She was boiling now, remembering the way her father had turned away with relief at finally being rid of her. “I didn’t even get to meet him beforehand. No one asked if it was what I wanted.”

“Was he cruel?” asked Arda suddenly. “Did he mistreat you?”

Volias pushed the cup closer to Nallo and removed his hand.

“No. He was a good man.” She picked up the cup and gulped down the cordial, glad of how the spicy aftertaste burned her mouth and made her eyes water. “The truth is, he got the worse part of the bargain, but he never said one word in complaint.”

“Ah,” murmured Volias.

“Ah! What’s that mean?”

“The hells! Just a way of making noise come out my throat. No need to rip my head off.” As soon as the words were out of his mouth, he winced.

“A smooth talker,” said Arda, “which accounts for his success with women.”

Nallo said, “Tumna killed her reeve.”

“Yes,” said Volias. “And from everything I hear, he’d earned death. I am not a good man, not like your dead husband, may he rest beyond the Spirit Gate. But I do not fear Trouble.”

“These days everyone fears trouble,” said Nallo tartly.

“No, I mean, my eagle. Her name is Trouble. Now I admit she is a particularly good-natured bird, besides being as everyone acknowledges the most beautiful eagle known to be alive in the entire Hundred.”

Nallo laughed. “You’re boasting.”

Arda sighed.

“It is not boasting if it is true. Like that Qin captain. You have to admit his wife is a lovely creature.”

“I never saw her,” said Nallo, thinking of Avisha and the children, and finding another tear on her cheek.

“And by all accounts a canny merchant,” added Arda, “capable of twisting the knife with a smile and a compliment that makes you not even feel the pain. I think what Volias is saying is that no one could believe Trouble chose him when she could have had her pick of any decent person.”

Volias grinned, and Nallo saw that he cared nothing for what people said about him and Trouble, because he had her, and they didn’t. “Listen, Nallo. As I said, I have a proposition. I’m taking Pil back to Clan Hall to get his training. You come, too. Then you’re away from all this, and you can make up your own mind. I admit that Arda is the best trainer we’ve got, but Ofri’s experienced and cursed mellow, and a good man, for that matter.”

Arda propped her chin on a hand as she examined Volias with a frown. “What’s your angle?”

He wasn’t a handsome man, but when he wasn’t sneering, he had a nice face. “Get her away from Joss. He’s the one who put her back up.”

“You two must give up your feud. It bores the rest of us.”

He turned a shoulder to Arda and fixed so warm a gaze on Nallo that she tried another swallow just to get the cup between her and his face. Arda reached across the table and patted Nallo’s other wrist, stroking it teas-ingly, and Nallo shifted, feeling in that touch a promise that pleased her.