As he talked he was conducting them through the inner entrance into the main body of the hut beyond. It was rough-and-ready enough-three trestle tables, four or five benches and a kind of dresser or sideboard which the camp carpenter must have knocked together from such materials as he had been able to come by. On this stood a few dishes and goblets of bronze and a good many more of wood and horn, together with some knives and two or three wooden trenchers containing fruit and black bread. A group of four or five young officers stood up as the strangers entered, their eyes moving immediately to Maia and Meris.
Elleroth himself poured and served the wine, handing it round from a tray carried behind him by a soldier servant.
"We ought to have a nice, popular toast, don't you think, that everyone can drink with unbridled enthusiasm?"
"To heldro victory?" suggested Zen-Kurel, smiling and raising his cup.
"Heldro victory!" echoed Elleroth. "And no heeltaps!"
They drank the toast. Maia was startled by the quality of the wine. During the past year she had, of course, learned a great deal about wine; and to be perfectly honest, she thought, she could not remember to have tasted better, even at Sencho's. Just as she was thinking this, Zirek corroborated it.
"By Shakkarn, sir, that's a drop of the real stuff, all right! That ought to make victory certain enough for anyone, I'd say!"
"It comes up from Ikat," said Elleroth. "The vintner follows us about at enormous risk; to make his fortune, you know. He's caused more casualties than the enemy so far. Perhaps we should all have some more; what do you think?"
No one refused. Maia, silent, had the impression that Elleroth, under cover of this urbane drollery, was weighing them up and forming his conclusions. After a few moments he went on, "Anda-Nokomis, of course I know very well where you fit into our wicked schemes. In fact, I've already taken the liberty of sending a messenger to Santil to tell him you're with me." (For a moment Maia wondered how he could feel so certain, until she recalled that of course he would know about the withered hand.) "But tell me, now, about your friends." He looked genially from one to another. "Tolis says that apparently two of you are really and truly the hero and heroine who killed Sencho. You ought to be rewarded with a kingdom: two kingdoms. You, was it?" he said to Zirek. "And you, saiyett? May I have the honor of embracing you both?"
Maia thought it highly probable that this was the first time in her life that Meris had been addressed as "saiyett." It must also surely have been the first time that she had blushed, which she did as Elleroth embraced her and kissed her on both cheeks.
The admiration of the young officers was warm. They began eagerly asking Zirek and Meris how they had contrived the killing and about their escape. After a little, however, and before Elleroth had had time to inquire about Zen-Kurel or Maia, Bayub-Otal interposed, "U-Elleroth, what I would like to suggest, if I may, is that we should go to our quarters now and make ourselves pre-
sentable; and then, after we've had something to eat-if that's not hoping for too much-I'll tell you how we all come to be here."
"Well, then, you must be sure to break off at the most exciting point," replied Elleroth, "and I'll be delighted to provide you with a bowl for people to put their melds in before you go on. But come along, let me show you the way. The water must be hot by now."
As she followed them out, Maia heard Bayub-Otal saying to Elleroth in a low voice, "… in private, really… few things need to be explained.",
"Of course," answered Elleroth. "No questions until you're ready, then."
Outside, a woman of about thirty, with black hair and a missing front tooth, was waiting, evidently to take charge of Meris and herself. The excellent wine, on an empty stomach, had rather gone to Maia's head and she felt quite content to be shepherded along in a not unpleasant haze of evening air, failing light, wood-smoke and the shouts and calls of children, until they came to the shelter prepared for them.
"My name's Tekordis," said the woman chattily. "I was two years at Orthid, but now I've taken up with a tryzatt on the general's headquarters. How do you come to be here?"
"Oh, we're refugees from the Leopards," answered Maia, happy to be stripped off and sitting rather muzzily in a tub of warm water. "We were coming through the forest and had the good luck to run into Captain Mollo."
