“I just—I—they’re dead!” And suddenly he burst out crying. As tears ran through the blood on his face and trailed down his chin, Aspar realized that even fifteen had been an overestimate. The lad was probably no more than thirteen, just big for his age.
“Sceat on this,” Aspar grumbled.
“Aspar White!” He looked up to see Winna Rufoote, the hostler’s daughter. She was less than half his age, just nineteen, pretty with her oval face, green eyes, and flaxen hair. Strong willed. Trouble looking for lodging. Aspar avoided her when he could.
“Winna—”
“Don’t ‘Winna’ me. You burst this poor boy’s brains all over—and one of our mugs—and now you’re just going to sit here and drink beer while he bleeds on everything?”
“Look—”
“I won’t hear a word of it. Not from you, s’posed to be the king’s man. First you’ll help me get this boy to a room so I can clean him up. Then you’ll put your mark on one o’ them royal notes or else pay good copper for our mug. After that, y’can have another beer, and not before.”
“If this weren’t the only hostel in town—”
“But it is, isn’t it? And if you want to stay welcome here—”
“You know you can’t turn me out.”
“No. Turn out the king’s man? Sure I can’t. But you might start finding your beer tasting like piss, if you understand me.”
“It already tastes like piss,” Aspar grumbled.
She put her hands on her hips and glared at him. He suddenly felt a little weak in the knees. In twenty-five years as a holter, he had faced bears, lions, more outlaws than he could even count. But he had never learned how to handle a pretty woman.
“He did come in here to kill me, the little sceat,” Aspar reminded her sheepishly.
“An’ how is that such a strange thing? I’ve been tempted myself.” She pulled out a rag and handed it to the boy. “What’s your name?” she asked.
“Uscaor,” he mumbled. “Uscaor Fraletson.”
“Your ear’s just a bit cut, Uscaor. It’ll be okay.”
Aspar blew out a long breath and stood back up. “Come on, boy. Let’s get you cleaned up, hey? So you’ll look nice when you come to murther me in my bed.”
But as the boy swayed to his feet, Aspar caught the scent of death again and noticed, for the first time, the boy’s right hand. It was bruised purple and black, and the sight of it sent a tingle up his spine.
“What happened there, boy?” Aspar asked.
“I don’t know,” Uscaor said softly. “I don’t remember.”
“Come on, Uscaor,” Winna said. “Let’s find you a bed.”
Aspar watched him go, frowning. The boy had meant to kill him, all right, though he hadn’t come very close. But that hand—maybe that was the thing his nose was trying to tell him about all along.
Uneasily, he waited for another beer.
“He’s asleep,” Winna told Aspar some time later, after she’d been alone with the boy for a while. “I don’t think he’s eaten or slept for two or three days. And that hand—it’s so swollen and hot. Not like any sort of wound I’ve seen before.”
“Yah,” Aspar said. “Me either. Maybe I ought to cut it off of ’im and take it for the apothecary in Eslen to have a look at.”
“You can’t fool me, Asp,” Winna said. “You’re rougher than an elm at the skin, but in your heart there’s softer stuff.”
“Don’t convince yourself of that, Winn. Did he spell why he wants me dead?”
“Same as he told you. He thinks you killed his family.”
“Why would he think that?”
“Hey, Winna!” someone yelled, from across the room. “Leave off the king’s bear and come wet me!” He banged an empty mug on the table.
“Do as you usually do, Banf—wet yourself. You know where the tap is. I’ll know what to charge you by how much you throw up later.”
That got a burst of jeers at the fellow’s expense as Winna sat down across from Aspar.
“He and his family put up a camp down near Taff Creek,” she continued, “a few leagues from where it meets the Warlock—”
“Right. Squatters, as I reckoned.”
“So they squatted in the royal forest. Lots do that. Does that mean they deserve to die?”
“I didn’t kill them for that. Raver’s teeth! I didn’t kill them at all.”
“Uscaor says he saw the king’s colors on the men who did it.”
“No. I don’t know what he saw, but he never saw that. None of my woodsmen are within thirty leagues of here.”
“You sure?”
“Damned sure.”
“Then who killed them?”
“I wat not. There’s plenty of room in the King’s Forest for all manner of outlaws. But I suppose I’ll be finding out.” He took another drink of his beer. “By the Taff, you say? That’s about two days. I’ll be leaving at first light, so tell Paet to have my horses ready.” He finished the beer in a single long swallow and rose from the table. “See you.”
“Wait. Don’t you want to talk to the boy some more?”
“What for? He doesn’t know what happened. He probably didn’t even see anybody. I’ll bet the part about the king’s colors is a lie.”
“How do you reckon that?”
“Maunt my words, Winn. Squatters live in terror of the king’s justice. They all reckon they’re going to be hanged or beheaded or hunted down, and they think I’m a two-headed uttin. I don’t discourage stories like that. I spread ’em, in fact. Somebody killed this boy’s kin, and he didn’t see who. He reckoned it was me. The rest he made up when he started feeling foolish.”
“But someone killed them,” she said.
“Yah. That much of his story I believe.” He sighed and stood. “Night, Winn.”
“You aren’t going by yourself ?”
“All of my men are too far away. I have to go while the trail is still warm.”
“Wait for some of your men. Send word to Dongal.”
“No time. Why so nervous, Winn? I know what I’m doing.”
She nodded. “Just a feeling. That something’s different this time. People coming up out of the forest have been … different.”
“I know the forest better than anyone. It’s the same as it’s always been.”
She nodded reluctantly.
“Well, as I said, good night.”
Her hand caught his. “Be careful, you,” she murmured, and gave it a little squeeze.
“Certain,” he said, hoping he turned quickly enough that she couldn’t see him blush.
Aspar rose at first cockcrow, when the light out his window was still mostly starborn. By the time he’d splashed water from a crockery basin in his face and shaved the gray stubble sprouting there, cinched on his elkskin breeches and padded cotton gambeson, the east was primrose.
He considered his boiled-leather cuirass; that was going to be hot today.
He put it on anyway. Better hot than dead.
He strapped on his bone-handled dirk and settled his throwing ax into its loop on the same belt. He took his bow from its oilskin case, checked the wood and extra strings, counted his arrows. Then he recased the bow, slipped on his high boots, and went downstairs.
“First light, eh?” Winna said, as he passed through the common room.
“Getting old,” Aspar grumbled.
“Well, have some breakfast as you’re not too early for it.”
“That reminds me. I need to buy—”
“I’ve packed you a week’s worth of food. Paetur is loading it up for you.”
“Oh. Thanks.”
“Sit.”
She brought him a trencher of black bread with garlic sausage and fried apples. He ate every bit of it. When he was finished, Winna wasn’t in sight, but he could hear her knocking about in the kitchen. For an instant, he remembered having a woman knocking about his own kitchen, in his own house.
A long time ago, and the pain was still there. Winna was young enough to be his daughter. He left quietly, so as not to attract her attention, feeling faintly cowardly. Once outside he made straight for the stables.