'You said yourself he was educated at the university in Jeds,' retorted Maggie. 'He must have some concept of justice. Damn it! Where'd that brassiere go?' She upended the contents of her bag onto her cot. David, from his cot, hooked a dark toe through the brassiere strap and hoisted the garment up into the air. 'Where'd you find that?' she demanded.
'On the floor, where most of your clothes eventually come to rest.'
She snatched it from him with a mock growl and put it on, then a linen shirt, and then her tunic and skirt. The room was crowded in part because it was small, but mostly because neither Maggie nor David could bring themselves to sleep on the straw-filled mattress that served as the room's bed. They had set up their traveling cots instead, one on each side; a tiny aisle led to the door, where Marco stood with his arms folded, surveying the mess.
'Shall we go? It can't smell any worse there than it does here.'
'Just because we're over the stables,' said Maggie with a laugh. 'And where are you sleeping, may I ask?'
'You may not.'
'Marco! You're frightening me.'
That teased the shadow of a grin from him. David sighed and rose, pulling his sketchpad out of his carry bag. He brushed two flealike bugs off his sleeve and five earwigs off the sketchpad, and ran his other hand along the ends of his hair and through his name braids. 'I'm just sure they're crawling all over me. It can't be worse in the town hall.'
But it was. It was rank. Marco didn't seem to notice that it was only a thin layer of fresh rushes that covered the floor; that underneath lay a mat of ancient straw and other, happily nameless substances, which had created a kind of fetid loam. It squished. Incense burned in racks along the walls, set up between the windows, and lanterns were set at intervals along the tables. Rank and cloying at the same time. Quite a feat, David thought, to produce two such opposite effects in one chamber.
Charles walked in front of them, together with Bakhtiian. David hung back with Marco, who waited in his turn for the actors. But in the end, the actors sat at a side table and David and Marco ended up on the dais, at the very end of the long beamed table-which was actually three tables shoved together-which seated the guests of honor. The actors were in fine form, being boisterous in an engaging fashion, and the city elders were disgustingly obsequious.
'Have you noticed,' said Marco in a whisper, 'how Bakhtiian has picked out two boys, there, to eat with him, to share the food from his plate? Honoring them, because they're both sons of important men in town. But it also ensures that no one attempts to poison him.'
David hadn't noticed. There was a clump of something stuck to the bottom of his shoe, and he was trying to scrape it off. The food thrust in front of him looked unappetizing in the extreme, except for the bread. He didn't trust the water, and the wine had a vinegary-flavor. If this was the best Abala Port could do, then it must not be a very wealthy town.
'I think this is real gold leaf on this plate,' said Marco, poking at it with his knife. A laugh burst up from the actors' table, and Marco looked up at once, caught Diana's eye, and smiled winningly at her.
'How has Tess managed to endure these conditions for four years?' David demanded of his plate. 'This is appalling.'
'Maybe she's as much of a slob as Maggie and you are. Maybe she doesn't care.'
'She isn't a slob. Or at least, she wasn't.'
'What? As an eleven-year-old in Jeds? But wait.' Marco eased his attention back from Diana and propped his chin on one hand to regard David with interest. 'You weren't in Jeds then. How could you know? Oho!'
David cursed under his breath. Trust Marco to know him well enough to read him.
'You're blushing under that attractive black complexion of yours, David my boy,' said Marco in his most annoyingly superior manner. 'Out with it.'
'Damn it. Listen. If you breathe a word of this to Charles, I'll have your head. And then where will you be with handsome young actresses?' He leaned forward and peered down the table toward Charles, but Charles was deep in conversation with an old man in a pale blue gown trimmed with silver fur who wore a ring on each finger and a heavy bronze medallion on the end of a gold necklace. Charles's own finery paled in comparison-his signet ring and the chain of office draped down over a painted silk tunic-and the barbarian king looked positively spartan, dressed without any ornamentation at all except the embroidery that ran down the sleeves of his simple red shirt. He wore his curved sword; no one else in the room bore a weapon except his own personal guards: ten at the door and two standing behind him on the dais.
'Do you remember when I taught that seminar at the university in Prague?'
'Oh, yes.' Marco's eyes narrowed. 'Tess was attending the university at Prague then, wasn't she? In fact, I rather have it in mind that Charles encouraged you to take the position so that you could keep an eye on her.''
David found he could not speak the words, especially since it was the one secret he had ever kept from Charles and Marco.
'You had an affair with her!'
'Marco! Hush. And in any case, I wouldn't call it an affair. We grew fond of each other. True, we shared a bed, but we shared a friendship, too.'
'What was she like? I confess I haven't seen her since the year she left for university.'
David smiled. In his heart, he felt her presence as an honest and pleasing warmth. She was a good person, an amiable companion, and a fine intellect, though she suffered from insecurity; as well she might, since she was Charles Soerensen's little sister and heir, whether she liked it or not. 'She was chubby.'
Marco choked on a hunk of bread. 'How unromantic of you! Chubby!'
'Well, it's true. She was.'
'And then?'
'My seminar ended, and I left. Later I heard she got engaged to another student, but evidently it didn't work out, which I've often suspected is why she left for Rhui so suddenly.' And perhaps even why she had stayed there; Tess was insecure enough that David also suspected she might nurse a wound like that for years, especially to hide it from Charles.
'David, you see me at a loss for words. You see me rendered speechless. I am astounded. Amazed.'
'Oh, shut up.'
Marco laughed and picked at his meat with his knife, trying in vain to find a strip that wasn't spiced to death. Liveried men lit torches and placed them in racks alongside the incense burners, adding a fine, stinging smoke to the brew. Charles laughed at something Bakhtiian said-although David could not imagine a man who looked as hard and dangerous and uncivilized as Bakhtiian did having a sense of humor-and, like a nervous echo, the city elders laughed as well. Maggie, looking serene, poured more wine for the two men. Cara, sitting down at the other end of the table with Jo and Rajiv, stifled a yawn under one hand.
'And just think,' said David, 'these conditions must be advanced compared to the way the nomads must live. Poor Tess. Whatever do you suppose possessed her to stay there? Sheer intellectual curiosity? Is the fieldwork too good to let go?''
Marco put down his knife. 'Oh,' he said, as if God itself had just granted him a revelation. 'David…'
'And don't you dare tell Charles!'
Marco blanched. 'But, David-'
'Give me your word!'
Marco laughed abruptly, an odd note in his voice. 'Hell. I swear it. It lends one a warm feeling to think about these youthful indiscretions, doesn't it?'
Marco was definitely acting strangely all of a sudden. 'You talk about it like it was in the past, and meant to stay that way.''
'It always is, David. In the words of the immortal Satchel Paige, 'Don't never look back. Something might be gaining on you.' '
'Marco, did you eat something that affected your brain? No doubt there are molds aplenty in this food. Or is that lovely young actress just addling it?''
'I'm just saying that Tess may have changed, and you should… go slowly when you see her again. And not expect too much.'
