"Hurry! Leave the rest! I have the valuables already."
Qedet shouted back. "I'm not leaving my linens!"
"Taking a trip, Wersu?" Meren asked softly.
The old man gasped and whirled around. Seeing Meren, he paled and opened his mouth. Nothing came out. Wersu's gaze jumped from Meren to the tall, imposing charioteer at his side.
Meren's fingers ran over the beads of electrum and lapis lazuli in the belt that cinched his robe over his kilt. "How unlike Kar to be so generous as to give you that valuable royal linen. I find myself unable to believe your tale, Wersu. I think Kar kept all his loot to himself. I think you were furious at him for this last and greatest injury. Did Kar threaten to leave and take his wealth with him after all you'd put up with from him?"
Dropping the donkey's tether, Wersu sobbed and dropped to the ground at Meren's feet.
Unmoved, Meren continued. "I think if I look in those carefully wrapped bundles on you donkey I'll find more of Princess Iaret's possessions. What do you think?"
Wersu raised himself, but he spoke to Meren's sandaled feet. "I beg mercy, great lord. Kar wouldn't share anything, not a bead, not a scrap of linen, and Qedet-. My wife has always berated me for my lack of ambition and wealth. I thought to myself, at last, here is a chance to please her. She will love me as I've always wished now that I can give her the luxuries she craves. But Kar refused. After all I'd done for him, for years. I couldn't bear it, and Qedet kept complaining and criticizing." Wersu was quivering. "I so tired and unhappy. I just wanted her to stop telling me what a failure I was, and Kar wouldn't help me."
"So you followed him to his hiding place and confronted him," Meren said.
The old man nodded. "He was in the cave admiring his newest treasure, that d-dagger. I didn't mean to kill him." Wersu was crying now. "He was my son, but he never listened, just never listened. Wouldn't listen to me. I didn't mean to hurt him, but he wouldn't listen."
Meren winced at the way Wersu seemed to disintegrate in front of him. At that moment the front door to Wersu's house banged open, and Qedet backed outside with a long wicker box. She maneuvered her burden across the threshold, turned and saw Meren. Shrieking, she dropped the box, spilling royal linen into the dusty courtyard.
Glancing at a sheath dress with a hem embroidered in purple and gold, Meren said, "Ah, Mistress Qedet. I think you'll find that those linens have come at a higher price than even you are willing to pay."