Page 161 of Swordheart
“Ugh!” said Halla, and then, completely out of other ideas, she grabbed the knife off the butcher block and stabbed Alver with it.
She was aiming for his heart, but it turned out that hearts were difficult targets, particularly when one is in a hurry. She ended up stabbing him rather messily in the upper arm, a situation madeworse when he shrieked and tried to yank back and dragged the blade much further through his flesh than he otherwise might have.
“Mother!” he screamed, clutching at the wound, while blood poured down his arm. “Mother, she—”
“I saw, you useless sponge!” snapped Malva. She snatched up a frying pan and charged forward.
I am going to die fighting with kitchen utensils,thought Halla. It seemed dreadfully ignominious. She ducked the first swing and then Zale punched Malva in the nose. They did not seem much better with their fists than Halla was with a kitchen knife, but perhaps it was the thought that counted.
Malva reeled back, dropping the frying pan and grabbing her face. “Alvhgher! Arh you goingh to let them doo thgat?”
“She stabbed me! I’ve been stabbed!”
“Perhaps now would be a good time to go and fetch the constables,” murmured Zale.
“Yes, let’s,” said Halla. She bolted out the door with the priest hard on her heels, took the deepest breath she could, and yelled, “Murder!” at the top of her lungs.
CHAPTER 52
“The constables were very nice about the whole thing,” said Halla. “At least, I thought so.”
“I still wish that they’d arrested Malva, too.”
“Well, yes, but she had a broken nose and it doesn’t look right if you’re arresting old ladies who’ve already taken a beating. Even a richly deserved one.”
Alver was now in a holding cell, due to be taken by the bailiff to face the Squire’s justice. His attempt to claim that Halla had set upon him and stabbed him without provocation had floundered to a halt when Zale had silently presented their wrists to the bailiff, rope burns and all, and told him, in grim, precise terms, about the mortgaged properties.
“I regret we cannot stay and testify,” the priest said, “but we are very concerned for our friend Bartholomew. Alver mentioned him several times and we fear that his associate may have led him into a difficult situation. He is… well, very sharp in the field that he is interested in, but not at all worldly, if you understand me.”
The bailiff laughed. “I know the sort very well, my legal-minded friend.” His gaze flicked from Zale to Halla. “And the large, dour fellow who was with you before?”
Halla silently cursed the intelligence of the bailiff, but Zale never faltered. “Accompanying Bartholomew and the associate in question. He is why we are hopeful that no attempt will be made on Bartholomew’s life, but we still do not wish to dally.”
“Then good luck,” said the bailiff, and the next morning theywere on the road at cock’s crow, sitting behind Brindle, who was tapping the ox’s flanks with the goad and murmuring gnolish encouragements.
Zale waited until they were out of the town gates to say, “They weren’t being nice about the whole thing.”
“What?”
“Halla, my dear client, they were waiting for you to become extremely angry about the fact that they hadn’t protected you from your relatives. The clerk should have spotted the issue with the mortgages, the priest and the bailiff should have realized that they might not let things go so easily, and they should have at least had a constable make sure they left the town. Failing that, they should have closed up the house and not let those two make free with your inheritanceandfamiliarize themselves with the layout of the house. They have, in fact, failed you rather dismally. You’d be well within your rights to complain to the Squire.”
“Oh,” said Halla, rather astonished by this. “I… oh. Hmm.” It hadn’t occurred to her to be angry. “Well. I’m sure they meant well.”
“You are sure that everyone means well,” said Zale, clearly amused. “Which is why I think you are perhaps well matched with Sarkis after all. He’s sure that everyone is determined to kill everyone else in their sleep. Between the two of you, you average out to a nicely functional outlook.”
“Assuming we get him back,” said Halla.
“I have faith. It is, by definition, part of what I do.”
The trip to Amalcross… again… was slow.Again.
“Can’t we go any faster?” fretted Halla.
“Faster!” said Brindle scathingly. “A human always wants anox to go faster. Ox goes as fast as an ox goes. Like to see a human pull a wagon any faster.”
“They do not know that they are being pursued,” said Zale soothingly. “Indeed, they have no reason to believe that you will be capable of pursuit, or even that you might wish to do so.”
“But they’ve got horses!”
