Among the Graves

[Derin Edala]

Derin nodded thoughtfully. "Good point. He's got to be after something, or he wouldn't have risked being here." Randomly eliminating possible enemies was a game for children. Gustel wouldn't play around like that; he had to have a purpose. "If we know what he wants then there's the possibility of bargaining." Or blackmail. "I guess we need a question and answer session, then." Derin left the room, not checking to see whether Saruna was following. It would be better if she was there, but if Derin needed to forge ahead alone, then she would.

She opened Gustel's door as quietly as possible, idly wondering why the farmhouse had so many bedrooms. Big family, perhaps? He was asleep... good. She crept over and, wielding her long needle as if she was merely doing some stitching, stabbed him in the back of the hand hard enough to draw blood. She had the needle tucked out of sight before he jerked awake.

"Oh, hi there. Sorry to disturb you in the middle of the night, but we need to have a little chat."

[Saruna]

Saruna hesitated long enough that when she reached the doorway of Gustel's small room he had yelped, quite loudly, and when she looked in he had twisted upright just enough to be glaring warily at Derin.

"Ow! What? Ques -- wha -- why now? What is this? What are you -- I'm bleeding! Did you stab me?!"

Saruna pulled up short, eyes going even wider than they had when Derin had mentioned the possibility of killing Gustel. Somehow, those few drops of blood made it the more real, and that seemed an impossible thing. It was madness. But yet it seemed she could not speak, could only cling to the doorframe and stare at the terrible thing that was happening in her house. She was ashamed.

But all she did was watch.

[Derin Edala]

Derin stepped back and raised her empty hands. "You probably had a nightmare and cut yourself on something in your sleep. It's just a tiny scratch, I'm sure you'll be fine. But it's quite important that we have a little talk. Sorry for waking you." Without waiting for a response, she sat on the end of his bed. "It's about time we cut the rubbish, don't you think? And since you are apparently stupid enough to think that continuing to play dumb is anything except a waste of everybody's time, let me explain my reasoning. You are a danger. We know this. What we don't know is exactly what you want to do, or why, and it's going to be very difficult to resolve this situation without that information." Just keep acting like you're certain, she told herself. If you've made a mistake and he's innocent, pushing him like this won't hurt, and if he really is an enemy, you have to know. She was sort of surprised that Saruna hadn't grilled her a bit more thoroughly on her purpose there, now that it was clear that the woman wasn't highly experienced at detecting motives, but that was a puzzle for another day.

"See, we don't want to hurt you. If you can't believe that we're compassionate, at least understand how much legal trouble that would cause us. I'm a stranger in this town and Saruna has a life here; it's best for everybody if we resolve this in a nonviolent way, wouldn't you agree?

"So let me ask you again: who are you and what do you want with us?"

[Saruna]

Gustel stared at Derin, and so did Saruna. Each, in their own way, was thinking, who is this person? But unfortunately for Gustel, he did not have the advantage of being under Derin's protection. He licked his lips. Saruna clutched at the doorframe and paled.

Gustel's features had shut down and closed off any glimpse towards understanding what he was thinking, but his hands where they lay on his blankets had tightened so the knuckles turned white, and the first glimmers of sweat winked out towards the small oil lamp Saruna had brought and set upon the floor. The dancing shadows were laughing at all three of them, and Saruna felt answering sweat start to gather at the nape of her neck, where her bun hung heavy against her head.

"I am Gustel." The strange man said in a whisper voice, pitch cranked upwards. Whites showed at the outsides of his eyes like he was some wild animal. "I am Gustel, but who are you? Why are you doing this to me? Are you with the guard?"

He was trembling, and Saruna put a hand up to her mouth, feeling more afraid than she had in a long while. Of what, or of whom, she couldn't, wouldn't think just yet, but it was there at the edges of her mind. It preyed on her sense of justice.

[Derin Edala]

Derin closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She considered three possible scenarios that fit Gustel's behaviour.

