She had come awake enough to realize that her child was gone. Though she should have gone back to sleep, for her body had been battered terribly, she could not. She sat in the quiet darkness of theSaudi Jacintha's hold.
Colleen Kilronney entered the small room a short while later, but Pony didn't acknowledge her, just sat, swaying, staring into the darkness.
"It's good that ye're awake," Colleen said.
No response.
"Ah, but the devil he is," the warrior woman spat. "Father Abbot? Bah! He's a devil, and I'll be payin' him back for ye, don't ye doubt!"
No response.
"And me own cousin," Colleen went on, "captain o' the King's soldiers, all bright and shiny on the outside, and with a heart that's as dark as the wretched Bishop's on the inside. Oh, but I'll be payin' that one back, too!"
No response - Pony didn't even look her way, and Colleen surrendered, moving out of the room.
"Suren that she's in a bad way," the red-haired woman said to Belster and Captain Al'u'met as she joined them in the the captain's stateroom. "He took it from her, the devil, and left a hole that'll be a long time in mendin'."
"I tried to tell her not to fight him," Belster interjected.
"Her cause was just," Al'u'met insisted.
"Indeed, and no arguing from me," the innkeeper replied. "But you cannot wage war without a chance of winning. He is too strong, is Mark-wart; as is the Bishop."
"That does not mean that she was wrong to try," Al'u'met argued.
"Not wrong, perhaps, but surely foolish," Belster remarked, turning away. He knew that he would not convince the Behrenese sailor, but nei-ther did he have any intention of changing his mind.
"Perhaps you merely believe that her cause was not worth the risk," Al'u'met remarked bluntly.
Belster winced, knowing that he was vulnerable here against the likes of a black-skinned Behrenese. Indeed, he had to admit he might have been more anxious to wage war against the Church if the people it persecuted had been friends of his: Bearmen, as citizens of Honce-the-Bear were some-times called; and with lineage to match Belster's own. He thought to simply ignore the captain, but, in thinking of Pony, he realized that the time had come to face the truth.
He looked Al'u'met in the eye. "Perhaps your reasoning is sound," he said. "I, like so many of the folk of Palmaris, have never been fond of your kind, Captain Al'u'met."
"Wouldn't it be doin' Pony's heart good to hear us fightin' each other," Colleen remarked dryly.
Neither man paid her any heed; they just continued staring at each other. It was no contest of wills, but rather the two taking an honest measure of each other.
Al'u'met broke the stare first, giving a chuckle. "Well then, Master O'Comely, we will have to show you the truth of us, that you might learn better."
Belster smiled and nodded; perhaps it was time for him to take a clearer and more honest look at the folks from the southern kingdom.
That would be a lesson for another day, though, as they were both reminded when the door unexpectedly swung open, and a haggard-looking Pony stood in the doorway. "I need to go to Elbryan," she whispered.
"He is far to the north," Belster replied, moving to her side and put-ting an arm about her to support her - and she looked as if she needed the support.
Pony shook her head. "I need to go to Elbryan," she repeated matter-of- factly, as if no amount of distance mattered, "now."
Belster looked from her to Colleen and Al'u'met.
"Ye get yer strength, girl," Colleen said determinedly. "Ye get yer strength and I'll take ye to the north to find yer lover."
"Colleen - " Belster started to protest, but Al'u'met cut him short.
"I can get them north of the city by sea," he said.
"What nonsense are we talking?" Belster demanded. "She was almost killed, and now you are planning to send her on a long journey, and with winter not even past?"
"Ye think her safer in Palmaris?" Colleen replied. "Better that she's runnin' to her lover, I say, than stayin' here where the devil Markwart's sure to find her."
"I can speak for myself," Pony said coldly, "and choose my own road. I will rest for another day or two, no more. And then I will go to Elbryan, whatever course you three might decide for me." And with that, she turned and left.
"Oh, but I'll go with her," Colleen said, her anger simmering near to a boil. "I've a visit to pay me dear cousin Shamus. One he's not wantin', to be sure!"
Belster and Al'u'met exchanged glances, both of them understanding the danger of the present situation in Palmaris, and both of them fearing that things might soon get much worse.
It wasn't much of a shelter, just piles of stones with bundles of brush slapped over the top. But though another storm had buried the Barbacan in several feet of snow, and though the mountain passes to the south were practically impassable, the shelter on the sacred plateau near Avelyn's grave did not need to be strong or warm. Winter's hand, like the goblins', could not seem to touch this place, and all the creatures here - man and elf, cen-taur and horse alike - were not only comfortable, but were thriving. The men who were badly wounded during the fight with the goblins - even the soldier who had seemed so near to death and Bradwarden, so torn and battered - were fast on the mend, and Tiel'marawee had healed completely.
Elbryan had no explanation; none of them did - other than to declare it a miracle and be glad for it.
And though he was glad that they had survived, Elbryan spent many hours staring forlornly to the blocked southern trails, his thoughts flying to Pony and their unborn child. "Soon after the turn of spring, I would guess," he had informed Bradwarden when the centaur inquired about when the child would be born.
"But we'll get ye there afore it happens," the centaur insisted; though if they could not get out of the Barbacan within the next two weeks - and nei-ther believed that they could - they would hardly be able to cover the six hundred miles back to Palmaris in time.
Elbryan could only stand and stare, hoping that his dear Pony was all right, and that the child would be born healthy.
He could not know that the child was already gone.
"I take my leave," Tiel'marawee announced, moving by the pair.
"Lots of snow, deeper than a tall elf," Bradwarden replied.
