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Jennsen nodded. She pulled the money from her pocket, the pocket that didn't have the piece of paper in it. She dumped all the money in her mother's hand.
"Sebastian insisted that I take it all. There's gold marks there. He didn't want any for himself."
Her mother took in the fortune in her hand, then glanced briefly to the trail where Sebastian waited. She leaned closer.
"Jenn, if he came with you, then perhaps he thinks he can have the money back at any time of his choosing. That would give him the opportunity to look generous and win your trust-and still be near enough to end up with the money when he chooses."
"I considered that, too."
Her mother's tone softened sympathetically. "Jenn, it's not your fault-I've kept you so sheltered-but you just don't know how men can be."
Jennsen let her gaze drop from her mother's knowing eyes. "I suppose it could be true, but I don't think so."
"And why not?"
Jennsen looked back up, more intently, this time. "He has a fever, Mother. He's not well. He was leaving, without asking to come with me at all. He bid me a good-bye. As tired and feverish as he is, I feared he'd die out in the rain tonight. I stopped him, told him that if it was all right with you he could sleep in the cave with the animals where he could at least be dry and warm."
After a moment of silence, Jennsen added, "He said that if you don't want a stranger near, he will understand and be on his way."
"Did he? Well, Jenn, this man is either very honest, or very clever." She fixed Jennsen with an intent look. "Which do you think it is, hmm?"
Jennsen twined her fingers together. "I don't know, Mother. I honestly don't. I wondered the same things as you-I really did."
She remembered, then. "He said that he wanted you to have this, so you wouldn't have to fear a stranger sleeping nearby."
Jennsen drew the knife in its sheath from behind her belt and held it out to her mother. The silver handle gleamed in the dim yellow light coming from the 【创建和谐家园】all window behind her mother.
Staring in astonishment, her mother slowly lifted the weapon in both hands as she whispered, "Dear spirits..."
"I know," Jennsen said. "I nearly yelped in fright when I saw it. Sebastian said that this was a fine weapon, too fine to bury, and he wanted me to keep it. He kept the soldier's short sword and axe for himself. I told him I would give this to you. He said that he hoped it would help you feel safe. "
Her mother slowly shook her head. "This does not make me feel safe at all-knowing that a man carrying this was near us. Jenn, I don't like that one bit. Not one bit."
Her mother's eyes showed that she was on to worries bigger than the man Jennsen had brought home with her.
"Mother, Sebastian is sick. Can he stay in the cave? I led him to believe that he has more to fear from us than we from him."
Her mother glanced up with a sly 【创建和谐家园】ile. "Good girl." They both knew that in order to survive they had to work as a team, with well-practiced roles they fell into without the need for formal discussion.
She let out a sigh, then, as if with the burden of knowing all the things her daughter was missing in life. She ran a hand tenderly down Jennsen's hair, letting it come to rest on her shoulder.
"All right, baby," she said at last, "we'll let him stay the night."
"And feed him. I told him he would have a hot meal for helping me."
Her mother's warm 【创建和谐家园】ile widened. "And a meal, then."
She drew the blade from its sheath, finally. She gave it a critical appraisal, turning it this way and that, inspecting its design. She tested the edge, and then the weight. She spun it between her slender fingers to get the feel of it, the balance.
At last she held it in her open palm, contemplating the ornate letter "R." Jennsen could not imagine what terrible thoughts-and memories must be going through her mother's mind as she silently considered the emblem representing the House of Rahl.
"Dear spirits," her mother whispered again to herself.
Jennsen didn't say anything. She entirely understood. It was an ugly evil thing.
"Mother," Jennsen whispered when her mother had looked at the handle for an eternity, "it's almost dark. May I go get Sebastian and take him back to the cave?"
Her mother slid the blade home into its sheath, looking to put a panorama of painful memories away with it.