The woman, who was obviously impressed at their having been received personally by Elleroth, asked no more direct questions, but was plainly hoping to learn more if she could. Both girls, however, felt that it might be more prudent not to oblige her. Maia, changing into the rough but clean clothes she was given, nevertheless took care to retain her travel-stained tunic, with the money and valuables in its pockets. Tekordis having found them a comb (which they were obliged to use for their nails as well as their hair), they felt they had done as much as they could by way of preparing for supper.
Walking back towards Elleroth's headquarters, they passed a group of soldiers throwing dice on the grass, who, as they went by, made their approval plain enough. Maia,
well accustomed to this sort of thing, acknowledged them with a smile and a wave.
"Maia," asked Meris a few moments later, "have you got any money?"
Maia, never one to cavil at a little stretching of the strict truth in a good cause, shrugged her shoulders.
"Lend you ten meld if you like."
"We could make a damned sight more than that in a place like this," said Meris. "Or I could, anyway."
" 'Tain't for me to tell you what's what, Meris, but we're supposed to be guests of this Elleroth, and anyway Anda-Nokomis wouldn't-" ›
"Oh, balls!" said Meris. "You're a fine one to talk, Saiyett Serrelinda, aren't you? D'you think I don't remember you tickling up old Sencho and enjoying every minute of it? Give me that shit-"
"Shut up!" cried Maia angrily. "Haven't you made enough trouble already, without going looking for more here? Great Cran, 's far as I can make out you've only to hang on till you get to Erketlis to be set up for the rest of your life, and now you want to start working this place on your back! Anyway, here's that young Tolis coming to meet us. El-leroth's sent him to hurry us up, I s'pose."
Elleroth was as good as his word to Bayub-Otal. During the meal (too many damned flies! thought Maia: in the upper city, she'd forgotten how bad they could be at this time of year) he asked no questions, but talked instead of the Chalcon campaign, SantiFs victory on the Thettit-Ikat road and the dash he had made afterwards to take the Orthid slave-camp.
"Dear me, we did proceed rapidly," he remarked, stabbing with his knife at a lump of cheese. "I sincerely trust I'll never be required to do anything so energetic as that again."
"But did Santil order it, or did you dream it up by yourself?" asked Zen-Kurel.
"Well, he-er-he may have mentioned it to me in passing as a sporting possibility," replied Elleroth. "I honestly find it difficult to have any very clear recollection: that march-I began to fear that creation would expire before we got there. I was praying ardently to be struck down with sunstroke, but I confess with no very lively hope of success. And the dried meat and bad water kept on making me sick. Digestion is the great secret of life, after all. Do
have some more cheese; then you can at least console yourselves by eating while I talk. That may not only comfort you a little for the quality of the conversation but also increase our mutual confidence."
"You're sure of that, are you?" said Zen-Kurel, smiling and helping himself to the cheese., "So sure that I'll be delighted to offer you an appointment as a captain in this band of ragamuffins, if you like," answered EUeroth. "We're a trifle short of officers at the moment. They will keep on doing such foolish things-"
"Not for lack of example, sir," put in one of his captains.
"I do set a bad example, I know," sighed EHeroth, nodding dolefully. "We don't actually pay anyone for participating in this rabble, you know," he went on, turning back to Zen-Kurel, "but if you'd care to take part in the loot of Bekla-"
"It's
been looted already, sir, I rather think, both by the Palteshis and the Lapanese," replied Zen-Kurel.
"Yet you yourself succeeded in bringing away some- er-swag of this exceptional quality?" asked EUeroth, smiling towards Maia.
It was said as lightly and charmingly as any compliment ever paid, yet an awkward silence fell. Maia bit her lip and looked down at the table. EUeroth, perceiving that he had unwittingly said something unfortunate, hesitated, clearly hoping that someone would come to his rescue. It was Zen-Kurel himself who answered him.
"No, in point of fact it was she who brought us away: otherwise we'd still be there; or else dead. We're all greatly in her debt. But tell me, Lord Elleroth, if I'm not asking you to betray any secrets, what's your strategy in trying to reach Bekla through Purn? You've set yourselves an even harder job than Orthid this time, haven't you?"
