Nightpool Read Online Free Page B

the hall. He had slept in the corner.
Someone had put the ankle chain on him, chained him to a ring in
the wall. The hall smelled of wet ash, and he remembered it had
rained. Rain always came down the chimney. The bars of the window
were wet, and water streaked the wall and puddled on the floor.
Beyond the bars, the sky was dull and heavy.
    The jackals were stirring and snuffling.
    A door banged suddenly, and Teb watched
Blaggen come across from the scullery. He could smell eggs cooking,
and ham, and could hear the din of men eating in the common
room.
    Blaggen pushed the jackals aside and knelt
stiffly to remove Teb’s chain. There was a stain of egg on his
tunic, and his hair was uncombed. He dropped the chain into his
pocket and stood up, took a slab of dry bread and cheese from his
pocket, and handed them to Teb.
    “I’m not hungry.”
    “Put it in your pocket, then. Could be your
last meal.”
    Teb wadded the food in his fist and shoved
it in his pocket.
    Blaggen pushed him across the shadowed,
echoing hall and down the steps to the courtyard, then out among
the milling horses and warriors. The two jackals kept so close now
that he could hardly move. When they began to sniff his pocket for
the bread and cheese, slavering and growling, Teb turned his back,
slipped the food out, and gulped it. He hoped it would stay down.
He worked his way to the water trough, falling over the jackals,
stumbling between horses and men.
    He drank. The water tasted like metal. He
turned away, feeling awful, pushing between two big war-horses and
wondering if he was going to throw up. Then when he looked above
him toward the tower, Camery was there at the window.
    She stood very still, looking down at him.
Her face was so white, as if the sun of Tirror never reached her;
yet watery sun caught her now from low in the east, tangled in her
pale hair. She was hugging herself as if she were cold. They looked
at each other across that impossible distance. They could not
speak. Neither could know what the other was thinking. Neither
could know the fate of the other. Camery did not know, at the
moment, that they would likely never see each other again. She
would guess it when he rode away. And he thought, as he watched
her, I won’t die! I won’t!
    But their father had died. Their mother had
died—neither had wanted to die or had gone to death willingly.
    What would become of Camery?
    He felt so sick for her. He could only look
at her and look as she stared down at him. It started to rain again
in hard little needles, as the warriors began to mount up.
    Blaggen jerked Teb around, took him by his
collar and the seat of his pants, and flung him into the saddle of
a big bay gelding, then tied Teb’s hands behind him and laced his
feet together under the horse’s belly.
    The gelding’s halter was tied to the horn of
Blaggen’s saddle. Blaggen mounted, and his horse snorted and
lunged, jerking Teb’s mount and sending him humping along behind
the black’s rump, nearly unseating Teb. He felt clumsy with his
hands tied behind him and no reins to hold to help him know the
horse’s intentions and communicate his own.
    All around him jackals began to crowd in
among the horses and mounting men, and some of the horses snorted
at them and reared. The hump-shouldered, low-bellied jackals paid
no attention to the soldiers’ commands, but only snarled
insolently. Teb began to watch the frightened horses, for they were
new and young, and unused to the winged jackals. New horses—where
had they come from? He stared around at the mounted men until he
spied a thatch of red beard and red hair all running together in a
great mane. Garit! Garit was back. He had brought the trained colts
from the coast, two- and three-year-olds, still young and skittish,
but ready to be ridden. Teb watched Garit dismount in fury and lash
at the jackals with a heavy strap.
    Sivich shouted with anger and spurred his
horse at Garit. “Put down your strap. I command