somehow to vanish. It cannot be harmed by normal means.”
The bailiff looked down at Sugar.
“What’s more,” said Hogan, “if it’s taken her, then I suspect it most certainly has the two hatchlings that escaped.”
The bailiff nodded. “We’re done here.”
He called his men off, and as suddenly as they’d come, they left.
Sugar whispered to Legs to stay put then she walked back up the stairs.
Hogan, Talen, and Nettle stood out in the yard. She joined them to watch the bailiff and his men walk back to the woods where they’d tied their horses.
“Do you think he suspects?” asked Nettle.
“No,” said Zu Hogan. “Although I do wonder how he missed marking Sugar.”
“We created a ruse,” said Talen.
“Oh?”
“We were . . .”
“Yes?”
“Sporting,” finished Sugar.
Nettle raised an eyebrow, but Zu Hogan looked down at her with a sad smile. “Purity’s daughter indeed,” he said.
What that meant, she could not tell. But she could guess what he was thinking. Her mother was a monster. So what did you do with the child of a monster? Sugar knew the answer to that question.
She also knew her mother. There would be an explanation if she could talk to her. There had to be.
About a quarter mile down the road from Hogan’s place, the bailiff halted the men. Prunes reined in his horse with the rest of them.
“I’ve been commanded to post a watch on Hogan,” said the bailiff. “So two of you are going to stay behind. Prunes, you and Gid will have the first day. I’ll send someone to relieve you in the morning.”
That was just Prunes’s luck. He gets an opportunity to sleep, but he has to do it with that garlic-eater at his side. Still, some rest was better than none at all. Prunes simply nodded then peeled his horse from the column, Gid following behind.
They hobbled their horses in a small glen on the far side of the hill and began hiking to find the right position to watch the Koramite.
A few steps up the slope and Gid began to sing under his breath. “A lady green with lips so wide, I could not help but kiss her. But when I’d had my fill of tongue, I put her in the roaster.”
“Will you shut up,” said Prunes.
“They’re not going to hear us.”
“I don’t care if they do hear us. We’re not going to find anything here.”
“How do you mean?”
“This is Captain Argoth’s brother-in-law. We’re not going to find anything here but some rest. And that’s what I intend to take. And that is also why you’re going to be quiet as a mouse.”
“You don’t know what loyalties flow in that Koramite’s veins,” said Gid. “In fact, for a Koramite on the run, this might be the very best place to hide.”
“See,” said Prunes, “that’s what comes of eating too much garlic. You get brain vapors.”
“It’s got nothing to do with what I eat.”
“Stinking vapors of the mind,” said Prunes.
Gid made a rude gesture, but Prunes ignored it.
Soon they found an outcropping of rock that gave a clear view of the farm, then positioned themselves just behind the brush line.
As soon as they sat down, Gid took out a whetstone and began sharpening his knife.
Stupid eager—that’s what he was. If Sleth did indeed pay the Koramite a visit, then they’d need more than knives. Goh, the Koramite’s reports of that creature in Whitecliff gave Prunes the shivers. And if that thing showed up, the best thing to do would be to run. Run or hide in some hole. Then Prunes realized he’d sat in the wrong place. “You need to sit over here,” said Prunes.
“Why?”
“Because that places me upwind of your stinking carcass.”
But Gid gave him a look that said he wasn’t moving. After a few moments, Prunes sighed in irritation. The man was an affliction, but it wasn’t worth a battle. He picked himself up and found a better spot. “You’ve got first watch,” said Prunes. “If I catch you sleeping, you’re going to dance to a hard pipe.”
Gid grunted. “And who do you think will be my partner?”
But Prunes had already laid back and closed his eyes and wasn’t even going to consider giving Gid an answer.
SUMMONS
T
alen stood in the house, facing his father who had just related the events at the Whitecliff fortress the night before. Da’s face was bruised from when the creature had knocked him aside. His throat was worse. It looked like he wore a blue-and-purple collar. The creature had throttled him and damaged his voice. When he