Sugar was not safe here, not with men in the woods, and that idiot Talen making a scene. Goh, that one, that stinking load of scours, scaring the life out of her. He’d nearly broken her nose throwing that door in her face. He’d nearly killed her and Legs both.
But then… what would she have done in his position? These folks were risking their lives. Obviously, he hadn’t been asked if he were willing to do that. Wouldn’t she want to be asked to risk her life for a stranger?
Nevertheless, she could not sleep. Yes, it was vastly more comfortable in the cellar under the kitchen floor than out in that hole. Hogan’s family hadn’t filled the cellar yet with their winter stores, and so it was both wide and deep. She didn’t have to contend with mosquitoes, and she had not found any of the monstrous black and yellow spiders that seemed unable to stay out of the dog warren. But the cellar was also the first place anyone would look.
Legs slept on the narrow bed River had placed down here, next to old cabbage leaves and the scattered old potatoes with their multitudes of long, pale stems, looking like a nest of ghostly, spindly legged crabs. He’d fallen asleep brushing her hair with his fingers, picking out the knots and debris.
He was putting a brave front on as Da had always taught him to do. And Da had taught him so much. He had spent hours, days demanding Legs learn do hard things despite his blindness-chores around the yard, holding pieces on the anvil while Da hammered them, working the bellows, learning every foot of the village and the surrounding fields so he could take water in his goat cart to those that toiled there.
Da had seemed a force of nature. And now he was gone.
What would he do here? He’d tell her to stop worrying over things she couldn’t change. He’d tell her she was bred to do hard things, it was in her blood.
She began to organize the potatoes and cabbages, putting them into tidy rows and stacks. It comforted her. Calmed her. Tidiness helped a person think.
They weren’t safe here. This was why she couldn’t sleep. Sooner or later these folks would find out that Mother really was Sleth. It was hard to admit. But that was the truth. The Questioners in Whitecliff would pry things out of Mother. And then these good folks would turn both her and Legs in. No, it wasn’t safe. She and Legs needed to leave. They would do so tonight under the cover of darkness. But that left a whole day of danger. What would she do if they turned on her today?
She pulled the spindly legs off of a potato and placed it on the pile she was making.
And if they didn’t find out about Mother, they still had to deal with the hunters in the woods. It was likely another group would come. She needed to plan should that occur. Because, sooner or later, here at Hogan’s or in some other bolt-hole, they would come. They would find her, and she’d better have a cover.
Ke had suggested a cover to Zu Hogan when she’d first come. “She could be a girl from Koramtown,” Ke’d said, “visiting.”
“Visiting who?” Zu Hogan had asked.
“Have your pick,” said Ke. “Both Talen and I are of marriageable age. Or maybe she’s visiting River as a friend.”
“Maybe,” said Zu Hogan. “Maybe.” But he’d never come back to tell her what he’d decided. Sugar had visited friends regularly in Koramtown. They were some of the happiest moments of her life. There was such an ease being among your equals. She knew what friends did when they visited. And while Ke was of marriageable age, all the neighbors around this farmstead would already know who he was courting and what his prospects were. Her tale would be news to them. And she didn’t want to be news. She wanted to be nothing. Talen would probably not be making such arrangements. So he was an option. But she couldn’t be sure. It would be easier if Sugar was River’s friend visting from Koramtown. Someone come to help with the harvest.
“Sugar?” Legs asked in a quiet voice.
She said nothing, and stacked another potato. He hadn’t slept all last night and needed rest.
“You’re not sleeping,” he said.
“Oh?” she said.
“You breathe different when you sleep,” he said. “It’s something like this.” He began to make small grunting noises like a pig.
“I don’t either.”
“Yes,” he said. “You do. But then so did Mother.”
A momentary silence fell upon them both. Sugar should have felt something in that silence, but she was empty still. How was it that she could not feel?
“Does,” Sugar corrected. “She’s not dead. You heard those soldiers. And not only that, but it’s possible she will be freed.”
Those had been Zu Hogan’s words when he’d shown them the dog warren: “Have hope; if your mother survives her wounds and is taken to Whitecliff, then there is a chance I can free her.”
“But how can that be true?” Legs asked. “He’s just a Koramite.”
And Mother was just a smith’s wife. Sugar had not yet told Legs what she had witnessed of the battle and Mother’s horrible speed.
