“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.
Nox pinched the bridge of her nose. “I’m getting a headache. A big fat throbbing one, relentless as a moth.”
She spoke as if it were a mere annoyance that they had realized where Rigg was hiding. Her calmness dispelled most of his fear. “Do you think we can talk them out of this? Or will you try to keep them busy while I climb out on the roof?”
“Quiet,” she said. “I’m building a wall.”
Since her hands were doing nothing at all, Rigg assumed her wall must be metaphorical. A wall between herself and her fear?
As if he had asked aloud, she whispered an explanation. “A wall around the house. I’m filling it with a will to turn away.”
He should have known that Father would have become her teacher because she had some kind of interesting talent. “They’re already at the door.”
“But nobody will want to come any farther. For as long as I can sustain it.”
“How long is that? Minutes? Hours?”
“It depends on how many wills are attacking it, and how strongly determined they are,” she answered.
She took her fingers from the bridge of her nose and walked to the back door, then spoke through it to the guards in back. “I’m opening the front door in a moment, so you might as well go around.”
“Do you think I’m fooled?” asked a male voice from the other side. “As soon as I leave, you’ll come out the back.”
“Suit yourself,” said Nox. Then, to Rigg, she said softly, “That’s how you get people to outsmart themselves. If they think they’ve found your plan, they’ll stop looking for it.”
“I heard that,” said the man on the other side of the door. “I can do that spell myself.”
“We weren’t doing a spell,” said Nox. “We were just talking.”
As they walked to the front door, Nox added, for Rigg’s ears alone, “Don’t go through the door when I open it.”
She opened the door. Standing right there were two burly men. One was the blacksmith, and one a farmer from an outlying homestead. Just behind them, but off the porch, stood the cobbler Tegay, father of the dead boy Kyokay. His face was streaked with tears and Umbo was clinging to his arm, half-hidden behind his father’s bulk.
Rigg wanted to run to Umbo and tell him what had happened—tell him everything, the magic and all, so that Umbo would understand that Rigg was only trying to save Kyokay, and had risked his own life to do it. Umbo would believe him, if they only had a chance to talk.
The two men at the door made as if to come inside—to burst in, from their posture—but after a shifting of weight they remained outside after all.
“He was not here when you searched,” said Nox. “I did not know he was coming.”
“You say,” said the farmer.
“I say,” said Nox, “and you know my word is good.”
“How do we know that?” asked the blacksmith.
“Because I pay my bills promptly,” answered Nox, “even when my tenants haven’t paid me.” Then she called more loudly. “Tegay!”
“You don’t have to shout,” said the cobbler softly, from behind them. They moved aside a little, so Nox and Tegay could see each other.
“Why do you accuse this boy of killing your son?”
“Because my boy Umbo watched him throw Kyokay over the falls.”
“He did not,” said Nox.
“I did too!” cried Umbo, taking a step closer to the porch.
“I’m not calling you a liar,” said Nox. “I’m saying that you are telling, not what you saw, but what you concluded from what you saw.”
“Same thing,” said the blacksmith.
“Umbo,” said Nox. “Come here.”
Umbo stepped back and stood close to his father again.
The cobbler said, “I’m not letting him into that house, not while that child-killer is there!”
“Umbo,” said Nox, “what did you actually see? Don’t lie, now. Tell us what your eyes actually witnessed.”
Rigg knew that Umbo would tell the truth—he was no liar. Then he’d realize for himself that Rigg hadn’t thrown or pushed, but had only reached out to try to save.