Hesht Gets a Shock

So he need no longer worry about how to get the proceeds from the sale of the item to Doazda or Ghermiz. But he also, of course, now could not finance himself and Astra from part of those proceeds.

He was almost certain that no other courier had been due to pass this way. That must mean that either someone had stumbled on the cache by accident, which seemed unlikely given how unobtrusive it was unless you knew just what you were looking for and how few people passed this way, or else that someone at Still Manor had made an unauthorised trip to the cache in order to steal the item and make some money on the side. If that was the case, then if the person responsible could be traced they would be in deep trouble.

What really worried Hesht was that, once it was discovered that the item was missing, it might be assumed that he was responsible. He was one of a limited number of people who knew the location of the cache and who had had an opportunity to rob it. And he had a motive, needing money to make his and Astra's journey more comfortable. He could not think of any way in which he could prove his innocence. The answer, he supposed, was not to let anyone from the manor catch up with him. Which gave him another reason to go on with Astra even beyond Petrona.

Astra saw Hesht peer inside the cache, and then stand up again with a look of consternation on his face. "What's the matter?" she asked. "Isn't the thing that you were looking for there?"

1. Hesht tells Astra everything, including his wish to accompany her even beyond Petrona.
2. Hesht tells Astra as little as possible.
3. Two men discuss what might have been in the third cache

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