White Road

from a Plenimaran ship.
    When it was all fixed, Alec modeled it for them.
    Seregil frowned. “It’s not perfect.”
    “It’s good enough for a foreigner’s slaves,” said Micum. “The brands and collars should be enough to convince anyone.”
    That night Seregil and Alec sat down to map out all that they recalled of the alchemist’s villa. Alec had seen only a bit of the cellar under the house where his cell had been, and the way from there to the workshop with its two gardens. Seregil had been kept in an upper room overlooking the inner garden, and then in the same cell that Alec had been in, but he had been unconscious for the transitions. The night he’d escaped with the Khatme nurse, it had been dark and she’d been in the lead, but he had some sense of the direction she’d taken, leading him down through the dining room into the central courtyard. The workshop garden lay just beyond. He’d also spent a night in an attic overlooking that same garden.
    Alec knew the workshop best, and sketched it, markingthe forge and athanor, tables and other structures, including a small ornate tent at the far end. “And here’s where the tunnel begins, under the anvil nearest the door,” Alec said, showing Rieser.
    “And you can’t just go in that way?”
    “I considered that, but I don’t think we could lift the trapdoor with that anvil bolted on top of it,” Seregil explained. “I almost killed myself getting it closed last time.”
    “Perhaps with my help—” Rieser began.
    “You won’t be there.”
    “You are not going to get the book without me.”
    “Oh, yes, we are. We know what we’re doing and don’t need you there, bumping around and knocking things over in the dark. If you want the book, then you damn well better leave it to us.”
    “He’s right,” Micum told Rieser. “You and I will have our own task.”
    “And I’ll find out what that is later, I suppose?”
    “The night I got out and hid in that attic, I overheard the guards talking about a gully behind the workshop’s garden wall,” Seregil told them. “That might be a good route in, if the workshop backs up to it.”
    “What about the tunnel?”
    “Repeating ourselves would be dangerous. Unless something better presents itself, I think a straightforward burglary by way of the gully is the best plan for now. If all else fails, then we can use the tunnel, but I’d rather not.”
    “You seem to be leaving a lot to chance,” Rieser noted.
    Seregil grinned. “We don’t know how else to operate.”
    They reached a small wooded island on the afternoon of the third day out. Alec and the others went ashore while the sails were changed for the black-and-white-striped ones and the figurehead was removed and stowed away. The sails were a bit of a risk, since meeting a Skalan ship was a very real possibility in these waters.
    “I’ve done this before,” Rhal had assured them. “And I haven’t encountered the warship, Skalan or Plenimaran, that my
Lady
can’t outrun.”
    It was peaceful here. No one lived on the island. There was only the sound of the waves, the wind, and the cries of gulls and ospreys. Alec drank it all in, knowing this was likely to be their last respite for a long time.
    Seregil picked up a flat stone from the beach and sent it skipping across the surface of the cove toward the
Lady
with a practiced snap of his wrist.
    “How much longer until we reach Plenimar?” asked Rieser, watching the progress with the sails.
    “Three or four more days, according to Captain Rhal.” Micum sent a stone skimming after Seregil’s. It went a few skips farther.
    Alec watched the two of them compete, but his thoughts were elsewhere. The Skalan coast had dropped below the horizon yesterday. He was feeling very far from home—and from that waterfall where Rieser’s Ebrados were supposedly waiting for them. “Sebrahn could be halfway to Cirna by now.”
    “I gave you my word,” Rieser replied calmly. “My riders will not disobey my orders, if that’s what you’re thinking.”
    And to Alec’s surprise, the man picked up a flat stone half the size of his palm and sent it skipping farther than any of the others.
    The striped sails went up quickly, and they were under way again before sundown.
    Alec stood by himself at the rail as the coast of Plenimar came into view on the horizon, distracted by old memories. Gazing north, he pulled absently at the collar he now wore and wondered how far they were from that