hand to Estrada. 'Marina. Are you all right?'
She managed a tentative smile. Even from a distance, I could see she was shaking. 'Yes. No. Not really.' She reached with slim fingers to touch Alvantes's arm.
Then suddenly, with no intervening movement that I could make out, they were holding each other — hanging on to each other fiercely.
Even I could recognise two people in need of privacy. I turned away.
CHAPTER TWENTY
I was happy to give Alvantes and Estrada a little privacy. The sight of so many costly and easily pocketed knick-knacks arrayed around the room had awakened an instinct recently dormant. For the first time in days, I felt an almost uncontrollable need to steal something.
I turned back at the sound of Alvantes's yelped 'Ow!' in time to witness the last of the ringing slap Estrada had struck him across the face.
'But damn you, what made you think I needed saving?' she demanded, her voice wavering at some indefinable point between anger and tears. 'And how dare you behave as if I'm some damsel in distress?'
'It was Damasco's idea,' Alvantes replied, not without a note of petulance.
'That's right,' I told him, 'blame it on me. Of course, left to your own devices you'd have either surrendered to Mounteban or charged in here single-handed.' Realising what I'd just said, I added hastily, 'We just wanted to help, Estrada.'
'Both of you,' she said, 'what were you thinking? I had everything under control. I have friends here. We'd have dealt with Lupa, sooner or later. Now he's going to run back to Mounteban and likely return with three times as many of his thugs.'
'No,' said Alvantes, 'he isn't.'
'You can't be sure of that.'
'Yes, I can. I meant what I told Lupa. Mounteban's time in Altapasaeda is over.'
'So you'll charge in there like you did here? Probably get yourself killed?'
'If that's what it takes.' There was a note of baffled anger rising in Alvantes's voice.
'No, you won't, damn it! I won't let you.'
'Let me? Marina, it isn't your decision. Just as I, apparently, had no say in you staying here alone to be molested by Mounteban's lackey.'
'I can assure you,' said Estrada icily, 'that Lupa never came anywhere near molesting me.'
What was wrong with these two? Even watching them shout, it was impossible to miss the attraction between them. 'Will you both be quiet!' I cried. 'Estrada, you're safe and Lupa's gone. Alvantes, you've just rescued the woman you love. So maybe the recriminations can wait until tomorrow — or at least until we've had some dinner.'
I was surprised by Alvantes's failure to come over and strangle me, even more so by the flush of crimson in his cheeks. It never failed to amuse me how helpless the man was in the face of his own emotions. Fortunately for them both, Estrada was a little more capable. With a small step forward, rising on her toes, she replaced her arms around Alvantes's neck — more gently this time, less urgently. 'I'm sorry,' she said, 'and thank you, Lunto. I would have dealt with him. But I'm glad I didn't have to.'
Then, before I could realise what was happening, she'd released Alvantes, darted from the stage and wrapped me in a suffocating embrace. 'Thank you too, Easie. It was brave of you to come here.'
I levered her far enough away that I could draw air. 'It was this or another night sleeping in a ditch,' I said. 'Now can we please get out of here?'
Outside, the giants were already gone. We'd agreed that they'd spend as little time within Muena Palaiya as possible, lest the entire town be reduced to panic. The roof of the barn-cum-mansion was propped carefully against its flank. To the west, I could see the crescent scar in the town wall where they'd made their entrance. It was an unsettling sight — strangely, less because of the extent of the damage than its orderliness. Men could have achieved such destruction, but only giants could have made it look so neat and easy.
There was no sign of Lupa or his henchmen. I couldn't believe he'd dare try to stay. Whether Alvantes had made the right call in letting him run back to Mounteban was another question — but that was a problem for tomorrow and for someone other than me. With Saltlick and Estrada safe, my part was played.
Speaking of which… 'Estrada,' I said, 'there's someone waiting outside town who I think would be glad to see you safe.'
Her face lit at the realisation of whom I meant. We found our horses tied in a stable abutting the building and, Estrada mounted behind Alvantes, we headed for the fourth time that night down Dancer's Way. With no one standing guard upon the gates, we had to open them ourselves; still, it was worth a little effort for so clear a sign that Muena Palaiya was free of Lupa's thugs.
We rode in silence across the scantily wooded ground outside the town. Turning onto the northern cliff road, I thought at first that the giants must still be hiding further along — until they edged in ones and twos from the shade of the cliffs.
The sight sent a shudder down my spine. I understood then that nothing Lupa did, no amount of cajolery or bribing, would make his men return to Muena Palaiya. If I'd witnessed these colossi tear the roof from a building, no reward or threat would make me cross their path again.
They all looked more or less identical to me in the gloom. Saltlick's eyes were evidently better than mine, for he rushed forward with a bellow of 'Marina!'
'Saltlick! Oh, it's so good to see you.' Estrada looked as though she'd have liked to fling her arms around him too. She settled for clasping her two hands round one of his. 'And your people are here. Thank you so much for what you did.'
'Glad to help,' Saltlick replied, framing the unfamiliar syllables carefully.
Estrada stepped back to appraise him. 'Around your neck… is that…?'
He nodded bashfully.
'It… ah… it suits you.'
'There's a story there,' I inserted.
'I don't doubt,' said Estrada, an invisible smile clear in her voice. To Saltlick she said, 'We need to get you and your people out of this cold.'
'Not cold,' he replied.
'Nonsense. Give me an hour and we'll see what Muena Palaiya's hospitality can produce.'
All of a sudden, Estrada was full of energy and good cheer. I wondered if I was the only one to notice the fragility behind it. It was as if, Lupa gone, she felt the need to prove herself once more as the woman who could lead a town as well as or better than any man. I wasn't at all surprised when despite the late hour she managed to not only rouse a party of volunteers but to have them construct a giant-scaled shanty town on the waste ground outside Muena Palaiya that put the one we'd left two days ago to shame.
I was so entertained by watching the workmen labour frantically to meet Estrada's near-impossible deadline — whilst keeping as far away as possible from the giants — that I hardly realised how exhausted I was. Only as the show drew towards a close did I properly notice the yawns threatening to dislocate my jaw. I was relieved when Estrada materialised from the darkness, Alvantes in tow, and said, 'I've arranged tavern rooms for you.'
We found Huero and his family and said goodnight to Saltlick, who was busily organising dining and lodging arrangements for his people. If he was still troubled by the fact that he'd been savagely tortured by Moaradrid a mere few paces away, he gave no sign; perhaps seeing the land turned to such an opposite purpose was enough to salve that particular memory. Either way, he waved us an energetic goodbye.
The tavern was an elegant two-storey affair on the more reputable edge of the notorious Red Quarter. It was vertiginously above my usual price range, and I wondered what strings Estrada had pulled to arrange us rooms there. Then again, perhaps its owner had been moved to generosity by the news of Lupa's retirement — for on the way there, Estrada had told us of half a dozen eyewitnesses reporting his hasty departure.
Any fool could have seen that there was much still unsaid between Alvantes and Estrada. However, neither
