Dervish slid one of the scattered pieces of parchment on his table across to the sly merchant, then pointed to the quill pen and ink that rested within her reach.
"Start writing." Briefly the bandit leader glanced at Masa - He suspected that the young rogue was a bit taken by this attractive and eloquent girl, which could be a problem. Until Arya proved herself worthy of their trust she had to be treated as a potential enemy, and thus far they had certainly done nothing to her that would have earned her good will. Right now she was here because she wasn't given a choice. Trusting each other would only start to happen once her and the bandits started to make a profit from the relationship.
"At the moment, the only thing on this girl's person that we can use as collateral to ensure her obedience and honesty is her life. Anything less than that and she would find an easier path to freedom." That meant, unfortunately, that they would also have to take a risk on her information being enough to succeed, but Dervish was willing to bet that Arya's love of her skin would make that risk as low as she could.
The leader stood, pushing his chair back, and walked towards the exit of his tent.
"Watch her for now." He needed to prepare, and the first thing that needed to be done would be to find a guard. Pushing the tent flap aside, the masked man exited.
There was a disadvantage to working nearly exclusively with scoundrels: There were few people that Dervish could think of at the camp who could act as a prison guard for the girl and not be tricked, bribed, or seduced into her winning her freedom. There were no paragons of virtue here, but Dervish worked with what he had. He needed Weaver. Weaver was never a difficult man to find if he was at the camp, as he stood a head taller than nearly everyone around him, and sure enough Dervish quickly spotted the man the ragged bandits affectionately referred to as 'the Palisade' sitting on a fallen log at the edge of camp, rubbing an oiled rag along the blade of an intimidatingly large axe.
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Weaver looked up when his leader approached and smiled, setting the rag on his knee.
"Good morning Captain. I saw that you had a busy start to your morning! Who was the lass that you dragged into your tent?" The big man's smile broadened, a teasing glint in the big man's eye.
"I'll be honest, I didn't think you that sort of man." There was an extended pause as Dervish didn't respond, inscrutable behind his steel mask. Finally when Dervish spoke, the joke was completely ignored. Weaver's captain had always been rather humourless.
"I need you to guard someone in my tent for this coming week. I don't trust her outside of your sight, so you can't just stand outside the doorway, and I also don't want her to hate us any more than she already may, so you will only have her bound when you have to sleep or leave the tent. I only want someone other than you watching her when you need to leave the tent, which can't be for more than five minutes at a time and never with the same guard twice. If you do this without either having her escape or hurting her, I'll give you double bonus pay for the week as well as that bottle of fine wine in my tent that I know you've been eyeing." Weaver's expression grew more interested at that.
"However, Weaver. You won't touch a drop for the week. Do you understand?"The big man made a noise of annoyance, but then smiled again and stroked his beard.
"Aye. I suppose I can help you Captain." It looked like he'd have to get all of his week's plans for feasting and drinking out of the way in one go tonight. Tomorrow things were going to get rather tedious.