One of the men had spoken to her. She realized he had spoken, but had not caught what he said. She turned and looked at him.
He was perhaps twenty-five, of middle height, with a shock of short, brown hair and bushy eyebrows. His gray eyes were rather small, his nose rather broad, and he had a strong chin. He looked a rugged, practical sort of man; resourceful if not clever; one not to be trifled with or turned aside. He was holding a drawn sword, and as he spoke again he leaned forward, pointing it upstream to emphasize his words.
"Who's up there? How many?"
"What? I don't-"
"Come on, no time to waste, that's it! Who's up there? How far off?"
Another, younger man laid a hand on his arm. "Steady, captain. We've only just got the poor lass out of the water, for Cran's sake!"
"No time to waste, Tolis," retorted the captain. He laid one hand on Maia's shoulder. "Come on now, you tell me-"
A gasping voice said "Just a moment." It was Zen-Kurel, with Meris hanging on his arm. He looked badly shaken, trying not to show it but unable to help himself. He hesitated a moment, closing his eyes and clenching one hand impatiently as he pulled himself together. Then he said, "Thank you for saving us. Lucky you were here. May I ask who you are?"
"No, you answer me," replied the shock-headed man peremptorily. "I've no time to waste."
"If you just listen to me for a moment-" began Zen-Kurel.
"There are more of us than you, that's it," said the captain. "So you just sit down and answer my questions."
Zen-Kurel shrugged his shoulders and sat down. Maia sat beside him. His sacking smock was ripped across and beneath it she saw a bleeding gash along his right thigh. She pointed to it.
"That ought to be seen to."
Zen-Kurel looked at it with surprise. "I never even felt it!"
"You wouldn't," she said. "It's the water-softens your flesh. You can get badly cut in warm water and never feel it at all. That ought to be seen to!" she said to the captain.
He made an impatient gesture to one of his men, who went away, came back with a cloth and began binding up the wound with intent detachment, like a servant waiting at table.
"Where have you come from and who's upstream?" said the captain. "How many?"
"I'll answer you," replied Zen-Kurel firmly, "when you've told me who you are. Are you for Erketlis or the Leopards, or neither?"
"Look, if necessary we can torture you-"
"I know that. But you say you're in a hurry, so it'll be
quicker to answer me. Are you for Erketlis or Kembri?"
"Why, they're from Sarkid!" said Meris suddenly. "Look at their corn sheaves!" She pointed.
The soldiers' clothes were rough, torn and anything but uniform. Several, however, were wearing the corn-sheaves emblem of Sarkid.
"We're with Elleroth of Sarkid," said the captain shortly. "Will that satisfy you?"
"Indeed it will," said Bayub-Otal, speaking for the first time. "In that case, you will be glad to know that my name is-"
"I'm not interested in your names," interrupted the captain. "I want to know who's upstream? How many and how close?"
"There's no armed force at all upstream," replied Zen-Kurel. "The forest's empty and as far as I know there's nothing between you and Bekla."
This plainly had a considerable effect on the soldiers standing round. There was a buzz of talk and some of the men began calling to others further off.
"Well, at that rate what were you trying to get away from? Must've been something pretty bad to make you risk that." He jerked his thumb towards the falls.
"I was about to tell you who I am." Bayub-Otal spoke with icy dignity. "I am Anda-Nokomis, son of the High Baron of Urtah, and Ban of Suba."
"Anda-Nofcomis? Are you sure?"
Maia could not restrain a slightly hysterical gurgle of laughter. The captain looked round at her angrily, then turned back to Bayub-Otal.
"I heard you were dead."
"Then you heard wrong."
By this time both Bayub-Otal and Zen-Kurel, soaking wet and dressed in torn sacking, had evidently begun to strike the captain as people of rather more weight than he had originally supposed.
"Well, I'm sorry, my lord; only the times are every which way just now, that's it, and you must admit you don't look like the Ban of Suba, now do you? Put yourself in my position. We're the pioneer group of Lord Elleroth's company, across the Zhairgen on our own. We don't know the first thing about the forest ahead, the whereabouts of the Leopard army or anything else. We're just clearing the bank when suddenly you come floating down like a lot of
blasted turtles. What am I supposed to do-guess who you are or just salute you on sight?"