"Yes, I suppose you had better go get him. Take him to the cave. Make a fire for him. I'll cook some fish and bring some herbs along to help him sleep with his fever. Wait there with him until I come out. Keep your eye on him. We will eat with him, out there. I don't want him in the house."
Jennsen nodded. She touched her mother's arm, halting her before she could go into the house. Jennsen had one more thing to tell her mother. She dearly wished she didn't have to. She didn't want to bring her mother such a worry, but she had to.
"Mother," she said in a voice barely above a whisper, "we are going to need to go from this place."
Her mother looked startled.
"I found something on the D'Haran soldier."
Jennsen pulled the piece of paper from her pocket, unfolded it, and held it out in her open palm.
Her mother's gaze took in the two words on the paper.
"Dear spirits..." was all she said, was all she was able to say.
She turned and looked at the house, taking it all in, her eyes suddenly brimming with tears. Jennsen knew that her mother had come to think of it as home, too.
"Dear spirits," her mother whispered to herself again, at a loss for anything more.
Jennsen thought the weight of it might overcome her, and her mother might break down in helpless tears. That was what Jennsen wanted to do. Neither did.
Her mother wiped a finger under each eye as she looked back at Jennsen. And then she did cry-one brief inhalation of a gasping sob of hopelessness. "I'm so sorry, baby."
It broke Jennsen's heart to see her mother in such anguish. Everything that Jennsen had missed in life, her mother had missed twice over. Once for herself, and once for her daughter. On top of it, her mother had to be strong
"We'll leave at first light," her mother said in simple pronouncement. "Traveling at night, and in the rain, will serve us ill. We'll have to find a new place to hide. He's getting too close to this one."
Jennsen's own eyes overflowed with tears and her voice came only with great difficulty. "I'm so sorry, Mama, that I'm such trouble." Her tears flooded forth in a painful torrent. She crushed the piece of paper as her hands fisted. "I'm so sorry, Mama. I wish you could be free of me."
Her mother caught her up in her arms then, cradling Jennsen's head to a shoulder as she wept. "No, no, baby. Don't ever say that. You're my light, my life. This trouble is caused by others. Don't you ever wear a cloak of guilt because they are evil. You're my wonderful life. I would give everything else up a thousand times over for you and then once again and be joyous to do so."
Jennsen was glad that she would never have any children, for she knew she didn't have her mother's strength. She held on for dear life to the only person in the world who was a comfort to her.
But then she pushed away from her mother's embrace. "Mama, Sebastian is from far away. He told me. He said that he's from beyond D'Hara.
There are other places-other lands. He knows of them. Isn't that wonderful? There is a place that isn't D'Hara."
"But those places are beyond barriers and boundaries that can't be crossed."
"Then how can he be here? It must be so, otherwise he could not have traveled here."
"And Sebastian is from one of these other lands?"
"To the south, he said."
"The south? I don't see how it could be possible. Are you sure that's what he said?"
"Yes." Jennsen added a firm nod of confirmation. "He said the south. He only mentioned it casually. I'm not sure how it's possible, but what if it is? Mother, maybe he could guide us there. Maybe, if we asked, he would guide us out of this nightmare land."
As levelheaded as her mother was, Jennsen could see that she was considering this wild idea. It wasn't crazy-her mother was thinking it over, so it couldn't be crazy. Jennsen was suddenly filled with a sense of hope that maybe she had come up with something that would save them.
"Why would he do this for us?"
"I don't know. I don't even know if he would consider it, or what he would want in return. I didn't ask him. I didn't dare even to mention it until I talked to you, first. That's part of why I wanted him to stay here-so you could question him. I feared to lose this chance to discover if it really is possible."
Her mother looked around again at the house. It was tiny, only one room, and it was nothing fancy, built from logs and wood they had shaped themselves, but it was warm and snug and dry. It was frightening to contemplate striking out in the dead of winter. The alternative of being caught, though, was far worse.
Jennsen knew what would happen if they were caught. Death would not come swiftly. If they were caught, death would come only after endless torture.
