The scene was so dazzling, she became disoriented and veered off course to collide with a sharp corner of the intersection. Thalia had to yank her the rest of the way into blessed darkness. Maia rubbed where her forehead had struck stone, blinking to reaccustom her eyes to obscurity.
She looked up quickly. "Renna?" she whispered, casting about.
"I'm here, Maia," came a soft reply.
She turned to her left. The man stood with Kiel a little farther down the dim hallway. Maia hadn't heard or sensed him cross. Embarrassed by her outburst, she looked away. This person was not at all like the sage, older woman she had envisioned. Though there had been no lies, she nonetheless felt betrayed, if by nothing else, then by her all-too-human tendency to make assumptions.
Unless it has to do with the ships or sparking, you just suppose a person is female till you learn otherwise. I guess that's not very nice.
Still … he should have told me!
Now she and Thalia took up the rear while Renna and Kiel forged ahead. For the first time, Maia noticed that the man was carrying a small blue pouch at his belt and something much larger strapped across his back. A slim case of burnished metal.
A Game of Life set, she realized. Oh, he's a man, all right!
I was such an idiot, picturing some noble savant who'd figured out how to send such clever messages out of pure resourcefulness. I don't suppose those tricks were difficult for a man who's spent his whole life playing the game.
It was obvious enough, now. But trapped in her cell with only clicks in the night for company, she had been looking more through wishes than reason. How strange, to feel a sense of mourning for a friend who stood just a few meters away, alive, healthy, and, for the moment, free. Yet the Renna Maia had imagined was dead, as surely as Leie. This new Renna was an unwelcome replacement.
Unfair? Maia knew it.
LIFE'S unfair. So? Find Lysos and sue her.
Minutes later, Kiel led them to a narrow door where she knocked twice. The wooden portal swung open, revealing a stocky blonde woman holding a crowbar like a weapon. The door showed signs of damage, its lock-hasp pried away, a broken padlock on the floor.
"Got 'em?" the gate guardian asked. She was tall, rangy, fair-haired, and tough-looking. Kiel only nodded. "Come on," Thalia said, leading the way down another short flight of stairs. Maia smelled the night even before a chill wind touched her skin. It had a freshness she had never felt from the open window of her cell. Then they were outside, under the stars.
From the postern gate they stepped onto a broad stone porch, just one meter above the level of the plain. Kiel strode to the edge, brought her fingers to her mouth, and whistled the call of a gannen bird. From the darkness came a trilling reply, like an echo, followed by the sound of hoofbeats. The tall blonde pushed the door back into place as four women came riding up, each holding the reins of one or two spare mounts.
Unleashing bundles tied to the back of one animal, Thalia thrust into Maia's hands a rough wool coat, which she gratefully slipped on. She was still buttoning when Kiel took her arm and motioned toward the edge of the platform, where a sash-horse had been brought alongside. Moonlight glistened along the beast's striped flanks as it snorted, blew and stamped. Maia couldn't help cringing a bit. Her riding experience had been confined to tame beasts guided by skilled Trevor wranglers, hired for springtime outings so Lamai summerlings could check one more item off their mothers' "life-preparation" syllabus as quickly and cheaply as possible.
"He won't bite, virgie," the woman holding the bridle said, laughing.
Pride overcame apprehension, and Maia managed to grab the saddle horn without trembling. Slipping her left foot into the stirrup, she swung astride. The horse danced, testing her weight. She reached over to accept the reins, feeling elated when the creature did not bolt the next instant. Relieved, Maia bent to pat its neck.
"What the hell is that?"
They were gruff words of protest. Maia turned to see the man, Renna, pointing at the beast in front of him. Kiel came alongside and touched his arm, as if to ease his fears.
"It's a horse. We use them here for riding and—"
Renna cocked his head. "I know what a horse is. I meant, what's that thing on its back?"
"On its back? Why . . . that's a saddle, where you ride."
Perplexed, he shook his head. "That blocky thing's a saddle? Why is it different than the others?"
All the women, even Maia, burst out laughing. She couldn't help it. The question was so incongruous, so unexpected. Maybe he was from outer space, after all! Renna's look of confused consternation only made her giggle more, covering her mouth with her free hand.
Kiel, too, tried to conceal mirth. "Naturally, it's a sidesaddle. I know you'd prefer a wagon or palanquin, but we just haven't got . . ." The woman stopped in mid-sentence and stared. "What are you doing?"
Renna had jumped off the porch and was reaching underneath the mount selected for him. "Just . . . making a slight . . . adjustment," he grunted. "There."
To Maia's astonishment, the bulky, cushioned saddle slid sideways and tumbled to the ground. Then, even more surprisingly, the man took the horse's mane in his hands and, in a single bound, leaped aboard straddle-wise, like a woman! The others reacted with audible gasps. Maia winced at an involuntary twinge in her loins.
"How can you—" Thalia started to ask, dry-mouthed.
"Stirrups would be nice," he interrupted. "But we can take turns riding bareback till we rig something up. Now, let's get the hell out of here,"
Kiel blinked. "Are you sure you know what you're—"
In answer, Renna flicked the reins and set his mount cantering, then trotting toward the place where the sun had set hours ago. The direction of the sea. As they stared after him, he let out a cry of such exultation that Maia felt a thrill. The man had given voice to what wanted out of her own lungs. Amazement gave way to pure joy as she, too, dug in her heels. Her mount complied willingly, hastening on the same bearing, kicking dust toward the memory of her imprisonment.
The escape party didn't take the direct route to safety, toward the outlet of Long Valley. The Perkinites would surely look there first. Kiel and the others had a plan. After that initial exuberant trot, the caravan settled into a brisk but deliberate walk, roughly south by southwest.
About an hour after departure, there came a faint sound in the distance behind them. A low clanging. Turning around, Maia saw the thin, moonlit, rocky spire where she had been jailed, by now diminished with distance and beginning to sink into the horizon. High along its dark flank, several bright pinpoints told of windows coming alight.
"Bloody moonset!" Kiel cursed, clucking to her mount and setting a quicker pace. "I was hoping we'd have till morning. Let's make tracks."
Kiel didn't speak figuratively, Maia soon realized. The band kept purposely to open ground, where speed was good but the horses' hooves also left easily-followed impressions. "It's part of our plan, so's to make the Perkies lazy," Thalia explained as they rode along. "We have a trick in mind. Don't worry."
"I'm not," Maia replied. She was too happy to be concerned. After running the horses for a while, they halted, and the tall, rough-looking blonde rose high in her stirrups to aim a spyglass rearward. "No sign of anyone breathin' down our necks," she said, collapsing the tube again. The pace slowed then, to keep their mounts from tiring.
Prompted by a brief query from Thalia, asking how she had been treated in prison, Maia found herself spilling whole run-on paragraphs about her arrival at the stony citadel, about the terrible cooking of the Guel jailers, how awful it had been to spend Autumn End Day in a place like that, and how she never hoped to see the insides of a man sanctuary again. She knew she was jabbering, but if Thalia and the others seemed amused, she didn't care. Anyone would jabber after such a sudden reversal of fortunes, from despair to excitement, with the fresh air of freedom filling her lungs like an intoxicant.