1. He was innocent and she had read too much into a few minor clues and panicked. Of course, there was no such thing as a 'minor' clue when it came to deception, but she wasn't exactly the best at interpreting body language. Maybe his excitement and lack of fear in the graveyard wasn't suspicious at all; maybe she and Saruna had both overreacted. Saruna certainly wasn't pushing Gustel now. But if that was the case, there was little to be gained by backing off now, and if it wasn't... well, Derin hadn't traversed a desert by herself to get into trouble now.

2. Gustel was very stupid, and unaware of his situation.

3. Gustel was playing a very high-stakes game and she couldn't hope to match his price, so she wasn't worth bargaining with.

In any case, she couldn't very well threaten him. She had no idea who he was and the last thing she needed was guard trouble. She had nothing to blackmail him with; she could threaten to turn him into the guard, maybe, but it was always possible that he was lying about that and she didn't relish having to explain the small amount of magic that she'd witnessed. Oh, dammit; the magic; could he sense her confusion, her uncertainty? Well, nothing for it but to press on.

"No," she said, "I'm not with the guard. I've never had any dealings with the guard and frankly I'd like to keep it that way. If we can all behave like reasonable people, we might be able to avoid the guard altogether. That might be best, don't you think?"

No immediate response. Dammit, how hard should she push? The man looked afraid, confused; a stupid trick. Nobody who was actually afraid or confused would dare wear such a look in front of a stranger unless they were a drooling lackey, and nobody would feign such a thing unless they were an idiot. Or wanted to be taken for one, anyway. If she pressed now, would it help or harm the situation?

Again, she had very few other options, and he didn't seem to be rising to her cajoling. Well, if this one didn't work, she might have to resort to the threat of violence after all. Derin hated dealing in violence; it was such a crude method of manipulation, a game for children. But she was forced to admit to herself that her skill at real manipulation was, as yet, underdeveloped; otherwise she wouldn't be in this situation.

Slowly, nonthreateningly, she reached for the purse on her belt and withdrew several bishani, rolling them idly between her fingers as if she was merely fiddling out of boredom. She added, "I prefer my dealings to be quick, simple and beneficial to all parties rather than involve complicated legal details, don't you agree? I'm sure there are ways to settle this without bothering our hardworking guardsmen."

[Saruna]

Saruna's eyes focused on the bishani several seconds after Gustel's had. The man was practically foaming at the mouth, running close to hyperventilation as pinpoints of sweat played connect the dots on his face. She didn't move or speak. She witnessed. Gustel licked his lips again, and his eyes flickered between the coin Derin had pulled and the hard expression on her face.

"Wh-what will you do if I -- if I have nothing to say?" He gulped air like it would sustain him and succor him in the midst of such craziness, and Saruna found herself sucking it in in much the same way. She wanted to tell Derin to stop, wanted to say how foolish they would all look in the morning. All she'd wanted to do was apologize, but this was spiralling into something. . .something else. Something she would see in the morning light and recoil from. Something she wouldn't want to remember.

And yet, she had commited too many mistakes as a mother and wife both to not recognize that the emotions and countenance Gustel had shown in the graveyard were not what a scared refugee would show. There was too much unusual happenstance going on for it all to be coincidence.

She slid, finally, into the room. Her hands stayed glued to the doorframe behind her.

"Gustel, dear." She cut in before Derin could respond. "We can help you. If you're hiding something, it's okay to tell us. Whatever is wrong can be fixed. You don't have to lie to us."

She ruined the brave words' total impact by looking to Derin for reassurance.

[Derin Edala]

Derin took a deep breath, drawing strength from Saruna's words. She wasn't alone in this. Saruna was suspicious too.

She nodded in agreement with the woman's words. "If you have nothing to say then there's not much we can do to help you," she added in what she hoped was a reassuring tone. Truthfully, Derin wasn't really sure what to do if he refused to talk. Or had nothing to say. But if he had nothing to say, he wouldn't have asked that, would he?

Well, the coin had had an effect. That had been a gamble, but a necessary one. If he was a common mercenary, their problem could be solved with money... of course, if he was a common mercenary, he would probably initiate a bidding war in which Derin couldn't hope to keep up, but that would give her some notice to get out of town. It did raise the interesting question of why somebody would hire someone to get near Saruna, though. If Derin was going to stick around, she'd have to learn more about the woman's plans and standing in the town.