"I'm sadly afraid we may have," replied Elleroth, taking his cue gratefully, "but if anyone can get us through that forest, Mollo will. We're lucky to have a pioneer commander like him. As for the strategy-well; that's supposed to be a little surprise for Kembri, really. You see, he knows where Santil is, but at the moment he doesn't know where we are: at least, I don't think he does. He must think his right flank's completely secure, resting on Purn. So I thought, well, supposing we were to go up through the forest, and then pop out-pop out, you know, just nip across and cut the Ikat-Bekla road behind him,
that might make him feel slightly uncomfortable. What d'you think?" It was clear that he respected Zen-Kurel and was genuinely seeking his opinion.
Zen-Kurel paused, reflecting. "If you can do it, yes; but the forest's very bad, you know. And it can't be long now until the rains, either. Besides, we don't know, do we?- Kembri may already be falling back on Bekla."
As their military talk continued, Maia began to feel so tired and drowsy that she could hardly keep her eyes open. Snatches of the conversation reached her meaninglessly through a daze. The discomfort of her period, the anxiety of the previous night in the forest, the long swim ending in the terror and near-disaster of the waterfall-all these had by now exhausted even her youthful vitality. Looking across at Meris, she could see that she was in little better case.
The young officers, delighted by the unexpected surprise of having two such girls as guests in the middle of a hard campaign, would hardly have noticed if she had made no response at all to their sallies and tall stories. They were perfectly happy just to look at her; to speak to her and merely to enjoy her presence. They were not going to let her go for as long as they could keep her. She realized that if she did not extricate herself, no one was going to do it for her.
She turned to Elleroth. "My lord, if you won't mind, I'm really that worn out I'd like to go to bed now. We've had a very hard day and I'm almost asleep as 'tis: I reckon Meris feels the same. Would you be so kind as to excuse us?"
Elleroth, as might have been expected, was immediately all courtesy, begging the girls' pardon for his lack of consideration and asking whether they needed anything else which he could provide. He was about to call a servant to accompany them back to their quarters when Zirek also begged to be excused, saying that he too felt very tired. One of the officers thereupon suggested that by way of an end to the evening they should all escort the girls to their shelter and sing them a song. This was enthusiastically received. Maia, only too glad that she was really going to be allowed to go to sleep, consented as gracefully as anyone could have wished; and thereupon she and Meris, amid much laughter and cheering, were carried shoulder-high into the sultry, brilliantly starred night and-after a little
tipsy altercation about the right way-back to their shelter, leaving Elleroth alone with Bayub-Otal and Zen-Kurel.
"Through the forest? Well, apart from anything else, you see," said Elleroth, refilling the wine-cups himself (he had dismissed the servants), "we have to stay on the move if we're to keep ourselves in supplies. There aren't a lot of us, it's true-rather less than five hundred, now-and since we got back here we've been able to get stuff sent up from Sarkid. But I can't go on drawing on Sarkid for more than another few days. Then there's the whole question of reward-loot, boodle, plunder and spoil. My men are all volunteers and I haven't paid one of them a meld as yet. They've fought and marched splendidly, but all they've got out of it so far is women. You know that old story, 'Oh, gods, not rape again!' Now that they've blooded themselves on that Elvair-ka-Virrion fellow, what we need is a really impressive exploit, leading to a dramatic victory. Not to mince words, I'd like to be the first heldro into Bekla and send a runner to Santil with the news. You see, he's still got Kembri between him and Bekla, but I've only got Purn. Santil will be taking on Kembri and I shan't be there. So I really ought to have a go at Purn, if only to justify my existence, don't you think? And, of course, cut off Kembri's retreat, if we can."
Bayub-Otal nodded. "Yes, I follow all that. It's only that Zenka and I have had a taste of that forest, and we wouldn't like your to come to any harm."
"Well, I'll have to be the judge of that, won't I?" replied Elleroth a shade brusquely. "I confess I could do with a little more sheer manpower to cut our way through. Still, never mind; that's enough of that. Anda-Nokomis, I really can't wait any longer to learn why you're not dead, and what exactly happened at Rallur."
