(Padlimaird Runs His Mouth, to Bad and Good Ends)
Calragen untied his sorrel from her tree, and the four of us nipped around filching supplies.
Everything went smoothly, until Nefer clonked his elbow against a tub full of potatoes. Thew, who'd been lying beside it, sat up. He looked groggily at Nefer.
I stopped breathing, sausages dangling from my arm. Nefer pointed to his boots with a look of wonderment, and poor Thew, who'd never been a bright star, glanced over to where Nefer pointed.
Nefer's cutlass flicked out and gently, almost lovingly, cut a slit across Thew's neck. He collapsed. Nefer shrugged sadly, and continued gathering potatoes. Squeamish Padlimaird took one look and went to heave in the bushes.
We went back to work, and I wondered if my hands would ever stop shaking. When Floy hopped noisily over a mass of dead leaves I had a vicious urge to stamp on her.
Finally, mercifully, loaded with bedrolls, food bags, Tough Guy's tent, and Nefer's stool, we made towards the river. Waiting for us was a skiff of oak and pitch patches that Nefer had stolen off an eel-trapper earlier that week.
It would have been difficult for Calragen alone to drag nervous old Redstart onto the boat, but we four Elde convinced her to lie down on a mat of fishing nets surrounded by our baggage. The boat, tied to a stump, sank a couple inches in the cold Swisia. I hopped aboard after Wille. Floy, alighting on my shoulder, reminded me there was no way Mordan would ever find us once we took off downstream in a small boat. Still mad at her, I insisted that my being alive and lost was better than my being dead and found. And anyway, my uncle Ederach lived in Ellyned and the river was the quickest route.
Padlimaird, last to step into the boat, turned at a noise. He banged his shin and bit back a yelp. Emry swept aside the branch of a river birch.
"Emry, get back to bed," Wille whispered.
"Where are you goin?"
"Taking the boat out fer a lark," said Padlimaird.
"With a horse?"
"She wanted to come, too."
"I'm not stupid, Padlimaird Crescentnet. You're desertin, ain't you?"
"Look, Emry," I said, thinking of poor Thew, "you'd better come with now. Get on. It's a big enough boat, there's room for seven."
Nefer extended his big hand to help her aboard, but she backed against the birch, a dangerous look on her face.
"It in't allowed," she said. "We'll get killed. It's against the rules."
I thought of the writing, the journal, the stone and Cook's bannocks; and my stomach sank like a stone.
"O' course we'll get killed. All of us––iffen you call out," said Padlimaird.
"Hush, Emry," said Wille, "and when morning comes tell Seacho we're comin to rescue you later."
"And if Gattren comes back," said Padlimaird, "tell her to jump off a cliff fer me, cause me arms is too tired to stay an' push her meself."
Some days Padlimaird could be surprisingly clever. This wasn't one of them.
Emry turned round and yelled, "Chief! Chief! They're leavin in a big ol' boat, all six of em!"
Nefer cursed. There was a shouting and rustling in the trees; and in no time at all the whole camp had woken and run to the riverbank. Fillegal was in the lead, looking mad as a skinned cat. Nefer cut through the mooring rope with his cutlass.
"What the hell you doin?" yelled Seacho from the bank.
"Seacho! Jump in, Seacho!" Wille waved at the shore.
"Geddown, all o' ye." Nefer tripped and shoved everyone to the bottom of the boat. Bowstrings twanged in the trees and arrows flew over the water.
Redstart's eyes rolled in terror, and she rose onto her knees. She lifted all her bulk until she was up and skidding in the swill on the bottom. Wait, wait, stay put! We cried to her, and the boat, rushing forward, rocked and threatened to tip.
The arrows whistled overhead, and the horse's legs caught in the nets. Nefer tackled her around the barrel. She stumbled onto her knees and fell on her side, right onto his left arm. The boat gave a shudder. Nefer grimaced and looked at the night sky.
"We're too far out of range now," he said, still grimacing. "But they'll run long the banks, waiting for them falls to come up." He put his other hand on the horse's heaving side. The whites of her eyes disappeared into the brown.
