Once the terms had been determined Kel and Dorna ate, bathed, and then settled onto the farmer’s bed, while their host made do with a blanket and a pile of straw. The bed was somewhat crowded with both of them in it, quite aside from Kel’s discomfort with the impropriety of the situation, but Kel had slept in cramped quarters before. As for the two of them sharing, Dorna told Kel he was being silly to worry about it, and they were sufficiently exhausted that not only were they both quickly asleep, but they both slept late.
Kel felt much better after a good night’s sleep and a good breakfast, and Dorna seemed equally pleased, even though their host had charged them almost three times what they would have paid at a good inn. The farmer also provided directions to Shepherd’s Well at no additional cost, and they set out around mid-morning.
This proved to be the warmest day of the year so far, and Kel would have been happy to spend it sitting in the shade somewhere, but Dorna maintained a brisk pace, and he kept up without complaint.
They reached the Golden Rooster an hour or two after noon, and found Irien waiting for them in the inn’s cool interior. Her reaction upon seeing Dorna walk in with the fil drepessis under her arm was an outburst of relief, and she flung herself at her friend with such enthusiasm that Kel had to snatch the big talisman away so that it wouldn’t be sent flying. The thought of accidentally triggering it and setting off another chase terrified him.
“You’re safe!” Irien exclaimed, as she embraced the sorcerer’s widow.
“I’m fine,” Dorna said, pulling away. “Has Ezak been here?”
“What happened to your hair?” Irien demanded, as she looked at Dorna and saw where Northern sorcery had sliced away a large hank of her hair.
“Nothing,” Dorna lied. “Is Ezak here?”
“I didn’t expect you to be gone so long!”
“I know; I’m sorry. It took longer than I expected. Have you seen Ezak?”
The repetition of the question finally penetrated Irien’s enthusiasm. “Wasn’t he with you?” she asked.
“He was. He ran off. Did he come here?”
“I don’t think so,” Irien said.
“Why are you in here, then? Is someone watching the wagon?”
“Oh,” Irien said. “I…I paid a local boy…”
“Come on.” Dorna turned and headed back out the inn door, then toward the stableyard, with Irien and Kel close behind. Kel was still lugging the fil drepessis.
A boy of about ten, in a brownish tunic and black cowhide breeches, was sitting on the driver’s bench of Dorna’s wagon, whittling at a good-sized chunk of wood; he looked up at the sound of approaching footsteps, lowered the wood, and brandished his knife. Then he recognized Irien and lowered the blade, as well. “Are they with you?” he called. He had a surprisingly loud voice.
“Ducks and rabbits,” Irien called back. Kel looked at her in confusion. “It’s a password,” Irien explained to Dorna. “If I’d said anything else, he was to raise the alarm.”
“Clever,” Dorna said.
Irien turned up a palm. “Simple enough,” she said. Then she called to the boy, “Has anyone else been here? Perhaps a young man?”
“No,” the boy said. “It’s been as dull as sheep.”
“Damn,” Dorna said.
“Isn’t that good?” Kel asked. “It means he didn’t steal anything more.”
“It also means we don’t know where he went, and there may not be enough traces left here for a tracker to follow.”
“He went home to Ethshar,” Kel said.
Dorna stopped and turned to look at him. “You said before that he’d meet you there. How do you know?”
Kel turned up an empty palm. “Where else would he go? He doesn’t know anywhere but Ethshar.”
“He doesn’t?”
“No.”
“You’re sure?”
“I’ve known him all my life,” Kel said. “So far as I know, the first time he ever set foot outside the city walls was no more than three sixnights ago, when we went to look for your village.”
“Which Ethshar?” Irien asked.
“Ethshar of the Sands,” Kel replied.
“We knew that,” Dorna said.
“Did we?” Irien asked sharply. “How do we know that they told us the truth? How do we know he’s telling us the truth now? Every word could be lies!”
Dorna smiled. “Irien, do you think they’re smart enough to lie about all of it?”
Irien glanced at Kel, then grimaced. “Maybe not,” she acknowledged.
Kel thought she expected him to be insulted, but he wasn’t; Ezak always said it was useful if your target under-estimated you. Besides, Kel didn’t think he could have maintained so elaborate a lie. That was one reason he tried not to talk when he didn’t need to. He had inadvertently given away too many schemes and secrets in the past.
Then they were at the wagon, where Dorna threw back the cover and began poking through the contents. The boy on the driver’s bench watched with intense interest. “Is that magic stuff?” he asked.
“Sorcery,” Dorna said, as she fished out another of the golden-boot-heel talismans. “It’s all sorcery.”
“Dorna,” Irien said, “you don’t have your bag.”
“That’s right,” Dorna said. Kel was amazed she didn’t say something a little more pointed, where it had taken Irien so long to notice the bag’s absence.
“Ezak stole it?”
“Yes.”
“How?”
Dorna stopped rummaging and straightened up, but did not look at her friend. Instead she let out a long, slow breath and said, “I’ll tell you later.”
“It was my fault,” Kel said.
Dorna turned, startled, to look at him. “No, it wasn’t,” she said.
“I shouldn’t have left him there.”
“I shouldn’t have left him there!” Dorna replied. “I was the one with the weapon.”
Kel tightened his lips and did not respond. Dorna stared at him for a moment, then said, “Give me that.”
Kel handed her the fil drepessis, and she heaved it up into the wagon. Then she pushed a few things around, pulled the cloth covering back into place, and turned to face Kel and Irien. “You’re absolutely sure he’d go to Ethshar of the Sands?”
“Yes,” Kel said. “He doesn’t know anywhere else.”
“You don’t think he might realize we’d look for him there, and try somewhere else?”
Kel considered that, thinking carefully about how Ezak would behave, then shook his head. Ezak had had enemies looking for him before, and had never tried to leave the city. “Ethshar is very big, and he knows it much better than you do. He has a hundred hiding places, and he wouldn’t know how to find a fence anywhere else.”
“Ethshar it is, then,” Dorna said. “There’s no sense in putting it off. Irien, pay this fine young man whatever you promised him, give him an extra two bits from me, and then let us get out of here.”
“I need to pay the innkeeper, too, and fetch things from our room…”
“Then go do it,” Dorna snapped. “I want to get moving.” She held out the boot-heel-shaped talisman and rubbed her thumb along one side of it; Kel thought he could see something shift and twist on its surface as she did.
“Can you find him?” Kel asked.
“Maybe,” she said. “There’s something in that direction.” She pointed toward one side of the yard, the side Kel judged to be in the general direction of Ethshar.
Irien fished coins from a purse on her belt and gave them to the boy as Dorna fiddled with her talisman. The boy accepted the money happily, jumped down from the wagon, then stood to one side, watching; he obviously found these people far more interesting than anything else in Shepherd’s Well.
Irien then turned and headed to the inn while Dorna went back to the wagon and straightened the cover. Kel stood aside, and glanced at the boy.