Summary

The boy retraced his first path into the village. He walked briskly, and though he had been reluctant to leave the goatherd, he knew that their only chance of survival lay in the cripple’s storeroom. When he arrived at the inn, he listened at the door for signs of life. He then crawled through a back window and jumped into the storeroom.

The boy had already devoured a chorizo when he saw an elbow poking out from behind a curtain. When he pulled the curtain aside, the cripple’s corpse was revealed. The boy assumed that his actions had led to the cripple’s death, and he was so distraught that he overlooked the purple rope mark that was around the cripple’s neck.

Suddenly, the goatherd’s dog appeared. The boy’s delight at seeing it was cut short when a man...