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Topiara - Chapter 29
Farranby watched with real trepidation from the rock he had climbed as Lyara tacked the boat carefully and aimed the craft at a wide gap that opened onto a small, pebbled beach. He had argued with her almost the entire trip without success, trying to convince her not to beach the craft and use the driftwood raft to return to the mainland. But Lyara's mind had been made up; her plans made when her clandestine trip that morning had discovered the tiny bay that would be a beach at low tide. She would beach the craft and drop anchor for when the tide did come in, but intended for it to appear that the craft had dragged its mooring in the storm and been tossed up by accident.
Lyara stood, watching the rocks carefully and ready to drop sail at a moment's notice. With the light from the twilight almost gone, navigating the treacherous shore was dependant entirely on her memory of the lay of the rocks. She deliberately refused to allow herself to contemplate the stout little craft ripping its keel open on the jagged rocks. Her hand released the sail and she thrust the rudder hard a-port, and the craft ground suddenly to a halt in the pebbles.
"The sea god must owe you one huge favor," Farranby called to her as he clambered toward the dark bulk of the boat. "You better hope that Jilan doesn't ask me what I think of your scheme."
"Catch!" Lyara tossed down the bundle that was Jilan's bow and arrows at her companion after making sure of his location. She swing her legs over the gunwale and, taking a deep breath, dropped to the beach carefully. "I'll tell him myself when I see him in the morning," she said, giving Farranby a friendly slap on the back. "Did you lash that pole down like I asked?"
"I still think you're absolutely crazy, Lyara." Far ranby looked out over the angry waters of the strait toward the mainland, where he knew Jilan would be keeping a vigil. "You sure that raft is going to get you back?"
"It got you over here, didn't it?" Lyara's voice held a note of steel that was hard to argue with any longer. "Besides, I've swum that far without a raft before. The raft means I won't have to work so hard, but I'll get back to the mainland a little later."
"I give up. Look." Farranby took her by a shoulder and turned her so she was looking up the bluff of the cliff. "The estate walls are only a hundred paces or so from the edge of that cliff. I'll find me a comfortable cave to hide in for the day, but I'll be watching from tomorrow night on. Meet me at the front gate -- that'll be the easiest place for us all to find each other." When they hadn't been arguing, they'd been discussing this little strategy.
"We'll lower that flag, and wait by the gate." Lyara nodded. "Look for us to lower the flag by two nights from now. I don't think it will any sooner than that. Sharin has to get into the cook's confidence." She turned to face him and reached up to pat a shoulder. "Good luck, my friend. May the gods all smile on us."
"And may the sea god see you safely on this night!" Farranby grasped Lyara's opposite shoulder in return. "You are a good friend, Lyara. Take care that we can enjoy that friendship for a long time to come."
Lyara patted his shoulder one last time. "I promise." Then she bent to hoist the driftwood raft and twist it into the waves at the base of the rock. Farranby picked up the bundled bow and straightened in time to see her slip care fully into the water and pull herself onto the narrow drift wood. He turned abruptly and began clambering from the tumbled rocks at the base of the cliffs to where he could begin the climb in earnest.
Lyara pulled the long pole from where Farranby had tied it down and began moving along the shore of the island just beyond the breakers. This part of her diversion from the set plans she hadn't been willing to share with anyone, even Farranby. Dark was falling, when a careful thief could find enough shadows to hide in to discover entries and exits to any estate. Topiara warmed in its little pouch and began a series of narratives, describing the outside walls of the estate stronghold.
The shore side cliffs gradually sloped into rolling hills, and it was there that Lyara brought her makeshift raft to land among the scattered kelp that had washed up on the beach. Her wet leather clothing was dark and blended well into the shadows, as she had hoped. Farranby's description of the cottages around the stronghold had been accurate. Scattered with little rhyme or reason, lighted windows and the low rumble of unintelligible conversations pockmarked the hillside outside the walls. There was nobody moving about outside in the storm, once more as she had planned, so she had little fear of discovery here.
Topiara would warm on her breast and warn of the animals of each dwelling, so that Lyara was able to move from the beach to the shadows of the cottage nearest the gate without causing the slightest squawk or rustle. One wet and hungry lobon sniffed at her leg, but slunk away when Lyara turned sharply and hissed at it, showing her teeth in the dim moonlight that now lit the landscape. Vinzen must not be expecting any problems, Topiara whispered in her mind, because there's only one man guarding the gate, and he's on the inside.
