The Hob's Bargain

other.
    My knife shook until I had to stop cutting for fear of doing more damage to my already abused thumb. I swallowed hard and sought the numbness that had protected me so far—but it was dissolving like morning mist.
    Whether I addressed the council or not, I had already condemned myself as a mage. Kith wouldn’t say anything, but there had been other people who heard my confession. The only way any good would come of my death would be if I could convince them of what I knew to be true.
    Magic flowed though these mountains now as it had long ago. The wildlings who had lived when magic was bound were long gone. But I knew in my bones that Fallbrook’s valley wasn’t safe anymore. Not that it mattered to Daryn or my parents. Not that it mattered to me much, either—but I had a penance to make.
    Melly bustled in and took the knife from me. “Sorry, my dear, but it’s dark now and the council will be convening.”
    â€œI don’t hear anyone,” I said.
    It was true. There should have been the sounds of heavy tables scraping across the inn’s public room, where councils were held. The inn walls weren’t so thick as to hide voices, and the inn sounded empty.
    Melly stepped behind me, took my hair out of its braids, and began to brush it. “They’ve decided to hold the council out in the inn yard. You were out there when it happened, so I suppose you know old Silvertooth is blocking the highway to Auberg. The farmers are all going to be here to see what the council suggests about marketing the excess crops, and the fishermen will be there, too. Several of the village houses fell when the earthquake hit, and any number more will need work. Thank the One God the inn survived with little damage—though I’ll have to have the innkeeper look at the window in the back bedroom. Add the raiders, and everyone in the village will be in attendance. The public room isn’t large enough to house half of them.”
    She rounded the front of me, took a wet cloth from a bowl, and scrubbed my face. “There, now. You still look like a woman who’s lost her family, but now no one will be staring at you to see if they can see tear tracks. No one’s business how you mourn, but your own.”
    I looked at Melly, but I saw Albrin’s man talking to a group of villagers.
    Unnatural, the way she stood there, talking to us as if her menfolk weren’t stretched out in the wagon beside us.
    â€œAren?” Melly said.
    I nodded my head, focusing on her face, which was closer to my own than I remembered it being.
    â€œStand up, now.”
    I did. She walked around me, hands on hips.
    â€œWe’ll leave the dress as it is,” she decided with a nod. “No harm reminding them what you’ve been through. The hair made you look wild, but with it braided again and tidy, you look about fifteen.”
    I felt a hundred and fifteen. She patted my shoulder lightly, and led me to the door.
    â€œBest if you go out on your own,” she said. “So they know it’s your own idea.”
    Melly was right, the inn yard was crowded. My desire to address this mob was less than nothing. If Kith hadn’t appeared just then to take my elbow, I think I would have walked right back to the safety of the kitchen.
    The crowd parted to let us through, more frightened by Kith than moved by courtesy. With his cold eyes and hard face, he seemed more a dangerous stranger than a boy born and bred in Fallbrook. Well enough. I was frightened, too—though not of Kith.
    The elders were still shuffling back and forth around the table when Kith set me on the far end of the bench; I would be heard first. The man who’d been sitting there scooted farther down without objection. Not even the woman who lost her place at the other end of the bench complained.
    Kith stood to my left, resting one foot on the end of the bench. He folded his right arm across his chest, gripped his opposite shoulder, and closed his eyes. I wished I was calm enough to do that.
    When I glanced at the elders’ bench, I saw that Koret watched me thoughtfully. He was a big man with a bushy beard that I could remember being black as tar, though it was mostly iron gray now. Rumor had it that he had been a pirate until he was captured and enslaved by one of the southern kings. He escaped and turned up in Fall brook, looking for work. He married the daughter of the man who hired him, becoming a