Ronald came back at dawn, and he didn’t come back on his feet.
Mav was waiting on the white stone of the plaza, in front of the arches. He had been there since the middle of the night, because he couldn’t stay in bed. When one of the arches finally filled with light, he ran toward it.
Tamsin came through first. She was walking backward and pulling something heavy by the arms. It was Ronald.
His shirt was red from the shoulder to the belt. His left arm was bent in a place where an arm shouldn’t bend, and there were deep bites on both of his legs. His eyes were open, but he wasn’t looking at anything.
For one second, Mav couldn’t move. He was more afraid than he had been in front of the eel.
Then he picked Ronald up in his arms. Ronald weighed as much as two normal boys. But Mav was rank E, so he carried him across the plaza at a run.
"What happened?" he asked, without slowing down.
"There were too many of them," Tamsin said. She was running beside him, and she was crying openly now. "The boars held for an hour, and they were so brave. But the gray beasts never stop laughing, and that sound does something to you. It makes you afraid. When two of the boars died, the others lost their courage and ran. So Ronald stood in front of my Heartstone himself, and the gray beasts pulled him down."
She wiped her face with her sleeve.
"Then the raider called them back. He could have let them kill Ronald, but he didn’t. He only shouted that I had five nights left, and he went away."
’So he didn’t kill him. Either he’s careful, or he doesn’t like this work.’
Mav kept that thought for later.
Wildroot had a small healing room behind the main hall. It was run by an old woman with strong hands, who had clearly seen worse. She set Ronald’s arm, cleaned his bites, and gave him something bitter to drink. Mav stood against the wall the whole time, with Ronald’s blood drying on his shirt.
He was angry at the raider, whom he had never seen. But he was even angrier at himself, and that was harder to bear.
’I said that it wasn’t my problem. So he made it his problem, and this is the result. I thought of everything last night, except him.’
The old woman left at last. Tamsin had fallen asleep on a chair, with her head against the wall, and the room was quiet.
"Mav," Ronald said.
His voice was weak, but his eyes were clear again.
"I’m here."
"I lost two boars. I lost Old Gray, and the small one with the broken tusk." Ronald’s big face twisted. "I had them since the first day. I gave them names, Mav."
"I know," Mav said, and his throat hurt. "I lost two of mine to an eel in my first week. It still hurts."
Ronald was quiet for a moment. Then he turned his head on the pillow.
"Can I ask you something?"
"Yes."
"Everyone says that your seaweeds tame wild beasts. Maybe that’s true. But I saw you turn your skin to stone, and I saw you disappear in the middle of an arena. A tamer can’t do that." He frowned. "So what is it really, Mav? How do you do it?"
Mav looked at his friend.
Ronald had waited for him at Wildroot when two good schools wanted him. He had shared his bread for three hours in front of the Homegate. And last night, he had gone to fight for a stranger, because Mav had refused to.
Mav had kept his secret from him for weeks. He had told himself that it was for Ronald’s safety, but that wasn’t the real reason. He hadn’t trusted anyone for eight years, and he didn’t know how to start.
However, if he couldn’t trust Ronald, then he would never trust anyone.
He checked that Tamsin was really asleep. Then he pulled a chair to the bed, and he spoke very quietly.
"People are almost right, but it isn’t taming," he said. "My talent is called Host. One of my seaweeds goes into the back of a beast’s neck, and it takes root in its brain. After that, the seaweed controls the beast. The beast obeys me, and my Status lists it as one of my Subjects. That’s why the Arbiter said that they were mine."
Ronald stared at him.
"It takes root in the brain," he whispered. "Of any beast?"
"I think so, as long as the beast is weak enough. I have to wound it or stun it first." Mav opened the top of his shirt, and he showed him the green coil around his chest. "Each kind of beast has its own skill, and I can borrow those skills through my own seaweed. This is One. It lives in me, the same way the others live in the beasts. It’s also the reason I can breathe under water."
Ronald stared at One. One lifted its tip and moved it from side to side, as if it were waving at him.
"So you’re a host too," Ronald said slowly. "You’re like the crab."
"Yes, I am."
"Does it control you?"
"No, it doesn’t. I think that it could, if I treated my Subjects badly enough. It stopped my body once, in my first weeks down there, when I tried to use one of them as bait." Mav closed his shirt. "We understand each other better now."
He waited. He had just given someone the one secret that could get him killed. If the great houses learned how his seaweeds really worked, they would never let him live. He was more nervous than he had been in Arena 14.
Ronald thought about it. He thought for so long that Mav began to worry.
Then Ronald said, very seriously, "Never touch my boars."
Mav blinked.
"What do you mean?"
"Your seaweeds take beasts. So promise me that they will never take one of my boars, not even a dead one."
"I promise," Mav said.
"Good." Ronald closed his eyes, and his whole face relaxed. "Then I don’t care. It’s a good talent, and it’s much better than mine. Mine only makes my boars dig faster."
Mav laughed. He couldn’t stop himself. He felt as if he had put down something heavy that he had been carrying for eight years.
’I told someone, and nothing terrible happened.’
It was a strange feeling, and he decided that he liked it.
-----
Tamsin woke up an hour later. She found Mav sitting beside the bed with his harpoon across his knees, while Ronald slept and snored.
She looked at the harpoon, and then at Mav’s face, and she didn’t dare to speak.
Mav had used that hour to think again, and this time, he had been honest with himself.
The raider had hurt his only friend, and that alone was enough. But there was another reason. The raider had beaten 14 boars and their master in one night, so he now believed that nobody could stop him. He would come back tonight, and he wouldn’t be careful.
There would never be a better time to catch him.
"Fine," Mav said. "I’ll help you."
Tamsin put her hand over her mouth.
"But you’re going to pay," he went on, in the same calm voice. "I’m not Ronald, and I don’t fight for free. We’ll talk about the price tonight, before we go."
"Anything," Tamsin said. "I’ll pay anything."
"Never say that to someone you’re bargaining with," Mav said. "It’s the first rule."