He held out his other hand to the girl. 'You too, Karay. I hardly think Dominic is a murderer
or a thief—he looks friendly enough to me.'
Karay gave Ned a frosty glare as she dusted herself down. 'Pushing me over like that, and I
thought you were my friend!'
They went back to the fire and sat down together, though it took some time for Karay to
regain both temper and dignity. Dominic was not one whom anybody could take a dislike to,
for he had a gentle manner, a soft voice and a winning smile. Ned sat with his head on
Dominic's knee, gazing up at him as he communicated with Ben. 'I like Dominic, he looks
like a real pal!'
Karay was still doubtful. She questioned him closely. 'What brings you to this part of the
woods? Where are you bound?'
He pointed east. 'I was going to the fair at Veron to see if I could earn some money.'
'I can always make money at country fairs,' bragged Karay.
Ben's voice carried a note of sternness. 'Not by stealing, I hope. You'd end up in prison,
probably we would, too.'
The girl began to get huffy again. 'I've no need to steal, if it's a good fair—people will pay to
hear me sing. I'm a great singer.' She changed the subject by turning back to Dominic. 'How
d'you earn your living? By selling things?'
For answer, Dominic opened his worn leather satchel. He produced charcoals, chalks, a
slender steel file with a broken tip and some pieces of slate. 'I make faces.'
Ben's interest quickened. 'You mean you're an artist? I've never met an artist. Who taught
you, did you attend a school?'
Dominic was already at work, glancing up and down at Ned as he scraped away at a piece of
slate with the broken file. He talked as he sketched. 'Nobody ever taught me, I was born with
the skill to draw. I come from Sabada in Spain, but I was banished from there when I was
very young. Hmm, this is an interesting dog.'
Ned's thought reached Ben. 'I'll say I'm interesting—noble and handsome, too. Told you I
liked Dominic—'
Ben interrupted the dog's thought. 'Why were you banished?'
Dominic concentrated on his portrait as he answered. 'They were ignorant people, but sooner
or later I am driven from anyplace I go. People think I am a magician, and they get scared—I
don't blame them. My pictures are like no others. When I draw the likeness of anybody, man,
woman or child, the truth is in my picture. I cannot help it—good, evil, deceit, envy, love,
tenderness or cruelty. All of these things show up in my work, it is as if I can see into the very
heart and soul of those whom I sketch. Ah, here you are, Ned, this is you, honest, noble,
handsome and above all, faithful. Though there is something else behind those wonderful eyes
that I cannot quite capture. Look!'
Ben, Ned and Karay all gazed at the finished sketch. It was everything Dominic said it would
be. Ned placed a paw on the artist's knee as he communicated with Ben. 'This is absolutely
brilliant! It's as if I'm looking at myself in a still pool. It's me to the life!'
Ben agreed, speaking out loud to the others. 'This is truly remarkable! You have a great
talent, Dominic!'
Karay chimed in, 'Aye, you're pretty good. Will you draw me?'
Dominic took out a piece of flat, dried aspen bark and began sketching on it with a charcoal
stick, shading and shadowing with deft flicks of his thumb to give depth. When he came to
the eyes, he chuckled. 'You are quick and clever, Karay, with a swift temper. Everything you
see that you want must become yours. You are a rogue and a thief, but a pretty one.'
The girl snatched the knife from Ben's belt and pointed it. 'Who do you think you are, talking
about me like that?'
The artist held up the picture, with the eyes completed. 'See!'
Karay gasped with shock—it was all there. Her beauty and wildness were captured perfectly,
along with the furtive slyness of a thief shining from her eyes. Her cheeks reddened as she
grabbed the bark portrait and hid it beneath her shawl.
'This is mine now. I'll pay you for it when I make some money. Now 'tis your turn, Ben. Go
on, draw him, Dominic!'
For a moment Dominic locked eyes with Ben, gazing hard. Then he shook his head and began
putting his materials back into the satchel. 'No, no, I cannot draw Ben!'
Karay teased him. 'What's the matter, haven't you got the skill? Or are you just scared to, eh?
'
Ben looked away from Dominic, for he knew what the artist had seen. Over half a century in a
boy's eyes, the wild seas, Vanderdecken and the
cannon, Captain Thuron lying dead beneath deep fathoms in a sunken ship. That and a
thousand other things, things not of this earth. Like the terrifying beauty of an angel damning
a ship and its crew to eternity.
Ben took the knife gently from the girl. 'Let him be, Karay. How can he draw bad dreams
and nightmares—there have been enough of those in my life, eh, Dominic?'
The artist agreed. 'Too many for a simple facemaker.'
Karay snapped her fingers together. 'You're the Facemaker of Sabada! I've heard of you
before. Hah, I expected you to look like some kind of terrifying wizard. Weren't you the one
who was locked in the pillory in the town of Somador for the picture you made of the
magistrate's wife?'
Dominic nodded. 'Aye, that was me, though I didn't want to sketch the woman in the first
place. Her husband, the magistrate, he insisted on my doing the portrait—he said that I was to
make her look beautiful and gracious.'
Ben handed the facemaker's knife back to him. 'And did you?'
Dominic chuckled. 'I tried to, but she came out looking as she really was, a glutton and a
miser.' His face hardened. 'For that, the magistrate had me beaten and locked by my head and
arms in the pillory for three days and nights. So, you see, this talent of mine can sometimes be
a millstone about my neck.'
They sat in silence for a while. Karay began to feel sorry about her treatment of Dominic. She
saw him cast a brief glance at the crust of bread in her hand. 'Do you have any food in your
satchel, Facemaker?'
He smiled ruefully. 'Alas, no, just drawing materials and an empty flagon I use for drinking
water.'
The girl peered into the darkness. 'If there were a stream or a lake near here, I could have got
us some fish.'
Ned's ears perked up as he sent a message to Ben. 'Tell her I'll find water. There's always
some about in woodlands. Hope there's fish, too. I'm starving!'
Ben answered the thought. 'Right, then, we'll have to start playing silly little games for our
friends' benefit.' He took the flagon from Dominic's satchel and let the dog sniff it as he
spoke to Karay. 'Watch this. Here Ned, good dog! Water, where's the water, boy?'
The black Labrador chuckled inwardly. 'As if I didn't know, eh? The things I have to do to
impress folk!' He wandered off slowly, sniffing the ground and the air.
Ben turned to Karay. 'Go with him, he'll find water for you.'
The girl was delighted. 'Good old Neddy ... I mean Ned. Sorry.'
Together they took off into the night.
Ben looked across the fire at Dominic. 'I'm glad you didn't try to sketch me. What did you
really see?'
