The Painted Man

25 A New Venue

331 AR

The rain increased to a steady pour, and Rojer picked up his pace, cursing his luck. He had been planning to leave Shepherd's Dale for some time, but hadn't expected it to be under such hurried and unpleasant circumstances.

He supposed he couldn't blame the shepherd. True, the man spent more time tending to his flock than his wife, and it was she who made the advance, but coming home early to beat the rain and finding a boy in bed with your wife didn't tend to put men in a reasoning mood.

In a way, he was thankful for the rain. Without it, the man might well have raised half the men in the Dale to give chase. Dalesmen were a possessive lot; probably because their women were often left alone while they took their precious herds to graze. The shepherds were serious folk, about their herds and about their wives. Interfere with either one…

After a frantic chase around the room, the shepherd's wife had jumped upon her husband's back, restraining him long enough for Rojer to snatch up his bags and dart out the door. Rojer's bags were always packed. Arrick had taught him that.

'Night,' he muttered, as his boot sucked into a thick mud puddle. The cold and wet seeped right in through the soft leather, but he dare not stop and try to build a fire just yet.

He drew his motley cloak tighter, wondering why he always seemed to be running from something. Over the last two years, he had moved on almost every season, living in Cricket Run, Woodsend, and Shepherd's Dale three times each, at least, but he still felt like an outsider. Most villagers went their whole lives without ever leaving their town, and were forever attempting to persuade Rojer to do the same.

Marry me. Marry my daughter. Stay at my inn and we'll paint your name over the door to attract custom. Keep me warm while my husband's afield. Help us harvest and stay the winter.

They said it a hundred ways, but they all meant, 'Give up the road and plant roots here.'

Every time it was said, Rojer found himself on the road. It was nice to be wanted, but as what? A husband? A father? A farmhand? Rojer was a Jongleur, and he could not imagine being anything else. The first time he lifted a finger at harvest or helped chase down a lost sheep he knew he would be starting down a road that would quickly make him otherwise.

He touched the golden-haired talisman in its secret pocket, feeling Arrick's spirit watching over him. He knew he would feel his master's disappointment keenly if he ever put his motley aside. Arrick had died a Jongleur, and Rojer would, too.

True to Arrick's words, the hamlets had sharpened Rojer's skills. Two years of constant performing had made him into more than just a fiddler and tumbler. Without Arrick to lead, Rojer had been forced to broaden and grow, coming up with innovative ways to entertain alone. He was constantly perfecting some new magic trick or bit of music, but as much as his tricks and fiddling, he had become known for was his storytelling.

Everyone in the hamlets loved a good story; especially one that told of faraway places. Rojer obliged, telling of places he'd seen and places he hadn't, towns that sat over the next hill, and ones that existed only in his imagination. The stories grew bigger with every telling, his characters coming alive in people's minds as they went on their adventures. Jak Scaletongue, who could speak to corelings, and was forever tricking the stupid beasts with false promises. Marko Rover, who crossed the Milnese mountains and found a rich land on the other side where corelings were worshipped like gods. And of course, the Painted Man.

The duke's Jongleurs passed through the hamlets to make decrees every spring, and the latest had told tales of a feral man who wandered the wilderness, killing demons and feasting on their flesh. He claimed it was honest word from a tattooist who had put wards on the man's back, and that others had confirmed the tale. The audience's attention had been rapt, and when folk had asked Rojer to retell the story another night, he had obliged, adding embellishments all his own.

Listeners loved to ask questions and attempt to catch him in contradiction, but Rojer delighted in the dance of words, keeping the bumpkins convinced of his outlandish tales.

Ironically, the most difficult boast to sell was that he could make the corelings dance with his fiddle. He could have proved it at any time, of course, but as Arrick used to say, 'The moment you get up to prove one thing, you'll be expected to prove them all.'

Rojer looked up at the sky. I'll be playing for the corelings soon enough, he thought. It had been overcast all day, and was getting steadily darker. In the cities were high walls made it so that most people never saw an actual coreling, it was believed to be a tampweed tale that they could rise under dark clouds, but living outside the walls in the hamlets for two years had taught Rojer better. Most would wait until full sunset to rise, but if the clouds grew thick enough, a few bold demons would test the false night.

Cold and wet and in no mood to take the risk, he cast about for a suitable campsite. He'd be lucky to make Woodsend the next day. More likely, he would be two nights on the road. The thought made his stomach churn.

And Woodsend would be no better than the Dale. Or Cricket Run, for that matter. Sooner or later, he would get some woman with child, or worse, fall in love, and before he knew it, he would only be taking his fiddle from its case on festival days. Until he needed to barter it to fix the plough or buy seed, that was. Then he would be just like everyone else.

Or you could go home.

Rojer often thought of returning to Angiers, but was forever coming up with reasons to put it off another season. After all, what did the city have to offer? Narrow streets, choked with people and animals, wooden planks infused with the stench of manure and garbage. Beggars and thieves, and the ever-present worry about money. People who ignored each other as an art.

Normal people, Roger thought, and sighed. Villagers were always seeking to know everything about their neighbours, and opened their homes to strangers without a thought. It was commendable, but Rojer was a city boy at heart.

Returning to Angiers would mean dealing with the Guild again. An unlicensed Jongleur's days were numbered, but a guildsman in good standing's business was assured. His experience in the hamlets should be enough to win him a license, especially if he found a guildsman to speak for him. Arrick had alienated most of those, but Rojer might find one to take pity on him upon hearing of his master's fate.

He found a tree that gave some shelter from the rain, and after setting up his circle, managed to collect enough dry tinder from beneath its boughs to start a small fire. He fed it carefully, but the wind and wet extinguished it before long.

'Bugger the hamlets,' Rojer said as the darkness enveloped him, broken only by the occasional flare of magic as a demon tested his wards.

'Bugger them all.'

Angiers hadn't changed much since he'd been gone. It seemed smaller, but Rojer had been living in wide open places for some time, and had grown a few inches since he had been there last. He was sixteen now, a man by anyone's standards. He stood outside the city for some time, staring at the gate and wondering if he was making a mistake.

He had a little coin, sifted carefully from his collection hat over the years and hoarded against his return, and some food in his pack. It wasn't much, but it would keep him out of the shelters for a few nights at least.

If all I want is a full belly and a roof, I can always go back to the hamlets, he thought. He could head south to Farmer's Stump and Cutter's Hollow, or north, to where the duke had rebuilt Riverbridge on the Angierian side of the river.

If he told himself again, mustering his courage and walking through the gate.

He found an inn that was cheap enough, and unpacked his best motley, heading back out as soon as he was changed. The Jongleur's Guildhouse was located near the centre of town, where its residents could easily make engagements in any part of the city. Any licensed Jongleur could live in the house, provided they took the jobs assigned to them without complaint, and paid half their earnings to the Guild.

'Fools,' Arrick called them. 'Any Jongleur willing to give half his take for a roof and three communal servings of gruel isn't worthy of the name.'

It was true enough. Only the oldest and least skilled Jongleurs lived in the house, ready to take the jobs others turned down. Still, it was better than destitution, and safer than public shelters. The wards on the guildhouse were strong, and its residents less apt to rob one another.

Rojer headed for the residences, and a few inquiries soon had him knocking on a particular door.

'Eh?' the old man asked, squinting into the hall as he opened his door. 'Who's that?'

'Rojer Halfgrip, sir,' Rojer said, and seeing no recognition in the rheumy eyes, added, 'I was apprentice to Arrick Sweetsong.'

The confused look soured in an instant, and the man moved to close the door.

'Master Jaycob, please,' Rojer said, placing his hand on the door.

The old man sighed, but made no effort to close the door as he moved back into the small chamber and sat down heavily. Rojer entered, closing the door behind them.

'What is it you want?' Jaycob asked. 'I'm an old man and don't have time for games.'

'I need a sponsor to apply for a guild license,' Rojer said.

Jaycob spat on the floor. 'Arrick's become a dead weight?' he asked. 'His drinking slowing down your success, so you're leaving him to rot and striking out on your own?' He grunted. 'Fitting. S'what he did to me, twenty-five years ago.'

He looked up at Rojer. 'But fitting or no, if you think I'm to help in your betrayal…'

'Master Jaycob,' Rojer said, holding up his hands to forestall the coming tirade, 'Arrick is dead. Cored on the road to Woodsend, two years gone.'

'Keep your back straight, boy,' Jaycob said as they walked down the hall. 'Remember to look the guildmaster in the eye, and don't speak until you're spoken to.'

He had already said these things a dozen times, but Rojer only nodded. He was young to get his own license, but Jaycob said there had been some in the guild's history who were younger still. It was talent and skill that would win a license, not years.

It wasn't easy to get an appointment with the guildmaster, even with a sponsor. Jaycob hadn't had the strength to perform in years, and while the guildsmen were politely respectful of his advanced years, he was more ignored than venerated in the office wing of the guildhouse.

The guildmaster's secretary left them waiting outside his office for several hours, watching in despair as other appointments came and went. Rojer sat with his back straight, resisting the urge to shift or slump, as the light from the window slowly crossed the room.

'Guildmaster Cholls will see you now,' the clerk said at last, and Rojer snapped back to attention. He stood quickly, lending Jaycob a hand to help the old man to his feet.

The guildmaster's office was like nothing Rojer had seen since his time in the duke's palace. Thick warm carpet covered the floors, patterned and bright, and elaborate oil lamps with coloured glass hung from the oak walls between paintings of great battles, beautiful women, and still lives. His desk was dark polished walnut, with small, intricate statuettes for paperweights, mirroring the larger statues on pedestals throughout the room. Behind the desk was the symbol of the Jongleur's Guild, three coloured balls, in a large seal on the wall.

'I don't have a lot of time, Master Jaycob,' Guildmaster Cholls said, not even bothering to look up from the sheaf of papers on his desk. He was a heavy man, fifty summers at least, dressed in the embroidered cloth of a merchant or noble, rather than Jongleur's motley.

'This one is worth your time,' Jaycob said. 'The apprentice of Arrick Sweetsong.'

Cholls looked up at last, if only to glance askew at Jaycob. 'Didn't realize you and Arrick were still in touch,' he said, ignoring Rojer entirely. 'Heard you broke on bad terms.'

'The years have a way of softening such things,' Jaycob said stiffly, as close to a lie as he was willing to go. 'I've made my peace with Arrick.'

'It seems you're the only one,' Cholls said with a chuckle. 'Most of the men in this building would as soon throttle the man as look at him.'

'They'd be a little late,' Jaycob said. 'Arrick is dead.'

Cholls sobered at that. 'I'm saddened to hear that,' he said. 'Every one of us is precious. Was it the drink, in the end?'

Jaycob shook his head. 'Corelings.'

The guildmaster scowled, and spat into a brass bucket by his desk that seemed there for no other purpose. 'When and where?' he asked.

'Two years, on the road to Woodsend.'

Cholls shook his head sadly. 'I recall his apprentice was something of a fiddler,' he said at last, glancing Rojer's way.

'Indeed,' Jaycob agreed. 'That and more. I present to you Rojer Halfgrip.' Rojer bowed.

'Halfgrip?' The guildmaster asked, with sudden interest. 'I've heard tales of a Halfgrip playing the western hamlets. That you, boy?'

Rojer's eyes widened, but he nodded. Arrick had said that reputations carried quickly from the hamlets, but it was still a shock. He wondered if his reputation was good or ill.

'Don't let it go to your head,' Cholls said, as if reading his mind. 'Yokels exaggerate.'

Rojer nodded, keeping eye contact with the guildmaster. 'Yes, sir. I understand.'

'Well then, let's get on with this,' Cholls said. 'Show me what you have.'

'Here?' Rojer asked doubtfully. The office was large and private, but with its thick carpets and expensive furniture, it hardly seemed suited to tumbling and knife throwing.

Cholls waved at him impatiently. 'You performed with Arrick for years, so I'll accept that you can juggle and sing,' he said. Rojer swallowed hard. 'Earning a license means showing a focus skill beyond those basics.'

'Fiddle him, boy, just like you did me,' Jaycob said confidently. Rojer nodded. His hands shook slightly as he took his fiddle from its case, but when his fingers closed about the smooth wood, the fear washed away like dust in a bath. He began to play, the guildmaster forgotten as he fell into the music.

He played a short while before a shout broke the music's spell. His bow slipped from the strings, and in the silence that followed, a voice thundered outside the door.

'No, I will not wait for some worthless apprentice to finish his test! Move aside!' There were sounds of a scuffle before the door burst open and Master Jasin stormed into the room.

'I'm sorry, guildmaster,' the clerk apologized, 'he refused to wait.'

Cholls waved the clerk away as Jasin stormed up to him. 'You gave the Duke's Ball to Edum?' he demanded. 'That's been my performance for 10 years! My uncle will hear of this!'

Cholls stood his ground, arms crossed. 'The Duke himself requested the change,' he said. 'If your uncle has a problem, suggest he take it up with His Grace.'

Jasin scowled. Everyone else in Angiers might know that First Minister Janson was the true power in the city, but Duke Rhinebeck did not, and it was doubtful even Janson would change that over a performance for his nephew.

'If that's all you came to discuss, Jasin, you'll have to excuse us,' Cholls went on. 'Young Rojer here is testing for his license.'

Jasin's eyes snapped over to Rojer, flaring with recognition. 'I see you've ditched the drunk,' he sneered. 'Hope you didn't trade him for this old relic,' he thrust his chin at Jaycob. 'The offer stands, you want to work for me. Let Arrick beg for your scraps for a change, eh?'

'Master Arrick was cored on the road two years ago,' Cholls said.

Jasin glanced back at the guildmaster, then laughed out loud. 'Fantastic!' he cried. 'That news makes up for losing the Duke's Ball, and to spare!' Then Rojer hit him.

He didn't even realize what he'd done until he was standing over the master, his knuckles tingling and wet. He'd felt the brittle crunch as his fist struck Jasin's nose, and he knew his chances of winning his license were now gone, but at that moment, he didn't care.

Jaycob grabbed him and pulled him back as Jasin surged to his feet, swinging wildly.

'I'll kill you for thad, you little..!'

Cholls was between then in an instant. Jasin thrashed in his grasp, but the guildmaster's bulk was more than enough to restrain him. 'That's enough, Jasin!' he barked. 'You're not killing anyone!'

'You saw whad he did!' Jasin cried, as blood streamed from his nose.

'And I heard what you said!' Cholls shouted back. 'I was tempted to hit you myself!'

'How ab I subbosed to sig tonide?' Jasin demanded. His nose had already begun to swell, and his words became less understandable with every moment.

Cholls scowled. 'I'll get someone to perform in your stead,' he said. 'The guild will cover the loss. Daved!' The clerk stuck his head in the door. 'Escort Master Jasin to an Herb Gatherer, and have the bill sent here.'

Daved nodded, moving to assist Jasin. The master shoved him away. 'Thid idn't ober,' he promised Rojer as he left.

Cholls blew out a long breath as the door closed. 'Well, boy, you've gone and done it now. That's an enemy I wouldn't wish on anyone.'

'He was already my enemy,' Rojer said. 'You heard what he said.'

Cholls nodded. 'I did,' he said, 'but you still should have restrained yourself. What will you do if a patron insults you next? Or the duke himself? Guildsmen can't go around punching anyone that angers them.'

Rojer hung his head. 'I understand,' he said.

'You've just cost me a fair bit of coin, though,' Cholls said. ‘I’d be throwing money and prime performances at Jasin for weeks to keep him and the First Minister appeased, and with that fiddling of yours, I'd be a fool not to make you earn it back.'

Rojer looked up hopefully.

'Probationary license,' Cholls said, taking a sheet of paper and a quill. 'You're only to perform under the supervision of a master of the Guild, paid from your take, and half of your gross earnings will come to this office until I consider, your debt closed. Understood?'

'Absolutely, sir!' Rojer said eagerly.

'And you'll hold your temper,' Cholls warned, 'or I'll tear up this license and you'll never perform in Angiers again.'

Rojer worked his fiddle, but out of the corner of his eye, he was watching Abrum, Jasin's burly apprentice. Jasin usually had one of his apprentices watching Rojer's performances. It made him uneasy, knowing that they were watching him for their master, who meant him only ill, but it had been months since the incident in the guildmaster's office, and nothing had ever seemed to come of it. Master Jasin had recovered quickly and was soon performing again, raking in accolades at every high society event in Angiers.

Rojer might have dared to hope the episode was behind them, save that the apprentices came back almost every day. Sometimes it was Abrum the wood demon lurking in a crowd, and others it was Sali the rock demon sipping a drink at the back of a tavern, but however innocuous they might seem, it was no coincidence.

Rojer ended his performance with a flourish, whipping the bow from his fiddle into the air. He took his time to bow, straightening just in time to catch it. The crowd burst into applause, and Rojer's sharp ears caught the clink of metal coins in the hat as Jaycob moved about the crowd with it. Rojer couldn't suppress a smile. The old man looked almost spry.

He scanned the dispersing crowd as they collected their equipment, but Abrum had vanished. Still, they packed up quickly and took a roundabout path to their inn to make sure they could not be easily followed. The sun was soon to set, and the streets were emptying rapidly. Winter was on the wane, but the boardwalks still held patches of ice and snow, and few stayed out unless they had business to.

'Even without Cholls' cut, the rent is paid with days to spare,' Jaycob said, jingling the purse with their take. 'When the debt's paid, you'll be rich!'

'We'll be rich,' Rojer corrected, and Jaycob laughed, kicking his heels and slapping Rojer on the back.

'Look at you,' Rojer said, shaking his head. 'What happened to the shuffling and half-blind old man that opened his door to me a few months gone?'

'It's performing again that's done it,' Jaycob said, giving Rojer a toothless grin. 'I know I'm not singing or throwing knives, but even passing the hat has gotten my dusty blood pumping like it hasn't in twenty years. I feel I could even…' he looked away.

'What?' Rojer asked.

'Just…' Jaycob said, 'I don't know, spin a tale, perhaps? Or play dim while you throw punchlines my way? Nothing to steal your shine…'

'Of course,' Rojer said. 'I would have asked, but I felt I was imposing too much already, dragging you all over town to supervise my performances.'

'Boy,' Jaycob said, 'I can't remember the last time I've been so happy.'

They were smiling broadly as they turned a corner and walked right into Abrum and Sali.

Behind them, Jasin smiled broadly.

'It's good to see you, my friend!' Jasin said, as Abrum clapped Rojer's shoulder. The wind suddenly exploded from Rojer's stomach, the punch doubling him over and knocking him to the frozen boardwalk. Before he could rise, Sali delivered a heavy kick to his jaw.

'Leave him alone!' Jaycob cried, throwing himself at Sali. The heavy soprano only laughed, grabbing him and swinging him hard against the wall of a building.

'Oh, there's plenty for you too, old man!' Jasin said, as Sali landed heavy blows to his body. Rojer could hear the crunch of brittle bone, and the weak, wet gasps that escaped the master's lips. Only the wall held him upright.

The wooden planks beneath his hands were spinning, but Rojer wrenched himself to his feet, holding his fiddle by the neck with both hands, swinging the makeshift club wildly. 'You won't get away with this!' he cried.

Jasin laughed. 'Who will you go to?' he asked. 'My uncle has already assured me the city magistrates will turn a deaf ear to your obviously false accusations…if you should even live to tell tales. Go to the guard, and it's you they'll hang.'

Abrum caught the fiddle easily, twisting Rojer's arm hard as he drove a knee into his crotch. Rojer felt his arm break even as his groin caught fire, and the fiddle came down hard on the back of his head, shattering as it hammered him to the boardwalk again.

Even through the ringing in his ears, Rojer heard Jaycob's continued grunts of pain. Abrum stood over him, smiling as he lifted a heavy club.

26 Hospit

332 AR

'Ay, Jizell!' Skot cried as the old Herb Gatherer came to him with her bowl. 'Why not let your apprentice take the task for once?' He nodded at Leesha, changing another man's dressing.

'Ha!' Jizell barked. She was a heavyset woman, with short grey hair and a voice that carried. 'If I let her give the rag baths, I'd have half of Angiers crying plague within a week.'

Leesha shook her head as the others in the room laughed, but she was smiling as she did. Skot was harmless. He was a Messenger whose horse had thrown him on the road. Lucky to be alive, especially with two broken arms, he had somehow managed to track down his horse and get back in the saddle. With no wife to care for him, the Messenger's Guild had produced the klats to put him up in Jizell's hospit until he could do for himself.

Jizell soaked her rag in the warm, soapy bowl and lifted the man's sheet, her hand moving with firm efficiency. The Messenger gave a yelp as she was finishing up, and Jizell laughed. 'Just as well I give the baths,' she said loudly, glancing down. 'We wouldn't want to disappoint poor Leesha.'

The others in their beds all had a laugh at the man's expense. It was a full room, and all were a little bed-bored.

'I think she'd likely find it in different form than you,' Skot grumbled, blushing furiously, but Jizell only laughed again.

'Poor Skot has a shine on you,' Jizell told Leesha later, when they were in the pharmacy grinding herbs.

'A shine?' laughed Kadie, one of the younger apprentices. 'He's not shining, he's in loooove!' The other apprentices and stripers in earshot burst into giggles.

'I think he's cute,' Roni volunteered.

'You think everyone is cute,' Leesha said. Roni was just flowering, and boy-crazed. 'But I hope you have better taste than to fall for a man that begs you for a rag bath.'

'Don't give her ideas,' Jizell said. 'Roni had her way, she'd be rag-bathing every man in the hospit.' The girls all giggled, and even Roni didn't disagree.

'At least have the decency to blush,' Leesha told her, and the girls tittered again.

'Enough! Off with you giggleboxes!' Jizell laughed. 'I want a word with Leesha.'

'Most every man that comes in here shines on you,' Jizell said when they were gone. 'It wouldn't kill you to talk to one apart from asking after his health.'

'You sound like my mum,' Leesha said.

Jizell slammed her pestle down on the counter. 'I sound like no such thing,' she said, having heard all about Elona over the years. 'I just don't want you to die an old maid to spite her. There's no crime in liking men.'

'I like men,' Leesha protested.

'Not that I've seen,' Jizell said.

'So I should have jumped to offer Skot a rag bath?' Leesha asked.

'Certainly not,' Jizell said, '…at least not in front of everyone,' she added with a wink.

'Now you sound like Bruna,' Leesha groaned. 'It will take more than crude comments to win my heart.' Requests like Skot's were nothing new to Leesha. She had her mother's body, and that meant a great deal of male attention, whether she invited it or not.

'Then what does it take?' Jizell asked. 'What man could pass your heart wards?'

'A man I can trust,' Leesha said. 'One I can kiss on the cheek without him bragging to his friends the next day that he stuck me behind the barn.'

Jizell snorted. 'You'll sooner find a friendly coreling,' she said.

Leesha shrugged.

'I think you're scared,' Jizell accused. 'You're waited so long to lose your flower that you've taken a simple, natural thing every girl does and built it up into some unscalable wall.'

'That's ridiculous,' Leesha said.

'Is it?' Jizell asked. 'I've seen you when ladies come asking your advice on bed matters; grasping and guessing as you blush furiously. How can you advise others about their bodies when you don't even know your own?'

'I'm quite sure I know what goes where,' Leesha said wryly.

'You know what I mean,' Jizell said.

'What do you suggest I do about it?' Leesha demanded. 'Pick some man at random, just to get it over with?'

'If that's what it takes,' Jizell said.

Leesha glared at her, but Jizell met the gaze and didn't flinch. 'You've guarded that flower so long that no man will ever be worthy to take it in your eyes,' she said. 'What good is a flower hidden away for no one to see? Who will remember its beauty when it wilts?'

Leesha let out a choked sob, and Jizell was there in an instant, holding her tightly as she cried. 'There, there, poppet,' she soothed, stoking Leesha's hair, 'it's not as bad as all that.'

After supper, when the wards were checked, the stripers sent home to their mothers, and the apprentices to their studies, Leesha and Jizell finally had time to brew a pot of herb tea and open the satchel from the morning Messenger. A lamp sat on the table, full and trimmed for long use.

'Patients all day and letters all night,' Jizell sighed. 'Thank light Herb Gatherers don't need sleep, eh?' She upended the bag, spilling parchment all over the table.

They quickly separated out correspondence meant for the patients, and then Jizell grabbed a bundle at random, glancing at the hail. 'These are yours,' she said, passing the bundle to Leesha and snatching another letter off the pile, which she opened and began to read.

