Page 96 of Swordheart
Zale wrung their hands. Sarkis looked over at Brindle. “Good shot, though.”
The gnole shrugged. “Shouldn’t have annoyed an ox.”
“Well, what do we do now?” asked Halla. “Do we… um… hand ourselves in? Or hide the bodies?”
They looked at the bodies. They looked at each other. They looked at Zale.
Zale raked their hands through their hair, twisting their braid. “What? Why do I have to decide?”
“You’re a lawyer,” said Sarkis.
“And a priest,” added Halla. “I think that makes you the closest we have to a legal and moral authority.”
“Yes, but I handle property cases, not murder!”
Halla rubbed the back of her neck. “Would praying help?”
Sarkis snorted, but Zale seized on it. “Prayer. Yes. It’ll clear my mind, anyway.” They slid off the wagon, walked a little way away, and were suddenly, violently ill.
“Sounds like it’s clearing something,” said Sarkis.
Halla gave him an annoyed look and went to the priest, holding their hair back from their face.
“All right,” said the priest a few minutes later, looking pale but resolute. “I’ve prayed.”
Sarkis said, “That sounded more like puking to m—” and then Halla elbowed him in the ribs.
“This was all a very regrettable misunderstanding,” said Zale, blotting the corners of their mouth on the back of their hand. “Sadly, the Motherhood is not likely to be forgiving about it. Those men did not deserve to die, but at the same time, neither do we. And nothing we do is going to make them any less dead.” They nodded firmly, as if settling the words in their mind.
“So we’re hiding the bodies, then,” said Sarkis.
“I think it’s for the best.”
“The ground’s frozen,” said Halla. “I’m not sure we could bury them. And we don’t have a lot of wild beasts in the area to eat them.” She chewed on her lower lip. “If the hogs hadn’t all just been slaughtered, I’d say we take them out to an acorn wood…”
Sarkis had been expecting Halla to sob, cry, or perhaps be as sick as Zale. Her remarkable calm in the face of two dead bodies was simultaneously heartening and a trifle alarming.
“You’re taking this well,” he said.
She raised an eyebrow at him. “I’ve laid out the bodies of my sisters, my mother, my husband, one of the field hands, my great-uncle, and Old Nan the cook, when her heart gave out in the kitchen. Dead bodies don’t worry me. It’s the live ones that get you.” She went into the wagon.
“Well, I’ve been put in my place,” muttered Sarkis.
“Good to be humble sometimes, sword-man. Helps the digestion.”
Halla came out with two blankets. “Let’s wrap them up and put them in the wagon.”
Zale sighed heavily. “Corpses in my wagon…”
“Well, we can’t very well put them on top. People would notice.”
“Yes, it’s just the principle. What do we do with the horses?”
“I’ll ride them out of here and strip their tack,” volunteered Sarkis. “Once I’m out of range of the sword, I’ll get pulled back to it, and there won’t be a trail for anyone to follow, if they do come with dogs.”
Zale nodded. “Clever.”
“I have my moments.”
