They did get some sleep, but not immediately. Zarantha was still up-not surprisingly-and insisted on rechecking the work she’d done on their wounds. And then, of course, Bahzell had to tell her what had happened and as much as they’d been able to guess about why. He did not mention any nocturnal visits by goddesses, but that was hardly relevant anyway.
Zarantha heard him out with remarkable calm, but her dark eyes were haunted when he finished. Rekah sat quietly beside Tothas’ bed, her oval face white, yet she said nothing, and Bahzell touched Zarantha’s knee gently.
“Lass,” he said, abandoning the “My Ladies” he usually remembered to use, “you’ve bought into more trouble with us than we’d any notion, either of us. I’m knowing you’ve need of help to get home, but it’s in my mind you might best be considering whether it’s our help you need.”
“Because of the dog brothers?”
“Of course because of the dog brothers! I’ve told you why Harnak wants me dead-aye, and his father, too-and a pair of hradani aren’t after being the hardest targets to spot. We’re like to bring them down on you again, and-” He paused, then sighed. “Lass, d’you think Brandark and I don’t know you’ve troubles of your own? We’re not wishful to make them worse.”
“After the way I trapped you into this?” Zarantha blinked damply, and Bahzell shrugged.
“As for that, I’ve no one to blame but myself for mixing in your troubles in the first place, and it was you kept me out of jail and away from ni’Tarth’s daggers. Aye, and so far as that goes, the dog brothers would’ve been more than pleased to have me penned up in a cell like a sheep on slaughtering day!”
“No one to blame but yourself,” Zarantha murmured. She swiped a hand across her eyes and smiled at him. “You’re not nearly so hard a man as you’d have people think, are you, Bahzell Bahnakson? First that girl in Navahk, then me. And do you think I haven’t seen the way you watch after Tothas?”
He looked away uncomfortably, and it was her turn to pat his knee.
“Tell me this, Bahzell. If I were able to find someone else to see us the rest of the way home, what would you and Brandark do?”
“Well, we couldn’t be staying here, for if one thing’s sure it’s that the dog brothers know our whereabouts.”
“So you’d be moving on anyway?”
“Aye, that we would.”
“In that case, if you’re still willing, I’d rather move on with you. As you say, I’ve troubles of my own, and-”
She broke off, almost against her will, and shook her head. The Horse Stealer looked closely at her, recognizing her temptation to tell him whatever she’d so far concealed, but he recognized her decision not to, as well. He felt disappointed, yet not truly resentful. Whatever it was, he’d already accepted its seriousness, and her willingness to continue in company with two hradani marked for death by the Assassins Guild only reinforced his sense of her desperation.
“All right, then,” he sighed. “If that’s the way of it, then we’ll be staying with you, and I’m only hoping it’s not a choice we’ll both regret.”
Chapter Twenty
They stayed three days at The Laughing God without further incident. The Guard dropped by at odd times on no set schedule, Talamar’s mercenary friends made the taproom their permanent headquarters, and if business was down, Alwith was almost cheerful when Bahzell apologized for it.
“Talamar’s right,” the landlord said, “once they’re not worried about getting caught in the middle, they’ll be spilling out the windows while they tell each other how brave they were. Half of ’em will be convinced they fought the dog brothers off while your lot just watched!”
It was windy and cold when they finally set out again-with the brothers Ratherson’s invitation to return in, um, more peaceable times-but it was also clear and dry, and the rest had done Tothas good. He was in far less pain, and his coughs, when they came, were ghosts of his previous terrible spasms. Even their animals seemed more cheerful; indeed, Zarantha had to stop her mule from biting Bahzell three times the first day out.
But clear weather or no, all of them felt wariness tingling in their blood like an extra layer of frost, and Tothas was no longer excused watch duty. He and the women between them took the first watch each night, before the full cold set in. Bahzell had the second watch, and when Tothas turned in at last, it was to find the hradani had gotten up early and tucked a heated stone into his blankets to take the chill off them.
It was as well he did, for the last leaves had vanished. By this time, Bahzell knew, Hurgrum was covered in snow; this far south, it was merely cold. Bitterly cold-far colder than he’d expected. Tothas assured him it was an unseasonal cold snap that would ease-for a time, at least-soon, but that was scant comfort as he watched his breath plume and felt the ground like iron under his feet.
Almost as worrisome as the weather, the road started getting worse from the moment they left Angcar; by the time they approached Angthyr’s border with the Empire of the Spear, it was no more than dirt. The upper inch or so was frozen, but Bahzell felt it give under his weight in low spots, and the slight, stiff flexing promised unfrozen water below. If they got the warmer weather Tothas predicted, it was going to turn into a bottomless bog.
The thought filled him with gloom, yet it was but one of many things he had to feel gloomy over. He no longer wore himself out with worry in his dreams; now he got to do it while he was awake, because he knew what the dreams had been about . And as if gods with missions weren’t enough, the dog brothers were after him, as well. Nor had Zarantha’s worries-whatever the Phrobus they were!-lightened. He’d suggested, once, that when they crossed into the empire she might find shelter while she sent word ahead to her father. After all, she’d be on her own ground then, no longer among foreigners, even if she was still a long way from home, but she’d answered with a single, almost spastic headshake. A grim shadow in Tothas’ eyes had echoed her refusal, and Bahzell and Brandark had decided to concentrate on more immediate problems-like the weather, visiting gods, and the imminence of dog brother attack-and let the rest of the future take care of itself.
They crossed the Blackwater River into the Border Weald just after dawn on the fourth day out of Angcar. There was no bridge, but flat ferry-rafts winched their way across it on heavy cables, and icy, slate-gray water gurgled under a dull, pewter sky.
Zarantha was huddled deep into her coat once more. She made the crossing in silence and busied herself helping unload the ferry when they reached the small village on the empire’s bank, but Rekah simply walked off the raft. She tapped her toe and frowned at her mistress, pretty face eloquent with impatience, and Bahzell blinked in surprise when Tothas snapped a brusque order for Zarantha to “Get a move on, there!”
Her armsman watched her for a moment, then snorted and produced a document for the officer commanding the handful of soldiers who manned the border station at the ferry landing.
“That wench is as lazy as the day is long!” he sighed as the officer unfolded the parchment. “Unfortunately, she’s also my niece. I’m grateful My Lady saw fit to hire her on for the trip, but I’m going to have a few words with my brother when I get her home, let me tell you! I’d’ve taken a stick to her long ago if she were my daughter!”
The border guard grinned and turned the document to catch the light. His lips moved as he spelled his way slowly through it, then looked up at Tothas.
“That’d be this Mahrisa your passport lists?”
“Aye, that’s her. My second brother’s oldest girl, drat her!”
“And she’s maid to Lady Rekahna?”
“Just as it says, and I’m Lady Rekahna’s armsman.”
“And you’re on your way home to Howacimb?”
“Frethigar, actually. It’s a little place south of Howacimb.”