Stonewiser (31 page)

The young man clutched the stone on his neck.

“Orm of Panadan would have a fit if he knew you were here,” Malord said. “Does he even know? Did you ask permission to come to the Goodlands?”

“We're not going back.”

“How many of you are there?” Sariah asked.

“Many.”

“Ten, twenty, a hundred?”

The kid kept his stubborn silence.

“I reckon they're about eighteen,” Mara said. “They're squatters at the Siguird Farm.”

“We're not squatters!” The young woman shot to her feet. “We're under the widow's protection. We bought a parcel of land from her a week back. We paid good coin for it.”

“Is that so?” Sariah said. “A parcel of land? Did she give you a stone or a parchment saying so?”

The three exchanged puzzled looks.

“I didn't think so. How are you going to manage with your coin gone and the chill coming?”

The young man's chest swelled like a puffing hen. “We're Domainers. We'll manage.”

“You're as clumsy as hobbled oxen,” Delis said, “as easy to catch as stunned cockroaches.”

Sariah took in the shabby trio, the tattered rags they wore for mantles, the dirty faces, the bony limbs. Somewhere in Panadan a mother wept for this frail-looking young woman and a father agonized over the fate of his sons. Sariah fathomed she could hear the trio's empty stomachs grumbling. Or was it her stomach growling?

“What are your names?”

The girl spoke up. “I'm Ginia. These are Rig and Harsten.”

Somewhat regretfully, Sariah handed the girl four shaggy hares they had caught along the way. “Take these.”

The trio stared at the hares on the string.

“For dinner,” Sariah said. “You roast them. Like fowl. In the fire?”

“Oh, yes, we know how to do that.”

“You said you were keeping watch for the Shield,” Sariah said. “Why?”

“The widow likes to know when they come,” Rig said. “And we don't trust the Shield.”

“That's wise of you. Did you see any?”

“Several Shield patrols have been on the road today. The last one we saw no less than an hour ago, setting a night camp over by the crossroads.”

Curse her luck. She couldn't call the beam tonight if there was a Shield patrol camping so close. They would be on Targamon as soon as they spotted the beam. She hated to waste the time, but Kael was right, she had to wait until it was safe to call the beam. They couldn't find the tale if they were all dead.

Mia climbed down from the cart and neared Rig, a reedy lad of perhaps fourteen, a gangly assembly of long limbs and curly black hair.

“Your leg. It's bleeding.” She pressed her scarf against the boy's knobby knee. “I'll make it better.”

Rig blushed like a roseroot.

How she hated to abandon these Domainer youths to their scant devices. How many Domainers were in the Goodlands now? How many would perish from starvation this chill? Lacking knowledge and experience, how many would be tricked, abused, misled, persecuted and outright killed?

Well, if she couldn't call the beam tonight, she might as well do something else, something fruitful preferably. “Where is this farm? It's nearby, yes? I'll need to speak to the widow. If it's true that you paid her coin for land, I'll make you a stone of property.”

The trio's eyes widened.

“But if I find out you didn't pay the widow for land, if you're squatting, stealing, or harassing her, then you will return to Panadan. Your kin must be worried sick. I expect you to be men and women of the oath.”

The three heads bobbed in unison.

“Now let's see. We have, what? Three more hours of light? Malord, won't you take the girls to the farmhouse? Delis, you can keep watch. Can you two boys run fast? I thought so. Stay with Delis. Bring word to us if you spot trouble. Ginia, come with me. Mara, I wonder, will it be too much to ask for an introduction to the Siguird widow?”

“Not at all. You saved our lives.”

“Do you really think a stone of property will make a difference?” Malord asked.

“I don't know,” Sariah said. “The Third Covenant prohibits Domainers in the Goodlands, so I don't know that the Guild's justice applies to Domainers. But we have to start somewhere.”

“What do you mean,
start?
”

“This is probably happening all along the wall. Only bloodshed can stop it now. I fear Arron will try that well enough. Meanwhile, we have to build a record of justice for those who come to settle here.”

“A record of justice?”

She took a deep breath. “One day, it may be all Domainers have to defend themselves in the Goodlands.”

Twenty-four

 

T
HE
S
IGUIRD WIDOW
was a strong, lively woman with striking black eyes that shone like polished onyx. She wore her lustrous black hair loose over her shoulders and her dress tightly cinched around her body's prominent curves, demonstrating with the swing of her hips that she was very much still in contention. She manifested great pleasure in receiving Sariah once she understood that she was a Guild stonewiser. Sariah didn't contest the small detail about her Guild membership.

“I'm honored to receive you in my house.” The widow's gaze scoured Sariah from head to toe. “Although, I must confess, I've never seen a stonewiser without the brooch and black robe.”

“I've been traveling a lot. I find comfort in these clothes.”

“They're strange.” She ran her hands over her long and proper Goodlander skirt. “But to each its own. Besides, no man or woman I know would want to pass themselves for a stonewiser—” She tittered. “Not that there's anything wrong with stonewiser blood, of course, that's not what I meant—”

“Of course not.” Sariah knew all she risked by coming to see the widow. Granted, she couldn't call the beam right away, but she wondered, not for the first time, why the plight of people she didn't know kept sidetracking her.

The widow served Sariah and Mara tea in her front parlor, but she left the Domainer kids standing by the open front door under a drizzle of rain. Sariah counted twelve boys and four girls wearing rags for mantles and mud for boots. Some of them showed cuts and bruises, and a few of them had some kind of rash around their mouths, on their necks and hands. They were a pathetic sight, thin, ragged, and huddling together under the rain like a pack of mangy mongrels waiting for scraps.

“What brings a Guild wiser to our humble parts?” the widow asked when she finished tinkering with her prized tea set.

