White Road

these, and us, Rieser,” Seregil told him. “But you have my gratitude. I’m in your debt.”
    “And me,” said Alec.
    “And I, and my family,” added Micum with a half bow. “You’ll always be welcome at my door.”
    Rieser looked up at him, face betraying little. “I’m told it was you who pulled me from the water after I was struck.”
    “That’s right.”
    “Then we are even and there is no debt on either side.”
    Micum shook his head, grinning. “Well, you’re welcome at my door anyway.”
    After a few days, Seregil’s side still hurt badly enough by nightfall to keep him from lying down flat to sleep, but Rieser was in worse shape. His broken shoulder blade was a constant source of pain, and the arrow wound was still infected, the skin around it a swollen, angry red. Rhal’s healer dressed their wounds several times a day and used hishealing spells and potions, but they only slowed the infection spreading through Rieser’s shoulder without curing it. The fever from it kept him in his bunk for the duration of the voyage. The others looked in on him through the day, though he didn’t welcome their attentions.
    “You’ve caught yourself a strange one there,” Captain Rhal observed over supper one night. “Not a real friendly sort of fellow.”
    “Not really,” Seregil agreed with a wry grin. “He’s an interesting man, though, and a good fighter.”
    “What’s going to happen when you get him back to his people?”
    “We’ll see, won’t we? I’m prepared for a less than warm welcome, especially if Rieser dies on us before we get there.”
    “Sounds like you could use some help,” said Rhal.
    Seregil raised an eyebrow. “I was thinking the same thing. Could you spare me ten men? I’ll do my best to get them back to you in one piece.”
    “Will ten be enough?”
    “I think so. It will give us some protection without looking like we’re declaring war. If it does take a bad turn, your crew are seasoned fighters.”
    “So are the Ebrados,” said Alec.
    “We don’t know that,” Seregil pointed out. “They used magic and trickery on us, not force.”
    Rhal scratched under his beard and thought a moment. “Well, I guess I’ll come along with you. We’ve had some slack months and I don’t want to get out of practice. Nettles, you’ll be in command while I’m gone. Skywake, go ask for volunteers. And Dani isn’t to be one of them.”
    “I’m going to enjoy having the odds more in our favor for a change,” Alec said with a dangerous grin.
    “Do they have any wizards we should watch out for?” asked Rhal.
    “Rieser is the only one I know of, and he doesn’t seem to have much power beyond simple transformations,” said Seregil. “But there’s a witch called Turmay who uses a longhorn for his magic. If we can get that away from him, he may not be able to do any harm.”
    “Can he kill with it?”
    “We don’t know,” Micum replied. “But he can put you to sleep better than a nursemaid’s song, and that could be just as bad in the long run.”

CHAPTER 33
Hard Choices
    R HAL STOPPED at the same island to change sails. From here it was less than a week back to the waterfall encampment.
    Alec hadn’t slept much better than Seregil for the past few nights. In the dark, the thoughts that had been lurking at the edges of his mind since they’d burgled Yhakobin’s workshop could not be kept at bay.
    When they dropped anchor in the little cove, Alec turned to Seregil suddenly and said, “Are you up to a walk?”
    “Yes.”
    “Let’s go ashore. Just you and me, this time.”
    Alec was grateful that Seregil asked no questions as he rowed him ashore in one of the boats and put in at the same beach where the four of them had skipped stones together.
    Alec was in no mood for that today. Taking the lead, he walked up the short beach and over the ledges beyond. Great flocks of grey-backed gulls rose with raucous screams of protest and circled stubbornly. Thick forest lay beyond, and as they made their way along a deer path that wended between the tall pines and oaks they found themselves stepping around stick rings of last year’s gull nests, some still holding shards of speckled brown eggs in a bed of matted white down.
    It wasn’t curiosity or the pleasure of being off the ship that drove Alec deeper and deeper into the woods. The words he wanted to say were burning his heart, and once he began,there would be no taking them back. So he walked on, and Seregil