She got to her feet and brushed as much of the dirt off her behind as she could before she put the shift back on. Hasso also stood, and did the same thing. His clothes were more complicated than hers; he took a little longer to dress. By the time he finished, she was walking back toward the men he’d killed.

She didn’t let lovemaking distract her long. Her gesture could mean only one thing: pitch them in the swamp. Two of them wore rawhide boots. He pointed to those, and then to her feet. Did she want them if they fit?

Velona shook her head and looked revolted. “Grenye,” she said, pointing to the corpses. “Grenye.” To her, the word must have explained everything.

It didn’t explain one damn thing to Hasso, but he wasn’t inclined to be critical. And Velona wasn’t fussy about grabbing Grenye boots, whatever those were, only about wearing them. Into the water and muck went the bodies and the knife and pitchfork. The bodies would come back up soon enough; Hasso knew that all too well. If Velona also did, she didn’t care. She nodded, as at a job well done.

“Where now?” Hasso asked her, as if she understood.

And maybe she did, for she linked arms with him and started west down the road – the same direction she’d been going before, but not the same killed pace. As the sun kissed the western horizon, Hasso slipped his arm around her waist. She smiled and swayed close and rested her head on his shoulder for a moment. He had no idea what he’d just volunteered for, but she made one hell of a recruiter.

Castle Svarag struck Hasso as … well, medieval. What else would a castle be? It had no running water, though there was a well. It was a long drop from the seat in the garderobe to where the stuff landed, but that was as close as the place came to sophisticated plumbing. Fires and torches and candles and oil lamps gave light after sundown. Food was either very fresh or else smoked or salted or dried; none of Velona’s people knew anything about canning or refrigeration.