“And your road be smooth,” said the woman. Her wispy braids were streaked with gray, her face lined, though she could well be younger than I. Her bare arms were ridged with sinew, and she gripped a rusty hoe, but did not lean on it.
“We’re travelers from Montevial,” I said.
“We see few strangers in Yennet. Why would you come here?”
The air was crisp and sweet, the sky a deep and brilliant blue behind the sheer white peaks. “To pay homage to the beauties of nature,” I said, unable to think of any more plausible answer.
To my surprise, the woman nodded solemnly. “‘Tis the only reason to be sure. The Wall is worth a day’s rising.”
“Have you seen any other strangers about today? One of our company was separated from us in the storm. A young man of… some thirty years he appears. Tall. Clean-shaven. Blue eyes; light hair. Strongly made and riding a spirited chestnut of sixteen hands.”
“I’ve seen no one like. Mayhap he took the road to Vanesta or got turned about and is halfway to Montevial once more. You’d best be after him.” The woman’s fingers shifted on her hoe.
“Perhaps.” No other villagers had made an appearance. I saw only one other person, a slim young man sitting on a fence far down the road. Tales said that untaxed grain often found its way into Valleor through the foothills of the Dorian Wall. Smugglers were rightly shy of company. “Is there somewhere in your village where we could stay the night? We hope our friend will make his way here.”
The woman’s glance darted toward her house. “I don’t know. We’re but poor sheepherders. Most everyone is out with the flocks.”
From the corner of my eye I caught a movement in the shadowed doorway. I stood my ground. No use to run. To move my hand toward the knife beneath my skirt was to invite unfortunate consequences. “We have our own provisions. We just need a roof and a dry floor. I promise you we’re interested in naught but finding our friend.”
“But—”
A body separated itself from the shadows. “What Marika is trying not to say is that she has already sheltered a refugee from the storm. One who asked her to be discreet.”
“Sheriff!”
Graeme Rowan looked about cautiously before approaching me. His left temple was mottled purple and green, swollen and marked by an ugly scab. In the center of his forehead was a faint gray smudge of earth. His god had sent him on another journey because of me.
How do you apologize to a man you despise? Honor demanded it, but my back bristled. Why couldn’t it be enough that we hadn’t killed him? “Sheriff, I—”
“Madam, I’d be grateful if we could leave off any talk of my profession. I’ve had to swear on my life that I am not here as a representative of the law. Perhaps that vow might ease your own worry.”
My cheeks felt like a smith’s furnace. “I’m glad to see we did no lasting damage.”
It was his turn to be surprised.
“How did you find us here?” I said.
“It was my impression that you found me, but for the sake of avoiding an argument so early in our meeting, I’ll tell you again, I have a new friend who is very good at tracking.”
“But it’s not Pere Giano?”
Rowan’s quiet explosion of laughter was as unstudied as his manner. “Is that what you think? That I—? Holy Annadis, you believe that the one you’ve scorned for ten years as the willful scourge of a corrupt law—a man happy to murder children to prove his worth—is in league with these vile, sorcerous… whatever they are? How in perdition did you come to that fancy?”
I did not share his good humor. “Perhaps we could sit down and discuss this, rather than interrupting this good woman’s work.”
Paulo had sidled up to the sheriff with a crooked grin. “I’ll show this young renegade where to put your horses,” said Rowan, tugging at the boy’s unkempt hair. “Perhaps then we might have a word.”
Marika, appearing relieved at the amiable result of our confrontation, invited us inside. A large, well-swept hearth, its chimney blackened by countless years of burning fir and tar bush branches, was the heart of the single room. In the center of the floor stood a thick table and six stools. A pile of sheepskins in one corner were the family bedding, and two grain bins in another corner served for the pantry. A basket held a spindle and a pile of brown wool. A few pegs and a wooden shelf along one wall held the sum of their material wealth that was not sheep: five cups that Marika set out on her table, a chipped flask with a narrow neck that likely contained oil, some wooden bowls, and a few tins, one of which held dried herbs that the woman spooned sparingly into the cups before pouring hot water from the blackened pot hanging over her coals. An ax with a splinted handle hung by the fireplace along with a coiled rope, a fishing net, and two pair of snowshoes. This made my cottage look like a palace.
“You are very kind to have us, Marika.”
“It’s good to see a new face, perhaps to hear news of the world.” A red-cheeked boy carried a crock to the table and then sped back outdoors. Marika spooned milk into the heavy cups.
“Not much news worth hearing, I’m afraid. War or the fruits of war.”
“The tales we hear say mayhap our life is not so bad as one might think,” said Marika, handing cups to Baglos and me, while pausing over the third and peering out the door. Her boy had joined the other children who stood in an admiring circle around Paulo, treating him with the awe due a bold adventurer, rather than Donkey, the stupid boy with the twisted leg.
“To make a life in such a place must be very difficult.”
“Our families have been in Yennet for five generations. Once we sent wool carts by the dozen to Montevial, Vanesta, and Yurevan, but now we’re lucky to send three a year. Our flocks have not flourished nor our people. But times will change if we work hard enough.”
“I hope they will.”
I hoped. What would happen if D’Natheil could not do what was needed? There was little enough hope in the world. Baglos was the very image of despair, leaning heavily on the table and staring into his cup, unspeaking. I likely could have pricked him with a needle and elicited no reaction.
Marika poured the third cup of tea, dropped a tiny pinch of sugar in it, added two spoons of milk, and then laid a rag on the top. “Rilia!” she called, and a tiny, curly haired girl ran to the doorway. “Take this to Old Ghouro and see he drinks it.”
“Aye,” said the child, in a whisper, her dark eyes fixed on Baglos and me.
“We have to watch the old man,” said Marika. “He don’t want to eat. Took his flock too far into the mountains two years ago. When he didn’t come back before snowfall, we thought him dead. But didn’t he wander into the village in the middle of winter, half starved and off his head? I hope your friend don’t come to the same.” She finished pouring and returned the tins of tea and sugar to the shelf. “I got to get back to my work now. You can spread your wet things out back if you want or poke up the fire.”
“Thank you again for the tea.”
Rowan joined us as Marika left. He picked up his cup of tea and drank, looking at me as if expecting another bash on the head. I didn’t know what to say. He had fought at Avonar.
“So the mysterious ‘servant” has gone missing again,“ he said, at last. ”Have the priests taken him?“
“I don’t know. He would not go willingly, but we’ve no evidence that he’s been forced.”
Rowan had left his laughter behind. “Why did you think me allied with the villains? I thought we understood the same thing about what they are.”
So I detailed the case I had built up against him: his meeting with the Zhid in Grenatte after pretending not to know them, his appearance at Kellea’s shop on the night of the fire, the brass button in the dead professor’s library, and, of course, Teriza’s testimony about the Leiran wearing a dark coat with shiny buttons. “You’re right that I despise you,” I said. “To my mind, you have willingly participated in acts that are beyond forgiveness. So I refused to believe you. Then, two days ago, Paulo very simply and innocently confirmed everything you’d said.” I told him how I’d sent Jacopo a warning of Rowan’s accusations. “… and so, because of me, they know you were trying to warn me. I’m afraid I’ve put both you and Jaco in more danger than before.”