He started down the hill, and couldn’t help but notice how the gossips outside of Feeder’s stopped talking and watched him pass. It was creepy. But they didn’t say anything to him, and he didn’t see any of his friends.
Bless and On came out of Speaker’s house and climbed into the wagon. Savn ran up to them, waving. Bless saw him, checked the horses, and waited. Ori looked at him with mild curiosity. Bless’s face was round, his eyes were very widely set, and the look on his face seemed suspi—
cious, as if he wasn’t certain Savn was doing what he was supposed to do.
“The evening’s rain to you, sir.”
“And to you, young man. Where have you been this last day?”
“Where have I been, sir?”
“Yes, the whole town has gathered to look for this Easterner, and your absence was noticed.”
“I didn’t know. Why were you looking for him, sir?”
“That is none of your concern, young man. You should be glad that it is I and not Speaker who wants to know, or you can be sure the questions would be rougher in the asking and quicker in the answering.”
“Yes, sir.” Savn didn’t look at Ori, but he was aware of him there, watching, and it made Savn angry and uncomfortable.
“So where were you?” asked Bless.
Savn heard himself answer, “I was looking for him, too.”
“You were?”
“Yes, sir. I saw what happened, and he was hurt, and I thought he might need physicking, and—”
“Physicking!” thundered Bless. “Of all the nerve! This Easterner killed—actually killed—three of His Lordship’s men-at-arms, and you want to physick him?”
“I’m sorry, sir.”
“I should hope so! He has already done more evil here than you can imagine.”
“I know, sir. That’s what I wanted to ask you about.”
That seemed to catch Bless up short. “Eh? Is there something I don’t know about?”
“Yes, sir. It’s Mae and Pae.”
“Well? What about them?”
“I wonder if you could ... that is, I think they’ve been enchanted.”
Bless made a peculiar sound with his mouth and nose. “Enchanted?” he said. “And by whom?”
“By Vlad, the Easterner.”
“Oh, he’s a wizard, is he?”
“No, sir, a witch.”
“Rubbish,” said Bless. “A witch can’t do anything to you unless you believe he can. Have you spoken to Master Wag about this? What does he say about witches?”
“The same as you, sir, only—”
“Well, there you have it.”
“But—”
Bless sighed. “Very well. What makes you think this witch has done something to them?”
“They’ve been acting funny. I mean, really funny.”
Bless sniffed. “Maybe they’re concerned about you.”
“That’s just it. They’re not.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, they don’t seem to care what I do.”
“Eh? That’s the first time I’ve heard that complaint from a young man. What did you do that they didn’t care about?”
Savn realized that he was in dangerous waters. He wanted to say enough to convince Bless to do something, but not so much that Bless would know what he’d been up to.
“Well, I stayed out playing, and they didn’t do anything about it. They didn’t seem to even notice.”
“I see. And because of this you think they’re enchanted?”
“Well, yes. If you’d seen the way they’ve been acting—”
“I saw them two days past, and they seemed quite fine to me.”
“It hadn’t happened yet.”
“Young man, I believe that you are suffering from a disease called bad conscience. Instead of seeing mysterious enchantments everywhere, I’d recommend you start doing what you should be doing, and I suspect everything will be fine.”
“But—”
“But at the moment, I’ve got bigger problems. While this Easterner may not be casting spells on everyone’s mother, he is out there somewhere, and I must see to it that he is found before he does any more damage. Now be on your way.”
Without waiting for Savn’s answer, Bless motioned for Ori to drive off. Savn clenched his fists with frustration. Why did everyone only see what he wanted to?
Savn looked around to make sure he hadn’t attracted any attention, and saw, to his dismay, Lan and Tuk walking by on the opposite side of the street, staring at him. They looked away when he stared back, which was almost worse than if they’d tried to beat him up again.
He turned and headed for home. Maybe Polyi would say something that would cheer him up.
The walk home was long, and it was nearly dark by the time he got there. Mae and Pae were still busy, and when they bid him a good day, it seemed that they were even further away than they had been.
Savn wondered if perhaps he was exaggerating their condition to himself. He couldn’t be sure, but he didn’t think so.
Polyi was in the house, and her first words were, “Are they sick, Savn?”
He thought about giving her an honest answer, but couldn’t make himself do it. He said, “I don’t know what’s wrong, Polyi. I just don’t know.”
“Should we ask someone?”
“Who?”
“Well, Master Wag, maybe?”
“I don’t think they’re sick.”
“Well somethings wrong with them.”
Savn sighed. “Yes, I know. Let me think about it.”
“What good will thinking about it do? We have to—”
“I know, we have to do something. But I don’t know—What in the world was that?” There had come some sort of rapping, scraping sound from the roof.
Polyi rushed out the door, Savn right at her heels. They turned and looked up at the roof. Polyi screamed. Savn, though he had become used to such things, felt very much like doing the same.
* * *
For an hour or so after the large soft one left, the Provider seemed fine, and even after that, she couldn’t really tell that something was wrong, but her lover began to grow agitated, then worried, and finally almost frantic. He began to fly around, nearly hurting himself against the cave walls.
She came to understand that the Provider was not well, and she wondered if the large soft one had done something to him, and if she should track him down and kill him. No, she was told, it had nothing to do with that one, it had to do with how he had gotten hurt before.
This puzzled her, because it seemed that one would either be injured or healthy; the Provider had been injured and was now getting healthy again, so how could the same injury account for two illnesses? But her lover was in no mood to explain such things, so she didn’t ask.
As he grew more frantic, however, she began to catch his mood. Desperate to do something that would alleviate his misery, she at last suggested that, if he had been cured before by something one of the Provider’s species had done, couldn’t it happen again?
Her lover calmed down at this suggestion, only to become angry again, this time at himself, because he seemed to feel he ought to have thought of that before. But he seemed disinclined to waste too much time with such thoughts; almost at once he turned and flew out of the cave.
She had nothing better to do, so she followed.
I will not marry a sly intendant,
I will not marry a sly intendant,
I’d make money and he would spend it.
Hi-dee hi-dee ho-la!
Step on out ...
Polyi clutched Savn’s arm and stared. The day’s light was nearly gone but there was enough to see, without possibility of error, what was sitting on the roof. Even to Savn, there was something horribly invasive in the jhereg’s perching on his own house; whatever they were, and however friendly they were, they didn’t belong here.