"It was robbery!"
"-would have been much higher. You don't know how hard I worked, the things I agreed to do. Gods, Kesh! You don't know the things I did just in the days right before you arrived. All that, just to pay off the debits that accrued from my training."
"How could your debt have cost more to pay off than it already did?"
That shrug was her way of casting him off, like slipping a cloak when you don't want to wear it anymore. "Let it go. The faster we walk away from Olossi, the better for us."
"If we don't starve along the way, or puke out our guts from drinking bad water because we can't afford decent wine."
She circled back to Kesh. Mischief scuttled alongside, and Magic hesitated only long enough to give one last intense stare toward the trees before hustling after the two females before they got too far away.
Crouching, Bai grabbed Kesh's wrist. Her grip was strong. "We did it, Kesh. Let that be enough for today. We did what we swore when the aunts and uncle shoved us up on the block and started counting their profit. They had enough, they could have kept us and raised us with their own. I'd like to spit in their faces."
"It wouldn't be worth it."
Her jaw was tight. She had braided back her hair so no curl or wisp strayed, and then coiled it up atop her head, out of her way. All of her was like that now, streamlined, efficient, sleek, and without ornament. Her expression was unreadable to him. His little sister's face stared at him, grown up and filled out, with that bruise she wouldn't discuss. Little whiny weepy sweet-hearted Zubaidit had gone through a transformation and he did not know the woman before him.
She released his wrist. "No, it would be foolish. We'll walk, and leave the old life behind." She cocked her head to one side. "About that ghost you brought out of the south… or is she a demon?"
"Don't speak of it. Let it go."
"Why not? She was so… so…"She raised a shoulder, shifted her hip, scratched her bare knee. "Seeing her, I just wondered what it would be like-"
"Leave it!"
She rocked back at his tone. Both ginnies hissed at him. They had fierce-looking teeth, and their bite was said to be infectious.
"Heya!" he yelped, taken aback.
"Hush." She stroked Mischief under the jaw, and the female lifted her chin a little and "smiled" warmly. Magic got a spot on his forehead rubbed. While they were looking at her, she gestured. "Go on, then. Brother's just jumpy, that's all."
Mischief moved off, but Magic looked right at Kesh and bobbed his head decisively, as if to remind him who was in charge.
"Heya," said Bai with a little more force. Magic moved after Mischief.
"Listen," said Kesh, surprised at how powerfully his anger had erupted. "Let's not argue. I'm sorry."
"No. You're right. Let it all be gone. Leave the aunts and uncle and ghosts and bitches and masters to the dying moon where they belong. Our old life is dead twice over, once on the block, and once in inner court three days back." She rose from a crouch to the balls of her feet, swaying like a woman drunk on fumes. "Gone gone gone. Gone altogether."
Branches rustled. Both ginnies stopped, and looked in that direction, but neither seemed alarmed when an apparition draped in rags stumbled into the clearing.
"Gone. Gone. Gone altogether beyond," it echoed, spinning entirely around, arms pinwheeling. Its voice was a crazed whisper.
Kesh jumped to his feet and drew his sword, but Bai stepped inside his guard and pressed a palm against his chest.
It faced them, rheumy eyes blinking. It was a very old person, as thin as if built of sticks, with skin weathered from sun and wind and hair turned entirely to silver, not even one strand of black to be seen. Kesh could not tell if it was male or female.
"Walking north," it said in a voice all raspy, neither high nor low. "Best not go that way. It's all run to blood."
"Where's your string?" Bai whispered into Kesh's ear. He had closed the string of coins into his weaponless fist, and she pried his fingers open, slipped off ten half leya, and strode across the grass to the creature. She sank gracefully to both knees-kneeling, she was still almost as tall as that shrunken, wasted body-and held out an open hand.
"An offering, holy one. Go in peace."
The crabbed hand moved so fast that it was too late for Kesh to protest. It grabbed the silver, and scuttled away. "A blessing on you, child! Do not kiss ghosts. The twice dead cannot love. Also, a fire gnat has just bitten your left ankle. Don't scratch! It only spreads the poison."
It staggered out onto the road as Bai reached down and-as if bespelled-scratched at her left ankle, then barked a curse, jumped up, and repeatedly slapped the skin where she had just scratched, as though she could batter the stinging bite into submission.
"Five leya!" cried Kesh. "No wonder you ran up debts!"
"Are you blind? That was a gods-touched vessel!"
"Some old beggar, you mean. Anyone can wear rags and stumble along the road mumbling well worn phrases. 'The twice dead cannot love!' Burn it! Now what do we do?"
"I have a hankering to get ourselves into the trees and hide for the night. Scout ahead at dawn."
"You don't believe in all that ranting?"
But she did believe. She had been raised in the temple, at the heart of the goddess, if the Merciless One could be said to have a heart.
He touched the blessing bowl at his belt, thought about his evening prayers, and shrugged. "The woods it is. Must we take turns at watch?"
"No need. The ginnies will warn us if any come close."
HE SLEPT HARD, curled on his side, but an animal pushing up against his back made him snort awake.
"Hush," murmured Bai. He saw her form sitting upright beside him. Her hand touched his hair. "Don't move."
To sleep, they had crawled into a thicket situated on a rise that allowed them to see the road with little risk of being seen themselves. One of the ginnies was pressed against his upper back and neck as if trying to hide behind his body. He found himself staring through the patternwork of branches, toward the road. Torches flickered a dull red. Banners tied in fours drooped from poles. People tramped along, too many to count, strung out in a line and jangling with the ring and clatter of armed men. They had many horses, all on leads, but only one man was mounted. He rode in the middle, surrounded by the shield made by the rest. The hood of his long cloak shielded his face and fell in massive, lumpy folds over the body of the horse. Except for the sound of their steps and the occasional soft whuffle of a horse, the group moved without talk, striding briskly as they moved west-Olossiward-along the road.
The light faded away. A night-hatch chirped, answered by a second.
Bai leaned so close against him that her hair tickled his cheek. Her breath was hot on his ear. "We'll go just before dawn. Follow after them. See what they're doing."
"We won't! We'll head east and then north!"
She shifted away, but remained silent. The ginny-he still didn't know which one it was-stuck its head up to look over his neck, then ducked down again, pressed right up against him most uncomfortably. He didn't want to shoo it away because he didn't know if it would bite. It was as uncomfortable as a branch sticking into his back. The dreary hours passed in an agony of slowness, but at length he discovered that the mass of shadow off to the right was dissolving into the discrete twigs and leaves of the vast tranceberry bush that had helped shelter them. It was the wrong time of year for berries, which would, he noted with that part of his mind that never stopped toting things up for their market value, have brought thirty vey for a bucketload.
"Come on!" Bai rose. She slung the rolled-up cloak and jacket over her back. "Let's go. It's light enough to walk the road."