Chapter 20

After over a week of staying in inns on the way back to Tyrsall, they ran into a stretch of road where they wouldn’t reach another village in time for nightfall, so they camped out.

Following the same pattern they’d used before reaching Four Roads, Shavala took the early morning watch. Sometimes Bobo or Katrin kept her company, but she liked the quiet watches, too, when there was no one awake but her.

An hour after she’d relieved Corec, she decided to make another circuit around the camp, and slid down from the boulder she’d been sitting on. As she landed lightly on the ground, the arrows in her new quiver shifted around more than she liked. It was reassuring to carry more, even if they hadn’t been needed them since leaving Four Roads, but she still didn’t like the new quiver. Perhaps she could find something in Tyrsall rather than waiting to ask her brother for one.

She grabbed her unstrung bow from the boulder and began strolling in a wide circle around the camp, allowing her rune to shine. Corec had offered to leave a mage light out for her, but she’d declined, keeping watch with just her elder senses and her elven ability to see movement in the darkness. Now that she was walking, though, nothing beat actual light to keep from tripping over something on the ground. The fire had died hours ago, but the night was dark enough that the faint blue glow from the rune illuminated a dozen feet in front of her.

She passed by Corec’s tent and grinned to herself as she heard a rhythmic motion and Katrin’s light gasp of pleasure. Apparently Corec hadn’t gone back to sleep immediately after his watch ended.

Everyone had tents now, and as she walked in a wide circle, she passed her own, then Bobo’s, then Treya’s. On the far side of the camp, she saw yellow eyes staring at her in the darkness.

“Well, hello there,” she said. “I didn’t expect to see you again.”

The young wolf approached, skinnier than he should be and looking hungry.

“I don’t have any rabbit tonight, and we finished off the stew,” she said. “I’ve got a bit of sausage in my saddlebags. Let me find it. You really should be hunting for yourself, you know.”

She was speaking Elven. It didn’t matter what language she used when talking to animals, but she missed speaking Elven. The only time she heard it from someone else was when Bobo was practicing with her, but he was new to the language, and his pronunciation was horrible.

The wolf followed her, wagging its tail a few times and relaxing its ears, but the saddlebags were too close to the horses and mules, and Socks and Dot snorted and shied away.

“It’s all right,” she told them. “He’s a friend.” They didn’t look like they believed her.

She found the sausage in her pack and led him back to the far side of the camp before giving it to him. “We’ll have to stay over here, and you’ll need to leave our horses alone. They’re part of my pack.”

He sniffed the first piece tentatively before scarfing it down.

As he ate, she said, “How did you end up here? We’re a long way from where we met last time.” They were at least a hundred miles from where she’d last encountered the wolf.

He looked at her and whined.

She didn’t know how to interpret that, but there were only so many reasons a yearling wolf would be on its own. “You decided to leave home and form a new pack? You’re awfully young to go off on your own.”

He cocked his head to the side, his tail wagging again.

“No, I’m not going to hunt with you. You need to learn to hunt for yourself, or find a she-wolf to help you, or go back to your parents.” A wolf pack was almost always comprised of a single mated pair and any of their children that hadn’t gone off on their own yet. It was rare for a yearling to leave.

The wolf made a show of dominance, putting its tail up and baring its teeth as its fur stood on end.

“Don’t you try that with me!” she said firmly.

He crouched down, his fur smoothing out and his tail curling under him.

“That’s better. I won’t have time to hunt tomorrow, and then we’ll be out of your territory, but I can give you more food before the others wake up. You’ll need to go after that. You don’t want them to see you, do you?”

He stretched his forelegs out in front of him, his rear sticking up with his tail wagging.

She shook her head, wondering if she knew enough about how wolves hunted to give him some tips.

The morning after they’d arrived back in Tyrsall, Treya woke to the sound of the door opening. As she sat up in bed, Renny came in.

“Hey,” Renny said. “Mother Ola stuck you in our old room?”

“I guess we haven’t been gone long enough for it to be assigned to someone else.”

“Yes, I thought you were supposed to be journeying,” Renny said with an evil grin. “That sure was a short journey.”