And after finally getting somewhere on her search, it would be such a shame to leave the town now.

She watched the man's eyes, glued to the money in her hand. How much would he demand? It didn't matter, really; that's what the emergency cash was for. Physical comfort or even physical danger didn't bother Derin that much; she could live on the streets if she had to. Of course, that would make keeping her bracelet inconspicuous quite hard; it's not like she could take it off and hide it.

"We need to know what's going on if we're going to reach an agreement," she prompted him when he remained silent.

[Saruna]

"Magic users aren't allowed in Marn. Or Shim." Gustel said, then paused and tore himself away from the promise of money Derin held so casually. He closed his eyes and seemed to try to calm his breathing. It didn't work very well. "Not without special permission. Not without a . . . a trade." He looked down and said something else viciously; a curse by the state of his expression and the way he lowered his face into his hands.

Saruna looked at him carefully, lines creasing between her eyebrows and at the corners of her eyes. "We know, dear. Is that why you're here? Did you make a deal? We can help if --"

"No! What, do you think you're better than them? Are you going to keep me prisoner? You're no saviors! You gonna keep me like they kept your father? I have a sister who's waitin' on me. You gonna make her wonder same way they made you? An' you --"

But Gustel stopped when he saw Derin's expression. He swore again, and trembled as he glared at her.

Saruna pressed herself against the doorframe, because she too was trembling, and her legs felt shaky and weak. Just like the rest of her.

[Derin Edala]

Unlike Saruna, Derin's first thought when Gustel started talking about a 'trade' wasn't that he might be talking about what he had given up. To her, they were bargaining words.

A sister... he was threatening them with allies. 'Somebody knows I'm here, somebody will call the authorities if anything happens' -- that was the message. Good; he might be ready to get serious. And his words poked a hole in his own story... he was ready to stop pretending.

"Gustel we don't want to do anything to you," Derin said reasonably. "We want to resolve this as quickly as possible; although if you were actually on the run, you wouldn't contact your sister anyway, so she'd wonder about you. But that's not important; the important thing is that the sooner we resolve this to everybody's satisfaction, the sooner you can go home and give her a hug or whatever and we can all move on with our lives without worry. Fair enough?"

[Saruna]

Gustel hung his head. "Shit." He said, as a drop of sweat slid down the side of his face. "Shit. What if I told you that I might make powerful people angry by talking to you?"

Saruna stared at Gustel. He shook his head as he realized what he'd said. "Fine, okay? Fine. I'm not running from the guards, I'm running for 'em. Satisfied? But if you think they'll let you waltz out knowin' that you got another thing coming. And if you want me to cover for you, you better be showing more than that."

He pointed a wavering finger at Derin, and then ran his hands over his face, wiping away the sweat. He let out a ragged sigh. "Fine, I mired it." He muttered.

"Running for them? What'd you mean by that?" Saruna asked, face crumpled in disappointment.

Gustel gave her a smile that showed vicious enjoyment at their predicament. "You're both under suspicion for unlawful use and possession of magic. As well as conspiring against the government. And I have enough information to take the both of you."

[Derin Edala]

Derin didn't let the wave of relief and happiness show in her expression. Finally, they were getting somewhere. They might actually get out of here without anybody getting hurt. She had been right about avoiding violence; this man disappearing would only make things worse.

And such knowledge could potentially make good blackmail material... no. No, tangling with the Guard was a bad idea. She and Saruna had to be no threat to him if they wanted a deal to work; that was just a bridge she'd have to burn. People who got too greedy got themselves killed.

Besides, if she tried to work a deal that didn't include permanent mutual silence, she'd probably end up being blackmailed into helping him too. And she had more to hide than he did; his only crime was incompetence, after all, whereas her sectrets would get her killed.

"Then what we want here is mutual secrecy, hmm? You report we check out, we don't warn your future marks (or your employers, of course)... and you'll have a price for your silence, naturally. How much?" Please ask an amount I can afford...

[Saruna]

Gustel's hair stuck up a little, plastered into spiky rows like battallions of soldiers ready to kill something. Saruna wasn't feeling shocky, no, not at all, but somehow she couldn't help but imagine the spears of such soldiers as they might come to kill or coerce her, or probably both. Well, Guards as they'd been named and called by all manner for time immemorable, but anyone with sense knew they were one and the other, two sides to the bishan.

