“So. Where’s this friend of yours?”
“Probably asleep. Tre says she’s here, but I’m a day earlier than I arranged. I thought I could ask someone where her room was.” She considered a minute. “Maybe you better do the talking. Ask about a white-haired woman with two children. “
“You know her name?”
“Yes, but I don’t know if she’s using it.”
“Hmm. I see. Kori…”
“No. Don’t talk about it, not now.”
The serving girl shambled back with two mugs of dark ale, plunked them down. Daniel dug out another copper. “You’ve got a woman staying here, white hair, two kids.”
More sullen than ever, she looked from him to Kori. Her mouth dragged down into an ugly sneer.
Daniel set the coin on the table. “Take it or leave it.”
Without a change of expression, she brushed the coin off the table. “On the right going up, first room, head of the stairs.”
Shock and sadness in her eyes, Kori watched the girl drag off. “She…” Her hands groped for answers that weren’t there. “Daniel…”
He frowned; she was a child, sheltered, innocent, but truth was truth however unpalatable. “You’ve never seen a convenience close up before?”
“Convee…”
His hand clamped on her arm. “Quietly,” he whispered. “This isn’t your ground, Kori, you play by local rules.”
“Convenience?”
“She’s for hire like the rooms here. What did you think?”
“Any of those men…”
“Any of them, or all.” He smiled at her. “I thought you were being a little glib back there, talking about whores and what they did.”
“It’s not like Ruba.”
“Who’s Ruba?” He kept his voice low and soothing, trying to ease away the sick horror in her eyes. “Tell me about her.”
Kori laced her fingers together and rubbed one thumb over the other. “Ruba, our whore. She’s a Phrasi woman. She came to Owlyn oh before I was born. Some of the men built her a house. It’s away from the other houses and it’s a little like the Priest House. She lives there by herself. The men visit her. The women don’t like her much, but they don’t make her miserable or anything. They even talk to her sometimes. They let her help with the sugaring. Things like that. The only bad thing is they won’t let her keep her babies. They take them away from her. I’ve watched her since before I was old enough for the Lot. She’s happy, Daniel, she really is. She’s not like that girl.”
“How old is she?”
“I don’t know. Thirty-five, forty, something like that.”
“That’s part of the difference, another part’s how your people treat her. Forget the girl. There are hundreds like her, Kori. There’s nothing you can do for her except hope she survives like Ruba did. It’s better than being on the street. She won’t get hurt here. Well, not crippled or killed. And she’ll most likely have enough to eat.’’
‘
“The look on her eyes,” Kori shivered, tried a sip at the ale, wrinkled her nose and pushed it away. “This is awful stuff.” She watched Daniel drink, waited impatiently till he lowered his mug. “Where you come from, Daniel, are there girls like that?”
“I wish I could say no. We’ve got laws against it and we punish folk who break those laws. When we catch them. But there’s always someone willing to take a chance when they want something they’re not supposed to have.”
“What do you do to the ones you catch?”
“We’ve got uh machines and uh medicines and mmf I suppose you’d call them sorcerors who change their heads so they won’t do it again.” He took a long pull at the ale, wiped his mouth. “We’d better go wake up your friend, you have to get those clothes back to the maid before she crawls out of bed.” He stood, held out his hand. When she was on her feet, he looked her over again. “It would be a kind thing if you left the girl a silver or two, you’ve pretty well ruined her going home clothes.”
She closed her mouth tight and flounced away, heading for the stairs. He grinned and ambled along behind her.
Suddenly uncertain, she tapped at the door, not half loud enough to wake anyone sleeping. She started to tap again, but it swung open before her knuckles reached the panel. A young boy stood in the narrow dark rectangle between door and jamb, fair and frail with odd shimmery eyes.
“Brann,” Kori murmured. She reached under her hair and pulled a thong over her head, held it out, a triangle of bronze swinging at the bottom of the loop. “I’m the one who sent for her.”
The door opened wider. A dark form appeared behind the boy. “Come.” A woman’s voice, a rough warm contralto.
“Show me,” Kori whispered. “First, show me the other half.”
Snatch of laughter. A hand came out of the dark, a triangle of bronze resting on the palm. Kori snatched the bronze bit, examined it, turned it over, ran her thumb along the edge, then dropped both parts of the medal into her blouse. “If you’ll move back, please?” she said to the boy.
He frowned. “Him?”
“He’s in it.”
“Jay, let her in. Ahzurdan is fidgeting about the wards.”
With a small angry sound, the boy moved aside.
Daniel followed Kori inside. A lanky blond girlchild was setting an old lamp on the shelf at the head of a lumpy tottery bed. Just lit, the lamp’s chimney was clouded, a smear of carbon blacked the bottom curve. The shutters were closed and the smell of rancid lamp oil and ancient sweat was strong in the crowded room. A tallish woman with short curly white hair backed up to give them space, lowered herself on the end of the bed. The boy Jay dropped on the crumpled quilt beside her; the girl who was obviously his sister settled herself beside him. Arms crossed, a tall man in a long black robe leaned against the wall and scowled at everyone impartially. His eyes met Daniel’s. Instant hate, instantly reciprocated. Daniel Akamarino the easygoing slide-away-from-a-fight man stared at the other and wanted to kick his face in, wanted to beat the other into bloody meat. The woman Kori had called Brann smiled. “As you can see, the amenities are limited. Sit or stand as you please. There’s a chair, I don’t’trust the left hind leg, so be careful.” When Kori started to speak, she held up her hand. “Stay quiet for a moment. Ahzurdan, the wards.”
Ahzurdan dragged his eyes off Daniel Akamarino, nodded. His hands moved ed in formal, carefully controlled patterns; his lips mouthed silent rhythmic words. “In place and renewed,” he murmured a moment later.
“Interference?”
“Not that I can taste. I can’t be sure, you know. This is his heart place and he’s strong, Brann. A hundred times stronger than when I was with him.”
“HE has a talisman,” Kori said. “A stone he wears round his neck.”
Ahzurdan took a step toward her. “Which one? Which talisman?”
“I don’t know. Do they have names?”
“Do they…” He straightened, closed his eyes. “Yes, child, they have names and it’s very very important to know the name of the talisman he has.
“I’ll ask Tit if he can find out. The Chained God might be able to tell him. He’s given us other things like Daniel here being involved somehow in what’s going to happen. Aren’t you awake now because you got a notion I was coming a day early?”
Brann turned her head. “Ahzurdan?”
“There was a warning. I told you.” His dark blue eyes slid around to Daniel, slid away again. “Nothing about him.” His voice was low and dragged as if he didn’t want to say the words.
“I see. Young woman, your name is Kori Piyolss?” When Kori nodded Brann turned to Daniel. “And you?”
“Daniel Akamarino, one time of Rainbow’s End.”
“And where’s that?”
“From here? I haven’t a notion.”