Jaran

storms and harsh winters, could wreak so much havoc. How many thousands of years old must these ruins be to be so extensive and so wracked?

And yet the surface of this wall, chest high and a meter wide, was as smooth as obsidian. She ran her right hand along it, out away from herself and back again. Scars marred it, chips gone, a runnel scored across it in one place, but otherwise cool and even, like a polished stone. She ran her left hand out-and stopped. And stared down.

Symbols, letters, had been traced into the surface. She ran her ringer along them, feeling the dust and debris of long years caught in their track, feeling the eroded edges, blurred by time and wind and rain. The first two, partially eaten away by erosion, she did not recognize. The third she did. The Chapalii glyph for 'tai.' Duke. She stood frozen for a long moment. The murmur of voices drifted to her on the cold air of evening. Kirill, telling a ribald story about a man who crept into the wrong woman's tent one night. One of the stewards, complaining about not being able to set up the tents. A lower voice, Pavel's, talking about storms.

Breath stuck in her throat, she traced out the fourth symbol with her middle finger. And laughed. The fourth letter was a 'w.' Or two 'v's' linked in the middle. Or the archaic Chapalii glyph for mountains. And the first, going back to it: with a little imagination and a tiny bit of allowance for erosion and time could be the Maya symbol for nought.

'Lord, Tess,' she muttered under her breath. 'You'll be finding the Rosetta Stone next. There're only so many shapes can be chiseled into stone.' Maybe it was cuneiform. She sighed at her own folly and returned to the fire.

Yuri was on watch so she joined Niko and Bakhtiian where they sat together in the half light of one of the fires, arguing good-naturedly about the defensibility of the ruins. Niko smiled as she sat down, but Bakhtiian only glanced at her and continued speaking.

'I can't agree that rain or storm gives the defenders the greatest advantage. Certainly, it ruins footing, but for both the hunter and the hunted. The loss of visibility is a far greater disadvantage for the defender than the attacker.''

'What do you think, Tess?' asked Niko politely.

'I think,' said Tess cheerfully, 'that this is a terrible place to be holed up in. I feel like a pig trussed up and left in a pen for slaughter. Although I can see that the defending party does have the advantage of fortification and that narrow approach. Especially if they're using spears or bows.'

'A jaran man never uses a bow in battle,' said Bakhtiian stiffly.

'Good Lord, I wasn't talking about jaran. Sabers alone can't hold this kind of position. I thought that was obvious.'

Bakhtiian stood. 'Excuse me.' He left.

Tess stared after him. 'Excuse me! I thought this was a theoretical discussion. Or was it presumptuous of me to have an opinion?'

'My dear girl.' Niko laid a hand on her shoulder, a fatherly gesture. 'First of all, this is a holy place, and to liken it to a place where one would butcher animals is rather-shall we say-irreverent. Second, you might consider that Bakhtiian was the one who made the decision to lead us all here.'

She shut her eyes, wincing. 'Oh, God. That was a stupid thing for me to have said.' She looked up at Niko. 'I suppose I could just as well have said I thought he was a fool for bringing us here.'

'Be assured,' said Niko softly, 'that he is wondering that himself.' Then, unexpectedly, he chuckled. 'But few people admit their mistakes as readily as you do, my dear.'

'I wouldn't learn anything if I always thought I was right. But I will say that he was awfully quick to get angry.''

'He has a heavy burden on him, Tess, and you must remember that.'

'I suppose I must. Can you entertain yourself here?'

'Don't mind an old, frail, friendless man. I'll manage.'

Tess laughed at him and left. She found Bakhtiian leaning against the wall, staring down at the ruins and beyond them to the neck of the gorge. His form seemed merely an extension of the shadows.

'Ilya?' He didn't move. She put her elbows on that uncannily smooth wall and leaned out, staring down. The wall below stood like a purplish line against a darker background. 'I'm sorry. I didn't think.'

'No. The things you said were true enough. The khaja will not scruple to use bows against us, when we ride into their lands. And here… well, no man likes to be told something he already knows and doesn't want to hear.'

She shifted her elbows to fit into two hollows that marred the level surface of the wall. 'And not when he could already be trapped.'

'Tess.' He turned his head enough to see her. 'You have a habit of choosing unfortunate words.'

'What-oh, you mean 'trapped'?'

'Among others. I don't-' He reconsidered. 'When you return to Jeds, you'll have to be more careful. In khaja lands, people veil their true opinions in a layer of false words.'

'Oh, yes.' Tess leaned her chin on her intertwined fingers and stared morosely out at the moonlit outlines of the vale. The white ruins looked like a litter of bones on the dark ground. 'When I return to Jeds-' She contemplated this event, amazed at her own lack of eagerness. When she returned to Jeds, when she returned to Odys, to be trapped once again by her duty to Charles. She pushed the traitorous thought away. 'Why did you agree to bring me along?'

'You're not going to admit that I was right all along?'

'You weren't.'

'And you're not going to tell me that now we've been run into a trap worthy of the fire-keeper's daughter herself that you're sorry you came?' He was, she realized, laughing at her.

'No.' She found she was blushing. 'I'm glad I came,' she said softly, looking up at a bright star that shone above the gorge, glittering in the cold air.

'Yes,' he said, as if to himself. 'Even for this short time.' He blinked, as if he had just realized where he was, and moved his elbows to a different place on the wall. 'Of course you would be glad. Yuri and-and Fedya, and the others.'

'Yes. Yuri and Fedya and the others. It will be hard to board that ship.'

'It is always hard to board ships.'

'You haven't answered my question.'

'No, I haven't. I should have known better than to try to avoid it. Ishii insisted, finally. I'll always wonder what you said to him.''

'But you're too polite to ask.'

'That may be.' He smiled. 'I also admired your spirit.'

'Now there's a very handsome way of telling me that I was a nuisance.'

'You were. Jaran women are much better behaved.'

'I don't believe that for an instant, Ilya.' She laughed. 'Are you telling me now that you're sorry I came?'

'Tess.' In the silence she heard, far away, the low cry of an animal, followed by a slide of rock, distant and muted. 'Tomorrow morning you'll see an army in that gorge.'

'What do you mean?'

'They did pursue us. At least one hundred soldiers.'

'Oh, God, Ilya. And I said-' He was staring down, his hair and body dark, blending into cliff and wall, his face and hands starkly contrasting with the darkness. 'Can you forgive me? I can't believe I said-'

'Stop it, Tess.'

She swallowed. 'How long have you known?' she asked in something resembling a normal tone of voice.

'Last night I went back down the gorge.'

'You might have been caught!'

'I doubt it. They have no more night wit than a crying infant.'

'One hundred soldiers.' She gazed down at the shadowed gorge. From the rocks came a bird's cry, deep and wailing, like an owl's hoot or a woman's mourning. 'The khaja must hate the jaran more than I thought.'

'This is their holy place as well. For us to be here no doubt defiles it in their eyes. And jaran have raided a town. Many towns. What did Keregin say? They are like us in that they seek revenge.'