In which characters and author alike seek direction after a long rest.
I followed Broo Fang Tane out of the tavern, scanning the street for any sign of alerted Shieldsmen. If anyone had noticed the fight inside the tavern--or the people who had fled in panic--they made no sign. The street outside was sparsely crowded with the sort of townspeople one would expect in a wealthier area of Veral Ski; there were well-dressed merchants conversing in front of their shops, pretty, clean women weaving their way down the street on their way to or from some errand and very few children to be seen. Times were tense in Korin and fights of all types were common everywhere; apparently that extended to the wealthy district in its mightiest, most prosperous city. too.
Relived, but still somewhat vexed, I tried to find Tane. This time, he had left no bloody footprints to follow and, for once, I didn't hear the sounds of anyone mocking him. I soon spotted his lithe figure walking down Kings Way toward the lower portion of the city and, beyond that I suspected, toward the gate and the road beyond. I hurried after him.
Broo Fang Tane looked up when I fell into place beside him and flashed him a quick smile. His eyes were sad, his mouth curled downward. He didn't slow.
"Where are you off to?" I asked. "Our lodgings are back the other way."
"I have caused...enough death...here," he said in his usual lilting speech. "I mean to re....turn to the road. Perhaps I shall return to the...Temple of the Optimists, where I can seek...counsel."
I tentatively put my hand on his shoulder, trying to suppress a wince. It was meant as a friendly gesture but, if misintrepted, I had just entered the last seconds of my life. He stiffened, but showed no sign of aggression or rage.
"See, then? You don't need counsel. You are not to blame for that man's death," I paused, thinking. He might have been killed. "His condition is not your fault. He started it." Even as I said it, I flet heat rise to my cheeks. I sounded like a sulky child. Laws in Veral Ski--as elsewhere in Korin--were fickle things. Whether Tane had done wrong by brutally subduing the man who had mocked him would be open to interpretation, speculation and, most likely, a few healthy wagers.
"E....ven so. I have lost my pur....pose. I no longer know my way."
I nearly stopped, blinking. That could have been the first time he finished a sentence without pausing halfway through it and, while I felt like pointing that out, I didn't see the need for it.
"Happens to everyone, I suspect," I said instead, with a shrug of my shoulders. "Rich, poor, male, female, merchant or otherwise. If we didn't get lost every now and then, we might never find new things."
I smiled at that, for it sounded wise. I repeated it in my head so I wouldn't forget it and could write it down later. Tane greeted that wisdom with silence.
"I think it's time for you and I--and Seymurh, too, I suppose--to find new things. I, too, feel a bit restless and lost. I think we should take the queen up on her offer." Phaedra had welcomed us, in a sense, to Veral Ski and offered employment in her Ministry of Human Preservation, following the death of one of her reliable agents. "Maybe we can do some good along the way."
He stopped then and looked up at me, a smile tugging the corner of his mouth. "And spread some...cheer?"
I glanced down the street, where an argument had broken out and folks had stopped to watch.
"Anything is possible, I suppose." I suspected that would be the hardest of our tasks.
