He couldn’t explain to Rollan how sorry he was.
The crowd parted for the earl himself. He looked exactly like his son Devin, only he had a pointy, neatly trimmed beard. He surveyed them coldly. “Put them both in the Howling House. We’ll decide what to do with them later.” To Conor and Rollan he said, “Place your spirit animals in passive form now.”
“Yeah,” Devin agreed. “It’d be too bad if we had to hurt a Great Beast.” His nasty smile indicated he didn’t think it would be too bad at all.
“Wait,” Rollan snapped. “What are we being imprisoned for?”
“We’ve done nothing,” Conor said. He unsuccessfully searched the earl’s face for any trace of compassion. “And you know I’m not a stranger to Trunswick.”
The earl barely glanced at them. It was obvious he didn’t find Rollan or Conor worthy enough to get the full attention he’d give a proper enemy. He said, “The cloak you wear here condemns you, boy. Trunswick has had enough of the Greencloaks’ iron rule. We’re weary of all their talk of Erdas’s destiny.” He lifted a lazy hand toward a blue flag bearing the wildcat. “Erdas, indeed. All this talk of our destiny. Trunswick will make its own destiny.”
Conor protested, “My lord, we only came to —”
The earl held up his hand as if he were calming a dog. “Please be quiet. I will no longer tolerate hearing the voices of the likes of you.”
The likes of you.
His voice oozed dismissal.
It was like a slap. Conor had not been hit, but he felt the same urge to sink to his knees. The same rush of blood to his cheeks. The same thud of his heart in his rib cage.
Devin was trying very hard to hide a smile. Zerif nodded approvingly. As if he was so pleased the earl had finally stopped letting those Greencloaks push him around.
The earl turned to the guard beside him. “If the boy won’t put his animal into passive form, have the dogs kill it and burn the body with the rest.”
Rollan’s eyes widened, his cool facade dropping.
Conor wordlessly stretched his hand toward where Briggan was pinned to the ground. The wolf immediately vanished from beneath the mastiffs and appeared on Conor’s arm. Rollan, however, had no such success. With a scowl, he called to Essix. But the falcon flew high overhead in ever wider circles. Every so often the bird looked down so that it was clear she was listening, just not obeying.
Devin and the girl with the frog snickered. Zerif yawned. It was a glorious yawn, his hand elegantly covering his mouth and his laugh at once. Behind them, Conor could see Devin’s little brother, Dawson, averting his eyes. He’d always been the best one in the family. It was hard to imagine him taking any joy in this horrible scene, but he was too young to help now.
“The boy’s bond is weak,” the earl said. “So the bird’s no threat anyway. Just leave it and lock the others up.”
“Welcome home, shepherd,” Devin sneered.
8: The Howling House
IT DIDN’T TAKE ESSIX LONG TO FIND MEILIN, ABEKE, AND FINN. They were just climbing a grassy bank that afforded a view of Trunswick when Finn spotted the falcon circling. He waved one arm, and then two. Abeke and Meilin joined in. Essix wheeled toward them.
“It’s Essix. Does that mean something’s happened to Rollan?” Meilin asked. The thought annoyed her. If someone was going to hurt that boy, she wanted it to be her.
“Essix doesn’t seem alarmed enough for him to be dead,” Finn said. Abeke winced, but Meilin appreciated that Finn didn’t try to sugarcoat the possibilities for them. Lives were at stake. It would do them all well to remember that.
Finn shielded his eyes to better see the falcon. “But she seems agitated. It’s hard to say if Rollan sent her to us or if she’s come on her own accord. Do you see a message tied to her leg?”
“Nothing,” Meilin verified.
“Are they in Trunswick?” Finn called up to Essix. The bird shrieked back, three times.
Meilin said, “I think that means yes.”
Finn asked the falcon, “Should we meet up with them right now?”
Essix cried out once. It was an angry, ferocious bark of a sound. Quite clearly: no.
“Imprisoned, I would guess,” Finn said. “Or working secretly to get information. Either way, we’ll have to be cautious.”
Meilin considered. She touched the tattoo where Jhi waited in passive form. It wasn’t nearly as effective as the meditation sessions, but the gesture reminded her of that clarity of thought. She asked, “Should we circle the town to see if we can learn any more?”
Finn nodded. “Probably a wise idea. I shouldn’t really go marching into town without some strategy anyway. The Earl of Trunswick and I had a disagreement not too long ago.”
“What sort of disagreement?” Meilin demanded.
Finn narrowed his eyes in the direction of the castle. “He tried to kill me.”
That seemed like a valid reason to avoid going into town.
“In any case, it would be advantageous to have a plan,” he added.
Abeke made a little pained noise. At first Meilin thought it was because of worry, but then she saw no — it was because the Hawkers’ ridiculous black cat thought Essix was going to eat her. The cat had affixed its claws rather securely into Abeke’s hair. It looked as if the animal was actually growing directly from the other girl’s head.
“You could let that cat down,” Meilin said scathingly. “You wanted to free her, and now she’s free.”
Abeke tried to remove the cat from her head. Reams of her own hair stretched from her scalp to the cat.
“She’s scared,” insisted Abeke, still tugging. The cat let out a rattling wail that oscillated in time with the tugs. “She won’t slow us down.”
Meilin narrowed her eyes, but it was hard to argue. Abeke had been seeming a little more feline lately, more like Uraza. Maybe this was part of it. “Good. Keep it that way. The others need us, whether or not they’re in immediate trouble. The sooner we find out more and meet back up with them, the sooner we can get to Rumfuss. Now, let’s get out of here, unless you want the Conquerors to catch us.”
Before Meilin could stop herself, the insinuation slipped out — the prospect that Abeke might not mind the Conquerors finding them at all, since she might still be working for them. Finn leveled a very heavy look at her. Tarik or Olvan would have probably scolded her for talking to Abeke like that, but she thought they also would have understood why deep down, Meilin still didn’t trust Abeke. And it was hard to be very kind to someone she didn’t trust, now more than ever.