The Hob's Bargain

intensely. “Wait.”
    The weak morning light touched the body, allowing me to see clearly what was happening to it. The tip of his nose and the ends of his fingers and hands changed, darkened, began to flake off.
    Cracks split the skin of his face. The bloody gash in his abdomen quivered, filling suddenly with a dark, ashy matter that covered the details of the wound. The process sped up as it progressed. Each break in the creature’s skin gave way to a multitude, until there was no body left.
    Koret squatted on his heels and put his hand in the residual substance. My lips curled back in disgust as he rubbed it back and forth between his fingers, then held it up to his nose to smell.
    â€œMulm,” he said, standing up and dusting his fingers lightly together. “Good planting soil.”
    â€œPirates,” commented Merewich sadly. “They have no sensibilities.”
    â€œAh,” replied Koret with a grin that told me at least part of his nonchalant manner was for our benefit. “I have noticed how delicate your sensibilities are, Merewich. That is why I didn’t taste it.” He wiped his hands on his pant leg. “So Aren,” he said, “what made you come out here and ring the bell?”
    â€œI dreamed,” I said. “I dreamed I was burrowing up through the basement of Belis’s house, prepared for battle. When I woke up, I realized it hadn’t been a dream.
    â€œHow did you know that it wasn’t a dream?” asked Merewich.
    I shrugged uncomfortably. “I don’t know.” I looked for something else to talk about and said, “Where’s Kith? I would have thought that he’d be out here in the fighting.”
    Merewich shook his head, “He collapsed after he got his father settled. Wandel said that it was to be expected after the day he’d been put through. I’ve never seen anyone fall into such a sound sleep so fast. I imagine he didn’t even hear the alarm.”
    Koret had been looking over my shoulder as Merewich talked. He frowned suddenly. “Aren, I’d like you to go meet the…hob this morning. It’s going to take a while to get everyone calmed down and decide who should meet with him. We’d like you to explain what happened, and see if you can’t get him to be a little patient with us.”
    I nodded my head and started for the barn. I was saddling Duck before I connected Koret’s frown, his sudden anxiety about the hob, and the way the villagers fell back, whispering and afraid, out of my path as I walked to the stables.
    He was worried the attack would give added spark to the anger against magic—against me. It hurt. It didn’t matter that I was the one who warned them. It only mattered that the creatures were wildlings, reminding everyone how evil magic was. I wondered what they’d think of the hob. Maybe they’d turn away from the only chance they had of saving themselves because the hob was a wildling.
    Koret met me at the door of the barn and handed me a stone ax. “Take this with you. It belonged to one of our attackers. Maybe the hob will know something about them.”
    I took the weapon and mounted Duck before I replied. I wanted to make certain he wouldn’t hear how upset I was.
    â€œI’ll ask.”

    A S I APPROACHED THE MANOR , I PATTED D UCK’S SUN-WARMED shoulder, more for my comfort than his. The silence of the abandoned building reminded me too much of Auberg. It was like some sort of spreading disease. By winter, Fallbrook might be shrouded in stillness, too.
    The building was not fortified or designed for heavy defense. Generations ago there had been a great wooden fort, but the valley was too isolated to see much fighting. When Lord Moresh’s many-times-great-grandfather had decided to modernize the old fort, he’d settled for a stone-walled manor. The walls were thick and the windows on the first floor were narrow, but that’s as far as he’d gone for security’s sake. It still would have taken more than the bandits’ group to take the building if the lord’s contingent were there.
    I rode to the main entrance and dismounted, slipping the bit from Duck’s mouth when it became apparent that no one else was there. Thus freed to eat, Duck nibbled on the long grass. The quiet munching sound was soothing, allowing me to ignore the hollowness of the building behind me.
    The sun hit the grass and