Tahn (33 page)

Tobas smiled. “I don’t think your Dorn would much appreciate me losing sight of you.” He turned to Jarel. “The Bible tells us to help the needy, Jarel.”

But the nobleman shook his head. “This is not like feeding the hungry.”

“He’s that too,” Vari pointed out. “Only it’s not foremost in his mind, but I’ll persuade him to eat.”

“Something could befall him if we don’t help,” Tobas told Jarel. “I’ll pay for his needs of my own pocket. Perhaps the good deed may persuade him toward our Savior. Let us pray it for him.”

Vari smiled his relief. “Thank you, sir,” he told Tobas hurriedly. Then he went running back toward Marcus.

When Vari reached him, the young man struggled to his feet and watched the bushes behind Vari nervously. “What’d they say? I don’t want trouble from them, Vari, please! I swear I’ll not try nothing!”

“It’s okay, Marcus. We’ll help. We’ll put you in the wagon, and then you tell me where your horse is.”

Marcus looked so scared, like a cornered rabbit. Vari grabbed his shoulders. “They won’t hurt you,” he told him.

“You’re not sore for vengeance, are you?” Marcus asked. “Nor the Dorn?”

“We’re not out for anybody. You have my word.”

One of the Clareys helped Vari get Marcus into the wagon. The boy was exhausted. He seemed to fall into a fitful sleep almost as soon as his head was down. It didn’t take long for Vari to retrieve the horse, which he tied to walk behind the wagon. He had also found Marcus’s sword.

“I’ll keep this for him,” he said.

“We should leave it,” Jarel told him. “No telling what he’ll do with it when he’s able.”

“He might need it to stay alive,” Vari reasoned. “Samis isn’t dead, and I don’t know what it will mean to have men running loose of their own accord. Some of them’ll make good, but some are bound to be trouble and wouldn’t mind keeping the younger ones for a following.”

“You’re saying a scourge is loose on our land.” Jarel shook his head in dismay.

“It always was. It’s just changed. Can’t predict them now. But we ought to thank God Samis hasn’t got the same power.”

“What happened to him?” Stuva asked.

“I don’t know, but I can see a day when we won’t be looking over our shoulders. Maybe I’ll have a bunch of sons, and we’ll put in some field, and then lay on the grass and look up at the sky without a care in this world.”

Tobas smiled largely. “Let’s go. We can praise God as the wheels turn, boys.”

Jarel was watching Marcus tossing and jerking in the wagon. He looked over at Vari as they continued down the road. “Did you say you went through this?”

“Not like that. I said I had Jesus’s help.” He glanced down at the sword across his lap, remembering the night Tahn had rescued him. “It
was
bad once. I thought I’d die, but the Dorn helped me till I was ready to give it to God. Now I can help Marcus this once. Maybe he’ll be ready one day too.”

“Are all of Samis’s men drugged killers?” Jarel asked with a scowl.

“Yeah. I guess so.”

“So does Mr. Dorn use the drug too?”

Vari looked at him in surprise. Why hadn’t it occurred to him to wonder about that? “No. He’s not had any. And it’s been too long since he was caught. We’d have seen sign by now. He must have been through it before we found him.” He shook his head. “I wish I could have helped.”

“Could he be hiding it?”

Vari stopped in his tracks. “No, sir! He wouldn’t hide it from me.”

Jarel turned his head, but Vari wasn’t finished. “You may never love him like I do, Mr. Trilett, no matter what he’s done for you. But you can at least have some respect for him or I’ll have you off your horse in a minute!”

The Clareys rode closer, but Tobas waved his hand at them.

“I did not mean any insult,” Jarel said.

“Yes, you did! He saved the lady’s life, sure as we breathe, and probably her father and you too. And he saved mine, and the little ones. It should matter to you, especially since he follows Jesus now. But you try to make him a vile thing so you can be better than him. I heard what you told the lady. And you’re nothing in my eyes till you can see a man for what he is.” He kicked at his horse and glanced at Tobas. “Let’s get going. I need to be done with this trip.”

With Tobas’s money, Vari purchased a bottle of tincture from the seller Tahn had told him about. Marcus had woken, and he reached for it greedily.

“Take it easy,” Vari cautioned. “You may want to keep your head about you.”

Marcus sipped and capped the bottle. “Thank you, Vari. I’d fight a demon from hell for you right now.”

“You got your own demons. You need Jesus. He took the tincture out of me, Marcus. Without the struggle. I just didn’t need it anymore. He’d do the same for you.”

Marcus scoffed. “You always had some of God about you, Vari. Rather die and meet him than kill for the master. But I’ve given him no cause to care about me.”

“He needs no cause. He made us. And he cares, no matter what we do. That’s just the way it is. He loves you. I think that’s why he had you meet up with us. So you’d know it.”

“Hard to believe.”

“I know what I’m talking about. I think he
likes
to forgive people, if they’ll give him the chance. You don’t have to keep on like you are.”

“I’ll find work or something.”

Vari looked over to the rest of his group. “You could come with us. If you understand we’re all Christians and you’d have to keep in line with that.”

Marcus shook his head. “I’m fearing the Dorn right now. Your word and his aren’t the same thing. He knows what I’ve done, better than you do. I’m going to stay here a while.”

“You ought to come to him. He won’t hurt you. He won’t turn you away, either. You know what he did for me.”

“I’m not cut out for that, brother.”

Vari sighed. “My friend will give you a little money and some food. Getting work’s a good idea. If you have trouble, you know I’ll do what I can for you. But this is it for the tincture.” He glanced at Jarel for just a moment. “I’d feed you anytime, but I won’t get you another bottle. When you’re ready to get free of it, you come to me. I’ll be with the Dorn and the Triletts, and we’ll help you. You’ll see how much better things are when you’ve got God’s help.”

