the Mouth finished their negotiations.
'All rights, all guides,' the Mouth said, as Ari wiped his sweating forehead with the back of his hand. 'One lek, twenty alleks, seven debeks.'
'Done.' Ari seemed satisfied, but Vetch's head reeled. That was enough to provision an entire village for six moons! Where was he supposed to find that much money?
But Ari was rummaging in a leather pouch hanging off the front of Kashet's saddle. 'I believe that you will find these are easily the equivalent of that sum,' he said, stepping forward, and placing a necklet and two heavy armlets in the Mouth's outstretched hands. Vetch recognized, first the yellow glitter of gold—then, with a sense of shock, the Gold of Honor. Engraved with the Haras-hawk, and the royal vulture, how could it be anything else?
'The Gold of Honor, Jouster?' the Mouth said at the same moment. 'Will the Great King not be incensed that it comes into profane hands? Will we not be courting his anger?'
'Do not seek to gull me into thinking you less than shrewd, Veiled One,' Are retorted. 'You will melt it down or pound it out, of course. I care not, so long as it buys my apprentice those rights.'
'And has the Great King not forbidden any such thing?' the Mouth countered. 'The Gold of Honor is not to be defaced, according to his laws.'
'Since when have the People ever bent to the laws and will of the Great King of Tia?' Ari retorted, acerbically. 'What matters it to you? There is no curse on such a thing, if you are concerned. It is law, not magic, that marks what may and may not be done with Honor Gold.'
Then he raised one eyebrow, and his expression went from acerbic, to sardonic. 'I had never thought to hear that the Bedu feared the wrath of Tia's King.'
'Then the bargain is struck, Jouster,' the Mouth said smoothly, apparently not in the least stung by Ari's jab. 'Be pleased to accept our hospitality.'
Then, and only then, as the gold jewels disappeared into the Mouth's robes, did the circle of onlookers break. Yet another of the robed creatures beckoned to both of them, and they followed, into the oasis.
There, on a wool carpet spread in front of one of the tents, they were offered dates, stewed lamb, flatbread, and water in brass cups. Their servers did not speak to them, and once they sat down to eat, the servers vanished.
Vetch, however, could not eat. He was still reeling from the shock of seeing Ari hand over his Gold of Honor to these nomads.
Ari paused with a bite of the lamb in a scoop of flatbread halfway to his mouth, and frowned. 'What's wrong, Vetch?'
'The Gold of Honor,' he whispered, and gulped. 'You gave up the Gold of Honor—
'Which I cannot sell, nor trade, nor melt down inside the bounds of Tia,' Ari pointed out. 'What good did it do me? I could wear it, if I chose to flaunt myself. I could put it in a chest and keep it. I could display it on a table. Very useful.'
'But won't the Great King be angry if he asks you to wear it, and you don't have it anymore?' Vetch asked, nervously.
But Ari only smiled. 'I told Haraket to fetch it for me, that I was feeling guilty about your death, and I was going to leave it as my funerary gift. That, at least, is permitted—one can leave the wretched stuff in a tomb, a shrine, or as a temple offering! Haraket seemed to think this was a sensible plan, and I have no doubt that a scroll telling some fool scribe in the Palace of what I have done is on its way to the Treasury now. And the King will probably insist on replacing the wretched baubles with ones even larger and in poorer taste.' Ari sighed gustily, surprising Vetch into a laugh.
'There! Much better. Now eat—' he prodded Vetch with a piece of flatbread. 'You and Avatre will need strength; you'll be leaving this camp at the same time that I leave to return home.'
'Indeed,' said the Mouth, who seemed to materialize out of nowhere at just that moment. 'It is too dangerous for you to remain here for very long. Hear what your master has bought you, apprentice. You will have safe passage across the face of the desert, and water at every oasis. You have the right to hunt and forage, and if you cannot find food on your own, then we will supply it, but as our resources are limited, you will be required to try hunting first. There will be a message going ahead of you, and a guide to the places where you will be spending your nights. Not human, no— ' the Mouth told him, anticipating his question. 'Here is the first one.'
He handed Vetch a cord with a blackened bead strung on it— but curiously, the cord did not hang straight, it slanted toward the east, as if something was pulling it. And when he took the cord from the Mouth, that was, indeed, what it felt like.
'At each stopping place, you will surrender your guide, and get another like this, that will lead you on to the next oasis,' the Mouth said. 'And if by some fearful accident, you are taken by your enemies, you must pledge on your soul's survival that you will release the bead to fly home without you!'