Treya groaned. “Don’t remind me. I ran into a mage on the road, and he cast some sort of spell on me by accident. We came to Tyrsall to try to get it removed.”

“A spell? Magic? Are you all right?”

“So far, yes. The only thing we’ve been able to figure out that it does is this.” She allowed the rune on her brow to shine, releasing the hold she’d been keeping on it.

Renny stepped back in surprise, then came toward her to peer at it. “It’s pretty.”

“That’s not the point,” Treya said, rolling her eyes. “I’m trying to get rid of the thing.”

“I know, but it’s still pretty.”

“Do you remember Priest Telkin?”

“Was he the one from the Temple of Allosur?”

“Yes. I need to send him a note this morning to ask if he can help us.”

“Us?”

“Me and the mage, and the other two people he did it to.” Treya decided not to mention that the other two were also young women. Renny’s mind would immediately go to places Treya wasn’t prepared to talk about.

It didn’t help, though. “You said the mage is a he? Is he young and handsome?”

“Well, you’ll like this. He’s the son of a baron.”

Renny grinned. “A rich, young, handsome son of a baron?”

“He certainly can’t afford to hire a concubine, if that’s what you mean. He’s the son of a Sister concubine, but I don’t think he’s close to his family.”

“Maybe he’s just wandering the world in disguise to get a feel for the plight of the common man, but he actually lives in a castle! You could write to his mother! She’s a Sister; she’ll tell you the truth!”

Treya couldn’t help laughing. “Renny, you read too many stories, and I’m not interested in his eligibility. I just want to be done with him as soon as possible. Besides, he hasn’t said as much, but I got the impression his mother passed away.”

“Oh, that’s too bad.”

“What about you?” Treya asked. “Any news?”

“Varsin agreed to teach me his business. And I visited his brother’s concubines. I don’t think they like their men very much. I reported it to Mother Ola so she can check up on them.”

Treya frowned. “Did they say why?”

“No, they didn’t say anything about it—that was just the impression I got.”

“But Varsin’s all right?”

“I like him, but he’s a busy man. I’m hoping that assisting him with his work will allow us to spend more time together.”

Just then, the door opened again and Nina ran in. “Treya! You’re back!” Nina was fifteen now, but just as excitable as she’d been when she first started training as a mystic. “What’s that on your head?”

Treya hid the rune, not wanting to worry the girl. “It’s a magic spell from a wizard, but it’s gone now.”

“You met a wizard?”

“Sort of. I’ll tell you about it later.”

“Do you want to spar today? I’ve only had Kelis to spar with since you left.”

“I want to catch up with Renny while she’s here, and then I’ve got some other things to do this morning, but I might have time this afternoon.”

Katrin paused nervously outside the constabulary building. “I don’t want to do this. Can’t we just ignore it? No other bounty hunters have come after me.”

“Maybe because your bounty isn’t very high,” Corec said. “The real bounty hunters probably aren’t interested, but you never know when somebody will recognize you from the picture. It’s still right up there on the wall.” He pointed to the weathered poster which had images of both her and her uncle.

She frowned, not thinking much of its likeness of her, though Felix was recognizable. “I suppose. Are you sure they won’t arrest me?”

“I’ve never paid a penalty fee before. Didn’t you pay your brother’s before?”

“Once, but that was in Circle Bay, and only after he’d already been arrested.”

“Well, I don’t know how it works here. I was only arrested the one time, when I punched that guy, and I just stayed in for the week. But I think they’d keep you for several months, so we should go ahead and pay it. The impression I got from the guy I spoke to was that you wouldn’t have to go to prison at all, but I didn’t ask for the details.”

Katrin frowned, wishing he’d asked a few more questions, but then took a deep breath. “All right. Let’s get it over with.”

They went inside, and she flinched when she saw a group of uniformed constables standing around the duty desk, chatting with each other. She’d spent her entire life trying to avoid the constabulary, and she half-expected them to arrest her then and there. She grasped Corec’s hand for support—he wasn’t wearing his gauntlets, since he’d left his heavier armor back at the inn. The men didn’t show any interest in them, merely glancing their way briefly before returning to their conversation.

