Fires of Azeroth com-3

by C. J. Cherryh

  The two looked at her with apparent dismay, but Lellin was the first to recover himself, and bowed ceremoniously. I am your appointed guide, wherever you will go. If we are attacked, we will defend; if you attack others, we will stand aside, if it is a matter of going into the plains: we do not go there. Yet if your enemies come into Shathan-we will deal with them and they will not come to you."

  "And if I bid you guide us to Nehmin?"

  Now Lellin faced her with more directness than he was wont, and his look was sad. "I was warned that this was your desire, and now I warn you, my lady: the place is dangerous, and not alone because of your enemies. It has its own defenders, the arrha,against whom my grandfather warned you. Your safe conduct is not valid there."

  "But it will take me there."

  "So will I, my lady, but if you attack that place-well, you would not be wise to do that."

  "If my enemies attack it, it may not stand; and if it falls, then Shathan will fall. I have discussed it with my lord Merir, and he likewise warned me, but he set me free to do what I would in the matter. And he set you to watch me, did he not?"

  "Yes," said Lellin, and now all joy and lightness in his face was replaced by dread. "If you have deceived us, doubtless Sezar and I could not stand against you, for you could always take us by stealth if nothing else. Yet I wish to believe that this is not the case."

  "Believe that it is not I have promised lord Merir that I will see you come home safely, and I will keep that promise to the best of my ability."

  "Then I shall take you where you wish to go."

  "Lellin," said Sezar, "I do not like this."

  "But I cannot help it." said Lellin. "If Grandfather had said do not go to Nehmin, then we should not be going; but he did not and therefore I must do this."

  "At your-" Sezar began to say, and stopped; and all froze in each small movement. A horse moved, untimely, drowning the faint sound that had come to them, a bird calling. It was caught up again, nearby.

  "We are not safe any longer," said Lellin.

  "How do you reach such signs?" Vanye asked, for it seemed a good thing to know; and Lellin bit his lip in reluctance, then shrugged.

  "It is in the pulses. The more rapid the trill, the more certain and imminent the hazard. There are other songs for other purposes, and some carry words, but this was a watchsong."

  "We should be moving," said Sezar, "if we wish to avoid the matter, and I hope that is your wish."

  Morgaine frowned, and nodded, and they quit the place and rode farther.

  There were warnings sometimes about them, and all that day they tended east, bending about the arc of Azeroth… and it seemed, though the route they took was different, the lay of the land was familiar. "We are near Mirrind," Morgaine observed finally, which agreed with Vanye's own sense of direction, abused though it was by their crooked journeyings and the strangeness of another sky.

  "You are right," Lellin said. "We are north of it; best we stay as much withdrawn from the rim of Azeroth as possible. So the signals advise."

  By evening they had passed the vicinity of Mirrind and crossed one little stream and another, hardly enough to wet the horses' hooves. Then they came upon a stand of trees many of which were bound with white cords, a-flutter in the breeze.

  "What are those?" Vanye asked of Lellin, for he had seen them about Mirrind; and because they had ominous meaning in Shiuan, he had avoided asking. Lellin smiled and shrugged.

  "Cut-mark. We are nearing the village of Carrhend, and so we mark the trees for them that are proper to cut, for wood at need, so that the best trees live and they take the least shapely. This we do throughout Shathan, for their use and ours."

  "Like tenders of gardens," Vanye observed, amazed by such a thought, for in Andur, forested as it was, and even in Kursh, men cut where they would and the trees still outpaced them.

  "Aye," said Lellin, and seemed amused and pleased by such a thought. He patted the shadowy trunk of an old tree they passed in the gathering dusk. "We wander, but I have wandered more in this wood than in any other, and I daresay I know these trees as villagers know their goats. That old fellow has guided me since I was a boy and he was a little slimmer. Gardeners indeed! And if weeds spring up, why, we tend to that too."

  That, Vanye thought, had a chilling undertone to it, having nothing at all to do with trees.

  "It is coming time for camp," Morgaine said. "And have you a place in mind, Lellin?"

  "Carrhend. They will take us into their hall."