Sugar put down the leggy potato in her hands and moved back next to him. She reached out and began to smooth his hair, tracing the whorls of his wild cowlicks.
“I don’t know,” she said. “Zu Hogan has a powerful brother-in-law. A captain of the Shoka. Perhaps he will save her.”
But he wouldn’t. Not even a Mokaddian territory lord would save a Sleth.
The lines of her world were shifting, and where they’d stop she did not know. It was like the one time she’d seen a perfect rock to rest upon, but as she neared it the lines and shadows shifted and she realized the rough stem she’d thought was a weed at the base of the rock was really a brown viper, coiled in the dry grass and ready to strike.
“This isn’t a good place to hide,” he said.
“I know,” said Sugar.
“We should make a cubby,” he said. “Like we did in the woods to escape the miller’s son.”
There weren’t enough cabbages and potatoes to make a pile big enough to hide both of them. But if she used the bushel basket there might be enough for Legs.
“You’re right,” she said and began to move the piles she’d already made.
Before they’d finished, Sugar heard someone walk on the floor above her. Alarm shot through her. They weren’t ready with the cubby. Then she heard River singing the fisherman’s lullaby, the all-clear signal, and relaxed.
But Sugar did not join River above. It was safer down here in the dark and they needed to finish what they’d begun. After some time, someone came to the cellar door and stopped. She heard them grab the hook and then the door opened, spilling in the dim light of early morning.
River looked down at her. “Did you not hear me?”
“Yes,” Sugar said. “We did.”
“I see,” said River. “Well, come on up; eat while you can. The boys are all out in the yard doing chores.”
“Do you have a chamber pot?” asked Legs.
River smiled. “Somewhere,” she said. “We refused to carry out each other’s stink years ago. And who wants to carry their own when you can trot out to the privy? But I don’t think we threw it away. Besides, I know someone who would benefit from playing the good host. Come up. You can eat and take care of your business like people instead of grubs.”
Sugar and Legs climbed out of the cellar. A hard loaf of bread sat on the table. Fat slices of dark sausage sizzled in a pan over the fire. And a thick broth, for softening the bread, bubbled in a pot.
River led Legs to the back room. When she returned, she sawed off a sizeable piece of bread and gave Sugar a bowl of the broth.
The three boys came in shortly after that, taking off their muddy boots and setting them alongside the wall next to the door. When Talen saw Sugar, he stopped short.
“What is she doing up here?” he asked.
“It looks like she’s eating,” said Ke and shoved Talen along.
Talen gave her an angry glance, then he handed Nettle the fish.
Nettle walked over to River, eyeing Sugar the whole way, opened the creel he was carrying and pulled out an enormous catfish that had been cleaned, gutted, and skinned. “Here’s our afternoon soup.”
“Put it in there,” River said, motioning with her chin toward an empty pot on the floor.
Nettle slid the fish in the pot.
Talen still stood on the other side of the room, brooding.
“What are you doing?” River asked him. “Go sit down.”
“I’m not getting anywhere close to that,” Talen said and pointed at Sugar.
Just then Legs appeared in the doorway of the back room holding the covered chamber pot.
“Sugar,” River corrected. “And you are going to be the gracious host. In fact, it appears you have a little business in the back room that needs to be dealt with.”
“A little business?” asked Talen in amazement. He turned and saw Legs standing there. “No.” He shook his head. “I will not.”
“You will empty the chamber pot for him, and then you will empty it for Sugar.”
“No,” said Sugar. “Please.” They’d already put this family in grave danger. She didn’t want them to do one thing more.
“You can’t go outside,” said River. “That would be foolhardy. Besides, we wouldn’t have this problem except for Talen. So he can take responsibility for the messes he makes.”
“I’m not doing it,” said Talen. He looked at Nettle.
Nettle held up both hands. “This is your house, not mine.”
Ke shifted his enormous frame in his seat to face Talen squarely. “You’re going to be the little chamber pot man,” said Ke. “And you’re going to be happy about it.”
The threat was obvious, but Talen didn’t move. The tension built for a moment, but then Ke stood and took a step toward Talen.
“Fine,” said Talen. “Tell him to put it down and step out of the doorway.”
“Legs,” said Sugar. “Come. We’ll go back down.”
Legs set the pot on the floor, then felt his way to Sugar’s position. Only then did Talen brush past. He picked up the pot with great distaste and went outside.
