"What's wrong with them?" he asked. "They don't seem very eager to escape."
"They are afraid," said Seema. She was working by the light of a small oil lamp, poking and prodding at the lance in Rishi's leg. "They think you will kill them if they try."
"Me?" Atreus exclaimed. "We're all in this together!"
Seema looked up. "What do you mean, together?" "They do not understand you, Atreus," Rishi laughed. "They think you are one thieving devil stealing from another."
Atreus sighed and looked at Seema. "Is that what you think?"
"I think being a thief is only a small wickedness," Seema said, avoiding Atreus's gaze as she continued to examine Rishi's leg. "There are greater evils in this world."
"I am no thief," Atreus declared, "and I am no devil. When we reach the head of the river, they are free to return to their homes. Tell them."
Seema looked up. "Truly?"
It was Rishi who answered, "Oh yes, truly. The good sir is a silly fool who cares nothing for wealth." The Mar cast a wistful glance downriver, toward Atreus's sunken gold. "He will throw it away on the merest pretext."
"Human beings are not wealth," Atreus said. He nodded to Seema. "Tell them. They will row faster knowing they are free men."
"Oh, I see." Seema's eyes grew sad, but she rose and spoke rapidly in Maran.
The slaves began to murmur even louder and cast wary glances at the aft deck. Atreus huddled in his blanket and tried not to look quite so much like a blood-smeared devil.
"Rishi, how do I say she is telling the truth?"
"Ekc'kta reeto."
Atreus repeated the phrase, though he did not come even close to imitating the Mar's strange throat click.
The slaves gasped and looked confused, until someone began jabbering in Maran. The others began to laugh, and suddenly the boat broke into a swirl of frenzied activity, with men rushing forward to serve as pilots while others jumped up to help at the oars.
"What did I say?" Atreus asked.
"That yaks are very honest," said Rishi, "but I think they understand what you meant."
"It would have been simpler to say it in Realmspeak," Seema added. "Mountain Mar are not ignorant savages, you know."
"No, you are not savages at all," said Rishi, pointedly leaving out the word "ignorant."
Seema scowled, then knelt down and placed her knees on Rishi's leg to either side of the broken lance.
"Will you remove the shaft?" she asked, looking to Atreus. "Pull it straight out, the quicker the better."
Rishi twisted around, his eyes wide with fear. "Quicker? Wait one-"
Atreus grabbed the shaft and pulled, removing it in one smooth motion. Rishi howled in pain, and dark blood began to bubble from the wound. Seema stuffed a rolled bandage into the hole, causing the Mar so much pain that he pounded the deck and twisted around to glare at her.
"You are a depraved mountain witch!" he screamed, "to inflict such pain and enjoy it!"
"The lance had to come out." Seema sprinkled white dust on the hole, drawing another sharp hiss from Rishi. "This will prevent the wound from festering."
"Succubus!"
Recalling the numbing powder Seema had used on his wound, Atreus said to Rishi, "Perhaps it would hurt less if you showed more gratitude."
The Mar whirled toward Atreus. "You dare speak to me of gratitude? You, whose promise is not worth a yak?"
"I won't argue this again," said Atreus. "Gold means nothing to a drowned man."
"You are a liar and thief. Had you wanted to keep your word, you could have waited to escape until after Tarch pulled the gold up tomorrow."
Atreus shook his head. "I would have been in shackles by tomorrow, and you would have been killed the instant Tarch had the gold. I did what was best for all of us. Now, I am done discussing this."
"And I am done with you. I have seen the way you repay those who serve you!" Rishi would not hold still for Seema to bandage his leg as he continued to rant, "You would rather let. Yago lose himself in the swamp than spend a single night in shackles!"
"Watch your tongue," Atreus warned. "If Yago is alive, he'll find us. If he isn't… I want to hear nothing about it from you."
"Oh, you cannot hide behind the memory of Yago," Rishi sneered. "It is no secret to me what happens when a pretty slave girl smiles at someone like you."
Atreus raised his brow. "Someone like me?" he asked, insulted. Atreus was trembling with anger, perhaps because there was more than a little truth in Rishi's venom. "What, exactly, do you think someone like me feels when a beautiful woman smiles at him?"
Without awaiting a reply, Atreus rose and started forward.
"Do not come tomorrow and beg me to be your guide," Rishi called after him. "I do not take fools on fable-chases for free, you know!"
Atreus bit back a furious reply, slipped past the rowers who were working two men to an oar and propelling the barge along at a surprisingly brisk pace and went up to the bow. The Mar lookouts greeted him with nervous smiles and gave him a wide berth, which was just as well in his current mood. He laid down on the edge of the deck and cupped the dark river water in his hands and began to wash the blood from his devil's face.
When he finished, he found Seema waiting with her lamp and tray of potions. "We were not finished," she said. "I must tend your wounds, or you will be in no condition to flee Tarch tomorrow."
Atreus laid down on his side. "I'm sorry for the things Rishi said," he told her. "I can see for myself that your people are not ignorant."
"They are only words," Seema replied, then knelt beside him and pulled aside his cloak. The needle and thread she had been using earlier still dangled from his wound. "Was he telling the truth? Am I the reason you killed the slavers?"
Atreus looked away, but said, "Part of the reason. I couldn't bear to think what Tarch had in store for you."
"I see."
Seema shoved the needle through a flap of skin, drawing a sharp hiss of pain from Atreus.
"I, uh, can feel that," he said. "I think the numbing powder has worn off."
"I know," Seema said, pulling the thread through. Atreus's side felt like it was burning. "I give you strength and tend your wounds, and you repay me with killing?"
She shoved the needle in again, and this time Atreus managed not to hiss.
CHAPTER 9
Atreus woke to the murmur of voices and to the roar of a nearby waterfall. When he opened his eyes he found himself lying on the bow deck, buried beneath an avalanche of yak-hair blankets, staring at a stony mountainside looming up behind the barge's stern cabin. The slope was grassy, steep, and strewn with massive crags of folded rock. Over the largest of these outcroppings hung the terminus of a glacier, a dirty curtain of ice with a silver ribbon of melt-water arcing out from beneath it. Above the glacier, a low pall of snow clouds cloaked the mountain heights in a veil of gray vapor.
The voices continued to murmur, rippling out of the willow swamp alongside the barge. Atreus stayed beneath his blankets, thinking it wiser not to draw attention to himself until he gathered his groggy wits. He did not recall falling asleep, only wrapping himself in a blanket and sitting down to sip another of Seema's potions. If the concoction had knocked him out, it had also rejuvenated him. He felt strong and rested, with no sign of fever. His wounds itched more than they ached, and when he ran his fingers over the lance puncture in his breast he was surprised to find it already closed. Seema's healing magic was more powerful than he had thought.
As Atreus's head cleared, he saw that he had been abandoned. Save for vacant slave chains snaking across the decks and two sets of oars still resting in their locks, the barge was empty, beached stern-first so everyone could sneak ashore without disturbing him on the bow. A familiar cold hollowness arose inside Atreus. This was hardly the first time someone had taken pains to avoid him, but it was certainly the most callous. Having saved the Mar from a life of bondage he had thought they might return his kindness by helping him find his way to Langdarma, but he should have known better than to think any act of kindness would blind people to his humped back and disfigured face.