"How did you banish the creature?"
"We got the meistersinger to confess what he had done in the public square. Once the truth was known, the beast never appeared again."
"Is he still meistersinger of Chebney?"
Thordin nodded. "Yes. There are no rules about how you win your challenge in Chebney. Even though he cheated, he is still their leader."
"It isn't fair," Blaine said.
Jonathan looked at the boy. "Life in Kartakass is not fair."
"Life anywhere," Thordin said.
Jonathan acknowledged that with a nod. "How did you meet the man that died?"
"He came to the inn where we were staying," Blaine said.
"You were not housed by the meistersinger?"
Thordin gave an abrupt snort of laughter. "After we humiliated him-hardly."
"He turned you out into the streets?" Jonathan asked.
"No, but it was made clear we were not welcome."
"The next time the meistersinger of Chebney needs our help, perhaps we shall not give it?"
"We destroyed his beast," Blaine said. "He won't need our help again."
"Evil, ambitious men make the same mistakes over and over, Blaine. If he attracted evil to him once, he'll do so again."
Thordin nodded. "He has a beautiful voice, but he is not very bright. I doubt he's learned his lesson."
"What drove this man Tallyrand out into the winter night to find you?"
"His village has been struck with a terrible plague," Thordin said.
"The dead walk the streets at night," Blaine added.
"Truly, or just tales to frighten children?"
Thordin shrugged. "You know how it is, Jonathan. A plague hits, and people are too hastily buried. They come awake in the ground, shout for help, and are thought to be fiends in the ground. It could be something as simple, and as awful, as that."
"He said the zombies didn't smell bad*. He seemed surprised at that. The walking dead don't stink in the cold because they don't rot. If Pegin had made it up, the dead would have stunk, perhaps breathed fire." Blaine leaned forward, wincing as his leg took more weight. "The story would have been embellished more. You know how stories grow."
"The man was very blunt and matter-of-fact. He didn't seem to be an imaginative sort. He talked of burying his own daughter, and a week later she was at his window trying to get inside."
"Was he sure she was truly dead?"
"Yes, of that he was sure."
"How many people have died of this plague?"
"Over half the village," Thordin said.
Jonathan shook his head. "Why did he not send for help before?"
"He heard a bard singing of your defeat of the beast of Mandriel. When the bard told him you were living and not some legend, the town decided to send for you."
"If half of them are taken, it is a serious problem, indeed, but I have had a missive from Calum. He has given us a new assignment. I can't put that off."
"I will go back to Pegin's village," Blaine said.
"Alone?" Thordin asked.
A stubborn frown made Elaine's face seem very young, like a child told he could not do something. "He died to save his village. We can't let him have died for nothing."
Jonathan sighed. There were times when duty to the brotherhood and larger goals chaffed in the face of more immediate needs. This was one of them.
"What does Calum say in the letter?"
Jonathan handed it over.
Blaine stared at the floor, anger beginning to show through the pain and tiredness.
Thordin looked up, an odd expression on his blunt face.
"What is it?" Jonathan asked.
"Cortton is the village Pegin Tallyrand came from."
Blaine looked up. "You mean the brotherhood is sending us to help Pegin's village?"
Thordin handed the letter to him. "It would seem so."
"Well, now we know what is wrong in Cortton," Jonathan said.
"A plague of the dead," Thordin said in his deep, ruined voice.
"When do we leave?" Blaine asked. Eagerness showed on his face. He sat straighter in the chair; even his wounds seemed to hurt less. They were going to save Pegin's village, repay the debt that Blaine felt, assuage his guilt at the other man's death.
Jonathan understood all that. He could watch most of it dance across the younger man's face. Blaine's face was always like a mirror. Strangely, it was Elaine who was harder to read, more private.
"A few days to gather supplies and pack, to let you heal. To try and determine what caused the great tree to come to life. If there is some evil magic coming so close to our home, we must know of it. I don't want to leave the others behind in danger."
"If we cannot determine what happened, what then?" Elaine asked.