The byre turned out to be through the doorway in the other wall. It was one big walled space, floored and roofed just like the other place, the house, but without the herbs on the floor. There were what they called pens; half-high walls or fences round small spaces, each with a wooden gate, not a door, to entrap the animals; and there was no fire, just straw, hay, dogs and sheep. They pushed us into a pen with some sheep, and then one tied Stack’s hands to a beam while the other stopped Hawk and me from getting away. Not that he needed to; where were we going to run to, with no cloaks in this weather? Then the other lad tied Hawk to a different beam while young Paedr held me round the waist with one arm, and the back of my neck with the other. What he intended doing next was obvious; so I forestalled him; I grabbed his face in my two hands and gave him a big, slobbery, wide-mouthed kiss – and spat a certain little parcel down his throat.

“What was that?” he gagged.

“Your death,” I answered, and laughed in his face.

Horror exploded his face. He turned away, bent over and pushed a finger into his throat. He retched.

“Too late,” I grinned – but my eyes didn’t. “The wrapping will already have been pulled apart in swallowing. You will be able to bring up the leaves, but the poison will remain.”

The other lad came over. “What’s going on, Paedr?”

“She’s poisoned me! The bitch has poisoned me!” He lurched out of the doorway, the other lad following. I untied Hawk and Stack, and explained. Then we waited.

Old Paedr marched into the byre, followed by all the rest of the family. He pulled young Paedr in front of him.

“Paedr tells me you’ve poisoned him.”

“Oh?”

“Have you?”

“How would a mere naked savage know what a poison is?”

He slapped my face. “Have you?”

I just laughed.

“Fine,” he said. “Then we will kill you now.”

“Then he will die,” I answered, turning away. “Oh,” I added over my shoulder, “and so will you. Once the so-called salve spreads out from your arm.”

He reached out and pulled me back round by my shoulder. I laughed again.

“You must think me a stupid fool, to let me treat your arm when I knew you were going to enslave me,” I added. “A stupid savage, so stupid she could be trusted, not like you superior civilised races, who have no trace of trust in you at all.”

“You’ve poisoned me, too?”

“Clever boy!” I patted him on the cheek. “Hasn’t the pain in your arm faded? Surely you’ve noticed. That’s the poison spreading through the wound, numbing it, paralysing it, as the paralysis will slowly spread from the wound to your arm, from your arm to your shoulder, from your shoulder to your chest, from your chest to your heart. And then you will die. It will take days, but you will die. But there is one good thing,” I laughed again. “Your son will die first. You will be able to give him a good sendoff.”

“Da! Da!” His son clutched his arm. “Da! I’m frightened!”

“Fool!” his father spat the word in his face. “She’s bluffing! She has poisoned not anyone. We would have felt the poison, and there is no feeling. Is there!”

“No, but –” and the horror in young Paedr’s face suddenly grew. He clutched his stomach, gasped, and vomited dramatically over a good two paces of floor.

“That’s how it starts,” I said. “But this is nothing. It will soon become serious.”

“I still think she’s bl–” but then he had to jump back out of the way of another bout of projectile vomit.

“Da!” wailed young Paedr. “My stomach! It hurts so!”

“Oh, no, no!” I tutted. “Not compared with how it will hurt in the next hour or so, as you die.”

The father gripped my shoulders. “And you’re going to tell me there’s an antidote, but you’ll give it not to me unless?”

“That sort of thing, yes. But there is an alternative.”

“What?”

“The antidote must be in one of the pots in my pack. Why not try them, see if any work? Not all of them, of course; but you might be lucky and hit the antidote before you hit another poison.”

I lifted his arms gently off my shoulders and gripped his. “Though not all of my poisons have antidotes.” I patted his cheek again. “But it’s cold out here. Let’s go back to your fireside.”

This time Hawk and I sat in the chairs, and Stack sat on the bench, looking sulky and triumphant at the same time – and also as tense as a lathecord. Those stupid girls last night… I didn’t like it, and I hoped Hawk had noticed.

“Kneel!” Hawk commanded.

Nobody moved at first, but then young Paedr screamed and shot out another jet of vomit. His father turned to him as if to speak, turned back, and knelt. Everyone else knelt too.

“Very well,” said Hawk. “So you agree to accept our terms, unconditionally, as long as Seer here cures the poisoning?”

“Yes,” muttered Paedr senior.

“I beg your pardon?”

“Yes!” he said, louder, and his son screamed. “Yes, yes! Oh shit, my stomach! Quick, quick, yes!” He doubled over, retching.

“Very well,” declared Hawk. “Remove your clothes. All of you.”

“What!”

“Remove your clothes. All of your clothes. Strip naked, like naked savages. Now!”

There was a murmur of grumbling and a few whines and screams from the smaller children, but young Paedr almost ripped his off, and the others soon followed.

It was interesting to see what they wore: the males all had “breeches” which fitted fairly close from the waist down each leg separately to just above the knee, and then a “tunic” from the neck down, belted at the waist and skirted to below the knee, and with long loose sleeves tied at the wrist; the mother and the eldest daughters wore a “shift”, long sleeves and high to the neck and shaped to fit their curves well as far as the hips, and then skirted fairly full to the ankles; over that a “dress” which had no sleeves but otherwise was similar. The younger girls just had a single dress, fairly loose – but then they didn’t have curves to fit to.

Then we dressed ourselves. Old Paedr’s clothes were a little big for Stack, but a few careful pins fixed it; young Paedr’s were a little short on Hawk, but nothing to worry about; and the eldest daughter’s clothes fitted me beautifully, except at the bust – and I had reason to believe that that too might fit fairly soon – and I felt good! There’s nothing wrong with nakedness, but clothes do something for a girl, believe me.

Young Paedr gave another scream, and his father grabbed my arm – and instantly let go, I was pleased to see.

“Hurry – please – look at my son – he’s dying.”

“Oh, very well!” I looked at Hawk and he nodded. I picked out a particular jar from the heap, smeared it on young Paedr’s finger, and told him to lick it off. He did – with some difficulty; he seemed to have problems with the taste. How surprising.

“It will take about an hour to work fully,” I said, “But he should feel better in ten minutes or so.”

I was right, of course, although I hadn’t given him an antidote; the poison was on the point of wearing off naturally. As a matter of fact, it wasn’t meant to be swallowed, and it was actually intended to finish an unwanted pregnancy, but I thought it better not to explain this; it seemed an unnecessary complication.

“And what about me?” The man had ceased to bluster.

“Why should we care what happens to a naked savage?” replied Hawk. I looked at the family; the youngest kids weren’t bothered by the lack of clothes, but they could tell something bad was happening; the man and his wife had ceased to try to cover themselves after the first shock; it was the kids in the middle who were blushing furiously and trying to hide their bodies any way they could.

Stack stamped his foot. “What about our packs?” he demanded. “Why haven’t you put everything back? What about our cloaks? What about our Chief’s collar? What about our spears?”

“You can’t expect that level of intelligence from mere naked savages,” I said. “Any more than you can expect them to offer food to guests. They are too uncivilised, too inferior.”

The man and his wife had started packing, but when I spoke they stood up. “No!” said Hawk. “Not you! You get on with the packing. Your two eldest daughters can set up the table and serve Stack and us.” So he was worrying about Stack, like I was; good for you, Hawk.

The girls did as they were told, blushing furiously the whole while. It was a really great meal – one I’ll never forget.