“Thank you, Master.”
“Go on, go on. Tomorrow I will tell you what I learned. Or, rather, how I learned it. You will hear everything there is to hear tonight, no doubt, when you return to Tern’s house, because the gossips will be full of the news. Oh, and clean your hands carefully and fully with dirt, and then water, for you have touched death, and death calls to his own.”
This last remark was enough to bring back all the revulsion that Savn had first felt when laying hands on the corpse. He went down in the road and wiped his hands thoroughly and completely, including his forearms, and then went into Tern’s house and begged water to wash them with.
When he emerged, he made his way slowly through the crowd that still stood around the wagon, but he was no longer the object of attention. He noticed Speaker standing a little bit away, frowning, and not far away was Lova, who Savn knew was Fin’s friend, but he didn’t see Fin. He returned to his own wagon while behind him Master Wag called for someone to drive him and the body back to his home.
“What is it?” asked Polyi as he climbed up next to her, among the supplies. “I mean, I know it’s a body, but—”
“Hush,” said Maener, and shook the reins.
Savn didn’t say anything; he just watched the scene until they went around a corner and it was lost to sight. Polyi kept pestering him in spite of sharp words from Mae and Pae until they threatened to stop the wagon and thrash her, after which she went into a sulk.
“Never mind,” said Pae. “We’ll find out all about it soon enough, I’m sure, and you shouldn’t ask your brother to talk about his art.”
Polyi didn’t answer. Savn, for his part, understood her curiosity; he was wondering himself what Master Wag would discover, and it annoyed him that everyone in town would probably know before he did.
The rest of the errands took nearly four hours, during which time they learned nothing new, but were told several times that “Reins’s body come into town from Wayfield.” By the time the errands were over, Savn and Polyi were not only going mad with curiosity, but were certain they were dying of hunger as well. The cart had vanished from the street, but judging by the wagons in front and the loud voices from within, everyone for miles . in any direction had heard that Reins had been brought into town, dead, and they were all curious about it, and had accordingly come to Tern’s house to talk, listen, speculate, eat, drink, or engage in all of these at once.
The divisions were there, as always: most of the people were grouped in families, taking up the front half of the room, and beyond them were some of the apprenticed girls, and the apprenticed boys, and the old people were along the back. The only difference was that Savn had rarely, if ever, seen the place so full, even when Avin the Bard had come through. They would have found no place to sit had they not been seen at once by Haysmith, whose youngest daughter Pae had saved from wolves during the flood-year a generation ago. The two men never mentioned the incident because it would have been embarrassing to them both, but Haysmith was always looking out for Pae in order to perform small services for him. In this case, he caused a general shuffling on one of the benches, and room was made for Mae, Pae, and Polyi, where it looked as if there was no room to be found.
Savn stayed with them long enough to be included in the meal that Mae, with help from Haysmith’s powerful lungs, ordered from Tern. Pae and Haysmith were speculating on whether some new disease had shown up, which launched them into a conversation about an epidemic that had cost a neighbor a son and a daughter many years before Savn had been born. When the food arrived, Savn took his ale, salad, and bread, and slipped away.
Across the room, he found his friend Coral, who was apprenticed to Master Wicker. Coral managed to make room for one more, and Savn sat down.
“I wondered when you’d arrive,” said Coral. “Have you heard?”
“I haven’t heard what Master Wag said about how he died.”
“But you know who it was?”
“I was there while the Master was; he made it a lesson.” Savn swallowed the saliva that had suddenly built up in his mouth. “It was Reins,” he said, “who used to make deliveries from the Sharehouse.”
“Right.”
“I know he left town years ago, but I don’t know where he went.”
“He just went away somewhere. He came into some money or something.”
“Oh, did he? I hadn’t heard that.”
“Well, it doesn’t do him any good now.”
“I guess not. What killed him?”
Coral shrugged. “No one knows. There wasn’t a mark on him, they say.”
“And the Master doesn’t know, either? He was just going to look over the body when I had to go.”
“No, he came in an hour ago and spoke with Tem, said he was as confused as anyone.”
“Is he still here?” asked Savn, looking around.
“No, I guess he left right away. I didn’t see him myself; I just got here a few minutes ago.”
“Oh. Well, what about the b—what about Reins?”
“They’ve already taken him to the firepit,” said Coral.
“Oh. I never heard who found him.”
“From what I hear, no one; he was lying dead in the back of the cart, and the horse was just pulling the cart along the road all by itself, with no one driving at all.”
Savn nodded. “And it stopped here?”
“I don’t know if it stopped by itself or if Master Tem saw it coming down the road, or what.”
“I wonder how he died,” said Savn softly. “I wonder if we’ll ever know.”
“I don’t know. But I’ll tell you one thing—I’ll give you clippings for candles that it isn’t an accident that that Easterner with a sword walks into town the day before Reins shows up dead.”
Savn stared. “Easterner?”
“What, you don’t know about him?”
In fact, the appearance of the body had driven the strange wanderer right out of Savn’s mind. He stuttered and said, “I guess I know who you mean.”
“Well, there you are, then.”
“You think the Easterner killed him?”
“I don’t know if he killed him, but my Pae said he came from the east, and that’s the same way Reins came from.”
“He came from—” Savn stopped; he was about to say that he came from the south, but he changed his mind and said, “Of course he came from the east; he’s an Easterner.”
“Still—”
“What else do you know about him?”
“Precious little,” said Coral. “Have you seen him?”
Savn hesitated, then said, “I’ve heard a few things.”
Coral frowned at him, as if he’d noticed the hesitation, then said, “They say he came on a horse.”
“A horse? I didn’t see a horse. Or hear about one.”
“That’s what I heard. Maybe he hid it.”
“Where would you hide a horse?”
“In the woods.”
“Well, but why would you hide a horse?”
“How should I know. He’s an Easterner; who knows how he thinks?”
“Well, just because he has a horse doesn’t mean he had anything to do with—”
“What about the sword?”
“That’s true, he does have a sword.”
“There, you see?”
“But if Reins was stabbed to death, Master Wag would have seen. So would I, for that matter. There wasn’t any blood at all, except a little where his head hit the bed of the wagon, and that didn’t happen until he was already dead.”
“You can’t know that.”
“Master Wag can tell.”
Coral looked doubtful.
“And there was no wound, anyway,” repeated Savn.
“Well, okay, so he didn’t kill him with the sword. Doesn’t it mean anything that he carries one?”