Book One – Chapter 18

The irritation amassed all of his suspicions. Was this … deliberate? Was Bubs purposefully neglecting the injured selder? But why let him worsen?

Because there was no point in caring for him? Perhaps the syndicate had already taken from these travellers whatever the shaman wanted — and now they were liabilities? But then, would it not have been easier to refuse them entry altogether?

To rob them of their possessions? No. Yu tossed the thought as quickly as it arose. That was too simplistic.

More likely, they needed to check their papers first, their identities. So they allowed them in, to decide whether this group held value or posed danger. To see if anyone in the Barnstreams expected them, or would come looking if they vanished. To learn if they were notable authorities themselves. As unrealistic as it was with the krynn, you could never tell with the bormen and their brutish hierarchies.

But then, surely, the selder should be the syndicate’s first priority, should he not? If this group hired him as their guide, or the witch abducted and forced him, would his tribe not search for him? Would they not ask every Snowtrail wanderer about the whereabouts of their child? No one would mind if a human died, and no one would blame Bubs with how bad that leg looked, so why did he still prioritise this female over the selder?

Yu’s thoughts circled back to the human’s papers, and then —

He does not know.

Yu stared.

For a moment, he just stared, as the shaman got a potion from one of the many shelves, showed it to Bubs and then infused it into the human’s mouth spoonful after spoonful, all while Bubs, back on the left stool, worked on undoing the many straps of the human’s right boot.

Of course. Yu had listened in, but Bubs had not.

He does not know that this is a human.