The Charnel Prince - J. Gregory Keyes [102]
Leshya glanced at Winna, then bemusedly at Ehawk. “The squirrels run large here,” she said.
“And dangerous,” Aspar replied.
“Who is she?” Winna asked.
“Just a Sefry,” Aspar grunted. “As full of lies and trouble as any of them.”
“And she can speak for herself,” Leshya said. She sat on a log and pulled off one of her buskins, spilling a rock from it and massaging her foot.
Winna stood watching her for a few moments, trying to absorb the new situation.
“Our friend was hurt because of you,” Winna finally said, angrily. “You led us—”
“I heard he was dead,” Leshya interrupted. “Was that opinion somewhat exaggerated?”
“Maybe,” Aspar allowed.
“What?” Winna said. “You’ve changed your mind?”
Aspar held his hands out, cautioning. “Don’t get your hopes up,” he said. “But something like this happened to him before, to hear him tell it. When he walked the faneway of Saint whoever.”
“Decmanis.”
“Yah. He said he lost all feeling in his body, forgot who he was, that even his heart stopped beating. Maybe something like that’s happened now. Maybe he just needs to finish the faneway.”
Winna’s eyes lit with hope, then dulled again. “We don’t know about these things, Aspar. Last time he managed it alone, because the saints intended it. This time—” She nodded up at the still body.
“You said yourself he hasn’t started to rot.”
“But— No, you’re right. We can’t just do nothing. We have to try. But we don’t even know where the rest of the faneway is.”
“We know where part of it is,” Aspar said. “That’s a start.”
“Consider carefully,” Leshya interposed, “whether anyone—even your friend—should walk a faneway such as the Church is creating.”
“The Church?” Winna looked at Aspar.
“Yah,” he said. “There were priests at the sedos. They cut people up and hung them about, like we’ve seen before.”
“But that was Spendlove and his renegades,” Winna said. “Stephen said the Church didn’t know anything about them.”
Leshya snorted. “Then your friend was wrong,” she said. “This is no small band of renegades. You think Spendlove and Fend were working alone? They are but a finger of stone on a mountain.”
“Yah,” Aspar said. “And what do you know of that? Where would I find Fend?” He cocked his head. “For that matter, you knew about the arrow. How could you know that?”
She rolled her eyes. “I saw you shoot the utin. I examined its body. The rest I either heard from you when I was following you or guessed. Someone from the Church gave it to you, didn’t they? And asked you to kill the Briar King.”
“Fend,” Aspar insisted, not to be sidetracked. “Where is he?”
“I don’t know where to find him,” she said. “I heard he was in the Bairghs when I came through there on my way south. One rumor was that he was going to the Sarnwood Witch, but who knows if that’s true?”
“Then how did you find us? How did you know who we were?” Winna demanded.
“You? Luvilih, I’ve no idea who you are, or who that boy in the tree is. But Aspar White is well known throughout the King’s Forest.”
“Not thirty years ago, I wasn’t,” Aspar said. “If you haven’t been here in that long, then it’s a fair question.”
“No, it’s still a stupid question. I was searching for the king’s holter, so I started asking who he was and how I might find him. Among other things, I heard about your fight with the greffyn, and that you were the one who first saw the Briar King. They said you’d gone to Eslen, so I was on my way there to find you. I was in Fellenbeth a few ninedays ago and heard you’d come through heading this way. So I followed.”
“But didn’t bother to introduce yourself.”
“No. I’ve heard of you, but I don’t know you. I wanted you to see the things I had seen, and I wanted to see what you would do.”
“And now you’re our best friend,” Winna said acidly. “And after all your help with the utin and leading poor Stephen straight to his doom, you reckon we’re yours.”
Leshya smiled. “You like them young, don’t you, holter?”
“That’s enough,” Aspar said. “More than enough. What’s the Church got to do with this?”
“Everything,” Leshya replied. “You saw the monks.”
“Not the praifec,” Winna