"I can't let you do this, my friend."
"With all respect, Eldest, you haven't any choice. You can't keep me here against my will, and we both know that there's no one else you can send."
Pyav opened his arms wide. "Why send anyone at all?" he demanded, his voice rising. "What is it you think you can do? I admit that what you've told me is compelling, but we don't know for certain that Lici is to blame for what's happened in Greenrill and Runnelwick and… and… wherever else-"
"Tivston."
"Yes, right," he said impatiently. "My point is, this is all just conjecture on our part."
Besh frowned. "A moment ago you believed me. Now you don't?"
Pyav rubbed his forehead, his eyes squeezed shut. "I don't know what to believe. You've been convinced all along that Lici is alive still, that she had some purpose in leaving the way she did. And I allowed you to act on your suspicions. Perhaps that was a mistake."
"It wasn't. Don't you see? I was right all along. Sylpa's daybook proves that!"
"Sylpa is dead! Her daybook is a relic! Nothing more! Now, this nonsense has to end!"
The eldest appeared to wince at what he heard in his own voice, and for several moments neither of them spoke.
"I shouldn't have said that, Besh. Forgive me."
"Of course, Eldest," Besh said, his voice tight.
"I'm out of my depth. You have to understand. You're so sure of yourself in this matter. You're so certain about Lici, and I don't know her at all. How am I to make the kind of decisions you're asking of me?"
"By trusting me," the old man said, surprising himself with his passion and surety. "You're right: I am certain about Lici. I understand the way her mind works, whether because I know her, or merely because I know what it means to grow old. She's out there killing entire villages, spreading some sort of plague among the Y'Qatt. And she has to be stopped."
"And you can stop her?" Pyav asked. "Don't get me wrong; it's not merely your age that makes me ask. I could send a man half your age and twice your size, and I wouldn't know how to tell him to stop her. If all you say is true, she's mad or evil, or both. And she commands magic the like of which I've never encountered among the Mettai."
"So are we simply to remain here then, and let her have her vengeance?"
The eldest's expression darkened. "You're trying to goad me."
"Not at all. I don't believe you need goading. You know as well as I that we have to do something. If there's even a chance that Lici is causing so many to die, we have to stop her, or at the very least warn the other Y'Qatt villages that lie in her path."
"Is that what you plan to do? Will you merely warn the Y'Qatt? And what will you tell them? 'An insane Mettai woman is on her way here, spreading disease wherever she goes.' Or do you have it in mind to do more? Do you intend to kill her?"
"Now who's doing the goading?"
"It's a fair question, Besh. You speak of stopping her. But how? If she's capable of killing so many, do you truly believe you can reason with her, convince her to stop? Because I don't think you can. If all this is true-if she's really out there killing the Y'Qatt-there will be no reasoning with her. You'll have to use force. You'll have to take her life to spare the lives of others. And I'm asking you, friend to friend, if you're prepared to do that."
Besh looked away and took a long breath. He'd thought of this already, and had come to the startling realization that he was ready to kill the woman if the need arose. Reading Sylpa's journal, he had come to understand Lici, perhaps even to pity her. Though he didn't care for her as he did for Sylpa, he couldn't bring himself to hate her. But she had become something darker and more dangerous than a young girl whose heart had been twisted by a cruel fate, or an old woman desperate to avenge old wounds before she died. Pyav had called her evil a moment before, and that seemed the right word. Whatever the cause of her pain, however just her rage and grief, she had become a demon, murdering indiscriminately, destroying the lives of people who had done her no harm at all. He couldn't allow that to continue.
He met the eldest's gaze once more, and nodded slowly.
"Yes, Pyav," he said. "If need be, I'll kill her."
The blacksmith's eyes widened, but Besh didn't give him a chance to speak.
"You think me old, kindly, a good man. And I may be all of those things. But I've been a husband and a father and now a grandfather. I would have killed to protect Ema and Elica. I'd kill today to keep Mihas safe. Lici is a threat not only to the Y'Qatt, but also to the Mettai. Our people are hated enough without some madwoman menacing the land using blood magic to destroy villages." He pulled his knife free and dragged the blade across the back of his hand. Blood began to flow from the wound, spreading into the fine lines that time had etched into his brown skin. Making a fist, he held up his hand for the eldest to see. "I swear this oath to you, Pyav-Mettai to Mettai, friend to friend, elder to eldest-if Lici can be stopped, I'll stop her. I won't return to our village until I've made good my oath." He lowered his hand, never taking his eyes off the eldest, and licked away the blood before returning his knife to its sheath.
Pyav shook his head slowly. "I fear you're nearly as mad as she is, making an oath like that."
Besh grinned, feeling his face color. He'd offered the blood oath on impulse-it wasn't at all something he would usually have done. But according to Mettai law, once made, such an oath could only be broken on pain of death. And that was all right, because when Elica heard of what he had done, she'd probably kill him.
"Is it madness wanting to protect my family and my people?"
"In this case, yes."
"Why? Because I'm old?"
Pyav nodded. "Because you're old. Because Lici is quite likely insane. Because you don't know where she is, or where she might go next. Blood and bone, Besh! This is mad in so many different ways I hardly know where to begin!" He rubbed a hand over his face. "And now I have no choice but to let you go."
"You could kill me and save Elica the trouble."
The eldest stared at him for a moment, then burst out laughing. "I'd forgotten about Elica. And here I thought that Lici was the dangerous one."
Besh shook his head. "After facing my daughter, going after Lici will be like paddling downstream."
Pyav's smile faded slowly. "I should go with you," he said after some time.
"No. I'm going precisely so that no one else will have to. I'll go alone."
"You have a better chance of succeeding if someone is with you. If this is as important as you say it is, you'll let me accompany you."
Besh could hear the frustration in the blacksmith's voice. The blood oath, he realized, had changed everything. It was up to Besh now to decide how he was to fulfill his vow; just as Besh would be put to death if he failed, another Mettai was subject to the same punishment if he or she did anything to interfere. Though Pyav was eldest, he was powerless in this matter.
"As I've already said, you're needed here."
"And you're a stubborn fool." Pyav shook his head again. "Will you at least allow me to give you some food to take along? The village owes you that much."
"Gladly. Thank you, Eldest."
"You won't like this idea, but you may need some gold as well. I'd suggest you take it from Lici's house."
Besh considered this. He'd fought long and hard to keep anyone from taking the old woman's coins. But knowing what he did now about all she had done, he felt justified in making an exception. He nodded once. "I'll do that," he said. "Tonight, after dark."
"Good." Abruptly, it seemed that Pyav didn't know what to say. "When will you go?" he finally asked.
"Tomorrow, with first light."
"What would you have me tell the others?" "The other elders, you mean?"
"The elders, the rest of the villagers. Whoever asks."
Besh shrugged. "Tell them whatever you think is best. The truth is fine as far as I'm concerned, but I'll leave that to you."
"Very well." They fell into another awkward silence until at last the eldest extended a meaty hand. Besh took it, and Pyav placed his other hand over Besh's, which looked tiny by comparison. "Gods keep you safe, Besh, and return you to us."