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The merchant scoffs. “That story is rubbish and so are you. You stole from me and I’ll have back what you owe, or I’ll take it out of your hide!”
Alright, that’s enough. I put on my most aristocratic voice and say, “And if I amnotlying, do I get to take it out ofyourhide? It’s a crime to falsely accuse in Adrik, you know. Even rubbish like me knows that the one who falsely accuses must face the punishment for the original crime if they are found to be lying. Do you have any proof that it was me, or are you still just bitter that I wouldn’t sell you my wife’s earrings for a pittance?”
That seems to bring both the other men up short. The town guard turns to the merchant and says, “That is true, Garrett. How do you know for certain this man is your thief? The wares he is carrying aren’t nearly enough to have spent all the coin that you said was missing and he doesn’t have any others.”
The man stutters, “ I . . . I . . . I am sure of it! He was the only customer I had before I noticed the missing money and . . . and . . .and. . . just look at him! He looks like a beggar! What was he doing with Airdan Sardithas earrings? He must be a thief!”
“Then you admit that my wife’s earrings were not forgeries, and you lied to try to swindle me?” I ask cooly. The merchant pulls in a shocked breath, looking a little ill. His eyes dart to me, then to the guard, who is looking at the merchant with a frown.
“Well,” I declare, still in my aristocratic voice, “this has been a spectacular waste of my time. Guard, one of us is a proven liar, and it is not me. If you’ll excuse me, I must go to my wife.”
I turn to leave, when the merchant exclaims, “The wife! That’s it! That’s who must have the rest of my money! The wife.”
I let my tone go threatening as I say, “Leave my wife out of this.”
“No! Where is this wife he’s always talking about? She must be his accomplice!”
“Where is your wife?” asks the guard.
“As I told this madman, we were robbed and most of our clothes stolen. My wife is only in her shift and isn’t fit to just wander around the town.”
“Then bring us to her,” demands the merchant.
“Are you saying that you want to see my wife in her shift?” I ask darkly, narrowing my eyes. Another trick I learned from my politician father: when wanting to hide something, put the other person on the defensive.
“What? No, I . . .”
“C’mon, Garrett,” the guard says, “that’s inappropriate.”
“That’s not what I meant! I mean, I . . .”
“Look,” I interrupt, “I’m sorry that you were robbed. But it wasn’t me and you have noproofthat it was. If you keep accusing me, then I will be forced to report you for false accusation and let you pay the price. So if you have nothing else to say, I’m going now.”
I walk away as the man is still babbling and, blessedly, they don’t follow. Once I am out of sight, I start walking briskly, wanting to leave as quickly as I can before they recover and start looking for meagain.
I turn down an alleyway, the same from yesterday, and turn around.
“Are you here?”
“Yes,” responds Dura, her voice coming just from a little bit away.
“We need to leave town. Before they decide they must talk to mywife.”
“I could pretend to be your wife,” she offers.
I shake my head. “That won’t work. You need to stay out of sight, remember? What if the guard decides to get one of the orcs to help him? They might recognize you.”
“This is true,” she agrees, grudgingly. “I suppose I could just take the supplies and leave. If you are on your own when they find you, they can’t tie you to the crime.”
“You won’t get rid of me that easily,” I say, smiling a bit at her ploy. How the tables have turned. Nowsheis trying to unburden herself ofme. “If they find me again and I can’t produce a wife, I’ll look extremely suspicious. No, we should just leave town. At once.”
“Fine. But where are we going? We never decided what we were going to do after getting supplies here.”
Because I was planning to betray you to the orcs and make my escape.I didn’t think we had to plan this far. But I do have some ideas. “There’s a forest just to the east of Grimblton, the town where I grew up, called the Eastforte Thicket. It has game aplenty, and at least one cave that I know of where we could shelter.”
Her eyebrow quirk is apparent in the tone of her voice when she says, “You want to trade one cave for another?”
I shrug and say, “It’s a much nicer cave. It was my refuge as a young boy and adolescent, the place where I would go to hide from my responsibilities when my parents became too much. I even took some old furniture from our castle to furnish it with. It should still be there, though I don’t know what condition it would be in now. You are the one that says we have to live away from society. Mycave is as good a place as any. It is out of the way and the only other person that knows of its existence is Adalind. And it doesn’t have to be forever. We can go there to hide and decide our next move.”