'This one's from Kimber,' she said after a moment. Kimber was another of Jizell's apprentices sent abroad, this one to Farmer's Stump, a days ride to the south. 'The cooper's rash has gotten worse, and spread again.'

'She's brewing the tea wrong; I just know it,' Leesha groaned. 'She never lets it steep long enough, and then wonders at her weak cures. If I have to go to Farmer's Stump and brew it for her, I'll give her such a thumping!'

'She knows it,' Jizell laughed. 'That's why she wrote to me this time!'

The laughter was infectious, and Leesha soon joined in. Leesha loved Jizell. She could be as hard as Bruna when the occasion demanded, but she was always quick to laugh.

Leesha missed Bruna dearly, and the thought turned her back to the bundle. It was Fourthday, when the weekly Messenger arrived from Farmer's Stump, Cutter's Hollow, and points south. Sure enough, the hail of the first letter in the stack was in her father's neat script.

There was a letter from Vika, as well, and Leesha read that one first, her hands clenching as always until she was assured that Bruna, older than ancient, was still well.

'Vika's given birth,' she noted. 'A boy, Jame. Six pounds eleven ounces.'

'Is that the third?' Jizell asked.

'Fourth,' Leesha said. Vika had married Child Jona - now Tender Jona - not long after arriving in Cutter's Hollow, and wasted no time in bearing him children.

'Not much chance of her coming back to Angiers, then,' Jizell lamented.

Leesha laughed. 'I thought that was given after the first,' she said.

It was hard to believe seven years had passed since she and Vika exchanged places. The temporary arrangement was proving permanent, which didn't entirely displease Leesha.

Regardless of what Leesha did, Vika would stay in Cutter's Hollow, and seemed better liked there than Bruna, Leesha, and Darsy combined. The thought gave Leesha a sense of freedom she never dreamt existed. She'd promised to return one day to ensure the Hollow had the Gatherer it needed, but the Creator had seen to that for her, Her future was hers to choose.

Her father wrote he had caught a chill, but Vika was tending him, and he expected to recover quickly. The next letter was from Mairy; her eldest daughter already flowered and promised, Mairy would likely be a grandmother soon. Leesha sighed.

There were two more letters in the bundle. Leesha corresponded with Mairy, Vika, and her father almost every week, but her mother wrote less often, and oftentimes in a fit of pique.

'All well?' Jizell asked, glancing up from her own reading to see Leesha's scowl.

'Just my mum,' Leesha said, reading. 'The tone changes with her humours, but the message stays the same: 'Come home and have children before you grow too old and the Creator takes the chance from you." Jizell grunted and shook her head.

Tucked in with Elona's letter was another sheet, supposedly from Gared, though the missive was in her mother's hand, for Gared knew no letters. But whatever pains she took to make it seem dictated, Leesha was sure at least half the words were her mother's alone, and most likely the other half as well. The content, as with her mother's letters, never changed. Gared was well. Gared missed her. Gared was waiting for her. Gared loved her.

'My mother must think me very stupid,' Leesha said wryly as she read, 'to believe Gared would ever even attempt a poem, much less one that didn't rhyme.'

Jizell laughed, but it died prematurely when she saw Leesha had not joined her.

'What if she's right?' Leesha asked suddenly. 'Dark as it is to think Elona right about anything, I do want children one day, and you don't need to be an Herb Gather to know that my days to do it are fewer ahead than behind. You said yourself I've wasted my best years.'

'That was hardly what I said,' Jizell replied.

'It's true enough,' Leesha said sadly. 'Even after Gared and Marick, I always felt the right man would just…come along one day. That I'd see him and know…'

'We all dream that sometimes, dear,' Jizell said, 'and it's a nice enough fantasy once a while, when you're staring at the wall, but you can't hang your hopes on it.'

Leesha squeezed the letter in her hand, crumpling it a bit.

'So you're thinking of going back and marrying this Gared?' Jizell asked.

'Oh, Creator, no!' Leesha cried. 'Of course not!'

Jizell grunted. 'Good. You've saved me the trouble of thumping you on the head.'

'Much as my belly longs for a child,' Leesha said, 'I'll die a maid before I let Gared give me one. Problem is, he'd have at any other man in the Hollow that tried.'

'Easily solved,' Jizell said. 'Have children here.'

'What?' Leesha asked.

'Cutter's Hollow is in good hands with Vika,' Jizell said. I trained the girl myself, and her heart is there now in any event.' She leaned in, putting a meaty hand on top of Leesha's. 'Stay,' she said. 'Make Angiers your home and take over the hospit when I retire.'

Leesha's eyes widened. She opened her mouth, but no sound came out.

'You've taught me as much as I've taught you these years,' Jizell went on. 'There's no one else I trust to run my business, even if Vika returned tomorrow.'

'I don't know what to say,' Leesha managed.

'No rush to say anything,' Jizell said, patting Leesha's hand. 'I daresay I don't plan to retire any day soon. Just think on it.'

Leesha nodded. Jizell opened her arms, and she fell into them, embracing the older woman tightly. As they parted, a shout from outside made them jump.

'Help! Help!' someone cried. They both glanced at the window. It was past dark.

Opening one's shutters at night in Angiers was a crime punishable by whipping, but Leesha and Jizell gave it no thought as they threw open the bar, seeing a trio of city guardsmen running down the boardwalk, two of them each carrying another man.

'Ay, the hospit!' the lead guard called, seeing the shutters open on the lamplit room. 'Open your doors! Succour! Succour! Succour and healing!'

As one, Leesha and Jizell bolted for the stairs, nearly tumbling down in their haste to get to the door. It was winter, and though the city's Warders worked diligently to keep the wardnet clear of snow, ice, and dead leaves, a few wind demons invariably found their way in each night, hunting homeless beggars and waiting for the occasional fool that dared defy curfew and the law. A wind demon could drop like a silent stone and then spread its taloned wings in a sudden snap, eviscerating a victim before grasping the body in its rear claws and swooping away with it.

They made it to the landing and threw open the door, watching as the men approached. The lintels were warded; they and their patients were safe enough even without the door.

'What's happening?' Kadie cried, sticking her head out over the balcony at the top of the stairs. Behind her, the other apprentices were pouring out of their room.

'Put your aprons back on and get down here!' Leesha ordered, and the younger girls scrambled to obey.

The men were still a ways off, but running hard. Leesha's stomach clenched as she heard shrieks in the sky. There were wind demons about, drawn to the light and commotion.

But the guards were closing the distance fast, and Leesha dared to hope that they would make it unscathed until one of the men slipped on a patch of ice and went down hard. He screamed, and the man he was carrying tumbled to the boardwalk.

The guard still with a man over his shoulder shouted something to the other, and put his head down, picking up speed. The unburdened man turned and rushed back to his fallen comrade.

A sudden flap of leathery wings was the only warning before the head of the hapless guard flew free of his body, rolling across the boardwalk. Kadie screamed. Before blood even began to spurt from the wound, the wind demon gave a shriek and launched skyward, hauling the dead man's body into the air.

The laden guard passed the wards, hauling his charge to safety. Leesha looked back to the remaining man, struggling to rise, and her brow set.

'Leesha, no’ Jizell cried, grabbing at her, but Leesha stepped nimbly aside and bolted out onto the boardwalk.

She ran in sharp zigzag as the shrieks of wind demons rang out in the cold air above. One coreling attempted a dive attack anyway and missed her completely, if only by a few inches. It tumbled into the boardwalk with a crash, but quickly righted itself, its thick hide unharmed by the impact. Leesha spun away, hurling a fistful of Bruna's blinding powder into its eyes. The creature roared in pain, and Leesha ran on.

'Save him, not me!' the guard called as she drew near, pointing to the still form lying on the boardwalk. The guard's ankle was at an odd angle, clearly broken. Leesha glanced at the other form, prone on the boardwalk. She could not carry them both.

'Not me!' the guard called again as she drew close.

Leesha shook her head. 'I've a better chance of getting you to safety,' she said, in a tone that brooked no debate. She got under his arm and heaved.

'Keep low,' the guard gasped. 'Windies are less apt to dive at things low to the ground.'

She hunched as much as she could, staggering under the big man's weight, and knew they were not going to make it at the shuffling pace, low or not.

'Now!' Jizell cried, and Leesha looked up to see Kadie and the other apprentices run out onto the boardwalk, holding the edges of white sheets above their heads. The fluttering cloth was almost everywhere, making it impossible for the wind demons to pick a target.

Under this cover, Mistress Jizell and the first guard came rushing up to them. Jizell helped Leesha as the guard fetched the unconscious man. Fear gave them all strength, and they covered the remaining distance quickly, retreating into the hospit and barring the door.

'This one's dead,' Jizell said, her voice cold. 'I'd wager he's been gone over an hour.'

'I almost sacrificed myself for a dead man?' the guard with the broken ankle exclaimed. Leesha ignored him, moving over to the other injured man.

With his round, freckled face and slender form, he seemed more a boy than a man. He had been badly beaten, but he was breathing, and his heart was strong. Leesha inspected him swiftly, cutting away his bright patchwork clothes as she probed for broken bones and searched for the sources of the blood that soaked his motley.

'What happened?' Jizell asked the injured guard, as she inspected the break in his ankle.

'We were headin' in from last patrol,' the guard said through gritted teeth. 'Found these two, Jongleurs by their look, lyin' on the walk. Must'a been robbed after a show. They was both alive, but in a bad way. It was dark by then, but neither of them looked like they'd last the night without a Gatherer to tend them. I remembered this hospit, and we ran hard as we could, tryin' to stay under eaves, outta sight from windies.'

Jizell nodded. 'You did the right thing,' she said.

'Tell that to poor Jonsin,' the guard said. 'Creator, what will I tell his wife?'

'That's a worry for the morrow,' Jizell said, lifting a flask to the man's lips. 'Drink this.'

The guard looked at her dubiously. 'What is it?' he asked.

'It will put you to sleep,' Jizell said. 'I need to set your ankle, and I promise you, you don't want to be awake when I do.'

The guard nodded, and quaffed the potion quickly.

Leesha was cleaning out the younger one's wounds when he started awake with a gasp, sitting up. One of his eyes was swollen shut, but the other was a bright green, and darted about wildly. 'Jaycob!' he cried.

He thrashed wildly, and it took Leesha, Kadie, and the last guard to wrestle him back down. He turned his one piercing eye on Leesha. 'Where is Jaycob?' he asked. 'Is he all right?'

'The older man who was found with you?' Leesha asked, and he nodded.

Leesha hesitated, picking her words, but the pause was answer enough, and he screamed, thrashing again. The guard pinned him hard, looking him in the eyes.

'Did you see who did this to you?' he asked.

'He's in no condition…' Leesha began, but the man cut her off with a glare.

'I lost a man tonight,' he said. 'I don't have time to wait.' He turned back to the boy. 'Well?' he asked.

The boy looked at him with eyes filling with tears. Finally, he shook his head, but the guard didn't let up. 'You must have seen something,' he pressed.

'That's enough,' Leesha said, grabbing the man's wrists and pulling hard. He resisted for a moment, and then let go. 'Wait in the other room,' she ordered. He scowled, but complied.

The boy was weeping openly when Leesha turned back to him. 'Just put me back out into the night,' he said, holding up a crippled hand. 'I was meant to die a long time ago, and everyone that tries to save me ends up dead.'

Leesha took the crippled hand in hers and looked him in the eye. 'I'll take my chances,' she said, squeezing. 'We survivors have to look out for one another.' She put the flask of sleeping draught to his lips, and held his hand, lending him strength until his eyes slipped closed.

The sound of fiddling filled the hospit. Patients clapped their hands, and the apprentices and stripers danced as they went about their tasks. Even Leesha and Jizell had a spring in their step.

'To think young Rojer was worried he had no way to pay,' Jizell said as they prepared lunch. 'I've half a mind to pay him to come entertain the patients after he's back on his feet.'

'The patients and the girls love him,' Leesha agreed.

'I've seen you dancing when you think no one is looking,' Jizell said.

Leesha smiled. When he wasn't fiddling, Rojer spun tales that had the apprentices clustered at the foot of his bed, or taught the stripers makeup tricks he claimed came from the duke's own courtesans. Jizell mothered him constantly, and the apprentices and stripers all shined and doted on him.

'An extra-thick slice of beef for him, then,' Leesha said, cutting the meat and laying it on a platter already over-laden with potatoes and fruit.

Jizell shook her head. 'I don't know where that boy puts it,' she said. 'You and the others have been stuffing him for a full moon and more, and he's still thin as a reed.'

'Lunch!' she bellowed, and the girls filtered in to collect the trays. Roni moved directly for the over-laden one, but Leesha swept it out of reach. 'I'll take this one myself,' she said, smiling at the looks of disappointment around the kitchen.

'Rojer needs to take a break and eat something, not spin private tales while you girls cut his meat,' Jizell said. 'You can all fawn on him later.'

'Intermission!' Leesha called as she swept into the room, but she needn't have bothered. The bow slipped from the fiddle strings with a squeak the moment she appeared. Rojer smiled and waved, knocking over a wooden cup as he tried to set his fiddle aside. His broken fingers and arm had mended neatly, but his leg casts were still on strings, and he could not easily reach the bedstand.

'You must be hungry today,' she laughed, setting the tray across his lap and taking the fiddle. Rojer looked at the tray dubiously, smiling up at her.

'I don't suppose you could help me cut?' he asked, holding up his crippled hand.

Leesha raised her eyebrows at him. 'Your fingers seem nimble enough when you work your fiddle,' she said. 'Why are they deficient now?'

'Because I hate eating alone,' Rojer laughed.

Leesha smiled, sitting on the side of the bed and taking the knife and fork. She cut a thick bite of meat, dragging it through the gravy and potatoes before bringing it up to Rojer's mouth. He smiled at her, and a bit of gravy leaked from his mouth, making Leesha titter. Rojer blushed, his fair cheeks turning as red as his hair.

'I can lift the fork myself,' he said.

'You want me to just cut up the meat and leave?' Leesha asked, and Rojer shook his head vigorously. 'Then hush,' she said, lifting another forkful to his mouth.

'It's not my fiddle, you know,' Rojer said, glancing back to the instrument after a few moments of silence. 'It's Jaycob's. Mine was broken when…'

Leesha frowned as he trailed off. After more than a month, he still refused to speak of the attack, even when pressed by the guard. He'd sent for his few possessions, but so far as she knew, he hadn't even contacted the Jongleur's Guild to tell them what had happened.

'It wasn't your fault,' Leesha said, seeing his eyes go distant. 'You didn't attack him.'

'I might as well have,' Rojer said.

'What do you mean?' Leesha asked.

Rojer looked away. 'I mean…by forcing him from retirement. He'd still be alive if…'

'You said he told you coming out of retirement was the best thing that had happened to him in twenty years,' Leesha argued. 'It sounds like he lived more in that short time than he would have in years spent in that cell in the guildhouse.'

Rojer nodded, but his eyes grew wet. Leesha squeezed his hand. 'Herb Gatherers see death often,' she told him. 'No one, no one, ever goes to the Creator with all their business complete. We all get a different length of time, but it needs to be enough, regardless.'

'It just seems to come early for the people who cross my path,' Rojer sighed.

'I've seen it come early for a great many who have never heard of Rojer Halfgrip,' Leesha said. 'Would you like to shoulder the blame for their deaths, as well?'

Rojer looked at her, and she pressed another forkful into his mouth. 'It doesn't serve the dead to stop living yourself, out of guilt,' she said.

Leesha had her hands full of linens when the Messenger arrived. She slipped the letter from Vika into her apron, and left the rest for later. She finished putting away the laundry, but then a striper ran up to tell her a patient had coughed blood. After that, she had to set a broken arm, and give the apprentices their lesson.

Before she knew it, the sun had set, and the apprentices were all in bed. She turned the wicks down to a dim orange glow, and made a last sweep through the rows of beds, making sure the patients were comfortable before she went upstairs for the night. She met Rojer's eyes as she passed, and he beckoned, but she smiled and shook her head. She pointed to him, then put her hands together as if praying, leaned her cheek against them, and closed her eyes.

Rojer frowned, but she winked at him and kept on, knowing he wouldn't follow. His casts had come off, but Rojer complained of pain and weakness despite the clean mend.

At the end of the room, she took the time to pour herself a cup of water. It was a warm spring night, and the pitcher was damp with condensation. She brushed her hand against her apron absently to dry it, and there was a crinkle of paper. She remembered Vika's letter and pulled it out, breaking the seal with her thumb and tilting the page towards the lamp as she drank.

A moment later, she dropped her cup. She didn't notice, or hear the ceramic shatter. She clutched the paper tightly and fled the room.

Leesha was sobbing quietly in the darkened kitchen when Rojer found her.

'Are you all right?' he asked quietly, leaning heavily on his cane.

'Rojer?' she sniffed. 'Why aren't you in bed?'

Rojer didn't answer, coming to sit beside her. 'Bad news from home?' he asked.

Leesha looked at him a moment, then nodded. 'That chill my father caught?' she asked, waiting for Rojer to nod his recollection before going on. 'He seemed to get better, but it came back with a vengeance. Turns it was a flux that's run from one end of the Hollow to the other. Most seem to be pulling through it, but the weaker ones…' she began to weep again.

'Someone you know?' Rojer asked, cursing himself as he said it. Of course it was someone she knew. Everyone knew everyone in the hamlets.

Leesha didn't notice the slip. 'My mentor, Bruna,' she said, fat teardrops falling onto her apron. 'A few others, as well, and two children I never had the chance to meet. Over a dozen in all, and more than half the town still laid up. My father worst amongst them.'

'I'm sorry,' Rojer said.

'Don't feel sorry for me; it's my fault,' Leesha said.

'What?' Rojer asked.

'I should have been there,' Leesha said. 'I haven't been Jizell's apprentice in years. I promised to return to Cutter's Hollow when my studies were done. If I had kept my promise, I would have been there, and perhaps…'

'I saw the flux kill some people in Woodsend once,' Rojer said. 'Would you like to add those to your conscience? Or those that die in this very city, because you can't tend them all?'

'That's not the same and you know it,' Leesha said.

'Isn't it?' Rojer asked. 'You said yourself that it does nothing to serve the dead if you stop living yourself out of guilt.'

Leesha looked at him, her eyes round and wet.

'So what do you want to do?' Rojer asked. 'Spend the night crying, or start packing?'

'Packing?' Leesha asked.

'I have a Messenger's portable circle,' Rojer said. 'We can leave for Cutter's Hollow in the morning.'

'Rojer, you can barely walk!' Leesha said.

Rojer lifted his cane, set it on the counter, and stood. He walked a bit stiffly, but unaided.

'Been faking to keep your warm bed and doting women a bit longer?' Leesha asked.

'I never!' Rojer blushed. 'I'm…just not ready to perform yet.'

'But you're fit to walk all the way to Cutter's Hollow?' Leesha asked. 'It would take a week without a horse.'

'I doubt I'll need to do any backflips on the way,' Rojer said. 'I can do it.'

Leesha crossed her arms and shook her head. 'No. I absolutely forbid it.'

'I'm not some apprentice you can forbid,' Rojer said.

'You're my patient,' Leesha shot back, 'and I'll forbid anything that puts your healing in jeopardy. I'll hire a Messenger to take me.'

'Good luck finding one,' Rojer said. 'The weekly man south will have left today, and at this time of year, most of the others will be booked. It'll cost a fortune to convince one to drop everything and take you to Cutter's Hollow. Besides, I can drive corelings away with my fiddle. No Messenger can offer you that.'

'I'm sure you could,' Leesha said, her tone making it clear she was sure of no such thing, 'but what I need is a swift Messenger's horse, not a magic fiddle.' She ignored his protests, ushering him back to bed, and then went upstairs to pack her things.

'So you're sure about this?' Jizell asked the next morning.

'I have to go,' Leesha said. 'It's too much for Vika and Darsy to handle alone.'

Jizell nodded. 'Rojer seems to think he's taking you,' she said.

'Well he's not,' Leesha said. 'I'm hiring a Messenger.'

'He's been packing his things all morning,' Jizell said.

'He's barely healed,' Leesha said.

'Bah!' Jizell said. 'It's near three moons. I haven't seen him use his cane all morning. I think it's been nothing more than a reason to be around you for some time.'

Leesha' s eyes bulged. ' You think that Rojer…?'

Jizell shrugged. 'I'm just saying, it isn't every day a man comes along who'll brave corelings for your sake.'

'Jizell, I'm old enough to be his mother!' Leesha said.

'Bah!' Jizell scoffed. 'You're only twenty-seven, and Rojer says he's twenty.'

'Rojer says a lot of things that aren't so,' Leesha said.

Jizell shrugged again.

'You say you're nothing like my mum,' Leesha said, 'but you both find a way to turn every tragedy into a discussion about my love life.'

Jizell opened her mouth to reply, but Leesha held up a hand to stay her. 'If you'll excuse me,' she said, 'I have a Messenger to hire.' She left the kitchen in a fume, and Rojer, listening at the door, barely managed to get out of her way and out of sight.

Between her father's arrangements and her earnings from Jizell, Leesha was able to acquire a promissory note from the Duke's Bank for one hundred fifty Milnese suns. It was a sum beyond the dreams of Angierian peasantry, but Messengers didn't risk their lives for klats. She'd hoped it would be enough, but Rojer's words proved prophetic, or a curse.

Spring trade was on in full, and even the worst Messengers had assignments. Skot was out of the city, and the secretary at the Messenger's Guild flat out refused to help her. The best they could offer was next week's man south, a full six days away.

'I could walk there in that time!' she shouted at the clerk.

'Then I suggest you get started,' the man said dryly.

Leesha bit her tongue and stomped off. She thought she would lose her mind if she had to wait a week to leave. If her father died in that week…

'Leesha?' a voice called. She stopped short, turning slowly.

'It is you!' Marick called, striding up to her with his arms outspread. 'I didn't realize you were still in the city!' Shocked, Leesha let him embrace her.

'What are you doing in the guildhouse?' Marick asked, backing up to eye her appreciatively. He was still handsome, with his wolf eyes.

'I need an escort to take me back to Cutter's Hollow,' she said. 'There's a flux sweeping the town, and they need my help.'

'I could take you, I suppose,' Marick said. 'I'll need to call a favour to cover my run to Riverbridge tomorrow, but that should be easy enough.'

'I have money,' Leesha said.

'You know I don't take money for escort work,' Marick said leering at her as he swept in close. 'There's only one payment that interests me.' His hand reached around to squeeze her buttock, and Leesha resisted the urge to pull away. She thought of the people that needed her, and more, she thought of what Jizell had said about flowers no one saw. Perhaps it was the Creator's plan that she should meet Marick this day. She swallowed hard and nodded at him.

Marick swept Leesha into a shadowed alcove off the main hall. He pushed her against the wall behind a wooden statue and kissed her deeply. After a moment, she returned the kiss, putting her arms around his shoulders, his tongue warm in her mouth.

'I won't have that problem this time,' Marick promised, taking her hand and placing it on his rigid manhood.

Leesha smiled timidly. 'I could come to your inn before dark,' she said. 'We could…spend the night, and leave in the morning.'

Marick looked from side to side, and shook his head. He pushed her against the wall again, reaching down with one hand to unbuckle his belt. 'I've waited for this too long,' he grunted. 'I'm ready now, and I'm not letting it get away!'

'I'm not doing it in a hallway!' Leesha hissed, pushing him back. 'Someone will see!'

'No one will see,' Marick said, pressing in and kissing her again. He produced his stiff member, and started pulling up her skirts. 'You're here, like magic,' he said, 'and this time, so am I. What more could you want?'

'Privacy?' Leesha asked. 'A bed? A pair of candles? Anything!'

'A Jongleur singing outside the window?' Marick mocked, his fingers probing between her legs to find her opening. 'You sound like a virgin.'

'I am a virgin!' Leesha hissed.

Marick pulled away, his erection still in his hand, and looked at her wryly. 'Everyone in Cutter's Hollow knows you stuck that ape Gared a dozen times at least,' he said. 'Are you still lying about it after all this time?'

Leesha scowled and drove her knee hard into his crotch, storming out of the guild house while Marick was still groaning on the ground.

'No one would take you?' Rojer asked that night.

