Page 119 of Swordheart
He actually winced.
“Um,” said Halla. “I’m sorry?”
Zale nudged her. “You don’t have to apologize to someone who’s kidnapped you,” they muttered.
“Oh.” That did make sense, but apologizing was ingrained in Halla’s nature. She chewed on the inside of her cheek and wondered what to do next.
“So,” said the leader, still not opening his eyes, “if I am hearing all this correctly, my men have shot at a priest of the Rat, in order to take a prisoner who is not actually a wonderworker, and whoas near as I can tell, thinks that the entire idea would be stupid even if she was.”
“Not stupid,” said Halla hurriedly. “I mean, if you were a different sort of person, I can see invisibility being useful! If you were a burglar, say.”
She peered up through the leaves of the tree. It was starting to get dark. Had Sarkis had long enough to heal?
I suppose any amount of time I can buy him is useful…
“Invisibility might be very useful for a burglar,” she added, nodding to the man. “Or an assassin. Or even a pickpocket. I just think that highway robbery is perhaps not a field where invisibility is called for.”
The bandit leader looked over at Zale. “Under the protection of the Rat?” he said.
“I fear so.”
“They’d be upset if I kill you both.”
Zale somehow managed to look tranquil despite having their hands tied and a man hinting at their death. “I fear there would be dying curses, yes. And then the Temple would be forced to withdraw their services from the underworld until you had been dealt with. Every man’s hand turned against you and so forth.” They paused. “Nothing personal, you understand.”
“No,” said the leader, “of course not.” He stood up and walked away.
“Do you think he’s going to kill us?” asked Halla.
“I’m not sure he knows yet.”
“Is that good or bad?”
“Could go either way.” Zale’s pewter hair had come loose from the braid and fallen into their eyes. They tossed their head irritably, which fixed the problem for perhaps thirty seconds, and then it fell back down again.
“Oh dear.”
Shadows crept under the trees. Halla studied the ropes in front of her. “Are we supposed to try to get out of these?”
“People usually try, I think,” said Zale.
“A gnole could chew through them,” volunteered Brindle, who had been keeping very quiet.
“It’s just that we’re in the middle of their camp and I think they’ll notice. And that awful Mina person keeps glaring at me.”
“Seems like we might not want to do that, then.”
“Probably not.”
“A gnole would at least wait until dark.”
“Whatdowe do?”
Zale gave her an ironic look. “I have no idea. I’ve never actually been kidnapped and tied up before. This is a new experience for me.”
“Oh. Really? Because you seemed to be handling it really well, so I thought you must have done it before.”
“Thank you. The Temple of the Rat does run us through a fair amount of training, you understand. I know what to do, in theory. It’s just the first time I’ve had to put it into practice.”