  "And shall we endanger another village? I would rather the woods than that."

  Lellin sketched a bow, a backward step as they walked. "I believe you would, my lady, but there is no need. Our horses will find us there in the morning, and everything there is quite secure. You will find folk there you know: some of the Mirrindim have elected to come to Carrhend for their safety, such as did not choose to stay by their own fields."

  Morgaine looked to Vanye, and he ventured no opinion, but he was privately glad when she accepted. More than two years he had spent under the open sky, but Mirrind had retaught him the luxuries he had put from his mind forever, being Morgaine's companion. In his mind was a strong memory of Mirrind's mornings, and fine hot bread and butter, so vivid he could taste it. He was, he thought, losing his keen edge. The Shathana style of travel seemed all too easy… and yet they had covered much ground in the day's ride, and evaded some manner of trouble.

  Sezar turned up again in their path, walking with them in the gathering dark. Soon enough they saw the forest's edge and a broad expanse of fields. They skirted that open space, keeping within the forest shade, and came into Carrhend at the very last of the daylight.

  The village spilled out to meet them. "Sezar! Sezar!" the children cried with abandon, and they trooped round the khemeisand caught his hands and made much of him.

  "This is Sezar's village," Lellin said as they dismounted. "His parents and sister and four brothers live here, so you see we could not pass by this hospitality; I would not be forgiven."

  They had been maneuvered, but not to their hurt, and even Morgaine took it in good humor, smiling as the elders of Carrhend presented themselves. Three clans lived here: Salen, Eren, and Thesen . . , and Sezar, who was of clan Thesen, kissed his elders both, and then his parents, and his brothers and sister. There was not overmuch astonishment in this visit, as if it were a frequent thing; but Vanye felt for the young khemeisthey took perforce into danger with them, and reckoned why he would have been anxious to make this particular stop on their way to Nehmin.

  Lellin also had his welcome with them. Neither young nor old had much awe of him. He took the hands of the kin of Sezar, and was kissed on the cheek by Sezar's mother, which gesture he repaid in kind.

  But suddenly there were the Mirrindim, spilling down the steps of the common-hall, as if they had waited on their hosts' courtesies. Now they came, Bythein and Bytheis, and the elders of Sersen and Melzen, and the young women… some of them running in their joy to greet them.

  There was Sin, among the other children. Vanye caught him up out of their midst and the boy grinned with delight when he lifted him up to Mai's back. Sin set himself astride and looked quite dazed when Vanye passed him up the reins… but Mai was too tired to give him trouble and would not leave Siptah.

  Morgaine received the elders of Mirrind-embraced old Bythein, who had been their staunches friend, and there was a chorus of invitations to hall and meal.

  "Some of the men are still in Mirrind," Bytheis explained when Morgaine asked after their welfare. "They will keep the fields. Someone must. And the arrhendimare watching over them. But we know that our children are safest here. Welcome, welcome among us, lady Morgaine, khemeisVanye."

  And perhaps the Mirrindim were no less pleased to find them now in the company of their own legitimate lords, assurance that they had not given their hospitality amiss.

  "See to the horses," Morgaine said, when all the turmoil was past; and Vanye took Siptah's reins an
d Sin followed on Mai, the proudest lad in Carrhend.

  Sezar walked with him to show him the way, while a cloud of children walked about them, Carrhendim and Mirrindim, male and female. They crowded in behind as they put the horses in the pen, and there was no lack of willing hands to bring them food or curry them. "Have care of the gray," Sin was quick to tell them, lord over all where it concerned the horses. "He kicks what surprises him," which was good advice, for they crowded too close, disrespecting the warhorse's iron-shod heels; but Siptah as well as Mai had surprising patience in this tumult, having learned that children meant treats and curryings. Vanye surveyed all that was done and clapped Sin on the shoulder.

  "I will take care of them as always," Sin assured him; he had no doubt this would be so.

  "I will see you in hall at dinner; sit by me," Vanye said, and Sin glowed.

  He started back to the hall then, and Sezar waited for him at the gate, leaning on the rail of the pen. "Have a care. You may not know what you do."

  Vanye looked at him sharply.

