Sabin stood above him lifting what must have been a forty pound field stone the color of fresh liver.
He raised it high, preparing to smash Talen"s head like a gourd.
8.
Bounty TALEN ROLLED AWAY, trying to escape Sabin"s stone.
"Hold!" someone shouted.
A horse snorted.
Talen tried to dart through the legs of the men surrounding him and was flung back to the ground. He froze, cringed, waiting for the crushing stone. But it did not fall.
"Twenty stripes, Sabin," a man said. "I swear it!"
Talen glanced up. The men were not looking at him. They were looking at the Bailiff of Stag Home who sat upon his dappled gray horse, glaring at Sabin. It was he who had been the rider bearing down on him from the other direction.
Sabin hesitated, and then, almost in defiance, he dropped the stone perilously close to Talen"s head.
"That," said the Bailiff, pointing at Sabin, "has just made you my riding horse."
The Bailiff was not a large man. But he was strong and fearless in battle. His face was shaven close which revealed three scars where a bear had tried to take off his jaw. But it was his eyes, as pale as the horse upon which he rode, that fixed Talen"s gaze. Those eyes had scared Talen as a boy. He had thought the man was full of evil. Father had convinced Talen otherwise, but, faced with those eyes, Talen could never maintain his certainty. The Bailiff directed that hard gaze at the other men.
"What is this here? Why are the fields empty?"
"There are Koramite sleth about," someone said.
Sleth? Soul-eaters? Had Talen heard that right?
"This one ran like a monster," one of the men said.
"Yes," said the Bailiff. "But it appears you caught him anyway."
Talen looked up at the Bailiff, but a wave of pain and nausea slammed into him, and he was forced to turn and vomit into the gra.s.s. He hurt everywhere.
"Get up," said the Bailiff.
Talen gagged once more, spit, and took three breaths to steady himself. Then he got to one knee, feeling all dizzy and trembling. Something was running out of his nose. He wiped his face with his sleeve expecting blood, but it was nothing more than snot. There was a ringing in his ears, and he didn"t know if he could stand.
But he did know one thing: he would not show weakness. Not in front of these men. Goh, these arrogant Mokaddian garlic eaters. This would go to the Koramite council. And the council would take it to the Shoka lords. He was within his Whitecliff rights-everyone of these men should pay! And that thought was enough to take the edge off the flood of tears pushing up within.
Talen stood. He almost toppled over, but then his dizziness seemed to recede.
Two other hors.e.m.e.n rode up from the village and joined the Bailiff. One was the bald Fir-Noy he had seen at the gate. His black beard and eyebrows were even bushier than they had first appeared. His Mokaddian wrist tattoo with its boar"s tusk had been extended up his forearm showing not only his clan, but also the military order to which he belonged. The other Fir-Noy was a small man, a messenger. He rode a horse that was lathered and blowing from a long gallop.
The bearded Fir-Noy shifted on his saddle and the leather creaked under him. "We tried to find you, Zu," he said to the Bailiff. "There"s been a sleth hunt, and it appears that things have taken a turn for the worse."
The Bailiff turned. "A sleth hunt?"
The messenger eyed Talen then addressed the Bailiff. "We identified the parents of the abomination pulled from the river. Yesterday, our forces closed in on Sparrow, the Koramite master smith of the village of Plum. But things did not go as well as planned. His two hatchlings escaped. And then some sleth sp.a.w.n came back and slaughtered a family in the village."
Except for the buzzing in Talen"s head there was dead silence. Sleth, he thought. What are these men doing wasting their time chasing me? They should be out- Then his brain processed that last statement. There were sleth among the Koramites, among Talen"s people.
"We have reports," the messenger continued, "that they were spotted in this district. A Koramite girl and her blind brother." He turned to the men. "There"s a sizeable bounty for any who bring them in, dead or alive. A miller"s annual wage."
The reports of sleth that sailors brought this spring had be noised about the whole district, driving people to put double bars on their doors. A sleth wife taken in Mokad had filed her teeth into sharp fangs. Her captors all thought it was to make her more fearsome in battle, but the hunters discovered the true reason when they broke open her smoke house and found the bodies of four men hanging butchered and half cured.
And that was just this year. There were stories of sleth stealing your soul away, then walking about in your body. Sleth growing horns, growing gills so they could swim in close and drag unsuspecting fishermen into the watery depths. Sleth were forever stealing sisters, wives, and husbands to use in unnumbered abominations.
If these men thought he was a.s.sociated with sleth . . .
Or was this simply another Fir-Noy scheme?
He realized it didn"t matter at this point. If these men thought he a.s.sociated with such evil, then his life floated like a piece of duff over a bonfire.
The Bailiff turned to Talen. "What are you doing here?"
"Trading chickens, Zu," said Talen. "That was my crime."
"Then why did you run?" asked the Fir-Noy.