"The gold," said Padlimaird. "The loot. It's downriver––let's take some with us." He clawed his way to the side of the boat, looking sick.
"And I'm sure as anythin me arm's broke," said Nefer.
"Let me have a look," said Calragen. Nefer offered his arm, and Calragen set to prodding it. Nefer yelped. "I'm very sorry," said Calragen, running a finger along Nefer's forearm. "Here, I think. I know a bit of doctoring. I'll set it to the best of my ability, soon as we have time."
We reached the digging site, and Wille punted us ashore with the pole. The boys dug up a purse of coins, and then hopped back in and we pushed off again.
Day came and the river bottom darkened and dropped beneath us. The banks climbed, pushing the fir trees high above the water, and a white-yellow canyon closed out the sky ahead. Thunder hung faint in the air, and Nefer had us pull up the boat at a chalky bank. "We've got to portage from 'ere, mates."
"We could've gone a liddle farrer, Nev," said Padlimaird. "We can't even see them falls yet––"
"See that canyon there?" said Nefer. "Soon's ye set prow in it, the current'll take ye along so fast you won't stop till you has to."
Wille helped to prop the prow upon Nefer's good shoulder. Then Calragen and Wille took the stern between them, and I took up the packs: one in back, one in front, and one in my arms. And Padlimaird gave Redstart the sorrel, still stumbling on her sea-legs, a push after Wille's back, which had set off downhill with the boat.
The waterfall crashed from a great height into a deep pool that smelled of boiled cabbage.
Calragen went to the edge and peered into the water. "I know these falls," he said. "The Aindelden of the Daynens call this place Oldeyda Lun. Carpet Pool." He laughed. "We can all take baths."
"Baths?" said Padlimaird in disgust.
I put down the packs and walked up to the pool. The stones in the water were eerily beautiful: vein blue and hawkseye yellow, and the spray wet my face. I scooped up some water in my hands, let it run through my fingers. "This water's warm," I said. "What's wrong with the earth?"
"It's supposed to be warm," said Calragen. "It comes from the Lederen Pass." I gave him a blank look. "My fellows and I passed that way, and it's perilous, full of boiling rivers, deep, scalding pools that extend to the bottom of the earth, red stones and––"
"That's where Enol dropped the starlight he'd got from a lake," said Wille, dipping his feet into the pool. "He dropped it into a volcano to freeze it up. The djain in the volcano let the sun come up fer the first time in thousands of years to unfreeze it, but the sun heated the starlight so hot it blasted the volcano to smithereens an' made the Pass to let the humans through to––"
"Where it becomes a bunch of silly tales," said Calragen.
"Lorila and the Green Basin. Then the humans got so bad."
"Oh?" said Calragen.
"Some of em. And we're gonna run em off when we gets to Ellyned, ain't we, Nefer?"
Nefer looked up. "I hate to cheat ye out of a bath, sir, but we gotta go."
"Does the rest of them know this water's warm?" said Padlimaird to Nefer.
"I didn't know it."
"We could jus pretend like we was in a wreck." Padlimaird rubbed his arms and winced. "Like we fell off those falls. Y'don't think they'd bother a bunch o' drownded deserters?"
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
The overturned fishing boat echoed like a cavern, and we kept silent as death, clinging to the nets Nefer had tacked to the bottom for holding our food. The tent canvas swirled around our legs, and the poles straggled behind, clunking below the surface in a drumbeat of ill news.
Through the stillness I heard voices carrying from the shore:
"I'm not getting wet and froze fer a shoddy tent, nor a boat, neither."
"An' them waterfalls'll beat out stupid people at the top as easy as the fishes…"
The voices faded, replaced by the gurgle and slap of the water. "Stupid?" said Wille. "Maybe the rest of you, but as I was the one modestly whisperin me idea into Padlimaird's ear––"
Padlimaird knocked him in and the two boys wrestled in the water. They heard me laughing and Wille me in for a dunking. I fought back, pounding on their heads, sneezing and coughing up the nasty-tasting stuff, and Nefer had to separate us.
We waited a few minutes more, then slipped behind the falls and wrapped ourselves against the cold to check up on Redstart.