Servant of a Dark God (25 page)

“I didn’t sleep,” he said.

“Even so,” she said. “If that’s what we were, it would have been the perfect time, would it not?”

He said nothing, but she could see the wheels of his mind turning, see him weighing her, weighing the situation.

At last, he said, “That’s the line,” and pointed at the edge of the table where Legs sat. “Come across, and my arrows fly.”

She exhaled and realized she’d been holding her breath. But his decision didn’t mean they were safe. She needed to have another plan to neutralize that bow. He might be quick with it. But a bow was a hard weapon to wield in close spaces. A knife was much better in this situation.

She turned so the knife sheathed at her waist was hidden from his view. She ran one hand through her hair and with the other she removed the loop that held the knife in the sheath. She and Legs were going to get out of here. Her mother had told her to take Legs and ride. She should have disobeyed her mother before and fought. But now she’d make up for that. She’d take Legs and stow him in a safe place. And then what? How could she, of all people, rescue Mother?

But that wasn’t important right now. Right now she had to figure out how to deal with this boy. And what if hunters came? It would not do to have them find him sitting there guarding her and Legs. That was not how you treated a visitor. She began to clean up the breakfast dishes. Began to tidy and let her mind work. The first thing she noticed was that he’d placed himself in the wrong part of the house.

“You cannot look out of the windows from where you’re sitting.” When he didn’t respond, she said, “You can’t watch for hunters from that side of the room.”

“You look out the windows and watch for hunters. I’m watching you.”

She nodded in acquiescence. That meant she wouldn’t retreat to the cellar. She didn’t want to do that anyway. If Talen should change his mind, she didn’t want to be caught like a fish in a barrel.

Legs stepped toward Sugar with his hands out. When he found her, he felt for her hand. “Should I go down?” he asked.

It would probably be best. That way she wouldn’t have to worry about him should the situation change. But she didn’t want him to sit down there alone thinking about what she’d just revealed. He needed to know she was strong. That things would be all right. At least that’s what she told herself.

“Stand with me,” she said, “and smell the morning coming in through the windows. We’ll visit the potatoes soon enough.”

The shutters by the dining table looked out over the farm. She pulled them completely open then walked to the the back of the house and opened the shutters on the window there so she had a view of the river.

After a few moments Legs began to hum one of the songs he’d often sang to entertain the men and women of Plum village in the evenings as they sat drinking their ale. It was the one about a stupid boy trying to outsmart a gang of crows. She smiled. Perhaps it was she who needed him.

Legs sang another few songs, then he stopped, and Sugar could see he was thinking. A few minutes later he began again. A half an hour must have passed that way, Legs humming or singing, stopping to think, singing again, all while Sugar tidied up, first breakfast, then the floor, always keeping an eye on the windows. And across from them, Talen sat with his bow at the ready.

Sugar ran through a number of scenarios. She knew if Talen changed he mind and decided to use his bow, that she would pick up a chair as a shield and charge him. He’d only get off one shot that way. It would pierce her body or it wouldn’t. And if it didn’t, then she’d be in close with her knife. However, that wouldn’t solve any issues should hunters show up. They needed to seem friends, and that would never happen with him holding the bow.

She finished the floor, cleaned the ashes from the hearth and put them in the tin ash bucket, then took a good long look out the window. Nettle worked in the distance.

Talen spoke. “What kind of a name is Legs anyway? It’s not like he’s tall for his age. I can’t imagine he’s quick either.”

“No, Zu,” said Legs. “It’s rather hard to be speedy when you can’t see where you’re going.”

Talen looked surprised that Legs had talked. Sugar herself was a bit surprised, but she knew the tone in his voice. He’d made up his mind about something. This was him wanting to make a point.

“Legs,” said Sugar in warning.

“So that means it would be a bit difficult for me to catch and eat you.”

Talen raised his eyebrows. “What’s he going on about?”

“I’m just pointing out the obvious,” said Legs. “And you can talk to me directly if you want. I’m not deaf.”

Talen stood. “Maybe I don’t like the way your eyes slide around.”

