Chapter 11
Forlan ambled, weaving back and forth across the path, forcing them to walk more slowly than Thorat would have liked. As they reentered the camp, Eppie walked away from it, alone. The old woman left her place at the fire too, leaving the bandit who seemed to be in charge alone there.
“There goes your apprentice,” Ferrent said.
“She’s not my apprentice,” Thorat said. “She’s our apprentice.”
Ferrent looked after Eppie as she disappeared into a nest of low bushes. He frowned. “They haven’t let me go to the stream alone once, and I’ve been here for six days.”
Gran laughed, startling Thorat from close behind. “That’s because you’re a grown man,” Gran said. “The scrapplings, when they pass this way, can come and go. Apprentice is nearly the same thing.”
“And she’s suffered nothi
