She laughed, deep and throaty. “But I am a prophet of Selu! Do you wish to bring bad luck upon yourselves and your families?”

The man scowled. “Get out of here.”

Iltani squinted and leaned toward him. “I knew you would say that. The evil Alani whispers all sorts of things in my ear, like what you think about laaaaaate at night when noooooobody else is around.” She waggled a finger at him. “You naughty boy.”

His eyes popped open in shock. “Get out of here, I said. Go!”

Iltani tapped the donkey with the reins, but he balked, recognizing an order when he heard one. She sighed dramatically and smacked the donkey’s behind with her hand. The beast wheezed and hotfooted it forward toward the men. She yanked the reins when we were in spitting distance. All four trained their arrows on our chests, and two circled back behind the cart, eyeballing the contents.

“Fine gentlemen, won’t you let us in and spare yourselves some bad luck? We’re simply two prophets earning coin to eat. We won’t stay longer than a day.”

“Let me see who is under the veil.”

My heart banged behind my rib cage, and I dug my fingers into Iltani’s arm.

“Sadly, this one was kicked in the head by a horse as a wee babe, and now tells fortunes with eyes that are permanently crossed. We only veiled her to spare you from having to gaze upon her hideous face.”

Oh great.

“Remove the veil anyway.”

“Ah, someone who doesn’t mind a little bit of a thrill. Well? As you wish.” She yanked the veil from my head in a flourish. I crossed my eyes and looked in the man’s direction, and Iltani nearly choked. Quickly, she threw the veil back over my head with a cough. “See? A tragedy.”

“Yaryk,” one of the guardsmen called from behind the cart. “They’ve got a body. And it stinks.”

The older guardsman stared hard at us and tightened his grip on his bow. “What reason do you have bringing a corpse into the city?”

At that, Iltani stood, violently shaking the cart. “I warn you, guardsmen. Do not go near the body of my deceased husband. He has been cursed! I have to bathe him thrice in waters from the Alu well, or the entire city will go up in flames.”

The guardsmen backed slowly away from Dagan.

All but one.

He kept his arrow trained on the sack enshrouding his body.

Please don’t move, my love. Please.

“Is that so?” The guardsman stepped closer. A mere twenty handsbreadths away.

“It is, sir, it is!”

But before either one of us could stop him, he fired his arrow into the burlap sack.

No!

“Oh well, now you have done it!” Iltani shrieked, panic on her face. I clutched her hand. “You have awakened the wrath of the gods for violating a dead man. Especially one who is cursed! Now his curse will spill out on you unless I reverse it in the sacred Alu waters!”