you come hack to the camp with us, eh?"
"Please. My sister and her husband. They live in one of the low towns.
Up by the Radaani mines. We're going to stay with her," the man said. He
was a good liar, Sinja thought. "I'm not a fighter, and my boy's no
threat. We don't want any trouble."
"Bad day for you, then," Eustin said and gestured with his fingers.
"'The cloak. Open it."
Reluctantly, the man did. A sword hung at his hip. Eustin smiled.
"Not a fighter, eh? "That's for scaring squirrels, then?"
"You can have it-"
"Got one, thanks," Eustin said. "Let's see this boy of yours."
The man hesitated, his eyes darting to the riders, to Eustin. Ile was
thinking of running for it-his little mule against six men on horseback.
Sinja took a simple pose that advised against it, and the man looked
down, then turned to the back of the little cart.
"Choti-kya," he said. "Come say hello to these good men."
A bundle of brown waxed silk stirred in the back of the cart, rose up,
and turned to face them. The boy's round face was shy and frightened,
but also curious. His cheeks were red from the cold, as if someone had
slapped him. As the small hands pushed out from his blankets and took a
pose of greeting, Sinja sighed.
Danat. It was Kiyan's boy. So this man was Nayiit, and all Sinja's worst
fears were unfolding right here before him.
One of Eustin's men stepped forward, looking through the cart. Danat
shied hack from him, but the soldier paid the boy no particular attention.
"What do you think we should do with them, Captain Ajutani," he asked.
"Kill 'em or send them on?"
Sinja kept his face blank as his mind worked at an answer. Eustin didn't
trust him and never had. Sinja tried to judge what the man would
do-follow his advice, or take the opposite. He suspected Eustin would
oppose him simply because he could. So the right choice would be to
recommend death for Danat and Nayiit. The gamble was higher stakes than
he liked. Eustin looked over at him, his eyebrows raised. Sinja was
taking too long in answering.
"I don't like killing children," he said in Galtic.
"Wouldn't be the first time I've done it since we left Nantani. 'T'here
was a whole school of them near Pathai. Kill the man, then? And leave
the boy in a snowstorm? That seems cruel."
Sinja shrugged and took a simple pose of apology.
"I hadn't known you were a great killer of children," he said. "We all
make our reputations somehow. Do whatever you think best."
Eustin scowled and the driver's face went pale. The man spoke Galtic,
then. Sinja wasn't certain that was a good thing.
"Maybe I should kill the boy and let the man go," Eustin said, and
Danat's keeper swung out of the cart, drawing his sword with a shout.
Eustin jumped back, pulling his own blade free. It was fast, over almost
before it began. The young man swung wild; Eustin parried the blow and
sunk his own blade into Nayiit's belly. Nayiit fell back, clutching at
his gut, while Eustin looked down at him in rage and disgust.