She smirked and spat contemptuously at the foot of the post. The daughter of a Senior Kinsman, she was a tall, slender girl with an arrogant strut and mocking eyes. She stood for a moment with folded arms, eyeing him with amusement. Then, slowly, one eye closed in a solemn wink. She turned her back on him and spoke to the executioner.
"May I taunt the prisoner, Slubil?" she asked.
"It is forbidden to speak to the thief," growled the knifeman.
"Is he ready to beg for justice, Slubil?"
The knifeman grinned and looked at Asir. "Are you ready for me yet, thief?"
Asir hissed an insult. The girl had betrayed him.
"Evidently a coward," she said. "Perhaps he means to hang four days."
"Let him then."
"No—I think that I should like to see him beg."
She gave Asir a long searching glance, then turned to walk away. The thief cursed her quietly and followed her with his eyes. A dozen steps away she stopped again, looked back over her shoulder, and repeated the slow wink. Then she marched on toward her father's house. The wink made his scalp crawl for a moment, but then....