Checuri sat up,Jmbbing his head where it had come into bruising contact with one or the benches. He looked down at the body of his stricken lieutenant, then up at the vast form looming over him, as if he couldn't quite believe in either of them. His pet monkey jumped up and down on another bench, spitting defiantly and baring its teeth, but made no move to approach the giant.
It really was a giant, Andris realised. Her skin was dark, more bronze than golden, but her hair was unnaturally fair and astonishingly long. It caught both the candlelight and the starlight uncommonly well.
Andris came forward, very slowly, with arms outstretched to display his open palms.
The giant reached out a helping hand. Checuti took it mechanically, and she hauled him to his feet. A second figure had entered the building behind her a figure of very different proportions.
The newcomer closed the door again, very gently.
"Now," she said, 'we can talk. I top would like to conclude our business with ;| no life lost and no blood spilled, but I shall stand no nonsense. I ii' want to know where the princess is. " | Checuti groaned. He had evidently had enough of that jji particular question tonight. Who the rotting filth are you?" he asked wearily.
"And how in the name of chaos did you find me?"
The woman took no obvious offence at Checuri's bad language. She reached out to stay her companion's arm as the giant lifted him up, threatening to suspend him in mid-air.
"Don't hurt him, Dhalla," she said.
"Not yet." To Checuti, she said: "My name is Ereleth. You've heard of me, I have no doubt."
Andris knew the name. King Belin's witch-wife! he pronounced silently.
Checuri must have known what danger he was in.
"What I told your guard-captain is true!" he protested.
"I swear it!"
"I sent no captain," Ereleth said contemptuously.
"I've an army of my own, and I'm not here on Belin's business. You, of all people, should understand what I mean."
"I didn't kidnap the princess, majesty," Checuti was quick to say, astounding Andris with his sudden humility.
"Lucrezia fell into my temporary custody by accident, and I made not the slightest attempt to keep her. I refused to kill her, in spite of the urgings of
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my colleagues. I released her as soon as I possibly could- to Hyry Keshvara. You, of all people, should understand why."
Ereleth did not seem amused or flattered by his imitation of her phraseology.
"You're the guard who saw what happened, aren't you?" Checuti said to the giant who held him, although Andris thought he could not know for certain and must be guessing.
"You were there. You must have seen it, even if the dart's effects stopped you going to her aid. She came out to help you, and fell into the cart by chance. I didn't mean to take her! I really did hand her over to Keshvara.
Tell them, Andris!"
"He's telling the truth," Andris said although he was uncomfortably aware of the fact that he couldn't know it for certain.
"Keshvara and the princess will join Carus Fraxinus in the forest as soon as they can."
The woman turned to look at him for the first time. Andris had the uncomfortable feeling that she was smiling, although the light was too dim to display her expression.
"You're the amber, aren't you?"
she said.
"The one who offered his services to the princess."
"I didn't know what service she had in mind," Andris retorted. "Nor did she take the trouble to explain."
"No matter," the witch-queen said.
"Fortune has been kind enough to set matters to rights. You may now make good your promise, on somewhat kinder terms. The princess has need of you.
As for you, friend of the dark landers . . . you owe the princess rather more than you have so far granted her. Perhaps you, also, will offer your services, until the princess is safely recovered."
"You don't need me," Checuti said defensively.
"If you have dark lander friends of your own- and I assume that's how you found me, if you didn't send the eager young captain they're far better placed to help you than I am."
"It's not as simple as that," Ereleth said stonily.
"As your friends must have told you, the forest is a very dangerous place just now. If the princess and Keshvara have gone into it, not knowing what hazards they face, anything might happen to them. If Carus Fraxinus sets out at all he's an utter fool. . . but I have little choice in the matter, and neither have you."
"All right," Checuti said swiftly.
"I'll help you . . . I'll do whatever 243
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" What about yo^' Ereleth asked
Andris. Andris glanced at Burdam Thrid, who was still quite motionless and very possibly dead.
Although he and Checuri were two against two the giant was obviously stronger than both of them put together.
"Yes," he said glumly.
"I'll help you to find the princess."
"Will you give me your word?" the old woman asked. Andris assured her that he would, and Checuti did likewise. Andris took it for granted that they were both lying. So, it seemed, did Ereleth.
"Hold him, Dhalla," the old woman ordered, reaching inside her dark cloak to her belt. Dhalla already had hold of one of Checuti's arms, and now she swung him round so that she was behind him. With her spare hand she took a handful of hair and tilted his head ;; slightly backwards.
y Ereleth lifted something out of her belt. Andris couldn't see S; what it was, but she held it gingerly. ," " Open wide," she said to Checuti.
