Schneider wasn't talking to her. Yoko was supposed fair was fair. She had not given him much of a chance to express himself after he'd come back. She'd done fine with Arshes being in Sta-Veron up until the moment that he'd come back, then all of a sudden the hurt and the uncertainty became a little more than she could easily deal with and she'd forced him away. Natural reflex, to distance one's self from the things that were most likely to cause great pain. Of course then he'd gone all spooky on her, dark and dangerous and very much looking to rebel against all the invisible things he thought were changing him. Changing him.
What a completely and monumentally foolish man. Everything a person experienced changed them. Every moment of life changed a body, an outlook, a soul. He treated the notion like an anathema. Like it had never occurred to him that it might happen to him. He was scared, she thought. He was scared of growing a conscience. And he was being distant and obnoxious because of it. It did not particularly bother her. She had other things on her mind. She thought a lot about the baby. More and more now that it was obviously apparent that she was pregnant. It was amazing how differently people treated pregnant women. Men became such bumbling, considerate creatures and here she was months away from birthing.
Even Schneider, who tried not to make it obvious kept a close tab on her. He watched her when she wasn't looking and she knew he was generally about when she went into the city with Keitlan or Gara or some of the wives of Kall-Su's commanders. He was scared of the baby too, she thought. She could see it in his eyes when they lingered on her middle. She'd spent a great deal of time pondering why and could only come up with his fear of responsibility and the undeniable truth that a child of his would be a obligation he could not shake. Even if he wanted to. He never had been able to give up anything that he considered his.
She wasn't mad at him. Even for the present sulk. He'd done worse things and this one was more defense than anything else, even if he didn't realize it. He would get over it. She was actually, to some degree rather pleased at the brooding. It more than anything else indicated he was having a battle of conscience. He was being really rather good, if one considered how his tantrums usually played out. Other than the occasional bout of minor destruction, mostly non-magical, he was curbing his tendencies for violence. And he was not sleeping with the staff, at least according to Keitlan. And as far as she knew - and she figured it was a sure bet since Arshes was still giving everybody the silent treatment and casting mournful looks at Schneider -- he wasn't sleeping with her either. Which meant he was either going into town and entertaining himself with the women there, or he was abstaining. She rather thought it was the latter. Rumors tended to travel in relatively small cities like Sta-Veron.
It had been a quiet couple of weeks. Yoko was starting to sew baby clothing. Keitlan was enthusiastically helping her. A rider came in from the north, claiming that a creature had come down from the heights and was wrecking havoc in the villages. Apparently other such anomalies had plagued the mountains for Kall-Su's men eagerly spoke of the last one they had hunted down and killed. There was a great cry for a hunt. Gara was all for it. And to everyone's surprise Arshes Nei quietly announced that she too would join the hunting party. Which was all fine and good until Schneider lazily included himself, which was obviously his attempt to piss off Gara, who had been at cold silences with him for weeks now. Kall-Su looked frustrated and distressed over the glares and bickering that resulted.
"Why don't the three of you go and I'll stay here where it's peaceful and quiet?" he finally suggested with icy regard for the lot of them. Yoko applauded him for the splash of maturity in an otherwise puerile situation. And they, to avoid looking the fools in the face of the gathered men and servants had no choice but to lift their chins and stoically agree to join together in camaraderie during this one hunt.
"Why don't you just do that." Schneider gave him an arch look and Kall-Su waved a hand to indicate that it really mattered neither one way or the other to him. He would just as well enjoy the solitude of being left alone in his library, Yoko well knew.
So they set out in the company of Kiro and his best trackers to hunt down a hideous monster down from the cold heights. Kall-Su retreated to his books and Yoko went back to contemplating the future life of her baby.
It was barely that evening when a messenger came to the gates with a note for her. The maid that brought it to her looked as bemused by the sealed letter as Yoko herself was. Everyone she knew in Sta-Veron, save a few casual acquaintances in town, lived within the walls of the castle. She turned the parchment over in her hands curiously. It was sealed with wax and bound with a blue ribbon. She broke both seals and unfolded the paper. The note was short and written in a neat script.
Tia Note Yoko
I have come a great distance to find you. It is urgent that I speak with you. It concerns your honorable father, the great priest Geo Note. I am staying at the Red Wolf Inn. Please come this afternoon and please use discretion. There are those who do not hold your esteemed father in good will.
Your friend
Maya
Maya? Maya was a holy sword. She had trained with Maya when she had thought to enter that fellowship. Maya was devoted to Geo Note and the Goddess. She had even on occasion protected Yoko's own life. And she was here. How had she managed the cruel journey through the winter bound north? Oh, Schneider's new pass opened the way. One could hardly forget, considering how much Kiro and his men groused about the vulnerability in which the magic made pass placed the Ice Lord's provinces.