“Sorry, Zu,” said Legs. His eyes had been sliding and he closed his lids. “I know all the stories about Sleth. I’ve sung all the songs. I’ve been thinking about them. And you’d expect if my mother had the powers she’s accused of, she would have given me my sight. Why wouldn’t she have done that?”

“What do I know about your mother’s Slethy ways? Ask her yourself when they put you in the tower.”

“It’s because she’s not,” said Legs.

Sugar wished she had Legs’s confidence. But she didn’t want him to provoke Talen further. “Legs,” she said. “We didn’t answer his question.” She turned to Talen. “It’s his nickname. He was born legs first.”

Sugar didn’t tell him that the midwife had said when Legs’s feet first appeared, he’d pulled them back from the cool air in the room and refused to come out. The first time she’d heard that as a girl, she’d laughed and laughed. She had made her mother tell it again and again. The memory of that happy time seemed so far away, so unreal, as if it weren’t true at all, but only a story.

“I think I want to go down now,” said Legs.

“Yes,” she said. “I think that’s a good idea.” And who knew what he’d say next? Lords forbid, but he’d probably try to tweak Talen with some comment about him taking care of Legs’s business earlier.

Legs walked to her, hand in front feeling the way. She took his hand and led him to the cellar door.

When the door was up, Legs turned to her. “I don’t care,” he said under his breath. And she knew he meant he didn’t care even if Mother were Sleth.

“Neither do I,” she agreed, but that was a lie. She did care.

Legs descended the stairs into the darkness with the potatoes. She found leaving the cellar door open put her on edge. Not everyone had such a cellar built into the floor. Many were outside the kitchen. She could see how having it in the kitchen would be handy, and it was not in the way, but she was not used to working so close to such a hole, so she shut the door.

She turned back to the window and knew she couldn’t stand there doing nothing while Talen watched her. “You can hardly make a lunch over there,” she said. “I will make us something to go with that fish. Can you tell me if your sister keeps any savory?”

Talen hesitated. She expected him to say something about poisoning the food, but he didn’t. He pointed at a cupboard. “It’s in there.”

“Thank you,” said Sugar and began washing and cutting vegetables.

When she finished with the vegetables, she found what she needed to make flat cakes. She had her hands in the flour when she glanced out the back window and saw half a dozen Mokaddians wearing leather cuirasses and helms crouching at the top of the riverbank.

Her heart jumped.

A handful of them broke off and approached the house, crouching low as they walked.

These were not Fir-Noy. At least they did not wear the Fir-Noy colors. She couldn’t tell from this distance, but it appeared their wrist tattoos were those of the Shoka. But it didn’t matter—Shoka or Fir-Noy, they were still Mokaddians, still sneaking up on the house.

She drew back from the window so they wouldn’t see her.

From her angle of view she saw the first man run up to the house and take his position at the corner.

She couldn’t catch her breath. The moment she’d been dreading had come and found her making flat cakes. All her mother and father had suffered to give them a chance to escape would now go to waste.

But that couldn’t happen. She wouldn’t let it happen. She didn’t have time to open the door to the cellar, descend, and close it up again.

She looked out the front window and saw nothing but Nettle working the field in the distance.

She whirled round and faced Talen. “Hunters,” she whispered.

Talen had been leaning against the wall in his chair, balancing it on two of its legs. He came away from the wall and brought all four legs to the ground.

She motioned with her head towards the river. He needed to put that bow down. If he had truly been guarding against something in the woods, then he would have been outside. Both of them would be. They needed to appear to be friends. No, they needed to appear to be more than friends. It would have been better if Ke had been sitting there, but Talen would have to do. She only prayed he wasn’t a fool.

She could not speak, not if she didn’t want to alert the man outside, so she hastened across the floor toward Talen. He must have seen the alarm in her face because he stood and looked with worry to the windows.

One, two, four steps, and she crossed the line he’d drawn. He began to raise the bow, but either his fear had paralyzed him or he wasn’t a fool after all because he allowed her to come right up to him, grab the wrist of the hand that held the bow, and whisper into his ear.

“They’re outside,” she said.

“Fir-Noy?”

“I’m going to sit on your lap,” she said. “Like a lover.” Then she pushed him back into his chair.

