"Looted from the dead."
"I picked up forty vey, too, although I must say that these were desperately poor folk, to have so little. Or else the wolves already took their coin. Maybe so."
The ginnies circled the basket, and she hoisted them to her shoulders. She took a few steps, paused, and turned back.
"Kesh? Kesh! Come on!"
Her voice had a bark, like that of a snapping dog. He startled as though struck, shook his shoulders, and rose to his feet. No use crying over what was already spilt.
"At least let's stay off the road," he said. "At least that much."
"What difference will that make? They're west of us and east of us now. We're stuck between sections of their company, and I expect they have scouts moving through the forest. That's what I would do, were I their captain. We'll move faster on the road. The ginnies will warn us."
Aui! No place was safe. He indicated the weapons carried by the dead men. "What about these?"
"Leave them. Unless you're skilled with a bow." She was already moving, her long legs flashing as she strode away from him, heading back toward Olossi, the one place he really did not want to go.
He hesitated. He had paid off all her debts. He was so furious that his anger tempted him to turn and walk away from her, deserting her and her idiot schemes and pious scolding.
He couldn't do it.
The quivers were trapped under the dead men, and he didn't want to touch them. He didn't have the stomach to pull that sword free, but he picked up both bows and tossed away the littler one that was flimsy and had too light a draw. You could always sell a good bow. He grabbed the basket of looted food and drink, slung its straps over his shoulders beside his empty pack, tucked the bow in, and hurried after her. You had to stick by your kin. She was all he had.
She strode ahead, the ginnies' tails hanging down behind like ornaments. He huffed along after her with nothing but a red rage and a flowering confusion in his mind. In his haste he did not even mark the huge shadow that overflew them until she cursed and ducked, although nothing had been thrown at her. The booming shriek of an eagle split the air above them. Now he looked up, but it was already too late. The reeve-for it was a reeve-was circling back.
"He's seen us," she said unnecessarily. "The hells. Come on. Best we try to make our escape through the forest. The trees give us an advantage."
"But that's a reeve." He waited on the roadway, watching the eagle bank around in a wide curve. "A reeve could help us."
"Gods curse you, Keshad. Why are you so stupid?" She shrugged off the wine bladders that were slung over her shoulders. "Never mind. Maybe you're right. Just follow my lead and keep your mouth shut. Take these."
He took the sacks of wine, leaving him burdened and her free.
More quickly than he would have thought possible, the eagle swooped low, running straight down between the trees and dropping into the canyon made by the cleared road. It hit the roadway with a solid whomp that made him skip back in fear. The reeve unhooked swiftly and swaggered forward with a baton held at the ready.
"Who are you?" Bai pounced so aggressively into the silence that the reeve actually came to a halt, as if she'd slapped him. "You're out of Argent Hall, by that badge you're wearing. You look familiar, but it seems to me you were gone for a long time and only recently returned."
"I know who you are," said the reeve, clearly surprised. He was an ordinary man of middling years and middling height, slender, fit, with a broken nose long since healed and a vicious scar on one bare, brown shoulder that cut through the triple ring of flame tattoos on his upper arm. "You're the Devouring girl they brought in to warm up old Marshal Alyon. But he died anyway."
"So he did."
"Did you murder him?"
"As it happens, I did not. Was that the rumor?"
The reeve's mouth twisted as he thought this over. His eagle fixed its intimidating stare on them. Keshad felt he would be slaughtered if he so much as took one step sideways. Falling to an eagle would be a very bad way to die. He wasn't quite sure which would be worse: gut punctured by the talons, or head torn off by that wicked beak.
"We hear lots of things," the reeve said finally, "so it's hard to know what to believe."
"I was with the old marshal when he died. He was clean of poison. But he was old and frail and heartbroken. That's what killed him."
"Huh. Good riddance to him, then." There it was again. He had a tendency to drawl out a rounded "oo" and to slurp his "r"s. He was definitely not born and bred on the Olo Plain.
"Were you always at Argent Hall?" she asked, as if she had gleaned Kesh's thoughts. "Or did you come from elsewhere?"
"None of your business. Why do you ask?"
She shrugged, with an unconcerned smile. "A habit I got into after Marshal Yordenas took on my contract. Just helping him out."
The reeve cracked a smile. "I hope he got more pleasure of it than Marshal Alyon did."
Oh my. Keshad was not much for women. They were complications, and he had never had time for complications. It wasn't his fault that Nasia had fallen in love with him. Now he watched as Bai gave a certain kind of smile with a certain tilt of her hips that got the reeve roped in tight. This could not be his sweet little baby sister!
"We Devouring girls have our secrets," she said to the reeve with that offering of a smile. "We're not allowed to tell. That would be going against our oath to the Merciless One. What man or woman would come to the temple to worship if they thought their dearest secrets and desires were talked about later?"
"Sorry I asked, no offense intended," he said, stumbling over his tongue as he tried to apologize. "What are you doing out here, though? If I may ask."
"Oh, just an errand, like you. There was that border guards captain that I had to kill, for he was breaking the law, as you know, and he broke faith with the Thunderer, and with the Merciless One, I might add. You don't want to face her anger. His death was easier than it might otherwise have been. Now I just have one last loose end to tie up, and my contract is finished at Argent Hall."
"What's that? I can't figure out how you got behind the strike force. They should have stopped you on the road."
She glanced at Kesh with an anger that silenced him, not that he had anything to say. His chest was so tight he could scarcely breathe. Even she tensed, one hand squeezing into a fist while the other waved in a casual gesture meant to suggest a carefree lack of worry. It didn't look very convincing to Kesh, but that reeve was almost licking his lips and anyway his interest was flagged by a significant stiffening in those tight leather trousers.
"Getting past the strike force was no problem. They know I've been working for Marshal Yordenas, just as you are. I'm on the track of that reeve-what was his name?-the one who got away from me at Argent Hall." She touched her bruised cheek. "I have a personal grudge to settle with that one, I'll tell you."
"Him?" He sneered. "Our allies in Olossi threw him in the dungeon."
"Did they? That makes my job easier, then, because I've been wandering out here on his trail and my feet are sore and I had just about given up. Heya!" Her face changed expression as quickly as sun brightens when it comes out behind cloud. "I don't suppose you could give me a lift? To Olossi? I think that eagle can carry two for a short way. If it gets too heavy, we can always stop along the way for a, umm, rest."
"Oh, ah, yes, ah."
"What's your name? Marshal Yordenas kept me away from the rest of you, and I can see why he'd be worried. I see you're Fire-born. I really like Fire-born men. They have a certain… heat about them that warms us Water-born."