“Please stay here,” River said to Sugar. “Talen will be all right. You just sit down and enjoy your meal.”
It felt so good to stand straight and see sunlight. Perhaps she could stay up here for just a little while.
“I can understand his reluctance,” said Sugar.
“He’s not the only one that’s reluctant,” said Nettle.
They ate in relative silence, River asking Sugar questions that would make any normal guest feel comfortable. But these were not normal circumstances, and they only made the meal more strained.
Toward the end, River turned to Talen and said, “Because of last night, Ke and I now must find Sugar and Legs another place. So we’ll be hunting one up today. That means you’re going to stay here to finish the chores and to keep an eye out. Sugar and Legs are your charge until we return.”
Talen just looked into his bowl.
“Look at me, Talen. Do you think Da and I are stupid people? I know Ke, of course, is suspect.” She grinned.
It was a good effort to break the tension, but Talen did not accept it. “Yes, given the facts, I do think you’re stupid. But then I know you’re not stupid, so that means you’re hiding some of the facts.”
River glanced at Ke, then back to Talen.
“And you’ve been hiding them for quite some time,” said Talen.
“It wasn’t supposed to happen this way,” she said. “Da knows these people. They’re good, Talen. And there’s more to this than you realize. So much more. But now’s not the time or place to explain. All you have to do is finish the chores and keep an eye out. I want you to give Sugar and Legs some time up here. And that means you’ll have to stay in the house. Because you won’t be able to warn them or cover their retreat if you’re outside.”
“Then how do I do the chores?”
Both River and Ke looked at Nettle.
“Right,” said Nettle. “I’ll be out in the fields.”
“Oh, no you don’t,” said Talen. “You’re not leaving me alone with these two.”
“Chores have got to be done,” said Ke. “It will look odd, a fine day like today and nobody working. Besides, a man shoulders his own burdens.”
“Sure,” said Talen. “And when these two eat me, I guess you’ll be the one cleaning up what’s left.”
“Look at them, Talen,” River said. “They are not dangerous.”
“Just the presence of them,” Talen said, “is enough to put a noose around every one of our necks.”
While River had been there, Sugar, for the first time since the awful events, felt a lightening in her mood. There were some people that possessed such great quantities of openness and hope that it spilled over to others. River was one of these people.
Of course, when River closed the door behind her, Sugar and Legs were left with Talen.
He threw the bar on the door then turned to her. He shook his head as if he still couldn’t believe his predicament, then he picked up his bow and withdrew two arrows from one of the three tall baskets that hung on the wall. Each basket held arrows that were ringed with a different color just below the fletching. She assumed the colors distinguished a different spine strength and weight, matched to the strength of the bow. He nocked one of the arrows marked with an ochre ring. The other he kept in the hand that held the bow. Both had gray goose feathers. Both were plain, but they had clearly been heated and straightened and would fly true to deliver the iron tips that shone with grease to keep the rust off.
“Here’s the first thing we’re going to get straight,” said Talen. “Me and my immortal parts are off-limits. You see that smudge on the lintel of the doorway to the loft?”
Sugar turned to look where he pointed. But before she had fully turned her head, she heard the bow hum. The second shaft flew almost as the first hit a dark coloration on the pale whitewashed lintel.
She turned back to him. He held another two more of the ochre-ringed arrows, one nocked just as before.
Legs sat at the table eating the last scraps of his food. He put down his spoon and held very still.
“I’ve been thinking all morning,” Talen said. “I don’t know what game my father is playing, but I do know this: you cross me, I won’t hesitate. In fact, by all rights, I should shoot you down now.”
Sugar knew the look in his eyes. She knew he was considering it. Her father had taught her to never show fear in a fight. Never show pain. Never give an opponent any reason for courage unless you wanted to lure them into a trap. What kind of a fighter was Talen? Was he one that only respected force? Or was he one that was more interested in avoiding a fight?
“Why does my father harbor a hatchling?” he asked.
“I’m not a hatchling,” she said.
“Whatever you call it.”
“I practice no dark art,” she said.
“No, you wouldn’t think it dark, would you?”
“I don’t know any lore,” she said.
“But your parents do.”
She had no response to that.
“Right,” he said. “So what’s been done to my father? Or is some threat being hung over us?”
“Nothing has been done,” she said. “There are no threats.”
He was agitated. Angry. Scared. She could read it all in his face. And she would have the same reaction in his situation, was having the same reaction to what her mother had done.
