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A fourth left some while later. Bek was sure that the sun must have already set, but as she focused on listening now that the light had all but leaked away, she heard the clunk of a heavy key turning in the lock.
“Now you’re mine.” Lucia’s voice in the darkness. “All of you.”
Shortly before dawn the shutters were drawn back from the outside without ceremony or any great noise, but it proved sufficient to wake Bek. Einsa’s snoring identified her in the next bed. As dawn’s grey fingers tested the night, Bek raised her head. She could see that Mollandra was also sleeping.
Grinding her teeth, Bek slipped from her bed and went to poke the child awake.
“Ssssh. Sit up. Don’t tell Einsa.”
Bek returned to her bed on quiet feet, followed by suspicious eyes both from the allegedly sleeping and those set to watch over other groups.
The light increased. Bek kept her place. She had no clothes to change into, no water to wash with, and until they unlocked the door the fact that she didn’t know how to find the breakfast hall wasn’t relevant.
Finally, a girl near the front stood up and tried the door. It had been unlocked without anybody noticing.
A mass migration towards the exit roused Einsa from what was a remarkably deep sleep given the circumstances.
“Come on.” Bek joined the exodus, Mollandra trailing her.
She turned at the door to wait for Einsa and they were among the last to leave.
Despite their fears only one girl had died in the night. She made a conspicuously large lump in the centremost bed. Lucia’s head hung slightly past the top end of the cot, the discolouration of her face visible even in the gloom, as was the strip of cloth that had been used to throttle her.
6
Rue
The mercenaries’ leader stepped back, silently applauding Rue while Tabtha howled, clutching her leg and scattering chairs.
“Stop wailing, woman!” he barked. “Jeron, get her leg bound.”
“My wrist—”
“Just stop her bleeding. And if she won’t shut up, bandage her mouth too.” All the while he kept his eyes on Rue. The overlarge brothers in leather caps had come to stand at his shoulders while two men and the company’s other woman brought Tabtha crashing down into a chair, still pouring crimson.
Soosa Smith looked more terrified than when Rue had come in, and now she seemed just as scared of Rue as she was of the rest of them.
Isik rubbed his narrow jaw, fixing Rue with a shrewd stare, his glance dropping briefly to the bloody knife in her fist. “First Hobb out in the street, then Rakkar—though to be fair he was an idiot and was going to end up dead sooner rather than later—and now Tabtha. I have to say I didn’t think I’d see anyone get the best of her. Certainly not in some dirt village out in the wilds. What are we going to do with you, Grandmother?”
“I’m here for Ambeth Potter and Jayne Clay.” Rue’s words came out roughly formed, her broken jaw refusing to shape them properly.
Isik glanced left and right in amazement, the thugs gathered under his command returning his confusion. “Who the fuck are Ammath—”
“Ambeth.”
“I don’t give a shit.”
It hurt to speak, almost more than it hurt to stand. Somehow nearly a dozen pairs of hostile eyes helped keep her upright. “You’ll tell me who ordered the attack on Stones Corner, and if it wasn’t you, I’ll leave you to go about your business.”
That provoked a scattering of rough laughter, drowning out Tabtha’s grunts of pain. Isik, however, only looked more confused.
“Wait, that’s not Ammeth?” He pointed at Soosa Smith, who sat frozen in her spot, eyes impossibly wide, a small trickle of blood running from one nostril.
“Ambeth. No. Ambeth and Jayne were both over seventy summers. I’m here for an account of their deaths. Tell me who ordered the attack on—”
“On Stones Corner. I get it. And what if it was me?” Isik grinned without humour, showing narrow teeth in surprisingly good condition for someone in his line of work.
“If it was you, then I’ll kill just you. Nobody else has to die.” Rue hesitated before adding reluctantly, “Or you could pay the wergild. It’s seven ounces of gold.”
