As we drew closer, my anticipation grew. Huero had achieved great things with my gold, and it seemed only fair to expect the same from the villagers of Reb Panza. After all, you could only buy so much thatch and plaster with a gold piece.
I hurried to the front of the convoy, eager for my first sight of the village. Finally, we came upon a point between slopes of baked orange mud that I recognised as the last turn before Reb Panza. I felt a little giddy as I entered the bend, like a child about to receive a special prize. Except the only prizes I'd ever received as a child were the ones I took for myself, whereas this would be a genuinely hard-earned reward. As anticipation tingled my spine, I closed my eyes, the better to open them at the last moment and see…
Reb Panza exactly as I'd left it.
No sign, no hint, of repair. Not one cracked paving tile replaced, not a single wall replastered. I had to fight the uncanny sense that I'd never been away. Or perhaps I'd never given the old Patriarch that coin, had only dreamed it to assuage my irksome conscience?
Saltlick, at the head of the giants' convoy, was close behind me. I held up a hand. "Wait here. Keep everyone together."
My voice was strangled, but there was nothing I could do about that. I rode on, into the square. More than ever, the village was thick with an air of desolation. Could they have decided it would be more economical simply to leave and start again elsewhere? "Hello?" I called. "Anyone here?"
A pregnant silence — then one door opened the narrowest crack. The woman who looked out at me was haggard-eyed; lank hair hung in streaks across her face. My first thought was that she was in middle age, but I realised quickly that a wash and a good night's rest would reveal her to be hardly older than I was. "Who are you?" she said. "We've nothing for vagabonds."
"Where's the Patriarch?" I snapped, irked by her tone. It occurred to me that I'd never thought to ask his name.
"That scoundrel? Gone. Run off, and taken all of our old folks with him. I'm his daughter, for my sins, so anything you want with him you might as well say to me."
"Run off? Run off where?"
"To Muena Palaiya. Senile old fool!" Despite her initial hostility, it appeared I'd found a subject she was eager to discourse on. "Why else would I be wasting my time here and not working where there's a living to be earned?"
I'd noticed on my previous visits that Reb Panza's population seemed to be restricted to the young and old, with no apparent middle ground. "You work away?" I asked.
"What else? Try to farm this dust?" She waved irritably at the surrounding country. "We hire with our men up in the fields near Pan Marco. It's easiest to pass our nights there and come back when we have a day or two off. Now, thanks to my pig-headed father and whatever fool gave him money, the women of Reb Panza are stuck here caring for our spoiled children!"
"Oh." If it wasn't an adequate response, it was all I had in me right then. My heart had been sinking with each word, as I realised the extent to which my good intentions had foundered.
"Oh indeed! How can we live now? This village was already on the verge of collapse, even before that foreign beast burned it half to the ground. If our parents don't come back soon, we'll have to leave this place to the rats."
"I'm sorry."
I must have sounded sincere, because her tone was a touch softer as she replied, "Well, it's hardly your fault." She stepped out from the doorway. "Anyway, those are my problems. How about you? What brings you to a cesspool like Reb Panza?" She looked me up and down. Then her gaze travelled further — and she froze, mouth open. An incomprehensible sound gurgled free. She tried again. "Those are… those are…"
"Yes. Giants."
She recovered just slightly. "I was going to say monsters."
"Oh."
"They said something about a giant — our parents, and the children. We thought it was a game they'd been playing."
"That was Saltlick," I told her. "My friend."
She looked at me. "You're friends with a monster?"
"A giant," I reminded her. "Now what would be the chances of lodgings for the night?"
Having calmed down a little, the woman introduced herself as Alba. In the end, all I could think to do was give her one of my remaining handful of onyxes to rent two shacks, one for Alvantes and me, the other for Huero and Dura, who had caught up with the convoy while I'd been negotiating.
From their doorsteps, the other women of Reb Panza eyed the giants with horror. However, after countless assurances from myself, Huero and Dura, they did agree to let their children out. Given how they'd taken to Saltlick on our previous visits, they were overjoyed to discover his brethren camped on their doorstep — and the giants, in turn, were every one as patient as Saltlick had been in the face of their zealous attentions.
While they kept each other busy, Huero and I pondered the giants' sleeping arrangements. It promised to be another mild night, and I was confident they'd be all right outside. Even if they weren't, there was nothing we could do. Few of the shanties in Reb Panza were big enough to hold even one of them.
Still, I felt a little guilty to leave them for a warm bed. When I finally slept, I did so fitfully, troubled by the unreasonable burdens suddenly piling upon me. I tried to trace what twists of fate had left the responsibility of a hundred giants on my shoulders, to rationalise how my attempt to set things right could have left Reb Panza more destitute than I'd first found it. It was all too much for a simple thief to be expected to bear.
However, I was pleased in the morning to find the giants no worse for wear, and even in good spirits. It didn't take much effort to get them moving; now that their journey had begun, they were obviously eager to reach its end. While they set out under Huero's administration, I took a moment to say my goodbyes to Alba.
"It so happens we're headed to Muena Palaiya," I said. "Maybe I can find your errant old folks and convince them to return." In truth, there was no "maybe" about it. I'd drag that thieving Patriarch back by the scruff of his wrinkled neck if I had to. Still, there seemed no point getting her hopes up.
"If you do," she replied, "only make sure to give him a good hiding first. And make sure to mention my name as you do it."
It would have been dull to cross the barrens of the Hunch once more but for one thing. To the giants, every sight was fresh and strange, and their enthralment was infectious. Now that they'd begun to accept their freedom, they chattered softly amongst themselves, pointed out new discoveries, and generally behaved much as the children of Reb Panza would have if they'd been suddenly transported to the giants' enclave.
We maintained a good pace, and passed no one — perhaps because any travellers scurried to hide when they saw us approaching. By late evening, we'd drawn close to Muena Palaiya. Educated by previous experience, Alvantes and I left Huero and the giants out of sight and rode on alone to the northern gates.
It was no surprise to find them closed at so late an hour. That the walls were still bare of guards, though, was certainly strange. Estrada would never have let the town's security slip to such a degree, now less than ever.
Alvantes dismounted before the gates and rapped violently. Yet for a long while, no response came. Just as I was sure there was no one beyond to hear, a nasal voice called from the walls, "Who's there?"
Alvantes paced back to see, and I followed. A man with grimy, grizzled black hair and a hatchet face stared down at us from a platform atop the gates. He was dressed in the livery of a Muena Palaiyan guard, but even I could tell he was no guard. The livid crescent scar inscribed around his neck, the sneer, the short curved knife he wore slung across his chest and the way his fingers stayed near it, all spoke of someone used to killing first and skipping questions altogether. In fact, now that I looked carefully, wasn't he one of the interchangeable cut-throats who'd thronged around Castilio Mounteban's bar?