At last, her mother gathered herself and spoke. "That's good thinking, Jenn. I don't know if anything can come of such an idea, but we'll talk to Sebastian and see. One thing is for sure. We have to leave. We dare not delay until spring-not if they're this close. We'll leave at dawn."
"Mother, where will we go, this time, if Sebastian won't lead us away from D'Hara?"
Her mother 【创建和谐家园】iled. "Baby, the world is a big place. We are only two
【创建和谐家园】all people. We will simply vanish again. I know it's hard, but we're together. It will be fine. We'll see some new sights, now won't we? Some more of the world.
"Now, go get Sebastian and take him to the cave. I'll get started on dinner. We'll all need to have a good meal."
Jennsen quickly kissed her mother's cheek before racing down the trail. The rain was starting, and it was so gloomy among the trees that she could hardly see. The trees were all huge D'Haran soldiers to her, broad, powerful, grim. She knew she would have nightmares after seeing a real D'Haran soldier up close.
Sebastian was still sitting on the rock, waiting. He stood as she rushed up to him.
"My mother said it was all right for you to sleep in the cave with the animals. She's started on cooking up the fish for us. She wants to meet you.”
He looked too tired to be happy, but he managed to show her a 【创建和谐家园】all 【创建和谐家园】ile. Jennsen seized his wrist and urged him to follow her. He was already shivering with the wet. His arm was warm, though. Fever was like that, she knew. You shivered even though you were burning up. But with some food and herbs and a good night's rest, she was sure he would soon be well.
What she wasn't sure of was if he would help them.
CHAPTER 5
Betty, their brown goat, watched attentively from her pen, occasionally voicing her displeasure at sharing her home, as Jennsen quickly collected straw to the side for the stranger in Betty's sanctuary. Bleating her distress, Betty finally quieted when Jennsen affectionately scratched the nervous goat's ears, patted the wiry hair covering her round middle, and then gave her half a carrot from the stash up on a high ledge. Betty's short upright tail wagged furiously.
Sebastian shed his cloak and pack, but kept on the belt with his new weapons. He unstrapped his bedroll from under his pack and spread it out over the mat of straw. Despite Jennsen's urging, he wouldn't lie down and rest while she knelt near the cave's entrance and prepared the fire pit.
As he helped her stack dry kindling, she could see by the dim light coming from the window of the house on the other side of the clearing that sweat beaded his face. He repeatedly scraped his knife down the length of a branch, swiftly building a clump of fluffy fibers. He struck a steel to flint several times, sending sparks through the darkness into the tinder he'd made. He cupped the fluff in his hands and with gentle puffs of breath nursed the slow flames until they strengthened, then placed the burning tinder beneath the kindling, where the flames quickly grew and popped to life among the dry twigs. The branches released a pleasing fragrance of balsam as they caught flame.
Jennsen had been planning on running to the house, not far off, to get some hot coals to start the fire, but he had it going before she could even suggest it. By the way he trembled, she imagined he was impatient for heat, even though he was burning with fever. She could 【创建和谐家园】ell the aroma of the frying fish coming from the house, and when the wind among the pine boughs died from time to time, she could hear the sizzle.
The chickens retreated from the growing light into the deep shadows at the back of the cave. Betty's ears stood at attention as she watched Jennsen for any signs that another carrot might be forthcoming. Her tail wagged in hopeful fits.
The opening in the mountain was simply a place where, in some distant age past, a slab of rock had tumbled out, like some giant granite tooth come loose, to plunge down the slope and leave a dry socket behind. Now, trees below grew among a collection of such fallen boulders. The cave only ran back about twenty feet, but the overhang of rock at the entrance further sheltered it and helped keep it dry. Jennsen was tall, but the ceiling of the cave was high enough that she could stand in most of it, and since Sebastian was only a little taller than she, his spikes of snow white hair, now a mellow orange in the firelight, didn't brush the top as he went to the back to collect some of the dry wood stacked there. The chickens squawked at being bothered, but then quickly settled back down.