  "Do not tempt the boy," said Sezar, "to seek outside. You may be cruel without knowing."

  "And if he wishes to go outside?" Anger heated him, but it was the way of Andur-Kursh itself, that a man was what he was born… save himself, wtio had always fought his own fate. "No, I understand you," he admitted.

  Sezar looked back, and a thoughtful look was in his eyes. "Come," he said then, and they walked back to the hall with a few of the children at their heels, trying to imitate the soft-footed stride of the khemeis."Look behind us and understand me fully," Sezar said, and he looked, and did. "We are a dream they dream, all of them. But when they grow past a certain age-" Sezar laughed softly, "they come to better sense, all but a few of us… and when the call comes, we follow, and that is the way of it. If it comes to that boy, let it come; but do not tempt him so young. He may try too early, and come to grief for it."

  "You mean that he will walk off into the forest and seek the qhal."

  "It is never said, never suggested… forbidden to say. But those who will come, grow desperate and come, and there is no forbidding them, then, if they do not die in the woods. It is never said… but it is a legend among the children; and they say it. At about twelve, they may come, or a little after; and then there is a time that it is too late… and they have chosen, simply by staying. We would not refuse them… no child dies on his journey that we can ever help. But neither do we lure them. The villages have their happiness. We arrhendimhave ours. You are bewildered by us."

  "Sometimes."

  "You are a different kind of khemeis."

  He looked down. "I am ilin.That-is different."

  They walked in silence, almost to the hall. "There is a strangeness in you," said Sezar then, which frightened him. He looked up into Sezar's pitying eyes. "A sadness… beyond your kinsman's fate, I think. It is about both of you. And different, for each. Your lady-"

  Whatever Sezar would have said, he seemed to think better of saying, and Vanye stared at him resentfully, no easier in his mind for Sezar's intimate observations.

  "Lellin and I-" Sezar made a helpless gesture. "Khemeis,we suspect things in you that have not been told us, that you– Well, something weighs on you both. And we would offer help if we knew how."

  Prying after information?Vanye wondered, and looked on the man narrowly; the words still afflicted him. He tried to smile, but it was effort, and did not come convincingly. "I shall mend my manner," he said. "I did not know that I was such unpleasant company."

  He turned and climbed the wooden stairs into the hall, where dinner was being prepared, and heard Sezar on the treads behind him.

  The village had already begun the cooking before they came, but there was enough for guests and to spare… a prosperous place, Carrhend, and the Mirrindim in their well-ordered fashion took a share of the word as well as of food. Cooks laughed together and children made friends, and old ones smiled and talked by the fireside, sewing. There seemed no strife from the mixing: the elders could lay down stern edicts when they must, and the qhalurlaw was clearly set forth and respected.

  "We have so much to exchange," said Serseis. "We long for Mirrind already, but we feel safer here." Others agreed, though clan Melzen still mourned for Eth, and they were very few here: most of the younger folk of Melzen, male and female, had elected to stay in Mirrind, a determination for Eth's sake, and showing a tough-mindedness that lay deep within the Men of Shathan.

  "If any of these evil strangers pass through," Melzein said, "they will not pass back out again."

  "May it not happen," Morgaine said earnestly. To that, Melzein inclined her head in agreement

  "Come to the tables," called Saleis of Carrhend then, desperate effort to restore cheer. Folk moved in eagerly, and the benches filled.

  Sin scurried in and wedged himself into his promised place. The lad had no words during the meal, contenting himself with quick looks and much listening. He was there; that was enough for Sin; and Sezar caught Vanye's eye during the meal and nicked a glance at the boy, strangely complacent– as if he had seen something clear to be seen.

  "It will come," Sezar said then, which Vanye understood and none else might. A weight lifted from him. He saw Morgaine puzzled by that exchange, and felt strange to have one single thought in which she had no part, a single concern that did not touch her affairs-to that extent their lives were bound together.

  Then a chill came on him. He remembered what he was, and that no good had ever come of friendship with those along their way; most that they touched died of it.

  "Vanye," Morgaine said, and caught his wrist, for he laid down his spoon of a sudden and it clattered even amid the noise of voices. "Vanye?"

