"They're criminals. But if they did have one, how would we know?"

"You're just all the time the incarnation of optimism, Pipe."

"How come he calls you Pipe when your name is Mathis?" Pella wanted to know.

"Because he's an idiot?"

"Because he used to smoke a ton of kuf when we was in the Holy Lands."

Pella sneered. He had established his disbelief in their holy calling already.

Hecht said, "We have to get back on the road and start making time. We ought to get to Alicea before dark." The town was a long way off. He could remember nowhere to get in out of the night anywhere closer. And the sooner they established themselves at the Knight of Wands the more they would be part of the background when their quarry arrived.

Ghort launched a fanciful account of his adventures in the Holy Lands with his good pal Mathis Schlink. Because he wove in commonplace fairy tale, tall tale, and legendary elements, Pella knew he was lying from the start.

Hecht said, "Think I'll range ahead. You two stick with Buck."

Ghort nodded. "Be careful." By which Hecht understood that he, too, had noted that one fewer rider had returned than had gone east.

Pella betrayed his own quick eye. "Let me do it. They ain't looking to ambush me. Whoever they are."

Ghort told him, "Go to it, kid."

With Pella out of earshot, Hecht asked, "And what would you do now, Child of Fortune?"

"Play it straight. He don't see any obvious way to cash in. He knows they'll just rob him if he tries to cut himself a share of whatever Vali is worth." A bit later, Ghort added, "He's making a long-term investment. That's what I did. It worked for me. He'll probably end up brokenhearted."

Ahead, Pella rounded a verge of the woods and disappeared. Whistling.

"He has nerve."

"You need that to survive when you're on your own."

This sounded more like the real Pinkus Ghort than most of the stories he told. "I'll stroll ahead, now. Vali, stay by Buck."

Hecht rounded the trees and found Pella in a brisk argument with a tall, bony, skinny man whose natural posture made him lean forward. His hands swooped and flew as he talked. His horse was tied to a bush beside the road, on a long tether, busy grazing and ignoring its rider. Its saddle, loosened, bore a Sonsan household crest.

Hecht stalked closer. Durandanti. The Durandanti family had an old relationship with the Brotherhood of War. That broke down when the Brotherhood tried to plunder the Devedian quarter of Sonsa, but, evidently, peace had been made, under the table. The Durandanti plan for reviving Sonsa must require becoming intimate with the ambitions of Sublime V and the Brotherhood.

Where did Vali fit?

That depended on who she was.

Pella demonstrated his street bona fides by maneuvering the bony man round to present his back to eastbound traffic. He remained unaware of Hecht until his horse became restless.

The Durandanti spun. His face was unnaturally pale. He had one of those lantern-jawed faces that looked like the planners forgot to put meat on over the bone.

"Hi!" Hecht smacked the man solidly between the eyes. "Ow! Damn! I forgot how much that hurts!" He shook his lingers vigorously. "My guess is, this fellow doesn't do this sort of thing for a living." His victim staggered two steps, cross-eyed, then went down on one knee.

"You're probably right, Your Honor. He was only trying to sound tough."

Hecht breathed on his knuckles. "I'm a Your Honor again, eh?"

"Just being careful, Your Honor. You've started smacking people."

Hecht chuckled. "You are like Buck. Help me move him over by that tree." The bony man had both knees and a hand down in the dust now.

Ghort and Vali arrived. The Durandanti, his back against a sapling, groggily worked on a leaky nose. Ghort asked, What did you do that for?"

"Seemed like the most direct way. Get that mare ready. We'll put him back aboard. Vali can ride pillion. That'll let us pick up the pace."

"You think they won't miss him?"

"I expect they will. We'll talk to him while we walk. He'll let us know what we need to do."

"Uhm." Ghort got it. In his own way.

They would pump the Durandanti full of false information while draining him of what he knew.

Hecht shared his theory about the Durandanti and Brotherhood getting into bed. Ghort readied the mare, then examined the Durandanti's nose. "Not broken. Not even bloody, just running bad. Got some tears going, too."

"You knocked the snot out of him, Your Honor." Pella giggled.

They made good time, now, and passed through Alicea without attracting attention an hour before sunset. They saw no other travelers till they neared the town. The area was busier than last time Hecht passed through. Ragged tents and shanties had appeared. Beggars came out. He had seen none of those before.

Hecht released the Durandanti two miles past Alicea, up the West Way, tied to a willow tree. With his horse tethered nearby, contentedly grazing. Master Stain Hamil had been cooperative. "You don't do a lot of yelling, you can get those ropes off pretty quick. You do yell, chances are you'll get robbed. Maybe even murdered."

Ghort and the children had dropped off just east of Alicea, turning back to get established at the Knight of Wands. Master Stain Hamil of House Durandanti was led to believe that they would scrounge supplies, catch up, and trek on east to Plemenza. Having been prisoners there Hecht and Ghort were able to talk about Plemenza convincingly.

Hecht entered the Knight of Wands carefully. It proved uncrowded. He spotted Ghort, joined him. Ghort asked, "It go all right?"

"Tied him to a tree. Left him his horse. He'll be home tomorrow night. If the boogies don't get him."

"We might be sorry. If they got balls enough to come after us on somebody else's turf. But I'm glad you didn't do the hard thing."

"He was a worker bee. He didn't even know why were chasing us. Did you get us in here?" The Knight of Wands was a sprawling derelict of a building, mostly story high, that had been added to a dozen times. The old parts looked like they would just fall down and be abandoned once they did. When Hecht arrived a boy younger than Pella was outside plugging holes leaking smoke using the contents of a bucket of mud. The smoke came from a fireplace in common room that needed its chimney cleaned. The upside of the smoke was that it helped quell the stench of the place.

"Sure. Room and board. Fleas, lice, and bedbugs on the house."

"Only because they don't have the imagination to charge. Where are the kids?"

"Out running around. They get along. Vali has problems, Pipe. I'm wondering if maybe somebody didn't rape her. Pella's trying to show her how to be a kid."

"Why doesn't she run away?"

"Not in her nature. If she was raised in a castle somewhere, with somebody doing everything for her but shit, it wouldn't occur to her to run. Biggest thing she ever did on her own was latch on to us, probably. Which took some major guts."

"Or absolute certainty that going with us couldn't possibly be more horrible than staying where she was. How long you figure it'll be before your cousins show up?"

"I'm not gonna argue about that no more. You want them to be my family, so be it." Ghort pretended to count on his fingers. "We had good winds. We probably made twice as many miles a day as them. But they came almost straight in north while we went the long way around."

"How about a straight answer?" Ghort sometimes created drama where there was none.

"They could turn up tomorrow. If they ran all the way. Which would depend on whether they think you got killed or not."

How does that make a difference?"

"Just brainstorming. If they got you, a shitload of people would be pissed off and looking for somebody to burn at the stake. If they didn't, they'd figure us to be a little more relaxed. Here come the kids. Must be getting scary dark out."