A dozen dread scenarios passed her mind over what might have brought the holy sword here regarding her father. Had something happened to the great priest? Oh, please let it not be so. Please let him be all right. She dearly wanted him to see his grandchild. She put her sewing down, hands shaking, and went up stairs to fetch her cloak. With Gara and Schneider out on the hunt it would be easy to sneak into the city with no one insisting on escorting her and none the wiser. She put her hood up and hustled through the courtyard and all the daily activity that went on about the castle. The guards let her through the gate with nothing more than a nod of greeting and a wish for her to have a good afternoon. She returned the courtesy and asked where the Red Wolf Inn was located.
A nice inn, not far from the gates of the city. It was a long, cold walk, but the exercise felt good. Her cheeks and nose were red by the time she stepped into the front door of the inn. A fire crackled in the main hearth. A collection of tables sat about the room and the smells of baking bread drifted through the air. There was a couple at one table, taking lunch and a lone, cloaked figure sitting by the window. A woman looked up at her. Close cropped hair and a nose disfigured by one too many fights, but not unpretty. Yoko remembered her before the nose had been broken and the hair shorn.
"Maya." They clasped hands and hugged. Maya gestured Yoko to sit and she did.
"Are you here by yourself?" Yoko began to assault the holy sword with questions. "Is father all right? How did you manage to come all this way in the winter? Did the army go back home?"
"Yoko." The young woman placed her hands over Yoko's, smiling gently. "I'm just glad to find you alive and unharmed."
"Why would I be harmed? These are my friends."
"I know, but they are not the friends of your father."
"Father. Is he okay?"
"No. He came to find you. But the journey was harsh. He's injured and we feared to bring him here. It is well known that Dark Schneider holds a grudge against him and after --- all that happened we thought it doubly risky."
"Oh, goddess, Maya. Where is he?"
"In the mountains to the south. We're in hiding from the Ice Lord's men. They guard the pass. He wants to see you."
"Maya, you've got to bring him here. It will be all right. I'll get Lord Kall-Su to send out a party ---"
"No. You don't see it. You're too close to them. Do you remember what your sorcerous friends are capable of? Do you doubt that Dark Schneider would hesitate to destroy an enemy of his?"
Yoko stared, aghast. At this moment in time, when he was so angry and chaotic in his moods, she was not quite certain she could deny such a thing.
"But, I can't just ride out without telling anyone. Not that far. They'll be worried." Goddess, Maya couldn't imagine how worried, considering Yoko's present state.
"Leave a note with the innkeeper here. Have it delivered tonight after we've gotten half a days ride and relieve any fears. He came all this way to see you, Yoko. Don't make it in vain."
"What does he want? Does he want to bring me back? Larz said I was banished from Meta-Rikan. Did he change his mind?"
Sadly, Maya shook her head. "No. It's why he came all this way. I don't think he can live not knowing you're all right. He places the blame upon himself."
"He doesn't! That's ridiculous. It was my decision and nobody else's."
"Yoko, please, we don't have much time. Just talk to him."
What could she do, really. Turn away from her father. Again. After she had left him without a word of good bye. She had condemned herself for that for a long while now. He lay injured in the mountains waiting for her.
"I don't have the gear to make such a trip." She said quietly. Maya smiled, relieved.
"I do. Come with me to my room and we'll get you travel clothing."
Through the gates they rode, two bundled, faceless riders. The gate guards had no reason not to let them pass. Their horses plowed through soft snow and Yoko thought over and over how angry they all were going to be at her for running off like this. She could imagine Keitlan's disparaging words. Kall-Su's icy stare and goddess -- goddess, Rushie's rage that would have nothing to do with ice or cold. Well, they'd have to live with it. Father was more important than a short while of worry on their part. She would talk him into coming back to Sta-Veron. It would be stupid for him not to. She would talk reason into everyone. Whether they wanted to hear it or not.
They rode deep into the night, until Yoko finally begged exhaustion and they made camp. A miserable little pit dug out of the snow where they bundled together in sleeping bags to conserve heat. They continued on early the next morning and Yoko murmured the words to a healing spell to take away her exhaustion, to make certain the baby was all right inside her with all the cold and the exertion.
No riders came after them. But, as Maya said, they had a good head start. She hoped Kall-Su had received her message. The innkeeper's boy had promised to deliver it at the falling of dusk. That afternoon the white caps of the southern mountains came into view. Yoko had never seen them from this side of the range before. The last time, she had been so self-absorbed in misery that she had hardly noticed how beautiful they were. The stark snowy plains turned into woodland and the gradual sloping of hills.
