"Is it?"

"These poor folk! Swindlers and beggars and whores and thieves and murderers, each one of them. We had to drive them out of Autun because they made so much trouble. Now they camp here and trouble honest travelers on the road and honest farmers in the fields. That brat is the bastard of some bitch who sold herself to any man who would pay. No one will miss him. Look!"

The sergeant's gesture encompassed the entire squalid encampment, now burning. Beyond, Alain saw a flash of movement out among the trees. Someone was watching from a hiding place.

"Maybe he's got no mother. Maybe she died. No one wanted him. They just left him here. What will you do with a filthy creature like that who has no kinfolk to take care of him? He's better off dead. Can you say otherwise?"

"Do you mean to take God's place and judge the worth of the soul of another human creature? We are all equal in the sight of God."

"Are you a frater? With that beard? What matter, anyway? Who has bread for an orphan child? I don't."

"What of the lady who rules in Autun? Doesn't she feed the poor, as is her duty?"

The sergeant's amused expression soured. He beckoned to his men. "Let's go. We've driven them out."

"For today," said Alain. "Won't they come back? Where else have they to go?"

The sergeant turned his attention elsewhere. "What about you?" he said, indicating Atto. "Why didn't you run?"

"I'm nothing to do with the ones who were camping here," said Atto. Mara huddled beside him. "I come from my village to join the milites in Autun. I heard the lady seeks soldiers."

"Hoo! Ho!" Some of the soldiers jeered. "A country boy come to swing his spear in the town!"

Flames eating through a heaped mattress of dry leaf litter caught in a length of canvas and blazed. Elsewhere, fires ebbed down to glow as they lost hold of good fuel.

"We share and share alike," said the sergeant. "How about your girl? Or is she your sister?"

"My betrothed," Atto said, measuring the look in their eyes and, by the expression in his own, not liking it.

The sergeant marked the hounds, who sat, and Alain, who knelt beside the silent boy. He marked the shadows out in the far trees, but it was obvious from his expression that he had no intention of striking into the woods although it would be easy to do so.

"I like the way you stand up for yourself," he said to Atto. "Can you ride?"

"I've ridden donkeys. We have no horses in my village. I'll learn."

"Maybe." The sergeant examined Mara, who shrank closer to Atto's side. "You rode that girl, I see. Come on, then. If the captain will take you, maybe he'll set you up in the guard. They need men to police the streets and man the gates. Lots of beggars these days causing trouble when we don't have enough food for those who deserve it." He lifted his chin defiantly as he looked at Alain, as if daring him to contradict his judgment, but Alain only watched him, waiting to see what he would do next. He gestured, and his men fell into ranks for the ride back.