“Enemies!” The merchant nearly squeaked. “There is no war—there are no enemies—you—it can’t be treason—” That last in a wail. Arcolin looked down from his horse until the merchant collapsed in a heap, shaking. Then he dismounted, drew his sword, and walked over to the wretch.

“You know I could kill you here, and tell them in Cortes Vonja I executed a traitor and they would give me gold.”

“Please … I have a family …”

“Then, for your family’s sake, tell the truth. Who hired you to bring these things here in secret?”

“I—I can’t. He’ll kill me; he’ll kill us all.”

“That may be,” Arcolin said. “But I will surely kill you if you do not. You follow Simyits, do you not?”

“Y-yes.”

“Then chance comes as it comes. Your chance now is life, if you tell me who hired you, or certain death, if you do not. What does Simyits say about chance?”

“It was by following chance that I ended here,” the merchant said, raising a tear-stained face.

“You could always change your allegiance and choose a better god,” Arcolin said. “There are many.”

“Don’t let them hear,” the man said. He looked at the villagers. “Make them go away.”

“Why? Is one of them a spy who will tell your master?”

“It could be. Please … I will tell you, but not here.”

“Get him up,” Arcolin said. Two of the soldiers pulled the merchant to his feet and half dragged him away, closer to the cohort. “Now,” he said to the merchant.

“The Duke,” the merchant said. “The new Duke of Immer.”

“Alured, you mean,” Arcolin said. “Once pirate, then brigand, now Duke?”

“Who’s your assistant? Your choice or his?”

“My nephew Harn. I wanted my son, but he—the Duke—has my son hostage. Harn isn’t … he isn’t very smart, sir. Captain.”

“When were you due at the Guild Merchants’ Hall?”

“A hand of days, sir.”

“Where did you offload the supplies to the brigands?”

“Next village north, sir. Well, just south of it. There’s a sort of old barn there, and a thicket grown up around it. We camp there overnight; they come and take their supplies. They’re honest, at least; I’ve never lost a thing to them, though I take my hard coin into the village and have dinner with the headman and leave them to it.”

“How often do you come through with supplies?”

“Me? Three times a year: Sibili to Cortes Vonja, Cortes Vonja to Sorellin, then down the Immerhoft Vale to the coast, Aliuna or Immerdzan, then west to Sibili. But there’s others, I was told. I don’t know who they are.” He looked back at the wagons and villagers then lowered his voice even more. “Look here, Captain—I’ll give you every coin I have, I swear, if you’ll only let me go …”

“After the village has seen what you carry and what we would be letting go by—do you think that secret would last?”

“Last long enough for me to get home and take my family away, aye.”