But was it right? Tibb had struck a soft spot within her. Until she’d met Pelmen, her own attitudes toward moral evil had been the same as those of these outlaws perhaps even worse. Her father Talith had exercised his power with the same savage expertise as Tibb wielded his knife well, probably more skillfully than poor Tibb and he’d taught Bronwynn to do the same.
“But I thought that had changed,” Bronwynn breathed, remembering conversations with Pelmen that had extended far into the night, and the sudden unveiling of a spiritual sensitivity that had long laid dormant within her.
“My Lady! My Lady!”
She glanced up. Pinter and Tibb both raced toward her. She’d become well acquainted with these two in the past few hours. Thus it didn’t surprise her at all when Pinter’s legs tangled and he fell in a pile at her knees. Tibb tripped and landed on top of him.
“Yes, Pinter?” she asked wearily.
“Get off a me!” Pinter growled, and Tibb complied quickly. Both struggled to their feet.
“We’ve caught our first unauthorized passage!”
“Twenty of them, actually,” Tibb corrected.
“They’re being held in the north mouth. Hurry!”
“Why should I?” Bronwynn asked pointedly. “I told you, I don’t relish the thought of indiscriminate killings.”
“Oh, we’re not going to kill them,” Tibb protested.
“No?”
“Of course not. What good would that do? Would it keep anyone else from trying to come through?”
“I would think so when word got out.”
Pinter laughed, and winked at Tibb, who winked back. Bronwynn didn’t much care for their patronizing looks. “But who would carry that word out?” Pinter asked, as if of a child.
Bronwynn frowned at this, and Pinter looked away. “So you’ll send them back,” she said, looking down at her reflection in the puddle.
“Right!” Tibb crowed, a big smile spreading beneath his bulbous nose.
“Of course, we’ll skin ’era up a little first. Come and watch. They’re Lamathians ”
“No, thanks. Beatings don’t interest me any more than killings.”
“Might do you good,” Tibb wheedled. “Help you see the real world. Our boys have already begun the job, stripping off a few of their funny blue robes and stretching them on the ”
“What?” Bronwynn asked sharply. “What kind of robes?”
Tibb was puzzled. “They’re just robes, my Lady, the usual kind ”
She spun around to Tibb’s companion. “Pinter, what kind of robes?”
“Nothing for you to be alarmed about, my Lady. We’ve just captured a group of religious fanatics that you would know nothing about ”
“What color robes?” she screeched, and Tibb, wide-eyed, answered:
“Pale blue ” He broke off, as Bronwynn sprinted between them and raced toward the northern mouth.
She arrived, breathless, at the side of Admon Faye, just as the skyfaither leader was being brought before him.
“What are you going to do with them?” Bronwynn demanded sternly, before the slaver could open his mouth.
Admon Faye turned his ugly face toward her and frowned. “I’m going to beat them and send them back where they came from, to discourage further ”
“No, you’re not.”
Admon Faye gazed at her. “What!” It wasn’t a question, it was a threat.
“You aren’t going to beat them, nor will you send them back.”
Admon Faye grew conscious of the watching eyes of the rogues who ringed them. His initial thought was to slap the girl’s face and have her arms bound behind her for still more instruction later. He resisted the impulse, but his frown stayed fixed in place. There were many who would have preferred a slap to that stare. “Are you ordering me, little girl?”
“I’m no little girl, I’m your Queen or so you claim I will be. And perhaps I’ll be more compliant with your wishes than Queen Ligne has been but there are some things that I demand!”
“You’re hardly in a position to demand anything,” said the slaver.
“Oh?” she replied. “It was my understanding that you needed me, as legitimate heir to the throne you plot to steal. Suppose I choose not to take it?”
“Then we’ll use someone else,”
“Ah,” Bronwynn said. “But what of the wasted time? Another heir to be found and trained, rechecking the plans with Flayh are these few worth it to you?” She gestured to the two skyfaithers who stood before them, soundly trussed and gagged.
“Are they that important to you?” Admon Faye wondered.
“Yes.”
The slaver stared at her, then chuckled. At the sound of his laugh, the tension broke. He glanced around at his fellows and winked, and they began dispersing, echoing his laugh. He looked back at her. “Then they’re yours for all the good it does you.”
“I see you’ve already begun your vicious game,” Bronwynn growled as she un gagged Naquin.
“Just a little lesson to help would-be free traders to think twice before crossing this pass. Perhaps this group will be willing to convey our message?” he asked Naquin, raising his eyebrows and grinning crookedly.
“We carry only the message of the Prophet and the book none other,”
Naquin answered proudly.
“Oh-ho!” Admon Faye cackled. “A proud one. Too proud to save the skins of some of your fellow travelers?”
“Salvation is our purpose,” Naquin announced, “but your threats are meaningless in view of the Prophet’s words. The changes will come so says the book and the Prophet.”
Admon Faye wrinkled his nose in disdain and sneered at Bronwynn. “Never could understand these religious crazies. You’re sure you wouldn’t rather just send them home?”
“No!” Bronwynn shouted, and she turned to smile hopefully at Naquin.
“The Prophet sent you?”
“He did. With instructions to proclaim the message, throughout Chaomonous.”
“You’re sure?” Admon Faye snickered. “Means nothing >, to me.
They’re harmless enough. But if you let them V through now, it means you’ll have to put up with this garbage from now on.”
“I don’t think it garbage!” Bronwynn snapped. if “Oh that’s right. You got a whiff of it yourself while in TeLamath, didn’t you?
Very well then, I’ll leave you two to ponder worshipfully the wonders of theology.” The slaver turned his back and strode away, trailing his laughter as he ;; left
Freed now to mention his name, Bronwynn whipped around to whisper, “How is Pelmen? Where is he?”
Naquin stared at her, then his face assumed an expression of pious distaste. “I certainly have no knowledge of that man’s whereabouts and I wish none.”
Bronwynn stared back at him. “I thought you said you were from the Prophet!”
“Indeed we are, from the true Prophet of Lamath. We have no dealings with the Mari imposter you mention.”
“Man imposter!”
“That is what he showed himself to be when he abandoned the land to chaos.”
“He didn’t abandon the land!” Bronwynn fumed. “He put Erri in charge of Lamath and moved on to other things.”
“What other things?” Naquin demanded, and Bronwynn hesitated. “You see, you don’t know his whereabouts,” Naquin said smugly.
“But I know him,” snarled Bronwynn. “I was with him!”
“That may be,” Naquin said evenly in the face of Bron-wynn’s clenched teeth. “But where are you now? In the company of cutthroats, outlaws and brigands. And by your dress, obviously one of them. That doesn’t say much for this Pelmen, does it?”
Bronwynn’s fist flew toward Naquin’s face, and he flinched. She managed to stop it in mid flight however, and backed away, amazed at the violence of her own reactions. Naquin smiled a pitying smile that made her want to vomit.