Maia laughed again. She was beginning to like this man.
"For all I know you could be reconnoitring, couldn't you?"
"Do people generally go reconnoitring unarmed," said Zen-Kurel, "and take a couple of girls with them?"
"Leopards? They never go anywhere without girls, I'm told. Shearnas on the blasted battlefield, that's it-"
"We're not Leopards, curse you!" cried Zirek suddenly. "I'm the chap as killed Sencho-me and this girl here. Santil knows me well enough."
At this there was another buzz of excitement among the soldiers. They were crowding round so closely now that Maia, still sitting on the ground at their feet, was beginning to feel shut in and oppressed.
"Captain," she said, "could we go somewhere less crowded? This is making me feel btd."
He stared at her, apparently surprised at a girl speaking up for herself at all. After a moment he looked at Bayub-Otal, who nodded.
"Everyone back to work!" shouted the captain. "Go and get on with what you were doing! You'd better stay here with us," he added to Tolis.
The men dispersed. Maia now saw that what they were engaged in doing was felling the saplings and undergrowth along the bank. Downstream of the falls a narrow, recently-cleared track wound away out of sight.
"You were lucky," said the captain to Bayub-Otal. "If you'd come down an hour earlier you wouldn't have found us above the falls."
"But how is it we didn't see your men on the bank?" he asked.
"The men were taking a break under the trees. We heard you shouting. Now look," he went on, "Elleroth will certainly want to see you and I shall have to make a report to him. Tell me how you come to be here."
Bayub-Otal proceeded to do so. Mollo and Tolis listened attentively.
"Well, you'd better take them back to camp, Tolis," said Mollo at length. "Tell Elleroth I'll be back myself before sunset." And thereupon he walked away to where the men had resumed work.
"Is it far?" asked Maia apprehensively, as Tolis began
conducting them downstream. She felt almost too tired to take a step.
He shook his head. "Less than a mile: just across the Zhairgen. We've got a raft on ropes. It'll carry away in the rains, of course, but it's all right for now."
The path Mollo's men had cleared was narrow, but the job had been done very thoroughly and it was easy walking. As they went on in single file, the sound of the falls gradually receding behind them, Tolis asked over his shoulder, "Have any of you met Elleroth before?" As no one answered, he said "No?"
"What's he like, then?" asked Zirek. '
"Well, obviously we all like him," answered Tolis, "or we wouldn't be here. But he may not be quite what you're expecting." He laughed. "You'll be all right, though."
With this enigmatic remark he continued on their way.
Maia noticed a flask attached to his belt. She touched his shoulder.
"Can I ask you what's in that?"
"Djebbah," he answered. "D'you want some?"
"No, but that cut on Captain Zen-Kurel's leg ought to be cleaned. Could turn nasty else."
Zen-Kurel tried to demur, but Bayub-Otal was emphatic in supporting Maia. "Of course it must be cleaned. River water at this time of year. Any Suban could tell you that."
It was not lost upon Maia th
at that included her-and that he must have meant it to.
Tolis gave her the flask. Taking out the stopper, she turned to Zen-Kurel.
"It'll sting."
He nodded indifferently. She gripped his thigh with one hand, untied the cloth and began cleaning the wound with one corner, remembering as she did so the last time she had touched his body. Looking up, she met his eye for an instant and felt herself coloring. Was he thinking the same?
"I'm going to tie it a little tighter."
"Thank you. That feels much more comfortable."
They went on. Evening was beginning to fall, but in the forest the air remained humid and close. After a little she smelt wood-smoke and could hear through the trees a distant, multiform hum and murmur. A few minutes later they came out on the north bank of the Zhairgen at its confluence with the Daub's. Now, at low water before the rains, the two rivers mingled with scarcely a ripple, shrun-
ken between their banks; the Zhairgen, perhaps forty yards wide, flowing darkly here under the trees, but on the opposite side-the open bank beyond the forest-tinged with the light of the westering sun.