“The bounty office is this way,” Corec said, and led her to a smaller room down a short hallway to the left.

There was a bearded man standing behind a counter, and copies of wanted posters were hung up along the back wall.

The man looked up when they entered. “Can I help you?”

“My name’s Corec. I’m here to turn in a bounty, and the young lady would like to pay off her penalty.”

The man raised his eyebrows. “Is that so? Which bounty?” He turned and scanned the posters behind him, only a few of which featured women.

Katrin took off her hat, so she’d look more like the picture.

“The one with the older fellow,” Corec said. “They were working together, but he got away. I convinced the girl it’d be better to pay off her penalty so it wasn’t hanging over her head.”

The man pulled the poster off the wall, peering at it, then back at Katrin. “That’s you, all right, but what’s that thing on your head?”

“A tattoo, with special ink,” she said. “I got it after I left the city.”

“I’ve never seen anything like that. Let me pull the records.” He looked through a stack of papers in a drawer, finally selecting one and pulling it out. “Thief, huh?”

Katrin felt herself blushing, and looked down at her feet.

“That’s the one,” Corec said when she didn’t reply.

“What’s your name?” the man asked her. “I don’t have it here.”

“Katrin.”

“All right, Katrin, let’s go see the booking sergeant. He’ll have some questions for you.” He turned to Corec. “You wait here. Once the booking sergeant is done with her, I can pay out on the bounty.”

Katrin looked back at Corec and bit her lip nervously as the man led her out of the bounty office. This time, the constables did stare at her suspiciously as she was led back through the main lobby, then into a small office behind the duty desk. The sergeant turned out to be a granite-faced man of no particular age she could determine.

The man from the bounty office whispered into his ear and passed him the poster and the other sheet of paper he’d brought with him, then left the two of them together.

Once they were alone, the sergeant looked at her impassively and said, “Name?”

“Katrin.”

“Where are you from?”

“Tyrsall, originally. Most recently, Circle Bay.”

“Why did you return to Tyrsall?” The sergeant’s tone was bored, as if he didn’t care about the answers to the questions.

“I’m learning to be a minstrel. We thought we’d make more money in a bigger city.”

“The man you were working with that night—what’s his name? Where is he from?”

Katrin couldn’t lie about everything, since Corec had told her that the constabulary knew she and Felix had arrived on the same ship. But Felix was still her uncle—she didn’t want to lead them right to him. “Felix, I think. That’s the name he gave me, anyway. He found me playing the harp and singing, and offered to teach me to play the gittern, but only if I came here—I thought he was from Tyrsall, and that’s why he wanted to come back.”

“You met him in Circle Bay?”

“Yes, but I don’t think he’d been there long.” The lie felt clumsy even as she spoke, and the sergeant’s eyes bored into her.

“Did he mention he was a pickpocket?”

“Not until we reached the city.”

“And yet, you’re a pickpocket, too.” He smiled for the first time, as if pleased that he’d caught her out. “At least two pieces of jewelry and one belt pouch were stolen while this Felix was performing and you were wandering around the crowd.”

“I ... when I was younger, a street gang made me steal for them, but I stopped a long time ago. I wouldn’t have done it this time if I’d had any choice.”

“A street gang? In Tyrsall or Circle Bay?”

Katrin felt trapped. For all that this sergeant didn’t seem to care about what he was doing, she was telling him more than she’d wanted to say, and she still didn’t know whether he was going to send her to prison or allow her to pay the penalty fee.

“Tyrsall.”

“Which gang?”

She pressed her lips together tightly.

He waited, still watching her with that impassive stare. Finally, he said, “Not willing to say?”

“I don’t remember.”

“Very well. But if you ever change your mind...”

She nodded.

He intoned, “Katrin of Circle Bay, you are wanted by the city and kingdom of Tyrsall for the crime of theft. Since there’s no record of your activities with this street gang you mentioned, we’ll have to treat it as a first offense, which means the judge can impose a sentence anywhere from three to twelve months. Do you understand?”

She swallowed. “Yes, but I wanted to pay the penalty fee.”

“We’ll get to that later. Can you return any of the items or coin that you stole? That would reduce your sentence. Or your fee.”