“That’s horse trope,” Cropper said. “I saw you. You drew your bow first, Shaden. You were gonna shoot us down and steal it.”
Thealos ignored the comment. He focused on Tannon. “Either I’m a poor aim, or I didn’t mean to kill anyone here tonight.” He knew what the humans thought of the Shae. He had to talk quickly to dispel Cropper’s first impression. “I did get an arrow off,” he continued, nodding towards the fire. “It’s pretty obvious you’re the leader, Tannon. If I’d wanted to harm your group, I wouldn’t have missed you.”
Tannon rubbed his mouth. “He’s got a point.”
“We should just kill him and dump him in the river,” Cropper said offhandedly. It was said in such dispassionate tones that Thealos’ skin crawled.
“Do you want to know why I came so close?” Thealos challenged.
“Because you’re a half-wit?” Tannon replied.
The young Shae shook his head slowly, ignoring the throbbing in the back of his head. Please Vannier, let them believe me. “Because I wanted to read what’s on the Wolfsman sash. That fabric I saw one of your men hold up. You can’t read it, can you?”
The wizened soldier frowned.
Thealos swallowed. “Where did you get it?”
“Don’t trust him,” Cropper warned, shuffling his legs. “He’ll trick you, Tannon. They all do.”
“He can try,” the soldier replied.
“You have the advantage here,” Thealos pleaded. “I’m trying to save my neck. So would you in my place. I’m just trying to show you that keeping me alive will be to your advantage. Can any of you read Silvan?” He looked at Cropper then. “Can’t you?”
Tannon picked up the Wolfsman’s dagger and studied it in the firelight. “How much would this fetch me in Dos-Aralon, boy?”
He grinned. “The dagger of a Crimson Wolfsman? You can’t buy one from the weaponsmith’s guild. I can’t even buy a blade like that in Avisahn. It can be worth a lot to a collector.”
The soldier captain nodded, testing the tip of the dagger with his finger.
“Dump him in the river,” Cropper said. “I hear it in his voice. This one’s a barter.”
Tannon shrugged. “I’ll decide in the morning after we’ve all talked about it. Get some sleep, boy. This might be your last chance.”
Thealos nodded. He didn’t think he would sleep at all.
*
What’s your vote, Beck, Hoth?” Tannon asked, hooking his thumbs in the wide brown belt. The Wolfsman dagger had joined the others in the brace he wore. Thealos remembered how quickly he used them. Swallowing, he glanced at the last two in Tannon’s Band who hadn’t voted yet.
Beck was the one with the sash. He fingered the fabric, gazing at the strange markings scrawled in a language he didn’t know. “I want to hear what he has to say.”
“Banned fools,” Cropper muttered, chewing on the stem of a pipe. He blew a haze of clove smoke from his lips. The smell was stale – pungent yet sugary. Smoking cloves was also Forbidden to the Shae. Thealos wanted to chuckle with the irony. His life came down to two more votes and all he could think about were the Rules of Forbiddance.
The one called Hoth sniffed and shrugged. “Kill him or don’t. It doesn’t matter to me.”
“I’ve heard that the Wolfsmen…that they can hear Shaden blood singing,” Tomn said. He was the cook, the one Thealos had startled the most with his arrow. Of all the men in their gang, he was slow, but he was grateful Thealos’ arrow had missed, and he spoke strongly to save Thealos from Cropper. He had dull green eyes. His face was grimy, but earnest. “Is that true, Shaden?”
“My name is Thealos.”
“It’s a silly myth,” Cropper snapped. He gave Thealos an angry stare. “Just another one of their lies.”
Thealos gave Tomn a deep look. “It doesn’t sing,” he answered in a steady voice, hoping their ignorance would help. “But we do know when the earth drinks our blood. Even some humans say the Earth magic sings to them.”
“So…so you could tell if a Shaden were murdered?” Tomn pressed.
Thealos nodded. “Is that what happened to the Wolfsman you…found?”
“We didn’t kill him,” Tomn insisted. “He’d been dead a long while. Isn’t that right, Tannon? Just a skull, some bones…plus the clothes. Can’t sell a stitch of it, except maybe the sash and the dagger.” He gave Tannon a furtive look. “If we kill him, the Wolfsmen will come after us, won’t they?”
“If they were coming, Tomn, they would have by now,” Tannon replied with a smirk. He gave Thealos a cunning smile. “Well, it looks like the band will let you live today, boy. If Hoth changes his mind, well…you just keep praying to Shedang, Achrolese, and Vinderhopper that he doesn’t.” The group cackled at his mocking rendition of the Shae deities.