The two who had been rude grumbled.

The third man shook his head. “Where are you going with all these children?”

“We were ordered to get them out of the area.”

“Who ordered you?” demanded the first man, anxious to show he could be a hard-ass.

“Shut up,” said the third man to his comrade. “I remember you lot. You in particular.” He looked Eridit up and down, and Shai found that he’d closed a hand into a fist. Yudit patted him on the elbow, like calming a tense dog. “You lot crossed eight or ten days ago, neh?”

“Can’t get buyers for what we’re trying to sell, can we?” she said with a smirk.

The first two men looked at each other, frowning as they considered the insinuation in her words, while the third man grimaced. “Sheh! Are you saying—? Most of those kids aren’t old enough—Eiya! People like you ought to be hanged up on a post, eh? I’ve got little sisters and brothers, eh? Haven’t you any shame?”

“Those with plenty of coin don’t need to bow before shame, eh? And we’ve got coin for the fare, don’t we? Now just shut up and let us cross.”

“What if I won’t let you pass, you cursed foul degenerate—”

Down at the platform, the winch-turners had stirred from their cots, rising to get a look at the commotion. Wagon wheels ground on paving stones, and a wagon appeared out of the gloom lit by a lamp swaying on a pole. Ladon and Veras had arrived just in time.

Curiously, a slender man of mature years, not yet elderly, strode alongside the wagon, chattering in the most inanely cheerful manner. He wore a long cloak against the expected rains, and the garb Shai had come to recognize as typical of the priests known as envoys of the god Ilu.

“—then I said to him, ‘Ver, death’s wolves aren’t greedy. They only eat when they’re hungry, not like the wolves among men.’ I was speaking, of course, of the Sirniakan toll collectors, who I will tell you charged me double and triple only because I was a foreigner in their lands! Outrageous!” As the wagon rattled to a halt, the envoy smiled at the guardsmen. “Greetings of the dusk, my friends. What’s this? A full raft for the twilight pull, eh? Good fortune for those who collect the toll.”

The guards took a step back, and the children shrank against each other. Eridit expelled a hot gasp, as though she’d just been insulted, and Ladon and Veras—the idiots—sat like nimwits on the box of the wagon, struck to silence. The big raft bumped gently at the dock. From the shelter of the platform, the winch-turners stared. No one moved.

Shai trotted forward, pushing right up to the guards. “We’re in a hurry, ver. And I’d sooner piss on you than listen to you tell me what you think of our business. You want to fight? Call out your fellows, and let’s fight, eh?”