‘You are mortal,’ she replied. ‘You can pass through when we cannot.’
‘Can you guide us?’
‘And what is to be my reward for this service?’
‘What do you seek?’
She considered, then shook her head. ‘No. An unfair bargain. My service is not worth the payment I would ask. You require a guide to lead you to the border’s edge. I will not deceive. It is not far. You would find it yourselves before too long.’
Seren translated the exchange for the Crimson Guardsmen, then added, ‘This is odd…’
Iron Bars smiled. ‘An honest broker?’
She nodded wryly. ‘I am Letherii, after all. Honesty makes me suspicious.’
‘Ask her what she would have us do for her,’ Iron Bars said.
Seren Pedac did, and the woman held up her right hand, and in it was a small object, encrusted and corroded and unrecognizable. ‘The K’Chain Che’Malle counter-attack drove a number of us down to the shoreline, then into the waves. I am a poor fighter. I died on that sea’s foaming edge, and my corpse rolled out, drawn by the tide, along the muddy sands, where the mud swallowed it.’ She looked down at the object in her palm. ‘This was a ring I wore. Returned to me by a wraith – many wraiths have done this for those of us beyond the reach of the Edur. I would ask that you return me to my bones, to what little of me remains. So that I can find oblivion. But this is too vast a gift, for offering you so little-’
‘How would we go about doing as you ask?’
‘I would join with the substance of this ring. You would see me no more. And you would need to travel to the shoreline, then cast this into the sea.’
‘That does not seem difficult.’
‘Perhaps it isn’t. The inequity lies in the exchange of values.’
Seren shook her head. ‘We see no inequity. Our desire is of equal value as far as we are concerned. We accept your bargain.’
‘How do I know you will not betray me?’
The Letherii turned to Iron Bars. ‘She doesn’t trust us.’
The man strode to halt directly before the Tiste Andii woman. ‘Acquitor, tell her I am an Avowed, of the Crimson Guard. If she would, she can seek the meaning of that. By laying her hand on my chest. Tell her I shall honour our pact.’
‘I’ve not told you what it is yet. She wants us to throw the thing she’s holding into the sea.’
‘That’s it?’