"Except for the people who ride them," Lucrezia suggested. "Maybe the people from the far south have all kinds of tricks we know nothing about. Maybe they've domesticated drago mites the way we've domesticated pigs and sheep."
"Pigs and sheep are earthly," Hyry pointed out.
"Dragomites aren't.
That's why the dark landers think that Serpents have magical ways of controlling them. They make use of a lot of unearthly species, including foodstuffs, but they're still very superstitious about the ones they haven't accepted into their way of life. " She stopped suddenly, and signed to Lucrezia that she would say more later. While Hyry had been telling Lucrezia what she had learned the dark landers had been having a similar discussion of their own, and now that it was over they were beckoning to her.
Hyry smiled as she poured boiling water on to the ground-up beans in the coffee-pot.
"This should get' things going," she muttered, as the aroma filled the air.
"Sharingacupof coffee is just the sort of thing to remind them that all women are sisters under the skin, whether they've ever been initiated into the Apu or not."
Lucrezia helped Hyry to carry the pot over to the place where the dark landers were waiting, then waited her turn as the trader made a big show of pouring it into the wooden cups which the dark land women held out.
As Hyry had anticipated, the coffee helped considerably to overcome the barriers of suspicion. The conversation which followed was guarded and calculatedly trivial, but Lucrezia was able to take part in it. By the time the meal was finished, it had clearly been established that they were now all friends. Again, though, Lucrezia was left to do the greater part of the work which
file:///G|/Program%20Files/eMule/Incoming/Brian%20Stableford%20-%20Serpents%20Blood.TXT (255 of 495) [11/1/2004 12:26:21 AM]
remained to be done, while Hyry entered into intense discussion with the woman called Elema. That discussion was still going on when the other dark landers laid themselves down to sleep, and Lucrezia followed their example, feeling more like a serving-maid than a princess.
She would have slept soundly for a long time, but she was not allowed that luxury. Something touched her arm and she woke up abruptly, thinking of nightdoaks and wild pigs. To her surprise, she found that Hyry was still asleep and that all the dark landers except the old woman to whom Hyry had been talking were gone.
Elema had brought her own sleeping-mat to where Lucrezia and Hyry had bedded down, and had set it next to Lucrezia's. She was sitting on it cross-legged with her eyes wide open, staring into empty space, but Lucrezia knew that it must have been the old woman who had touched her. The princess sat up, yawning, and Elema condescended to look at her in a curiously conspiratorial fashion.
"I am Elema," the old woman said formally.
"You are Lucrezia. You are daughter to a queen, Keshvara says. .
near-daughter to a queen named Ereleth."
"Ereleth taught me the witch-lore," Lucrezia confirmed, 'some of which she learned here in the great forest. Do you know her? "
"We know of Ereleth," the old woman said, although Lucrezia wasn't quite sure whom she meant by we, or what she meant by know of.
"Have you Serpent's blood, child?"
Lucrezia glanced around at Hyry, but the trader was still sleeping, and could give her no guidance. In the end, she said: "So I was told when I was small, but I don't know what it's supposed to mean. I've never seen a Serpent-."
She knew that she was taking a risk, given what Hyry had told her about dark lander superstitions, and what she had said about reports of malevolent Serpents being in the forest south of the river, but she didn't want to tell a lie.
The old woman nodded, but it was impossible to judge whether the nod signified approval.
"I'll take you to the river," she said, 'and I'll stay with you while you wait. If we see the drago mite-riders, you mustn't cross. Perhaps the men will drive them from the forest, but if not then you must wait. Serpent's blood or not. Do you understand me, child? Whatever stirs in your blood, you must have patience. The wise know how to wait always remember that. "
^
file:///G|/Program%20Files/eMule/Incoming/Brian%20Stableford%20-%20Serpents%20Blood.TXT (256 of 495) [11/1/2004 12:26:21 AM]
It was Lucrezia'^yirn to nod ambiguously but Elema seemed satisifed that she meant yes, and that she did understand.
