Chapter 14

ALYS RAN WHERE the path permitted, and fretted when tree roots or knife-pricks of exhaustion forced her to slow. Feebleminded, that's what she was. Selendrile had admitted from the first that he was a liar, and if she'd stopped to think about it she'd have known that the greater part of lying was not telling everything. How could she have assumed that he'd freely share his limitations? She'd had to guess that he couldn't speak except when he was in human form; how then could it have escaped her notice that he was always somewhere else during daylight hours?

It wasn't fair if he died because she hadn't been paying attention.

Especially now, having Atherton's death on his soul.

If he had a soul.

"He didn't mean it," she said out loud, meaning the words for God. "He doesn't think the way people do, and anyway he did it for me."

Speaking took the last of her breath and she had to stop, hands braced against her knees, panting. She thought, for the first time, about what it meant to be without a soul. Not petty and cruel, which Atherton had always been, but actually lacking a soul. Certainly Atherton's dead body didn't look significantly different from her father's. Would it? Could a soul be bougnt or traded, like woven baskets or salted fish? The more Alys thought about it, the less she believed so. And yet ... and yet, she thought, she herself had come dangerously close—not to selling her soul, but to giving it away, to throwing it away—in her search for revenge. And she hadn't needed the help of the witch in the glen to do it.

"He's sorry," Alys gasped to God. "I know he is. I'm sorry. Please don't let him die."

Surely the fact that Atherton had been planning to let Selendrile die should count for something.

As soon as she caught her breath, she once again began running.

When she finally approached the last curve before Saint Toby's, she tried to gauge how long she'd been and how much time was left. But she couldn't be sure. There was no sign of the sky becoming lighter in the east, which would have meant there definitely wasn't time to get back. But this way it was an agonizing case of maybe she could, and maybe she couldn't.

The village was still, no candles burning, the houses black blocks beneath the moon. She slowed to a walk, which was quieter than running, and approached the door to the tin shop. Saint Toby's was too small for locks, but there was a latch on the door to keep it from blowing open. Alys lifted the wooden beam out of the slot and gently lowered it.

The door creaked as she pushed, and she paused, thinking her heart would stop from the fear of getting caught. She fought her instinct to bolt, to hide in the surrounding darkness of the trees. Surely the noise seemed louder to her than it really was. From all around her in the village she heard nothing out of the ordinary, nothing to suggest anyone had heard or was watching. She stepped into the shop and slowly, slowly leaned against the door, pushing it shut as the hinges again screeched.

She blinked, waiting for her eyes to adjust to the darkness.

They didn't.

There was a window on the far wall, she knew even though she couldn't see it. Even the little bit of light she'd get from opening the shutters would be enough for her to find her way around this shop, which had always been a part of her life. But it was different, it didn't feel the same knowing that her father would never be back. She'd find a tool with which to cut Selendrile's one remaining shackle and be out of here in the time it would take to say two Pater Nosters.

Carefully she slid her feet across the packed-dirt floor so that she wouldn't trip over anything that wasn't where she remembered. On the third slide, her foot struck something—a table leg?—which had no business being there. Instinctively she straightened her arms in front of her. But it wasn't a table leg; it was

Alys sat on the floor where she'd landed, holding her breath, waiting for someone to come in and kill her.

Nothing, nobody stirred.

A wheel. It was a wheel she'd tumbled over. Gower hadn't wasted a moment taking over her father's shop.

Once she stopped shaking, she got to her hands and knees very slowly and crawled to the door. She opened it a crack and peeked out into the street. Much good stealth would do now that the door had once again shrieked on its hinges, announcing her intent.

As far as she could see, nobody was coming.

Alys took a deep breath and stood.

The open door illuminated the shop somewhat. And anyway, she couldn't very well flee, knowing that that would condemn Selendrile to death. Unless, of course, he'd somehow found the key—which she didn't believe for a moment. She picked her way across the rubble she'd made on the floor and headed toward the cabinet where her father had kept the smaller of his tools. As she'd expected, they were gone, replaced by the wheelwright's equipment. Why hadn't she noticed the smell of fresh-cut wood and shavings before? Still, there had to be something here she could use. Chisels, awls, a mallet.

She had just put her hand out to sort through the tools when someone seized her elbow and spun her around, flinging her hard against the wall.

