Chapter 9: The River Lord's Tower

"When does the assize open?" I asked.

"Five days," Katell said. "He'll hang my boy on the sixth."

"Then we go to the River Lord tomorrow," I said.

Katell let go of my arm and stared at me.

"And say what to him?"

"Whatever he wants to hear," I said, "until I find the thing he doesn't."

The River Lord's toll tower stood on the bank at Aven Ford with its feet in the river.

His hall was at the top, a long room with tall windows that looked straight down on the chain.

He was eating breakfast when his steward showed us in.

A dozen men in green stood along the walls with swords on their hips.

Katell's son sat on the floor by the fire with an iron collar around his ankle and a chain running from it to the hearth.

He was twenty, with his mother's jaw and a black eye going yellow.

"Mother," he said.

Katell made a sound in her throat and didn't go to him.

She stood beside me with her fists shut, because the guards were watching her hands.

Erwan stood behind us with his bow left at the door and his arms folded.

The River Lord wiped his fingers on a napkin.

"My lady," he said. "You've come about the boy."

"I've come to take him home."

"My price for him is the same as my price for everything else," the River Lord said.

"Your hand. Say yes, and I'll walk him to his mother myself."

Katell turned her head and looked at me.

I saw her hope for half a breath that I'd say it.

Then I saw her hate herself for hoping.

"No," I said.

The River Lord shrugged and went back to his eggs. "Then he hangs on the sixth day."