"How much further?" she asked, when the mountains loomed so close they seemed to fill the sky.
"A day perhaps." Maya said. "Not too deep into the mountains."
That was a relief. Yoko did not relish having to ride those steep trails. They had been treacherous enough during the fall.
Mistress Keitlan had come timidly knocking at the library door the night after the hunt left looking for monsters in the mountains. Kall-Su assumed it was a request that he take some dinner, whether here or in the hall. She probably had it with her. He absently called permission to enter and the woman stepped into the room, hands unencumbered, and clutching at each other nervously. Mistress Keitlan did not normally show great nervousness in his presence, unlike most of her staff. He quirked a brow at her in question.
"My lord. It's the lady Yoko. She's -- she's disappeared from the castle."
"What do you mean-- disappeared?"
"She's nowhere to be found, my lord. I had my girls search high and low when she didn't take lunch. I thought, perhaps she might have gone into town, but she'd not stay this long. It's getting past dark."
He stared at her, the book and all he'd been reading banished from his mind. All he could feel was that numb sensation of shock that came with unexpected grave news. "Did the guards see her leave the castle?"
"Yes, lord. Early this afternoon. She asked after the Red Wolf Inn."
"Have you sent anyone there looking for her?"
"No, my lord. I came to you first."
He shut the book and rose, not bothering to put it in its place. "She said nothing to you at all about an errand or something she wanted from town?"
"Not a word. But-- but one of the girls brought her a note this morning."
"A note? From whom?"
"I don't know. She didn't say. I think that's why she went into town. At least I can't think of any other reason."
He took a breath to prevent himself from cursing the woman for not thinking it odd for Yoko to be receiving notes in the first place and doubly so for not mentioning it right away. "Call down to the stable and have my horse readied."
She bobbed her head and hurried to do his bidding. He disregarded the offer of escort, wanting to settle this-- hoping desperately to settle this quietly and on his own before alerting the whole town that one of his guests had gone missing. He rode through the streets with none of the nighttime travelers aware that their lord moved among them. He knew the inn. It was by the main gates of the city. He left the chestnut in the street outside and stalked into the front door.
A dozen mildly curious faces looked up from dinners and drinks to access him, the intruder in their midst. A murmur went up. He was not inconspicuous. Quiet descended rather suddenly after that.
"Who owns this inn?" he asked into the silence. The man behind the bar blanched and hesitantly lifted a hand.
"I do, yer lordship."
Kall walked towards him, weeding through tables to get there. People got up hastily, making a path for him. "Is there a place we can talk?"
The man gestured to a door behind the bar. The entrance to the kitchen and the rooms the innkeepers family shared. The wife froze in the slicing of a chunk of meat. A boy stared wide eyed from a suds filled basin, a dirty dish in hand.
"My lord, is there something I can get you? What service do you wish?"
"Did a young woman come here this afternoon. Very pretty, long reddish hair. Brown eyes. So tall." He held his hand up at about chin level. "She might have received a message to meet someone here."
The boy dropped his dish, dark eyes widening in something very like terror.
"I remember a girl like that. Yes, I do, my lord. Came this afternoon." The innkeeper nodded eagerly, glad to help. Overjoyed to help. "She did meet someone. Another woman. Checked in just yesterday and left today. Paid in southern gold and a lot of it, so I gave her a room. Had two horses in the stables. Your girl, she might have left with her, now that I recall."
Left with the woman? Left with some strange woman who summoned her with a mysterious note? Was Yoko insane? He took a moment to compose a calm question.
"Did they say where they were going?"
The inn keeper shook his head. The wife hadn't moved an inch, the knife still held gripped in her fingers, her face shocked at the presence of the Ice Lord himself in her kitchen. The boy's face was a picture of fear. Of guilt. Kall fixed his eyes upon the teenager.
"Did you see them leave or hear what they might have said?"
"N--no. No, not I." It came out a strangled gasp. The boy wiped soapy hands on his tunic, eyes flickering nervously towards the back door.
"For some reason," Kall said softly. "I don't believe you."
The boy's face turned ashen. He bolted suddenly for the door, practically slammed it off its hinges as he rushed through it. Kall ground his teeth and brushed past the startled innkeeper after the boy. There was a narrow alley outside and the boy ran pell nell down it. Kall made a sign in the air, and of the darkness that swallowed the ground a beast rose up, made of ice and water and arcane power. It roared, a brittle, shrieking roar and bounded down the alley, overtaking the boy in three leaps, and slamming him to the ground. It crouched over him, it's cold maw at his neck, when Kall came up. He crouched where the boy could see him.
"So, what are you afraid to tell me?"
"Nothing. I swear it. I didn't do nothing."
Kall sighed, beleaguered. "Do you really want to lie to me? Think about it."