'No one I didn't have to bed,' Leesha grunted, leaving out that she had indeed been willing to go that far. Even now, she worried that she'd made a huge mistake. Part of her wished she had just let Marick have his way, but even if Jizell was right and her maidenhead wasn't the most precious thing in all the world, it was surely worth more than that.

She scrunched up her eyes too late, only serving to squeeze out the tears she sought to prevent. Rojer touched her face, and she looked at him. He smiled and reached out, producing a brightly coloured handkerchief as if from her ear. She laughed in spite of herself, and took the kerchief to dry her eyes.

'I could still take you,' he said. 'I walked all the way from here to Shepherd's Dale. If I can do that, I can get you to Cutter's Hollow.'

'Truly?' Leesha asked, sniffing. 'That's not just one of your Jak Scaletongue stories, like being able to charm corelings with your fiddle?'

'Truly,' Rojer said.

'Why would you do that for me?' Leesha asked.

Rojer smiled, taking her hand in his crippled one. 'We're survivors, aren't we?' he asked. 'Someone once told me that survivors have to look out for one another.'

Leesha sobbed, and hugged him.

Am I going mad? Rojer asked himself as they left the gates of Angiers behind. Leesha had purchased a horse for the trip, but Rojer had no riding experience, and Leesha little more. He sat behind her as she guided the beast at a pace barely faster than they could walk.

Even then, the horse jarred his stiff legs painfully, but Rojer did not complain. If he said anything before they were out of sight of the city, Leesha would make them turn back.

Which is what you should do anyway, he thought. You're a Jongleur, not a Messenger.

But Leesha needed him, and he knew from the first time he saw her that he could never refuse her anything. He knew she saw him as a child, but that would change when he brought her home. She would see there was more to him; that he could take care of himself, and her as well.

And what was there for him in Angiers, anyway? Jaycob was gone, and the Guild likely thought he was dead, as well, which was probably for the best. 'If you go to the guard, it's you they'll hang,' Jasin had said, but Rojer was smart enough to know that if Goldentone ever learned he was alive, he would never get the chance to tell tales.

He looked at the road ahead, though, and his gut clenched. Like Cricket Run, Farmer's Stump was just a day away on horseback, but Cutter's Hollow was much further, perhaps four nights even with the horse. Rojer had never spent more than two nights outside, and that just the once. Arrick's death flashed in his mind. Could he handle losing Leesha, too?

'Are you all right?' Leesha asked.

'What?' Rojer replied.

'Your hands are shaking,' Leesha said.

He looked at his hands on her waist, and saw that she was right. 'It's nothing,' he managed. 'I just felt a chill out of nowhere.'

'I hate that,' Leesha said, but Rojer barely heard. He stared at his hands, trying to will them to stillness.

You're an actor! he scolded himself. Act brave!

He thought of Marko Rover, the brave explorer in his stories. Rojer had described the man and mummed his adventures so many times, every trait and mannerism was second nature to him. His back straightened, and his hands ceased to shake.

'Let me know when you get tired,' he said, 'and I'll take over the reins.'

'I thought you've never ridden before,' Leesha said.

'You learn things by doing them,' Rojer said, quoting the line Marko Rover used whenever he encountered something new.

Marko Rover was never afraid to do things he'd never done before.

With Rojer at the reins, they made better time, but even so, they barely made it to Farmer's Stump before dusk. They stabled the horse and made their way to the inn.

'You a Jongleur?' the innkeep asked, taking in Rojer's motley.

'Rojer Halfgrip,' Rojer said, 'out of Angiers and points west.'

'Never heard of you,' the innkeep grunted, 'but the room's free if you put on a show.'

Rojer looked to Leesha, and when she shrugged and nodded, he smiled, pulling out his bag of marvels.

Farmer's Stump was a small cluster of buildings and houses, all connected by warded boardwalks. Unlike any other village Rojer had ever been to, the Stumpers went outside at night, walking freely - if hastily - from building to building.

The freedom meant a full taproom, which pleased Rojer well. He performed for the first time in months, but it felt natural, and he soon had the entire room clapping and laughing at tales of Jak Scaletongue and the Painted Man.

When he returned to his seat, Leesha's face was a little flushed with wine. 'You were wonderful,' she said. 'I knew you would be.'

Rojer beamed, and was about to say something when a pair of men came over, bearing a handful of pitchers. They handed one to Rojer, and another to Leesha.

'Just a thanks for the show,' the lead man said. 'I know it ent much…'

'It's wonderful, thank you,' Rojer said. 'Please, join us.' He gestured to the empty seats at their table. The two men sat.

'What brings you through the Stump?' the first man asked. He was short, with a thick black beard. His companion was taller, burlier, and mute.

'We're heading to Cutter's Hollow,' Rojer said. 'Leesha is an Herb Gatherer, going to help them fight the flux.'

'Hollow's a long way,' the man with the black beard said. 'How'll you last the nights?'

'Don't fear for us,' Rojer said. 'We have a Messenger's circle.'

'Portable circle?' the man asked in surprise. 'That must'a cost a pretty pile.'

Rojer nodded. 'More than you know,' he said.

'Well, we won't keep you from yer beds,' the man said, he and his companion rising from the table. 'You'll want an early start.' They moved away, going to join a third man at another table as Rojer and Leesha finished their drinks and headed to their room.

27 Nightfall

332 AR

'Look at me! I'm a Jongleur!' said one of men, plopping the belled motley cap on his head and prancing around the road. The black-bearded man barked a laugh, but their third companion, larger than both of them combined, said nothing. All were smiling.

'I'd like to know what that witch threw at me,' the black-bearded man said. 'Dunked my whole head in the stream, and it still feels like my eyes are on fire.' He held up the circle and the reins of the horse, grinning. 'Still, an easy take like that only comes along once a'life.'

'Be months before we need t'work again,' the man in the motley cap agreed, jingling the purse of coins, 'and not a scratch on us!' He jumped up and clicked his heels.

'Maybe not a scratch on you," chuckled the black-bearded man, 'but I've a few on my back! That arse was worth nearly as much as the circle, even if that dust she threw in my eyes made it so I could barely see what went where.' The man in the motley cap laughed, and their giant mute companion clapped his hands with a grin.

'Should've taken her with us,' the man in the motley cap said. 'Gets cold in that miserable cave.'

'Don't be stupid,' the black-bearded man said. 'We got a horse and a Messenger circle, now. We don't need to stay in the cave no more, and that's best. Word in the Stump's that the duke's noticin' them just leaving the town gettin' hit. We go south first thing come morning, before we've got Rhinebeck's guards on our heels.'

The men were so busy with their discussion, they didn't notice the man riding down the road towards them until he was just a dozen yards away. In the waning light, he seemed wraithlike, wrapped in flowing robes and astride a dark horse, moving in the shadow of the trees beside the forest road.

When they did take note of him, the mirth on their faces fell away, replaced with looks of challenge. The black-bearded man was squat and thickly set, with thinning hair above his long, unkempt beard. He dropped the portable circle to the ground and pulled a heavy cudgel from the horse, advancing on the stranger. . Behind him, the mute raised a club the side of a small tree, and the man in the motley cap brandished a spear, the head nicked and burred.

'This here's our road,' the black-bearded man explained to the stranger. 'We're fine to share, like, but there's a tax.'

In answer, the stranger stepped his horse from the shadows.

A quiver of heavy arrows hung from his saddle, the bow strung and in easy reach. A spear as long as a lance rested in a harness on the other side, a rounded shield beside it. Strapped behind his seat, several shorter spears jutted, their points glittering wickedly in the setting sun.

But the stranger reached for no weapon, merely letting his hood slip back a bit. The men's eyes widened, and their leader backed away, scooping up the portable circle.

'Might let you pass just the once,' he amended, glancing back at the others. Even the giant had gone pale with fear. They kept their weapons ready, but carefully edged around the giant horse and backed down the road.

'We'd best not see you on this road again!' the black-bearded man called, when they were a safe distance away. The stranger rode on, unconcerned.

Rojer fought his terror as their voices receded. They had told him they would kill him if he tried to rise again. He reached into his secret pocket to take hold of his talisman, but all he found were some broken bits of wood and a clump of yellow-grey hair. It must have broken when the mute kicked him in the gut. He let the remnants fall from his numb fingers into the mud.

The sound of Leesha's sobs cut into him, making him afraid to look up. He had made that mistake before, when the giant had gotten off his back to take his turn with Leesha. One of the others had quickly taken his place, using Rojer's back as a bench to watch the fun.

There was little intelligence in the giant's eyes, but if he lacked the sadism of his companions, his dumb lust was a terror in itself; the urges of an animal in the body of a rock demon. If Rojer could have removed the image of him on top of Leesha from his mind by clawing out his eyes, he would not have hesitated.

He had been a fool, advertising their path and valuables like that. Too much time spent in the western hamlets had dulled his natural, city-bred distrust of strangers.

Marko Rover wouldn't have trusted them, he thought.

But that wasn't entirely true. Marko was forever getting tricked or clubbed on the head and left for dead. He survived by keeping his wits afterwards.

He survives because it's a story and you control the ending, Rojer reminded himself.

But the image of Marko Rover picking himself up and dusting himself off stuck with him, and eventually, Rojer gathered his strength and his nerve, forcing himself to his knees. Pain shot through him, but he did not think they had broken any bones. His left eye was so swollen he could barely see out of it, and he tasted blood in his mouth from his thickened lip. He was covered in bruises, but Abrum had done worse.

But there were no guardsmen, this time, to haul him to safety. No mother or master to put themselves in a demon's path.

Leesha whimpered again, and guilt shook him. He had fought to save her honour, but they had been three, all armed and stronger than him. What could he have done?

I wish they'd killed me, he thought to himself, slumping. Better dead than to have seen…

Coward, a voice in the back of his head snarled. Get up. She needs you.

Rojer staggered to his feet, looking around. Leesha was curled up in the dust of the forest road, sobbing, without even the strength to cover her shame. There was no sign of the bandits.

Of course, it hardly mattered. They had taken his portable circle, and without it, he and Leesha were as good as dead. Farmer's Stump was almost a full day behind them, and there was nothing ahead on the road for several days' walk. It would be dark in little more than an hour.

Rojer ran to Leesha's side, falling to his knees beside her. 'Leesha, are you all right?' he asked, cursing himself for the crack in his voice. She needed him to be strong!

'Leesha, please answer me,' he begged, squeezing her shoulder.

Leesha ignored him, curled up tight, shaking as she wept. Rojer stroked her back and whispered comfort to her, subtly tugging her dress back down. Whatever place her mind had retreated to in order to withstand the ordeal, she was reluctant to leave it. He tried to hold her in his arms, but she shoved him violently away, curling right back up, wracked with tears.

Leaving her side, Rojer picked through the dirt, gathering what few things had been left them. The bandits had dug through their bags, taking what they wanted and tossing the rest, mocking and destroying their personal effects. Leesha's clothing lay scattered in the road, and Rojer found Arrick's brightly coloured bag of marvels trampled in the muck. Much of what it had contained was taken or smashed. The painted wooden juggling balls were stuck in the mud, but Rojer left them where they lay.

Off the road where the mute had kicked it, he spied his fiddle case, and dared to hope they might survive. He rushed over to find the case broken open. The fiddle itself was salvageable with a little tuning and some new strings, but the bow was nowhere to be found.

Rojer looked as long as he dared, throwing leaves and underbrush in every direction with mounting panic, but to no avail. It was gone. He put the fiddle back in its case and spread out one of Leesha's long skirts, bundling the few salvageable items within.

A strong breeze broke the stillness, rustling the leaves of the trees. Rojer looked up at the setting sun, and realized suddenly, in a way he had not before, that they were going to die. What did it matter if he had a bowless fiddle and some clothes with him when it happened?

He shook his head. They weren't dead yet, and it was possible to avoid corelings for a night, if you kept your wits. He squeezed his fiddle case reassuringly. If they lived through the night, he could cut off a lock of Leesha's hair and make a new bow. The corelings couldn't hurt them if he had his fiddle.

To either side of the road, the woods loomed dark and dangerous, but Rojer knew corelings hunted men above all other creatures. They would stalk the road. The woods were their best hope to find a hiding place, or a secluded spot to prepare a circle.

How? that hated voice asked again. You never bothered to learn.

He moved back to Leesha, kneeling gently by her side. She was still shuddering, crying silently. 'Leesha,' he said quietly, 'we need to get off the road.'

She ignored him.

'Leesha, we need to find a place to hide.' He shook her.

Still no response.

'Leesha, the sun is setting!'

The sobbing stopped, and Leesha raised wide, frightened eyes. She looked at his concerned, bruised face, and her face screwed up as her crying resumed.

But Rojer knew he had touched her for a moment, and refused to let that go. He could think of few things worse than what had happened to her, but getting torn apart by corelings was one of them. He gripped her shoulders and shook her violently.

'Leesha, you need to get a hold of yourself!' he shouted. 'If we don't find a place to hide soon, the sun is going to find us scattered all over the road!'

It was a graphic image, intentionally so, and it had the desired effect as Leesha came up for air, gasping but no longer crying. Rojer dried her tears with his sleeve.

'What are we going to do?' Leesha squeaked, gripping his arms painfully tight.

Again, Rojer called upon the image of Marko Rover, and this time it came readily. 'First, we're going to get off the road,' he said, sounding confident when he was not. Sounding as if he had a plan when he did not. Leesha nodded, and let him help her stand. She winced in pain, and it cut right through him.

With Rojer supporting Leesha, they stumbled off the road and into the woods. The remaining light dropped dramatically under the forest canopy, and the ground crackled beneath their feet with twigs and dry leaves. The place smelled sickly sweet with rotting vegetation. Rojer hated the woods.

He scoured his mind for the tales of people who had survived the naked night, sifting for words with a ring of truth, searching for something, anything, that could help them.

Caves were best, the tales all agreed. Corelings preferred to hunt in the open, and a cave with even simple wards across the front was safer than attempting to hide. Rojer could recall at least three consecutive wards from his circle. Perhaps enough to ward a cave mouth.

But Rojer knew of no caves nearby, and had no idea what to look for. He cast about helplessly, and caught the sound of running water. Immediately, he pulled Leesha in that direction. Corelings tracked by sight, sound, and smell. Barring true succour, the best way to avoid them was to mask those things. Perhaps they could dig into the mud on the water's bank.

But when he found the source of the sound, it was only a trickling stream with no bank to speak of. Rojer grabbed a smooth rock from the water and threw it, growling in frustration.

He turned back to find Leesha squatting in the ankle-deep water, weeping again as she scooped up handfuls and splashed herself. Her face. Her breasts. Between her legs.

'Leesha, we have to go…' he said, reaching out to take her arm, but she shrieked and pulled away, bending for more water.

'Leesha, we don't have time for this!' he screamed, grabbing her and yanking her to her feet. He dragged her back into the woods, having no idea what he was looking for.

Finally he gave up, spotting a small clearing. There was nowhere to hide, so their only hope was to ward a circle. He let Leesha go and moved quickly into the clearing, brushing away a bed of rotting leaves to find the soft, moist soil beneath.

Leesha's blurry eyes slowly came into focus as she watched Rojer scraping leaves from the forest floor. She leaned heavily on a tree, her legs still weak.

Only minutes ago, she had thought that she would never recover from her ordeal, but the corelings about to rise were too immediate a threat, and she found, almost gratefully, that they took her mind away from what had happened.

Her pale cheeks were smudged with dirt and streaked with tears. She tried to smooth her torn dress, to regain some sense of dignity, but the ache between her legs was a constant reminder that her dignity was scarred forever.

'It's almost dark!' she moaned. 'What are we going to do?'

'I'll draw a circle in the soil,' Rojer said. 'It will be all right. I'll make everything all right,' he promised.

'Do you even know how?' she asked.

'Sure…I guess,' Rojer said unconvincingly. 'I had that portable one for years. I can remember the symbols.' He picked up a stick, and started to scratch lines on the ground, glancing up to the darkening sky again and again as he worked.

He was being brave for her. Leesha looked at Rojer, and felt a stab of guilt for getting him into this. He claimed to be twenty, but she knew that for a lie with years to spare. She should never have brought him along on such a dangerous journey.

He looked much like he had the first time she had seen him, his face puffy and bruised, blood oozing from his nose and mouth. He wiped at it with his sleeve and pretended it did not affect him. Leesha saw through the act easily, knew he was as frantic as she, but his effort was comforting, nonetheless.

'I don't think you're doing that right,' she said, looking over his shoulder.

'It'll be fine,' Rojer snapped.

'I'm sure the corelings will love it,' she shot back, annoyed by his dismissive tone, 'since it won't hinder them in the least.' She looked around. 'We could climb a tree,' she suggested.

'Corelings can climb better than we can,' Rojer said.

'What about finding someplace to hide?' she asked.

'We looked as long as we could,' Rojer said. 'We barely have time to make this circle, but it should keep us safe.'

'I doubt it,' Leesha said, looking at the shaky lines in the soil.

'If only I had my fiddle…' Rojer began.

'Not that pile of dung again,' Leesha snapped, sharp irritation rising to drive back her humiliation and fear. 'It's one thing to brag to the stripers in the light of day that you can charm demons with your fiddle, but what do you gain in carrying a lie to your grave?'

'I'm not lying!' Rojer insisted.

'Have it your way,' Leesha sighed, crossing her arms.

'It will be all right,' Rojer said again.

'Creator, can't you stop lying, even for a moment?' Leesha cried. 'It's not going to be all right and you know it. Corelings aren't bandits, Rojer. They won't be satisfied with just…' She looked down at her torn skirts, and her voice trailed off.

Rojer's face screwed up in pain, and Leesha knew she had been too harsh. She wanted to lash out at something, and it was easy to blame Rojer and his inflated promises for what happened. But in her heart, she knew it was more her fault than his. He left Angiers for her.

She looked at the darkening sky and wondered if she would have time to apologize before they were torn to pieces.

Movement in the trees and scrub behind them sent them both whirling around in fear. A man, swathed in grey robes, stepped into the clearing. His face was hidden in the shadows of his hood, and though he carried no weapons, Leesha could tell from his bearing that he was dangerous. If Marick was a wolf, this man was a lion.

She steeled herself, ravishment fresh in her mind, and honestly wondered for a moment which would be worse: another rape, or the demons.

Rojer was up in an instant, grabbing her arm and thrusting her behind him. He brandished the stick before him like a spear, his face twisted in a snarl.

The man ignored them both, moving over to inspect Rojer's circle. 'You have holes in your net there, there, and there,' he said, pointing, 'and this,' he kicked the ground by one of the crude symbols, 'this isn't even a ward.'

'Can you fix it?' Leesha asked hopefully, pulling free from Rojer's grasp and moving towards the man.

'Leesha, no,' Rojer whispered urgently, but she ignored him.

The man didn't even glance her way. 'There's no time,' he replied, pointing to the corelings already beginning to rise at the edge of the clearing.

'Oh, no,' Leesha whimpered, her face draining of colour.

The first to solidify was a wind demon. It hissed at the sight of them and crouched as if to spring, but the man gave it no time. As Leesha watched in amazement, he leapt right at the coreling, grabbing its arms to prevent it from spreading its wings. The demon's flesh hissed and smoked at his touch.

The wind demon shrieked and opened its maw, filled with needle sharp teeth. The man snapped his head back, flipping off his hood, then drove forward, slamming the top of his bald head into the coreling's snout. There was a flash of energy, and the demon was thrown backwards. It struck the ground, stunned. The man stiffened his fingers, driving them into the coreling's throat. There was another flash, and black ichor erupted in a spray.

The man turned sharply, wiping the ichor from his fingers as he strode past Rojer and Leesha. She could see his face now, though there was little human about it. His head was completely shaved, even his eyebrows, and in place of the lost hair were tattoos. They circled his eyes and rested on top of his head, lined his ears and covered his cheeks, even running along his jaw and around his lips.

'My camp is near,' he said, ignoring their stares. 'Come with me if you want to see the dawn.'

'What about the demons?' Leesha asked, as they fell in behind him. As if to accentuate her point, a pair of wood demons, knobbly and barklike, rose up to block their path.

The man pulled off his robe, stripping down to a loincloth, and Leesha saw that the tattoos were not limited to his head. Wards ran along his rippling arms and legs in intricate patterns, with larger ones on his elbows and knees. A circle of protection covered his back, and another large tattoo stood at the centre of his muscular chest. Every inch of him was warded.

'The Painted Man,' Rojer breathed. Leesha found the name dimly familiar.

'I'll handle the demons,' the man said. 'Take this,' he ordered, handing Leesha his robe.

He sprinted at the corelings, tumbling into a somersault and uncoiling to strike both demons in the chest with his heels. Magic exploded from the blow, blasting the wood demons from their path.

The race through the trees was a blur. The Painted Man set a brutal pace, unhindered by the corelings that leapt at them from all sides. A wood demon sprang at Leesha from the trees, but the man was there, driving a warded elbow into its skull with explosive force. A wind demon swooped in to slash its talons at Rojer, but the Painted Man tackled it away, punching right through one of its wings, grounding it.

Before Rojer could thank him, the Painted Man was off again, picking their path through the trees. Rojer helped Leesha keep up, untangling her skirts when they caught in the brush.

They burst from the trees, and Leesha could see a fire across the road; the Painted Man's camp. Standing between them and succour, though, was a group of corelings, including a massive, eight-foot tall rock demon.

The rock demon roared and beat its thick, armoured chest with gigantic fists, its horned tail lashing back and forth. It knocked the other corelings aside, claiming the prey for itself.

The Painted Man showed no fear as he approached the monster. He gave a high-pitched whistle, and set his feet, ready to spring when the demon attacked.

But before the rock demon could strike, two massive spikes burst from its breast, sizzling and sparking with magic. The Painted Man struck quickly, driving his warded heel into the coreling's knee and collapsing the monster to the ground.

As it fell, Leesha saw a monstrous black form behind it. The beast kicked away, pulling its horns free, and then reared up with a whinny, driving its hooves into the coreling's back with a thunderclap of magic.

The Painted Man charged the remaining demons, but the corelings scattered at his approach. A flame demon spat fire at him, but the man held up his spread hands, and the blast became a cool breeze as it passed through his warded fingers. Shaking with fear, Rojer and Leesha followed him into his camp, stepping into his circle of protection with enormous relief.

'Twilight Dancer!' the Painted Man called, whistling again. The great horse ceased its attack on the prone demon and galloped after them, leaping into the ring.

Like its master, Twilight Dancer looked like something out of a nightmare. The stallion was enormous, bigger by far than any horse Leesha had ever seen. Its coat was thick, shining ebony, and its body was armoured in warded metal. The barding about its head had been fitted with a long pair of metal horns, etched with wards, and even its black hooves had been carved with the magic symbols, painted silver. The towering beast looked more demon than horse.

Hanging from its black leather saddle were various harnesses for weapons, including a yew bow and a quiver of arrows, long knives, a bola, and spears of various lengths. A polished metal shield, circular and convex, was hooked over the saddle horn, ready to be snatched up in an instant. Its rim was etched with intricate wards.

Twilight Dancer stood quietly as the Painted Man checked it for wounds, seeming unconcerned with the demons that lurked just a few feet away. When he was assured that his mount was unharmed, the Painted Man turned back to Leesha and Rojer, who stood nervously in the centre of the circle, still reeling from the events of the last few minutes.

'Stoke the fire,' the man told Rojer. 'I've some meat we can put on, and a loaf of bread.' He moved towards his supplies, rubbing at his shoulder.

'You're hurt,' Leesha said, coming out of her shock and rushing over to inspect his wounds. There was a cut on his shoulder, and another, deeper gash on his thigh. His skin was hard, and crisscrossed with scars, giving it a rough texture, but not unpleasant to the touch. There was a slight tingle in her fingertips as she touched him, like static from a carpet.

'It's nothing,' the Painted Man said. 'Sometimes a coreling gets lucky and catches a talon on flesh before the wards drive it away.' He tried to pull away, reaching for his robe, but she was not to be put off.

'No wound from a demon is 'nothing',' Leesha said. 'Sit down and I'll dress these,' she ordered, ushering him over to sit against a large stone. In truth, she was almost as frightened of the man as she was of the corelings, but she had dedicated her life to helping the injured, and the familiar work took her mind away from the pain that still threatened to consume her.

'I've an herb pouch in that saddlebag,' the man said, gesturing. Leesha opened the bag and found the pouch. She bent to the fire's light as she rooted through the contents.