Lyara moved closer, staying within the shadows. There he was, lolling against the corner of what Farranby had said was the dormitory, keeping himself dry under an overhanging eave and looking just about anywhere but out the gate. This is what she had come to see, and she agreed with Topiara that no trouble was expected. Security was light, and would be easy to penetrate for Farranby if need be. Just knowing this made her mind more at ease with the plans that had been made.
Listening carefully to Topiara's advice once more, Lyara slipped back through the maze of cottages, pausing once at a wet pile of broken stones and burnt wood. Topiara warmed and soothed, but Lyara knew with a certainty that this had been Farranby's home. She would never again need Topiara's aid to see the glimpse of the broken child's body among the rubble. Her eyes grew hard and her lips pressed into a grim line, her determination strengthened. Anyone who would do that to a child deserved what was planned.
On the beach, she never paused to search for the drift wood raft. She had cut the ropes that bound it and tossed them back to the waves, so that it would not even appear other than the driftwood it was. Lyara simply walked into the waves, waiting until the swell was deep enough to dive forward into a surging breaker. Vandor, her old Master, had demanded that all his apprentices be able to swim more than twice the two-mile distance that spanned the island from the mainland. In that she had not lied to Farranby. It took only a few minutes after she had past the surging breakers before she had found once more the comfortable rhythm that would carry her back to the mainland long before daybreak.
Now that she was safely in the water, not even the storm's driving rain bothered her any longer.
oOoOo
Jilan sat beneath a cape that was arranged among the branches of a siliman bush so that the rain that was not deflected by the bush above rolled away and kept him some what dry. From here he could see out across the beach and make out the phosphorescent waves of the strait. It had been a long night, and he had found himself dozing off in spite of his determination to stay alert until Lyara re turned. With no moonlight, there was no way for him to see far enough across the water to tell whether the little craft was on its way back or not. But the strength of the storm worried him.
Lyara had been proud of her skills as a seaman and navigator, and Jilan was fairly certain her pride wouldn't have been overblown. She just wasn't that type of person; if she knew something well, she was neither humble nor brag ging about it but matter-of-fact. He, however, distrusted the sea. Too many volumes at the university had spoken of the perversity of the sea gods, taking lives only inches from safety. That Lyara trusted herself to the questionable care of the one she called Mah Myla on that horrible little boat was almost beyond belief.
He dozed again, only to be awakened when a particularly strong gust threw a spatter of cold rain directly into his face. Shivering with more than cold, he peered out of his shelter at the beach and shoreline. Then he blinked, rubbed his eyes roughly and stared again. From the dimly glowing waves a figure had risen and was walking with la bored steps toward the beach. Even in the dark he couldn't mistake that carriage. "Lyara!" he cried and sprang out into the storm toward her.
Lyara was too tired to complain as he wrapped her into a desperate hug and held her close for a moment. Then Jilan pushed back at her shoulders and glared at her accusingly. "Where's the boat?"
"On the island, where I wanted it," she answered with a trace of indignation. "Do you really think Vinzen would keep it at the dock long enough for us to use? Of course not! He'd have it plying the coast from here to Utpala in a breath. I want it available when we need it. That meant I had to put it somewhere where it has a chance of not being discovered right away."
Still keeping an arm wrapped around her, Jilan led the way past the siliman bush where he retrieved his cape and wrapped them both. Then he steered her back through the scrub brush toward where Sharin was maintaining the campsite. "Is that what you weren't telling me?" he demanded.
"Some of it." Lyara found herself grateful for Jilan's arm around her. The swim had tired her more than she had thought, probably because I haven't swum much these last few years, she thought. "I'll tell you the rest of it when Sharin can hear it too," she promised.
The campsite made Lyara straighten up in surprise. Jilan and Sharin had made good use of the time before the storm had struck in earnest, using more driftwood and Lyara's own cape to make a makeshift lean-to amid the taller of the boulders. There were still flames licking hungrily at small pieces of driftwood back where the wind couldn't douse the fire with sprays of rain. Jilan felt Lyara's surprise and smiled in satisfaction that he could amaze her once in a while. "Like it?"
As a answer, Lyara dove for the fireside, opening her hands to gather in as much of the warmth as possible. Sharin stirred at the commotion, and then roused as she saw Lyara's drowned appearance. "What happened to you?" she demanded in her turn. "Is Farranby all right?"
"Here." Jilan tossed a dry tunic and trousers onto the ground beside Lyara. "Put these on before you chill your self to the bone. I'll just step out for a minute." He wrapped himself in his cape and went around the first boul der so Lyara could have privacy.
