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CHAPTER 8
Frornwhat seemed to her the least troublesome comer of the room, Je
The roomful of people, mostly men, were a jovial lot. Some of the men played at dice or other table games. Some arm-wrestled. Most were drinking and telling jokes that would set tables of them off in peals of fist-pounding laughter.
Laughter sounded obscene to Je
The past week was a blur. Or was it more than a week? She couldn't recall exactly how long they had been traveling. What did it matter? What did anything matter?
Je
When men noticed her standing at the end of the counter near the wall, they forgot the jokes, or paused at their dice, and lingered on the sight of her. Meeting their gazes, she pushed the hood of her cloak back, letting her thick rings of red hair fall over the front of her shoulders. That was enough to turn their eyes back to their own business, Je
Back at her house, it hadn't helped one little bit.
After the men turned away from her and went back to their dice and drinks, Je
Sebastian straightened and pulled a coin from his pocket, then slid it across the counter toward the woman. After taking the coin, she traded it for a key from a box behind her. Sebastian scooped the key off the counter wom smooth by countless mugs and hands. He picked up his own mug, and bid the woman a good day.
When he reached the end of the counter, he leaned close to Je
Jermsen shook her head.
He kept an eye on the roomful of people. They were all once again engaged in their own business. "It was a good thing you pushed your hood back. Until the woman of the house saw that red hair of yours, she was playing dumb. After that, her tongue loosened."
"The woman knows her? She is still living here in Gretton, as my mother said? The i
Sebastian took a long drink, watching a roll of dice bring a cheer for the wi
"And you got us rooms?"
"Only one room." As he took another swig, he saw her reaction. "Better to be together in case of trouble. I thought it would be safer with us both in one room." — "I'd rather sleep with Betty." Realizing how that must have sounded, she looked away in embarrassment and added, "Than in an i
— I know what you meant." Sebastian's blue eyes took up his smile. "It v6ill do you good to sleep inside-it's going to be a bitter night. And Betty will be better sheltered at the stable."
The man who ran the stable had been a bit surprised to be asked to stable a goat for the night, but horses enjoyed the company of goats, so he was accommodating.
That first night, Betty had probably saved their lives. Sebastian, with his fever, might not have survived had Je
Je
Leaving her mother's body there at the house, all alone, constantly haunted Je
But Sebastian and Je
"We should have some supper," Sebastian said. "They have lamb stew. Then maybe you should get a good night's sleep in a warm bed before we go see this old acquaintance of yours. I'll stand watch while you sleep."
Je
Sebastian studied the look on her face and saw that he wasn't going to talk her out of it. He drained the mug and set it on the counter. "It's not far. We're on the right side of town."
Outside in the gathering dusk, she asked, "Why did you want to stay here, at this i
His blue-eyed gaze swept the buildings, the dark doorways, the alleys, as his fingers touched his cloak, seeking the reassurance of the hilt of his sword. "A rough crowd asks fewer questions, especially the kind of questions we don't want to answer."
He seemed to her a man who was used to avoiding having questions asked of him.
She stepped along the narrow furrow of a frozen rut, following it down the road toward the woman's house, a woman Je
Without her mother, Je
They had escaped by using the hidden trail away from her house-the men probably wouldn't have been expecting that-so she and Sebastian had gained the temporary safety of distance. The rain would have done a good job of covering any tracks. It was possible that the two of them had gotten away cleanly and were for the time being safe. But since her pursuer was the Lord Rahl himself, it was also possible that the killers were, by some dark and mysterious means, moment by moment, closing in on her.
After the horrifying encounter with the huge soldiers at her house, the terror of that possibility always loomed in Je
At a deserted comer, Sebastian pointed to the right. "Down this street."
They walked past dark buildings, square and windowless, that suggested to her that maybe they were only used for storage. No one seemed to live down the street. Before long, they'd left the buildings behind.
Trees, naked before the bitter wind, huddled in clumps. When they came to a narrow road, Sebastian pointed.
"By the directions, it's the house down this road, down at the end, in that stand of trees."
The road looked to be little used. Weak light from a distant window stole through bare branches of oak and alder. The light, rather than warm invitation, shone more like a glowing warning to stay away.
"Why don't you wait here," she said. "It might be better if I went alone."
She was providing him with an excuse. Most people didn't want anything to do with a sorceress. Je
"I'll go with you."
He had shown a distinct distrust of anything to do with magic. The way his eyes watched the dark place off through the branches and brush to the sides, he might have been trying to sound more brave than he was.
Je
Snow crunched under their boots as the two of them, after reaching the end of the road, made their way along the narrow path through the trees. Sebastian watched off to the sides while her attention was mostly fixed on the house. Behind the small place, the woods marched off up foothills. Je
Je
As the wind moaned through the trees looming around her, Je