Nallo had never felt much allegiance to the gods because the gods had never been particularly kind to her, and because most of their priests were buffoons. Even the Thunderer’s ordinands she’d spent her year’s apprenticeship with had been self-important imbeciles, or tiresome bullies, or bored slackards going through the motions. Only the Merciless One had shown her kindness. She’d been welcomed into the arms of Ushara, the Merciless One, at her temple in Old Cross. Many a youth went there at the age of choosing, wearing a necklace of flowers, and was sweetly introduced to the embrace of the goddess. She held those tender memories close. She owed a debt to the Merciless One.

“We saw them down at Candra Crossing.”

“Nallo! How could you!”

He glanced at Avisha, curious at her outburst.

Nallo continued. “They did us a good turn, helped us across the ford with the little ones. Otherwise we might not have made it. We didn’t realize they were runaway slaves until after we had crossed.”

“How did you find out?”

“I overheard them talking. So they went their way, and we went ours. They must be days ahead of us. They had horses.”

“Many refugees walk the roads in troubled times.”

“He had the debt mark by his eye. Her name was Zubaidit.”

His eyes flared. Then he smiled. “That’s right. They were traveling on this track?”

“They walked the road out of Candra Crossing that leads into the Soha Hills. We walked that road for a few days, but I thought it would be safer to stay away from the main road.”

“You were right to do so. These outlaws are running scared. They’ve attacked villages and done worse.”

“Then we’d be foolish to keep traveling rather than taking an offer of shelter. The outlanders you’re hunting with, they can’t possibly kill all the outlaws, can they?”

“No.”

No decision she made now could possibly be a good decision, only the least bad decision. Although the reeve glanced now and again at the sky, and at his eagle, he otherwise showed no sign he was impatient to go. “How do we know we can trust you?”

He winced, just a little, and laughed, just a little. “Once, you would have trusted me simply because I was a reeve. But we no longer live in those days, do we? You must know that Tohon and his company could have done what they wished to you. I have an eagle at my back and companions aloft, watching for trouble. So either we are telling the truth, or we are more deceitful than you have yet imagined, devising a sport in which we lure you into trusting us only to abuse you later.”

He twisted to take a long look at his eagle, a watchful bird with a noticeable scar. Then he walked down the path and made a quick circuit of the corpses, pausing to study the sprawl of limbs, the trajectory of blood as it had spattered, the cuts and gouges, the manner in which each man had met his death. Circling back, he halted in front of Nallo. With his gaze narrowed, he looked much less friendly. She stood her ground.