  "It is nothing, liyo."

  He calmed himself, tried not to think of it, and tried not to let himself go grim with the boy, who had no thought of what fear passed in him. Food went down with difficulty for a time, and then more easily; and he put it from his mind, almost.

  A harp silenced the talk after dinner, announcing the accustomed round of singing. The girl Sirn, who had sung in Mirrind, sang here; then a boy of Canrhead sang a song for Lellin, who was their own qhalthey teased Lellin for it, fondly.

  "My turn," said Lellin afterward, took the harp and sang for them a human song.

  Then, still holding the harp, he struck a chord to silence them, looked round at them all, strangely fair as all his folk, pale in that dim hall, among their faces. "Take care," he wished them. "With all my heart, Carrhendim, take care in these days. The Mirrindim can have told you only a part of your danger. You are guarded, but your guards are few and Shathan is wide." His fingers touched the strings nervously, and the strings sighed in that silence. " The Wars of the Arrhend… I could harp you that, but you have heard it many times… how the sirrindimand the qhalwarred, until we could drive the sirrindimfrom the forest. In those days Men fought against Men, and they fought us with fire and axe and ruin. Be on your guard. There are such sirrindimat Azeroth, and renegade qhalare with them. It is the old war again." There was a frightened murmuring in the hall.

  "This news," Lellin said. " I grieve to bear it. But be alert and be ready to walk away even from Carrhend if it comes to you. Possessions are nothing. Your children are precious. The arrhendwill help you rebuild with stone and wood, with our own hands and of all that we have; so must you be ready to aid any village that should be in need. Trust at least that we are moving to deal with it; the arrhendimare not always there to be seen, and so they serve you best. Let us do what may be done in the way we know; it may suffice. If not, then it will be your arrows that defend us." The strings sighed softly into a qhalursong, and folk listened as if it cast some spell over them. There was neither outcry nor debate. When it was done, the hush remained. "Go to your homes, Carrhendim, and Mirrindim to your sheltering; we four guests will leave early in the morning. Do not disturb yourselves to see us go."

  "Lord," said one of the young Carrhendim. "We will fight no
w if we can help."

  "Help by defending Carrhend and Mirrind. Your help in that is much needed."

  That one bowed, and joined his friends. The Carrhendim left, each bowing to their guests; but the Mirrindim stayed, for they were bedded down in the wings of the hall.

  Only Sin departed. "I shall sleep by the horses," he declared, and Vanye did not deny him that.

  "Lellin," said Sezar, and Lellin nodded. Sezar left, likely to his kinfolk for the night, or perhaps to some young woman.

  The hall was long in settling. There were fretful children and restless young folk. Blankets hung on cords curtained the wings, making a sort of privacy, and leaving the area nearest the fire for their guests.

  At last there was quiet, and they settled comfortably, without armor, sharing with Lellin a few sips of a flask that Merir had sent with him.

  "Things are well done here," Morgaine said, in the whisper the hour and the sleeping children demanded. "Your folk are very well organized to have lived so long at peace."

  The qhal'seyes flickered, and he cast off the sober mood that had lain on him like a mantle. "Indeed, we have had fifteen hundred years to meditate on the errors we made in the wars. So long ago we settled on what we would do if the time came; it has, and we will do it swiftly."

  "Is it," asked Vanye, "that long since a war in the land?"

  "Aye," answered Lellin, compassing with that more than the known history of Andur-Kursh, where strife was frequent. "And may it be longer still."

  Vanye thought on that long after they had taken to their pallets, with the qhal-lordresting beside him.

  Fifteen hundred years of peace. In some measure the thought distressed him, who was born to warfare. To be locked within such long and changeless tranquility, in Shathan's green shadow-the thought distressed him; and yet the pleasantness of the villages, the safety, the order-had their appeal.

  He turned his head and looked on Morgaine, who slept. Theirs was a heavy doom, endlessly to travel… and they had seen enough of war for any lifetime. Might we not stay here?he wondered, brief traitor thought: and pushed it aside, trying not to think of their existence and Mirrind side by side.