“I understand there's a matter of property at stake,” Sariah said. “In deference to the Guild laws, I seek to formalize the agreement.”

“I'm not sure I follow, stonewiser. What did you say your name was?”

“I didn't.”

“Oh.” The widow cleared her throat. “My husband has been dead a year now. The business of succession has been resolved to my name.”

“These Domainers told me they purchased a parcel of land from you not a week ago.”

Sariah had been to the so-called parcel of land before coming to see the widow, a steep, muddy hill by the river's sharp embankment where the youngsters had built a number of fragile lean-tos that threatened to slide down with the first hard rain. Sariah was no expert, but even she could see that the hill would flash flood easily and that not even a simple garden would grow in the thick mud.

“You're here about the vermin's younglings?” The woman didn't bother hiding her surprise. “I didn't think the Guild cared about stuff like that.”

“The law says that any trade should be documented by parchment, or preferably, by stone.”

“A widow like me doesn't have the means to afford your services.”

“Never mind. My services are offered without charge.”

“Without charge?” The woman's mouth pursed in a perfect circle. “Forgive my trepidation. I've never met a Guild stonewiser who worked for free.”

Neither had Sariah.

“Well, you see, the thing is—” The woman squirmed. “I don't need your services after all.”

“What do you mean? Didn't these youngsters pay you for the parcel?”

“I don't want to get the poor bastards in trouble.” The widow lowered her voice. “I'm just letting them stay here out of the goodness of my heart.”

“Out of the goodness of your heart?” Sariah repeated the words aloud. “So these youngsters are squatters in your land?”

“We're not squatters.” Ginia stepped into the parlor. “We paid her all of our coin and more. That parcel is ours!”

“Get out of my house, you snotty vermin. You're tracking mud on my floor.”

“Ginia, stand back,” Sariah said. “You don't want to owe penalties to this woman.” She turned to the widow. “So these Domainers didn't pay to settle on your farm?”

“Most decidedly not.”

A gasp of indignation rose from the group outside. Even Mara, who had concentrated on her cup of tea to this point, flashed the widow a doubtful look. Sariah got up from her stool.

“What about this collection of Domainer weaves you have here?” She fingered a pile of weaves stacked on the corner table. “Are they not part of the youngsters’ price?”

“I've been collecting those for years. I keep them for the Shield. They have a standing order to confiscate all Domainer weaves. They think they provide some sort of protection against this or that.”

“Those were our traveling weaves,” Ginia said. “If you look, they're marked with Panadan's weavers’ seal.”

“Enough,” the widow said. “A Guild stonewiser won't take your word over mine.”

The widow was right.

“What about this coin?” Sariah picked up a single hexagonal copper she had spied half-sticking from under the widow's colorful rug.

“Coin? I don't have any coin. Where did that come from?”

“From the Domain, I'd say. It's minted with the coiled eel at the center. I can't help but wonder if there are other Domainer coppers about.”

The widow didn't bat an eye. “There are a lot of Domainers wandering the border these days. They're always coming to the farm, asking for handouts. Maybe one of them children dropped a copper in my house.”

“So these youngsters don't own any of your land?”

“Not a lick.”

Sariah whirled on the group. “You are all squatters. You're trespassing on the widow's land. You must leave.”

“I'm not so uncharitable as to boot out this little herd on the spot.” The widow smiled sweetly. “The roads are dangerous. I don't mind if they stay under my protection for a while.”

What did the witch want from the youngsters? Perhaps the Shield had offered a reward on Domainer heads. Perhaps she intended to use them as slaves on her farm. Whatever her purposes, Sariah had to extricate them from the widow's claws before it was too late. But why did she feel so strongly that she needed to help these wretched souls?

Because they were Domainers and she had lived among their kind and benefited from their kindness? Maybe. But there was more. The stone truth meant nothing if not justice for the Blood. She wanted to help these kids for the same reason she had wanted to help Mara and her grandchildren on the road—because just as she served the stone truth, the stones were meant to serve these people and therefore, so was she.

“Abetting Domainer refugees is a breach of the law.” Sariah wasn't sure, since no Domainer refugees wandered the Goodlands during her time at the keep, but she tried it anyway.

“
Abetting
is a strong word,” the widow said. “In Meliahs’ spirit, I don't mind using my right of autonomy to protect these kids. Can we leave the poor souls to wander the Goodlands unaided?”

“Why can't we stay if she says we can?” Ginia asked.

Her guileless innocence seemed too much like stupidity at the moment. Would these hardy sons and daughters of the Domain relinquish their lives so easily?

“Squatting is prohibited in the Goodlands,” Sariah said with a tone that barred all protests. “Get your stuff and meet me at the gate. Now.”

“I can't understand your part in this, stonewiser,” the widow said. “You've come to my house for no profit, spewing the law like Meliahs’ prophetess and yet I wonder, why? You don't dress like any stonewiser I've seen and you don't act like any Guild wiser I know. Why must you interfere with my affairs when the Guild has no stake in this?”

The woman was no fool. She was polite, but there was a calculated threat in her voice. Sariah knew she was treading in dead water, but she wasn't walking out of the farm without the Domainers. She had to prevail over the widow fast and conclusively. Her gaze returned to the youngsters’ faces. She saw them anew. What if…?

“That's exquisite lace at your neck.” Sariah admired the woman's collar. “The best I've seen in a long time.”

The observation surprised the widow, but the vain woman was delighted that Sariah noticed. “Imported from the sea people. Expensive too.” She lifted her hair from her shoulders so that Sariah could better appreciate the lace.

And there it was. The key to the Panadanians’ freedom. And the main reason why the widow wanted to keep the Domainer children around. Sariah kicked herself for not seeing it before. At least her mind had made sense of it before it was too late.