Kete returned a minute later, leading a pair of lovely young girls. One had a lean body and face, with straight, black hair cut short like a boy’s. The other was more generously rounded, with curling golden hair. Both wore hopeless expressions and looked to be about sixteen.
“Meet Krin and Ellie,” Kete said, gesturing to the girls.
Alleg smiled. “They are one of the ways in which Levinshir was generous to us. Tonight, one of them will be keeping you warm. My gift to you, as the new member in our family.” He made a show of looking them over. “Which one would you like?”
I looked from one to the other. “That’s a hard choice. Let me think on it a little while.”
Kete sat them near the edge of the fire and put a bowl of stew in each of their hands. The girl with the golden hair, Ellie, ate woodenly for a few bites, then slowed to a stop like a toy winding down. Her eyes looked almost blind, as if she were watching something none of us could see. Krin’s eyes, on the other hand, were focused fiercely into the fire. She sat stiffly with her bowl in her lap.
“Girls,” Alleg chided. “Don’t you know that things will get better as soon as you start cooperating?” Ellie took another slow bite, then stopped. Krin stared into the fire, her back stiff, her expression hard.
From where she sat by the fire, Anne prodded at them with her wooden spoon. “Eat!” The response was the same as before. One slow bite. One tense rebellion. Scowling, Anne leaned closer and gripped the dark-haired girl firmly by the chin, her other hand reaching for the bowl of stew.
“Don’t,” I urged. “They’ll eat when they get hungry enough.” Alleg looked up at me curiously. “I know what I’m talking about. Give them something to drink instead.”
The old woman looked for a moment as if she might continue anyway, then shrugged and let go of Krin’s jaw. “Fine. I’m sick of force-feeding this one anyway. She’s been nothing but trouble.”
Kete sniffed in agreement. “Little bitch came at me when I untied her for her bath,” she said, brushing her hair away from the side of her face to reveal scratch marks. “Almost took out my damn eye.”
“Did a runner, too,” Anne said, still scowling. “I’ve had to start doping her at night.” She made a disgusted gesture. “Let her starve if she wants.”
Laren came back to the fire with two mugs, setting them in the girl’s unresisting hands.
“Water?” I asked.
“Ale,” he said. “It’ll be better for them if they aren’t eating.”
I stifled my protest. Ellie drank in the same vacant manner in which she had eaten. Krin moved her eyes from the fire, to the cup, to me. I felt an almost physical shock at her resemblance to Denna. Still looking at me, she drank. Her hard eyes gave away nothing of what was happening inside her head.
“Bring them over to sit by me,” I said. “It might help me to make up my mind.”
Kete brought them over. Ellie was docile. Krin was stiff.
“Be careful with this one,” Kete said, nodding to the dark-haired girl. “She’s a scratcher.”
Tim came back looking a little pale. He sat by the fire where Otto nudged him with an elbow. “Want some more stew?” he asked maliciously.
“Sod off,” Tim rasped weakly.
“A little ale might settle your stomach,” I advised.
He nodded, seeming eager for anything that might help him. Kete fetched him a fresh mugful.
By this time the girls were sitting on either side of me, facing the fire. Closer, I saw things I had missed before. There was a dark bruise on the back of Krin’s neck. The blonde girl’s wrists were merely chafed from being tied, but Krin’s were raw and scabbed. For all that, they smelled clean. Their hair was brushed and their clothes had been washed recently. Kete had been tending to them.
They were also much more lovely up close. I reached out to touch their shoulders. Krin flinched, then stiffened. Ellie didn’t react at all.
From off in the direction of the trees Fren called out, “It’s done. Do you want us to light a lamp for you?”
“Yes, please,” I called back. I looked from one girl to the other and then to Alleg. “I cannot decide between the two,” I told him honestly. “So I will have both.”
Alleg laughed incredulously. Then, seeing I was serious, he protested, “Oh come now. That’s hardly fair to the rest of us. Besides, you can’t possibly. . . .”
I gave him a frank look.
“Well,” he hedged, “Even if you can, it . . .”
“This is the second thing I ask for,” I said formally. “Both of them.”
Otto made a cry of protest that was echoed in the expressions of Gaskin and Laren.
I smiled reassuringly at them. “Only for tonight.”
Fren and Josh came back from setting up my tent. “Be thankful he didn’t ask for you, Otto,” Fren said to the big man. “That’s what Josh would have asked for, isn’t it Josh?”
“Shut your hole, Fren,” Otto said, exasperated. “Now
I stood and slung my lute over one shoulder. Then I led both lovely girls, one golden and one dark, toward my tent.
CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED THIRTY-ONE
Black by Moonlight
Fren and Josh had done a good job with the tent. It was tall enough to stand in the center, but still crowded with me and both girls standing. I gave the golden-haired one, Ellie, a gentle push toward the bed of thick blankets. “Sit down,” I said gently.
When she didn’t respond, I took her by the shoulders and eased her into a sitting position. She let herself be moved, but her blue eyes were wide and vacant. I checked her head for any signs of a wound. Not finding any, I guessed she was in deep shock.
I took a moment and dug through my travel sack, then shook some powdered leaf into my traveling cup and added some water from my waterskin. I set the cup into Ellie’s hands, and she took hold of it absently. “Drink it,” I encouraged, trying to capture the tone of voice Felurian had used to gain my thoughtless compliance from time to time.
It may have worked, or perhaps she was just thirsty. Whatever the reason, Ellie drained the cup to the bottom. Her eyes still held the same faraway look they had before.
I shook another measure of the powdered leaf into the cup, refilled it with water, and held it out for the dark-haired girl to drink.
We stayed there for several minutes, my arm outstretched, her arms motionless at her sides. Finally she blinked, her eyes focusing on me. “What did you give her?” she asked.
“Crushed velia,” I said gently. “It’s a countertoxin. There was poison in the stew.”
Her eyes told me she didn’t believe me. “I didn’t eat any of the stew.”
“It was in the ale too. I saw you drink that.”
“Good,” she said. “I want to die.”
I gave a deep sigh. “It won’t kill you. It’ll just make you miserable. You’ll throw up and be weak with muscle cramps for a day or two.” I raised the cup, offering it to her.
“Why do you care if they kill me?” she asked tonelessly. “If they don’t do it now they’ll do it later. I’d rather die. . . .” She clenched her teeth before she finished the sentence.
“They didn’t poison you. I poisoned them and you happened to get some of it. I’m sorry, but this will help you over the worst of it.”
Krin’s gaze wavered for a second, then became iron hard again. She looked at the cup, then fixed her gaze on me. “If it’s harmless, you drink it.”
“I can’t,” I explained. “It would put me to sleep, and I have things to do tonight.”
Krin’s eyes darted to the bed of furs laid out on the floor of the tent.
I smiled my gentlest, saddest smile. “Not those sorts of things.”
She still didn’t move. We stood there for a long while. I heard a muted retching sound from off in the woods. I
