Abasio went to summon Brother Derris from among his friends and from there followed him around the corner of the stables, through a couple of doors, down a long tunnel, and up a flight of stairs that led out into the light. They were in the enclosed meadow with the forest side behind it. The sheep were beginning to lie down for the night. Through the foliage from the scattered groves, the roofs of the distant houses made geometric shapes against the blank gray of the wall.
“I can bring her back to my place,” Abasio told the brother. “Will you be there?”
Brother Derris nodded. “If you’re not back before dark, I’ll come looking for you.”
They walked away from him, around a copse of trees, and then around another, finally seeing the house, which stood open to the dusk, the rooms still light enough to see by. They wandered through each room of the house and out the back to the row of outbuildings—woodshed at the far left, then stable, paddock, barn with hayloft, then pens for goats or cows. The wall was just behind the paddock, frighteningly close. They turned and went into the house again to stand inside the front door, where they looked at the abbey across the open ground, its rear wall crowned with guards.
“No guards!” he said.
“That’s it!” she exclaimed, immediately aware of what had bothered her. “There are no guards on this wall. It’s right up against the forest; anyone could come over it. If someone wanted me out of this house, they’d take me out like a snail out of a shell.”
“The abbey might have outliers, guards out in the woods who’d give an alarm.”
“Enough to stop an army? Enough to stop that man who was with the duchess?”
“The one you turned into a baby for?”
“You heard about that.”
“Oldwife mentioned it. Then got angry at herself for doing so. I had to swear silence. I’ve been doing that a lot lately . . . Hush!” He held up his hand, then grasped her arm and pulled her back inside.
“What?” she whispered.
“Your two Tingawans are coming out to take a look at the house. Do you want them to know we’re here?”
She shook her head. For some reason, she did not.
“Where are they least likely to go?”
“The barn,” she guessed.
They slipped out into the barn and up the ladder into the loft. The hayloft door faced the back of the house; on their right, a small, dirty window looked out into the paddock. The hayloft door was half-open, and the two of them lay in old hay, dry and virtually odorless, no doubt years old. A little time passed and Great Bear and Precious Wind came out the back door of the house to stand peering at the wall.
“I simply think it’s odd that all these houses are empty,” said Precious Wind in Tingawan. “The houses seem very susceptible and unguarded out here.”
Abasio looked at Xulai, eyebrows raised. She put her finger across her lips, mouthing “Later.”
“I inquired,” said Bear in the same language. “There’s a whole army of abbey soldiers encamped back in those woods. No one could approach the wall without their knowing. I wouldn’t go otherwise.”
“I don’t think you should go at all, not just yet. I think that your leaving us is oath-breaking, Bear. You swore to stay with her until she reached Tingawa.”
“You told me a long time ago that the duke would reward us well for our time with Xulai. Well, now we’re here. Did you get a full purse for yourself? No. Neither did I. I asked the man who shows us around to find out whether we had something here waiting for us. He asked the prior. Prior said ask this one and that one, and they all said there was nothing here for us. Now, if that’s all I mean to the great duke, I think the years I’ve already spent are enough!”
Silence. Then, very tentatively, Precious Wind asked, “Why didn’t you wait for me to join you before you asked about it? You know Justinian doesn’t lie.”
“The great Justinian! Pfagh! What I swore I would do was scout the trail south of here, and that’s what I’m going to do. There’s no oath-breaking in that. The only difference is that when I get to Merhaven—isn’t that the refuge harbor that belonged to Prince Orez’s mother?—I’m finding a ship for Tingawa. I’ll send a message, first, that it’s safe to continue the journey, and that’s my sworn duty, done!”
“Bear, give me a day or two!”
“That and no longer. I feel Legami-am calling to me. You don’t know what it’s like, Precious Wind. She’s in my nostrils, in my eyes. I seem to see her, everywhere. Feel her in the bed with me at night. I smell the scent of her. Every night I dream about her. All day she’s there, on my shoulder, whispering my name . . .”
“But who will guard Xulai?”
He snorted. “She seems to do very well by herself.”
Precious Wind’s voice seemed stiff and unnatural. “It still seems unfaithful . . .”
“I have more lives than one to be faithful to! You are not the eldest son of a family who expects you to produce the next generation for the clan. I am. You have three brothers who have taken care of the next generation generously. I haven’t. I have a wife waiting for me. I long for her. I need her. And she needs me! I didn’t know it could happen like this, her voice, the touch of her hand, beckoning, begging, suddenly, out of nothing! This job has stretched on long enough! I didn’t swear to spend my life on it. The scouting trip is the end of