Tiel'marawee screwed up her face skeptically; never had the snow been a hindrance to the light-footed Touel'alfar!
"Where is your course?" the ranger asked with sincere interest. "Palmaris?"
"Lady Dasslerond must be told of Bishop De'Unnero and the threat to the Touel'alfar," the elf explained. "I will likely find her in Palmaris."
"I will go with you," the ranger said suddenly.
The elf scoffed at the thought. "You cannot get your horse through the passes now," she said. "You could not even get him down from this plateau to the valley."
"I will walk."
"But I've not the time to wait for you, ranger," Tiel'marawee replied sternly. With that, she leaped from the plateau, wings flapping to bring her to a ledge thirty feet below the pair, a spot it would take Elbryan about a half hour to get to.
She didn't bother to look back.
"Ye'll get back to her," Bradwarden said comfortingly as the elf skipped away, disappearing against the backdrop of the great blasted mountain.
"Not soon enough," Elbryan replied.
"And what o' them?" the centaur asked, nodding in the direction of the soldiers and the monks.
"I think that Brother Braumin and the other monk have decided to live out their lives up here," the ranger replied. "Roger will accompany me, I am sure."
"Warm enough, and safe enough from monsters," said the centaur, "though they'll be hard-pressed to find food close by."
"I am not certain what Shamus and the soldiers think to do," the ranger admitted. "I doubt that they'll try to return to Palmaris - at least until there has been some contact with another emissary from the King or Father Abbot, that they might better understand their situation."
"Not much to understand," said the centaur. "They go back, they get hung. Or burned. Seems them monks are partial to burnin'."
"Shamus will have to decide his own course," the ranger said with a shrug. "My road leads to Pony."
"And she'll be glad to see ye," said Bradwarden.
"Will she?"
The question caught the centaur off guard - until he considered all that Tiel'marawee had told him of Elbryan's feelings about Pony's departure, his fears that she had left him knowing that she was with his child, had chosen not to tell him.
"She's the bravest woman ever me eyes've seen," the centaur remarked. "And braver still if yer fears about her leavin' ye knowingly with child be true."
That brought a perplexed look from Elbryan.
"She knew that ye had a different road ahead of ye, boy," Bradwarden explained. "Knew ye had to go, and knew she could not."
"You act as if she told you as well," the ranger accused.
"And are ye thinkin' so little o' her to believe that?" the centaur answered. "Ye know her better, and know that, whatever she's done, she's done it with yer own best interest in mind and heart."
Elbryan had no argument; and indeed, much of his anger went away at that moment, as he reminded himself of all that Pony had gone through over the last few months. He remained eager, desperate almost, to be out of the Barbacan and on the road south, but now it was an emotional tumult wrought of fear for Pony.
True to his word, Captain Al'u'met put theSaudi Jacintha out of Palmaris the next day, despite strong winds and rough waters.
Pony and Colleen Kilronney came up on the deck soon after the ship had left port, soon enough to make out the solitary figure of Belster O'Comely standing on the wharf, staring out at the departing vessel.
"I think ye broke his heart," Colleen remarked to Pony. "Might it be that he took yer impersonation of his wife a bit too far."
Her attempt at levity did little to comfort the beleaguered Pony. She didn't reply, just stood at the rail, looking back at Palmaris, unsure if she would ever return - or if she would ever want to return. She still wanted revenge on Markwart, more so than ever, but felt powerless. He had beaten her, and now all she wanted was to be in Elbryan's arms again, and far, far away from wretched Palmaris.
"Master O'Comely only fears for you," Captain Al'u'met remarked, moving to join the two. "He does not disagree with your decision to leave Palmaris, but fears that you are not yet fit to travel, especially since the pos-sibility remains of more wintry weather."
"He fears too much," Pony replied somewhat coldly. "I have lived on the very borderlands of civilization for many years. Am I to fear winter more than I fear the Abellican Church?"
"A healthy respect for both would suit you well," the captain remarked. "But place no blame on the shoulders of Belster O'Comely. A fine friend, by my estimation."
"Indeed he is," Pony admitted. "And do not doubt my concern for him. He remains in Palmaris, and that place, I fear, is many times more dan-gerous than the wildest reaches of the Wilderlands."
No one argued that point.
Captain Al'u'met put Pony, Colleen, and their horses down on the coast north of the city, wishing them well and pledging that he would look after Belster and the others.
"What he really prays for is peace," Pony remarked as the two started away along a muddy trail.
"A fine prayer, by me own guess," Colleen replied.
"A peace that will leave De'Unnero and Markwart in power," Pony said.
Colleen let it go at that, knowing that they would only make themselves angrier than ever with such talk. The warrior woman hated the Church leaders, the men responsible for the death of her beloved Baron, every bit as much as did Pony. And how she wished that Pony's attack on the wretch Markwart had been successful!
But that was not the reality, she knew, and hoped that Pony would come to understand. If it came to a fight, then Colleen would fight hard and would hope for the chance to take down her pompous cousin before she, along with all her allies, inevitably lost. But unlike Pony, the warrior woman wasn't so sure that she wanted that fight - not now, not after seeing the power of Markwart, who, by all reports of those soldiers close to Chase-wind Manor and the house of Aloysius Crump, held the upper hand in the dealings with King Danube. No, Colleen recognized - if Pony did not - that no peasant revolt in Palmaris now had any chance of success.
They rode on through the rest of the day, accepting an invitation from a farmer for an evening meal and a warm and dry place to sleep.
They did not know that another party was even then formulating plans for leaving Palmaris, that Father Abbot Markwart was working with his underlings to organize the journey north that would bring the infamous Nightbird to the Church's version of justice.