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“Kill her, ye mean,” Coram rumbled.
The Daughter’s eyes went to him. “Not under our roof,” she said coldly. “No priestess of ours will betray the Princess. Our House is a holy sanctuary; we will not be profaned.” She glanced at the First Daughter, who looked away. “You say assassins already have made an attempt. We are not proof against them or against traitors. Zhir Anduo is not the only one to find the Warlord’s child interesting.” She met Thayet’s eyes again.
“I understand,” Thayet replied softly.
“The children are welcome,” added the First Daughter. “Except...except for your personal guard...”
“Buriram,” Thayet whispered.
Jian Cadao avoided Buri’s glare and continued, “She is K’mir and closely linked to you. We cannot promise her safety. The children who were students at the Mother of Mountains we shall return to their families. We understand the infant is an orphan. He will be reared by us. But we dare not shelter you. I can give clothing, horses, whatever you need. You must go soon, before zhir Anduo knows you are here.” Now she looked at the Princess. “I am truly sorry, Thayet. I have no choice. Already I have disobeyed orders to report your arrival. It won’t be long before a spy sends word to the rebels.”
Dismissed by the priestesses, they went back to the room Thayet was assigned. None of them were surprised to find packed saddlebags at the door. “They don’t waste time, do they?” Buri sneered when she saw them.
Alanna combed mud and stickers out of Faithful’s coat, a process the cat loved (and made difficult by wriggling in joy). “I liked the Hag-Daughter,” she confessed, working on a clump. “She was honest.”
“The First Daughter left a bad taste in my mouth,” Coram remarked.
“Don’t be hard on jian Cadao,” Thayet said quietly. “She’s a cousin on my father’s side. It wasn’t easy for her.”
“Your own family throws you to the wolves?” Liam’s eyes turned an intense green—he was furious.
“We prefer ambition to loyalty,” Thayet replied. She fingered the arch of her nose. “And she’s in trouble herself. It’ll be easier for all my family if I’m gone. With my father dead...” She looked away from them, swallowing. “Any power I had was through him. Now I’m a pawn. Zhir Anduo can strengthen his claim to the throne by marrying me. The ones who don’t want him will use me to oppose him, because I’m jian Wilima—although a jian Wilima female.” She started to pace, her hazel eyes stormy. “Where can Buri and I go? Please—I need advice.”
“They can come along,” Coram whispered to Alanna. “They’re no hindrance—we saw that comin’ here. The Roof can’t be worse than what they face now.”
Alanna looked Thayet over, fingering the emberstone. Thayet was dependable. She was a good archer, a necessity when they hunted to feed themselves. If she was nervous, Alanna had yet to see it. She never complained, never cried, never fainted. She never shirked her watch. Thayet and Buri would be an asset to an expedition like theirs.
Alanna looked at Buri and was surprised by a pleading expression in the girl’s eyes. She replaced it with her usual scowl, but this time Alanna wasn’t fooled. Buri must be worried sick, she thought. And she knows Thayet will be safe with us. Besides, I’d miss them.
“Thayet,” she said aloud, “you know where we’re going. We’re on—a quest, I suppose. When I find what I’m after, I’ll return home. If Liam and Buri don’t object, why don’t you ride with us?”
“Mind? Gods, no! Thayet’s a better cook than you are,” said Liam.
“The Roof of the World,” Thayet whispered. Her face brightened.
“Leave Sarain?” Buri grinned. “Just show me the way!”
A Daughter shook her awake. Glancing at the window, Alanna saw it was just before dawn—time for Liam’s teaching. She directed a questioning look at the Dragon, but he only shrugged and tossed Alanna her clothes. They dressed and followed the priestess out into the corridor.
The black-robed Daughter awaited them with Buri, Thayet, and Coram. “No time to waste,” she told them quietly. “Zhir Rayong, who is sworn to zhir Anduo, knows Thayet’s here, and he’s on his way. My people can delay him for three hours, but you must go if you want to escape.”
Alanna looked at her friends, thinking fast. “We can’t go as we are. When it gets out that we’re gone, everyone will look for a group of nobles, or the Dragon and his friends. I can ride as a boy.” She grinned, looking at the shirt and breeches she already wore. “Goddess knows I’ve had practice.”
“We’ll pass as mercenaries,” Liam added. Coram nodded. They all gazed at Thayet, whose looks could not have been more distinctive if she had tried.
“I can disguise her Highness,” the Hag-Daughter said. “My women will make your packs seem less well cared for. What of the horses?”
They conferred by glance, and Alanna shook her head. “We don’t have time to dye their coats. If it’s necessary, I’ll put an illusion on them and my cat till danger’s past.” She looked apologetically toward Liam, who shrugged.
