"Our-? Oh. The woman." Daulo frowned. "There are things about her I don't understand. For one thing, she's well within marriageable age and yet is unmarried-"
"Or is widowed," Kruin put in.
"Oh. True, she could be a widow. She's also not from anywhere around here-her clothing is made of a cloth I'm unfamiliar with, and the doctor said she had a low tolerance to monote bites."
"And what of her rather dramatic entrance to Milika? -found alone on the road after some unspecified accident or such?"
Daulo shrugged. "I've heard of people getting stranded on roads before, my father. And even of surviving krisjaw attacks."
The elder Sammon smiled. "Very good-you anticipated my next question. But have you ever heard of someone who was close enough to a krisjaw to be clawed and still survived the experience?"
"There are cases," Daulo said, a small part of his mind wondering why he was being so stubborn. He certainly had no reason to take the mysterious woman's part in this debate. "If she had one or more armed companions during the attack one could have shot the creature off of her, even at that late moment."
Kruin nodded, lips tightening together. "Yes, there's that possibility.
Unfortunately, it leads immediately to another question: these alleged defenders of hers seem to have vanished, djinn-like, into thin air. Why?"
Daulo thought about it for a long minute, painfully aware that his father must have already thought all this through and was merely testing him to see if he came up with similar answers. "There are only three possibilities," he said at last. "They are dead, incapacitated, or in hiding."
"I agree," Kruin said. "If they are dead or incapacitated, Perto will find them-I've sent him to search the road now for just that purpose. If they are hiding... again, why?"
"Afraid, or part of a plot," Daulo said promptly. "If afraid, they will reveal themselves once their companion is proved to have come to no harm. If part of a plot-" he hesitated "-then the woman is here either to infiltrate and spy on our house or else to distract our attention from her companions' task."
Kruin took a deep breath, his eyes focused somewhere beyond Daulo's face. "Yes.
Unfortunately, that is my reasoning, as well. Have you any thoughts as to who would plot against us?"
The snort escaped Daulo's lips before he could stop it. "Need we look farther than the Yithtra family?"
"It could be that obvious," Kruin shrugged. "And yet, I generally credit Yithtra with more subtlety than that. And more intelligence, too-with a new shipment of lumber due in, he'll have more than enough legitimate work to keep him occupied.
Why launch a plot to discredit us at the same time?"
"Perhaps that's how he expects us to think," Daulo suggested.
"Perhaps. Still, it would be good to remember that there are others on Qasama who might find profit in stirring up mischief in Western Arm villages."
Daulo nodded thoughtfully. Yes; and foremost among them were the enemies of
Mayor Capparis of Azras. Capparis's unlikely friendship with the Sammon family-and the easy access that relationship gave the mayor to the mine's output-had been a thorn in the side of Capparis's enemies for a long time.
Perhaps one of them was finally going to try and break the Sammon family's power, to replace them with someone more malleable.
Especially with that strange self-contained Mangus operation east of Azras gobbling up so much of the mine's output lately. Azras and the other cities in the Western Arm were enough of a headache to Milika and its fellow villages;
Mangus and its slimy purchasing agents were as bad in their way as all the cities combined. If someone in Azras thought Mangus's mineral needs would go still higher-and thought that someone other than the Sammon family should profit by those needs... "What shall we do, then, my father?" he asked. "Send this woman out of our house, perhaps allow her to recuperate in the mayor's house?"
Kruin was silent a moment before answering. "No," he said at last. "If our enemies believe we consider her harmless, it gives us a slight advantage in this game. No, we will keep her here, at least for now. If Perto fails to find any companions for her-well, by then we may be able to question her directly about how she survived her journey."
And if that story was patently false...? "I understand. Shall I assign a guard to her recovery room?"
"No, we don't want to be that obvious. As long as she's ill and confined to the women's section the normal contingent of guards there will be adequate. You will alert them to be prepared for possible trouble from her, of course."
"Yes, my lather. And once she's recovered?"
Kruin smiled. "Why, then, as a proper and dutiful host, it will be your responsibility to act as escort to her."
And to learn just what she's up to. "Yes, my father," Daulo nodded. The elder
Sammon's posture indicated the audience was at an end; getting to his feet,
Daulo made the sign of respect and bowed. "I will attend to the guards, and then await Perto's return."
"Goodbye, my eldest son," Kruin said with an acknowledging nod. "Make me proud of you."
"I will." As long as breath is in me, Daulo added silently.
Pulling open the heavy door, he slipped quietly out of the chamber.
Chapter 15
The first thing Jin noticed as she drifted back to consciousness was that something furry was tickling the underside of her chin. The second thing she noticed was that she didn't seem to hurt anywhere.
She opened her eyes to slits, squinting against the light streaming in from somewhere to her right and trying to orient herself. If her memory was correct-and there might be some doubt about that-it had been past noon when she finally made it through the forest and found the road. Could it still be afternoon on that same day? No, she felt far too rested for that. Besides which... Gently, she tried turning her neck. Still a little stiff, but not nearly as bad as it had been. At least a day had passed, then, probably more.
And she'd been unconscious through the whole thing. Naturally unconscious? Or had she been deliberately drugged?
Drugged and interrogated?
From her right came the squeak of wood on wood. Keeping her movements small, Jin turned her head. Seated in a heavy looking chair beside the window was a young girl, perhaps seven or eight years old, seated crosslegged with an open book across her lap. "Hello," Jin croaked.
The girl looked up, startled. "Hello," she said, closing her book and laying it on the floor beside her chair. "I didn't realize you were awake. How are you feeling?"
Jin forced some moisture into her mouth. "Pretty good," she said, the words coming out better this time. "Hungry, though. How long was I asleep?"
"Oh, a long time-almost five days-though you were awake and feverish for part of-"
"Five days?" Jin felt her mouth fall open in astonishment... and then the rest of the girl's comment caught up with her. "I was feverish, you said?" she asked carefully. "I hope I didn't say or do anything too outlandish."
"Oh, no, though my aunt said you're very strong."
Jin grimaced. "Yes, I've been told that." She just hoped her Cobra-enhanced strength hadn't hurt anyone... or given her away. "Did anyone-I'm sorry; what is your name?"
The girl looked stricken. "Oh-forgive me." She ducked her head, raising her right hand to touch bunched fingers to her forehead. "I am Gissella; second daughter of Namid Sammon, younger brother of Kruin Sammon."
Jin tried the hand gesture, watching Gissella's face closely as she did so. If she botched the maneuver the younger girl didn't seem to notice. "I am Jasmine,"
Jin introduced herself. "Third daughter of Justin Alventin."