“How do I know River and Ke aren’t already under the spell of some foul master?” he asked. “How do I know they’ll even return?”
He raised his bow to the verge of drawing it. “Nettle said to wait. But I can’t see how that will help.”
He was serious: he did want to slay her. He truly believed she was Sleth, and prevarication would only confirm that assessment. She and Legs would not survive the afternoon with him in this state. That much was clear. “I will not lie to you,” she said. “My mother did things that-”
She didn’t want to say it. Legs sat as motionless as a heron at the table, his wild hair sticking up. She didn’t want for him to hear it this way. But that wasn’t the reason she’d stopped. She didn’t want to name Mother aloud. There were other explanations for what she’d seen. Maybe what she saw her mother do had been distorted by her fears. Maybe Cotton had indeed been stolen and magicked by woodikin. Maybe a dark soul rode in the body of the stork they’d found. There were a dozen maybes.
But the easiest explanation would not go away. She had to face the truth. There was no salvation in lies. “I saw my mother charge an army. I saw her cleave a man’s head in two. I saw her move with a dark grace that horrified me. And I saw the Sleth signs on the dead body of my little brother.”
The words dropped from her lips like heavy stones.
“I know you have no reason to believe me,” she said. “But I found out about this only a day before you.”
He had not raised his bow, but he hadn’t lowered it either.
“I am not associated with any murder of Sleth. I have nothing to do with any art, unless my mother has done something to me like she did to my brother. But I don’t know what that would be. I’m as confused as you are, Talen.
“Think on this as well,” she added. “If we were so wicked, wouldn’t we have risen from the cellar early this morning and worked our mischief on you when you were all asleep?”
“I didn’t sleep,” he said.
“Even so,” she said. “If that’s what we were, it would have been the perfect time, would it not?”
He said nothing, but she could see the wheels of his mind turning, see him weighing her, weighing the situation.
At last, he said, “That’s the line,” and pointed at the edge of the table where Legs sat. “Come across, and my arrows fly.”
She exhaled and realized she’d been holding her breath. But his decision didn’t mean they were safe. She needed to have another plan to neutralize that bow. He might be quick with it. But a bow was a hard weapon to wield in close spaces. A knife was much better in this situation.
She turned so the knife sheathed at her waist was hidden from his view. She ran one hand through her hair and with the other she removed the loop that held the knife in the sheath. She and Legs were going to get out of here. Her mother had told her to take Legs and ride. She should have disobeyed her mother before and fought. But now she’d make up for that. She’d take Legs and stow him in a safe place. And then what? How could she, of all people, rescue Mother?
But that wasn’t important right now. Right now she had to figure out how to deal with this boy. And what if hunters came? It would not do to have them find him sitting there guarding her and Legs. That was not how you treated a visitor. She began to clean up the breakfast dishes. Began to tidy and let her mind work. The first thing she noticed was that he’d placed himself in the wrong part of the house.
“You cannot look out of the windows from where you’re sitting.” When he didn’t respond, she said, “You can’t watch for hunters from that side of the room.”
“You look out the windows and watch for hunters. I’m watching you.”
She nodded in acquiescence. That meant she wouldn’t retreat to the cellar. She didn’t want to do that anyway. If Talen should change his mind, she didn’t want to be caught like a fish in a barrel.
Legs stepped toward Sugar with his hands out. When he found her, he felt for her hand. “Should I go down?” he asked.
It would probably be best. That way she wouldn’t have to worry about him should the situation change. But she didn’t want him to sit down there alone thinking about what she’d just revealed. He needed to know she was strong. That things would be all right. At least that’s what she told herself.
“Stand with me,” she said, “and smell the morning coming in through the windows. We’ll visit the potatoes soon enough.”
The shutters by the dining table looked out over the farm. She pulled them completely open then walked to the the back of the house and opened the shutters on the window there so she had a view of the river.
After a few moments Legs began to hum one of the songs he’d often sang to entertain the men and women of Plum village in the evenings as they sat drinking their ale. It was the one about a stupid boy trying to outsmart a gang of crows. She smiled. Perhaps it was she who needed him.
Legs sang another few songs, then he stopped, and Sugar could see he was thinking. A few minutes later he began again. A half an hour must have passed that way, Legs humming or singing, stopping to think, singing again, all while Sugar tidied up, first breakfast, then the floor, always keeping an eye on the windows. And across from them, Talen sat with his bow at the ready.