; The thief master gritted his teeth, setting them firm against any 'f|
attempt that might be made to put anything into his mouth. Dhalla j| let go of his arm and used her fingers to pry his teeth apart. She lifted it the hand which clutched his curly hair so that he was up on tiptoe, $ and he must have known thatihe was helpless, even though his arms were now free. Ereleth stepped forward, and slipped whatever she held into Checuti's mouth. Dhalla closed his jaws upon it.
"Swallow!* she said.
Checuti had no choice. Andris, knowing that this was his one and only chance, broke into a run, heading' for the door. Without releasing her grip on Checuti or slackening ifin any way the giant moved swiftly sideways and kicked out. Her huge boot crashed into Andris's midriff, knocking all the air out of his lungs. He went down, doubled up and trying desperately to draw breath. He thought for one awful moment that several of his internal organs must have been ruptured, but as he writhed and squirmed the air suddenly came back into his lungs and his guts ceased to churn.
Thirty or forty seconds must have gone by while he wrestled with his agony, but the giant waited for him to recover a measure of composure before she picked him up. When she opened his mouth Ereleth deftly inserted what felt like a small wriggling
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"Swallow!" the old woman commanded him.
The giant's fingers gave him no chance to spit it out. She held his mouth firmly shut and pinched his nose. He had no option but to swallow, and did.
The thing slid down his gullet, wriggling as it went.
Checuti was gagging slightly, bur it was obvious that he was not able to bring his own worm back up again. Not that it would have done him any good if he had been able to Andris didn't doubt that Ereleth had more in reserve.
"What is it?" Checuti asked, in the voice of one facing unpleasant death.
"Just a worm," Ereleth replied, with perfect equanimity. "Harmless, in itself . . . provided that it doesn't multiply. Should she lay eggs, though, she will spawn hundreds more and they, in their turn, hundreds more.
. . well, I've seen fatter men than you fade away to become mere skeletons in a matter of days."
"Then I pray she won't find a mate," Checuti said, not optimistically.
"She already has a mate," Ereleth told him, with a certain relish.
"She carries him inside her, a parasite in her own gut. An intriguing arrangement, don't you think? But there's a certain fruit-more of a fungus than a fruit, if I might be forgiven the pedantry which has the effect of sterilising any eggs she may lay, although it won't harm the worm herself.
Provided that you take a little of the fungus regularly once in every ten day or (hereabouts no eggs will hatch . . . but if you should go without too long, your decline into starvation will be inexorable and horribly swift.
You might live thirty more days, if you ate with obsessive heartiness . . .
but no more."
"You have a good supply of this contraceptive, of course," Checuti said, while Andris contemplated the horror of their predicament.
"I have," said Ereleth, 'and I know how to find more. But I know of only one other person who has it, or knows how to locate it. "
"Your apprentice, Princess Lucrezia."
"Precisely. The worm won't live for ever, of course nothing does.
If it's kept from reproducing, it will be dead in a year. six hundred days at the most. After that, you will need me no more, ^ 45
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and may go your own
way with impunity. If you serve the princess well, of course, I know another fungus which will poison the worm overnight. . . but you'll have to perform with exceptional heroism to earn such a dose as that. " Her voice trembled on the brink of laughter.
"How do we know that you're telling the truth?" Checuti demanded although it seemed to Andris to be a pointless question. How could they ever be sure that she wasn't, unless they cared to gamble with their lives?
"I give you my word," said the witch, 'as you gave me yours. We can trust one another now, I think. We're a team, committed to the same goal. We start for the dark lands at first light. "
The feeling in the pit of Andris's stomach now was worse than any mere sinking or bruising.
"You didn't have to do this," Checuti said sullenly.
"I've told you the truth, and nothing but the truth. It wasn't necessary."
"From now on, my friends," said Ereleth ominously,
"I'll be the judge of necessity."
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12 on their second day in the forest Hyry and Lucrezia met a party of eight dark landers consisting of five full-grown women and three girl-children.
Both parties were on the move when they met, travelling in diametrically opposite directions, but the dark landers were ready enough to stop and talk and Hyry Keshvara was still enthusiastic to find guides willing to escort the princess and herself to the ford where she hoped to meet Carus Fraxinus and his party. They set up a common camp for the midday.
Lucrezia was grateful for that; all her life she had been used to sleeping twice a day, according to the customary pattern of city life, and her internal rhythms had not yet adapted to Hyry's preferred regime of taking short stops during daylight hours and sleeping for ten or twelve hours while it was dark.
While Hyry went into a huddle with the older dark landers Lucrezia unloaded the donkeys and saw to the horses^ then spread the mats on the ground and made a cooking-fire. Two of the children watched her all the while, but from a safe distance; they would not reply when she talked to them. One of the adults made similar preparations for temporary accommodation, laying out mats of an identical design, tethering the goats and throwing up a makeshift enclosure for their other livestock. In the meantime, others of her party went out foraging for food.
