Part 26 (1/2)

They'd demand the children be locked up as bait. They would torture them until they produced answers. Or they'd kill them.

Da said, ”Only a coward lets the innocent be punished when it's within his power to stop it.”

This was crazy. These weren't two children accused of stealing apples from their neighbor's orchard. ”It's not cowardice,” said Talen. ”We're talking about sleth, Da. Sleth.”

”Sleth,” said Da. He sighed. ”Fine. I suppose River's right. It's time. Although I do not believe you're ready.” He turned to Nettle. ”That would go as well for you. Of course, this should be your father's office, shouldn't it? But we can take care of that. You two are coming with me today.”

Talen didn't understand half of what Da had just said. But it didn't matter. ”What about them?” he asked, pointing at the girl and boy.

”What about them? River and Ke will return soon enough. And it doesn't appear you enjoy their company much.”

”You're just going to leave them here unattended?” And then he understood what Da was doing. ”You're going to give them a chance to run, aren't you? And that way if someone asks, you can truthfully say you have no idea where they are.”

Da shook his head. ”Them running is the last thing I want, Talen. Because then they'll surely be caught. You might want to think about that. Even if you haven't a nit's teaspoon of compa.s.sion, you'll want to consider what will happen when the Questioners begin their work. How long will it take before the boy is tortured into revealing who hid him for so long?”

That was easy to calculate. As were the consequences. Da had placed them all on a crumbling precipice and asked them to dance. ”I don't understand why you're doing this,” said Talen.

”Nettle,” Da said, ”tell me. Does your da tell you everything that goes on in his councils? You're his son. If you were to ask him, would he tell you all his battle plans?”

”He tells me a lot.”

”Everything?”

”No.”

”Why is that? He trusts you, doesn't he?”

”Well,” said Nettle, then he fell into silence and shrugged. ”I guess he thinks I've got a b.u.t.ter jaw.”

Da laughed. ”Hardly. It's because some truths, if shared, would hurt those who do not deserve it. And it is at such times you cannot simply pa.s.s the responsibility of the secrets you hold to someone else. You either carry the burden of the secret or release the whirlwind.”

”Secrets?” An alarm sounded deep within Talen. What secrets did Da keep that concerned the girl and the boy?

Talen said, ”There's more to this than the flimsy logic you've tried to fob me off with today, isn't there?”

”There's more to everything, son. Even when all the words have been spoken. But right now I have an appointment to meet the Clan Council. I was overtaken by a messenger earlier. I've been summoned back to Whitecliff to testify about what happened in the tower. I can understand your frustration, but I can't trust you here alone. So you're going with me. Now get the wagon hitched.”

Talen buckled the second belly strap about Iron Boy, their mule. Nettle was gathering food because, despite the current turmoils, Da said there were families needing supplies. And now, according to Da, was just as good a time to deliver what they needed as any other. Talen suspected it was only to cover something else, but he could not guess what that was. He simply didn't understand his father.

Talen stroked Iron Boy's neck. If the Questioners found out they'd harbored the hatchlings, Iron Boy would go into the fires along with all the rest of them.

”I'm not oblivious to all the dangers about us,” said Da.

Talen turned. Da walked up to the wagon and secured the Hog under the seat. He wore a poultice about his neck where it was bruised. He looked over the stores in the bed of the wagon then came to stand before Talen. He pulled an unusually dark braid of G.o.dsweed out of his pocket. ”I want you to wear this for protection.”

G.o.dsweed was used to ward off things not wholly of this world. It was most potent when burned, for the smoke chased the dead. But even having it upon you was supposed to have an effect. ”Why are you giving me that? This isn't about malevolent souls.”

”Oh, but it is,” said Da. ”Did you not listen to what I said about the creature at the fortress? It was full of the dead. Now, hold out your arm.”

Talen pulled back the sleeve of his tunic and let Da tie the braid about his upper arm. The braid was thicker than most, woven in an odd pattern.

”Where did you get this?”

Da said nothing. When he finished tying the braid, he pulled the sleeve of Talen's tunic back down over it, nodded, then reached out and cupped the back of Talen's neck with his large hand. He looked deep into Talen's eyes. ”Courage, son.”

This was Da's habit since Talen was a boy. He'd look him in the eyes and make him focus on a word. It was embarra.s.sing; he wasn't a little boy anymore. He tried to shrug out of his father's grasp, but Da's grip was even stronger than Ke's and he waited for Talen's response.

”Courage,” Talen repeated back to him.

Da smiled. ”See, you feel better already.”

”All I felt was your hand, cold as the tomb.” Talen hated that little ritual, and he swore at that moment he would never submit his sons to anything like it.

Da nodded. ”We're almost done here. I just need a bit of barley.”

Nettle returned shortly with what looked like most of what had been hanging in the smoke shed, including the salmon Talen had caught just last week. Nettle placed it next to a basket of cabbages and another of carrots resting in the wagon bed. Then Da came out of the house rolling a medium-sized barrel of barley.

”Goh,” said Talen. ”How many are we to visit?”

”Not enough,” said Da.

Every two weeks Da went to Whitecliff and delivered supplies to struggling families along the way. Most were widows whose Koramite husbands had died or been maimed in the battles with the Bone Faces. One of the families had lost both mother and father, and the oldest son had sold himself to one of the clans to pay their debts.

Talen didn't know how Da knew who to visit. He supposed they discussed such things in the Koramite council Da attended. All the Koramites in the area were supposed to donate their surplus to help the affected families. But it seemed a large portion of what Talen delivered came from his family's own larder and garden. This time was no different.

Da drove the wagon and made Talen and Nettle walk alongside to spare Iron Boy. When they got up on the flats, Da looped the reins to the wooden hook under the seat and untied the thin, black leather strips holding his beard braids and proceeded to comb the beard out with an old bone comb as Iron Boy plodded along. When Da finished and began to retie the first braid, Talen figured he'd had enough time for his temper to die down. He looked up at his father on the wagon seat and said, ”So have you got some G.o.dsweed for Nettle?”

”Not today,” said Da. He held a beard braid with one hand and brought up a leather tie. ”That's his father's office.”

”That's the second time you've said that.”

”I'm glad you can count,” said Da.

”It never does any good to hold onto your anger,” said Talen.

”You're absolutely right,” said Da.

Talen rode in silence for a few more yards waiting for more. When Da didn't respond, he decided to take another tack. ”So what are all these facts you were going to bestow on me?”

”What?” asked Da in mock amazement. ”A fart-brain like myself attempt to explain anything to you? I wouldn't presume.”

”Oh, come,” said Talen.

”You'll get your facts,” said Da. ”Both of you. Just a little patience is all you need.”

”You didn't make us come with you because you were worried about us killing or turning that girl and boy in, did you?” Talen asked.