They were silent, and Fenn took her hand. 'We are your true friends, Sidudu,' she said. 'You can speak to us. You can tell us everything.'
The girl let out a heart-wrenching sob and threw her arms round Fenn's neck. 'The priestesses ordered us to have congress with the men who visited us.'
'Which men were they?' Meren asked grimly.
'The first was Lord Aquer. He was horrible. After him there were others, many others, then Onka.'
'You need tell us no more.' Fenn stroked her hair.
'Yes! I must! The memory is a fire inside me. I cannot keep it from you.'
Sidudu took a deep, shuddering breath. 'Once a month a woman doctor named Hannah came to examine us. On each occasion she chose one or more of the girls. They were taken away to the mountain to be exalted by
the goddess. They never returned to the temple.' She stopped speaking again, and Fenn passed her a square of linen on which to blow her nose.
When she had finished, Sidudu folded the cloth carefully and went on: 'One of the other girls became my dearest friend. Her name was Litane.
She was very gentle and lovely, but she missed her mother and hated what we had to do with the men. One night she ran away from the temple. She told me she was going and I tried to stop her, but she was determined. The next morning the priestesses laid her dead body on the altar. As a caution, they made each of us walk past it. They told us that the trogs had caught her in the forest. Lying on the altar, Litane was no longer lovely.'
They let her cry for a while, and then Meren said, 'Tell us about Onka.'
'Onka is a nobleman. Lord Aquer is his uncle. He is also Aquer's chief spy-master. For all these reasons, he has special privileges. He was taken with me. Because of his position he was allowed to see me more than once. Then they allowed him to take me away from the temple to live with him as his house slave. I was a reward for the services he had performed for the state. When he was drunk he beat me. It gave him pleasure to hurt me. It made his eyes sparkle and he smiled when he was doing it. One day while Onka was away on military duty a woman came secretly to see me. She told me that she worked in a great library in the Cloud Gardens. She told me what happened to the girls from the temple who were taken up into the mountain. They were not exalted by the goddess. Their babies were cut from their wombs before they were born and given as food to the goddess. That is why the goddess is known secretly as the Devourer of Infants.'
'What happened to the girls who bore the infants?'
'They disappeared,' Sidudu said simply. She sobbed again. 'I loved some of those girls who have gone. There are others in the temple whom I also love. They, too, will go up the mountain when there is a baby inside them.'
'Calm yourself, Sidudu,' Fenn whispered. 'This is all too dreadful to be told.'
'No, Fenn, let the poor girl speak,' Meren intervened. 'What she says fires me with rage. The Jarrians are monsters. My anger arms me against them.'
'So you will help me to save my friends, Meren?' Sidudu looked at him with more than trust in her large dark eyes.
'I will do whatever you ask of me,' he answered at once. 'But tell me more of Onka. He will be the first to know my vengeance.'
'I thought he would protect me. I thought that if I stayed with him I would never be sent to the mountain. But one day, not long ago, Dr Hannah came to examine me. I was not expecting her, but I knew what her visit meant. When she had finished she said nothing, but I saw her look at Onka and nod. It was enough. I knew then that when the baby inside me grew larger I would be taken up the mountain. A few days later I had another visitor. She came to see me in secret while Onka was with Colonel That at Tamafupa. She was the wife of Bilto.
She asked me to work with the incomers who were planning an escape from Jarri. I agreed, of course, and when they asked me to do so I gave a potion to Onka that made him sick. After that Onka suspected me. He treated me even more cruelly, and I knew that soon he would send me back to the temple. Then I heard that the magus was in Mutangi. I thought he would be able to take away Onka's baby, and I decided to risk everything to find him. I ran away, but the trogs came after me. That is when you rescued me.'
'It is a terrible story,' Fenn said. 'You have suffered much.'
'Yes, but not as much as the girls who are still in the temple,' Sidudu reminded them.
'We will rescue them,' Meren blurted out impulsively. 'When we escape from Jarri those girls will go with us, I swear it!'
'Oh, Meren, you are so brave and noble.'
Thereafter Sidudu made a swift recovery. She and Fenn grew closer each day. All the others liked her, Hilto, Nakonto and Imbali, but Meren more so than all the rest. With the help of Bilto and the other villagers of Mutangi, they were able to escape from the house during the day and spend time in the forest. Meren and Hilto continued to train Fenn in archery, and soon they invited Sidudu to join in. Meren made her a bow, which he matched carefully to her strength and the span of her arms. Although small and slim, Sidudu was surprisingly strong, and showed a natural aptitude with the bow. Meren set up a target for them in a clearing in the woods, and the girls shot against each other in friendly rivalry.
'Pretend that the mark is Onka's head,' Fenn told her, and after that Sidudu seldom missed. Her arms strengthened and developed so swiftly that soon Meren had to build her another bow with a heavier draw
weight. After much devoted practice she was able to send out an arrow to the mark at two hundred paces.
Meren, Hilto and Nakonto were all inveterate gamblers and laid wagers on the girls when they shot against each other. They urged on their favourite, and haggled over the allowances given to Sidudu. Because Fenn had been using the bow for so much longer than Sidudu, they made her shoot from longer range. At first this was agreed at fifty paces, but gradually it became shorter as Sidudu's skill increased.
One morning they were holding another tournament in the clearing, Meren and Sidudu teamed against Hilto and Fenn. The competition was keen and the banter raucous when out from among the trees rode a stranger on an unfamiliar horse. He was dressed like a field worker, but he rode like a warrior. At a quiet word from Meren they nocked fresh arrows and stood ready to defend themselves. When the stranger saw their intention he reined in his
