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59

Whatever Edward was doing, Alice knew she could be no help, only hindrance, but she wished she knew what it was, where he was. She strongly suspected he had set off for Tharg already, with only Dosh to keep him company. That would explain Dosh's mysterious errands—filching a couple of rabbits and concealing them somewhere.

Lugging her bedroll along on her shoulder, she went in search of the feast. She investigated two or three campfires, hoping to find Julian, Ursula, or anyone she knew who could speak English. In a community of thousands, that was not very easy. Eventually her hunger drove her to join a group of—she thought—Lappinians. They jabbered at her cheerfully, laughed at her halting efforts to reply in Joalian, and presented her with a slab of roasted meat on a scrap of bloody hide as a plate.

It was disgusting and absolutely delicious. She ate all the meat, handed the skin on for someone else to use, and licked her fingers. A woman offered her a rib to chew on, but she declined with thanks. She had a strong desire just to lay out her blanket and go to sleep. Her eyelids weighed tons.

On the other hand, her nerves were still jangled and jumpy. She heaved her bundle up on her shoulder again and renewed her search. She had not reached the next campsite when the shouting began. It spread like ripples on a pond. Soon the whole camp was in an uproar, people racing around howling and waving torches that threatened to set the entire hill on fire. Unable to understand a word of what was going on, she just stood her ground, a rock in a whirlpool, and watched the faces streaming by. Were the Thargians attacking already? Should she flee with the mob or go to the house for a last stand?

Then a woman with carroty red hair going past in a shrieking crowd . . . Alice grabbed her arm.

"You speak English?"

The woman glared at her, then at her vanishing companions.

"Yes, Entyika. I must go."

"Just tell me what's happening!"

She did, then she ran.

 

In some sort of herd reflex, Alice found herself racing down the hill with thousands of others. The night was a madhouse. People were falling and being trampled, screaming, yelling. Others were pushed by the mob into the freezing river. A few crazier souls went as far as the Thargian army camp, four miles away, and were repulsed with heavy casualties. It was useless, of course. The mob rampaged along the flooded meadowland for hours, but their Liberator had long gone.

 

As the sky began to brighten toward a chilly dawn, Alice trudged wearily back into the grove. The fires had gone out, the landscape looked as if a plague of Brobdingnagian locusts had slept in it. Not many people had. Now they were returning, as she was, broken and bewildered. Exhausted children clung to their parents and wept. Lost children howled in terror for theirs. Adults prowled the ruins in search of scraps left over from the feast.

Someone was trying to restore order, though. Tracking down the shouts, she found a shield-bearer, but it was Kilpian Drover, who knew no English. She could just make out enough of his words to understand that he was trying to collect all the Niolians.

Farther up the hill, Ursula Newton was bellowing for Joalians, Lemodians, and Nagians. There was nothing wrong with her voice, but her eyes were red-rimmed pits, her hair a briar patch, and she obviously had not slept. She paused, leaning on her pole and staring blearily at Alice.

"You heard what happened?"

"I heard. Can any boat survive in that torrent?" That was the first danger—that the fates had made a mockery of human ambitions once again and the Liberator was floating facedown in some weedy backwater, his mission forever incomplete. (But mana should have taken care of that danger, shouldn't it?)

Ursula pulled a face that declined comment. Then she seemed to change her mind. "It's possible. That river's flowing forty miles an hour or I'm a Dutchman. He could have reached Tharg hours ago."

"So what are you doing?"

Another pout. "I'm carrying out the last orders he gave me. I'm to lead the exodus to Joalia. Can't leave the kiddies here for the Thargians."

Alice looked over the group Ursula had collected so far and concluded that she might be several hundred short, although who knew how many Joalians had come to join the crusade? "Will they let you go?"

"Can't know till we try. Excuse me." She started shouting at a group of men, gesturing vigorously with her pole. They nodded reluctantly and moved off, separating and starting to shout in their turn. "Bid'lip and Gastik are taking the Niolians. Don't know who else is doing what the hell else." She thumped the end of her pole at a helpless rock a few times. "Shite, what a mess! I hope those ambassadors come through with the rations they promised."

"And that the Thargians cooperate too. Who's staying here?"

"Don't know. I imagine Eleal Highpriestess will be wanting to put her temple in order. Don't know if the Thargians will allow that either, of course."

Alice rubbed her eyes and thought about it. "That will probably depend on what happens when Edward gets to Tharg, won't it? Once he's killed Zath, he won't have to tolerate backtalk from the ephors."

Ursula responded with long bellows of, "Joalians! Here, Joalians!" like a bull elk summoning his harem. She resumed the conversation in her normal voice, eying Alice pensively. "You really think he's still alive?"

"I'll believe it until I know he's dead."

Mrs. Newton pursed her lips skeptically. She was a hard-headed, practical woman, not given to wishful thinking. Julian detested her for some reason he would not discuss, but she would do as good a job as anyone could in shepherding a few thousand pilgrims back to their homes.

She said scornfully, "With the mana he had, the Thargians should never have been able to ambush him, you know. And certainly not overpower him. Doesn't that suggest that it was Zath's doing?"

"Why abduct him? Why not just kill him and leave his body for the Free to find?"

"I don't know." Ursula sighed. "Because Zath wants a public execution in Tharg, perhaps. It'll take a few days for them to get back with the news."

Ah! "Someone did go?"

She nodded absently. "I heard Doggan, Tielan, and Julian. Possibly Dommi. They may have had a few others with them, I don't know. They found a boat farther upstream. Shouted to someone as they went by."

Alice's knees trembled with weariness. If she didn't sit down soon she would fall down. She compromised by leaning against a tree.

"That doesn't sound like enough people to stage a rescue, and I don't imagine Edward needs rescuing anyway. I mean, if he overcomes Zath and gets all his mana—that is what's going to happen, isn't it?"

Ursula was peering around as if to spy out ill-intentioned Joalians hiding in the bushes. "I don't think rescue was uppermost in their minds. They wanted to catch that scummy, yellow-haired Tinkerfolk pervert and knot his guts round his throat."

"What? You mean Dosh?"

"Dosh! Dosh the Betrayer! He turned Exeter over to the Thargians—didn't you know that? Well he did! And if I ever get my hands on him, he'll rue the day he was born, I'll tell you. Where are you going? You want to go Home? There's a portal over in Thovale we know the key for."

Alice shook her head. "Not until I find out what happened. Are you quite sure Dosh . . ." The look in Ursula's eye was answer enough. But it still seemed incredible. "Edward valued Dosh very highly. He put him in charge of the money, remember."

"Christ trusted his to Judas!"

"Hell! So he did." Alice felt very, very weary. "Think I'll go up to the temple and help the bishop with the housework. If I don't ever see you again . . ."

They made a subdued farewell. Leaving Ursula Newton to her bull moose impressions, Alice dragged herself up the hill on aching feet.

 

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