Talen’s eyes were round with alarm. He clenched the bow.

She pushed the bow away and settled on him. “Put the bow down,” she whispered. “Put your arm around me.”

He was frozen.

“I am your girl from Koramtown,” she whispered. “I’m visiting.”

Something rustled along the outside of the house. He turned his head toward the sound. He reached back and leaned the bow against the wall, but he didn’t let go.

She raised his free hand to her ribs.

“I’m Lily,” she said.

“What?”

“Lily,” she repeated. “The daughter of Ham, a farmer, living just the other side—”

She could hear a man at the door, and from the corner of her eye she saw the shadow of someone take position by the open shutter. She immediately dipped her mouth to meet Talen’s. She’d kissed boys before. None of the Mokaddians in her village. Her mother had made sure they traveled to Koramtown regularly, more often this last year since Sugar was soon to be of age for marriage negotiations. She closed her eyes and cupped his head with her free, flour-dusted hand.

Talen sat as stiff as a piece of furniture. She opened her eyes and found him staring at her, his eyeballs big as her face. It was like finding a large caterpillar on the end of your nose.

More men gathered outside the door.

“The bow,” she said midkiss, “drop the bow.” His mouth was parted in shock, frozen open like the stone of a statue. She had stolen her share of kisses from Koramtown boys, and this one wouldn’t fool anybody. She flickered the tip of her tongue inside his mouth. Maybe that would bring him around.

The bow and arrows clattered to the floor. And to Talen’s credit he tried to move his lips. They were dry, and the whole thing smelled of the morning’s sausage, but he acted. Of course, she didn’t think either of their performances would be enough.

Then someone tried to force the door.

“You there,” said a man, looking in at them from the window. “Open that door!”

Talen shot up like a flushed animal and dumped Sugar to the floor. She was still getting up when he swung the door wide.

Three men pushed in, weapons bristling: a young one in front with half of his teeth missing and two older men behind. Before Sugar could move, the young one stuck the point of his sword inches from Talen’s neck. “You,” he said. “Where’s your father?”

“He was summoned to Whitecliff,” said Talen.

“We should have known your family would cause problems,” he said.

A man with eyes like ice appeared behind the three that stood in the doorway. “Put the sword down,” he said.

Sugar did not know him, but from his clothing, she suspected he was the bailiff. “Talen,” he said. “I told your da to order the Koramites in the district. I wanted them calm. Instead, I get reports of all sorts of things happening here last night.”

Sugar froze. Had someone seen Talen rousting them out from underneath the old house? They’d heard voices in the night, but they’d been in the distance. And what if Talen decided to turn on her and Legs? He was half convinced she was Sleth already.

It had been a mistake to stay. She should have taken Legs and run. They could have hidden in the woods somewhere until dark fell. Now it was too late.

“Why did you have to provoke the Fir-Noy?” asked the bailiff.

Talen said nothing. He stood there like a scarecrow.

The bailiff looked from Talen to Sugar and back again. “Who’s this?”

“Nobody,” said Talen.

“Nobody?” asked the bailiff.

“Zu,” said Sugar, “I’m Lily from Koramtown.”

“And why did you bar the door in the middle of the morning?”

Talen said nothing, just stood there with his mouth open.

“We . . .” said Sugar and looked down. That’s what she supposed someone caught in a forbidden embrace would do. She hoped she hadn’t hung her head too quickly.

“Speak up!” said the bailiff.

“We were,” Talen said. He looked as if he’d swallowed a chicken whole. “Sporting.”

“While the father is away,” said the bailiff. He shook his head and looked around the room. “You and your altercations with those Fir-Noy armsmen have caused me a bit of work. I’ve been ordered by the Shoka lords to conduct a personal search of every Koramite homestead in my district.”

“I am sorry, Zu,” said Talen.

“Look at me,” said the bailiff. “What are you hiding?”

Talen’s eyes were wide with fear. If anyone was going to give them away, it would be him. “Nothing, Zu. Nothing.”

The bailiff shook his head. “Of course not.” He signaled to his men to search the house. “I need something to drink.”