'I don't suppose you have any pomm leaves?' she asked. The man looked at her. 'No,' he said. 'Why? There's plenty of hogroot.'

'It's nothing,' Leesha mumbled. 'I swear, you Messengers to think that hogroot is a cure for everything.' She took the pouch, along with a mortar and pestle and a skin of water, and knelt beside the man, grinding the hogroot and a few other herbs into a paste.

'What makes you think I'm a Messenger?' the Painted Man usked.

'Who else would be out on the road alone?' Leesha asked.

I haven't been a Messenger in years,' the man said, not flinching at all as she cleaned out the wounds and applied the stinging paste. Rojer narrowed his eyes as he watched her spread the salve on his thick muscles.

'Are you an Herb Gatherer?' the Painted Man asked, as she passed a needle through the fire and threaded it.

Leesha nodded, but kept her eyes on her work, brushing a thick lock of hair behind her ear as she set to stitching the gash in his thigh. When the Painted Man made no further comment, she flicked her eyes up to meet his. They were dark, the wards around the sockets giving then a gaunt, deep-set look. Leesha couldn't hold that gaze for long, and quickly looked away.

'I'm Leesha,' she said, 'and that's Rojer making supper. He's a Jongleur.' The man nodded Rojer's way, but like Leesha, Rojer could not meet his gaze for long.

'Thank you for saving our lives,' Leesha said. The man only grunted in response. She paused briefly, waiting for him to return the introduction, but he made no effort to do so.

'Don't you have a name?' she asked at last.

'None I've used in some time,' the man answered.

'But you do have one,' Leesha pressed. The man only shrugged.

'Well then what shall we call you?' she asked.

'I don't see that you need to call me anything,' the man replied. He noted that her work was finished, and pulled away from her touch, again covering himself from head to foot in his grey robes. 'You owe me nothing. I would have helped anyone in your position. Tomorrow I'll see you safely to Farmer's Stump.'

Leesha looked to Rojer by the fire, then back at the Painted Man. 'We just left the Stump,' she said. 'We need to get to Cutter's Hollow. Can you take us there?' The grey hood shook back and forth in a negative.

'Going back to the Stump will cost us a week at least!' Leesha cried.

The Painted Man shrugged. 'That's not my problem.'

'We can pay,' Leesha blurted. The man glanced at her, and she looked away guiltily. 'Not now, of course,' she amended. 'We were attacked by bandits on the road. They took our horse, circle, money, even our food.' Her voice softened. 'They took…everything.' She looked up. 'But once I get to Cutter's Hollow, I'll be able to pay.'

'I have no need of money,' the Painted Man said.

'Please!' Leesha begged. 'It's urgent!'

'I'm sorry,' the Painted Man said.

Rojer came over to them, scowling. 'It's fine, Leesha,' he said. 'If this cold heart won't help us, we'll find our own way.'

'What way is that?' Leesha snapped. 'The way of being killed while you attempt to hold off demons with your stupid fiddle?'

Rojer turned away, stung, but Leesha ignored him, turning back to the man.

'Please,' she begged, grabbing his arm as he, too, turned away from her. 'A Messenger came to Angiers three days ago with word of a flux that spread through the Hollow. It's killed a dozen people so far, including the greatest Herb Gatherer that ever lived. The Gatherers left in the town can't possibly treat everyone. They need my help.'

'So you want me to not only put aside my own path, but to go into a village rife with flux?' the Painted Man asked, sounding anything but willing.

Leesha began to weep, falling to her knees as she clutched at his robes. 'My father is very sick,' she whispered. 'If I don't get I here soon, he may die.'

The Painted Man reached out, tentatively, and put a hand on her shoulder. Leesha was unsure of how she had reached him, but she sensed that she had. 'Please,' she said again.

The Painted Man stared at her for a long time. 'All right,' he said at last.

Cutter's Hollow was six days ride from Fort Angiers, on the southern outskirts of the Angierian forest. The Painted Man told them it would take four more nights to reach the village. Three, if they pressed hard and made good time. He rode alongside them, slowing his great stallion to their pace on foot.

'I'm going to scout up the road,' he said after a while. 'I'll be back in an hour or so.'

Leesha felt a stab of cold fear as he kicked his stallion's flanks and galloped off down the road. The Painted Man scared her almost as much as the bandits or the corelings, but there was no denying that in his presence, she was safe from those other threats.

She hadn't slept at all, and her lip throbbed from all the times she had bitten it to keep from crying. She had scrubbed every inch of herself after they fell asleep, but still she felt soiled.

'I've heard stories of this man,' Rojer said. 'Spun a few myself. I thought he was only a myth, but there can't be two men painted like that, who kill corelings with their bare hands.'

'You called him the Painted Man,' Leesha said, remembering.

Rojer nodded. 'That's what he's called in the tales. No one knows his real name,' he said. 'I heard of him over a year ago when one of the duke's Jongleurs passed through the western hamlets. I thought he was just an ale story, but it seems the duke's man was telling true.'

'What did he say?' Leesha asked.

'That the Painted Man wanders the naked night, hunting demons,' Rojer said. 'He shuns human contact, appearing only when he needs supplies and paying with ancient gold stamped with forgotten faces. From time to time, you hear tale of him rescuing someone on the road.'

'Well, we can bear witness to that,' Leesha said. 'But if he can kill demons, why has no one tried to learn his secrets?'

Rojer shrugged. 'According to the tales, no one dares. Even the dukes themselves are terrified of him, especially after what happened in Lakton.'

'What happened?' Leesha asked.

'The story goes that the Dockmasters of Lakton sent spies to steal his combat wards,' Rojer said. 'A dozen men, all armed and armoured. Those he didn't kill were crippled for life.'

'Creator!' Leesha gasped, covering her mouth. 'What kind of monster are we travelling with?'

'Some say he's part demon himself,' Rojer agreed, 'the result of a coreling raping a woman on the road.'

He started suddenly, his face colouring as he realized what he'd said, but his thoughtless words had the opposite effect, breaking the spell of her fear. 'That's ridiculous,' she said, shaking her head.

'Others say he's no demon at all,' Rojer pressed on, 'but the Deliverer himself, come to lift the plague. Tenders have prayed to him and begged his blessings.'

'I'd sooner believe he's half-coreling,' Leesha said, though she sounded less sure than her words told.

They travelled on in uncomfortable silence. A day ago, Leesha had been unable to get a moment's peace from Rojer, the Jongleur constantly trying to impress her with his tales and music, but now he kept his eyes down, brooding. Leesha knew he was hurting, until part of her wanted to offer comfort, but a bigger part needed comfort of her own. She had nothing to give.

Soon after, the Painted Man rode back to them. 'You two walk too slow,' he said, dismounting. 'If we want to save ourselves a fourth night on the road, we'll need to cover thirty miles today. You two ride. I'll run alongside.'

'You shouldn't be running,' Leesha said. 'You'll tear the stitches I put in your thigh.'

'It's all healed,' the Painted Man said. 'Just needed a night's rest.'

'Nonsense,' Leesha said, 'that gash was an inch deep.' As if to prove her point, she went over to him and knelt, lifting the loose robe away from his muscular, tattooed leg.

But when she removed the bandage to examine the wound, her eyes widened in shock. New, pink flesh had already grown to knit the wound together, her stitches poking from otherwise healthy skin.

'That's impossible,' she said.

'It was just a scratch,' the Painted Man said, sliding a wicked blade through the stitches and picking them out one by one. Leesha opened her mouth, but the Painted Man rose and went back to Twilight Dancer, taking the reins and holding them out to her.

'Thank you,' she said numbly, taking the reins. In one moment, everything she knew about healing had been called into question. Who was this man? What was he?

Twilight Dancer cantered down the road and the Painted Man ran alongside in long, tireless strides, easily keeping pace with the horse as the miles melted away under his warded feet. When they rested, it was from Rojer and Leesha's desire and not his. Leesha watched him subtly, searching for signs of fatigue, but there were none. When they made camp at last, his breath was smooth and regular as he fed and watered his horse, even as she and Rojer groaned and rubbed the aches from their limbs.

There was an awkward silence about the campfire. It was well past dark, but the Painted Man walked freely about the camp, collecting firewood and removing Twilight Dancer's barding, brushing the great stallion down. He moved from the horse's circle to their own without a thought to the wood demons lurking about. One leapt at him from the cover of the brush, but the Painted Man paid no mind as it slammed into the wards barely an inch from his back.

While Leesha prepared supper, Rojer limped bowlegged around the circle, attempting to walk off the stiffness of a day's hard riding.

'I think my stones are crushed from all that bouncing,' he groaned.

'I'll have a look, if you like,' Leesha said. The Painted Man snorted.

Rojer looked at her ruefully. 'I'll be all right,' he managed, continuing to pace. He stopped suddenly a moment later, staring down the road.

They all looked up, seeing the eerie orange light of the flame demon's mouth and eyes long before the coreling itself came into sight, shrieking and running hard on all fours.

'How is it that the flame demons don't burn the entire forest down?' Rojer wondered, watching the trailing wisps of fire behind the creature.

'You're about to find out,' the Painted Man said. Rojer found the amusement in his voice even more unsettling than his usual monotone.

The words were barely spoken before howls heralded the approach of a pack of wood demons, three strong, barrelling down the road after the flame demon. One of them had another flame demon hanging limply from its jaws, dripping black ichor.

So occupied was the flame demon with outrunning its pursuers, it failed to notice the other wood demons gathering in the scrub at the edges of the road until one pounced, pinning the hapless creature and eviscerating it with its back talons. It shrieked horribly, and Leesha covered her ears from the sound.

'Woodies hate flame demons,' the Painted Man explained when it was over, his eyes glinting in pleasure at the kill.

'Why?'Rojer asked.

'Because wood demons are vulnerable to demonfire,' Leesha said. The Painted Man looked up at her in surprise, then nodded.

'Then why don't the flame demons set them on fire?' Rojer asked.

The Painted Man laughed. 'Sometimes they do,' he said, 'but flammable or no, there isn't a flame demon alive that's a match in a fight with a wood demon. Woodies are second only to rock demons in strength, and they're nearly invisible within the borders of the forest.'

'The Creator's Great Plan,' Leesha said. 'Checks and balances.'

'Evolution,' the Painted Man countered. 'If the flame demons burned everything away, there would be nothing left for them to hunt. Nature found a way to solve the problem.'

'You don't believe in the Creator?' Rojer asked.

'We have enough problems already,' the Painted Man answered, and his scowl made it clear that he had no desire to pursue the subject.

'There are some that call you the Deliverer,' Rojer dared.

The Painted Man snorted. 'There's no Deliverer coming to save us, Jongleur,' he said. 'You want demons dead in this world, you have to kill them yourself

As if in response, a wind demon bounced off Twilight Dancer's wardnet, filling the area with a brief flash of light. The stallion dug at the soil with his hooves, as if eager to leap from the circle and do battle, but he stayed in place, waiting for a command from his master.

'How is it the horse stands so unafraid?' Leesha asked. 'Even Messengers stake down their horses at night to keep them from bolting, but yours seems to want to fight.'

'I've been training Twilight Dancer since he was foaled,' the Painted Man said. 'He's always been warded, so he's never learned to fear corelings. His sire was the biggest, most aggressive beast I could find, and his dam the same.'

'But he seemed so gentle when we rode him,' Leesha said.

'I've taught him to channel his aggressive urges,' the Painted Man said, pride evident in his normally emotionless tone. 'He returns kindness, but if he's threatened, or I am, he'll attack without hesitation. He once crushed the skull of a wild boar that would have gored me for sure.'

Finished with the flame demons, the wood demons began to circle the wards, drawing closer and closer. The Painted Man strung his yew bow and took out his quiver of heavy-tipped arrows, but he ignored the creatures as they slashed at the barrier and were thrown back. When they finished their meal, he selected an unmarked arrow and took an etching tool from his warding kit, slowly inscribing the shaft with wards.

'If we weren't here…' Leesha asked.

'I would be out there,' the Painted Man answered, not looking up at her. 'Hunting.'

Leesha nodded, and was quiet for a time, watching him. Rojer shifted uncomfortably at her obvious fascination.

'Have you seen my home?' she asked softly.

The Painted Man looked at her curiously, but made no reply.

'If you've come from the south, you must've come through the Hollow,'Leesha said.

The Painted Man shook his head. 'I give the hamlets a wide berth,' he said. 'The first person to see me runs off, and before long I'm met by a cluster of angry men with pitchforks.'

Leesha wanted to protest, but she knew the people of Cutter's Hollow would act much as he described. 'They're only afraid,' she said lamely.

'I know,' the Painted Man said. 'And so I leave them in peace. There's more to the world than hamlets and cities, and if the price of one is losing the other…' he shrugged. 'Let people hide in their homes, caged like chickens. Cowards deserve no better.'

'Then why did you save us from the demons?' Rojer asked.

The Painted Man shrugged. 'Because you're human and they're abominations,' he said. 'And because you struggled to survive, right up to the last minute.'

'What else could we have done?' Rojer asked.

'You'd be amazed how many just lay down and wait for the end,' the Painted Man said.

They made good time the fourth day out from Angiers. Neither the Painted Man nor his stallion seemed to know fatigue, Twilight Dancer easily pacing his master's loping run.

When they finally made camp for the night, Leesha made a thin soup from the Painted Man's remaining stores, but it barely filled their bellies. 'What are we going to do for food?' she asked him, as the last of it vanished down Rojer's throat.

The Painted Man shrugged. 'I hadn't planned for company,' he said as he sat back, carefully painting wards onto his fingernails.

'Two more days of riding is a long way to go without food,' Rojer lamented.

'You want to cut the trip in half,' the Painted Man said, blowing on a nail to dry it, 'we could travel by night, as well. Twilight Dancer can outrun most corelings, and I can kill the rest.'

'Too dangerous,' Leesha said. 'We'll do Cutter's Hollow no good if we all get killed. We'll just have to travel hungry.'

'I'm not leaving the wards at night,' Rojer agreed, rubbing his stomach regretfully.

The Painted Man pointed to a coreling stalking the camp. 'We could eat that,' he said.

'You can't be serious!' Rojer cried in disgust. 'Just the thought is sickening,' Leesha agreed. 'It's not so bad, really,' the man said. 'You've actually eaten demon?' Rojer asked. 'I do what I have to, to survive,' the man replied. 'Well, I'm certainly not going to eat demon meat,' Leesha said.

'Me neither,' Rojer agreed.

'Very well,' the Painted Man sighed, getting up and taking his bow, a quiver of arrows, and a long spear. He stripped off his robe, revealing his warded flesh, and moved to the edge of the circle. 'I'll see what I can hunt up.'

'You don't need to…!' Leesha called, but the man ignored her. A moment later, he had vanished into the night.

It was more than an hour before he returned, carrying a plump pair of rabbits by the ears. He handed the catch to Leesha, and returned to his seat, picking up the tiny warding brush.

'You make music?' he asked Rojer, who had just finished restringing his fiddle and was plucking at the strings, adjusting the tensions.

Rojer jumped at the comment. 'Y-yes,' he managed. 'Will you play something?' the Painted Man asked. 'I can't remember the last time I heard music'

'I would,' Rojer said sadly, 'but the bandits kicked my bow into the woods.'

The man nodded and sat in thought a moment. Then he stood suddenly, producing a large knife. Rojer shrank back, but the man just stepped back out of the circle. A wood demon hissed at him, but the Painted Man hissed right back, and the demon shied away.

Me returned soon after with a supple length of wood, shearing the bark with his wicked blade. 'How long was it?' he asked.

'E-eighteen inches,' Rojer stuttered.

The Painted Man nodded, cutting the branch to the appropriate length and walking over to Twilight Dancer. The stallion did not react as he cut a length of hair from its tail. He notched the wood and tied the horsehair flat and thick on one side. He knelt next to Rojer, bending the branch. 'Tell me when the tension is right,' he said, and Rojer laid the fingers of his crippled hand on the hair. When he was satisfied, the Painted Man tied the other end and handed it to him.

Rojer beamed at the gift, treating it with resin before taking up his fiddle. He put the instrument to his chin and gave it a few strokes with the new bow. It wasn't ideal, but he grew more confident, pausing to tune once more before beginning to play.

His skilful fingers filled the air with a haunting melody that took Leesha's thoughts to Cutter's Hollow, wondering at its fate. Vika's letter was almost a week gone. What would she find when she arrived? Perhaps the flux had passed with no more loss, and this desperate ordeal had been for nothing.

Or perhaps they needed her more than ever.

The music affected the Painted Man as well, she noticed, for his hands stopped their careful work, and he stared off into the night. Shadows draped his face, obscuring the tattoos, and she saw in his sad countenance that he had been comely once. What pain had driven him to this existence, scarring himself and shunning his own kind for the company of corelings? She found herself aching to heal him, though he showed no hurt.

Suddenly, the man shook his head as if to clear it, startling Leesha from her reverie. He pointed off into the darkness. 'Look,' he whispered. 'They're dancing.'

Leesha looked out in amazement, for indeed, the corelings had ceased to test the wards, had ceased even to hiss and shriek. They circled the camp, swaying in time to the music. Flame demons leaped and twirled, sending ribbons of fire spiralling away from their knotted limbs, and wind demons looped and dove through the air. Wood demons had crept from the cover of the forest, but they ignored the flame demons, drawn to the melody.

The Painted Man looked at Rojer. 'How are you doing that?' he asked, his voice awed.

Rojer smiled. 'The corelings, they have an ear for music,' he said. He rose to his feet, walking to the edge of the circle. The demons clustered there, watching him intently. He began to walk the circle's perimeter, and they followed, mesmerized. He stopped and swayed from side to side as he continued to play, and the corelings mirrored his movements almost exactly.

'I didn't believe you,' Leesha apologized quietly. 'You really can charm them.'

'And that's not all,' Rojer boasted. With a twist and a series of sharp strokes of the bow, he turned the melody sour; once pure notes ringing out discordant and tainted. Suddenly, the corelings were shrieking again, covering their ears with their talons and scrambling away from Rojer. They drew back further and further as the musical assault continued, vanishing into the shadows beyond the firelight.

'They haven't gone far,' Rojer said. 'As soon as I stop, they'll be back.'

'What else can you do?' the Painted Man asked quietly.

Rojer smiled, as content to perform for an audience of two as he was for a cheering crowd. He softened his music again, the chaotic notes smoothly flowing back into the haunting melody. The corelings reappeared, drawn to the music once more.

'Watch this,' Rojer instructed, and changed the sound again, the notes rising high and grating, causing even Leesha and the Painted Man to grit their teeth and lean away.

The reaction of the corelings was more pronounced. They grew enraged, shrieking and roaring as they threw themselves at the barrier with abandon. Again and again the wards flared and threw them back, but the demons did not relent, smashing themselves against the wardnet in an insane attempt to reach Rojer and silence him forever.

Two rock demons joined the throng, shoving past the others and hammering at the wards as yet more added to the press. The Painted Man rose silently behind Rojer and lifted his bow.

The string hummed, and one of the heavy, thick-headed arrows exploded into the chest of the nearest rock demon like a bolt of lighting, brightening the area for a moment. Again and again the Painted Man fired into the horde, his hands a blur. The warded bolts blasted the corelings back, and the few that rose again were quickly torn to pieces by their fellows.

Rojer and Leesha stood horrified at the slaughter. The Jongleur's bow slipped from the fiddle's strings, hanging forgotten in his limp hand as he watched the Painted Man work.

The demons were screaming still, but it was pain and fear now, their desire to attack the wards vanished with the music. Still the Painted Man fired, again and again until his arrows were all gone. He grabbed a spear, throwing it and striking a fleeing wood demon in the back.

There was chaos now, the few remaining corelings desperate to escape. The Painted Man stripped off his robe, ready to leap from the circle to kill demons with his bare hands.

'No, please!' Leesha cried, throwing herself at him. 'They're running!'

'You would spare them?!' the Painted Man roared, glaring at her, his face terrible with wrath. She fell back in fear, but she kept her eyes locked on his.

'Please,' she begged. 'Don't go out there.'

Leesha feared he might strike her, but he only stared at her, his breath heaving. Finally, after what seemed an eternity, he calmed and took up his robe, covering his wards once more.

'Was that necessary?' she asked, breaking the silence.

'The circle wasn't designed to forbid so many corelings at once,' the Painted Man said, his voice again a cold monotone. 'I don't know that it would have held.'

'You could have just asked me to stop playing,' Rojer said.

'Yes,' the Painted Man agreed, 'I could have.'

'Then why didn't you?' Leesha demanded.

The Painted Man didn't answer. He strode out of the circle and began cutting his arrows from the demon corpses.

Leesha was fast asleep later that night, when the Painted Man approached Rojer. The Jongleur, staring out at the fallen demons, gave a startled jump when the man squatted down next to him. 'You have power over the corelings,' he said.

Rojer shrugged. 'So do you,' he said. 'More than I ever will.'

'Can you teach me?' the Painted Man asked. Rojer turned, meeting the man's gimlet eyes.

'Why?' he asked. 'You kill demons by the score. What's my trick compared to that?'

'I thought I knew my enemies,' the Painted Man said, 'but you've shown me otherwise.'

'You think they may not be all bad, if they can enjoy music?' Rojer asked.

The Painted Man shook his head. 'They are no patrons of art, Jongleur,' he said. 'The moment you ceased to play, they would have killed you without hesitation.'

Rojer nodded, conceding the point. 'Then why bother?' he asked. 'Learning the fiddle is a lot of work to charm beasts you can just as easily kill.'

The Painted Man's face hardened. 'Will you teach me or not?' he asked.

'I will…' Rojer said, thinking it through,'but I want something in return.'

'I have plenty of money,' the Painted Man assured him.

Rojer waved his hand dismissively. 'I can get money whenever I need it,' he said. 'What I want is more valuable.'

The Painted Man said nothing.

‘I want to travel with you,' Rojer announced.

The Painted Man shook his head. 'Out of the question,' he said.

'You don't learn the fiddle overnight,' Rojer argued. 'It'll take weeks to become even passable, and you'll need more skill than that to charm even the least discriminating coreling.'

'And what do you get out of it?' the Painted Man asked.

'Material for stories that will fill the duke's amphitheatre night after night,' Rojer said.

'What about her?' the Painted Man asked, nodding back towards Leesha. Rojer looked at the Herb Gatherer, her breast gently rising and falling as she slept, and the Painted Man did not miss the significance of that gaze.

'She asked me to escort her home, nothing more,' Rojer said at last.

'And if she asks you to stay?'

'She won't,' Rojer said quietly.

'My road is no fun adventure, boy,' the Painted Man said. 'I've no time to be slowed by one who hides at night.'

'I have my fiddle now,' Rojer said with more bravery than he felt.'I'm not afraid.'

'You need more than courage,' the Painted Man said. 'In the wild, you kill or be killed, and I don't just mean demons.'

Rojer straightened, swallowing the lump in his throat. ‘Everyone who tries to protect me ends up dead,' he said. 'It's time I learned to protect myself.'

The Painted Man leaned back, considering the young Jongleur.

'Come with me,' he said at last, rising.

'Out of the circle?' Rojer asked.

'If you can't do that, you're no use to me,' the Painted Man said. When Rojer looked around doubtfully, he added, 'Every coreling for miles heard what I did to their fellows. It's doubtful we'll see more tonight.'

'What about Leesha?' Rojer asked, rising slowly.

'Twilight Dancer will protect her, if need be,' the man said. 'Come on.' He moved out of the circle and vanished into the night.

Rojer swore, but he grabbed his fiddle and followed the man down the road.

Rojer clutched his fiddle case tightly as they moved through the trees. He made to take it out at first, but the Painted Man had waved for him to put it away.

'You'll draw attention we don't want,' he whispered.

'I thought you said we weren't likely to see any corelings tonight,' Rojer hissed back, but the Painted Man ignored him, moving through the darkness as if it were broad day.

'Where are we going?' Rojer asked for what seemed the hundredth time.

They climbed a small rise, and the Painted Man lay flat, pointing downwards.

'Look there,' he told Rojer. Below, Rojer could see three very familiar men and a horse sleeping within the tight confines of an even more familiar portable circle.

'The bandits,' Rojer breathed. A flood of emotions washed over him; fear, rage, and helplessness, and in his mind's eye, he relived the ordeal they put him and Leesha through. The mute stirred in his sleep, and Rojer felt a stab of panic.

'I've been tracking them since I found you,' the Painted Man said. 'I spotted their fire while I was hunting tonight.'