Sugar ran through a number of scenarios. She knew if Talen changed he mind and decided to use his bow, that she would pick up a chair as a shield and charge him. He’d only get off one shot that way. It would pierce her body or it wouldn’t. And if it didn’t, then she’d be in close with her knife. However, that wouldn’t solve any issues should hunters show up. They needed to seem friends, and that would never happen with him holding the bow.
She finished the floor, cleaned the ashes from the hearth and put them in the tin ash bucket, then took a good long look out the window. Nettle worked in the distance.
Talen spoke. “What kind of a name is Legs anyway? It’s not like he’s tall for his age. I can’t imagine he’s quick either.”
“No, Zu,” said Legs. “It’s rather hard to be speedy when you can’t see where you’re going.”
Talen looked surprised that Legs had talked. Sugar herself was a bit surprised, but she knew the tone in his voice. He’d made up his mind about something. This was him wanting to make a point.
“Legs,” said Sugar in warning.
“So that means it would be a bit difficult for me to catch and eat you.”
Talen raised his eyebrows. “What’s he going on about?”
“I’m just pointing out the obvious,” said Legs. “And you can talk to me directly if you want. I’m not deaf.”
Talen stood. “Maybe I don’t like the way your eyes slide around.”
“Sorry, Zu,” said Legs. His eyes had been sliding and he closed his lids. “I know all the stories about Sleth. I’ve sung all the songs. I’ve been thinking about them. And you’d expect if my mother had the powers she’s accused of, she would have given me my sight. Why wouldn’t she have done that?”
“What do I know about your mother’s Slethy ways? Ask her yourself when they put you in the tower.”
“It’s because she’s not,” said Legs.
Sugar wished she had Legs’s confidence. But she didn’t want him to provoke Talen further. “Legs,” she said. “We didn’t answer his question.” She turned to Talen. “It’s his nickname. He was born legs first.”
Sugar didn’t tell him that the midwife had said when Legs’s feet first appeared, he’d pulled them back from the cool air in the room and refused to come out. The first time she’d heard that as a girl, she’d laughed and laughed. She had made her mother tell it again and again. The memory of that happy time seemed so far away, so unreal, as if it weren’t true at all, but only a story.
“I think I want to go down now,” said Legs.
“Yes,” she said. “I think that’s a good idea.” And who knew what he’d say next? Lords forbid, but he’d probably try to tweak Talen with some comment about him taking care of Legs’s business earlier.
Legs walked to her, hand in front feeling the way. She took his hand and led him to the cellar door.
When the door was up, Legs turned to her. “I don’t care,” he said under his breath. And she knew he meant he didn’t care even if Mother were Sleth.
“Neither do I,” she agreed, but that was a lie. She did care.
Legs descended the stairs into the darkness with the potatoes. She found leaving the cellar door open put her on edge. Not everyone had such a cellar built into the floor. Many were outside the kitchen. She could see how having it in the kitchen would be handy, and it was not in the way, but she was not used to working so close to such a hole, so she shut the door.
She turned back to the window and knew she couldn’t stand there doing nothing while Talen watched her. “You can hardly make a lunch over there,” she said. “I will make us something to go with that fish. Can you tell me if your sister keeps any savory?”
Talen hesitated. She expected him to say something about poisoning the food, but he didn’t. He pointed at a cupboard. “It’s in there.”
“Thank you,” said Sugar and began washing and cutting vegetables.
When she finished with the vegetables, she found what she needed to make flat cakes. She had her hands in the flour when she glanced out the back window and saw half a dozen Mokaddians wearing leather cuirasses and helms crouching at the top of the riverbank.
Her heart jumped.
A handful of them broke off and approached the house, crouching low as they walked.
These were not Fir-Noy. At least they did not wear the Fir-Noy colors. She couldn’t tell from this distance, but it appeared their wrist tattoos were those of the Shoka. But it didn’t matter-Shoka or Fir-Noy, they were still Mokaddians, still sneaking up on the house.
She drew back from the window so they wouldn’t see her.
From her angle of view she saw the first man run up to the house and take his position at the corner.
She couldn’t catch her breath. The moment she’d been dreading had come and found her making flat cakes. All her mother and father had suffered to give them a chance to escape would now go to waste.
