Law of the Broken Earth(91)

“Yes,” said Mienthe. She had hoped to rest in some pleasant public house in Ehre. She didn’t say so, but only pressed her horse into a swinging trot toward the walls of the town, so near at hand.

But she could not believe, now, that those walls would offer anything but an illusion of safety.


Mienthe had thought Ehre a small mountain town, larger than Minas Ford, no doubt, for all the building that had been done at Minas Ford and Minas Spring in the past years, but still far smaller than Tiefenauer. Certainly Ehre had not seemed very large from above, but it was intensely busy; busier and far more crowded than she had expected. She thought it was probably a market day, for farmers with empty carts were passing in and out of the stone gates that pierced Ehre’s walls. Well, mostly out, for they’d clearly disposed of their produce earlier in the day. But plenty of other people were going in or coming out. Not merely ordinary folk, either, but an astonishing number of fancy carriages and riders dressed not for the practical necessities of travel, but in finely dyed linen with lace at their wrists and delicate embroidery, and fancy rings for the men or bangles for the ladies. Mienthe thought she wouldn’t have been able to wear so fine an outfit for an hour on the road without snagging a thread or ripping the lace.

“Do you suppose there’s a spring fair?” Mienthe asked Tan. “Or perhaps the lord here is celebrating the birth of an heir?”

Tan had a thoughtful, wary look on his face, but it fell away almost before Mienthe had noticed it, and he smiled and shrugged with every evidence of good humor. “Perhaps a fair,” he agreed. “It’s useful. I much doubt anyone will look twice at strangers passing through.” He touched his reins to direct his horse toward the gates that led into the town.

At first Tan’s prediction seemed accurate. There were guardsmen at those stone gates, but they seemed unconcerned about travelers and simply waved everyone through after a brief exchange of words. Mienthe knew that they would do the same for herself and Tan, but she could not help feeling as though the hunted, anxious days just past must show somehow. She felt very strongly that the guards would stop them and demand knowingly, And just what brings you to Ehre, eh, esteemed lady? Bringing trouble at your heel, are you? Linularinan agents, is it? And while she wanted to explain about all of that to the Arobern, she certainly did not want to be taken for a hysteric or a madwoman by provincial guards here in Ehre.

She wished that Bertaud was here with her—visiting Casmantium wouldn’t be frightening at all if her cousin were with her—even if he’d come bearing news of trouble and disorder in Feierabiand, everyone here would respect him and believe everything he said. She had been desperately eager to arrive in Ehre, but now she looked anxiously sideways at Tan, riding beside her on the road. He did not look in the least concerned about the guardsmen. Mienthe did not for a moment believe his confident pose. She wished she did.

But they could hardly go back through the pass.

The guardsmen asked, without much interest, what business had brought them to Ehre. Tan, with a discretion Mienthe thoroughly approved, did not go into any details. He gave his name as Teras son of Toharas and did not give hers at all; he merely said that they were on their way to Breidechboden—he pronounced the name quite creditably—with an important message from Lord Bertaud of the Delta to King Brechen Glansent Arobern.

They had agreed he would say so much, because Tan said that complicated lies were difficult to put over properly and Mienthe had suggested that she might well pass for a courier; that, indeed, after their recent hasty days of travel across country with never a decent chance to pause at any civilized house or inn, she would be hard put to look like a respectable lady. She had flatly refused, this time, to allow Tan to imply they were fleeing together from an outraged husband.

But after that nothing in the encounter followed any outline either of them had envisioned.

“You plan to go to Breidechboden?” one of the men said, in accented but quite accomplished Terheien. His gaze, from bored, had become intent. “You wish to speak to the Arobern for the Lord of the Delta?” He did not sound, as Mienthe would have expected, doubtful. He simply gave Tan a long look and Mienthe a polite nod and said, “I am glad to save you many miles. The Arobern is not in Breidechboden. He is here.”

“Here? In Ehre?” Mienthe said blankly, before she could stop herself. She had meant to leave all the speaking to Tan, but in her startlement she had forgotten.

“In Ehre. Yes,” said the guardsman. “This is good news, yes? Because you bring an important message. You do not have a wand?”