“Let’s start,” the Dragon said. “The sooner we’re gone, the safer everyone will be.”
Thayet and the Daughter disappeared while the others changed into their most disreputable clothes. Novices saddled the horses, rubbing dirt into their coats, manes, and tack, then covering the saddlebags in patched canvas. Alanna’s lance and shield were put on Liam’s Drifter, since commoner youths did not carry them.
When Alanna herself entered the courtyard, she barely recognized her own Moonlight in the dun-colored mare that awaited her. Using rawhide strips, the knight wrapped Lightning’s gem-studded hilt until only the battered crystal on the pommel showed. Buri, dressed as Alanna was in a boy’s shirt, breeches, and jacket, arrived next. She glared at Bother, who laid back his ears at the sight of her, and went to make friends with the pony she’d named Sure-Foot.
Thayet was transformed into a sallow-skinned female. Her hair was dull, touched with grey, and a purple birthmark spread over her nose and down her left cheek. She was swathed in a shapeless brown dress. The whole effect was so painfully ugly that no one would look at her for long.
“We provisioned you,” one of the novices said, looking at Thayet with tears in her eyes. “The packhorse, and your bags. Princess, the Goddess smile on you, wherever you go!”
Alanna gripped the Hag-Daughter’s arm. “If you come west—”
She smiled. “Farewell, Lioness.”
They galloped out of the convent gates, riding hard. Distance, rather than conserving themselves and the horses, was the important thing for this part of their journey. For once Faithful kept silent about the joggling, hooking his claws into his cup and holding on. Their route from the convent led past the city wall rather than into the city. The road was deserted by Rachia’s early morning visitors, so no one would witness their flight. Either the gods smiled or the Hag-Daughter had weather-workers at her command: fog enveloped them, muffling the noise they made and sheltering them from sight.
The ride to the border took three days, with Liam setting a pace all of them could handle. Alanna relinquished command of their expedition to him: not only was he familiar with eastern Sarain and the Roof of the World, but he wanted to lead.
The countryside was deserted. The normal inhabitants—trappers, mountain men, K’miri tribesmen, a few Doi tribesmen from the Roof—were not sociable at the best of times, and now they had fled the occasional patrols of southern armies. Alanna paid little attention to the deserted land. She worried about Thayet. She worried about herself. These days her old goals appeared silly—a child’s dream, not an adult’s. But what was she going to do with her life—after she found the Jewel—if she found it? What did acclaim matter if you had nowhere to go, nothing to do?
Three days after setting out from Rachia, they came to the M’kon River that formed the Saren border. On its eastern bank was Fortress Wei, a Saren outpost—there was no single government east of the river. Beyond Wei the ground formed hills a
nd small valleys. Above those hills loomed a huge, purple band that hung too steadily to be clouds. Alanna squinted at it, curious.
Thayet brought her mare up beside Moonlight, observing the direction of Alanna’s stare. “The Roof of the World,” she said quietly.
four
The Roof of the World
Once they left the border, the road began to climb. The nights were cold, although it was May; Alanna was glad for Liam’s warmth in their bedroll. Thayet was the first to don a fur-lined cloak, but the others soon followed suit.
Thayet and Buri joined the Dragon’s morning exercises, learning Shang hand-to-hand combat. Alanna was surprised at how well she herself did. Evidently the years of training for knighthood helped her now. She could feel the difference in her body when they practiced, as her muscles took her smoothly from kick to blow and back. Filled with the optimism that comes from being physically fit, she mentally dared the Roof to do its worst.
The farther Thayet got from home, the more relaxed she was. She spoke about her childhood so frankly that Alanna thanked Coram for his affectionate, if gruff, raising of her and Thom. Thayet was the daughter of a ruler who wanted a son; only Kalasin made her feel loved. It was Kalasin who taught Thayet K’miri ways, Kalasin and Buri’s family.
“I could never be as good a Queen as my mother,” Thayet said. She grinned. “Not that it makes a difference now. I won’t be a queen at all.”
“Are you sorry?” Alanna wanted to know. She had been terribly frightened when Jon asked her to be his wife, knowing someday she would have to be his Queen.
“A little,” Thayet admitted. “I’d like to change things. In Sarain, for instance, women have no rights—just those our husbands or fathers grant us. Estates and fortunes are held by men. Women can’t inherit.”
“That’s barbaric!” protested Alanna. “At home women inherit. Not titles, but they have lands. I’m Myles’s heir by law—it isn’t common, but it happens.”
“Tortall sounds wonderful,” sighed Thayet.
