Yohan’s squat was deeper, his fists were huge, and his guard was impenetrable.
They wove on swaying, trading feints, taking each other’s measure until Yohan announced: “You’re a waste of my good time, Just-Plain Pavek.”
The dwarf retreated, brushing one foot along the ground in a reverse arc as he spoke. The level of his fists and shoulders remained constant; no targets flashed before Pavek’s eyes to draw a foolish attack.
“I’ve tried to befriend you here. You’ve got a few good qualities, but they’re worthless because you’re the lying sort. I don’t keep honor with liars.”
Pavek accepted himself as many unsavory things, but he wasn’t a liar, at least not when it counted. “I’ve never lied to you. I’ve kept my mouth shut when I had to, and I’ve said what had to be said to keep the peace—” he thought of Ruari and the kivit poison’ “—but you know bloody well that’s not lying.”
“You lie to yourself, Pavek. You just plain lie to yourself all the rime. Yes, you’re honest with everyone else, and honorable, after a templar’s fashion. That makes it worse! You’ve got a better life here already than you ever hoped to have in Urik: Regulator of the Third Rank! Scraping from the bottom of the civil bureau barrel. Quraite would listen to you, but do you talk? Do you even listen? No! What happens, happens! Death happens, Pavek. Death is what happens to us all, but I’d like to put mine off a little while longer. What about you, Regulator Pavek? Do you want to die? Do you want Akashia to get caught on Urik’s streets? Do you want her to die in Elabon Escrissar’s interrogation chamber? Do you want to see Quraite’s fields and groves laid waste by the Lion’s pet? I’m sure Escrissar will arrange it, Just-Plain Pavek—unless you die first. But you’re not a lucky man, are you, Just-Plain Pavek? And templars don’t fight for principles, do you, Regulator Pavek? Have you seen a free village when the templars are through with it’ It’s not a pretty sight, I can promise you that, no lie there.”
“Back off,” Pavek snarled, taking his own advice. “I told you: I’m no liar and I’m no persuader, either; they’re one and the same. Last night I told Akashia what I thought. It did no good; it did worse than no good. She wouldn’t listen.”
“You gave up. You didn’t try. You walked away.”
“I told her what I thought. What more could I do?”
“Try again. Go into Grandmother’s hut right now and repeat what you said last night. Remind them both what Elabon Escrissar is and what he’ll do—”
They were four paces apart now, too far for a punch or jab, far enough to think clearly about what was happening.
He narrowed his eyes. “You know Elabon Escrissar, don’t you? From where? Where are you from, anyway? You’re no farmer. You wore a medallion and a yellow robe once yourself, didn’t you?”
Yohan frowned and shook his head. “Wondered when you’d get around to asking that question. You’ve been thinking it since that first day outside the city gate—”
“Mind-bender?”
Another shake of the head.
“You know the templarate. You know the way templars talk, the way templars think. You know Escrissar—know his type, at least. Maybe not Urik, but Raam? Tyr? Which bureau, which city?”
“No city. Not from around here at all, not that it matters. Quraite’s been my home since your grandfather was a pup. It’s what I care about, I’ve forgotten most of the rest.”
“Quraite’s your focus?”
“Maybe. Are you going into that hut now, or are you going to keep lying and running until I plow the ground with that hard skull of yours?”
Yohan pointed toward Telhami’s hut, where he’d been, unconsciously and accidentally, retreating. Through the open door, he could see the light cloth of the druids’ robes fluttering in a gentle, unnatural breeze. He couldn’t see Telhami but she was undoubtedly there, doing things the way she’d always done them. She’d gambled before with Quraite’s guardian—or so Yohan said—but the stakes were higher now that the Dragon was gone and Athas had changed.
And because the stakes had been raised to their highest, Yohan said he should speak his mind. Him: ten years in a templar orphanage, ten years a templar. He didn’t trust his own judgment. Why should anyone else?
His gut churned over: he’d drunk last night, but never eaten.
“If I did persuade them—” he said, for his own ears, not Yohan’s “—if they listen to me, and I’m wrong…