'Why did you bring me here?' Rojer asked.

' I thought you might like a chance to get your circle back,' the I tinted Man said.

Rojer looked back at him. 'If we steal the circle while they're sleeping, the corelings will kill them before they know what's happening.'

'The demons are thin,' the Painted Man said. 'They'll have hotter odds than you did.'

'Even so, what makes you think I'd want to risk it?' Rojer asked.

‘I watch,' the man said, 'and I listen. I know what they did to you…and to Leesha.'

Rojer was quiet a long while. 'There are three of them,' he said at last.

'This is the wild,' the Painted Man said. 'If you want to live in safety, go back to the city.' He spat the last word like a curse.

But Rojer knew there was no safety in the city, either. Unbidden, he saw Jaycob crumple to the ground, and heard Jasin's laughter. He could have sought justice after the attack, but he chose to flee, instead. He was forever fleeing, and letting others die in his stead. His hand searched for a talisman that was no longer there as he stared down at the fire.

'Was I wrong?' the Painted Man asked. 'Shall we go back to our camp?'

Rojer swallowed. 'As soon as I have what belongs to me,' he decided.

28 Secrets

332 AR

Leesha awoke to a soft nickering. She opened her eyes to see Rojer brushing down the russet mare she had purchased in Angiers, and for a moment, she dared think the last two days a dream.

But then Twilight Dancer stepped into view, the giant stallion towering over the mare, and it all came rushing back.

'Rojer,' she asked quietly, 'where did my horse come from?'

Rojer opened his mouth to reply, but the Painted Man strode into the camp then, with two small rabbits and a handful of apples. 'I saw your friends' fire last night,' he explained, 'and thought we would travel faster all a'horse.'

Leesha was quiet a long time, digesting the news. A dozen emotions ran through her, many of them shameful and unsavoury. Rojer and the Painted Man gave her time, and she was thankful for that. 'Did you kill them?' she asked at last.

The Painted Man looked her in the eye. 'No,' he said, and an immense relief flooded through her. 'I scattered them long enough to steal the horse, but that was all.'

Leesha nodded. 'We'll send word of them to the duke's magistrate with the next Messenger to pass through the Hollow.'

Her herb blanket was rolled crudely and strapped to the saddle. She pulled it off and examined it, relief washing over her as she found most of the bottles and pouches intact. They had smoked all her tampweed, but that was easy enough to replace.

After breakfast, Rojer rode the mare while Leesha sat behind The Painted Man on Twilight Dancer. They travelled swiftly, for there were clouds gathering, and threat of rain.

Leesha felt like she should have been afraid. The bandits were alive and ahead of them. She remembered the leering face of the black-bearded man and the raucous laughter of his companion. Worst of all, she remembered the terrible weight and dumb, violent lust of the mute.

She should have been afraid, but she wasn't. Even more than Bruna, the Painted Man made her feel safe. He did not tire. He did not fear. And she knew without a doubt that no harm could ever come to her while she was under his protection.

Protection. It was an odd feeling, needing protection, like something out of another life. She had been protecting herself for so long, she had forgotten what it was like. Her skills and wits were enough to keep her safe in civilized places, but those things meant little in the wild.

The Painted Man shifted, and she realized she had tightened her hands around his waist, pressing close to him with her head resting on his shoulder. She pulled away, so caught up in her embarrassment that she almost didn't see the hand, lying in the scrub at the side of the road.

When she did, she screamed.

The Painted Man pulled up, and Leesha practically fell off the horse, rushing to the spot. She brushed the weeds aside, gasping as she realized the hand wasn't attached to anything, bitten clean off.

'Leesha, what is it?' Rojer cried, as he and the Painted Man ran to her.

'Were they camped near here?' Leesha asked, holding up the appendage. The Painted Man nodded. 'Take me there,' Leesha ordered.

'Leesha, what good could…' Rojer began, but she ignored him, keeping her eyes locked on the Painted Man.

'Take. Me. There.' she said. The Painted Man nodded, putting down a stake and tying the mare's reins to it.

'Guard,' he said to Twilight Dancer, and the stallion nickered and nodded its great head.

They found the camp soon after, awash in blood and half-eaten bodies. Leesha lifted her apron to cover her mouth against the stench. Rojer retched and ran from the clearing.

But Leesha was no stranger to blood. 'Only two,' she said, examining the remains.

The Painted Man nodded. 'The mute is missing,' he said. 'The giant.'

'Yes,' Leesha said. 'And the circle as well.'

'The circle, as well,' the Painted Man agreed after a moment.

The heavy clouds continued to gather as they made their way back to the horses. 'There's a Messenger cave ten miles up the road,' the Painted Man said. 'If we press hard and skip lunch, we should make it there before the rain comes. We'll have to take refuge until the storm passes.'

'The man who kills corelings with his bare hands is afraid of a little rain?' Leesha asked.

'If the cloud is thick enough, corelings might rise early,' the Painted Man said.

'Since when are you afraid of corelings?' Leesha pressed.

'It's stupid and dangerous to fight in the rain,' the Painted Man said. 'Rain makes mud, and mud obscures wards and ruins footing.'

They were barely settled in the cave before the storm struck. Drenching sheets of rain turned the road to mud and the sky went dark, save for the sharp strikes of lightning. The wind howled at them, punctuated by roaring thunder.

Much of the cave mouth was warded already, symbols of power etched deeply into the rock, and the Painted Man quickly secured the rest with a cache of wardstones left within.

As the Painted Man predicted, a few demons rose early in the false dark. He watched grimly as they crept out from the darkest parts of the wood, relishing their early release from the Core. The brief flashes of light outlined their sinuous forms as they frolicked in the wet.

They tried to break into the cave, but the wards held strong. Those that ventured too close regretted it, greeted with a jab from the scowling Painted Man's spear.

'Why are you so angry?' Leesha asked, drawing bowls and spoons from her bag as Rojer worked to light a small fire.

'Bad enough they come at night,' the Painted Man spat. 'They've no right to the day.'

Leesha shook her head. 'You'd be happier if you could accept what is,' she advised.

'I don't want to be happy,' he replied.

'Everyone wants to be happy,' Leesha scoffed. 'Where's the cookpot?' she asked.

'In my bag,' Rojer said. 'I'll get it.'

'No need,' Leesha said, rising. 'Mind the fire. I'll fetch it.'

'No!' Rojer cried, but even as he leapt to his feet, he saw he was too late. Leesha drew forth his portable circle with a gasp.

'But…' she stammered, 'they took this!' She looked at Rojer, and saw his eyes flick to the Painted Man. She turned to him, but could read nothing in the shadows of his cowl.

'Is someone going to explain?' she demanded.

'We…got it back,' Rojer said lamely.

'I know you got it back!' Leesha shouted, whipping the coil of rope and wooden plates to the cave floor. 'How?'

'I took it when I took the horse,' the Painted Man said suddenly. 'I didn't want it on your conscience, so I kept it from you.'

'You stole it?'

'They stole it,' the Painted Man said. 'I took it back.'

Leesha looked at him for a long time. 'You took it at night,' she said quietly.

The Painted Man said nothing.

'Were they using it?' Leesha demanded through gritted teeth.

'The road is dangerous enough without such men,' the Painted Man replied.

'You murdered them,' Leesha said, her eyes filling with tears. 'How could you?'

'I murdered no one,' the Painted Man said.

'As good as!'

The man shrugged. 'They did the same to you.'

'That makes it right?' Leesha cried. 'Look at you! You don't even care! Two men dead at least, and you sleep no worse! You're a monster!' She sprang at him, trying to beat him with her fists, but he caught her wrists, and watched impassively as she struggled with him.

'Why do you care?' he asked.

'I'm an Herb Gatherer!' she screamed. 'I've taken an oath! I've sworn to heal, but you,' she looked at him coldly, 'all you're sworn to do is kill.'

After a moment, the fight left her and she pulled away. 'You mock what I am,' she said, slumping down and staring at the cave floor for several minutes. Then she looked up at Rojer. 'You said 'we',' she accused.

'What?' the Jongleur asked, trying to appear confused. 'Before,' she clarified. 'You said 'we got it back'. And the circle was in your bag. Did you go with him?'

'I…' Rojer stalled.

'Don't you lie to me, Rojer!' Leesha growled.

Rojer's eyes dropped to the floor. After a moment, he nodded.

'He was telling the truth before,' Rojer admitted. 'All he took was the horse. While they were distracted, I took the circle and your herbs.'

'Why?' Leesha asked, her voice cracking slightly. The disappointment in her tone cut the young Jongleur like a knife.

'You know why,' Rojer replied sombrely.

'Why?' Leesha demanded again. 'For me? For my honour? Tell me, Rojer. Tell me you killed in my name!'

'They had to pay,' Rojer said tightly. 'They had to pay for what they did. It was unforgivable.'

Leesha laughed out loud, though there was no humour in the sound. 'Don't you think I know that?' she shouted. 'Do you think I saved myself for twenty-seven years to give my flower to a gang of thugs?'

Silence hung in the cave for a long moment. A peal of thunder cut the air.

'Saved yourself…' Rojer echoed.

'Yes, damn you!' Leesha shrieked, angry tears streaking her face. 'I was a virgin! Does even that justify giving men to the corelings?'

'Giving?' the Painted Man echoed.

Leesha whirled on him. 'Of course, giving!' she shouted. 'I'm sure your friends the demons were overjoyed at your little present. Nothing pleases them more than having humans to kill. With so few of us left, we're a rare treat!'

The Painted Man's eyes widened, reflecting the firelight. It was a more human expression than Leesha had ever seen on his face, and the sight made her momentarily forget her anger. He looked utterly terrified, and backed away from them, all the way to the cave mouth.

Just then, a coreling threw itself against the wardnet, filling the cave with a flash of silver light. The Painted Man whirled and screamed at the demon, a sound unlike anything Leesha had ever heard, but one she recognized all the same. It was a vocalization of what she had felt inside when she had been pinned, that terrible evening on the road.

The Painted Man snatched up one of his spears, hurling it out into the rain. There was an explosion of magic as it struck the demon, blasting it into the mud.

'Damn you!' the Painted Man roared, ripping off his robes and leaping out into the downpour. 'I swore I would give you nothing! Nothing at all!' He pounced on a wood demon from behind, crushing it to him. The massive ward on his chest flared, and the coreling burst into flame, despite the pouring rain. He kicked away as the creature flailed about.

'Fight me!' the Painted Man demanded of the others, planting his feet in the mud. Corelings leapt to oblige, slashing and biting, but the man fought like a demon himself, and they were flung away like autumn leaves against the wind.

From the rear of the cave, Twilight Dancer whinnied and pulled at his hobble, trained to fight by his master's side. Rojer moved to calm the animal, looking to Leesha in confusion.

'He can't fight them all,' Leesha said. 'Not in the mud.' Already, many of the man's wards were splattered with muck. 'He means to die,' she realized. 'What should we do?' Rojer asked. 'Your fiddle!' Leesha cried. 'Drive them away!' Rojer shook his head. 'The wind and thunder would drown me out,' he said.

'We can't just let him kill himself!' Leesha screamed at him.

'You're right,' Rojer agreed. He strode over to the Painted Man's weapons, taking a light spear and the warded shield. Realizing what he meant to do, Leesha moved to stop him, but he stepped out of the cave before she could reach him, rushing to the Painted Man's side.

A flame demon spat fire at Rojer, but it fizzled in the rain and fell short. The coreling leapt at him, but he lifted the warded shield and the creature was deflected. His concentration in front, he didn't see the other flame demon behind him until it was too late. The coreling sprang, but the Painted Man snatched the three-foot tall demon right out of the air, hurling it away, its flesh sizzling at his touch.

'Get inside!' the man ordered.

'Not without you!' Rojer shot back. His red hair was soaked and matted to his face, and he squinted in the wind and pelting rain, but he faced the Painted Man squarely, not backing down an inch.

Two wood demons leapt for them, but the Painted Man dropped to the mud, sweeping Rojer's legs from under him. The slashing claws missed as the Jongleur fell, and the Painted Man's warded fists drove the creatures back. Other corelings were gathering, though, attracted by the flashes of light and the sounds of battle. Too many to fight.

The Painted Man looked at Rojer, lying in the mud, and the madness left his eyes. He held out a hand, and the Jongleur took it. The two of them darted back into the cave.

'What were you thinking?' Leesha demanded, tying off the last of the bandages. 'Both of you!'

Rojer and the Painted Man, bundled in blankets by the fire, said nothing as she berated them. After a time, she trailed off, preparing a hot broth with herbs and vegetables and handing it to them wordlessly.

'Thank you,' Rojer said quietly, the first words he has spoken since returning to the cave.

'I'm still angry with you,' Leesha said, not meeting his eyes. 'You lied to me.'

'I didn't,' Rojer disagreed.

'You kept things from me,' Leesha said. 'It's no different.'

Rojer looked at her for a time. 'Why did you leave Cutter's Hollow?' he asked.

'What?' Leesha asked. 'Don't change the subject.'

'If these people mean so much to you that you're willing to risk anything, endure, anything, to get home,' Rojer pressed, 'why did you leave?'

'My studies…' Leesha began.

Rojer shook his head. 'I know something about running away from problems, Leesha,,' he said, 'there's more to it than that.'

'I don't see that it's any of your business,' Leesha said.

'Then why am I waiting out a rainstorm in a cave surrounded by corelings in the middle of nowhere?' Rojer asked.

Leesha looked at him for long moments, then sighed, her will for the fight fading. 'I suppose you'll be hearing about it soon enough,' Leesha said. 'The people of Cutter's Hollow have never been very good at keeping secrets.'

She told them everything. She didn't mean to, but the cold and damp cave became a Tender's confessional of sorts, and once she began, the words overflowed; her mother, Gared, the rumours, her flight to Bruna, her life as an outcast. The Painted Man leaned forward and opened his mouth at the mention of Bruna's liquid demonfire, but he closed it again and sat back, choosing not to interrupt.

'So that's it,' Leesha said. 'I'd hoped to stay in Angiers, but it seems the Creator has another plan.'

'You deserve better,' the Painted Man said. Leesha nodded, looking at him. 'Why did you go out there?' she asked quietly, pointing her chin towards the cave mouth.

The Painted Man slumped, staring at his knees. 'I broke a promise,' he said.

'That's all?'

He looked up at her, and for once, she didn't see the tattoos lining his face, only his eyes, piercing her. 'I swore I would never give them anything,' he said. 'Not even to save my own life. But instead, I've given them everything that made me human.'

'You didn't give them anything,' Rojer said. 'I was the one that took the circle.' Leesha's hands tightened on her bowl, but she said nothing.

The Painted Man shook his head. 'I facilitated it,' he said. 'I knew how you felt. Giving them to you was the same as giving them to the corelings.'

'They would have continued to prey on the road,' Rojer said. 'The world is better without them.'

The Painted Man nodded. 'But that's no excuse for giving them to demons,' he said. 'I could as easily have taken the circle, killed them even, face to face, in the light of day.'

'So you went out there tonight out of guilt,' Leesha said. 'Why all the times before? Why this war on corelings?'

'If you haven't noticed,' the Painted Man replied, 'the corelings have been at war with us for centuries. Is it so wrong to take the fight to them?'

'You think yourself the Deliverer, then?' Leesha asked.

The Painted Man scowled. 'Waiting for the Deliverer has left humanity crippled for three hundred years,' he said. 'He's a myth. He's not coming, and it's time people saw that and began standing up for themselves.'

'Myths have power,' Rojer said. 'Don't be so quick to dismiss them.'

'Since when are you a man of faith?' Leesha asked.

'I believe in hope,' Rojer said. 'I've been a Jongleur all my life, and if I've learned one thing in twenty three years, it's that the stories people cry for, the ones that stay with them, are the ones that offer hope.'

'Twenty,' Leesha said suddenly.

'What?'

'You told me you were twenty.'

'Did I?'

'You're not even that, are you?' she asked.

'I am!' Rojer insisted.

'I'm not stupid, Rojer,' Leesha said. 'I've not known you three months, and you've grown an inch in that time. No twenty-year old does that. What are you? Sixteen?'

'Seventeen,' Rojer snarled. He threw down his bowl, spilling the remaining broth. 'Does that please you? You were right to tell Jizell you were nearly old enough to be my mother.'

Leesha stared at him. She opened her mouth to say something sharp, but closed it again. 'I'm sorry,' she said instead.

'And you, Painted Man?' Rojer asked, turning to him. 'Will you add 'too young' to your list of reasons why I shouldn't travel with you?'

'I became a Messenger at seventeen,' the man replied, 'and I was travelling much younger than that.'

'And how old is the Painted Man?' Rojer asked.

'The Painted Man was born in the Krasian desert, four summers ago,' he replied.

'And the man beneath the paint?' Leesha asked. 'How old was he when he died?'

'It doesn't matter how many years he had,' the Painted Man said. 'He was a stupid, naive child, with dreams too big for his own good.'

'Is that why he had to die?' Leesha asked.

'He was killed. And yes.'

'What was his name?' Leesha asked quietly.

The Painted Man was quiet a long time. 'Arlen,' he said finally. 'His name was Arlen.'

29 In the Pre-dawn Light

332 AR

When the Painted Man awoke, the storm had broken temporarily, but grey clouds hung heavy in the sky, promising more rain to come. He looked into the cave, his warded eyes easily piercing the dark, and made out the two horses and the sleeping Jongleur. Leesha, however, was missing.

It was early still; the false light before true sunrise. Most of the corelings had likely fled to the core long since, but with the heavy cloud, one could never be sure. He rose to his feet, tearing away the bandages Leesha had tied the night before. The wounds were all healed.

The Herb Gatherer's path was easy to follow in the thick muck, and he found her not far off, kneeling on the ground picking herbs. Her skirts were hiked up far above her knee to keep them from the mud, and the sight of her smooth white thighs made his face flush. She was beautiful in the pre-dawn light.

'You shouldn't be out here,' he said. 'The sun's not yet risen. It's not safe.'

Leesha looked at him, and smiled. 'Are you to lecture me on putting myself in danger?' she asked with a raised eyebrow. 'Besides,' she went on when he made no reply, 'what demon could harm me with you here?'

The Painted Man shrugged, squatting beside her. 'Tampweed?' he asked.

Leesha nodded, holding up the rough-leafed plant with thick, clustered buds. 'Smoked from a pipe, it relaxes the muscles, inducing a feeling of euphoria. Combined with skyflower, I can use it to brew a sleeping potion strong enough to put down an angry lion.'

'Would that work on a demon?' the Painted Man asked.

Leesha frowned. 'Don't you ever think of anything else?' she asked.

The Painted Man looked hurt. 'Don't presume to know me,' he said. 'I kill corelings, yes, and because of that, I have seen places no living man remembers. Shall I recite poetry I've translated from ancient Rusk? Paint for you the murals of Anoch Sun? Tell you of machines from the old world that could do the work of twenty men?'

Leesha laid a hand on his arm, and he fell silent. 'I'm sorry,' she said. 'I was wrong to judge. I know something of the weight of guarding the knowledge of the old world.'

'It's no hurt,' the Painted Man said. 'I've grown used to being judged.'

'That doesn't make it all right,' Leesha said. 'To answer your question, I honestly don't know. Corelings eat and shit, so it reasons they can be drugged. My mentor said the Herb Gatherers of old took great tolls in the Demon War.

'I have some skyflower,' Leesha went on. 'I can brew the potion when we get to Cutter's Hollow, if you like.'

The Painted Man nodded eagerly. 'Can you brew me something else, as well?' he asked.

Leesha sighed. 'I wondered when you would ask that,' she said. 'But I won't make you liquid demonfire.'

'Why not?' the Painted Man asked.

'Because men cannot be trusted with the secrets of fire,' Leesha said, turning to face him. 'If I give it to you, you will use it, even if it means setting half the world on fire.'

The Painted Man looked at her, and made no reply.

'And what do you need it for, anyway?' she asked. 'You already have powers beyond anything a few herbs and chemics can create.'

'I'm just a man…' he began, but Leesha cut him off.

'Demonshit,' she said. 'Your wounds heal in minutes, and you can run as fast as a horse all day without breathing hard. You throw wood demons around as if they were children, and you see in the dark as if it were broad day. You're not 'just' anything.'

The Painted Man smiled. 'There's no hiding from your eyes,' he said.

Something about the way he said it sent a thrill through Leesha. 'Were you always this way?' she asked.

He shook his head. 'It's the wards,' he said. 'Wards work by feedback. Do you know this word?'

Leesha nodded. 'It's in the books of old world science,' she said.

The Painted Man grunted. 'Corelings are creatures of magic,' he said. 'Defensive wards siphon off some of that magic, using it to form their barrier. The stronger the demon, the stronger the force that repels it. Offensive wards work the same way, weakening the corelings' armour even as it strengthens the blow. Inanimate objects cannot hold the charge long, and it dissipates. But somehow, every time I strike a demon, or one strikes me, I absorb a little of its strength.'

'I felt the tingle that first night, when I touched your skin,' Leesha said.

The Painted Man nodded. 'When I warded my flesh, it wasn't only my appearance that became…inhuman.'

Leesha shook her head, taking his face in her hands. 'Our bodies are not what make us human,' she whispered. 'You can take your humanity back, if only you wish it.' She leaned closer, and kissed him softly.

He stiffened at first, but the shock wore off, and suddenly he was kissing her back. She closed her eyes and opened her mouth to him, her hands caressing the smoothness of his shaved head. She could not feel the wards, only his warmth, and his scars.

We both have scars, she thought. His are just laid bare to the world.

She leaned backwards, pulling him with her. 'We'll get muddy,' he warned.

'We're already muddy,' she said, falling onto her back with him on top of her.

Blood pounded in Leesha's ears as the Painted Man kissed her. She ran her hands over his hard muscles and opened her legs, grinding her hips into his.

Let this be my first time, she thought. Those men are dead and gone, and he can erase their mark from me, as well. I do this because I choose it, and for no other reason.

But she was afraid. Jizell was right, she thought. I never should have waited this long. I don't know what to do. Everyone thinks I know what to do and I don't and he's going to expect me to know because I'm an Herb Gatherer…

Oh, Creator, what if I can't please him? she worried. What if he tells someone?

She forced the thought from her head. He'll never tell. That's why it has to be him. It's meant to be him. He's just like me. An outsider. He's walked the same road.

She fumbled with his robes, untying the loincloth he wore beneath and releasing him. He groaned as she took him in her hand and pulled.

He knows I was a virgin, she reminded herself, hiking her skirts. He is hard and I am wet and what else is there to know?

'What if I get you with child?' he whispered.

'I hope you do,' she whispered back, taking him and pulling him inside her.

What else is there to know? she thought again, and her back arched in pleasure.

Shock hit the Painted Man as Leesha kissed him. It had only been moments since he admired her thighs, but he had never dreamed she might share the attraction. That any woman would.

He stiffened momentarily, paralyzed, but as always when he was in need, his body took over for him, wrapping her in a crushing embrace and returning the kiss hungrily.

How long since he had last been kissed? How long since that night he had walked Mery home and been told she could never be a Messenger's wife?

Leesha fumbled with his robes, and he knew that she meant to take things further than he had ever gone before. Fear gripped him, an unfamiliar feeling. He had no idea what to do; how to please a woman. Was she expecting him to have the experience she lacked? Was she counting that his skill in battle would translate here as well?

But perhaps it would, for even as his thoughts raced, his body continued of its own accord, acting on instincts ingrained into every living thing since the dawn of time. The same instincts that called him to fight.

But this wasn't some battle. This was something else.

Is she the one? the thought echoed in his head.

Why her, and not Renna? If he had been anyone other than who he was, he would have been married for almost fifteen years now, and have probably raised a host of children. Not for the first time, an image flashed in his mind of what Renna might look like now, in the full flower of her womanhood, his and his only.

Why her, and not Mery? Mery, whom he would have married, had she consented to be a Messenger's wife. He would have tied himself to Miln for love, just as Ragen had. He would have been better off if he had married Mery. He saw that now. Ragen was right. He had Elissa…

An image of Elissa flashed in his mind as he pulled the top of Leesha's dress down, exposing her soft breasts. That one time he'd seen Elissa free her breast to nurse Marya, and Arlen wished just for a moment that he could suckle there rather than the child. He had felt ashamed afterwards, but that image always remained fresh in his mind.