But that couldn’t happen. She wouldn’t let it happen. She didn’t have time to open the door to the cellar, descend, and close it up again.
She looked out the front window and saw nothing but Nettle working the field in the distance.
She whirled round and faced Talen. “Hunters,” she whispered.
Talen had been leaning against the wall in his chair, balancing it on two of its legs. He came away from the wall and brought all four legs to the ground.
She motioned with her head towards the river. He needed to put that bow down. If he had truly been guarding against something in the woods, then he would have been outside. Both of them would be. They needed to appear to be friends. No, they needed to appear to be more than friends. It would have been better if Ke had been sitting there, but Talen would have to do. She only prayed he wasn’t a fool.
She could not speak, not if she didn’t want to alert the man outside, so she hastened across the floor toward Talen. He must have seen the alarm in her face because he stood and looked with worry to the windows.
One, two, four steps, and she crossed the line he’d drawn. He began to raise the bow, but either his fear had paralyzed him or he wasn’t a fool after all because he allowed her to come right up to him, grab the wrist of the hand that held the bow, and whisper into his ear.
“They’re outside,” she said.
“Fir-Noy?”
“I’m going to sit on your lap,” she said. “Like a lover.” Then she pushed him back into his chair.
Talen’s eyes were round with alarm. He clenched the bow.
She pushed the bow away and settled on him. “Put the bow down,” she whispered. “Put your arm around me.”
He was frozen.
“I am your girl from Koramtown,” she whispered. “I’m visiting.”
Something rustled along the outside of the house. He turned his head toward the sound. He reached back and leaned the bow against the wall, but he didn’t let go.
She raised his free hand to her ribs.
“I’m Lily,” she said.
“What?”
“Lily,” she repeated. “The daughter of Ham, a farmer, living just the other side-”
She could hear a man at the door, and from the corner of her eye she saw the shadow of someone take position by the open shutter. She immediately dipped her mouth to meet Talen’s. She’d kissed boys before. None of the Mokaddians in her village. Her mother had made sure they traveled to Koramtown regularly, more often this last year since Sugar was soon to be of age for marriage negotiations. She closed her eyes and cupped his head with her free, flour-dusted hand.
Talen sat as stiff as a piece of furniture. She opened her eyes and found him staring at her, his eyeballs big as her face. It was like finding a large caterpillar on the end of your nose.
More men gathered outside the door.
“The bow,” she said midkiss, “drop the bow.” His mouth was parted in shock, frozen open like the stone of a statue. She had stolen her share of kisses from Koramtown boys, and this one wouldn’t fool anybody. She flickered the tip of her tongue inside his mouth. Maybe that would bring him around.
The bow and arrows clattered to the floor. And to Talen’s credit he tried to move his lips. They were dry, and the whole thing smelled of the morning’s sausage, but he acted. Of course, she didn’t think either of their performances would be enough.
Then someone tried to force the door.
“You there,” said a man, looking in at them from the window. “Open that door!”
Talen shot up like a flushed animal and dumped Sugar to the floor. She was still getting up when he swung the door wide.
Three men pushed in, weapons bristling: a young one in front with half of his teeth missing and two older men behind. Before Sugar could move, the young one stuck the point of his sword inches from Talen’s neck. “You,” he said. “Where’s your father?”
“He was summoned to Whitecliff,” said Talen.
“We should have known your family would cause problems,” he said.
A man with eyes like ice appeared behind the three that stood in the doorway. “Put the sword down,” he said.
Sugar did not know him, but from his clothing, she suspected he was the bailiff. “Talen,” he said. “I told your da to order the Koramites in the district. I wanted them calm. Instead, I get reports of all sorts of things happening here last night.”
Sugar froze. Had someone seen Talen rousting them out from underneath the old house? They’d heard voices in the night, but they’d been in the distance. And what if Talen decided to turn on her and Legs? He was half convinced she was Sleth already.
It had been a mistake to stay. She should have taken Legs and run. They could have hidden in the woods somewhere until dark fell. Now it was too late.
“Why did you have to provoke the Fir-Noy?” asked the bailiff.
Talen said nothing. He stood there like a scarecrow.
The bailiff looked from Talen to Sugar and back again. “Who’s this?”
“Nobody,” said Talen.
“Nobody?” asked the bailiff.
“Zu,” said Sugar, “I’m Lily from Koramtown.”
