."

Tier paid for the food and Seraph's herbs after a little bargaining. When they were through, Tier gave Willon back the map he'd given Seraph.

"It was a gift," said Willon.

"A valuable gift," said Tier. "And as we don't have any plans for another trip across the Empire, it won't do us much good. Give it to someone else who needs it."

Willon bowed and accepted it. "It's always a pleasure to do business with you," he said.

"Olbeck is shadowed?" Seraph sat down at the table and tried to figure out what that might mean.

Lehr, Jes, Phoran, and Rinnie had greeted them at the door with the tale of their afternoon adventures.

"He wasn't shadowed when he attacked Lehr and Rinnie just a few days before we left," said Jes.

Hennea sat on the table near Jes and looked at him. "You can tell that easily? The other Guardians I've met have to look for it."

Jes shrugged. "They smell wrong, then I look."

"The question is, what do we do about it?" asked Tier.

"Nothing." Seraph said decisively. "Olbeck will wait until we get back. Though it is interesting that he was tainted after we left for Taela. Every unappealing person doesn't pick up a shadowing just because he's nasty. Bandor was a more usual case. A nice upstanding citizen who causes as much damage as possible for as long as the Stalker can hold him."

"There are several ways a person can become tainted," Hennea said. "The Shadowed is only one of them."

"Well, we certainly have had a Shadowed around here."

"Rinnie," Tier said. "I think that for a while you're going to have to make certain that someone is with you when you leave the house. Take Gura if you have to."

"All right," she agreed. Her lack of protest was a testament to how frightened she'd been.

Seraph caught Phoran's eye and nodded her thanks.

They spent the next day packing and repacking sacks and bags, balancing them in pairs to be attached to the saddles in the morning. Seraph carried the Ordered gems in a bag that would ride on her hip. The mermori went into one of the horse's packs.

Lehr and Tier went out and brought back three more riding horses for the trip, two mud-brown and a grey. That left them one horse short, but Jes could outwalk most horses anyway. None of the new horses were the quality of Lehr's Cornsilk, but they were tough little mountain horses and would do just fine for the trip.

As if in omen, Alinath and Bandor appeared in the afternoon with the journey bread half a day earlier than she'd promised.

"Tomorrow," Tier said.

Chapter 12

They left the farm while the sun was still a faint hope in the silvery sky. Phoran's horse danced and pranced and pretended to be afraid of the packs that hung here and there from his saddle. Seraph's horse, one of the new ones, started and skittered in response.