Thirty feet from me, a dead boy of about ten years lay on the ground with a woman kneeling over him. A man beside him screamed and struggled while two men held him. The bottom half of the boy’s body was missing, as if it had been cut in two at the waist with a fine wire.
Other people were shouting names in that tone a mother uses to call her children home.
Halla grabbed my arm and pulled me out of the town square, shoving through the crowd.
“I can’t just leave,” I muttered.
“They will tear you into many small parts if you stay. Where is your horse stabled?”
“At the inn.”
Halla nodded and hauled me around a corner toward the inn. I stopped short when I saw half of a young woman lying in the street, intestines poking out from the bottom of her torso. Her eyes were open, and she was smiling—dead before she felt anything at all, I hoped.
Halla didn’t speak, but she dragged at my arm until I followed her.
We met several people who were jogging toward the screaming at the town square. They passed us without pausing, although everybody eyed Halla as they went by. Five minutes later, we reached the inn and ran around back to the stables. The stable boy’s torso and head lay on a small pile of bloody hay, as if he had lain down for a nap.
I had told that damned rutting dog to take half of the young people south of the river, and he had—the bottom half. It was the sort of ridiculous mistake that kills sorcerers. In fact, about a third of all sorcerers destroy themselves with such a slip before they turn twenty-two. By rights, I should have been dead for being so careless, but all these young people died instead.
I wandered back out into the stable yard with some idea of going to talk to the families, but I stopped there since nothing I could say would help anybody. A hundred people would grab me and kick me to death. They already hated me before I let their children get stolen or slaughtered like pigs.
Halla led me back into the stable and opened my horse’s stall. “Saddle it. Hurry.”
Without much thought, I began saddling the animal. “Do you think the dog took the others away? The ones it didn’t kill? Took them in a flash?”
“Yes.” She didn’t hesitate or look at me as she tossed on her saddle blanket.
We continued our work for a minute while I thought about that. “You sound definite on that point.”
Now she did look at me. “This being stole my nephews in this way. I think it called the house spirits to carry away this town’s children.”
I felt my face heating. “What kind of pus-filled road apple does this?” My anger made my horse stamp, and I forced a deep breath.
“I do not know. We should go find out and kill it. I already asked you to help do that.”
I threw my saddle up onto my horse. “Fine! I’ll come!”
Halla frowned. “Also, you should forget Lin’s house.”
“I . . . I don’t know. Let’s kill this damn ass-licking thing first. Maybe when we bring the kids back, things will be . . .” It was sounding stupid even as I was saying it.
Halla’s voice was normally about as emotional as a grinding wheel, but she sounded almost tender now. “The house will only distract you. Put it behind you, Bib. Lin and your girls are gone. You love them, but they can never love you again.”
I gaped and then yelled, “Go drown in a river of bacon grease, you twitchy pole! I’m going to catch a bear and make it eat you. You’d better ride out of here fast!”
Both horses whickered and stamped. Mine almost stepped on me.
Halla let one hand slap down onto her saddle. “You are not coming with me, then?”
“Of course I’m coming! Where is this damned entity, or whatever it is?”
“I don’t know. Yet.” She examined her saddle and ignored me. “But I know of an oracle who can help.”
I stared at her for five full seconds. “Fingit’s belly and bowels! You know better than to credit such a thing as an oracle. Maybe you’re a demon in Halla’s skin and I should kill you! Stupidest thing I’ve ever heard.” I paused when the image of that dead girl in the street jumped to mind. “Well, go ahead and tell me about it, since you’re talking.”
“I wouldn’t say she is the sort of oracle that books describe, but I hear she knows things. I have learned of her from more than one source.”
“If she’s such a peach of a diviner, why haven’t I heard about her?” I mounted and kicked my horse into a walk.
“Because you have been killing men over gold,” Halla said from her horse behind me.
We trotted our horses down to the Empire Road and headed east. I saw no call to wear out our mounts unless I spotted somebody chasing us. When we reached the tavern, only Whistler stood out front, and he watched us pass by him going eastward. I didn’t speak, and he didn’t, either.
Half a minute later, Whistler bellowed, “They’re headed down to the river! I saw them riding west!”
FOUR
Ten minutes after Halla and I rode out of Bindle, she frowned at me. “I thought I would be required to hit you with a rock and carry you out of that town. You are too softhearted.”
My mouth hung open for a moment. “You are like an iron boot! Sympathize with them a little. Your children have been stolen just like theirs.” I couldn’t easily recall the last time somebody accused me of softheartedness. I wondered what Halla had traded away to