The boy thought. His eyes leaked tears and his finger clutched at the hard earth. "I didn't know. I swear I didn't know she had nothing to do with you." He finally cried out. "All I did was throw the note into the fire. The other girl, she gave me a silver piece not to take it to the castle."
"This note. What did it say?"
"I don't know. I can't read, yer lordship."
He believed him. He rubbed a hand over his eyes, chasing away the beginnings of a throbbing head ache. Schneider was going to kill him. Was absolutely and completely going to kill him.
"What fire?" he waved a finger and the ice beast dissipated into a shower of fine snow that heaped upon the boys sprawled body. The boy gaped at him.
"The main one. The main hearth. But it's long gone to cinders now."
"Have you cleaned the ash since you burned it?"
"No." The boy's brows drew in befuddlement.
Kall was not of a mind to explain it. He rose and went back into the inn. Past the innkeeper and his crying wife and into the main room, where the patrons had formed into groups of curious spectators. He ignored them. Went to the fire and stood before it. Reconstruction was tedious work and mix that with the active flame, which was never his specialty, and it promised to bring back the headache. He recollected the words of the spell, got them straight in his mind before speaking them outloud. Felt the fire rebel against his influences, thought about just smothering it, but that might scatter the ashes and this would be so much easier if they were all in one place.
Something flickered besides flame in the hearth. Ash and cinder coalesced, fluttering up out of the pile at the bottom of the pit.
He focused on what he wanted, on the hand of the person who had written it, on the thing that had her aura about it that had been consumed by the fire.
A piece of black edged, charred paper floated out of the fire and settled on the hearthstones. Kall picked it up and read Yoko's graceful, sweeping script.
Kall-Su
Please forgive me for not telling you, but my father has traveled into the mountains and waits to see me. A Holy Sword has come to take me to him. He is injured and I hope to convince him to return to Sta-Veron with me.
If Schneider gets back before I do, please, please don't let him get angry and come after me. I want to convince father there is no harm for him here.
Love
Yoko
He read it again and once more, looking for something to explain her duplicity. Her father's uncertainty of his well being in Sta-Veron was ridiculous. That he would ask her to travel days through winter storm and snow to reach him was inconceivable. Geo Note was not that stupid. That she would consent to it, pregnant and alone, was pure insanity. How could she be so gullible?
He folded the note carefully and placed it in his belt. The silence in the room behind him was tomb-like. All their eyes held some measure of fear at his presence. And these were his people, who averted their gazes from his when he chanced to pass them by. An old man made a little averted sign against evil. Kall-Su stopped looking then. Just focused his eyes elsewhere until he was out of the inn and back to the unbiased company of his horse.
He had to let Schneider know. There was no help for it. She was out there in the company of someone who had paid to divert her note from him. No proper company that. Headed towards something that very well might not be her father. They had too many enemies to take chances. He had no choice. If Schneider would be angry at him letting it happen to begin with, he would be doubly so if he were not alerted post-haste.
Trees closed around them like leering giants, their limbs heavy with snow. It fell sometimes in clumps, hitting the ground with muffled impact that was eerie and echoless in the insulated forest slope. Yoko pulled her cloak tighter, huddling under its insubstantial warmth. Maya rode before her, looking for a path in the camouflaging snow. A trail that would lead to Geo Note. There was a fork in the trail up ahead. One way leading west down the sloping side of the mountain and the other winding higher up. Maya looked back and grinned, pointing to the higher path.
"This is it. " She called. Yoko sighed, relief filling her like warmth. She urged her horse up the trail and it obliged with a put upon equine sigh. Up the trail and past an outcropping of granite and she picked up the scent of smoke in the air. There was a camp site beyond the bend in the trail, with horses picketed in the lee of a group of trees and a fire pit dug in the snow. Men sat around it, cloaked and bundled against the cold. She could not see the cut of their armor under the winter gear. She looked for the familiar form of her father. For the outer robes of a priest and saw them huddled next to the fire for warmth.
Yoko let out a little cry of joy and spurred her horse past Maya, and towards the camp site.
"Father." She cried. "Father, its me."
She pulled the animal to a stop, untangling her cloak to dismount. He straightened his shoulders and rose, turning to face her. His eyes gleamed up at her, sparkling with the fervor of victory. Not the face of her father at all. But the narrow, long features that belonged to the Prophet.
"My sweet little Yoko. How nice of you to join me." He smiled up at her and she recoiled, so profoundly shocked that she could not even summon the breath to scream. The men around him rose, and beneath the cloaks she saw the signal of his holy guard, she saw the green eyed face of his captain Sinakha.
All she had the strength to whisper was a terrified prayer to the goddess before he reached out for her.