Bayub-Otal's account lasted some time, though he omitted any reference to what had passed between Zen-Kurel and Maia. Elleroth listened intently and asked several questions. At last he said to Zen-Kurel, "Yes; well, Isee now why my little sally about your swag fell even flatter than most of my efforts. Most unfortunate. No one ever invites me twice, you know. But it certainly is rather mysterious, isn't it? This Serrelinda girl-and now that one's seen her one has to admit she really is all they say: if she
can look like that after two days in the forest, Cran knows what she must have looked like in the upper city-first she makes her fortune by betraying you all to Sendekar on the Valderra, and the next thing you know she nearly loses her life getting the two of you out of prison and out of Bekla. If I hadn't actually met her, I'd be the first to say she'd realized that Fornis was out to kill her and was trying to change sides in time to save her own skin."
"You mean you don't think that?" asked Zen-Kurel.
"Well, somehow it doesn't quite square with the impression I've formed of her, though I can't say exactly why. Tell me, has she herself raised the matter with you at all?"
"No, not at all: not once."
"I mean, she hasn't suggested that since she's saved your lives you might now save hers by writing a nice, cheery letter to Santil, or anything like that?"
"No, nothing like that," replied Zen-Kurel.
"And how has she made out on your little journey? Has she been useful at all since you left Bekla?"
"Well, the plain truth is that without her we wouldn't be here."
"It never occurred to you to slice her into little bits for what she'd done in Suba?"
"It occurred to Zenka," broke in Bayub-Otal, "but to tell you the truth I dissuaded him."
"Why?"
Bayub-Otal paused. Elleroth, perceiving that his hesitation proceeded not from ignorance or uncertainty, but from doubt over whether to speak or to remain silent, was beginning, "If you'd rather not-" when suddenly Bayub-Otal said, "This will have to come out some time or other, so it may as well be now. That night at the farm, Zenka, when you and I talked about Maia, there was something I didn't tell you."
"You mean you and she had already come to some sort of understanding?" Zen-Kurel spoke so sharply that both his hearers were startled.
"No," replied Bayub-Otal, "no, nothing like that. I haven't any-understanding with her. It was something she told me." They waited and he continued, "She'd told me that she and I are kinsfolk; in fact, we're first cousins."
"She told you that?"
"Yes. That evening, at the farm."
"And you believed her?"
"Oh, yes," said Bayub-Otal, "there's no doubt about it at all. Sh
e's my mother's sister's daughter, and what she said explains a great deal. I'll tell you how."
He did so, ending, "I can't see how this poor man Thar-rin could possibly have made up that story-or why he'd want to. Besides, it explains not only her extraordinary resemblance to my mother, but also why the Tonildan woman she thought was her mother should have felt able to sell her as a slave."
"It might explain something else, too," said Elleroth. "I hasten to say I'm only trying to make the best case I can for a girl who's struck me, quite frankly, as being rather honest and likable. From all you've told me she's certainly not short on courage."
"What does it explain?" asked Zen-Kurel.
"I only remarked that it might. You said this girl didn't find out that she was your cousin-that her mother was Suban-until some considerable time after her exploit on the Valderra. But mightn't that discovery have altered her whole outlook very much?"
"Then why hasn't she said so?"
"My dear man, actions speak louder than words. She has as good as said so, or so it seems to me. Presumably the poor girl has her pride. You don't expect her, do you, to go down on her knees and say, 'I've discovered I'm a Suban, so please will you forget all about the Valderra and spare my life?' She's told you who she is and left the rest up to you; I call that dignified."
"So-that might mean-you're saying, are you, that that might mean-"
Zen-Kurel came to a stop, but Elleroth said nothing to help him to a conclusion, only gazing at his shadowed face in the candlelight and waiting. "She could have had a perfectly creditable motive-" he stopped again-"for taking the enormous risk of going into that prison to release us?"
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