"I thought I'd " Gower's eyes narrowed in recognition. "You," he said with such feeling that Alys knew he saw beyond the boy's clothing and filthy face of the "injured boy" who'd been his houseguest. "Ahh," he continued, "now I understand what's been going on."

This was no time to be meek. "Do you think people will believe you?" Alys demanded. "Wheels that fall apart, wife ready to run off with the first handsome young stranger, daughter dabbling in magic—have they started to talk yet?"

By the way he shook her, she knew they had. "You'll come with me, girl, and everyone'll know you're behind it all soon's they see you. All they got to do is catch one look at you in them boy's clothes. Soon's they start wondering how you got away from that dragon, they won't care about any wheels." He started to pull her toward the door.

Alys dug her heels into the floor. "Selendrile rescued me from the dragon." That much was certainly true. "And as for coming back here, that proves my innocence. If I was really a witch, I'd have cast a spell and been done with all of you. There'd have been no reason to come back. Etta's the witch."

Gower paused while he tried to reason it out. Then, "No," he said, tugging again, "they'll know it was you."

"I'll deny it. And there'll always be that doubt. Any time anything goes wrong, they'll wonder." She caught hold of the doorway before he could drag her outside. "But it doesn't have to be that way."

He tugged and it felt as though her fingers were going to fall off.

"Gower, it doesn't have to be that way."

He finally hesitated. "What are you saying?"

"I'll admit to everything. I'll clear your name, restore your family's reputation."

"In exchange for what?"

"For you letting me go."

"What?" Once again he started yanking at her, even while she said, "I'll come back, on my honor I will."

"The honor of a witch?" he scoffed. "A witch who's given herself to the devil—"

Alys held on to the door and looked him in the eyes. "You know I'm not a witch," she said.

It was Gower who looked away.

"Come with me, if you're afraid I'll run off," she said, which was casting away any last chance at freedom. "We'll be back here in time for the noonday meal. And I'll remove all trace of doubt from your name. I'll even confess to being a witch, so that no one will ever be able to claim you had an innocent girl put to death. No one will ever come after Etta."

Gower repeated: "In exchange for what?"

"Selendrile's in trouble."

"Is he now?" Gower interrupted with a snort.

"Inquisitor Atherton took us to the same place where you left me for the dragon. He shackled him to the same stake." The rest, she thought, it was better if he didn't know.

"I see," Gower said. "I go with you out to the wilds between here and Griswold, rescue your friend who promptly thanks me by slitting my throat—"

"He won't. I'll tell him not to, that you and I have come to an agreement"

He was considering it, she could tell.

"If we don't get there by dawn, the deal is off," she warned. "You saw how easily the villagers turned on me—do you think it'll be any different for Etta?"

"Let me think."

"If we don't get there by dawn, the deal is off," she screamed at him. Thinking was the last thing she wanted him to da How much time had he wasted already?

"You swear I'll come to no harm?"

"Yes!"

"You swear you'll tell them you're a witch and that you arranged—"

"Yes!"

He was determined to get it all out. "—that you arranged for the wheel to break, that you bewitched my wife and daughter?"

"Yes, yes!" Then, as he paused to make sure he hadn't left anything out, she said, "Now, Gower."

Slowly he nodded.

"They're iron shackles," she said, lest she give him time to change his mind. "What do you have that'll cut through them?"

"Is it high-grade iron?"

"I don't know," she cried. "Gower!"

"All right, all right." He fetched a metal file. "This should work."

"Fine. Let's go."

Gower tucked the file into his belt. "Soon's I tell Una, so she doesn't worry."

From what she'd seen, Alys didn't think Una would worry if she found her husband sprouting tree branches from his head, but this didn't seem the time to say so. She trailed after Gower, praying he wouldn't give enough details that either he or Una would start to question his decision.

Apparently Una wasn't so worried that she had stayed awake. Watching from the doorway, Alys saw Gower nudge his wife. "I'll be back," he told her.

Una grunted, which might have meant, "All right," or "Leave me alone." In any case, Gower lit a torch from the night-fire and came right back out.

"Hurry up," Alys told him.

"Listen, if he's shackled, he's not going anywhere. We'll be there soon enough."

"We'll be there before dawn," Alys repeated.

Gower scowled, but began walking faster.