“And why did you bar the door in the middle of the morning?”
Talen said nothing, just stood there with his mouth open.
“We…” said Sugar and looked down. That’s what she supposed someone caught in a forbidden embrace would do. She hoped she hadn’t hung her head too quickly.
“Speak up!” said the bailiff.
“We were,” Talen said. He looked as if he’d swallowed a chicken whole. “Sporting.”
“While the father is away,” said the bailiff. He shook his head and looked around the room. “You and your altercations with those Fir-Noy armsmen have caused me a bit of work. I’ve been ordered by the Shoka lords to conduct a personal search of every Koramite homestead in my district.”
“I am sorry, Zu,” said Talen.
“Look at me,” said the bailiff. “What are you hiding?”
Talen’s eyes were wide with fear. If anyone was going to give them away, it would be him. “Nothing, Zu. Nothing.”
The bailiff shook his head. “Of course not.” He signaled to his men to search the house. “I need something to drink.”
“We have no beer,” said Talen.
“Then fetch me a draught of sweet water from your well,” said the bailiff.
Talen complied without hesitation, leaving Sugar alone with the men. One of the bailiff’s men stood on the far side of the room opening cupboards. She could hear the second upstairs and the third in the back room and still others out in the yard. The bailiff himself paced about the room and then noticed the cellar door.
“Girl,” he said. “Open this up.” Then he drew his sword and stepped back.
“You do not need to worry, Zu,” she said, indicating his sword. “I will gladly open the door, but nothing is down there. Only a few cabbages and potatoes. I saw them myself this morning.”
“Oh, is that the trysting spot for Koramite youth?” The bailiff shook his head. “I thought Talen was being prepared for a Mokaddian marriage. I expected more of Hogan.”
Sugar looked down. They would consider it filthy for him to sport with a Koramite. Was that why he’d been so stiff? She walked over to the door. She hoped Legs had heard the men and had hidden in the small cubby they’d made last night.
“Get a light,” he said.
“Yes, Zu,” she said, and then moved to the other side of the room to fetch a lamp.
The man searching this end of the main room was poking his sword deep into barrels of beans and barley. What he expected to find there she could not guess.
Sugar found one of Zu Hogan’s lamps and the oil jar. She poured a bit into the lamp. Then she took it to the fire, retrieved an ember with some small tongs, held it close and began to blow.
“I don’t understand why a girl from Koramtown would risk hunters, alone it seems, to come all the way up here.”
Sugar blew once more and the wick caught fire. “I came early yesterday,” she said. “News of the Sleth had not yet arrived.” Then she pulled up the cellar door.
He pointed at the stair with his sword, indicating she should go first.
Sugar nodded and began to descend the stairs a few steps. As she did her light illuminated the room below and the fact that while Legs had crawled into the cubby, he had not hidden his foot. It, along with the end of his trousers, was plain to see.
The bailiff positioned himself above to get a clearer view of the cellar.
Sugar switched the lamp to her other hand, moving it so that it cast a shadow over Legs.
“Lift it higher,” said the bailiff, “I can’t see.”
“Yes, Zu.” Her mind raced. What could she do? What lie could she tell him?
None came to her mind.
She shifted the lamp.
“Ho,” boomed Zu Hogan from the doorway. “What is this?”
The bailiff turned, and Sugar saw her chance. She quickly descended the remaining steps and hurried to stand in front of Leg’s foot. She held her lamp out as if she were trying to give the room its best possible illumination.
“What kind of a lunatic challenges Fir-Noy armsmen?” asked the bailiff.
Zu Hogan put his hands on his hips. “The same kind that challenges Bone-Faced rot.”
“That’s all good and fine,” said the bailiff. “But you’ve put me in a position. Do you know how lucky you are? Any other Koramite and you’d lose your head. I would have to take it myself.”
“We have far greater things than Fir-Noy honor to worry about,” said Zu Hogan. “The woman held in Whitecliff, she’s gone.”
“Gone?”
“Stolen out of the tower by a creature that cast Droz and his whole guard about like puppets.”
The bailiff stood stunned. “Goh,” he finally said. “Her creation, then, come to free her? Or that of her hatchlings?”
“We don’t know where it came from or whence it bore her. The dogs can’t track it.”
Sugar sat down. There was no doubt about Mother now. She wondered what kind of creature it was that had rescued her. But she couldn’t imagine it. She couldn’t picture her mother as Sleth any more than she could picture her as a dog.
