"I'm only telling ye so ye don't go back and shut the poor girl up," Pratcus explained. "Them half-elves are a bit on the lamenting side, if ye get me meaning."
"There is nothing you can do for the woman?" Jarlaxle asked.
"I got all I can handle in keeping Davis Eng alive," Pratcus explained. "And he weren't hurt much at all in comparison, except a bit o' acid burns. It's the damn bites she got. So many of 'em. Poisoned they were, and a nasty bit o' the stuff. And Parissus, she'd be dying without the poison, though I'm sure there's enough to kill us all running through her veins."
"Then have Athrogate smash her skull," Entreri said. "Be done with it, and done with her pain."
"She's far beyond any pain, I'm thinking."
"More's the pity," said Entreri.
"He gets like that when he's frustrated," Jarlaxle quipped.
He received a perfectly vicious look from Entreri and of course, the drow responded with a disarming grin.
"That soldier gonna live, then?" asked Athrogate, but Pratcus could only shrug.
Behind them all, Calihye cried out.
"Saved me a swat," Athrogate remarked, understanding, as did they all from the hollow and helpless timbre of the shriek that death had at last come for Parissus.
Calihye continued to wail, even after Pratcus joined her and tried to comfort her.
"Might be needing a swat, anyway," Athrogate muttered after a few moments of the keening.
Ellery pulled her horse us beside the rolling wagon, inquiring of the cleric for Parissus and her soldier.
"Nasty bit o' poison," Entreri and Jarlaxle heard the dwarf remark.
"We're not even to the city, and two are down," Entreri said to the drow.
"Two less to split the treasures that no doubt await us at the end of our road."
Entreri didn't bother to reply.
A short while later, the Palishchuk skyline much clearer before them, the troupe noted the circle of brightly colored wagons set before the city's southern wall. At that point, Mariabronne galloped past the wagon, moving far ahead.
"Wingham the merchant and his troupe," Ellery explained, coming up beside Entreri.
"I do not know of him," Jarlaxle said to her.
"Wingham," Athrogate answered slyly, and all eyes went to him, to see him holding one of his matched glassteel morning stars out before him, letting the spiked head sway and bounce at the end of its chain with the rhythm of the moving wagon.
"Wingham is known for trading in rare items, particularly weapons," Ellery explained. "He would have more than a passing interest in your sword," she added to Entreri.
Entreri grinned despite himself. He could imagine handing the weapon over to an inquiring "Wingham," whoever or whatever a «Wingham» might be. Without the protective gauntlet, an unwitting or weaker individual trying to hold Charon's Claw would find himself overmatched and devoured by the powerful, sentient item.
"A fine set of morning stars," Jarlaxle congratulated the dwarf.
"Finer than ye're knowing," Athrogate replied with a grotesque wink. "Putting foes to flying farther than ye're throwing!"
Entreri chortled.
"Fine weapons," Jarlaxle agreed.
"Enchanted mightily," said Ellery.
Jarlaxle looked from the rocking morning star back to the commander and said, "I will have to pay this Wingham a visit, I see."
"Bring a sack o' gold!" the dwarf hollered. "And a notion to part with it!"
"Wingham is known as a fierce trader," Ellery explained.
"Then I really will have to pay him a visit," said the drow.
Pratcus waddled back up to lean between Entreri and the drow. "She's gone," he confirmed. "Better for her that it went quick, I'm thinking, for she weren't to be using her arms or legs e'er again."
That did make Entreri wince a bit, recalling the bumps as the wagon had bounced over poor Parissus.
"What of Davis Eng?" Ellery asked.
"He's a sick one, but I'm thinking he'll get back to his feet. A few tendays in the bed'll get him up."
"A month?" Ellery replied. She did not seem pleased with that information.
"Three gone," Entreri mumbled to the drow, who didn't really seem to care.
Ellery obviously did, however. "Keep him alive, at all cost," she instructed then she turned her horse aside and drove her heels into its flanks, launching it away.
Accompanied by the continuing sobs of Calihye, Entreri took the wagon the rest of the way to Palishchuk. On Ellery's orders, he rolled the cart past Wingham's circus and to the city's southern gate, where they were given passage without interference—no doubt arranged by Mariabronne, who had long ago entered the city.
They pulled up beside a guardhouse, just inside the southern gate, and stable hands and attendants came to greet them.
"I promise you that I will not forget what you did," Calihye whispered to Entreri as she moved past him to climb down from the wagon.
Jarlaxle again put a hand on the assassin's forearm, but Entreri wasn't about to respond to that open threat—with words anyway.
Entreri rarely if ever responded to threats with words. In his thoughts, he understood that Calihye would soon again stand beside Parissus.
A trio of city guards hustled out to collect Davis Eng, bidding Pratcus to go with them. Another couple came out to retrieve the body of Parissus.
"We have rooms secured inside, though we'll not be here long," Ellery explained to the others. "Make yourself at ease; take your rest as you can."
"You are leaving us?" the drow asked.
"Mariabronne has left word that I am to meet him at Wingham's circus," she explained. "I will return presently with word of our course."
"Your course," Calihye corrected, drawing all eyes her way. "I'm through with you, then."
"You knew the dangers when you joined my quest," Ellery scolded, but not too angrily, "as did Parissus."
"I'm to be no part of a team with that one," Calihye retorted, tipping her chin in Entreri's direction. "He'll throw any of us to our doom to save himself. A wonder it is that even one other than him and that drow survived the road."
Ellery looked at the assassin, who merely shrugged.
"Bah! But yer friend fell and flees to the Hells," Athrogate cut in. "We're all for dyin', whate'er we're tryin', so quit yer cryin'! Bwahaha!"
Calihye glowered at him, which made him laugh all the more. He waddled away toward the guardhouse, seeming totally unconcerned.
"He is one to be wary of," Jarlaxle whispered to Entreri, and the assassin didn't disagree.
"You agreed to see this through," Ellery said to Calihye. She moved over as she spoke, and forcibly turned the woman to face her. "Parissus is gone and there's naught I, or you, can do about it. We've a duty here."
"Your own duty, and mine no more."
Ellery leveled a hard stare at her.
"Will I be finding myself an outlaw in King Gareth's lands, then, because I refuse to travel with a troupe of unreliables?"
Ellery's look softened. "No, of course not. I will ask of you only that you stay and look over Davis Eng. It seems that he'll be journeying with us no farther as well. When we are done with Palishchuk, we will return you to the Vaasan Gate—with Parissus's body, if that is your choice."
"And my share is still secure?" the woman dared ask. "And Parissus's, which she willed to me before your very eyes?"
To the surprise of both Entreri and Jarlaxle, Ellery didn't hesitate in agreeing.
"An angry little creature," Jarlaxle whispered to his friend.
"A source of trouble?" Entreri mused.