It was at this open bank that Maia stared. She remembered the soldiers' camps at Melvda-Rain. What she was looking at now appeared less like a camp than a sort of village. She could see women tending fires, girls carrying water-jars and children running about shouting and playing. Over an area of perhaps three or four acres the scrub bordering the bank had been cut down and the ground cleared. Shelters of poles and straw thatch stood in neat rows. Stacks of wood had been piled at intervals and near these, away from the huts, cooking fires were burning under pots hung over dug-out trenches. From a tall mast in the center of the camp a banner-three corn-sheaves on a blue ground-hung drooping in the still air.
The others, like Maia, stopped short, gazing at the scene in surprise.
"You say the Leopards never go anywhere without women?" said Zirek at length.
Tolis laughed. "Captain Mollo said that; I didn't. Those are the women and children we brought from the slave-farm at Orthid."
"What are you going to do with them?" asked Maia.
"I've no idea; you'd better ask Lord Elleroth. Most of them'll be coming with us to Bekla, I dare say."
"But do you seriously mean to march to Bekla through the forest?" asked Zen-Kurel.
"Oh, we'll march to Zeray if we have to. You don't know Elleroth."
The raft ran on a rope fixed to stout posts driven into either bank. It looked solid and well-constructed, and Zen-Kurel admired it.
"Oh, we're first-class pioneers all right," said Tolis. "By Shakkarn! we ought to be by now, too, the work we've put in these last few weeks. We cleared the ground for those huts, and now we're chopping down Purn!"
"Well, if you're going to take those women and children through the forest," said Zirek, "all I can say is I hope the rains don't start while you're still at it."
"I'm with you there," said Tolis, as they stepped out on the further bank. "I'll take you straight up to Elleroth now. You don't mind waiting, do you, while I go in and
tell him who you are? I'm sure he won't keep you hanging about long."
He led the way to a larger hut in the center of the camp. No one they passed paid them any particular attention and Maia guessed that among this motley community on the move the sight of strangers had not the same effect as in an ordinary village. Probably no one thought in terms of strangers at all.
There were no guards outside the hut. Tolis left them and went in. They were glad enough to sit on the ground in the evening sunshine. To Maia it was a conscious pleasure simply to be still, to close her eyes and know that they were not going to spend the night in the forests She hoped this Elleroth would give them a good meal. Beyond that and sleep she had not the least wish to think for the moment.
She was roused by a child's voice beside her.
"You're new, aren't you? Have you just come?"
She raised her head. A little girl, perhaps six or seven years old, was standing on the grass near-by, looking them over with a self-possessed air. She herself certainly merited a glance. She was slim, dark-eyed and dark-haired, with a long, straight, intelligent nose and something strikingly graceful and vivacious in her manner, as though, like a warbler in the spring trees, she could not keep still, but must be constantly moving in response to everything round her. She was bare-footed and dressed in a makeshift, gray tunic, on the skirt of which some colored beads had been stitched-by herself, it looked like. She was carrying a length of old cord and, in the few moments while she waited for Maia to answer her, swung it two or three times, skipping first on one foot and then the other. Indeed, she seemed so full of vitality that Maia half-expected her to go bouncing away without waiting for a reply. As suddenly as she had begun, however, she stopped skipping and stood looking down with a pert air which suggested that she thought it was about time she was answered.
Maia laughed. "Yes, we're new. What's your name?"
"Melathys," said the child. She skipped again. "My name's Melathys. I knew you were new, knew you were new!" She was plainly gratified to find herself right. "You weren't at Orthid, were you?"
"Where's Orthid?"
"Where we were before the soldiers came." She sat
down beside Maia. "The soldiers killed Snekkeron, and then they took us all away."
"Who was Snekkeron?"
"The dog-man-the top man at Orthid. He used to walk about with a big, white dog. Then anyone did anything he didn't like, he used to tell the dog to bite them."
"Did the soldiers kill the dog, too?"
"I don't know," said Melathys. "What's your name?"
"Maia."
"And where are you going?"
"I don't know."
"Oh, haven't they told you yet? When are they going to?"
"How d'you mean?" asked Maia.