What would Zu Hogan do? He wouldn’t turn her in, would he? Not after hiding and lying for them.
“She’s probably all safely tucked away now in some wicked bolt hole.” The bailiff cursed. There was a brief pause in their conversation then the bailiff said, “This does not bode well for your people.”
“It does not bode well for any of us,” said Zu Hogan. “Because when you do find them, even if you take one hundred men, it won’t be enough. The creature was shot through with arrows and stabbed with spears. Captain Argoth delivered a blow that would have beheaded a horse. Nothing. The ballista men shot a dart and smote the beast squarely in the chest, and it still managed somehow to vanish. It cannot be harmed by normal means.”
The bailiff looked down at Sugar.
“What’s more,” said Hogan, “if it’s taken her, then I suspect it most certainly has the two hatchlings that escaped.”
The bailiff nodded. “We’re done here.”
He called his men off, and as suddenly as they’d come, they left.
Sugar whispered to Legs to stay put then she walked back up the stairs.
Hogan, Talen, and Nettle stood out in the yard. She joined them to watch the bailiff and his men walk back to the woods where they’d tied their horses.
“Do you think he suspects?” asked Nettle.
“No,” said Zu Hogan. “Although I do wonder how he missed marking Sugar.”
“We created a ruse,” said Talen.
“Oh?”
“We were…”
“Yes?”
“Sporting,” finished Sugar.
Nettle raised an eyebrow, but Zu Hogan looked down at her with a sad smile. “Purity’s daughter indeed,” he said.
What that meant, she could not tell. But she could guess what he was thinking. Her mother was a monster. So what did you do with the child of a monster? Sugar knew the answer to that question.
She also knew her mother. There would be an explanation if she could talk to her. There had to be.
About a quarter mile down the road from Hogan’s place, the bailiff halted the men. Prunes reined in his horse with the rest of them.
“I’ve been commanded to post a watch on Hogan,” said the bailiff. “So two of you are going to stay behind. Prunes, you and Gid will have the first day. I’ll send someone to relieve you in the morning.”
That was just Prunes’s luck. He gets an opportunity to sleep, but he has to do it with that garlic-eater at his side. Still, some rest was better than none at all. Prunes simply nodded then peeled his horse from the column, Gid following behind.
They hobbled their horses in a small glen on the far side of the hill and began hiking to find the right position to watch the Koramite.
A few steps up the slope and Gid began to sing under his breath. “A lady green with lips so wide, I could not help but kiss her. But when I’d had my fill of tongue, I put her in the roaster.”
“Will you shut up,” said Prunes.
“They’re not going to hear us.”
“I don’t care if they do hear us. We’re not going to find anything here.”
“How do you mean?”
“This is Captain Argoth’s brother-in-law. We’re not going to find anything here but some rest. And that’s what I intend to take. And that is also why you’re going to be quiet as a mouse.”
“You don’t know what loyalties flow in that Koramite’s veins,” said Gid. “In fact, for a Koramite on the run, this might be the very best place to hide.”
“See,” said Prunes, “that’s what comes of eating too much garlic. You get brain vapors.”
“It’s got nothing to do with what I eat.”
“Stinking vapors of the mind,” said Prunes.
Gid made a rude gesture, but Prunes ignored it.
Soon they found an outcropping of rock that gave a clear view of the farm, then positioned themselves just behind the brush line.
As soon as they sat down, Gid took out a whetstone and began sharpening his knife.
Stupid eager-that’s what he was. If Sleth did indeed pay the Koramite a visit, then they’d need more than knives. Goh, the Koramite’s reports of that creature in Whitecliff gave Prunes the shivers. And if that thing showed up, the best thing to do would be to run. Run or hide in some hole. Then Prunes realized he’d sat in the wrong place. “You need to sit over here,” said Prunes.
“Why?”
“Because that places me upwind of your stinking carcass.”
But Gid gave him a look that said he wasn’t moving. After a few moments, Prunes sighed in irritation. The man was an affliction, but it wasn’t worth a battle. He picked himself up and found a better spot. “You’ve got first watch,” said Prunes. “If I catch you sleeping, you’re going to dance to a hard pipe.”
Gid grunted. “And who do you think will be my partner?”
But Prunes had already laid back and closed his eyes and wasn’t even going to consider giving Gid an answer.