Marith flashed him a smile. A new feeling was coming, bright and warm, a remembrance of things a long time ago. ‘Oh, don’t worry, I’m sure my uncle will be pleased enough with you for escorting me there. See you’re rewarded according to your due. When I come into my own, I might even give you all something myself. Minor titles, maybe. A small estate and a large pile of gold.’
A long pause. Tobias seemed to be contemplating things. ‘Can’t say it hadn’t occurred to me, boy. Obvious choice. But it’s a long way …’ And I don’t trust you a hair’s breadth, his face said, clear as day.
‘So is everywhere. We have money for transport.’
Tobias looked at him. ‘We do, do we?’
Stubborn, wretched, suspicious bastard. Marith tried to keep his voice calm, though his hand went to his belt where his knife was. ‘Forgive me, Tobias, I misspoke. You have money for transport. Money I will repay you in triple once I am back where I belong, swimming in gold and dripping in diamonds or however it goes. Money you wouldn’t be here to hold if I hadn’t done your dirty work for you when it mattered. I’m tired of all this. We’re buying horses, better equipment, better food. I’m ordering you.’
Alxine muttered something inaudible. Rate stared at him.
‘You’ve changed your tune, boy,’ Tobias said after a moment. Still trying to beat him down. Not seeing what he should see. ‘Must be good between the sheets, your girl there. Thought all you wanted was an unpleasant death.’
Their eyes met again. You look like what you are, boy … Tobias shuddered and looked at the floor.
Beat you, Marith thought with a grin. Beat you. He went over to the innkeep, ordered wine, demanded someone fetch anyone who might have a horse they might be persuaded to sell him, demanded the village women be summoned to find better clothes for himself and Thalia. The three other men sat dumb.
They left that afternoon, a very different group from the four who had walked down out of the hills. Marith was dressed in a silk shirt and leggings, a green coat with embroidered sleeves meant for the local big man’s favourite son’s wedding; Thalia in a yellow dress meant for the local big man’s favourite son’s bride. Both had been hastily adjusted while a messenger was sent around the farms looking for horses and a cart or carriage. Thalia, Marith had realized, had absolutely no idea how to ride. She needed shade and comfort. And a carriage would be a better place for the two of them to sleep than a tent.
Any thought of returning to the meeting place with Skie and digging out the stuff they had left behind was long gone: they were not members of The Free Company of the Sword now but a high noble, his lady and their escort. They had white bread and water and wine and fresh fruit stored in the carriage, grain for the horses, blankets, pillows for Thalia. Marith wore the black sword at his hip, the blue flames almost visible along its blade. The people of the town bowed down before him, not knowing who he was but sensing the power in him; Rate and Alxine and Tobias seemed to diminish before him, finally, truly seeing him. Thalia watched him silently with dazzled eyes.
It was only a farmer’s wagon, covered over in plain brown canvas; the horses farm horses, unattractive and cheaply saddled; the clothes shoddy and rough. But it would all suffice for now, until they reached Immish and could get something far, far better. The whole lot had cost four talents; Tobias had paid it out like a man in a nightmare. How all this had happened, he could not seem to understand. Marith, in truth, could barely understand it either. He felt as he had felt when he killed the Imperial Guard. He felt as he had felt when he killed the dragon. He felt as he had felt as a child. He rode his horse at the head of the group, his head held high, forcing the horse to run and buck and plunge and shy up so that he could feel the giddy power he had over it, making it do as he willed it, breaking it to him. I am myself again, he thought. But that thought sobered him, and he rode back and came alongside the carriage, looking at Thalia, and something of the fear he had felt before came back into him.
He ordered the party to stop for the night a little before dusk. Thalia should not be made to travel during the dusk. Seserenthelae aus perhalish: Night comes. We survive. A strange time. A time of nothingness. He found himself looking forward to seeing it with her beside him.
They were taking the old abandoned desert road, the road they had flanked on their way in, riding out into the great wild places where nothing lived. Only a few hours’ ride from the town, and the world was empty. Dust and rock underfoot, scrub trees, delft grass, carrion birds. The Dragon’s Mouth overhead, already visible in the twilight, blazing red. A fire was made up, food prepared and eaten and cleaned away: Marith did not help with the work but sat apart, a lord watching his servants, sipping wine, gazing east into the night.
Thalia helped them, helplessly, for she had never even thought of these kinds of chores. She fetched water from the stream that had drawn them to camp there, delighting again in the rush of water, the feel of the wet sand of its shallow bed beneath her feet. Rate grunted thanks at her when she gave him the filled pail, then turned his back on her, his shoulders set and tense. She stood for a moment then walked over to Marith.
‘May I join you?’ It was almost the first time they had spoken since they had left his bedroom that morning, everything since then a bustle of preparations and Marith lording it over everyone. She hadn’t been sure how he wanted her to treat him. Whether he expected her to kneel at his feet as the farmers selling him the cart almost had. But his face brightened to a warm smile as he saw her.
‘You don’t … you don’t need to ask that.’ Sorrow in his eyes for a moment: he is afraid I might no longer want him, Thalia realized in confusion. She sat down beside him and he kissed her gently, a faint sigh of something like relief on his lips. ‘This is better, isn’t it? Wine and cushions and treated as befits you. And all as nothing compared to what I’ll give you soon enough. All the gold in my kingdom, I’ll lay at your feet.’
She looked into the dark sky, following his eyes. ‘What are you looking at?’
‘What am I looking at? The sky. The stars. My home. Going to Ith makes me think of things … And what I’ll do after that … A few days ago all I wanted was to drink till I was dead. Now …’ He kissed her again. ‘What are you looking at?’
Thalia paused for a moment, then said in a rush, ‘I should have been killing a man, yesterday evening.’
‘Now that’s an interesting thought … Not entirely an unpleasant one, either.’ He drew her closer towards him. Disgust and desire. Desire and disgust. Would that be all it ever came to? He saw her frown. Grew serious. ‘We’ve both killed men and women and children, beautiful girl. You with far more reason than I have, and far less choice.’
Another silence, gazing side by side into the dark.
Thalia gestured to the three men by the fire. ‘They hate you, now, you know.’
‘They always hated me. But now they fear me. And that’s better too, don’t you think?’