Marcus was looking at him in wonderment. “Why are you doing this?”

“I know what it’s like. And none of us is cut out for this world on our own. Remember what I told you. Talk to God, all right? He knows you’re scared. He’ll help.”

“Thanks, Vari. You’re better than I expected. Will you give me my sword back?”

“If you pledge to me you won’t use it unless you have to. Don’t hire out with it, and don’t become a bandit, Marcus. You come to us first.”

“I never had no father, Vari. It wouldn’t be you if I did.”

Vari understood the defiance in his words, but he didn’t let it trouble him. “If you want your sword, you’ll give me your word.”

“Why do you think I’d keep it?”

“Because I helped you. And I’d help you again. And you don’t have nobody else you can count on.”

For just a moment, Marcus’s eyes misted, but he fought it away and stood up. “All right. You got my word. I’ll find decent work. I’ll figure something out.” He opened his bottle and took another sip.

“Stretch it out as long as you can,” Vari advised him. “The more you drink, the harder it is when you haven’t got it. Go easy. Make it hurt a little every time. Maybe you’ll get the will to get rid of it.”

Marcus took his hand. “I don’t know where you’re going with your friends, but I owe you now. You go on. I’ll be okay.”

“God be with you,” Vari told him and placed the sword in his hand.

Marcus sheathed his weapon, took hold of his horse’s lead rope, and walked away.

23

N
etta sat quietly in a back room of the church with a collection of psalms on her lap. Tahn was stretched out on his blankets. It was good to see him sleeping so peacefully. But she couldn’t concentrate on reading with her mind returning to Jarel’s words.
“Keep your heart with all diligence.”
She looked at Tahn again.
Lord, am I wrong to appreciate him so? I thought he was a monster, but instead I find in him rare bravery and even kindness. But such need. I still find myself longing to help.

Father Anolle stepped in quietly. “He sleeps, daughter?”

“Yes.” She looked up with a grateful sigh, hoping for the chance to speak to the priest.

But Tahn rolled to his side and opened his eyes.

Anolle moved immediately toward him. “I’m glad you have woken. A stranger has come asking for you. He said that he knows you but that you would not recognize his name. He’s not armed.”

With a groan, Tahn struggled to sit. Still he was so sore, so bruised.

“Is he alone?”

“Yes, son. And I don’t believe he’s a threat.”

“Then I will meet him, sir.”

Netta laid the psalms aside and stood.

“No, Lady,” Tahn told her. “Stay here, please.”

Benn had come in behind Anolle. There was a depth of compassion in his expression. “One of our friends is with the man outside,” he said. “He told me his business. I am comfortable to allow him in. Shall I bring him to you?”

“No. I’m coming out. I should meet the man before he enters your refuge, sir.”

Benn stepped forward and took Tahn’s arm. “Let me help you, then.”

Together they went out, and Father Anolle followed. Tahn leaned on Benn and a staff the priest had given him. A tall man in common dress stood with one of the villagers in the churchyard, and his large horse grazed behind them. The stranger looked up at them and immediately approached. At the base of the steps, he made a quick bow.

“Tahn Dorn, I thought you were dead. When I heard what happened here, I had to come.”

“I don’t know you.”

“You know my work. My name is Marc Toddin. Your former master hired me to track you.”

Tahn looked away. “You did a good job of it, sir.”

“Perhaps so. But I owe you an apology. I didn’t know the true color of what was going on until they kidnapped the girl.”

“I wanted to free her.” Tahn bowed his head. “Did they take her with them?”

Toddin smiled. “No, sir. I did.”

Tahn looked up at him.

“When you told her to run on and leave you, I took her on my horse in the woods. Two of them chased us a while, but I lost them over time. I took her to her home.”

“Sir! With all my heart I thank you!”

Benn looked at the singular relief in Tahn’s face, knowing it was for a girl whose name he didn’t know. The nobleman bowed his head. There was something very humbling about this Mr. Dorn. Triletts had the reputation, but not such heroics.

“I wish I could have done something for you then,” Toddin was saying.

“You did.”

But Toddin fidgeted a bit. “I went home with my pay. My wife was in need of about half of it, and I figured it her due for my absence. But I brought you the rest. I don’t like being part of wrongdoing.” He took a bag of coins and set them on the steps at Tahn’s feet.

But Tahn protested. “You’re worth your hire, Mr. Toddin. You can’t be blamed. I can’t accept your money.”

“I wish you would. It doesn’t feel right in my pocket.”

Tahn was quiet for a moment. “I can’t take a man’s pay. If you can’t keep it, maybe it can go to a needy soul.”

Toddin looked to the priest. “May I put it in your hands to be used where you see it right?”

“Yes, son,” Anolle told him. “And God bless you.”

“You’re certain your wife will not lack for it?” Tahn asked.

“We have enough. I’m certain.”

They clasped hands. “I live in Alastair, sir,” Toddin said. “If you ever need my assistance.”

Tahn nodded. A friend in Alastair. That was beyond mortal arranging. “Thank you, sir.”

With another bow, Toddin turned to go.

Tahn watched him. It was a wonder the man would come. It was an equal wonder that he’d gotten up to meet a stranger with so little question. That was almost careless. But it had been right.

Toddin was already halfway down the street. Everything was so quiet now. Tahn looked at the peaceful shops and suddenly saw a man’s face appear in the upper window of the building across from them. The face disappeared almost instantly, but not before Tahn recognized it as familiar.