Elvenbane

'Well, if you have lost the Family, child, we must certainly help you,' said the smiling man. 'You say you are hungry? Come, we will feed you. And'...he got an odd, acquisitive expression...'where did you find this garment you wear?'

'Garment?' she asked, confused again. 'My tunic? I made it. I got the...'

Now she was stymied, for she had no notion how to explain 'shed skin' in this other tongue. 'I...found the...bits and I made it,' she finished lamely, looking down at her feet, and hoping she had not failed a test that would make them abandon her as quickly as they had adopted her. The games could be like that; she'd watched enough of them to know.

'Here, child, eat...' Something dry and brown and shaped like a stone was thrust into her hands. She looked at it doubtfully before taking a tentative bite.

To her surprise, the thing had a tough but tasty outside, and an even tastier middle. She devoured it with enthusiasm, drank the metallic-tasting water they gave her, and smiled shyly at her new friends from under her lashes. They crowded around her, moving carefully, as if she were some kind of wild animal that they thought they might frighten.

'Shana, your name is?' said the man who had befriended her first. She nodded, and he moved closer to her, looking at her tunic, but not touching it. 'Shana, this thing you wear...would you have this instead?'

He held up a longer tunic than hers, of a beautiful crimson and of material like the cloth dragon. It looked exactly like the ones the rest of them wore; all one piece and one color, not patched, cast-off skin as hers was. She wanted it, wanted it nearly as much as she had wanted the jeweled band, and could hardly believe that he wanted hers in exchange. It did not seem an equal exchange to her.

Maybe he was just being kind, giving her this as a trade so she didn't feel badly about taking the new one. That must be it. Or else she had to dress like them to play in this game; that could be it, too. Well, she didn't care, so long as they would give her that new tunic.

'Please?' she said, and the man laughed and handed it to her. She started to strip off her old tunic, and he suddenly grew alarmed, and stopped her.

'There...' he said, pointing to a building made of cloth. While she had been eating, some of the others had put it up, all in the blink of an eye. 'Go there, take off the old garment, put on the new.'

She looked at him with her mouth open in surprise, but he was insistent. She obeyed, but wondered what kind of game they could possibly be playing. It certainly seemed very odd...

But as she slipped out of the old tunic and into the new, the silk-wrapped bundle of the jeweled band thudded against her breastbone, and she was suddenly very glad that they were playing such an odd game. If they see this, they'll want it. I can't let them see it. If they do, they'll take it for their own hoards, just like the others took away the gems Keman gave me...

She hastily put on the new tunic, and hid her bundle beneath the high collar, making sure that it didn't show.

That should do. She left the cloth building, and handed her old tunic to the waiting stranger, who took it with every evidence of delight.

'Are you not weary?' he asked, very solicitously. She started to say that she was fine, then caught herself in a yawn.

It must be the food. She was sleepy. She yawned again, and the man chuckled.

'Go inside, in the shade. Sleep. It is very comfortable inside.' He motioned to her to go back inside the cloth thing.

'But...' She felt she had to give at least a token objection. 'Shouldn't I be...doing something?'

'No, child,' he said, and smiled. 'You have been lost, and now you are with friends again. Of course you are tired. You must sleep as long as you need to.'

He pushed her gently in the direction of the cloth building, and she obeyed his direction without another objection.

She looked around once she was inside, something she hadn't bothered to do before. There was a kind of nest of fabric to curl up in; it looked even more comfortable than the one she had made in Alara's lair.

She flopped down into it, and discovered that several of the pieces of cloth were stuffed with something soft and incredibly cushiony, and that there was more of the same stuff inside a bigger, flatter piece of cloth under all the fabric. It felt wonderful, and she sprawled at her ease, for once in her life finding herself in a position where there was nothing digging into her, and nothing hard and unyielding to have to cope with.

Once lying down, she discovered she couldn't keep her eyes open. She tried, but her lids kept drifting down, and she kept dozing off. Not that it mattered now. She was among friends, the stranger had said so. She would be fed and taken care of.

No matter what kind of strange game they were playing.

She let her eyes close, and sleep take her.

Chapter 11

CAN YOU BELIEVE OUR luck?' Kel Rosten laughed, and the caravan chief fingered the strange tunic the wild girl had worn. Dripping between his hard brown hands, it glittered in the sunlight like a thousand jewels; he couldn't imagine what it could be made of. Skin of some kind, of course, some sort of reptile skin, but it was like nothing he'd ever seen before. The reptiles themselves must have been very small, for the tunic was made of many patches sewn carefully together. But the colors were quite amazing; gold-washed vermilion, purple-washed blue, silver- washed green...

In all of his life as a trader for K'trenn Lord Berenel Hydatha, he had never seen anything like it. And if he could find out the source of these wondrous skins...

'The lords'll eat that stuff up,' his second-in-command said, touching the tunic with a wondering finger. 'Demonspawn! That's just fair amazin' skin. C'n you picture Berenel's Lady in that? Or th' young Lord? Strut around like peacocks, they would. An' hev' ev' other elven lord beggin' fer some fer himself.'

'It'll make a fortune for Lord Berenel,' Kel agreed, 'and if it makes a fortune for him, that means easy living for us!'

Berenel believed that a contented human was a profitable human...unlike some, Kel reflected. When his bondlings did well, they were rewarded with luxury. Lord Berenel's people gave short shrift to troublemakers, and actively looked to increase their Lord's profits.

Ardan's eyes glazed over with anticipation. 'Wine,' he murmured. 'Quarters in the Big House. Fine food, fine drink, pick o' the' concubines...'

'All that and more, my friend,' Kel agreed affably, slapping his second on the back. He mentally congratulated himself for finding a man with both the ability to command and no ambition whatsoever. Ardan's dreams and tastes were simple: a life of relative luxury, and the leisure to pursue his hobby of becoming an expert on vintages. And since he towered a good head over any other man in the caravan, and could use both fists and the knife he carried with speed and skill, no one ever gainsaid him. A man whose muscles matched his height, his canny brown eyes promised peace to those who kept it, and trouble for those who didn't. He favored unobtrusive robes of pale gray over his crimson tunic, unlike the chief trader's flamboyant dragon-scarlet, and his choice of clothing reflected his preferred life-style.

'Lord Berenel's a generous lord, and he believes in sharing good fortune,' Kel continued. 'If we can find out where this came from, he'll do more than give us pick of the concubines...he'll retire us. No more caravans, and easy living for the rest of our lives! Think of that! The worst we'll have to sweat is when we stand at stud!'