Jennsen squatted on the opposite side of the fire from Sebastian, with her back to the rain that had started, so she could see his face in the firelight as they both warmed their hands in the heat of the crackling flames. After a day in the frigid damp weather, the fire's warmth felt luxurious. She knew that sooner or later winter would return with a vengeance. As cold and uncomfortable as it was now, it would get worse.
She tried not to think about having to leave their snug home, especially at this time of year. She had known from the first instant she saw the piece of paper, though, that they might.
"Are you hungry?" she asked.
"Starving," he said, looking as eager for the fish as Betty was for a carrot. The wonderful 【创建和谐家园】ells were making her stomach grumble, too.
"That's good. My mother always says that if you're ill, and you have an appetite, then it can't be too serious."
"I'll be fine in a day or two."
"A rest will do you good."
Jennsen drew her knife from its sheath at her belt. "We've never allowed anyone to stay here before. You will understand that we will be taking precautions."
She could see in his eyes that he didn't know what she was talking about, but he shrugged his understanding of her prudence.
Jennsen's knife wasn't anything like the fine weapon the soldier had been carrying. They could afford nothing like that knife. Hers had a simple handle made of antler and the blade wasn't thick, but she kept its edge razor sharp.
Jennsen used the blade to slice a shallow cut across the inside of her forearm. With a frown, Sebastian started to rise, to voice a protest. Her challenging glare stopped him cold before he was halfway up. He sank back down and watched with growing concern as she wiped the sides of the blade through the crimson beads of blood welling up from the cut. She very deliberately looked him in the eye again before turning her back on him and moving out closer to the edge of the cave where the rain dampened the ground.
With the knife wetted in blood, Jennsen first drew a large circle. Feeling Sebastian's eyes on her, she next pulled the tip of the bloody blade through the damp earth in straight lines to make a square, its comers just touching the inside of the circle. With hardly a pause, she drew a 【创建和谐家园】aller circle that touched the insides of the square.
As she worked, she murmured prayers under her breath, asking the good spirits to guide her hand. It seemed the right thing to do. She knew that Sebastian could hear her soft singsong, but not make out the words. It occurred unexpectedly to her that it must be something like the voices she heard in her own head. Sometimes, when she drew the outer circle, she heard the whisper of that dead voice call her name.
Opening her eyes from the prayer, she drew an eight-pointed star, its rays piercing all the way through the inner circle, the square, and then the outer circle. Every other ray bisected a comer of the square.
The rays were said to represent the gift of the Creator, so as she drew the eight-pointed star, Jennsen always whispered a prayer of thanks for the gift of her mother.
When she finished and looked up, her mother was standing before her, as if she had risen from the shadows, or materialized from the edge of the drawing itself, to be lit by the leaping flames of the fire behind Jennsen. In the light of those flames, her mother was like a vision of some impossibly beautiful spirit.
"Do you know what this drawing represents, young man?" Jennsen's mother asked in a voice hardly more than a whisper.
Sebastian stared up at her, the way people often stared when they first saw her, and shook his head.
"It's called a Grace. They have been drawn by those with the gift of magic for thousands of years-some say since the dawn of Creation itself. The outer circle represents the beginning of the eternity of the underworld, the Keeper's world of the dead. The inner circle is the extent of the world of life. The square represents the veil that separates both worlds life from death. It touches both at times. The star is the light of the gift from the Creator Himself-magic-extending through life and crossing over into the world of the dead."
The fire crackled and hissed as Jennsen's mother, like some spectral figure, towered over the two of them. Sebastian said nothing. Her mother had spoken the truth, but it was truth used to convey a specific impression that was not true.
"My daughter has drawn this Grace as protection for you as you rest this night, and as protection for us. There is another before the door to the house." She let the silence drag before adding, "It would be unwise to cross either without our consent."