the other's elbow: So were bargains sealed in the marketplace, where the worth of a man's word was soon known to everyone.
'May I go?' Kesh asked.
'Certainly,' said the reeve as though he thought Kesh had left hours ago. 'Just one thing.'
Kesh waited.
Pleasant expressions were traps for the unwary. The reeve wore one now. 'An envoy of Ilu is dying out on the back porch. It's a bad thing in any event, that a holy man is murdered in this way, and I take it more personally because I was dedicated for my year to the Herald, so it's like one of my kinsmen breathing out his spirit a few paces from me. Here I was come too late to prevent it. That's a thing that really burns me hard, coming too late.' His entire aspect shaded to an emotion so dark that Kesh took a step back, and that made the reeve take notice and that friendly smile crawl back onto his lips just as if he hadn't a moment before looked furious enough to rip someone's head right off. 'Tell me, Keshad, did you witness the killing? Can you tell me what you saw? Leave out no detail. Mention everything you noticed.'
'There wasn't much to notice. I retreated under the Ladytree to defend my wagon and cargo.' The best defense was a good offense; he remembered that now. 'You can imagine that I didn't want to lose what I'd bought in Mariha. I'm close-very close-to buying back my freedom, so you can imagine-' Even so, he choked on it.
The reeve nodded compassionately and took a slug of cordial while Kesh caught his breath and thought through his strategy. The captain did not drink.
'I stood there under the Ladytree hoping we wouldn't be noticed because of the boughs. Or that ospreys wouldn't blood sanctuary ground-scant chance of that! Anyway, men came riding our way, and that envoy just ran out toward us. At first I thought maybe he was in league with them, but he used his staff to bring down one of the horses and its rider, and then someone-I don't know who-shot him in the back as he was running, and after that he was run over at least once by a pair of horses. I was busy by then. I didn't see anything more.'
The reeve asked, 'Where do you think the envoy was running?'
'I thought toward the Ladytree, seeing as it is sanctuary ground.
… 'He timed his hesitation perfectly. 'He couldn't be sure the ospreys would grant him safe passage. But he may have been running elsewhere. I don't know. I had my own troubles. We were attacked. My driver got wounded. That lad was killed. I should put in a complaint to you, now that I think on it, because the merchant who hired him looks like to shirk the burying tithe, and I'll wager he's got no interest in seeing the boy's family gets any death tax due them. He was a brave lad, a little weak in the mind, if you take my meaning, but he stuck his ground as brave as any guardsman I've seen, not that he had a chance against the ospreys.'
Captain Anji had a little secret smile on his face that made Kesh turn cold inside. But the reeve said nothing, only stared into the depths of his cordial as if seeking the tiny stems that weren't quite all strained out.
'Did you know his name?' the reeve asked.
'His name? Whose name?'
'The envoy's name?'
'He never said, now that I think on it. They rarely do. I never thought-'
'Yes?'
'Just… it all came so fast, the attack, all of that. I really thought we were safe once we crossed the border.' He wiped his brow and found that his hands were trembling. 'Can I go now? Is there anything else you want to ask me?'
The reeve shook his head. 'No. You can go.' His smile was so cheerful that it was almost possible to believe they were two good friends parting after a sweet drink to chase down the day's travel. 'If I think of anything else, though, be sure I'll ask.'
'I'm leaving at dawn.'
'So are we all. I believe your two caravans will be joining forces for the rest of the journey. I'll be patrolling the West Spur as you go, so I can always drop in if I have any more questions.'
'I'll go, then.' He nodded at both men and moved away, swearing under his breath, until he caught the innkeeper coming in from outside. 'What about that cordial you promised me?' He glanced over his shoulder to see the reeve and the captain with heads bent together. The reeve glanced up at the same moment, saw him looking, and waved at him with the kind of bright, deceitful smile that cheating merchants paraded every day of their cheating lives. It reminded him of Master Feden.
'You're hurting my arm,' whispered the innkeeper.
'Never mind the cordial. I'd like to see the envoy.'
There wasn't much to see. The dying man had been carried out behind the main structure, and laid out on a table set up on a raised porch covered by a solid roof constructed of lashed-together pipe stalks and thatch-tree fronds, the kind of place where people congregated in the heat of the day to escape the sun. A single tarry lamp burned, suspended from a hook in the cross quarter beam. Its smell gave him a headache, but the glower of its light offered enough illumination to see. The envoy lay on his stomach with his blue cape bunched along his left side to make him more comfortable. Kesh crouched beside him. He gave no sign of life beyond the infinitesimal movement of one eye below its closed eyelid, as though he were dreaming.
'He'll be dead by midnight,' whispered the innkeeper, too loudly, and-startled-Kesh fell on his butt, and put his head in his hands, and after a moment roused himself to get up.
'Has any effort been made to stem the bleeding?' he asked.
'Bleeding's stopped. Just a bubble of air coming out. See it pop-there! I mark that means it hit his lungs. That'll end him, no doubt.' He gestured toward the smoke swirling up from the tarry lamp. 'That stink'll fetch any mendicant close by, but if there is none of them near, then there's nothing we can do.'
'You've no starflower? Soldier's friend?'
'Wouldn't know it if I saw it. Just herbs for flavoring food and the cordial spices, that's all we've got here.'
Gingerly, Kesh traced a finger around the wound. It was deep and almost perfectly round, rimed with blood but barely oozing. Bruises were blooming all over the envoy's bare back. The bright saffron-yellow tunic lay in pieces, discarded to one side.
'It's the trampling that done him,' said the innkeeper. 'I've seen men run over by horses who got up and walked in for a drink as easy as you please only to die in the nighttime after with no warning. Something gets broken inside. No way to heal that.'
'No,' said Kesh quietly, 'no way to heal the things that are broken on the inside.' He touched the envoy's grizzled hair, as much silver as black. 'Is there a Sorrowing Tower here?'
'Nay, none here. He'll have to be carted to Far Umbos. Another expense!'
'He had two bolts of finest quality silk with him,' said Kesh bitterly. 'That should cover your costs.'
The bartender called from the back door. The innkeeper excused himself and hurried indoors.
Kesh was overcome by such a wave of exhaustion that for a moment he thought the blue cloak was slithering like a snake, as though something trapped inside it was alive. He dozed off. When he started awake, he remembered that the innkeeper was gone, leaving only him and the silent body. The envoy still breathed, slow and shallow. Something about the pale moon exposed in an inky sky and the harsh scent of the tarry lamp made Kesh shiver.
On the breeze he heard the sound of wagons rumbling in, and a few shouts of greeting.
'Farewell, uncle,' he murmured.
In the commons, the second caravan had arrived at last, led in by a pair of scouts. It was a bigger company than the one Kesh had traveled with, about thirty wagons and carts in all although it was too dark to get an accurate count even with hirelings and slaves trudging alongside with torches. There was even one heavily guarded wagon, a tiny cote on wheels rather like his own, but he could not be sure what treasure, or prisoner, was held within. There were another hundred of those black-clad guardsmen riding in attendance. Captain Anji led a substantial troop.
Kesh walked back to the Ladytree and his own wagon, where Tebedir kept watch. He dismissed the driver to get what rest he could. After emptying the girls' waste pail out beyond the Ladytree's boundaries and returning it to them, he stretched out on the ground. There he dozed, restlessly, waking at intervals to stare hard into the darkness.
He had to stay alert. Someone was looking for the treasure he was hiding. A thousand needles could not have
