Black Jade

'No, we can't,' I said. I looked at Estrella, whose deep, liquid eyes seemed to tell me that we were all being fools. 'But we might buy him.'

This suggestion seemed to shock Maram — and everyone else — as much as it did me. And Maram called out, 'What? What are you saying?'

'If the priests have been asking after him,' I said, 'he is in great danger here. It would be for the best.'

'But doesn't he hate emptying bloody basins for that damn Mangus?'

'He does hate his servitude, yes,' I said. 'But I think there is something he loves greater than his hate.'

'Ah, I don't understand. Do you mean, then, that we should buy him as our slave?'

'Only until we've left Hesperu. Only until he comes to trust us. Then we shall tell him all, and free him.'

It seemed a dark and desperate deed, but then we had reached the end of our quest to find ourselves in a dark and desperate place. None of us could think of a better plan. And so Liljana finally said, 'All right then, but please let me handle the negotiations.'

Later that morning we returned to Mangus's house, and Maram disappeared into Mangus's healing chamber to have his dressing changed. After Mangus had finished, he left Bemossed to clean up while he met with Kane, Liljana, Maram and me in the atrium. It was there, with flowers perfuming the air and water bubbling from the fountain, that Liljana proposed buying Bemossed.

'We're only poor players,' she told Mangus, 'but we could give you one of our horses for him.'

As she spoke, the sounds of Bemossed tidying up beyond the open door to the healing chamber suddenly quieted. And Mangus said, 'But what would I want with a horse? And why would you want to buy a Hajarim?'

He knew well enough the answer to his question. As Liljana started to say something about all the dirty tasks involved with a traveling troupe's constantly making and breaking camp, Mangus held up his hand to interrupt her.

'Mother Magda,' he intoned as his face fell stern, 'I know there is talk about Bemossed in the village. But it is only idle talk. The villagers are only simple folk, and know nothing of the art of healing.'

'Are you saying that Bemossed is of no help to you?'

Mangus ran a finger along one of his coils of white hair. He pulled at the cuff of his tunic. I sensed his great interest in dealing with Liljana. But it must have occurred to him that if he insisted that Bemossed was of little value, he could ask only a small price for him.

'Bemossed,' he said, 'is a great help to me. No one has ever kept our house so clean My wife and I are very fond of him.'

'But is he of no help in healing?'

Mangus looked at Maram and Kane, and then back at Liljana. 'I did not say that. He helps in ways that you wouldn't understand.'

'Is he a healer, then?'

'Bemossed?'

Liljana sidled over to Maram and grasped his arm. She said, 'Garath felt sure that Bemossed laid his hand upon him. The people of the village have told of such laying on of hands as well.'

Mangus now ran his finger along the collar of his crimson tunic as if the atrium had suddenly grown too hot. He said, 'You should know that this is an unusual situation and that we have the sanction of the Kallimun. Before my slave touches anyone, he is purified.'

'Then he is a healer?'

'No, certainly not. He does help me, but only as a bandage draws out pus.'

'You were right,' Liljana said, 'I don't understand.'

Mangus drew himself up straight and with all his dignity told her, 'Festering sores such as Garath's are caused by demons attacking the body. Bemossed is one of the few born able to draw out these demons.'

'Into his own body?' Liljana asked.

Just then Bemossed came out of the chamber bearing a soiled basin. He did not look at me as he crossed the atrium then exited by way of the back door.

'He is Hajarim,' Mangus said, as if that explained everything. 'And so you must understand, as these demon- drawers are quite rare, that my slave is very precious to me.'

Indeed, he was. Although Liljana stood there haggling with Mangus for most of the next hour, she was able to whittle down the unbelievable price that Mangus asked for Bemossed only to a slightly less staggering sum:

Forty ounces, of gold!

I cried out this number in the silence of my mind. Who had so much money? I thought that selling Bemossed might very well put an end to Mangus's life as a healer — which might be exactly what he wanted. Perhaps he intended to retire to a small estate by the sea or to flee Hesperu altogether.

Forty ounces of gold!

Liljana finally threw up her hands in disgust. She looked at me as apologizing for failing to move Mangus.

Then I reached into my pocket and drew forth a little bit of metal and stone that was more than precious to me. It was the ring of a Valari lord: heavy silver set with four large, brilliant diamonds. On the field of the Raaswash, in sight of the opposing armies of Ishka and Mesh, my father had put it on my finger to honor me for completing the quest to find the Lightstone. Since his death, however, I had not dared to wear it.

'This,' I said, showing Mangus the ring, 'is surely worth forty gold pieces.'

His eyes narrowed as he examined it. 'Even if the stones are real, what would I do with a diamond ring?'

Because my throat hurt and I could not speak just then, it was Liljana who answered for me: 'You could sell it, if you wished.'

'You can sell it if you wish,' he told her. 'I haven't the time, but in Kharun, which is only thirty miles up the road, there are jewelers and gem sellers. Why don't you return here when you have the sum that we've agreed upon?'

Although he smiled at us in a kindly way, his face returned to its usual stern lines, and he indicated that he would argue with us no further. We had no choice then but to return to our camp, and this we did.

'Forty ounces of gold!' I shouted as I stood by the fire that Daj tended. I held the ring in the flat of my hand as I stared at it. 'How can I trade this for gold? Am I a diamond seller?'

Diamond sellers were destitute warriors or knights who sold their rings against the law of all the Valari kingdoms, and so brought upon themselves and their families everlasting shame. The worst of thieves were those who waylaid traveling knights for the treasure that they wore or despoiled fallen warriors of their glittering armor, and these were counted as diamond sellers, too.

Kane came over to me and snatched the ring from my hand. His eyes flared with impatience but with compassion, too. He said to me. 'If you can't sell it, then I shall, eh? All right?'

I could not look at him as I nodded my head.

Atara, who sat by the fire as she repaired one of her arrows, said. 'The ring of a Valari lord might be recognized as such even in this land. I would hate for one of the jewelers here to give us away.'

'So,' Kane said, making a fist around the ring. 'Then I'll chisel the damn diamonds out of it.'

True to his word, he went off to break my ring apart. I could not bear the sound of his hammer beating against iron, and iron cutting open silver. After Kane had finished this evil work, he came over and said, 'Will you ride with me to Khaurn?'

'No,' I told him, 'you go with Liljana. It will be better if I remain here.'

I watched as Kane and Liljana saddled their horses. It seemed utterly mad to me that they were setting out with the diamonds of my ring to get gold to buy a slave.

They rode away after that. And so, at the edge of the peaceful village of Jhamrul, in a fallow field where voles burrowed and larks sang, we waited all that day and most of the next for them to return. We all gave thanks when we saw their horses cantering back up the lane. With the afternoon sun dropping toward the hills in the west, they dismounted and Liljana showed me a leather purse full of forty jangling gold coins.

'I've never haggled so hard,' she told me, 'I wanted sixty pieces, but with the sack of Avrian, diamonds are flooding the markets just now. I was lucky to get forty.'