"One more thing," the old woman said.
"Keep clear of dark land men. To them, Serpent's blood is bad. Some things they don't understand.
Trust the Apu, but no one else. "
Hyry began to stir then, and turned over. Some moments passed before she opened her eyes, and when she did she gave no sign of having heard what had passed between Elema and Lucrezia but Lucrezia knew better than to take that for granted. Hyry looked up at the day lit canopy, and seemed to be annoyed that she had gone to sleep.
"We must pack up now," the trader said, coming slowly to her feet.
"We'll have to walk Elema has never been on a horse. I don't think we'll miss Fraxinus - we should still be ahead of him, and he'll surely take his time coming through the forest when he hears the rum ours He won't want to take his people into a war-zone. With luck, he'll decide to wait at or near the ford until the H dark land men return with news of their campaign."
The trader's tone of voice was optimistic, and it seemed to Lucrezia that all the tension which had been between them was now relaxed.
Elema's presence made them seem more of a pair, two civilised gold ens in a, world of primitive ambers and mysterious invaders, i They walked for a long time fourteen hours by Lucrezia's reckoning, although her time-keeping was not renowned for its accuracy. They rested at regular intervals but never for long.
Lucrezia found the walking less trying' than the riding had initially been, but her feet were unused to such-hard usage and soon made their complaint felt. The shoes she had been wearing when she fell into Checuti's wagon were totally unsuitable, and Hyry had quickly replaced them with a pair of good boots from her luggage.
Unfortunately, Hyry's feet were considerably bigger than Lucrezia's, so the princess had been forced to use several extra pairs of stockings to pad them our. That had not been so bad while she was riding, but it quickly became very inconvenient now she was asked to go on foot.
"It's probably all to the good," Hyry observed.
"The extra layers will make your feet sweat, but that's better than a crop of punctured blisters and bloody sores."
file:///G|/Program%20Files/eMule/Incoming/Brian%20Stableford%20-%20Serpents%20Blood.TXT (257 of 495) [11/1/2004 12:26:21 AM]
The stockings did feel hot, especially while the daylight lasted, and Lucrezia very quickly began to envy Elema her bare feet, which were so hardened by a lifetime's experience that she was able to walk all day and all night barefoot with blistering. It didn't take long for the princess to decide that whatever Hyry chose to do, she had to ride, if only at a walking pace. Elema didn't seem to mind this is the least.
Lucrezia had grown used to the forest by now, and the changes its ever-dim light underwent as it passed from day to night no longer startled or amazed her, although she was still able to derive a good deal of aesthetic pleasure from its subtle metamorphoses. As the exhaustion and discomfort of the unusually long day took root in her sensations it began to seem that she was walking through a strange and magical underworld, which had been shrouded by day in deep blues and glossy purples but which faded now to a patchwork of pitch black and pale white. She and Hyry both carried lanterns, while Elema carried a 'torch' of silver-white glow moss which lit their way adequately, but it seemed to Lucrezia that the shadows simply stepped back a single pace out of courtesy, while remaining essentially inviolate.
The pace at which they now went was more conducive to conversation than the one they had maintained before meeting the dark landers but now that Elema and Hyry had completed their exchange of information they had little more to say, either to one another o
r to Lucrezia.
Darkness seemed to suppress any inclination to communication they might have had, and they walked in silence, seemingly concentrating their minds on the dogged process of putting one foot before the other while the princess began to feel guilty about her own privileged station. Lucrezia reflected that no one who had not experienced it could ever have imagined that a life of adventure could be so utterly tedious, so empty of any stimulation save for discomfort and unease. When they finally stopped again to sleep Lucrezia found it perversely difficult to close her eyes, and spent some time lying flat on her back with her eyes open, watching the tiny flickering lights moving within the interstices of the lowest stratum of the forest canopy and wondering whether every pit of shadow might be a night cloak moving stealthily to a position from which it could leap down to choke and smother her.