Was Leesha the one meant for him? Did such a thing exist? He would have scoffed at the notion an hour ago, but he looked at Leesha, so beautiful and so willing, so understanding of who he was. She would understand if he was clumsy; if he didn't know quite where to touch or how to stroke. A muddy bit of ground in the pre-dawn light was no fit marriage bed, but at the moment it seemed better than the feathered mattress in Ragen's manse.

But doubt niggled him.

It was one thing to risk himself in the night, he had nothing left to lose, no one left to mourn him. If he died, he would not fill so much as one tear bottle. But could he take those risks, if Leesha was waiting for him in safe succour? Would he give up the fight; become like his father? Become so accustomed to hiding that he could not stand up for his own?

Children need their father, he heard Elissa say.

'What if I get you with child?' he whispered between kisses, not knowing what he wanted her to say.

'I hope you do,' she whispered back.

She pulled at him, threatening to pull apart his entire world, but she was offering something more, and he grasped at it.

And then he was inside her, and he felt whole.

For a moment, there was nothing in the world but the pounding of blood and the slide of skin on skin; their bodies easily managing the task as soon as their minds let go. His robe was flung aside. Her dress was a crumple around her midsection. They squirmed and grunted in the mud without a thought to anything but one another.

Until the wood demon struck.

The coreling had stalked them quietly, drawn by their animal sounds. It knew dawn was close, the hated sun soon to rise, but the sight of so much naked flesh aroused its hunger, and it leapt, seeking to return to the Core with hot blood on its talons and fresh meat in its jaws.

The demon struck hard at the Painted Man's exposed back. The wards there flared, throwing the coreling back and slamming the lovers' heads together.

Agile and undeterred, the wood demon recovered quickly, coiling as it struck the ground and springing again. Leesha screamed, but the Painted Man twisted, grasping the leading talons in his warded hands. He pivoted, using the creature's own momentum to hurl it into the mud.

He did not hesitate, pulling away from Leesha and pressing the advantage. He was naked, but that meant nothing. He had been fighting naked since he first warded his flesh.

He spun a full circuit, driving his heel into the coreling's jaw. There was no flare of magic, his wards covered in mud, but with his enhanced strength, the demon might as well have been kicked by Twilight Dancer. It stumbled back, and the Painted Man roared and advanced, knowing full well the damage it could do if given a moment to recover.

The coreling was big for its breed, standing near to eight feet, and strength for strength, the Painted Man was overmatched. He punched and kicked and elbowed, but there was mud everywhere, and almost all his wards were broken. Barklike armour tore his skin, and his blows were to no lasting effect.

The coreling spun, whipping its tail into the Painted Man's stomach, blasting the breath from his body and throwing him down. Leesha screamed again, and the sound drew the demon's attention. With a shriek, it launched itself at her.

The Painted Man scrambled after the beast, grabbing its trailing ankle just before it could reach her. He pulled hard, tripping the demon, and they wrestled frantically in the mud. Finally, he managed to hook his leg under its armpit and around its throat, locking with his other leg as he squeezed. With both hands, he held one of its legs bent, preventing the demon from rising.

The coreling thrashed and clawed at him, but the Painted Man had leverage now, and the creature could not escape. They rolled about for long moments, locked together, before the sun finally crested the horizon and found a break in the clouds. The barklike skin began to smoke, and the demon thrashed harder. The Painted Man tightened his grip.

Just a few moments more…

But then something unexpected happened. The world around him seemed to grow misty; insubstantial. He felt a pull from deep below the ground, and he and the demon began to sink. A path opened to his senses, and the Core called to him. Horror and revulsion filled him as the coreling dragged him down. The demon was still solid in his grip, even if the rest of the world had become only a shadow. He looked up, and saw the precious sun fading away.

He grasped at the lifeline, releasing his leglock and pulling hard on the demon's leg, dragging it back up towards the light. The coreling struggled madly, but terror gave the Painted Man new strength, and with a soundless cry of determination, he hauled the creature back to the surface.

The sun was there to greet them, bright and blessed, and the Painted Man felt himself become solid again as the creature burst into flames. It clawed at the ground, but he held it fast.

When he finally released the charred husk, he was oozing blood everywhere. Leesha ran to him, but he pushed her away, still reeling in horror. What was he that he could find a path down into the Core? Had he become a coreling himself? What kind of monster would a child of his tainted seed turn out to be?

'You're hurt,' she objected, reaching for him again.

'I'll heal,' he said, pulling away. The gentle, loving voice he had used just minutes before had changed back to the cold monotone of the Painted Man. Indeed, many of his smaller cuts and scrapes were already crusting over.

'But…' Leesha protested, 'what about..?'

'I made my choice a long time ago, and I chose the night,' the Painted Man said. 'For a moment I thought I could take it back, but…' he shook his head. 'There's no going back now.'

He picked up his robe, heading for the small cold stream nearby to wash his wounds.

'Damn you!' Leesha cried at his back. 'Damn you and your mad obsession!'

30 Plague

332 AR

Rojer was still asleep when they returned. They changed their muddy clothes silently, backs to one another, and then Leesha shook Rojer awake while the Painted Man saddled the horses. They ate a cold breakfast in silence, and were on the road before the sun had risen far. Rojer rode behind Leesha on her mare, the Painted Man alone on his great stallion. The sky was heavy with cloud, promising more rain to come.

'Shouldn't we have passed a Messenger headed north by now?' Rojer asked.

'You're right,' Leesha realized. She looked up and down the road, worried.

The Painted Man shrugged. 'We'll reach Cutter's Hollow by high sun,' he said. 'I'll see you there, and be on my way.'

Leesha nodded. 'I think that's best,' she agreed.

'Just like that?' Rojer asked.

The Painted Man inclined his head. 'You were expecting more, Jongleur?'

'After all we've been through? Night, yes!' Rojer cried.

'Sorry to disappoint,' the Painted Man replied, 'but I've business to attend.'

'Creator forbid you go a night without killing something,' Leesha muttered.

'But what about what we discussed?' Rojer pressed. 'Me travelling with you?'

'Rojer!' Leesha cried.

'I've decided it's a bad idea,' the Painted Man told him. He glanced at Leesha. 'If your music can't kill demons, it's no use to me. I'm better off on my own.'

'I couldn't agree more,' Leesha put in. Rojer scowled at her, and her cheeks burned. He deserved better, she knew, but she could offer no comfort or explanation when it was taking all her strength to hold back tears.

She had known the Painted Man for what he was. As much as she'd hoped otherwise, she had known his heart might not stay open for long, that all they might have was a moment. But oh, she had wanted that moment! She had wanted to feel safe in his arms, and to feel him inside her. She stroked her belly absently. If he had seeded her and she had found herself with child, she would have cherished it, never questioning whom the father might be. But now…there were pomm leaves enough in her stores for what must be done.

They rode on in silence, the coldness between them palpable. Before long, they turned a bend and caught their first glimpse of Cutter's Hollow.

Even from a distance, they could see the village was a smoking ruin.

Rojer held on tightly as they bounced along the road. Leesha had kicked into a gallop upon the seeing the smoke, and the Painted Man followed suit. Even in the damp, fires still burned hungrily in Cutter's Hollow, casting billows of greasy black smoke into the air. The town was devastated, and again Rojer found himself reliving the destruction of Riverbridge. Gasping for breath, he squeezed his secret pocket before remembering his talisman was broken and lost. The horse jerked, and he snapped his hand back to Leesha's waist to keep from being thrown.

Survivors could be seen wandering about like ants in the distance. 'Why aren't they fighting the fires?' Leesha asked, but Rojer merely held on, having no answer.

They pulled up as they reached the town, taking in the devastation numbly. 'Some of these have been burning for days,' the Painted Man noted, nodding towards the remains of once-cozy homes. Indeed, many of the buildings were charred ruins, barely smoking, and others still were cold ash. Smitt's tavern, the only building in town with two floors, had collapsed in on itself, some of the beams still ablaze, and other buildings were missing roofs or entire walls.

Leesha took in the smudged and tear-streaked faces as she rode deeper into town, recognizing every one. All were too occupied with their own grief to take notice of the small group as they passed. She bit her lip to keep from crying.

In the centre of town, the folk had collected the dead. Leesha's heart clenched at the sight; at least a hundred bodies, without even blankets to cover them. Poor Niklas. Saira and her mother. Tender Michel. Steave. Children she had never met, and elders she had known all her life. Some were burned, and others cored, but most had not a mark on them. Fluxed.

Mairy knelt by the pile, weeping over a small bundle. Leesha felt her throat close up, but somehow managed to get down from her horse and approach, laying a hand on Mairy's shoulder.

'Leesha?' Mairy asked in disbelief. A moment later she surged to her feet, wrapping the Herb Gatherer in a tight hug, sobbing uncontrollably.

'It's Elga,' Mairy cried, naming her youngest, a girl not yet two. 'She…she's gone!'

Leesha held her tightly, cooing soothing sounds as words failed her. Others were noticing her, but kept a respectful distance while Mairy poured out her grief.

'Leesha,' they whispered. 'Leesha's come. Thank the Creator.'

Finally, Mairy managed to collect herself, pulling back and lifting her smudged and filthy apron to daub at her tears.

'What's happened?' Leesha asked softly. Mairy looked at her, eyes wide, and tears filled them again. She trembled, unable to speak.

'Plague,' said a familiar voice, and Leesha turned to see Jona approaching, leaning heavily on a cane. His Tender's robes had been cut away from one leg, the lower half splinted and wrapped tight in bandages stained with blood. Leesha embraced him, glancing meaningfully at the leg.

'Broken tibia,' he said, waving his hand dismissively. 'Vika's seen to it.' His face grew dark. 'It was one of the last things she did, before she succumbed.'

Leesha's eye's widened. 'Vika's dead?' she asked in shock.

Jona shook his head. 'Not yet, at least, but the flux has got her, and the fever has her raving. It won't be long.' He looked around. 'It may not be long for any of us,' he said in a low voice meant for Leesha alone. 'I fear you've chosen an ill time for your homecoming, Leesha, but perhaps that too is the Creator's plan. Had you waited another day, there might not have been a home for you to come to.'

Leesha's eyes hardened. 'I don't want to hear any more nonsense like that!' she scolded. 'Where is Vika?' She turned a circle, taking in the small crowd. 'Creator, where is everyone?”

'The Holy House,' Jona said. 'The sick are all there. Those that have recovered, or been blessed not to fall prey at all, are out collecting the dead, or mourning them.'

'Then that's where we're going,' Leesha said, tucking herself under Jona's arm to support him as they walked. 'Now tell me what's happened. Everything.'

Jona nodded. His face was pale, his eyes hollow. He was damp with sweat, and had obviously lost a great deal of blood, suppressing his pain only with great concentration. Behind them, Rojer and the Painted Man followed silently, along with most of the other villagers who had seen Leesha's arrival.

'The plague started months ago,' Jona began, 'but Vika and Darsy thought said it was just a chill, and thought little of it. Some that caught it, the young and strong, mostly, recovered quickly, but others took to their beds for weeks, and some eventually passed. Still, it seemed a simple flux, until it began to strengthen. Healthy people began to take ill rapidly, reduced overnight to weakness and delirium.

'That was when the fires started,' he said. 'People collapsing in their homes with candles and lamps in hand, or too sick to see to their wards. With your father and most of the other Warders in sickbed, nets began to fail all over town, especially with all the smoke and ash in the air marring every ward in sight. We fought the fires as best we could, but more and more people fell to the sickness, and there weren't enough hands.

'Smitt collected the survivors in a few warded buildings as far from the fires as possible, hoping for safety in numbers, but that just spread the plague faster. Saira collapsed last night during the storm, knocking over an oil lamp and starting a fire that soon had the whole tavern ablaze. The people had to flee into the night…' he choked, and Leesha stroked his back, not needing to hear more. She could well imagine what had happened next.

The Holy House was the only building in Cutter's Hollow made wholly of stone, and had resisted the flaming ash in the air, standing in proud defiance of the ruins. Leesha passed through the great doors, and gasped in shock. The pews had been cleared, and almost every inch of floor covered in straw pallets with only the barest space between them. Perhaps two hundred people lay there groaning, many bathed in sweat and thrashing about as others, weak with sickness themselves, tried to restrain them. She saw

Smitt passed out on a pallet, and Vika not far off. Two more of Mairy's children, and others, so many others. But there was no sign of her father.

A woman looked up at them as they entered. She was prematurely grey and looked haggard and drawn, but Leesha knew her blocky frame instantly.

'Thank the Creator,' Darsy said, catching sight of her. Leesha let go of Jona, and moved quickly to speak with her. After several minutes, she returned to Jona.

'Does Bruna's hut still stand?' she asked.

Jona shrugged. 'So far as I know,' he said. 'No one has been there since she passed. Almost two weeks now.'

Leesha nodded. Bruna's hut was far from the village proper, shielded by rows of trees. It was doubtful the soot had broken its wards. 'I'll need to go there and get supplies,' she said, stepping back outside. It was beginning to rain again, the sky bleak and bereft of hope.

Rojer and the Painted Man were there, along with a cluster of villagers.

'It is you,' Brianne said, rushing up to embrace Leesha. Evin stood not far back, holding a young girl in his arms with Callen, grown tall though he was not yet ten, next to him.

Leesha returned the embrace warmly. 'Has anyone seen my father?' she asked.

'He's home, where you should be,' came a voice, and Leesha turned to see her mother approach, Gared at her heel. Leesha did not know whether to feel relief or dread at the sight.

'You come to check on everyone but your own family?' Elona demanded.

'Mum, I only just…' Leesha began, but her mother cut her off.

'Only this and only that!' Elona barked. 'Always a reason to turn your back on your blood when it suits you! Your poor father is finding death's succour, and I find you here…!'

'Who's with him?' Leesha interrupted.

'His apprentices,' Elona said.

Leesha nodded. 'Have them bring him here with the others,' she said.

'I'll do no such thing!' Elona cried. 'Take him from the comfort of a feathered bed for an infested straw pallet in a room rife with plague?' She grabbed Leesha's arm. 'You'll come see him now! You're his daughter!'

'Don't you think I know that?!' Leesha demanded, snatching her arm away. Tears ran down her cheeks, and she made no effort to brush them aside. 'Do you think I thought of anything else as I dropped everything and left Angiers? But he's not the only person in town, mother! I can't abandon everyone to tend one man, even if he is my father!'

'You're a fool if you think these people aren't dead already,' Elona said, drawing gasps from the crowd. She pointed to the stone walls of the Holy House. 'Will those wards hold back the corelings tonight?' she asked, drawing everyone's attention to the stone, blackened by smoke and ash. Indeed, there was barely a ward visible.

She drew close to Leesha, her voice lowering. 'Our house is far from the others,' she whispered. 'It may be the last warded home in all of Cutter's Hollow. It can't hold everyone, but it can save us, if you come home!'

Leesha slapped her full in the face. Elona was knocked into the mud, and sat there dumbfounded, pressing her hand to her reddening cheek. Gared looked ready to rush Leesha and carry her off, but she checked him with a cold glare.

'I'm not going to hide away and leave my friends to the corelings!' she shouted. 'We'll find a way to ward the Holy House, and make our stand here. Together! And if demons should dare come and try to take my children, I have secrets of fire that will burn them from this world!'

My children, Leesha thought, in the sudden silence that followed. Am I Bruna now, to think of them so? She looked around, taking in the scared and sooty faces, not a one taking charge, and realized for the first time that as far as everyone was concerned, she was Bruna. She was Herb Gatherer for Cutter's Hollow now. Sometimes that meant bringing healing, and sometimes…

Sometimes it meant a dash of pepper in the eyes, or burning a wood demon in your yard.

The Painted Man came forward. People whispered at the sight of him, a robed and hooded spectre hardly noticed a moment before.

'Wood demons won't be all you face,' he said. 'Flame demons will delight in your fire, and wind demons soar above it. The razing of your town might even have called rock demons down from the hills. They will be waiting when the sun sets.'

'We're all going to die!' Ande cried, and Leesha felt panic building in the crowd.

'What do you care?!' she demanded of the Painted Man. 'You've kept your promise and seen us here! Get on your damned scary horse and be on your way! Leave us to our fate!'

But the Painted Man shook his head. 'I swore an oath to give the corelings nothing, and I won't break it again. I'll be damned to the Core myself before I give them Cutter's Hollow.'

He turned to the crowd, and pulled back his hood. There were gasps of shock and fear, and for a moment, the rising panic was arrested. The Painted Man seized on that moment. 'When the corelings come to the Holy House tonight, I will stand and fight!' he declared. There was a collective gasp, and a flare of recognition in many of the villagers' eyes. Even here, they had heard the tales of the tattooed man who killed demons.

'Will any of you stand with me?' he asked.

The men looked at each other doubtfully. Women took their arms, imploring them with their eyes not to say anything foolish.

'What can we do, 'cept get cored?' Ande called. 'Ent nothing that can kill a demon!'

'You're wrong,' the Painted Man said, and strode over to Twilight Dancer, pulling free a wrapped bundle. 'Even a rock demon can be killed,' he said, unwrapping a long, curved object and throwing it into the mud in front of the villagers.

It was three feet long from its wide broken base to its sharp point, smooth and coloured an ugly yellow-brown, like a rotten tooth. As the villagers stared open-mouthed, a weak ray of sun broke from the overcast sky, striking it. Even in the mud, the length began to smoke, sizzling away the fresh droplets of drizzle that struck it.

In a moment, the rock demon's horn burst into flame. 'Every demon can be killed!' the Painted Man cried, pulling a warded spear from Twilight Dancer and throwing it to stick in the burning horn. There wash a flash, and the horn exploded in a burst of sparks like a festival flamework.

'Merciful Creator,' Jona said, drawing a ward in the air. Many of the villagers followed suit.

The Painted Man crossed his arms. 'I can make weapons that bite the corelings,' he said, 'but they are worthless without arms to wield them, so I ask again, who will stand with me?'

There was a long moment of silence. Then, 'I will.' The Painted Man turned, surprised to see Rojer come and stand by his side.

'And I,' Yon Gray said, stepping forward. He leaned heavily on his cane, but there was hard determination in his eyes. 'More'n seventy years I've watched 'em come and take us, one by one. If tonight's t'be my last, then I'll spit in a coreling's eye 'afore the end.'

The other Hollowers stood dumbfounded, but then Gared stepped forward.

'Gared you idiot, what are you doing?' Elona demanded, grabbing his arm, but the giant cutter shrugged off her grip. He reached out tentatively and pulled the warded spear free from the ground. He looked, looking hard at the wards running along its surface.

'My da was cored last night,' he said in a low, angry tone. He clutched the weapon and looked up at the Painted Man, showing his teeth. 'I aim t'take his due.'

His words spurred others. One by one and in groups, some of them in fear, some in anger, and many more in despair, the people of Cutter's Hollow rose up to meet the coming night.

'Fools,' Elona spat, and stormed off.

'You didn't need to do that,' Leesha said, her arms wrapped around the Painted Man's waist as Twilight Dancer raced up the road to Bruna's hut.

'What good is a mad obsession, if it doesn't help people?' he replied.

'I was angry this morning,' Leesha said. 'I didn't mean that.'

'You meant it,' the Painted Man assured her. 'And you weren't wrong. 'I've been so occupied with what I was fighting against, I'd forgotten what I was fighting for. All my life I've dreamed of nothing but killing demons, but what good is it to kill corelings out in the wild, and ignore the ones that hunt men every night?'

They pulled up at the hut, and the Painted Man leapt down and held a hand out to her. Leesha smiled, and let him assist her dismount. 'The house is still intact,' she said. 'Everything we need should be inside.'

They went into the hut Leesha meant to head straight for Bruna's stores, but the familiarity of the place struck her hard, and she realized she was never going to see Bruna again, never hear her cursing or scold her for spitting on the floor, never again tap her wisdom or laugh at her ribaldry. That part of her life was over.

But there was no time for tears, so Leesha shoved the feelings aside and strode to the pharmacy, picking jars and bottles and shoving some into her apron, handing others to the Painted Man, who packed them quickly and loaded them on Twilight Dancer.

'I don't see why you needed me for this,' he said. 'I should be warding weapons. We only have a few hours.'

She handed him the last of the herbs, and when they were safely stowed, led him to the centre of the room, pulling up the carpet, revealing a trapdoor. The Painted Man opened it for her, revealing wooden steps leading down into darkness. 'Should I fetch a candle?' he asked. 'Absolutely not!' Leesha barked.

The Painted Man shrugged. 'I can see well enough,' he said.

'Sorry, I didn't mean to snap,' she said. She reached into the many pockets of her apron, producing two small stoppered vials. She poured the contents of one into the other and shook it, producing a soft glow. Holding the vial aloft, she led them down the musty steps into a dusty cellar. The walls were packed soil, wards painted onto the support beams. The small space was filled with storage crates, shelves of bottles and jars, and large barrels.

Leesha went to a shelf and lifted a box of flamesticks. 'Wood demons can be hurt by fire,' she mused. 'What about a strong dissolvent?'

'I don't know,' the Painted Man said. Leesha tossed him the box and got down on her knees, rummaging through some bottles on a low shelf.

'We'll find out,' she said, passing back a large glass bottle full of clear liquid. The stopper was glass as well, held tightly in place with a twisted net of thin wire.

'Grease and oil will steal their footing,' Leesha muttered, still rummaging. 'And burn hot and bright, even in the rain…' she handed him a pair of cured clay jugs, sealed in wax.

More items followed. Thundersticks, normally used to blow free unruly tree stumps, and a box of Bruna's celebration flamework: festival crackers, flame whistles, and toss bangs.

Finally, at the back of the cellar, she brought them to a large water barrel.

'Open it,' Leesha told the Painted Man. 'Gently.'

He did so, finding four ceramic jugs bobbing softly in the water. He turned to Leesha and looked at her curiously.

'That,' she said, 'is liquid demonfire.'

Twilight Dancer's swift warded hooves had them down to Leesha's father's house in minutes. Again, Leesha was struck hard by nostalgia, and again, she shoved the sentiment aside. How many hours until sunset? Not enough. That was sure.

The children and the elderly had begun to arrive, gathering in the yard. Brianne and Mairy had already put them to work collecting tools. Mairy's eyes were hollow as she watched the children. It had not been easy to convince her to leave her two children at the Holy House, but at last reason prevailed. Their father was staying, and if things went badly, the other children would need their mother.

Elona stormed out of the house as they arrived.

'Is this your idea?' she demanded. 'Turning my house into a barn?'

Leesha pushed right past, the Painted Man at her side. Elona had no choice but to fall in behind her them as they entered the house. 'Yes, mother,' she said. 'It was my idea. We may not have space for everyone, but the children and elderly who have avoided the flux thus far should be safe here, whatever else happens.'

'I won't have it!' Elona barked.

Leesha whirled on her. 'You have no choice!' she shouted. 'You were right that we have the only strong wards left in town, so you can either suffer here in a crowded house, or stand and fight with the others. But Creator help me, the young and the old are staying behind father's wards tonight.'

Elona glared at her. 'You wouldn't speak to me so, if your father were well.'

'If he were well, he would have invited the folk himself,' Leesha said, not backing down an inch.

She turned her attention to the Painted Man. 'The paper shop is through those doors,' she told him, pointing. 'You should have space to work, and my father's warding tools. The children are collecting every weapon in town, and will bring them to you.'

The Painted Man nodded, vanishing into the shop without a word.

'Where in the world did you find that one?' Elona asked.

'He saved us from demons on the road,' Leesha said, going to her father's room.

'I don't know if it will do any good,' Elona warned, putting a hand on the door. 'Midwife Darsy says it's in the Creator's hands now.'

'Nonsense,' Leesha said, entering the room and immediately going to her father's side. He was pale and damp with sweat, but she did not recoil. She placed a hand to his forehead, and then ran her sensitive fingers over his throat, wrists, and chest. While she worked, she asked her mother questions about his symptoms, how long they had been manifest, and what she and midwife Darsy had tried so far.

Elona wrung her hands, but answered as best she could.

'Many of the others are worse,' Leesha said. 'Da is stronger than you give him credit.'

For once, Elona had no belittling retort.

'I'll brew a potion for him,' Leesha said. 'He'll need to be dosed regularly, at least every three hours.' She took a parchment and began writing instructions in a swift hand.

'You're not staying with him?' Elona asked.

Leesha shook her head. 'There's near to two hundred people in the Holy House that need me, mum,' she said, 'many of them worse off than da.'