"We won't hurt you." Saruna blurted after Derin's words. "We're not like them."

And Gustel split a look of disdain and disbelief between the two women, confusion creeping in around the corner of his eyes, but he shook it away so that his lip curled in a sneer. "Toothless cats, then, are you? Maybe I'd rather not deal with either of you. Too many risks, and I don't want that. I don't have to bow to you, and if I did that'd make me a traitor, and who walks free from Marn a damned man? Huh?"

Saruna opened her mouth, but Gustel shut it for her. "Shut up, Granma. I think you got no say in this. Just me and the pretty lady here." His attitude grew the more cocky, and he looked Derin up one side and down the other; a moment born more from an urge to intimidate than lust.

Saruna stared at him, shocked, but bowed her head. She was useless. She'd known that, already. But besides the things that made her insides squirm to think about, how else could she help?

By being silent, and by listening. Of course. Her face flamed.

"No, for what you're asking I want more. You help find shelter for my sister, and when time's right you smuggle us out. An' you can keep feeding me and her both, too. Five-thousand bishan to top that, honey, and maybe you'll have your man if I don't think of anything else to ask."

And he smiled, bright and pure, and Saruna's insides clenched up sick with dread.

[Derin Edala]

Derin noticed the way the man looked at her but ignored it. Of greater concern was his price, which was a little too high for her. It was definitely in the realm of 'ditch the whole operation and leave town', but it seemed a bit unprofessional to let Saruna take the fall for Derin's need of magic. Saruna had harboured the fugitive herself, but that wasn't really the point.

Either way, the man was right... this was between him and her. Saruna wasn't really interfering, which meant that she expected Derin to handle this. A test.

"Saruna, could you... could you put the kettle on?" She didn't check to see if Saruna had taken the opportunity to leave; if she wanted to stay then that was up to her. "Sorry, Gustel, your price is a little too high. We can do money or assitance, not both -- and you seem to overestimate the amount of money that townspeople have lying around.

"See, I have no intention of getting involved in any open-ended deals. I will not be blackmailed into being your lackey indefinitely -- do you have any idea how hard I worked to escape that? No, of course you don't. I offered to settle this because it seemed easier and less risky than killing you. Don't make me revise my opinion."

[Saruna]

Saruna left the room quickly, glad to be useful rather than mucking up whatever it was Derin was doing. Don't think about it now. It will make sense later. So she tried not to think, even as she heard Derin's words to Gustel as she took the short trip to the oven.

Gustel watched Saruna leave with a mocking expression: one that wavered and fell under Derin's verbal assault. He stood and reassessed, tried once to speak over her but was beaten back by her stony implacability. He regrouped, and had another mocking smile out just for her.

"Wow, and you're such a powerful . . .farmwife that you think killing me would be easy? Don't you get it? You'd get taken just like the rest anyways -- with that strong of proof they might even toy with you for awhile, and if you're not scared you should be. I'm no pushover, myself." He spoke flatly; a warning delivered without flourish.

"If I help you, you help me and you make up for the money and standing I will lose. You don't stay here after betraying Marn, not if you expect to stay out of the wolf's den." He paused, and seemed to make up his mind about something. "Fine. Alright, I'm getting paid fifteen hundred bishan for this job, plus care for my sister -- that ain't cheap -- food and a place to stay. And I'm guaranteed my life so long as I stay loyal. Why should I help you?"

[Derin Edala]

Dammit, fifteen hundred. Derin could probably just afford that, but then, it was possible that she couldn't; the hadn't actually counted her money after selling her gems. How many little ones had she sold again? She glanced over to make sure that Saruna wasn't in the room and lowered her voice.

"Because," she growled, "you're a little too quick to assume that I'm a farmwife. And I'm not asking you to betray Marn in any noticeable way, I'm asking you to report false information on one case, so don't try to push me into outbidding your employer. You're drawing that pay whether you find us innocent or not." something he'd said sunk into her consciousness. "Why does your sister need care? Is she a young child?"