Read Online From a High Tower by Mercedes Lackey - Free Book Online Page B

could have gone wrong? She had only intended for him to fall unconscious, long enough for her to escape! She hadn’t wanted to
kill
him!
    Too late for that . . . he was stone dead. And there was no bringing him back.
    Her mind went black for a moment, then restarted like a balky horse and galloped off at a manic pace.
I was the last person with him. They’ll blame Gunther no matter what.
She had to get out of there, and . . .
    And first she needed to lock the door. With luck, no one would try it for a long time, and when they did, they might think that the captain wanted privacy. That should buy her a few hours. Moving as quietly as she could, she flipped the lock, then went back to the corpse on the floor as the night-sylphs watched her, waiting for her next request.
    Part of her was appalled that she was thinking so clearly and quickly with a man lying dead near her. Part of her remembered the ugly look in his eyes, so like the man who had tried to rape her, and was not sorry at all for what had happened. And the third part of her ignored the guilty part and the part that was insisting he got what he deserved, and that was the part that was in charge.
    She tore her handkerchief in half and wrapped her wrists with the two pieces. She took back the purse of prize money that he had confiscated, but stole nothing else, although there was a powerful temptation to go through his pockets. . . .
    But if I am caught and I rob him now, they will say I killed him to rob him. But if I leave him untouched, there is a bare chance that someone will believe me if I say he became so angry with me that he dropped dead of apoplexy.
    â€œGo ahead of me and warn me of anyone in my path,” she whispered to the sylphs, who seemed just as eager to leave that room of death as she was. As they whisked through the little cracks in the walls around the window, she, who could do nothing like that, eased the window open and looked cautiously out of it. There was no one in sight, and the Maifest was still in full and joyous cry, judging by the light and the lively music in the direction of where the field would be. So she eased herself over the sill, made sure she had left nothing of herself or her property behind with a last glance around the room, and closed the window behind her.
    Then she bent over and ran for the inn’s stable, where her horse and all her belongings were. Ordinarily that would be a bad place to leave property, but Giselle’s wicked little mare was trained to let no one into her stall but Giselle herself. She was as good or better than a guard dog.
    Where did I leave my hat?
She wondered irrelevantly, as she moved from one shadow to another, listening for the sounds of footsteps under the faraway music of the Maifest. It hadn’t been with her in the captain’s office.
I must have left it at the beer stall. . . .
If this had been a situation where she was likely to be tracked by another magician, that would have been a catastrophe, but there hadn’t been the least sign of another Elemental Master, not even an Elemental Magician, in the entire town. The hat could safely be left behind. She
certainly
wasn’t going to go back after it now.
    She was out of breath when she reached the stables and paused just outside. Her sylphs gathered around her, no longer mischievous. “Is there anyone in there but horses?” she murmured, pressed up against the wall, trying to squeeze every bit of herself into a particularly dark shadow.
    â€œNo, Master,”
said one.
“We made the drunk have bad dreams and he went somewhere else to sleep.”
    She looked up at them, hovering above her head. “Well done. I’m going to get my horse and get out of here. Keep watch while I do, and scout ahead of me on the road.” She intended to lead the horse to the edge of town by the quietest ways before mounting him. A man leading his horse calmly would not attract