‘Life is full of surprises, Waylander.’
After the assassin had gone, Durmast called the hatchet-faced young man into the room. ‘Did you hear all that?’ he asked.
‘Yes. Is he mad?’
‘No, he’s merely gone soft. It happens, Sorak. But do not underestimate him. He is one of the finest warriors I have ever seen and will prove a hard man to kill.’
‘Why do we not just kill him for the bounty?’
‘Because I want that Armour and the bounty.’
‘So much for friendship,’ said Sorak, grinning.
‘You heard the man. People like us have no friends.’
Danyal took the children to a tiny schoolhouse behind the Hall of Council. It was run by three Source priests and there were more than forty children housed there, orphans of the war. A further three hundred had been billeted with the townspeople of Skarta. Krylla and Miriel seemed content enough to be left there and waved happily from the play area as Danyal walked away beside an elderly priest.
‘Tell me, sister,’ he asked as they halted by the wrought-iron gate, ‘what do you know of Dardalion?’
‘He is a priest like yourself,’ she answered.
‘But a priest who kills,’ he said sadly.
‘I cannot help you. He did what he felt was necessary to save lives – there is no evil in him.’
‘There is evil in all of us, sister, and the mark of a man is how he defies the evil within. Our young men talk much of Dardalion and I fear he poses a terrible threat to our Order.’
‘Or perhaps he will help to save it,’ she ventured.
‘If we need saving by men, then all we believe is nonsense. For if Man is ultimately more powerful than God, what need have we to worship a deity at all? But I do not wish to burden you with our problems. May the Source bless you, sister.’
She left him and wandered through the white-walled streets. Her dress was filthy and torn and she felt like a beggar under the stares of the townsfolk. A short fat man approached her, offering money, but she dismissed him with an angry glare. Then a woman touched her arm as she passed.
‘Did you just come in, my dear?’ she asked.
‘Yes.’
‘Was there a man named Vanek with your party?’
‘Yes, a soldier with a limp.’
The woman looked relieved. She was plump, and once must have been pretty, but now her face was lined and she had lost several teeth on the right side of her face which gave her a lopsided appearance.
‘My name is Tacia. There is a bath-house next to my home and you are welcome to use it.’
The bath-house was deserted and the main bath empty, but several tubs remained in the side rooms. Tacia helped Danyal to fill a copper tub with buckets of water from a well at the rear of the bath-house, then sat down as she removed her dress and lowered herself into the cold water.
They do not heat the water any more,’ said Tacia. ‘Not since the council man left. He owned the House; he went to Drenan.’
‘It is fine,’ said Danyal. ‘Is there any soap?’
Tacia left her and returned some minutes later carrying soap, towels and a skirt and tunic top.
‘It will be too large for you, but I can soon alter it,’ she said.
‘Are you Vanek’s wife?’
‘I was,’ she said, ‘but he lives now with a young girl from the southern quarter.’
‘I am sorry.’
‘Never wed a soldier – isn’t that what they say? The children miss him; he is very good with children.’
‘Were you married long?’
‘Twelve years.’
‘Maybe you’ll get back together,’ said Danyal.
‘Maybe – if my teeth grow again and the years fall away from my face! Have you anywhere to stay?’
‘No.’
‘You are welcome to share our house. It isn’t much, but it is comfortable – if you don’t mind children.’
‘Thank you, Tacia, but I am not sure I am staying in Skarta.’
‘Where else is there to go? Purdol is ready to fall, I hear, despite the promises from Karnak and Egel. They must think we are stupid. No one is going to resist the Vagrians for long … look how swiftly they have conquered the country.’