^3
file:///G|/Program%20Files/eMule/Incoming/Brian%20Stableford%20-%20Serpents%20Blood.TXT (258 of 495) [11/1/2004 12:26:21 AM]
Once the sun ha4 risen on the following day Elema found the impetus to involve Hyry in a long discussion, but seemed deliberately to be excluding Lucrezia, who gathered that she was one of the topics of the conversation.
Because she was riding while the older women walked, Hyry gave the leading-reins of all the animals into her sole charge- a commission which proved surprisingly awkward because the animals seemed stubbornly determined to take different paths to either side of every tree to which they came close.
Three times on that day and twice on the next they met other dark landers -
all of them women and children and stopped to barter food and water with them. There were no new rum ours abroad, but all the old ones were repeated in lurid terms. As they passed further into the forest depths their diet changed as much as the pattern of their days. Wheaten bread and cakes became things of the past, as did cows' milk and all its products, and most familiar root vegetables.
The dark landers did have a kind of bread substitute baked from a mixture of crushed nuts and the pith of a certain kind of tree-branch --whose collection required climbing to extraordinary heights- but they relied more heavily on fruit than their golden neighbours and were more tolerant as to the kinds of meat they used.
Hyry explained that in normal circumstances they would have been able to obtain meat in abundance because the dark lander men were expert hunters of birds, frogs and monkeys, with bows and blowpipes alike, but the women had no such skills. Lucrezia was not particularly distressed by this once she had sampled such delicacies as pickled frogs' legs and smoked monkey on a stick; the scarcity of such items seemed to her to be easy enough to bear.
On the second night following their meeting with Elema they crossed paths with a female elder who was travelling south eastwards with two young girls.
She had news of Fraxinus which Elema was quick to pass on to Hyry, and which Hyry immediately brought to Lucrezia.
"The caravan is in the forest," she said.
"Fraxinus didn't wait in Khalorn, but he's taking his time, as I thought he probably would. We should certainly be able to meet him at the ford, although we will arrive at least a day ahead of him."
"That's good," Lucrezia said.
file:///G|/Program%20Files/eMule/Incoming/Brian%20Stableford%20-%20Serpents%20Blood.TXT (259 of 495) [11/1/2004 12:26:21 AM]
"There's other news which isn't so good. The elder has talked to some dark lander men who were hurrying south in the hope of catching up with the men who have gone to fight. They mentioned you, saying that there are people in Khalorn who are searching for you, offering to pay a good price for your safe return- I presume they were talking about the king's men. If we meet other dark landers travelling south, it's not inconceivable that they'd be prepared to change their minds about taking arms against the drago mites
"I thought we'd be far beyond the reach of my father's agents by now,"
Lucrezia said crossly.
"We're outside the bounds of the empire."
"We're well within the scope of the temptations posed by the empire's wealth," Hyry observed.
"Would you be tempted to sell me to any such dark land adventurers?"
Lucrezia asked.
"No, highness," Hyry replied, perhaps a little too promptly.
"Not now. Nor would Elema - she likes you. I can't quite figure out why.
She says you have Serpent's blood, which would normally be an insult, or an excuse for refusing to have anything to do with you, but seems not to be in this particular instance. She's heard of Ereleth, or says she has. "
"I know," Lucrezia said.
"She told me."
"Don't take what she tells you too seriously," Hyry advised her.
"I
know these people sometimes, they can be a little crazy. "
"I dare say they think the same of us," Lucrezia said lightly.
"I dare say they're right about some of us, at least," Hyry countered, obviously determined to have the last word in this particular exchange.
^55
file:///G|/Program%20Files/eMule/Incoming/Brian%20Stableford%20-%20Serpents%20Blood.TXT (260 of 495) [11/1/2004 12:26:21 AM]
A
AT first, andris found the Forest of Absolute Night quite fascinating, but the novelty soon began to pall. He and his new companions had to make frequent stops, having only five horses between the four of them, one of which they used as a pack- animal. The food which they had in the pack was soon consumed, and the new supplies which Ereleth bought from the motley groups of dark landers they encountered seemed to Andris to be distinctly unappetising.