What a stupid question. "It"s hard to tell," said Talen, "I"m usually quite solid when facing a charge of Mokaddian villagers."
Of course, stupidity was bred into the Fir-Noy. Their Clan was forever trying to stir all the others up to push the Koramites into the sea. It was probably that man who started this whole thing.
Sabin clopped Talen on the head and sent him reeling to his knees. "Respect your betters."
Talen steadied himself and stood again. The right side of his rib cage pained him. He took in a large breath, expecting to feel the sharp stab of a broken bone. There was a twinge, but it didn"t feel like it came from a break. However, his one battered eye was swelling shut.
He looked at the Bailiff. "I"m sorry, Zu. Let me restate."
"No," said the Bailiff. "There"s no need to restate." His face was full of a pent-up anger. "There soon won"t be any chickens, Talen. There will be nothing for you Koramites. Your clans squander opportunity after opportunity. You can"t keep yourselves clean, can you?"
"Zu," said Talen. "All I did was come for layers. And these men, without provocation, set upon me."
"You ought to press him," the Fir-Noy suggested. "Who knows how wide their network is? And think about it. I"m told this skinny thing is a half-breed. But he"s not just any old mongrel. This one"s connected to high places, given special treatment. I"m told Argoth is going to adopt him into his family and give him a chance to earn the wrist of a Shoka man." He spat at Talen"s feet. "This one can walk about and spy without being given a second glance."
It was true Uncle Argoth and Da had recently talked about marrying Talen to a Mokaddian. It wasn"t necessary for him to be adopted into a Mokaddian family to do so, but it would smooth the process. However, there were some who thought it a scandal. Even among the Shoka of Stag Home there were still a few who still wondered how Talen"s mother, a Mokaddian of some station, could willingly debase herself and foul her offspring by marrying and mating Da, a full Koramite. There were those who saw her untimely death as a confirmation of that poor choice. Nevertheless, Uncle Argoth was determined to make him a full member of the clan, wrist tattoo and all.
"Are you spying?" asked the Bailiff.
"Zu," said Talen. "I mean no disrespect, but what would the purpose of such spying be? I have no idea what this is about."
"Don"t feign ignorance," the Fir-Noy growled.
"I am what you see," Talen said to the Bailiff. "Nothing more."
"He"s lying," said the Fir-Noy. "Take him and press the truth out."
The Bailiff turned to the Fir-Noy. "This is Shoka land, not Fir-Noy. Your news has caused trouble enough. I won"t let it bring murder to my fields."
"Killing a Koramite isn"t murder."
"It is here," the Bailiff spat.
The Fir-Noy licked his fat lips and shook his head in disgust, but he made no reply.
Talen addressed the Bailiff. "You know my family. Surely, you can"t think I am one of them."
"I can think anything I want," said the Bailiff. "I stake my reputation vouching for you and yours. But your actions have begun to stain me."
"No, Zu. Not mine. We carry no stain." The Bailiff knew him. Da had given his boy a foundling wildcat. He"d taught the Bailiff himself a better way of drawing his bow. And, in return, the Bailiff had invited Da on many a hunt. Surely, the Bailiff"s vision would not be clouded with Fir-Noy rubbish.
The Bailiff looked at Talen as if he were weighing him.
"I find no cause to accuse this boy," the Bailiff finally said. "Not today."
Talen bowed himself in grat.i.tude. "Zu, you are clear-sighted and wise."
"Then prove me right. Packs of bounty hunters will begin to stalk these woods. But if a Koramite were to bring the hatchlings in, that would say something, wouldn"t it?"
"Yes," said the Fir-Noy. "It will say that Koramites, like crows, feed on the carrion of their own kind. It proves nothing."
Anger flashed up in Talen. Fir-Noy did nothing but pick and feed on the work of others. He knew he should keep his mouth shut, but he couldn"t help himself. The words were leaping out before he knew what he was saying.
"Well, Zu," said Talen. "At least we"re willing to make something useful of our carrion; it appears the Fir-Noy simply lets theirs parade about full of maggots and stink."
Anger flushed the Fir-Noy"s face, and he kicked his horse forward to get at Talen.
Talen cringed, but the Bailiff grabbed the Fir-Noy"s reins and pulled the horse up short.
"He"ll take that back!" said the Fir-Noy. "I won"t stand for this, Shoka land or no."
The Bailiff turned to Talen. "This is the last time you can expect protection from your own stupidity. Apologize!"
"Yes," said Talen. "Of course." He faced the Fir-Noy and stood as tall as he could muster. "Zu, I"ve been knocked half out of my mind. I apologize. Such untruths are only given voice by fools."
"Rot," said the Fir-Noy. Then he wrenched the reins away from the Bailiff. "Your territory Lord will hear about this."
"I have no doubt," said the Bailiff.
