Raven's Shadow (Raven #1)(22)

He spoke as if he knew him, but Seraph let it pass without comment. Tier had told her that he thought that the caravanning business Willon had retired from had been richer than he let on. He hadn't changed much from when he'd first come, other than the gradual lightening of his hair to white. Though he must have been nearing his seventh decade, he looked much younger than that.

"Ah well," she said. "They're pretty enough, but they'll make shoes for horses and buckles for harness, sir - surely if Travelers had that much magic left they'd have used it to save themselves." She set the boots she'd selected on the counter. "Now, I need these for Jes, but I've spent my coppers on the metal bits. In my pack I have some wild honey. I've sold a dozen jars to Bandor at the bakery below for a half-penny apiece, and I've a little more than twice that left." She'd looked, and hadn't seen any honey in the section where he kept a variety of jarred and dried goods.

"My brother-in-law told me to tell you I sold him his at a copper each," she added with a small smile. Willon was one of the few villagers she felt comfortable talking to - probably because he was an outsider too.

"Aye, and he should have paid you that," said Willon with a snort. "Doubtless you know it, too. Taking advantage of his own kin."

"If Tier were home, we'd have given him the honey," she said, "which Bandor knows also."

Willon grinned. "I'll buy what you've left for a copper each - that's a fair price. Especially if when that boy of yours finds more honey, you bring it to me first."

"I'll do that," she said. "Thank you, Willon."

Thirty coppers for the honey minus ten for the boots left her with twenty coppers, almost a whole silver. She tucked the coins in her satchel as she left Willon's shop, closing the door gently on the first few notes of Ciro's harp.

Her mind more on the mermori she'd bought from the trader than on where she was going, she almost ran over a man who stood in the way.

"Excuse me," she said apologetically, looking into his face.

It was a good face, even-featured and wide-mouthed. He was no one she knew, which was unusual. The village was small enough that even with as little time as she spent there she knew everyone in it - at least by sight.

"A Traveler," he said in a tone of near delight that shocked her.

Her reaction must have been easy to read because he laughed. "I must sound like an idiot - I just hadn't expected to run into a Traveler here. I thought your people avoid coming here. Some aversion to being so near Shadow's Fall?"

Aversion to being near people so fearful of magic, she almost answered him, but not even surprise could loosen her habitual control over her tongue.

A look of comprehension crossed his face. "You must be Seraph Tieraganswife. That's why people speak of you..." he seemed to realized that however people spoke of her wouldn't exactly be flattering and stumbled to a halt.

If she had not been holding a bag of mermori that reminded her of the plight of the Travelers and her failure to live the life she'd been called to serve, she might have helped him. But he'd talked his way into offense, and she let him find his own way out.

"I am sorry," he said sincerely after a moment. "When I am excited I tend to talk too much. Let me introduce myself properly. I am Volis, priest of the Path of the Five."

"Seraph Tieraganswife," she replied shortly, though she made no move to leave. He was distracting her from her guilt, and for the moment she was content that he continue to do so.

She'd known that there was a new priest in town, of course. Even if she'd forgotten, the new temple at the very top of the road would have reminded her. He'd come from Taela with the new Sept last fall, and stayed when the Sept returned to his duties in the capitol of the Empire. But she hadn't paid much heed to the news - she was still too much Traveler to worship in the houses of the gods.

Volis grinned at her, "I was right. I'm sorry to overwhelm you, but the Travelers are a hobby of mine, though I've only met a few of them."

What was she to say to that? she wondered and said nothing.

"Do you have a while to spare?" he asked. "I have a wealth of questions to ask you - and I'd like to show you the temple."

She glanced at the sun, but her business had taken very little time and the pack of mermori was a cold, hard thing she would have to deal with as soon as she left Redern.

So she raised an eyebrow and nodded her head. Tier would have laughed and called her "Empress" if she had done such a thing to him. This boy merely smiled, as if he'd been certain she would follow him. He had, she thought, a tithe of Tier's charm and was used to having people obey him.

He turned and led the way up the road, which was so steep that it was set in stairs.

"I would have been just as happy with something like the rest of Redern," he said. "But the new Sept was convinced that I would be happier in something more modern looking."

"The Sept is a follower of your five gods?" Seraph asked.

"Gods save us, no," laughed Volis. "But he was willing to do a favor when a few of the Path's Elders twisted his arm to place a temple here."

"Why here?" asked Seraph. "Why not in Leheigh, which also belongs to the Sept? Surely you would find more followers in the larger city."