She was surprised that no tears stung her eyes, but instead of sorrow she felt the hot burn of rage. Anger at Corlan, for doubting her brother. Anger at the city for putting her family in this position. Anger at whoever had really killed that man.
Behind her, she heard Corlan calling her name. He shouted it several times, then stopped. She thought she heard the gate guard say something, which might have been, “Let her go, son, she’s not worth it.” She didn’t know what Corlan said in reply, if anything. By then she was gone, out of hearing, on her way back to her home.
Or to the place that had been her home, but would no longer be. Not after tonight.
After tonight, the House of Thrace would have to find its way in some other city-state, under some other sorcerer-king.
Nibenay was done, for them.
XVI
The Smithy on the Square
In the distance, across a flat plain, a small village sparkled in the late afternoon sunshine. “Look!” Myrana called. “We’re saved!”
“We hope,” Aric corrected. “Until we know whose village that is, though, we can’t be sure.”
“Any village is better than none,” Myrana said.
“True enough,” Ruhm added. He touched his stomach. He didn’t need to—Aric was as hungry as the rest of them. Since they’d escaped from the ambush site, they hadn’t dared spend any time hunting or gathering food. They had ridden the erdlus until the birds almost fell over from exhaustion. Aric decided to give his a break, and ran alongside, until hunger weakened him so much that he could do so no longer.
They didn’t know if they were pursued, and if so, by whom, so they set their sites on the village, and crossed the plain as fast as they were able.
Behind high stone-and-mortar village walls were tall trees, indicating that a spring or oasis lay within. As the five weary travelers approached, they saw villagers appear at those walls, standing on platforms no doubt, holding bows.
“They’re alert,” Sellis said. “How do we look like we’re friendly?”
Myrana laughed. “Maybe inside there is a pond, and if there is, we can all take a look at our own reflections. If I look as bad as the rest of you, then I’m sure there’s nothing we can do to appear friendly.”
“We could not kill anybody,” Aric suggested. “That would be a start.”
“If they don’t hurt us …” Ruhm said.
“We’ve no reason to hurt anyone,” Amoni said. “Do we?”
“No reason,” Myrana said. “Let’s just ride up to the gate and let them know that.”
A few minutes later, a large blond man with a light, curly beard, hailed them from the wall. “Ho!” he called. “What is your business here?”
“We’re hungry,” Aric replied. “We would like to purchase food. And someone might be chasing us. Raiders or thri-kreen, we’re not sure which.”
For a long, difficult moment, the man at the wall, and the men and women around him, stared blankly at their uninvited guests. Then the big man broke out in laughter, and the others joined in. “You’ve interesting lives, it appears! Have you currency to pay for that food, or do you expect us to extend credit to five bedraggled strangers?”
Aric still had some coins in his purse from selling the sword to Tunsall of Thrace. For the last several weeks he’d had nowhere to spend it. “We have currency,” he said. “And we’d appreciate shelter.”
“Protection from those raiders? Or thri-kreen?”
“Yes,” Aric said. “We … we sort of tricked them into battling each other. Whoever survived the fight might be angry.”
The big man laughed again. “It seems I was mistaken. You’re not just interesting. You’re pure trouble.”
Aric spread his hands. “I wish I could deny that.”
“Enter,” the man said. “Gate!”
The village gate, Aric noted, was made of iron, and in good repair. Two men swung it open, and the five travelers rode their stolen erdlus through. Inside were orderly rows of buildings, constructed of mud bricks or a similar stone and mortar construction to the outer wall. The big man jumped down from a platform that ran along behind the inside of the wall, about halfway up.
“Welcome to the village of Yarri,” he said. He was a handsome fellow, with pale green eyes and a ready grin. “I am called Hotak Hedessi, once of Urik but no longer.”
“We appreciate your hospitality, Hotak,” Myrana said. “Are you the …”
“I’m the village smith,” Hotak said.
Aric’s head snapped around. “You’ve a smithy here?”
“We do.”
“I would like to see that.”
“That can be arranged,” Hotak offered. “But first … these raiders. Did they say anything about Fort Dunnat?”
“Yes!” Myrana said. “They did,”
“Hmm …” A shadow seemed to pass over the smith’s face. “Then we’d better begin our preparations right away. That’s a bad bunch. They leave us alone, for the most part, but if they’re after you …”
“Perhaps we ought not let them in,” a burly, dark-haired older woman said, scowling at the newcomers. “Why antagonize raiders over these we don’t even know?”
“Because they’ve coins to spend, Maja, and the raiders never give, only take.”
“Aye, true enough. But—”
“But nothing. You’re welcome, strangers. There’s a small tavern right down that road, on the village square,” Hotak said, pointing. “You’ll find food and beds there. There’s a livery nearby as well. I’ll be busy here for a while.”
“Thank you for your hospitality,” Aric said. He hopped off the erdlu, revitalized by the unexpectedly gracious reception and the prospect of a real meal and an actual bed. “We’ll go there, and we’ll spend some coins in your village, with pleasure.”
He led the bird and his companions down the road Hotak had indicated. A few people emerged from buildings along the way, greeting them with reserved politeness. Others spread the word that raiders might be coming, and people rushed to the walls to lend their support. There were probably a hundred permanent structures in the village, Aric calculated. It wasn’t on any major trading routes, but with its contained oasis, it probably catered to travelers, which was why it had a tavern with rooms in the first place. He supposed it had some other industry as welclass="underline" a quarry, a mine, or something. If it was like many villages he’d heard about, he would never be allowed to see that, and it might not even be spoken of in the presence of outsiders.
The tavern was a single-story building that sprawled out in three directions, with smaller buildings tacked on after the original had been erected. Beside it was the livery, which was more or less a single barn with a few outside stables for hardier beasts. Both were quiet, but when they took the erdlus into the barn, a stable boy showed up, struck a deal for the care of the creatures, and took them to be fed and watered.
Inside the tavern, an old married couple, he with a belly that looked like he was concealing several small animals under his shirt, she stooped over almost double, with but one tooth in her head and long, stringy white hair, agreed to feed them and offered them beds in a single room or several.
Aric was more than happy to eat. The meal was almost silent, since they’d all had plenty of each other’s company but not enough, these last several days, to fill their stomachs. During it, his gaze kept drifting out the window to the smith’s shop across the square. It was bigger than his, with ironwork out front and someone moving about inside, even though he knew Hotak was at the wall.
When they had finished eating, the old man showed them to two rooms, one Aric would share with Sellis and Ruhm, and one for Amoni and Myrana. The woman was preparing a hot bath, which would cost another two bits of his dwindling supply, but sounded well worth the price. Aric left the others to relax and walked across the square to the smithy.