The Bailiff turned to Talen, his pale eyes sending a trembling up Talen"s back. "There"s going to come a time, Talen, when there will be no one to hold such men back. And the Koramites will be purged. It might be already too late. Now, you to tell your da I expect him to order the Koramites in my district. I expect a.s.surances. And know this: we"ll be picking over every rock and stone. And by the Goat King"s hairy a.r.s.e, we"ll make no distinction between those who harbor hatchlings and those who practice the abominable arts. Now go."
Talen nodded. "Thank you, Zu," he said and began to push past two of the men to go back to the bridge to fetch his cart.
"Where are you going?" the Bailiff demanded.
"My cart," said Talen.
"I just gave you an order."
Talen paused. He could see no sympathy on the faces of the men. Nor was he stupid. The Bailiff had just stood up for him, and Talen wasn"t going to throw that back in his face. He"d simply have to come back for the cart and baskets later and hope n.o.body had stolen them.
"Directly home," said Talen, changing his course. "That"s where I"m going."
The Bailiff only looked at him with those pale eyes.
Talen walked across the field toward the trail. He hurt all over, but he could walk. He could breathe. And that was something to be thankful for. He remembered the peppercorns and felt to make sure bag was still hanging from his neck. They were still there, and that too was something to be thankful for.
As he departed he heard the Bailiff lecturing his men, but he was so rattled he couldn"t focus on what the man was saying.
Talen crossed the fence and walked out onto the trail that led back to his home. The wood rose up in front of him. That rotted Fir-Noy said the hatchlings had been seen in this district. If Talen were running, the woods is where he would go. But he couldn"t imagine they would be here. Not right here. Of all the miles upon miles of woodland available, why would the sleth hatchlings choose this little section of the district right here in front of him? The chances were so remote that it wasn"t worth thinking about. But his heart wasn"t listening to his mind. It was said sleth needed to feed often on the Fire of other men. And a lone stripling walking in the cover of a thick wood was a perfect target.
Furthermore, sleth never came alone. There was always a big nest of them. So it was likely there were more than this one family, which meant there were probably adults, full of the dark art, looking for those hatchlings as well.
And even if the sleth didn"t find him, then there were the bounty hunters the Bailiff had mentioned. Only the fiercest of men took it upon themselves to hunt sleth. And because these sleth had been found among Koramites, the hunters would suspect every Koramite they came across, and he did not want to fall into their hands for questioning.
He glanced at the Bailiff and the men making their way back towards the village and shook his head. Mobs and monsters! Being chased about by Ke and River now seemed a pretty thing.
He faced the woods again. He didn"t have much choice. Besides, even if someone were waiting behind a bend in ambush, standing here like a coward wasn"t going to improve his odds.
He searched the ground for a st.u.r.dy stick and a few good throwing stones, and then Talen entered the wood.
He made a firm resolve not to run, but the farther he got into the dark, old wood, the more he felt like a fat worm sinking on a hook into the water.
A fat worm that had already been worked over. He catalogued his pains. There were two spots on his head that hurt to touch them. There was his eye that was now almost swollen shut. His ribs smarted. His kidneys, he was sure, had been abused. Lords, even his toes protested. He looked down, saw a smart bruise on his left foot and realized someone must have stomped it.
But these were physical pains. They would heal. At least, he hoped they would, especially the blows to his brain. The sleth, on the other hand, were different. And he couldn"t tell what would be worse: to be taken by the Bone Faces and forced into a nine-fingered enslavement or to be kept in storage like a living carca.s.s, to be feasted upon or twisted into something unnatural. At least with the Bone Faces he"d die a man.
And how could he follow the Baliff"s suggestion and bring in the hatchlings, the children of these sleth? A proper sleth hunt required one hundred men. It required a Divine. What could one runt do?
If he had his bow, he might be able to do something. That is if the sleth didn"t know the arrow was coming. He"d heard once at an ale house that sleth could whisper to arrows, but Talen didn"t believe that. It didn"t matter anyway because he didn"t have his bow. He was defenseless but for the stick and cl.u.s.ter of stones he held in his hands. The thing to do now was get back to Da and the others as quickly as he could and alert them.
The distinct thock of a branch breaking sounded off to his right followed by a squirrel chittering a warning. Talen took another step and heard footfalls.
His heart leapt up into his throat. Something was in these woods, but he told himself the sound was from nothing more than a falling branch. He told himself to stand upright and walk like a man. He tried to act calm-the last thing prey should do is act like prey.
Then came a grunt and high keening, something moving toward him, scuffling through the leaves on the forest floor.
You are not prey, he told himself, you are not prey, but he quickened his step nevertheless. Something dark flashed in the corner of his eye. He began to jog and swore something immediately moved toward him. He turned and it hid behind the trunk of a tree. The hairs on the back of his neck rose, and the only thing he could think was run!