Bayou Moon - Andrews, Ilona [128]
“Me. Grandmother is sleeping.”
The beast sneezed and curled into a tiny ball. “Very well done,” said Emel’s disembodied voice. “You held it a touch too long, but other than that, very well done.”
His praise filled her with absurd pride. At least she had done something right. “Thank you.”
Richard slipped through the door, followed by Murid and Aunt Pete, her missing left eye hidden by a black leather patch.
The beast fell asleep, its tiny ribcage rising and falling with smooth regularity.
“Did you know that most of the Sheerile estate has been blighted?” Emel continued. “The house is crumbling into dust, and the entire place is raining yellow pine needles. Grandmother didn’t have anything to do with that, did she?”
Smart bastard. “Emel, you know perfectly well that blight magic takes a life. All of us care too much about Grandmother to let her throw herself away like that. She’s just sleeping. We lost a lot of people today, and it took a toll. Kaitlin was probably so mad that she lost the feud, she sacrificed herself to blight the place.”
“I thought as much. Of course, you do remember that aiding a casting of the blight is punishable by death, according to Mire law.”
And he would be heartbroken if the Mire militia dragged her off. Unless he got the money first, of course. “Yes, I remember.”
A sound of a throat being cleared issued from above the creature. “There is the matter of the eel,” Emel said. “I wasn’t confident my message would get through to you.”
“What are you implying?” Kaldar stopped cleaning his fingernails with the tip of his dagger.
“Nothing offensive. Simply put, all of you had a very difficult day, and I’m sure the eel was the last thing on your mind. However, the problem remains unsolved. The law clearly says that if you purposefully destroy property belonging to another, you must pay restitution. As you know, since we are related by blood, the eel would not have attacked you unprovoked. So, either you provoked it or you did nothing to avoid it. I understand that another person was involved in the altercation, but the fact remains: you are allowed passage through Sect-held property, but he was not. The eel was simply doing its duty. Since you were present at the scene and can’t claim ignorance of our traditions, the Sect holds you responsible for not taking care of—”
“How much?” Cerise asked.
“Five thousand.”
She reeled back. Kaldar’s jaw hung down. Erian’s eyes snapped open. Ignata nearly dropped her glass.
Cerise leaned forward. “Five thousand dollars? That’s outrageous!”
“It was a fifty-year-old animal.”
“Which attacked me in the middle of the swamp in an unmarked stream!”
“There was a marker there. We’re just not sure what happened to it.”
“This is unfair!”
Emel sighed. “Cerise, you and I both know that you are perfectly capable of avoiding mud eels, especially one of this size. It was hard not to notice the thing—it was fourteen feet long. However, your points are valid and you’re my dear cousin, that’s why it’s only five thousand and not seven as it would’ve been for anyone else.”
“We can’t do five thousand,” she said flatly.
“I’ll go as low as four thousand eight hundred, Cerise. I’m sorry but anything less would be an insult to the Sect. And even so, the missing two hundred will have to come from my own funds.”
Gods, where would she get the money? They had to pay the Sect. It was too powerful. Making an enemy of it would mean that their livestock would start dropping dead. First the cows and rolpies, then dogs, then relatives.
“If you do not have the lump sum, we can set up a payment schedule,” Emel suggested. “Of course, there would be interest involved ...”
“Three payments,” she said. “No interest.”
“Within three months, the first good-faith payment due by the end of this week.”
“You’re forcing me to choose between clothes for the winter and being forever in debt to the Sect. I don’t appreciate that.”
“I’m sorry, Cerise. I truly am.”
The creature awoke. “I very much care about all of you,” Emel said. “The Sect does not wish me involved in this affair with the Hand.