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. He must be one of them.He just must be, she said to the other. Yes, dear, I m sure he is.A pity we don t know what he lookslike. It seemed so simple.Join the caravan, find out who he is, andwait for an opportunity to isolate him from the group, overpowerhim, and that would have been that. Except finding out who he is proved more difficult than weexpected. Sobrathi sighed. Yes.That s why I can t put it off any longer.I must informAnaxantis.I had so hoped that at the same time I could have givenhim the assurance that Damydas would never reach the Marches.Asit is he must prepare himself for a confrontation. You re sending a living letter? Yes.He is traveling with the group that follows us.I ve sent forhim.He should be here any minute now.I hate to do this, but I can t Bonds of Fear 335risk sending him a cryptic message so I ll be as outspoken as I can. Isn t that dangerous? What if the letter is caught? Emelasuntha shrugged. So what? They ll know that we know.They must suspect thatalready.In fact there is more than an even chance they ll catch him. Sobrathi looked at her friend. But, dear, how terrible.You re sending the poor man to his death.His painful death, probably. And what else would you have me do? I must warn Anaxantis.Or protect him. Yes, but is there really no other way? If there is, I would be glad to hear about it. Emelasuntha s eyes suddenly seemed to stare right throughSobrathi at a distant horizon, only discernible for her.Sobrathihated that look.It meant her friend had suddenly seen a new realmof possibilities and what exactly that entailed was impossible topredict.At that moment two men came in the establishment and madetheir way to the table of the women. This is the man you have asked for, my lady, one of them said. Mistress, call me mistress. The queen sighed. Thank youcaptain.You, sit down.What is your name? Ondrov, my la mistress. Well, Ondrov, ready to take a message? The man nodded nervously.He was in his early twenties, andSobrathi saw he was in awe of Emelasuntha. 336 Andrew Ashling Yes& yes, of course, mistress. The queen looked inquisitively at him. You seem nervous, Ondrov.Any reason for that? It sounded like a normal question, but Sobrathi knew better:Emelasuntha was in killer mode, and anything could unleash heranger. It s just that this is my first assignment, mistress.I would hateto disappoint you. Oh, yes, Ondrov, you would so hate to disappoint me, Emelasuntha agreed.Then she smiled and added lightly, But I mcertain you won t.I have the highest confidence in you.You were thebest in your group, one of your teachers told me. Yes, indeed.I was.I was indeed, Ondrov stammered. Well, my friend, then neither of us has to be worried. Sobrathi followed the interchange with mounting worries of herown. So, here we go, the queen said. I ll speak slowly& To Anaxantisfrom his mother and his aunt.We are coming.You were right: heis sending a detachment of Black Shields to the Northern Marchesunder the leadership of the baron of Damydas.We don t know exactlywhat powers your father has given him, nor what his exact missionis, but we do know it was he who prevented the army from marchingagainst the Mukthars twelve years ago. We also know that he means to kill you. The caravan is over three thirds of its way to the Amirathanborder.We can t stress enough how important it is that Damydasnever crosses it.He is hiding among the merchants in the caravan,but we have a plan to smoke him out.As previously agreed we will Bonds of Fear 337meet you where the Northern Highway crosses the road to Garstang,at the place called Elmshill. She paused to give the living letter time to absorb everything.Sobrathi had listened with open mouth but every inclination to saysomething was cut short by the forbidding look in Emelasuntha seyes. There could however be a small change.Chances are we won tbe coming alone.In all probability we will be in hot pursuit ofDamydas and his Black Shields.We managed to bribe someone whoworked at the royal castle and who knows him by sight.He knowshim so well that he will see right through any disguise he might bewearing.The problem is that he will have to look at everybody fromclose by, because it seems the baron has a small, but very distinctivescar on his face that would be difficult to hide.We fully expect that hewill grow suspicious, choose the safer option and leave the caravan [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]