'They have Darsy to look after them,' Elona argued.

'Darsy looks as if she hasn't slept since the flux started,' Leesha said. 'She's dead on her feet, and even at her best, I wouldn't trust her cures against this sickness. If you stay with da and follow my instructions, he'll be more likely to see the dawn than most in Cutter's Hollow.'

'Leesha?' her father moaned. 'S'that you?'

Leesha rushed to his side, sitting on the edge of the bed and taking his hand. 'Yes, da,' she said, her eyes watering, 'it's me.'

'You came,' Erny whispered, his lips curling into a slow smile. His fingers squeezed Leesha's hand weakly. 'I knew you would.'

'Of course I came,' Leesha said.

'But you have to go,' Erny sighed. When Leesha gave no reply, he patted her hand. 'Heard what you said. Go do what needs be done. Just seeing you has given me new strength.'

Leesha half-sobbed, but tried to mask it as a laugh. She kissed his forehead.

'Is it bad as all that?' Erny whispered.

'A lot of folk are going to die tonight,' Leesha said.

Erny's hand tightened on hers, and he sat up a bit. 'Then you see to it that it's no more than need be,' he said. 'I'm proud of you and I love you.'

'I love you, da,' Leesha said, hugging him tightly. She wiped her eyes and left the room.

Rojer tumbled about the tiny aisle of the makeshift hospit as he pantomimed the daring rescue the Painted Man had performed a few nights earlier.

'But then,' he went on, 'standing between us and the camp, was the biggest rock demon I've ever seen.' He leapt on top of a table and reached his arms his into the air, waving them to show they were still not high enough to do the creature justice.

'Fifteen feet tall, it was,' Rojer said, 'with teeth like spears and a horned tail that could smash a horse. Leesha and I stopped up short, but did the Painted Man hesitate? No! He walked on, calm as Seventhday morning, and looked the monster right in the eyes.' Rojer enjoyed the wide eyes surrounding him, and hesitated, letting the tense silence build before shouting, 'BAM!' and clapping his hands together. Everyone jumped. 'Just like that,' Rojer said, 'the Painted Man's horse, black as night and seeming like a demon itself, slammed its horns through the demon's back.'

'The horse had horns?' an old man asked, raising a grey eyebrow as thick and bushy as a squirrel tail. Propped up in his pallet, the stump of his right leg soaked his bandages in blood.

'Oh, yes,' Rojer confirmed, sticking fingers up behind his ears and getting coughing laughs. 'Great ones of shining bright metal, strapped on by its bridle and sharply pointed, etched with wards of power! The most magnificent beast you have ever seen, it is! Its hooves struck the beast like thunderbolts.

'So, while the horse attacked, we ran for the circle, and were safe.' Rojer concluded.

'What about the horse?' one child asked. 'The Painted Man gave a whistle,' Rojer said, putting his fingers to his lips and emitting a shrill sound, 'and his horse came galloping through the corelings, leaping over the wards and into the circle.' He clapped his hands against his thighs in a galloping sound and leapt to illustrate the point.

The patients were riveted by his tale, taking their minds off their sickness and the impending night. More, Rojer knew he was giving them hope. Hope that Leesha could cure them. Hope that the Painted Man could protect them.

He wished he could give himself hope, as well. And wished they would hurry back.

Leesha had the children scrub out the big vats her father used to make paper slurry, using them to brew potions on a larger scale than she had ever attempted. Even Bruna's stores quickly ran out, and she passed word to Brianne, who had the children ranging far and wide for hogroot and other herbs.

Frequently, her eyes flicked to the sunlight filtering through the window, watching it crawl across the shop's floor. The day was waning.

Not far off, the Painted Man worked with similar speed, his hand moving with delicate precision as he painted wards onto axes, picks, hammers, spears, arrows, and sling stones. The children brought him anything that might possibly be used as a weapon, and collected the results as soon as the paint dried, piling them in carts outside.

Every so often, someone came running in to relay a message to Leesha or the Painted Man. They gave instructions quickly, sending the runner off and turning back to their work.

With only a pair of hours before sunset, they drove the carts back through the steady rain to the Holy House. The villagers stopped work at the sight of them, coming quickly to help Leesha unload her cures. A few approached the Painted Man to assist unloading his cart, but a look from him turned them away.

Leesha went to him, carrying a heavy stone jug. 'Tampweed and skyflower,' she said, handing it to him. 'Mix it with the feed of three cows, and see that they eat it all.' The Painted Man took the jug and nodded.

As she turned to go into the Holy House, he caught her arm. 'Take this,' he said, handing her one of his personal spears. It was five feet long, made from light ash wood. Wards of power were etched into the metal tip, sharpened to a wicked edge. The shaft, too, was carved with defensive wards, lacquered hard and smooth, the butt capped in warded steel.

Leesha looked at it dubiously, making no move to take it. 'Just what do you expect me to do with that?' she asked. 'I'm an Herb…'

'This is no time to recite the Gatherer's oath,' the Painted Man said, shoving the weapon at her. 'Your makeshift hospit is barely warded. If our line fails, that spear may be all that stands between the corelings and your charges. What will your oath demand then?'

Leesha scowled, but she took the weapon. She searched his eyes for something more, but his wards were back in place, and she could no longer see his heart. She wanted to throw down the spear and wrap him in her arms, but she could not bear to be rebuffed again.

'Well…good luck,' she managed to say.

The Painted Man nodded. 'And to you.' He turned to attend his cart, and Leesha stared after him, wanting to scream.

The Painted Man's muscles unclenched as he moved away. It had taken all his will to turn his back on her, but they couldn't afford to confuse one another tonight.

Forcing Leesha from his mind, he turned his thoughts to the coming battle. The Krasian holy book, the Evejah, contained accounts of the conquests of Kaji, the first Deliverer. He had studied it closely when learning the Krasian tongue.

The war philosophy of Kaji was sacred in Krasia, and had seen its warriors through centuries of nightly battle with the corelings. There were four divine laws that governed battle: Be unified in purpose and leadership. Do battle at a time and place of your choosing. Adapt to what you cannot control, and prepare the rest. Attack in ways the enemy will not expect, finding and exploiting their weaknesses.

A Kraisian warrior was taught from birth that the path to salvation lay in killing alagai. When Jardir called for them to leap from the safety of their wards, they did so without hesitation, lighting and dying secure in the knowledge that they were serving Everam and would be rewarded in the afterlife.

The Painted Man feared the Hollowers would lack the same unity of purpose, failing to commit themselves to the fight, but watching as they scurried to and fro, readying themselves, he thought he might perhaps be underestimating them. Even in Tibbet's Brook, everyone had stood by their neighbours in hard times. It was what kept the hamlets alive and thriving, despite their lack of warded walls. If he could keep them occupied, keep despair from clutching at them when the demons rose, perhaps they would fight as one.

If not, everyone in the Holy House would die this night.

The strength of Krasia's resistance was due as much to Kaji's second law, choosing terrain, as it was the warriors themselves. The Kraisian Maze was carefully designed to give the dal'Sharum layers of protection, and to funnel the demons to places of advantage.

One side of the Holy House faced the woods, where wood demons held sway, and two more faced the wrecked streets and rubble of the town. There were too many places for corelings to hide. But past the cobbles of the main entrance lay the town square. If they could funnel the demons there, they might have a chance.

They were unable to clean the greasy ash off the rough stone walls of the Holy House and ward it in the rain, so the windows and great doors had been boarded and nailed shut, hasty wards chalked onto the wood. Ingress was limited to a small side entrance, with wardstones laid about the doorway. The demons would have an easier time getting through the wall.

The very presence of humans out in the naked night would act as a magnet to demons, but nevertheless, the Painted Man had taken pains to funnel the corelings away from the building and flanks, so that the path of least resistance would drive them to attack from the far end of the square. At his direction, the villagers had placed obstacles around the other sides of the Holy House, and interspersed hastily made wardposts, signs he had painted with wards of confusion. Any demon charging past them to attack the walls of the building would forget its intent, and inevitably be drawn towards the commotion in the town square.

Beside the square on one side was a day pen for the Tender's livestock. It was small, but its new wardposts were strong. A few animals milled around the men erecting a rough shelter within.

The other side of the square had been dug with trenches quickly filling with mucky rainwater, to urge flame demons to take an easier path. Leesha's oil was a thick sludge on top of the water.

The villagers had done well in enacting Kaji's third law, preparation. Steady rain had made the square slick, a thin film of mud forming on the hard-packed ground. The Painted Man's warded circles were set about the battlefield as he had directed, points of ambush and retreat, and a deep pit had been dug and covered with a muddy tarp. Viscous grease was being spread on the cobbles with brooms.

And the fourth law, attacking the enemy in a way they would not expect, would take care of itself.

The corelings would not expect them to attack at all. 'I did as you asked,' a man said, approaching him as he pondered the terrain.

'Eh?' the Painted Man said.

'I'm Benn, sir,' the man said. 'Mairy's husband.' The Painted Man just stared. 'The glassblower,' he clarified, and the Painted Man's eyes finally lit with recognition. 'Let's see, then,' he said.

Benn produced a small glass flask. 'It's thin, like you asked,' he said. 'Fragile.'

The Painted Man nodded. 'How many did you and your apprentices have time to make?' he asked.

'Three-dozen,' Benn said. 'May I ask what they're for?'

The Painted Man shook his head. 'You'll see soon enough,' he said. 'Bring them, and find me some rags.'

Rojer approached him next. 'I've seen Leesha's spear,' he said. 'I've come for mine.'

The Painted Man shook his head. 'You're not fighting,' he said. 'You're staying inside with the sick.'

Rojer stared at him. 'But you told Leesha…'

'To give you a spear is to rob you of your strength,' the Painted Man cut him off. 'Your music would be lost in the din outside, but inside, it'll prove more potent than a dozen spears. If the corelings break through, I'm counting on you to hold them back until I arrive.'

Rojer scowled, but he nodded, and headed into the Holy House.

Others were already waiting for his attention. The Painted Man listened to reports on their progress, assigning further tasks that were leapt to immediately. The villagers moved with hunched quickness, like hares ready to flee at any moment.

No sooner than he had sent them off, Stefny came storming up to him, a group of angry women at her back. 'What's this about sending us up to Bruna's hut?' the woman demanded.

'The wards there are strong,' the Painted Man said. 'There is no room for you in the Holy House or Leesha's family home.'

'We don't care about that,' Stefny said. 'We're going to fight.'

The Painted Man looked at her. Stefny was a tiny woman, barely five feet, and thin as a reed. Well into her fifties, her skin was thin and rough, like worn leather. Even the smallest wood demon would tower over her.

But in her eyes, he saw it didn't matter. She was going to fight no matter what he said. The Krasians might not allow women to fight, but that was their failing. He would not deny any who were willing to stand in the night. He took a spear off his cart and handed it to her. 'We'll find you a place,' he promised.

Expecting an argument, Stefny was taken aback, but she took the weapon, nodded once and moved away. The other women came in turn, and he handed a spear to each.

The men came at once, seeing the Painted Man handing out weapons. The cutters took their own axes back, looking at the freshly painted wards dubiously. No axe blow had ever penetrated a wood demon's armour.

'Won't need this,' Gared said, handing back the Painted Man's spear. 'I ent one for spinning a stick around, but I know how to swing my axe.'

One of the cutters brought a girl to him, perhaps thirteen summers old. 'My name's Flinn, sir,' the cutter said. 'My daughter Wonda hunts with me sometimes. I won't have her out in the naked night, but if ya let her have a bow behind the wards, you'll find her aim is true.'

The Painted Man looked at the girl. Tall and homely, she had taken after her father in size and strength. He went to Twilight Dancer and pulled down his own yew bow and heavy arrows. 'I won't need these tonight,' he said to her, pointing to a high window at the apex of the Holy House's roof. 'See if you can pry loose enough boards to shoot from there,' he advised.

Wonda took the bow and ran off. Her father bowed and backed away.

Tender Jona limped out to meet him next.

'You should be inside, and off that leg,' the Painted Man said, never comfortable around Holy Men. 'If you can't carry a load or dig a trench, you're only in the way out here.'

Tender Jona nodded. 'I only wanted to have a look at the defences,' he said.

'They should hold,' the Painted Man said with more confidence than he felt.

'They will,' Jona said. 'The Creator would not leave those in this house without succour. That's why he sent you.'

'I'm not the Deliverer, Tender,' the Painted Man said, scowling. 'No one sent me, and nothing about tonight is assured.'

Jona smiled indulgently, the way an adult might at the ignorance of a child. 'It's coincidence, then, that you showed up in our moment of need?' he asked. 'I give you no names but the one you came with, but you are here, just like every one of us, because the Creator put you here, and He has reason for everything He does.'

'He had a reason for fluxing half your village?' the Painted Man asked.

'I don't pretend to see the path,' Jona said calmly, 'but I know it's there all the same. One day, we'll look back and wonder how we ever missed it.'

Darsy was squatting wearily by Vika's side, trying to cool her feverish brow with a damp cloth, when Leesha entered the Holy House.

Leesha went straight to them, taking the cloth from Darsy. 'Get some sleep,' she said, seeing the deep weariness in the woman's eyes. 'The sun will set soon, and we'll all need our strength then,' she said. 'Go. Rest while you still can.'

Darsy shook her head. 'I'll rest when I'm cored,' she said. 'Till then I'll work.'

Leesha considered her a moment, then nodded. She reached into her apron and pulled out a dark, gummy substance wrapped in waxed paper. 'Chew this,' she said. 'You'll feel cored tomorrow, but it will keep you alert through the night.'

Darsy nodded, taking the gum and popping it into her mouth while Leesha bent to examine Vika. She took a skin from around her shoulder, pulling the stopper. 'Help her sit up a bit,' she said, and Darsy complied, lifting Vika so that Leesha could give her the potion. She coughed a bit out, but Darsy massaged her throat, helping her swallow until Leesha was satisfied.

Leesha rose to her feet and scanned the seemingly endless mass of prone bodies. She had triaged and dealt with the worst of the injured before heading out to Bruna's hut, but there were plenty of hurts still in need of mending, bones to set and wounds to sew, not to mention forcing her potions down dozens of unconscious throats.

Given time, she was confident she could drive the flux off. A few had progressed too far and would remain sickly or pass, but most of her children would recover.

If they made it through the night.

She called the volunteers together, distributing medicine and instructing them on what to expect and do when the wounded from outside began to come.

Rojer watched Leesha and the others work, feeling cowardly as he tuned his fiddle. Inside, he knew the Painted Man was right; that he should work to his strengths, as Arrick had always said. But that did not make hiding behind stone walls while others stood fast feel any braver.

Not long ago, the thought of putting down his fiddle to pick up a tool was abhorrent, but he had grown tired of hiding while others died for him.

If he lived to tell it, he imagined The Battle of Cutter's Hollow would be a tale that outlived his children's children. But what of his own part? Playing the fiddle from hiding was not the stuff of heroes.

31 The Battle of Cutter's Hollow

332 AR

At the forefront of the square stood the cutters. Chopping trees and hauling lumber had left most of them thick of arm and broad of shoulder, but some, like Yon Grey, were well past their prime, and others, like Ren's son Linder, had not yet grown into their full strength. They stood clustered in one of the portable circles, gripping the wet hafts of their axes as the sky darkened.

Behind the cutters, the Hollow's three fattest cows had been staked in the centre of the square. Having consumed Leesha's drugged meal, they slumbered deeply on their feet.

Behind the cows was the largest circle. Those within could not match the raw muscle of the cutters, but they had greater numbers. Nearly half of them were women, some as young as fifteen. They stood grimly alongside their husbands, fathers, brothers, and sons. Merrem, Dug the butcher's burly wife, held a warded cleaver, and looked well ready to use it.

Behind them lay the covered pit, and then, the third circle, directly before the great doors of the Holy House, where Stefny and the others too old or frail to run about the muddy square stood fast with long spears.

Everyone was armed with a warded weapon. Some, those with the shortest reach, also carried round bucklers made from barrel lids, painted with wards of forbiddance. The Painted Man had only made one of those, but the others had copied it well enough.

At the edge of the day pen's fence, behind the wardposts, stood the artillery, children barely in their teens, armed with bows and slings. A few adults had been given one of the precious thundersticks, or one of Benn's thin flasks, stuffed with a soaked rag. Young children held lanterns, hooded against the rain, to light the weapons. Those who had refused to fight huddled with the animals under the shelter behind them, which shielded Bruna's festival flamework from the rain.

More than a few, like Ande, had gone back on their promise to fight, accepting the scorn of their fellows as they hid behind the wards. As the Painted Man rode through the square astride Twilight Dancer, he saw others looking towards the pen longingly, fear etched on their faces.

There were screams as the corelings rose, and many took a step backwards, their resolve faltering. Terror threatened to defeat the Hollowers before the battle even began. A few tips from the Painted Man on where and how to strike were meagre against the weight of a lifetime's conditioned fear.

The Painted Man noticed Benn shaking. One of his pants legs was soaked and clinging to his twitching thigh, and not from the rain. He dismounted and stood before the glassblower.

'Why are you out here, Benn?' he asked, raising his voice so others could hear.

'M-my d-daughters,' Benn said, nodding back towards the Holy House. It looked as if the spear he held was going to vibrate right out of his hands.

The Painted Man nodded. Most of the Hollowers were there to protect their loved ones lying helpless in the Holy House. If not, they would all be in the pen. He gestured to the corelings materializing in the square. 'You fear them?' he asked, louder still.

'Y-yes,' Benn managed, tears mixing with the rain on his cheeks. A glance showed others nodding as well.

The Painted Man stripped off his robes. None of the people had seen him unclad before, and their eyes widened as they took in the wards tattooed over every inch of his body. 'Watch,' he told Benn, but the command was meant for all.

He stepped from the circle, striding up to a seven foot-tall wood demon that was just beginning to solidify. He looked back, meeting the eyes of as many Hollowers as he could. Seeing them watching intently, he shouted, 'This is what you fear!'

Turning sharply, the Painted Man struck hard, smashing the flat of his hand against the coreling's jaw, knocking the demon down in a flash of magic just as it became fully solid. The coreling shrieked in pain, but it recovered quickly, coiling on its tail to spring. The villagers stood open-mouthed, their eyes locked on the scene, sure the Painted Man would be killed.

The wood demon lunged, but the Painted Man kicked off a sandal and spun, dropped low and planted his hands on the ground, flicking off his sandals as he kicked up inside the coreling's reach. His warded heels struck its armoured chest with a thunderclap, and the demon was sent reeling again, its chest scorched and blackened.

A smaller wood demon launched itself at him as he stalked his prey, but the Painted Man caught its arm and twisted himself behind its back, jabbing his warded thumbs into its eyes. There was a smoking sizzle, and the coreling screamed, staggering away and clawing at its face.

As the blind coreling stumbled about, the Painted Man resumed his pursuit of the first demon, meeting its next attack head-on. He pivoted and turned the coreling's momentum against it, latching on as it stumbled past him and wrapping his warded arms around its head. He squeezed, ignoring the demon's futile attempts to dislodge him, and waited as the feedback built in intensity. Finally, with a burst of magic, the creature's skull collapsed, and they fell to the mud.

As the Painted Man rose from the corpse the other demons kept their distance, hissing and searching for a sign of weakness. The Painted Man roared at them, and those closest took a step back from him.

'It is not you that should fear them, Benn the glassblower!' the Painted Man called, his voice like a hurricane. 'It is they that should fear you!'

None of the Hollowers made a sound, but many fell to their knees, drawing wards in the air before them. He walked back up to Benn, who was no longer shaking. 'Remember that,' he said, using his robes to wipe the mud from his wards, 'the next time they clutch at your heart.'

'Deliverer,' Benn whispered, and others began to mumble the same.

The Painted Man shook his head sharply, rainwater flying free. 'No. You are the Deliverer!' he shouted, poking Benn hard in the chest. 'And you!' he cried, spinning to roughly haul a kneeling man to his feet. 'All of you are Deliverers!' he bellowed, sweeping his arms over all who stood in the night. 'If the corelings fear a Deliverer, let them quail at a hundred of them!' He shook his fist, and the Hollowers roared.

The spectacle kept the newly-formed demons at bay for a moment, issuing low growls as they stalked back and forth. But their pacing soon slowed, and one by one they crouched, muscles bunching up as they tamped down.

The Painted Man looked to the left flank, his warded eyes piercing the gloom. Flame demons avoided the water-filled trench, but wood demons approached that way, heedless of the wet.

'Light it,' he called, pointing to the trench with a thumb.

Benn struck a flamestick with his thumb, shielding the tiny blaze from the wind and rain as he touched it to the wick of a flamewhistle. As the wick sizzled and sparked, Benn uncoiled, flinging it towards the trench.

Halfway through its arc, the wick burned down and a jet of fire exploded from one end of the flamewhistle. The thick-wrapped paper tube spun rapidly in blazing pinwheel, emitting a high-pitched whine as it struck the oil sludge in the trench.

Wood demons shrieked as the water about their knees burst into flame. They fell back, beating the fire in terror, splashing oil and only spreading the flames.

Flame demons shrieked as well, these in glee as they leapt into the fire, forgetting the water that lay beneath. The Painted Man smiled at their cries as the water boiled.

The flames filled the square with a flickering light, and there were gasps from the cutters at the size of the host before them. Wind demons cut the sky, adroit even in the wind and rain. Lithesome flame demons darted about, eyes and mouths glowing red, silhouetting the hulking rock demons that stalked the edges of the gathering. And wood demons, so many wood demons.

'S'like the trees of the forest have risen up 'gainst the axemen,' Yon Gray said in awe, and many of the cutters nodded in horror.

'Ent met a tree yet I can't chop down,' Gared growled, holding his axe at the ready. The boast filtered through the rank, and the other cutters stood taller.

The corelings soon found their will, leaping at the Cutters, talons leading. The wards of their circle stopped them short, and the cutters drew back to swing.

'Hold!' the Painted Man cried. 'Remember the plan!'

The men checked themselves, letting the demons hammer the wards in vain. The corelings flowed around the circle, looking for a weakness, and the Cutters were soon lost from view in a sea of barklike skin.

It was a flame demon no larger than a cat that first spotted the cows. It shrieked, leaping onto the back of one of the animals, talons digging deep. The cow woke and bleated in pain as the tiny coreling tore out a piece of hide in its jaws.

The sound made the other corelings forget the Cutters. They fell on the cows in an explosion of gore, tearing the animals to pieces. Blood sprayed high into the air, mixing with the rain before splashing down in the mud. Even a wind demon swooped down to snatch a chunk of meat before leaping back into the air.

In a twinkling, the animals were devoured, though none of the corelings seemed satisfied. They moved towards the next circle, slashing at the wards and drawing sparks of magic in the air.

'Hold!' the Painted Man called again, as the people around him tensed. He held his spear back, watching the demons intently. Waiting.

But then he saw it. A demon stumbled, losing its balance.

'Now!' he roared, and leapt from the circle, stabbing right through a demon's head.

The Hollowers screamed a primal cry and charged, falling upon the drugged corelings with abandon, hacking and stabbing. The demons shrieked, but thanks to Leesha's potion, their response was sluggish. As instructed, the Hollowers worked in small teams, stabbing demons from behind when they turned their attention towards another. Warded weapons flared, and this time it was demon ichor that arced into the air.

Merrem chopped a wood demon's arm clean off with her cleaver, and her husband Dug stabbed his butcher's knife deep into its armpit. The wind demon that had eaten the drugged meat came crashing down into the square, and Benn drove his spear into it, twisting hard as the warded head flared hot to pierce the coreling's hide.

Demon claws could not penetrate the ward on the wooden shields some carried, and when the bearers saw this, they gained confidence, striking harder still against the dazed corelings.

But not all the demons had been drugged. Those in the back increased their press to get forward. The Painted Man waited until their advantage of surprise waned for a moment, then cried, 'Artillery!'

The children in the pen gave a great cry, placing flasks in their slings and launching them at the horde of demons in front of the cutters' circle. The thin glass shattered easily against the barklike armour of the wood demons, coating them in liquid that clung despite the rain. The demons roared, but could not penetrate the wardposts of the small pen.

