Pyav was resting when Besh got there, his face ruddy as always and covered with a fine sheen of sweat.

"You're early today," the smith said, grinning as Besh approached. But then he seemed to notice the old man's expression. His smile vanished and he stood. "What is it?"

"I know where Lici is. Or at least where she's been."

Pyav's brow creased. "What do you mean?"

"I told you that her village was ravaged by the pestilence. It killed her family. It killed everyone she knew."

"Yes, I remember."

"It seems there was more to the story," Besh said. "She went for help. She was looking for Qirsi healers, but instead she found an Y'Qatt village. 1)

The eldest winced. "And they wouldn't help her." "That's right."

"But what does that-?"

"Runnelwick and Greenrill-they're near N'Kiel's Span, aren't they?"

"I believe so." Comprehension hit him like a fist. "Blood and bone," he whispered.

"I just spoke with a Qirsi peddler. Tivston is an Y'Qatt village, as well. At least it was."

"A conjuring?"

"Perhaps. Probably. Would it surprise you to learn that she could use her magic that way?"

"I suppose not." The eldest stared at the ground for a few moments, shaking his head slowly. "I wouldn't know how to do it. Would you?" "I couldn't even begin to conceive such a thing."

Pyav glanced at him, a sad smile on his lips. "And yet you figured it out. At least you think you have. Perhaps the workings of your mind are darker than you think."

Besh nodded, though he didn't smile in return. "Perhaps. They'll have to be if I'm to find a way to stop her."

Chapter 16

Pyav stared at him, as if wondering whether he had heard correctly.

"You?" the eldest said at last, sounding simple. "You're going after her?"

"Someone must."

That faint smile touched Pyav's face again and was gone. "You're a good man, Besh. I've said as much quite often over the past turn, and yet I'm not certain I knew how right I was until just now. You're honorable and clever, and you're even braver than I would have credited." He shook his head. "But you can't do this."

"Can't I?"

"How old are you, Besh?"

Besh might have been a good man, as the eldest said, but he knew as well as anyone that he wasn't without his faults, pride chief among them.

Ema had told him so more often than he could count, and so had Elica.

He felt himself bristling at the eldest's question, and he struggled to keep his temper in check.

"I'm old enough to know that Lici is our responsibility. No one else knows what she's done, and so no one else will think to stop her."

"That may be, but-"

"Will you go after her, Eldest?"

The blacksmith straightened, his expression hardening just a bit. "If need be."

"You have a family. Your children may be grown, but they need you still. You have a shop to maintain. You're eldest of our village. You're needed here."

"So are you, Besh."

"Not in the same way." The eldest opened his mouth, no doubt to argue the point, but Besh held up a hand, stopping him. "This isn't the self-pity of an old man, nor is it a last grasp at some sort of heroism. Elica has her husband and her children. Ema is gone. Aside from my garden, no one will miss me."

Pyav smiled again, the kind smile this time, the one Besh had come to know so well in recent days. "I know that's not true. I'm not certain what Mihas would do without you. Or Annze and Cam, for that matter."

Besh felt his throat tighten at the mention of Mihas and the little ones, but he knew he was right about this. "There are plenty of children in this village who get along without their grandfathers. They'll be fine."

"I can't let you do this, my friend."

"With all respect, Eldest, you haven't any choice. You can't keep me here against my will, and we both know that there's no one else you can send."

Pyav opened his arms wide. "Why send anyone at all?" he demanded, his voice rising. "What is it you think you can do? I admit that what you've told me is compelling, but we don't know for certain that Lici is to blame for what's happened in Greenrill and Runnelwick and… and… wherever else-"

"Tivston."

"Yes, right," he said impatiently. "My point is, this is all just conjecture on our part."

Besh frowned. "A moment ago you believed me. Now you don't?"

Pyav rubbed his forehead, his eyes squeezed shut. "I don't know what to believe. You've been convinced all along that Lici is alive still, that she had some purpose in leaving the way she did. And I allowed you to act on your suspicions. Perhaps that was a mistake."

"It wasn't. Don't you see? I was right all along. Sylpa's daybook proves that!"

"Sylpa is dead! Her daybook is a relic! Nothing more! Now, this nonsense has to end!"

The eldest appeared to wince at what he heard in his own voice, and for several moments neither of them spoke.

"I shouldn't have said that, Besh. Forgive me."

"Of course, Eldest," Besh said, his voice tight.

"I'm out of my depth. You have to understand. You're so sure of yourself in this matter. You're so certain about Lici, and I don't know her at all. How am I to make the kind of decisions you're asking of me?"

"By trusting me," the old man said, surprising himself with his passion and surety. "You're right: I am certain about Lici. I understand the way her mind works, whether because I know her, or merely because I know what it means to grow old. She's out there killing entire villages, spreading some sort of plague among the Y'Qatt. And she has to be stopped."

"And you can stop her?" Pyav asked. "Don't get me wrong; it's not merely your age that makes me ask. I could send a man half your age and twice your size, and I wouldn't know how to tell him to stop her. If all you say is true, she's mad or evil, or both. And she commands magic the like of which I've never encountered among the Mettai."

"So are we simply to remain here then, and let her have her vengeance?"

The eldest's expression darkened. "You're trying to goad me."

"Not at all. I don't believe you need goading. You know as well as I that we have to do something. If there's even a chance that Lici is causing so many to die, we have to stop her, or at the very least warn the other Y'Qatt villages that lie in her path."

"Is that what you plan to do? Will you merely warn the Y'Qatt? And what will you tell them? 'An insane Mettai woman is on her way here, spreading disease wherever she goes.' Or do you have it in mind to do more? Do you intend to kill her?"

"Now who's doing the goading?"

"It's a fair question, Besh. You speak of stopping her. But how? If she's capable of killing so many, do you truly believe you can reason with her, convince her to stop? Because I don't think you can. If all this is true-if she's really out there killing the Y'Qatt-there will be no reasoning with her. You'll have to use force. You'll have to take her life to spare the lives of others. And I'm asking you, friend to friend, if you're prepared to do that."

Besh looked away and took a long breath. He'd thought of this already, and had come to the startling realization that he was ready to kill the woman if the need arose. Reading Sylpa's journal, he had come to understand Lici, perhaps even to pity her. Though he didn't care for her as he did for Sylpa, he couldn't bring himself to hate her. But she had become something darker and more dangerous than a young girl whose heart had been twisted by a cruel fate, or an old woman desperate to avenge old wounds before she died. Pyav had called her evil a moment before, and that seemed the right word. Whatever the cause of her pain, however just her rage and grief, she had become a demon, murdering indiscriminately, destroying the lives of people who had done her no harm at all. He couldn't allow that to continue.