'Let me try,' said Eridit.
'They turned their backs on you before,' he warned her.
'If I have to die, I'd rather do it quickly than wither away any more days in this cursed prison! I don't even dare have sex for fear it will violate their invisible boundaries. I don't know about you, but this is the longest I've gone without since I celebrated my Youth's Crown and started in on my Lover's Wreath!'
Shai covered his eyes. Bai laughed. Tohon sighed.
'Back me up, Bai?' Eridit asked.
'I'm game.'
Eridit sucked in a deep breath. Shai watched her cross the open ground to stand before the three women who, hearing their steps, turned to face them.
'Greetings of the day, honored ones,' said Eridit, her gestures emphasizing the words. She had a clear voice that carried easily. 'We are come peacefully, with honor held in our hearts, having strayed out of our own land in pursuit of certain criminals who had broken our laws. We beg humbly your pardon for our transgression, and we request humbly that you allow us to continue our journey, out of your territory.'
'You must pay,' said the woman standing in the middle. 'For food, you must pay. For transgression, you must pay.'
Eridit looked to Bai, and Bai leaned over and whispered. Nodding, Eridit addressed the lendings. 'Perhaps we may offer trade goods in exchange as an expression of our goodwill.'
'What in the hells do we have to trade to the likes of them?' muttered Edard.
'Hush,' murmured Tohon as, at the sound of Edard's voice, the lending women again made a show of turning their backs.
After a moment's silence, the three turned back and displayed empty palms to Eridit and Bai. 'You possess nothing worth the weight of transgression. But one of your tales, we'll hear. If it is worthy, then you show yourselves to ride with honor, and you may walk free.'
A tale.
'Sit down,' whispered Ladon. 'This could take a while. I've seen her perform.'
The four men sat. The veiled lendings turned their backs, a ring of dark cloth stretched across broad shoulders. Every man carried a bow and quiver slung across his back, and leaned on a spear. A haze spanned the heavens. Clouds piled up in the east, as though a hand were holding them back. Shai shivered, not cold but disturbed by strange vibrations within the earth, and he thought one of the unveiled faces bent its gaze on him, but she was too far away for him to be sure.
Eridit crouched, head bent. As she rose, her posture changed so her body seemed larger not in size but in spirit, as though she was inhabited by others as well as herself.
'My nose is itching. Many whispers have tickled my ears these many nights, but this is the tale that speaks. Listen! To the famous tale, the most famous tale, of the Silk Slippers.'
Shai had heard snatches of song and chant in the streets of Olossi, seen folk punctuate a line of melody with graceful gestures made by their hands or by the bending of elbows or knees. He had not seen a tale fully chanted, complete from beginning to end.
The brigands raged in,
they confronted the peaceful company seated at their
dinner, they demanded that the girl be handed over to them. And all feared them. All looked away. Except foolish Jothinin, light-minded Jothinin, he was the only one who stood up to face them, he was the only one who said, 'No.'
It took her half the day, pausing four times to drink water Bai brought in a bowl. By the end, she was sweating and triumphant, shaking with fatigue and yet standing proud.
'Hu!' said Tohon. 'Impressive.'
'I'm in love,' murmured Veras.
'No, I am,' whispered Ladon.
Edard glared. 'I don't know why either of you think the likes of her would take a second look at your callow hides, despite your rich clans and good connections.'
Shai had no words. She would never look at a mere tailman, a Kartu lad, nothing-good Shai.
The three unveiled lendings raised bows and each loosed an arrow. The arrows raced high and then, tumbling, were incinerated in gouts of flame.
'Demons!' Tohon leaped to his feet.
Eridit sank exhausted to her knees, Bai squatting beside her. The lendings whistled, and just like that they mounted and cantered away, still whistling. Cursed if their own horses didn't tug at their
lines, break loose, and gallop after. Everyone ran in pursuit, even Eridit.
'Gods-rotted savages!' swore Edard when they had straggled back empty-handed, panting and heaving and having lost every horse. 'They stole them!'
Eridit hid her tears. The lads kicked up clumps of grass.
'They must be demons, to have such magic,' said Tohon.
'They're not demons,' said Bai. 'They're lendings.'
'The tale was payment for the transgression,' said Eridit through her tears. 'But they also said they wanted payment for the food we ate.'
'Aui!' Bai shook her head in disgust. 'That's why they took the horses!'
'We've got half the day left to get off this cursed grass,' said Edard as he surveyed the heavens. 'We'll have to go back to Olossi and get refitted.'
'And lose more days?' said Bai. 'Neh. We'll redistribute our goods, and we'll walk. We've come too far to go back now.'
'The hells you say!' He puffed up in that way men have when they are trying to intimidate others. He was a fit man, one of Kotaru's ordinands, physically imposing.
'The hells I do,' she said so calmly that he stepped back. 'Over long distances, we don't make that much better time with the horses, and they'll attract attention. I say, we cut along through the grass at the edge of the Lend, making straight for Horn. We'll make decent time, and we've been left with our own provisions, at least. What do you say?'
But she wasn't asking Edard, although he had been named commander of the expedition. Tohon nodded, and therefore, it was decided.
31
Life wasn't too hard in the Qin compound in Olossi, not for a marriageable girl, anyway.
'I help you, Avisha,' Chaji said with a grin, unhooking the full
bucket and swinging it over the lip of the well. He set it down on the paving stones. Water slipped over the side to darken the stone.
'I thank you.' Avisha blushed, flattered by his attention.
'That one, too?' His smile crinkled his very pretty eyes as he nudged a second bucket with a booted foot. 'I fill. For a kiss.'
Avisha giggled, but she pressed a hand over her mouth and then, seeing the frown that darkened his face, wished she had not. If she made herself disagreeable, none would want her. Behind, footsteps slapped on the paving stones.
'Hu! Chaji, you don't do it for a price.' Jagi elbowed his comrade aside and slung the empty bucket onto the hook.
Chaji muttered, 'Like saying you want no meat when you eat it up with your eyes.'
Avisha felt her ears go hot, but Jagi pretended not to hear, muscular shoulders working as he turned the crank. The bucket splashed into the deep reservoir below, and he hauled it back up while Avisha kept her head down, Beneath half-lowered lashes she surveyed the two men — Chaji with his pretty eyes and pretty grin and Jagi with his broad and rather homely face — her own smile fighting against a fear that it would be unseemly to show