While the corelings raged, the lantern bearers ran to and fro, touching the flames to rag-wrapped arrowheads dipped in pitch and to the wicks of Bruna's flameworks. They did not launch fire as one as they had been instructed, but it made little difference. With the first arrow, the liquid demonfire exploded across the back of a wood demon, and the creature screamed, thrashing into another, spreading the blaze. Festival crackers, snap-bangs, and flamewhistles joined the volley of arrows, frightening some demons with light and sound, and igniting others. The night lit up as the demons burned.

One child threw his lantern into a shallow rut in front of the cutters' circle, which stretched the full width of the square. The spark ignited the liquid demonfire within as the lantern shattered. The fell brew burst into an intense fire, setting several more wood demons alight, and cutting the rest off from their fellows.

But between the circles and away from the flamework, the battle raged fierce. The drugged demons fell quickly, but their fellows were uncowed by the armed villagers. Teams were breaking up, and some of the Hollowers were taken by fear and stumbled back, giving the corelings an opening to pounce.

'Cutters!' the Painted Man cried as he spit a flame demon on his spear.

With their backs secure, Gared and the other cutters roared and leapt from their circle, pressing the demons attacking the Painted Man's group from behind. Even without magic, wood demon hide was as thick and gnarled as old bark, but cutters hacked through bark all day, and the wards on their axes drained away the magic that strengthened it further.

Gared was the first to feel the jolt as the wards tapped into the demons' magic, using the corelings' own power against them. The shock ran up the haft of his axe and made his arms tingle as a split second of ecstasy ran through him. He struck the demon's head clean off and howled, charging the next one in line.

Demon claws could not penetrate the ward on the wooden shields, and when the shield-bearers saw this, they gained confidence, striking harder still. High in the window of the Holy House's choir loft, Wonda fired the Painted Man's bow with frightening accuracy, every warded arrowhead striking demon flesh like a bolt of lightning.

Pressed from both sides, the demons were hit hard. Centuries of dominance had taught them that humans, when they fought at all, were not to be feared, and they were unprepared for the resistance.

But the smell of blood was thick in the air, and the cries of pain could be heard for miles around. In the distance, coreling's howled in answer to the sound. Reinforcements would soon come, and the humans had none.

It wasn't long before the demons recovered. Even without their impenetrable armour, few humans could ever hope to stand toe to toe with a wood demon. The smallest of them were closer to Gared in strength than to a normal man, and the largest rivalled the giant rock demons of the mountains.

Merrem charged a flame demon the size of a large dog, her cleaver already blackened with demon ichor. She held her shield out defensively, her cleaver arm cocked back and ready.

The coreling shrieked and spat fire at her. She brought up her shield to block, but the ward painted there had no power over fire, and the wood exploded into flames. Merrem screamed as her arm ignited, dropping and rolling in the mud. The demon leapt at her, but her husband Dug was there to meet it. The heavy butcher gutted the flame demon like a hog, but screamed himself as its molten blood struck his leather apron, setting it alight.

A wood demon ducked down to all fours under Evin's wild axe swing, springing up when he was off guard and bearing him to the ground. He screamed as the jaws came for him, but there was a bark, and his wolfhounds crashed into the demon from the side, knocking it away. Evin recovered quickly, chopping down on the prone coreling, though not before it disembowelled one of the giant dogs. Evin cried in rage and hacked again before whirling to find another foe, his eyes wild.

Just then, the trench of demonfire burned out, and the wood demons trapped on the far side began to advance again.

'Thundersticks!' the Painted Man cried, as he trampled a rock demon under Twilight Dancer's hooves.

At the call, the eldest of his artillery took out some of the precious and volatile weapons. There were less than a dozen, for Bruna had been niggardly in their making, lest the powerful tools be abused.

Wicks flared, and the sticks were launched at the approaching demons. One villager dropped his rain-slick stick in the mud and bent quickly to snatch it up, but not quickly enough. The thunderstick went off in his hands, blowing him and his lamp-bearer to pieces in a blast of fire as the concussive force knocked several others in the pen to the ground, screaming in pain.

One of the thundersticks exploded between a pair of wood demons. Both were thrown down, twisted wrecks. One, its barklike skin aflame, did not rise. The other, extinguished by the mud, twitched and put a talon under itself as it struggled to rise. Already, its fell magic was healing its wounds.

Another thunderstick sailed at a nine-foot tall rock demon, who caught it in a talon and leaned in close, peering at the curious object as it went off.

But when the smoke had cleared, the demon stood unfazed, and continued on towards the villagers in the square. Wonda planted three arrows in it, but it shrieked and came on, its anger only doubled.

Gared met it before it reached the others, returning its shriek with a roar of his own. The burly cutter ducked under its first blow and planted his axe in its sternum, glorying in the rush of magic that ran up his arms. The demon collapsed at last, and Gared had to stand on top of it to pull his weapon free of its thick armour.

A wind demon swooped in, its hooked talons nearly cutting Flinn in half. From the choir loft window, Wonda gave a cry and killed the coreling with an arrow to the back, but the damage was done, and Flinn her father collapsed.

A swipe from a wood demon took Ren's head clean off, launching it far from his body. His axe fell into the muck, even as his son Linder hacked the arm from the offending demon.

Near the pen on the right flank, Yon Gray was struck a glancing blow, but it was enough to drop the old man to the ground. The coreling stalked him as he clutched the mud, trying to rise, but Ande gave a choked cry and leapt from the warded pen, grabbing Ren's axe and burying it in the creature's back.

Others followed his lead, their fear forgotten, leaving the safety of the pen to take up the weapons of the fallen or to drag the wounded to safety. Keet stuffed a rag into the last of the demonfire flasks, lighting it and hurling it into the face of a wood demon to cover his sisters as they pulled a man into the pen. The demon burst into flames, and Keet cheered until a flame demon leapt on top of the immolated coreling, shrieking in glee as it basked in the fire. Keet turned and ran, but it leapt onto his back and bore him down.

The Painted Man was everywhere in the battle, killing some demons with his spear, and others with only bare hands and feet. Twilight Dancer kept close to him, striking with hoof and horn.

They burst in wherever the fighting was thickest, scattering the corelings and leaving them as prey for the others. He lost count of how many times he kept a demon from landing a killing blow, letting its victim regain their feet and return to the fight.

In the chaos, a group of corelings stumbled through the centre line and past the second circle, stepping onto the tarp and falling onto the warded spikes laid at the bottom of the pit. Most of them twitched wildly, impaled on the killing magic, but one of the demons avoided the spikes and clawed its way back out of the pit. A warded axe took its head before it could return to the fight or flee.

But the corelings kept coming, and once the pit was revealed, they flowed smoothly around it. There was a cry, and the Painted Man turned to see a harsh fight for the great doors of the Holy House. The corelings could smell the sick and weak within, and were in a frenzy to break through and begin the slaughter. Even the chalked wards were gone now, washed away by the ever-present rain.

The thick grease spread on the cobbles outside the doors slowed the corelings slightly. More than one fell on its tail, or skidded into the wards of the third circle. But they flexed their claws, digging in to secure their footing, and continued on.

The women at the doors stabbed out from the safety of their circle with their long spears, and held their own for a moment, but Stefhy's spearhead caught fast in the gnarled skin of one demon, and she was yanked forwards, her trailing foot catching the rope of the portable circle. In an instant, the wards fell out of alignment, and the net collapsed.

The Painted Man moved with all the speed he could muster, clearing the twelve foot wide pit in a single leap, but even he could not move fast enough to prevent the slaughter.

When the melee was over, he stood panting with the few surviving women, Stefny, amazingly, amongst them. She was splattered with ichor, but seemed none the worse for wear, her eyes full of hard determination.

A great wood demon charged them. They turned as one to stand firm, but the coreling crouched just out of reach and sprang, clearing them fully to reach the stone wall of the Holy House. Its claws found easy purchase between the piled stones, and it climbed out of reach before the Painted Man could catch its swinging tail.

'Look out!' the Painted Man called to Wonda, but the girl was too intent on aiming her bow, and did not hear until it was too late. The demon caught her in its claws and threw her back over its head as if she were nothing but a nuisance. The Painted Man ran hard and skidded across the grease and mud on his knees, catching her bloody and broken body before it struck the ground, but as he did, he saw the demon pull itself through the open window and into Holy House.

The Painted Man ran for the side entrance, but skidded to a halt as he turned the corner: his way barred by a dozen demons standing dazed by his wards of confusion. He roared, leaping into their midst, but he knew he would never make it inside in time.

The stone walls of the Holy House echoed with screams of pain, and the cries of the demons just outside the doors had everyone in the Holy House on edge. Inside many wept openly, or rocked slowly back and forth, shaking with fear; others raved and thrashed.

Leesha fought to keep them calm, speaking soothing words to the most reasonable and drugging the least, keeping them from tearing their stitches, or hurting themselves in a feverish rage.

'I am fit to fight!' Smitt insisted, the big innkeeper dragging Rojer across the floor as the poor Jongleur tried in vain to restrain him.

'You're not well!' Leesha shouted, rushing over. 'You'll be killed if you go out there!' As she went, she emptied a small bottle into a rag. Pressed to his face, the fumes would put him down quickly.

'My Stefny is out there!' Smitt cried. 'My son and daughters!' He caught Leesha's arm as she reached out with the cloth, shoving her violently aside. She tumbled into Rojer, and the two of them went down in a tangle. He reached for the bar on the main doors.

'Smitt, no!' Leesha cried. 'You'll let them in and get us all killed!'

But the fever-mad innkeeper was heedless of her warning, grabbing the bar in two hands and heaving.

Darsy grabbed his shoulder, spinning him around to catch her fist on his jaw. Smitt twisted around once more with the force of the blow, and collapsed to the ground.

'Sometimes the direct approach works better than herbs and needles,' Darsy told Leesha, shaking the sting from her hand.

'I see why Bruna needed a stick,' Leesha agreed, the two of them ducking under Smitt's arms to haul him back to his pallet. Beyond the doors, sounds of battle raged.

'Sounds like all the demons in the Core are trying to get in,' Darsy muttered.

There was a crash above, and a scream from Wonda. The choir loft railing shattered, and beams of wood came crashing down, killing the one unfortunate man directly below and wounding another. A huge shape dropped into their midst, howling as it landed on another patient, tearing out her throat before she even knew what had struck her.

The wood demon rose to its full height, huge and terrible, and Leesha felt her heart stop. She and Darsy froze, Smitt a dead weight between them. The spear that the Painted Man had given her leaned against a wall, far from reach, and even if she had it in her hands, she doubted it would do much to slow the giant coreling. Her spear seemed little more than a thorn by comparison, the demon's reach was much longer, but she stepped forward nonetheless, barring the demon's path. The creature shrieked at her, and she felt her knees turn to water.

But then Rojer was there, interposing himself between her and the demon. The coreling hissed at him, and he swallowed hard. Every instinct told him to run and hide, but instead he tucked his fiddle under his chin, and brought bow to string, filling Holy House with a mournful, haunting melody.

The coreling hissed at the Jongleur and bared its teeth, long and sharp as knives, but Rojer did not slow his playing, and the wood demon held its ground, cocking its head and staring at him curiously.

After a few moments, Rojer began to rock from side to side. The demon, its eyes locked on the fiddle, began to do the same. Encouraged, Rojer took a single step to the left. The demon mirrored him.

He stepped back to the right, and the coreling did the same. Rojer went on, walking around the wood demon in a slow, wide arc. The mesmerized beast turned as he went, until it was facing away from the shocked and terrified patients.

By then, Leesha had set Smitt down and retrieved her spear. It seemed little more than a thorn, the demon's reach far longer, but she stepped forward nonetheless, knowing she would never get a better chance. She gritted her teeth and charged, burying the warded spear in the coreling's back with all her might.

There was a flash of power and a burst of ecstasy as the magic ran up her arms, and then Leesha was thrown back. She watched as the demon screamed and thrashed about, trying to dislodge the glowing spear still sticking from its back. Rojer dodged aside as it crashed into the great doors in its death-throes, breaking down open the portal even as it fell dead.

Demons howled with glee and charged the opening, but they were met by Rojer's music. Gone was the soothing, hypnotizing melody, replaced by sharp and jarring sounds that had the corelings clawing at their ears as they stumbled away.

'Leesha!' The side door opened with a crash, and Leesha turned to see the Painted Man, awash in demon ichor and his own blood, burst into the room, looking about frantically. He saw the wood demon lying dead, and turned to meet her eyes. His relief was palpable.

She wanted to throw herself into his arms, but he turned and charged for the shattered doors. Rojer alone held the entrance, his music holding the demons back as surely as any wardnet. The Painted Man shoved the wood demon's corpse aside, pulling the spear free and throwing it back to Leesha. Then he was gone into the night.

Leesha looked out upon the carnage in the square, and her heart clenched. Dozens of her children lay dead and dying in the mud, even as the battle continued to rage.

'Darsy!' she cried, and when the woman rushed to her side, they ran out into the night, pulling wounded inside.

Wonda lay gasping on the ground when Leesha reached her, her clothes torn and bloody where the demon had clawed her. A wood demon charged them as she and Darsy bent to lift her, but Leesha pulled a vial from her apron and threw it, shattering the thin glass across its face. The demon shrieked as the dissolvent ate away its eyes, and the two Herb Gatherers hurried away with their charge.

They deposited the girl inside and Leesha shouted instructions to one of her assistants before running out again. Rojer stood at the entrance, the screeching of his fiddle forming a wall of sound that held the way clear, shielding Leesha and the others who began to drag the wounded inside..

The battle waxed and waned through the night, allowing exhausted villagers time to stagger back to their circles or into Holy House to catch their breath or gulp down a swallow of water. There was an entire hour when not one demon could be seen, but another after that when a large pack that must have come running from miles away fell upon them.

The rain stopped at some point, but no one could recall quite when, too preoccupied with attacking the enemy and helping the wounded. The cutters formed a wall at the great doors, and Rojer roamed the square, driving demons back with his fiddle as the wounded were collected.

By the time dawn's first light peeked over the horizon, the mud of the square had been churned into a foul stew of human blood and demon ichor; bodies and limbs were scattered everywhere. Many jumped in fright as the sun struck the demon corpses, setting their unholy flesh alight. Like bursts of liquid demonfire from all over the square, the sun finished the battle, incinerating the few demons that still twitched.

The Painted Man looked out at the faces of the survivors, half his fighters at least, and was amazed at the strength and determination he saw. It seemed impossible that these were the same people who were so broken and terrified less than a day before. They might have lost many in the night, but the Hollowers were now stronger than ever.

'Creator be praised,' Tender Jona said, staggering out into the square on his crutch, drawing wards in the air as the demons burned in the morning light. He made his way to the Painted Man, and stood before him.

'This is thanks to you,' he said.

The Painted Man shook his head. 'No. You did this,' he said. 'All of you.'

Jona nodded. 'We did,' he agreed. 'But only because you came and showed us the way. Can you still doubt this?'

The Painted Man scowled. 'For me to claim this victory as my own cheapens the sacrifice of all that died during the night,' he said. 'Keep your prophecies, Tender. These people do not need them.'

Jona bowed deeply. 'As you wish,' he said, but the Painted Man sensed the matter was not closed.

32 Cutter's No More

332-3 AR

Leesha waved as Rojer and the Painted Man rode up the path. She set her brush back in its bowl on the porch as they dismounted.

'You learn quickly,' the Painted Man said, coming up to study the wards she had painted on the rails. 'These would hold a horde of corelings at bay.'

'Quickly?' Rojer asked. 'Night, that's undersaid. It's not been a month since Leesha couldn't tell a wind ward from a flame.'

'He's right,' the Painted Man said. 'I've seen five-year journeyman Warders whose lines weren't half so neat.'

Leesha smiled. 'I've always been a quick study,' she said. 'And you and my father are good teachers. I only wish I had bothered to learn sooner.'

The Painted Man shrugged. 'Would that we all could go back and make decisions based on what was to come.'

'I think I'd have lived my whole life different,' Rojer agreed.

Leesha laughed, ushering them inside the hut. 'Supper's almost ready,' she said, heading for the fire. 'How did the village council meeting go?' she asked, stirring the steaming pot.

'Idiots,' the Painted Man grumbled.

She laughed again. 'That well?'

'The council voted to change the village name to Deliverer's Hollow,' Rojer said.

'It's only a name,' Leesha said, joining them at the table and pouring tea.

'It's not the name that bothers, it's the notion,' the Painted Man said. 'I've gotten the villagers to stop calling me Deliverer to my face, but I still hear it whispered behind my back.'

'It will go easier for you if you just embrace it,' Rojer said. 'You can't stop a story like that. By now, every Jongleur north of the Krasian desert is telling it.'

The Painted Man shook his head. 'I won't lie and pretend to be something I'm not to make life easier. If I'd wanted an easy life…' he trailed off.

'What of the repairs?' Leesha asked, pulling him back to them as his eyes went distant.

Rojer smiled. 'With the Hollowers back on their feet thanks to your cures, it seems a new house goes up every day,' he said. 'You'll be able to move back into the village proper soon.'

Leesha shook her head. 'This hut is all I have left of Bruna. This is my home now.'

'This far from the village, you'll be outside the forbiddance,' the Painted Man warned.

Leesha shrugged. 'I understand why you laid out the new streets in the form of a warding,' she said, 'but there are benefits to being outside the forbiddance, as well.'

'Oh?' the Painted Man asked, raising a warded brow.

'What benefit could there be to living on land that demons can set foot on?' Rojer asked.

Leesha sipped her tea. 'My mum refuses to move, too,' she said. 'Says between your new wards and the cutters running about chopping every demon in sight, it's a needless bother.'

The Painted Man frowned. 'I know it seems like we have the demons cowed, but if the histories of the Demon Wars are anything to go by, they won't stay that way. They'll be back in force, and I want Cutter's Hollow to be ready.'

'Deliverer's Hollow,' Rojer corrected, smirking at the Painted Man's scowl.

'With you here, it will be,' Leesha said, ignoring Rojer and sipping at her tea. She watched the Painted Man carefully over the rim of her cup.

When he hesitated, she set her cup down. 'You're leaving,' she said. 'When?'

'When the Hollow is ready,' the Painted Man said, not bothering to deny her conclusion. 'I've wasted years, hoarding wards that can make the Free Cities that in more than name. I owe it to every city and hamlet in Thesa to see to it they have what they need to stand tall in the night.'

Leesha nodded. 'We want to help you,' she said.

'You are,' the Painted Man said. 'With the Hollow in your hands, I know it will be safe while I'm away.'

'You'll need more than that,' Leesha said. 'Someone to teach other Gatherers to make flamework and poisons, and to treat coreling wounds.'

'You could write all that down,' the Painted Man said. Leesha snorted. 'And give a man the secrets of fire? Not likely.'

'I can't write fiddling lessons, in any event,' Rojer said, 'even if I had letters.'

The Painted Man hesitated, then shook his head. 'No,' he said. 'The two of you will only slow me down. I'll be weeks in the wilds, and you don't have the stomach for that.'

'Don't have the stomach?' Leesha asked. 'Rojer, close the shutters,' she ordered.

Both men looked at her curiously.

'Do it,' she ordered, and Rojer rose to comply, cutting off the sunlight and filling the hut with a dark gloom. Leesha was already shaking a vial of chemics, bathing herself in a phosphorescent glow.

'The trap,' she said, and the Painted Man lifted the trap door down to the cellar where the demonfire had been kept. The scent of chemics was thick in the air that escaped.

Leesha led the way down into the darkness, her vial held high. She moved to sconces on the wall, adding chemics to glass jars, but the Painted Man's warded eyes, as comfortable in utter darkness as in clear day, had already widened before the light filled the room.

Heavy tables had been brought down into the cellar, and there, spread out before him, were half a dozen corelings in various states of dissection.

'Creator!' Rojer cried, gagging. He ran back up the stairs, and they could hear him gasping for air.

'Well, perhaps Rojer doesn't have the stomach yet,' Leesha conceded with a grin. She looked at the Painted Man. 'Did you know that wood demons have two? Stomachs, I mean. One stacked on top of the other, like an hourglass.' She took an instrument, peeling back layers of the dead demon's flesh to illustrate.

'Their hearts are off-centre; down to the right,' she added, 'but there's a gap between their third and fourth ribs. Something a man looking to deliver a killing thrust should know.'

The Painted Man looked on in amazement. When he looked back at Leesha, it was as if he were seeing her for the first time. 'Where did you get these…?'

'A word to the cutters you sent to patrol this end of the Hollow,' Leesha said. 'They were happy to oblige me with specimens.

'There's more,' she said. 'These demons have no sex organs. They're all neuter.'

The Painted Man looked at her in surprise. 'How is that possible?' he asked.

'It's not that uncommon among insects,' Leesha said. 'There are drone castes for labour and defence, and sexed castes that control the hive.'

'Hive?' the Painted Man asked. 'You mean the Core?'

Leesha shrugged.

The Painted Man frowned. 'There were paintings in the tombs of Anoch Sun; paintings of the First Demon War that depicted strange breeds of corelings I have never seen.'

'Not surprising,' Leesha said. 'We know so little about them.'

She reached out, taking his hands. 'All my life, I've felt like I was waiting for something bigger than brewing chill cures and delivering children,' she said. 'This is my chance to make a difference to more than just a handful of people. You believe there's a war coming? Rojer and I can help you win it.'

The Painted Man nodded, squeezing her hands in return. 'You're right,' he said. 'The Hollow survived that first night as much because of you and Rojer as me. I'd be a fool not to accept your help now.'

Leesha stepped forward, reaching into his hood. Her hand was cool on his face, and for a moment, he leaned into it. 'This hut is big enough for two,' she whispered.

His eyes widened, and she felt him go tense.

'Why does that terrify you more than facing down demons?' she asked. 'Am I so repulsive?'

The Painted Man shook his head. 'Of course not,' he said.

'Then what?' she asked. 'I won't keep you from your war.'

The Painted Man was quiet for some time. 'Two would soon become three,' he said at last, letting go her hands.

'Is that so terrible?' Leesha asked.

The Painted Man took a deep breath, moving away to another table, avoiding her eyes. 'That morning when I wrestled the demon…' he said.

‘I remember,' Leesha prompted, when he did not go on.

'The demon tried to escape back to the Core,' he said.

'And tried to take you with it,' Leesha said, I saw you both go misty, and slip beneath the ground. I was terrified.'

The Painted Man nodded. 'No more than me,' he said. 'The path to the Core opened up to me, calling me, pulling me down.'

'What does that have to do with us?' Leesha asked.

'Because it wasn't the demon, it was me,' the Painted Man said, I took control of the transition, dragged the demon back up to the sun. Even now, I can feel the pull of the Core. If I let myself, I could slip down into its infernal depths with the other corelings.'

'The wards…' Leesha began.

"It's not the wards,' he said, shaking his head, i'm telling you it's me. I've absorbed too much of their magic over the years. I'm not even human anymore. Who knows what kind of monster would spring from my seed?'

Leesha went to him, taking his face in her hands as she had that morning they made love. 'You're a good man,' she said, her eyes welling with tears. 'Whatever the magic has done to you, it hasn't changed that. Nothing else matters.'

She leaned in to kiss him, but he had hardened his heart to her, and held her back.

‘It matters to me,' he said. 'Until I know what I am, I can't be with you, or anyone.'

'Then I'll discover what you are,' Leesha said, I swear it.'

'Leesha,' he said, 'you can't…'

'Don't you tell me what I can't do!' she barked. 'I've had enough of that from others to last a lifetime.'

He held up his hands in submission. 'I'm sorry,' he said.

Leesha sniffed, and closed her hands over his. 'Don't be sorry,' she said. 'Just hold me.' She moved in close, and rested her head against his chest as his powerful arms enclosed her.

Out in the Krasian desert, there was a stirring on the horizon. Lines of men appeared, thousand upon thousand, swathed in loose black cloth drawn about their faces to ward off the stinging sand. The vanguard was composed of two mounted groups, the smaller riding light, quick horses, and the larger upon powerful humped beasts suited to desert crossings. They were followed by columns of footmen, and they, in turn, by a seemingly endless train of carts and supplies. Each warrior carried a spear etched with an intricate pattern of wards.

At their head rode a man dressed all in white, on top of a sleek charger of the same colour. He raised a hand, and the horde behind him halted and stood in silence to gaze upon the ruins of Anoch Sun.

Unlike the wood and iron spears of his warriors, this man carried an ancient weapon made of a bright, unknown metal. He was Ahmann asu Hoshkamin am'Jardir, but his people had not used that name in years.

They called him Shar 'Dama Ka, the Deliverer.