Yen Olass did not translate the soldiers' Ordhar. Indeed, there was no need to. There was more screaming, and Resbit understood, and said, shocked:
'They're killing people over there.’
'Let's go,' said Hor-hor-hurulg-murg. 'Yen Olass, if you can't walk, I'll carry you.’
'Help me up,' said Yen Olass. 'I'm not a baby.’
And none of her bones was broken. But even so, every step cost her.
Did they see you?' said Hor-hor-hurulg-murg.
'I don't know,' said Yen Olass.
The soldier who had looked in her direction might have missed her, as she had been well-hidden in the foliage.
'But they might have heard us,' said Yen Olass. 'Some of us were noisy enough.’
'Yes,' said Resbit, 'especially when we fell out of trees.’
Yen Olass grunted, said nothing.
The fugitives had no way to know if the soldiers on the far side of the river had been a patrol which had accidentally come upon some refugees, or whether their escape had been discovered during the night, leading to a deliberate manhunt through the forest. But they had to presume that, since there were soldiers on the far bank of the river, there were likely to be soldiers on their own bank of the river.
They pushed north till noon, then halted, because both Yen Olass and Resbit had absolutely had it. Hor-hor- hurulg-murg permitted them a little sleep, then woke them and made them march. They refused, but, when he threatened to go on alone and leave them, they dragged their weary bodies on for a few more leagues.
When evening came, and they halted, Yen Olass felt stuporous. She and Resbit laid themselves down then and there, and collapsed into absolute sleep.
Yen Olass had expected to sleep forever, but she woke in the night. A wind had got up, and the darkness was full of creaks and rustles, of sighs and moans, of little sounds and larger sounds which might have been animals or people or ghouls or ghosts. She felt the forest surrounding her, enclosing her, hemming her in.
'Yen Olass?’
'Yes?’
'Are you awake?’
'No. This is just a dream.’
'That's not kind, Yen Olass,' said Resbit.
'I can be kind,' said Yen Olass, 'if I try.’
'Then do try.’
They held each other close, and were comforted. They began to talk, and Yen Olass told Resbit about her plan to go west, across the mountains from Lake Armansis to Larbster Bay.
'But what will I do?' said Resbit.
'You'll come with me.’
'Oh no.’
'But you must. What would you do otherwise?' 'That's what I was asking.’
'You will come with me,' said Yen Olass firmly. 'No.’
Resbit was not to be persuaded. She made Yen Olass understand that the people at Larbster Bay were a degenerate clan of thieves, drunkards and slavers.
'They rape rats,' said Resbit.
'What?' said Yen Olass, not sure if she had heard right. 202
'Rats. Small. Four legs. Screeee! They rape them. At Larbster Bay.’
'Go to sleep,' said Yen Olass. 'You're dreaming already.’
'And when I wake, it'll be all over. Yes?’
'When you wake,' said Yen Olass, 'we'll hunt some eggs. First thing. Before we go anywhere.’
'You be careful hunting those eggs. Don't let them push you out of the tree again.’
'Let me tell you a little story,' said Yen Olass, 'about a young woman who fell asleep and rolled into a river.’
'Gamos!' said Resbit, giggling.
Yen Olass realized she had once again used the Galish word for a female horse instead of the Galish word for a human female. But she still didn't see why that was funny.
That day, as they marched north, they saw no sign of soldiers, so Hor-hor-hurulg-murg called a halt early in the afternoon. He caught fish in the river, and gave the women one each. Yen Olass found everything in her tinder box was damp, so she spread it out to dry; for the time being, they would have to eat the fish raw.
After the fish, the women climbed for eggs. Then they sat down to feast. Resbit started telling riddles, and Yen Olass tried to answer them. Their Melski guide helped them out with their language difficulties. Some of the riddles were easy enough, such as 'How do you sex an egg?' where the answer was simply 'By growing it into a chicken or rooster.' But one, which baffled Yen Olass, went as follows:
I was sired by a stallion.
I am furry as a rabbit.
I live in trees, unsuccessfully.
Yen Olass struggled with it for ages, then finally gave up. She demanded the answer.
'A gamos!' said Resbit. 'A gamos!' And she rolled round on the ground, laughing. 'Now that wasn't fair,' said Yen Olass. 'It wasn't nice, either.’
But her protests just made Resbit laugh all the more.
When Resbit quietened down, Yen Olass heard something rustling in the undergrowth nearby. She stalked it and caught it, raked it out of the undergrowth with a branch, and displayed it for all to see.
'A veagle!' said Yen Olass, naming the hedgehog in Eparget.
'A crel!' said Resbit, naming it in her native Estral. 'The Galish call it a klude,' said Hor-hor-hurulg-murg. 'A klude,' said Yen Olass, committing the word to memory.
Resbit bent over the little klude and cooed to it, saying, 'Skoon, skoon'. From the way she was saying it, Yen Olass guessed that 'skoon' meant 'cute', unless it meant something like 'Oh you sweet little beautiful thing you.’
'It's not skoon,' said Yen Olass. 'It's food.’
'Don't be cruel,' said Resbit.
'I'm not cruel, I'm hungry.’
'However, in the end, even Yen Olass was not game to eat a hedgehog raw, and so the little klude escaped to live another day.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
When the three fugitives were halfway to'Lake Armansis, they ran into a Melski patrol. After some bloody clashes with the Collosnon army near Lorford, the Melski had withdrawn to the depths of the riverforest, where the odds would favour them. With a Melski to provide them with introductions, Yen Olass and Resbit were spared the indignities of interrogation. Otherwise, they might have found life rather unpleasant for a day or so, for the Melski were in an ugly mood.
Since the Melski ran all the raft convoys on the Hollern River, which was a part of the Salt Road, they were not naive and ignorant savages. They knew the conversation of travellers from all walks of life and from all the nations of Argan and the Ravlish Lands. They were well aware of the nature of empire, and knew they could only stay free