"Farranby's fine," Lyara reassured the younger girl between grunts as she pulled the drenched leather clothing from her body with difficulty. "I left the boat on the island and swam back, that's all."
"You could've been killed!"
Lyara stopped her tugging and looked at Sharin apprais ingly. In her time with them, the former serving girl had gained a measure of confidence and strength that had been sadly lacking before. Seeing it gave Lyara even more hope that they would succeed. "We aren't going to accomplish anything by staying safe, Sharin. We all could be killed, or worse, in the next two days. I did what I did to try and give us that extra chance, just in case."
Sharin glowered. Lyara's words were just too logical to debate. "You could've warned us."
"And have you two fuss-biddies worry yourselves sick? Not in a hundred years!" Lyara tugged the tunic over her head and straightened it brusquely. "Jilan! I'm decent! Come back in out of the rain!"
Jilan removed his cape just under the edge of the lean-to and tucked it into the driftwood so that it hung down, giving more protection from the wind and making the shelter capable of holding at least a little heat. "All right, Lyara," he said, finding a place across the fire from Lyara and Sharin, "lets have the rest of it. Sharin's here."
"What's this now?" Sharin looked from one to the other in confusion, caught in the act of adding more driftwood to their little fire.
"Before I began swimming back, I took a little stroll up from the beach toward the estate. Farranby was right, there's . . ."
"You did what?!" Jilan and Sharin barked their sur prise and consternation in unison.
Lyara put up her hands to motion them to calm down. "Nobody saw me, and I'm here safe; so don't scold. Besides, it was necessary to gauge the mood of the place, and the storm made a perfect cover for me to sneak in and out with out any trouble. If Vinzen were worried about something, he'd have had guards posted all over the place, don't you think?"
"I hate it when you're right," Jilan grumbled, glaring at her.
"You take too many god-fearing chances, Lyara," Sharin commented, just as disgustedly.
Lyara sighed. "So I'm a dare-demon. Can we get on now?" She glared at her companions in her turn, and then con tinued. "Security is light on the island. Vinzen had only one man at the gate, posted inside. He must've been one of those green recruits, because he was watching everything but what he was supposed to. The storm had everybody else inside where it was dry and warm."
"Then the loss of those men doesn't seem to be bothering him much," Jilan caught the significance of Lyara's report immediately. "All the better for us. Most likely he won't be looking for us to be coming after him."
"That's right. Now, Vinzen knows my name; so from now on, you'll call me Olyn. Just wouldn't do to pretend to be a young man wearing a girl's name."
"That's for sure," Jilan agreed quickly.
"Olyn," Sharin tasted the name, committing it to memo ry. She nodded. "Anything else?"
"Only one thing." Lyara stretched. "The last thing we need to do is look like none of us got any rest tonight. Since it's doubtful even Vinzen's bandits would be out on a night like this, I suggest we all get as much rest as possi ble. Tomorrow is going to be a big day."
"What about Farranby?" Sharin demanded suddenly. "You haven't said much other than he's fine."
Lyara smiled at her. "I left him climbing the cliffs to the south of the docks. He said there were caves there where he could hide for the day. The estate walls are only about a hundred paces from there, according to him, so he can keep an eye out for our signal without being seen. Don't worry," she reassured Sharin once more, quietly amused at the concern.
Sharin seemed to accept her word, for she lay back down where she had been, pillowing her head on the bundle of herbs and bark. Lyara looked around for her own pack, and moved across the fire and next to Jilan with the intention of following Sharin's example.
Jilan, however, had other ideas, and pulled her by the arm to near the hanging cape. "Don't you ever do that again," he scolded her quietly. "I'd rather know what you're up to than . . ."
"I didn't want you to worry, Jilan," Lyara explained in a sharp whisper. "Look at you. You're all worked up and excited. You'd have never had a minute's peace . . ."
"Not that I did, anyway."
"Jilan!" Lyara couldn't find it in herself to be angry with him. "What would you have done in my place?"
He blinked. That he had never considered. "I suppose I . . ." he capitulated.
"Ah hah!. Now do you see?"
"Yes," he admitted, then put a hand to her cheek in a gentle, careful caress. "But it just means I'll worry every time you're off doing something on your own from now on."
Lyara allowed the touch but didn't return it. "Fair enough, since I worry about you most of the time too."
Jilan blinked in surprise at the admission and would have said more, but Lyara turned from him and bent to take her last cape from her bundle and lay down. He shuffled over to his place and lay down too. He took a little longer than she did to fall asleep, but sleep finally did claim him.
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