“Of course he didn’t.” She sighed. “Trust him to leave the hard jobs to me.”
“You’ve known my mother was still alive my whole life long, and you never bothered to mention it to me?”
“I’ve known only since he was about to lead you out on this last jaunt,” she said. “He took me aside and made me memorize some names and an address. He said I’d know when to tell somebody.”
“It’s now,” said Rigg.
“Fat lot of good it’ll do you,” said Nox, “with men watching my house.”
“I’d rather die knowing.”
“First tell me how that boy died.”
So Rigg told her what had happened, except that he left out any mention of the man from another time whose hand had covered Kyokay’s. He was sure she could sense that he wasn’t telling the complete story, but it still seemed better not to tell her about his abilities.
Nox seemed to take it all in stride. “Trust that idiot Umbo to accuse you before trying to find out the truth. And you lost all your furs?”
“I didn’t really lose them, since I know where they are,” said Rigg. “They’re somewhere downriver, hung up on rocks or branches.”
“Oh, you can be funny? I’m so glad to hear it.”
“It’s laugh or cry,” said Rigg.
“Cry, then. Give the old man his due.”
For a moment, Rigg thought she meant the ancient man at the top of the falls. But of course she meant Father. “He wasn’t all that old.”
“How can anyone tell? He was coming to this house when I was a child, and he looked no younger then.”
“Will you tell me now where I need to go?”
“I’ll tell you-so you’ll know what address it was you never made it to. Nobody’s letting you out of town today.”
“Names,” Rigg insisted.
“Are you hungry?”
“I’ll be eating the flesh of warmed-over rooming house owner if you don’t tell me now.”
“Threats. Tut tut. Naughty boy. Raised without manners.”
“Exactly,” said Rigg. “But I do have a lot of experience with killing animals larger than myself.”
“I get it,” said Nox. “You’re so clever. Your mother was-is-Hagia Sessamin. She lives in Aressa Sessamo.”
“The ancient capital of the Sessamoto Empire?”
“That very city,” said Nox.
“And what is her address?” asked Rigg.
Nox chuckled. “Not a very good listener. Your father always said, ‘If I could only get him to pay attention.’”
Rigg was not going to be put off. “Address?”
“I told you, she’s Hagia Sessamin.”
“And that means she doesn’t need an address?”
“Ah,” she said. “Apparently your father omitted any explanations about Sessamoto politics. Which makes sense, come to think of it. If you get out of Fall Ford alive, get to Aressa Sessamo and ask for the house of ‘the Sessamin.’ Ask anyone at all.”
“I’m some kind of royalty?”
“You’re a male,” said Nox. “That means you could fart royal blood out of your ears and it wouldn’t matter. It was an empire ruled by women, which was a very good plan while it lasted. Not that most cities and nations and empires aren’t ruled by women, one way or another.” She stopped and studied his face. “I’m trying to figure out what you’re not saying to me.”
Rigg said the first thing that came to mind. “I have no money for the journey. The furs were all I had.”
“And you come begging an old housekeeper for a few coins from her stash?”
“No,” said Rigg. “Nothing, if you can’t spare it. If you have a little, I’ll borrow it, though I don’t know when or if ever it’s going to be possible for me to repay you.”
“Well, I’m not going to advance you anything, or lend it, or even give it. Though I might ask you for a loan.”
“A loan? When I have nothing?”
“Your father left you a little something.”
“When were you going to tell me?”
“I just told you.” She pushed a stepladder into place against one of the sets of rough shelves and started to climb. Then she stopped.
“If you try to look up my skirt, I’ll poke needles into your eyes right through your eyelids while you’re asleep.”
“I’m looking for help, you give me nightmares, thank you so much.”
She was on the top step now, reaching up for a bin marked dry beans. Rigg looked up her skirt mostly because she told him not to, and saw nothing at all of interest. He could never understand why Nox and other women, too, were always so sure men wanted to see whatever it is they concealed under their clothes.
She came down with a small bag. “Wasn’t this nice of your father? To leave this behind for you?”
She opened the little bag and poured its contents into her palm. Nineteen jewels, large ones, of more colors than Rigg had imagined jewels could have, and no two alike.
“What am I supposed to do with these?”
“Sell them,” she said. “They’re worth a fortune.”
“I’m thirteen,” Rigg reminded her. “Everyone will assume I stole these from my mommy. Or a stranger. Nobody will imagine that I have them by right.”
Out of the bag Nox took a folded sheet of paper. Rigg took it, looked at it. “It’s addressed to a banker in Aressa Sessamo.”
“Yes,” she said. “I can read.”
Rigg scanned it. “Father taught me about letters of credit.”
“I’m glad to hear that, since he never taught me any such thing.”
“It says my name is Rigg Sessamekesh.”
“Then I suppose that’s what your name is,” said Nox.
“This is worthless until I get to Aressa Sessamo,” said Rigg.
“So live off the land, the way you and your father always do.”
“That works in the forest. But long before I get to Aressa Sessamo, it’ll all be towns and farms and fields. I hear they whip you for stealing.”
“Or put you in jail, or sell you into slavery, or kill you, depending on the town and what mood they’re in.”
“So I’ll need money.”
“If you make it out of Fall Ford.”
Rigg said nothing. What could he say? She didn’t owe him anything. But she was the closest thing to a friend he had, even if she wasn’t his mother.
Nox sighed. “I told your father not to count on my giving you money.”
“He didn’t. He saw to it I had a good-sized bundle of furs-all I could carry.”
“Yes, yes, so I will give you something, but it won’t be enough for you to ride a carriage. It won’t be enough for you to ride anything. And you’d be wise to keep off the roads for a good long way. I have a feeling that nobody’s going to get new shoes or shoes repaired in Fall Ford until a certain cobbler gives up on finding you and gutting you like a fish.”
Rigg heard something outside the pantry. “When did we decide to stop whispering?” he asked.
Nox whirled around and flipped open the pantry door. There was nobody there. “We’re fine,” she said.
Then there came a pounding on the front and back doors of the house, both at once. “We know you have him in there, Nox! Don’t make us burn down the house!”
Rigg shuddered with panic, but otherwise he couldn’t move, he couldn’t even think.