Lucrezia studied the remaining dark landers almost as carefully as they were studying her. Their pale skins seemed strangely luminous in the uncertain daylight; and the pupils of their eyes, though not dilated to the fullest extent, seemed unnaturally penetrating. Their clothing was light, consisting of loose shirts and trousers which barely came down below the knee, but it was surprisingly neat. They evidently had access to Xandrian cloth and 247
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Xandrian needles^ which they plied with considerable skill but they went barefoot, and they carried their goods in satchels rather than in pouches gathered at the belt.
Lucrezia finished her work long before Hyry concluded her haggling.
The old women seemed to be more interested in trading goods than in gossip, and were anxious to obtain something in exchange for anything Hyry might require, including information. In the end, though, it seemed that Hyry found out what she needed to know and that the news was definitely not to her liking. By this time the children were at play, although they continually |
interrupted their games to steal covert glances at the gold ens and J their animals. When the conference finally broke up the two ;f parties didn't merge into one; the dark landers made no move to | take advantage of Lucrezia's fire, in spite of Hyry's invitation.
J
"I'm still trying to persuade one of the old women to come with J us, but they're very reluctant," Hyry reported in a low voice. They'd usually be much friendlier- all the more so in the absence of the men but they're scared and suspicious. " " Of what? " Lucrezia asked.
"Their men have gone off to some big tribal get-together. It seems that the territory south of the river has been invaded. I can't get a clear and coherent account of what's involved- there's talk of drago mites and Serpents, but it's all based in rumour which might well be nine-tenths fantasy. There are dark lander legends about human girl-children being stolen away, and others about Serpents having the power to command drago mites and it seems that these talents have been invoked as a kind of explanation for what's happening beyond the river. There are wild tales abroad of human drago mite riders attacking dark land families at the behest of malevolent Serpents- and the dark landers are bent on going to war in consequence."
"Could it be true? About the drago mite-riders?" "I can't believe it.
I think what's happening is that drago mite workers have been driven by hunger to forage for food in the forest, and that in the meantime more explorers from the far south have crossed the hills. The dark landers might have added those two facts together and come up with the notion that there's some kind of unholy alliance in force, threatening their entire territory with an apocalyptic invasion. I certainly never heard of humans file:///G|/Program%20Files/eMule/Incoming/Brian%20Stableford%20-%20Serpents%20Blood.TXT (253 of 495) [11/1/2004 12:26:21 AM]
riding
drago mites before, nor of warlike Serpents. The men from the south who supplied the things I bought on my last trip certainly weren't warriors and clearly wanted to make friends with the dark landers but it seems that the dark landers have fallen out among themselves over such matters as that.
Some traditionalist elders are arguing that all the present troubles started because their younger and less wise brethren began trading in tainted goods.
Some diehards among the elders have always been against any commerce with gold ens and it may be that they're using the confused rum ours from the south to whip up a storm for their own reasons. Anyhow, things have changed since I was last here, and for the worse. It's not going to be easy .
"She left the sentence dangling, and contented herself with a shake of the head while she put a kettle of water on to boil.
"I'll make a big pot of coffee," Hyry said, still speaking in a low tone so that the dark landers couldn't overhear.
"That'll help get things moving.
If they don't drift this way I'll take it over to them.
They certainly won't refuse a gift like that. The oldest woman, Elema, is a senior member of the Apu -- that's a kind of semi secret society which the women have. I've never been initiated into it, although I've tried to get in for the sake of making deals, and there are precedents some gold ens even come into the forest from time to time, to be apprenticed to the old women in order to learn their healing arts. "
"And their killing arts," Lucrezia put in.
"That's what Ereleth did.
She always says that witchery transcends all tribal boundaries . . .
but then, all lore's supposed to do that, isn't it? "
"If Ereleth was actually apprenticed to some dark land witch- wife,"
said Hyry contemplatively, 'she was almost certainly accepted into the Apu.
Now, if you're her apprentice . . . no, it's too tenuous.
Elema would never go for it. "
"Do the men have a secret society too?" Lucrezia asked.
"Oh yes. Several of them, I think. They'd never talk about them to' someone like me, but that old rogue Phar has useful contacts.
That's how he gets a lot of his playthings. He told me once that he even has an anti-drago mite salve, although he didn't seem to believe in its virtue.
We might have to try it out sooner than we anticipated, if a substantial number of drago mites really have been driven into the forest by the effects of the blight. The blight must 249
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have started in the Sftyth and worked
its way northwards that's why the bronzes from the far south knew what was happening long before we did and it's possible that dispossessed drago mites drifting northwards in search of food have been driven right out of the hills.
According to Phar, the workers aren't usually aggressive, but there are other kinds, including warriors, which are very nasty indeed. He says they're like honey-bees, each nest having only a single queen with hundreds of sterile females to serve her, but I don't know how he can be sure of that. It's all rumour nobody really knows very much about drago mites
Serpent's Blood Page 30