"Well, we're all going to different places. But you see-" and here the little girl, bending forward, looked at Maia bright-eyed, with the obvious self-satisfaction of one about to impart something which will establish her as superior and enviable. This must have been why she had raised the subject. "I'm going to a special place-a holy place. They chose me to go!"
"How marvelous for you!" said Maia. "Where is it?"
"It's called Quiso," replied Melathys. "Quiso of the Ledges. So I shall be a Ledge myself when I'm grown up."
"You mean a priestess, don't you?"
"Bria's going too," said Melathys quickly (to avoid accepting the correction, or so it seemed to Maia). "We're going with Captain Muzarkalleen. He was hurt in the fighting, but they'll make him better at Quiso, you see."
She looked at Zen-Kurel, lying supine on the grass nearby.
"You belong to him, don't you?" she asked.
"No," answered Maia. To her annoyance she felt herself coloring once more.
"To him, then?" asked the child, looking at Bayub-Otal.
"No."
Melathys looked puzzled. "She does belong to you, doesn't she?" she asked Zen-Kurel. "She's pretending, isn't she?"
"Here," said Maia desperately, "I'll teach you a new game if you like."
"Standing up, she took the little girl in her arms and as best she could-for she was quite a weight-began tossing her up and down.
"Bring me my dagger and bring me my sword. Melathys the lady to go by my side. I'm off to Bekla to meet the great lord-"
But at this point, as once before, she was interrupted. Tolis had come out of the hut and the others were on their feet. She kissed Melathys and put her down.
"I'll have to go now. Good-bye: I hope you'll be very happy at Quiso."
The little girl ran off through the sunset light. Maia, looking back as she went towards the door of the hut, saw her turn and wave before she disappeared round one of the shelters.
92: ELLEROTH EXPRESSES AN OPINION
Immediately inside the hut was a kind of miniature anteroom or lobby, its walls made of thin, wooden partitions. Here weapons, shields, cloak
s, boots, belts and every kind of military gear were hanging on nails or laid out on the floor. It was all neatly disposed, however; the floor was sanded and clean and the general impression was of preparedness rather than disorder. On the far side of this improvised antechamber was another entrance, covered with a curtain made of old cloaks stitched together. This had been half drawn aside by a tall young man, who was standing in the aperture and regarding them intently, though with a cordial smile.
This personage immediately made a strong impression on Maia. Since she was at the rear of their little group and he was not for the moment directing his attention to her, she was able to look at him closely. He was tall-slightly taller, indeed, than Anda-Nokomis-and clean-shaven (which was unusual in the Beklan Empire at this time). His fair hair was cut rather shorter than was fashionable in the upper city. He had blue eyes, a short-indeed, rather a stubby-nose and very even, white teeth, which made his smile attractive. He was wearing a very well-fitting, spotlessly clean, gray veltron and over this a blue robe elaborately embroidered-weeks of work, thought Maia- in gold thread. Round his neck was a fine chain, from which hung a corn-sheaves emblem in wrought silver. Not
only his dress but his manner was strikingly elegant, reminding her a little of Elvair-ka-Virrion; yet for all his youth he had an experienced, seasoned, responsible look which-as she could now appreciate-Elvair-ka-Virrion had never possessed. Despite this, however, he struck her as a man with whom humor and amusement were prevalent, so that even his elegance seemed a kind of joke, an act deliberately put on the better to deal with the world and keep it in a good temper.
Elleroth-for it was he-stepped forward and took Bayub-Otal's hands.
"Are you really Anda-Nokomis of Suba? Do you know, I can only just manage to believe that you've really appeared out of the forest like a benevolent wood-spirit? Still, fortunately that's belief enough. This is an honor and a great pleasure. Santil-ke-Erketlis told me he thought you were dead, you see. It's rather refreshing, don't you think, to find that even he can be wrong from time to time? I mean, it restores one's faith in universal human fallibility. I'm very glad to welcome you and your friends. Come inside and have some wine for a few minutes before you go to your quarters, so that I needn't wait to begin enjoying your company. They're heating some water for you now and I've told them to find you all some fresh clothes. You'll be tolerant of our emergency wardrobe, won't you? We've all been running about a good deal just recently, you know."
Maia Page 124
