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better for himself, but I suppose it was too much to expect.”
    â€œYou know Fisk?” Somehow, I never thought of anyone knowing Fisk, though he must have encountered many people in the erratic course of his life. And now an unredeemed man was claiming him as friend in a town full of people whose opinion he might care about.
    â€œI’d not say I know him. I was only a deputy when he cleared out, but I remember the story well enough. A pity.”
    A pity Fisk had ended up consorting with a scoundrel like me. I said nothing.
    â€œHowever, I do know Yorick Thrope.” Neither his face nor his voice revealed more than the bare words, but the clear implication was that to know the man was to hate him. My heart lifted, cautiously. “I know Master Maxwell, too.”
    Decision made, he rose to his feet and put on the brown woolen jacket that had hung on his chair back. “I’ve a notion that you’re trouble, Michael Sevenson, but if Horatius Maxwell will give warrant for your good behavior, I’ll release you into his custody.”
    So much confused me in this speech that he had time to dismiss the remaining guards and haul me halfway up the first flight of stairs before I found my voice.
    â€œYou’re not charging me?”
    â€œFor getting involved in a brawl? I’d have to lock up twenty others with you. I haven’t heard a single word to say you started it—indeed, I’ve heard testimony to the contrary.”
    â€œBut the dandy, Thrope, Judicar Thrope, expects you to lock me up. Or worse.”
    â€œWhat makes you say that, Michael Sevenson? He said I knew my duty, and I believe I do. You don’t like my decision? I can always change it.”
    We rounded the landing and started up the second flight of stairs. Sunlight gleamed at the top.
    â€œBut…” What was I arguing about? “No, it’s fine with me. But who’s this Maxwell you speak of?”
    The sheriff stopped, pulling me to a stop as well. Standing on the same step, he was half a head shorter than I. “Maxwell is your friend Fisk’s brotherby marriage. You didn’t know that?”
    â€œNo, I…He once said he had sisters, but Fisk seldom talks about himself.” Fisk had been returning to his family. No wonder he’d left his unredeemed companion behind!
    â€œWell.” The sheriff started to climb again and I followed. “He’d better be willing to talk to Maxwell about you. If Max won’t give warrant for you, you’ll have to spend the night in a cell and get out of Ruesport first thing in the morning.”
    The daylight was red-gold, crimsoning the stones of the Council Hall’s antechamber—the sun was setting. I had no desire to spend the night in a cell. “Fisk will vouch for me, but surely you don’t need to bring this Maxwell into it? If you’d ask to see Fisk alone…” He might yet be spared the shame of having known me. And then I would go.
    The sheriff snorted. “I’d not take young Fisk’s word on the good behavior of a rabbit. It’s Jud—Master Maxwell who’ll vouch for you. Or not. And Michael Sevenson?”
    We topped the stairs and stepped into the light.
    â€œYes?”
    â€œI said I’ve a notion that you’re trouble. If you make trouble here, those stripes on your back’ll seem like a maiden’s slap. You clear on that?”
    â€œQuite clear.” You woodenheaded son of a sow. I only hoped the mysterious Master Maxwell would take Fisk’s word for me. If Fisk would give it—for I now realized that he’d sneaked out on me like a thief and fled across a dozen fiefdoms simply to avoid the very humiliation that I was about to bring upon him.

C HAPTER 4
Fisk
    I chose to wear my second-best doublet for the “quiet family dinner with just one guest” for which my sisters had been preparing frantically all day. Even Michael’s brother