After the second day he began to feel hungry all the time, but he could not tell whether the effect was increased by the depredations of the worm which Ereleth had forced him to swallow. When they slept which they did at very irregular intervals he had to lie on the bare ground, but the discomfort never became intolerable. It was always dry, even after rain, and never very cold. .
The horses were a poor lot, except perhaps for the one which the giant rode, which might have been an excellent example of its own kind, although it had certainly not been bred to be ridden. It was as large in proportion to ordinary members of its species as Dhalla was to the gold ens of Xandria. It was the kind of horse used by farmers to pull a heavy plough or a hay-wain, and had no pace faster than a plodding walk. What it lacked in speed, however, it made up for in tirelessness.
The dark landers they met were all in awe of the beast and its rider.
None of them had ever seen a giant before, and they regarded Dhalla more as a supernatural being than a human. In her company Andris's own height seemed to take on a more sinister significance, and his amber colouring did not in the least encourage them to treat him as one of their own kind, as they might have been inclined to do in other circumstances. Andris could not help but wonder whether Ereleth's authority over the
file:///G|/Program%20Files/eMule/Incoming/Brian%20Stableford%20-%20Serpents%20Blood.TXT (261 of 495) [11/1/2004 12:26:21 AM]
dark landers would have been as
easy to establish had she not had such a remarkable companion, but there was no doubting her power of command. The dark land women, in particular, treated her as if she were a queen of their people as well as her own.
"There's something very strange about all of this," Checuti confided to Andris while they were resting in the middle of their third night in the forest.
"Almost all the dark landers we meet are females and children. Given that Ereleth is so reluctant to share the news she receives from them I would be very pleased to encounter Uluru, but it seems that there are none to be found."
"What I want to know," Andris said, 'is why Ereleth couldn't or didn't choose to intercept Fraxinus's caravan south of the city?
Surely we should have caught up with him in a couple of days his company can't be going any faster than we are if they've got wagons and a whole train of pack-donkeys. I'm worried about Merel - I want to be certain that she got safely back
to Phar. "
"I suspect that Ereleth left the citadel in secret," Checuti said.
"She might be almost as keen to avoid the king's men as we are, and I presume that Captain Cerri took my advice to ride after Fraxinus. I doubt that Keshvara's joined the caravan yet, and one of these damned dark land witches has probably told Ereleth where Keshvara's most likely to make the rendezvous. Ereleth wants to get to Kcshvara and the princess before Fraxinus, if it's humanly possible, so I assume we're trying to overtake the caravan without their knowing it. Then again, perhaps she doesn't want us to talk to Phar, in case he knows how to get rid of these damn worms she fed to us."
"If that isn't just a bluff," Andris said gloomily.
"As you pointed out at the meeting-house, she could have given us anything to eat, and lied about its effects."
"A lifetime of gambling has taught me that you shouldn't ever call a bluff unless you're prepared to lose," Checuti said.
"We agreed, didn't we, that while gambling with money is not un pleasurable gambling with life and death is a fool's game?"
"What does she want with us anyway, given that the giant's worth at least three men and she seems to be in a position to give orders to the dark landers Andris wanted to know.
"She probably wants me to deal with the Uluru," Checuti guessed.
"Her influence is confined to the women. She probably 257
file:///G|/Program%20Files/eMule/Incoming/Brian%20Stableford%20-%20Serpents%20Blood.TXT (262 of 495) [11/1/2004 12:26:21 AM]
wants you as a
bargaining chip to use against Fraxinus. He still wants a map and a mapmaker, and she now has both- and we do constitute useful reinforcements, even though she has the giant. She can't have known until she arrived in Khalorn how bad things are in the forest, and the dark landers must have been feeding her the same lurid stuff they fed me. Maybe they've convinced her that the end of the world really is imminent- she'd never admit it, but I think she's scared."
"She shows no inclination to run away," Andris observed mournfully.
Serpent's Blood Page 31
