clutching great handfuls of fur.
When the bear had gone past, Yen Olass slid down the bank and waded into the river, careless of the cold water, and watched the bear disappearing downstream toward the gorge. Her eyes were wide with excitement.
'You like bears, do you?' said Haveros.
Yen Olass, to her consternation, blushed. She was ashamed that he knew she was entranced by a big, furry animal; she was much too old for that.
'Maybe,' said Yen Olass.
'Then remember this,' said Haveros. 'Bears don't necessarily like you.’
Yen Olass bowed her head slightly, accepting his rebuke. As a child of the wastelands of Monogail, she knew how to accept a warning intended to help her survive. This was true wilderness: unmapped, uninhabited and unforgiving.
Survival demanded unrelenting concentration. Nevertheless, Yen Olass was glad she had seen the bear.
And glad that she had her star-filled stone. She was convinced it was very rare and very valuable. She had never seen anything like it. They would not be travelling up the river forever; in the Ravlish Lands or some other civilized territory, the globe would surely be worth a fortune.
A little further upstream, the travellers found a strange construction by the riverside: a fiat-topped mushroom made of the same star-burning stone. They all gathered round it. Yen Olass touched it gingerly; it was cold, and twice her height. She picked up a rock and started hammering it, trying to break some off. She was convinced that now was her chance to get really, really rich. But the mushroom refused to chip, break or shatter.
'Having fun?' said the deserter Saquarius.
'Shut up,' said Haveros, who did not like deserters on principle. 'Or I'll have fun with your face.’
Saquarius turned on him.
'I bet On the ugly one,' said the pirate Toyd.
'Which one's that?' said Draven.
They laughed. The two Estar boys, Shant and Mation, sniggered in sympathy, not because they were amused but because they wanted to take on themselves something of the glory of the rough-striding pirates. Haveros and Saquarius turned on them.
'Soldiers against pirates?' said Yen Olass. 'Chonjara would love this.’
'He'd place his bets at random,' said Quenerain. 'It'd be all the same to him.’
Shant made a joke in his native Estral, and Mation laughed. Haveros, who had enough Estral to know the comment was obscene, cuffed him round the head.
'Enough of this,' said Draven. 'Let's have a look at this thing. Up you go, Yen Olass.’
'I can't!' said Yen Olass. 'It's much too high.’
But Haveros and Draven boosted her up, making a rising step out of their linked hands. Yen Olass clambered onto the top, which was slippery and solid. And somewhat curved. She wondered if it was a stone phallus, the relic of some ancient fertility rite. It glistened in the streaming rain.
'What can you see?' said Draven.
'Nothing much,' said Yen Olass. 'There's not much of a view. Except… if you really want to know, you're losing your hair.’
Draven clapped his hand to his head, then withdrew it, looking partly angry, partly sheepish. Yen Olass laughed.
'Stop clowning around,' said Haveros. 'Can you get inside?’
'No,' said Yen Olass.
'Can you get it inside youself?' said Quenerain. 'Who knows?' said Yen Olass. 'What's your expert opinion?’
'You'd have more of a chance with that thing than you would with a man,' said the princess. 'You'd have to pay a man to do as much as rape you.’
'I don't know about that,' said Yen Olass, looking down on her. 'I had to fight off half the army once. Not like you, spreading your legs and-’
'That's enough, both of you,' said Haveros, sharply.
'Did you hear the way she spoke to me?' said Quenerain. 'The ugly little strumpet ought to have her scalp ripped off.’
'Any more trouble and I'll batter the pair of you,' said Haveros.
He was the leader. He was ashamed that he had dishonoured his leadership by almost coming to blows with Saquarius, embarrassed that two women had used their diplomacy to prevent the fight, and annoyed that those same two women should now start arguing with each other for no reason at all. Quenerain was his lover, but he was in no mood to grant her special favours, even so. The combination of shame, embarrassment and irritation made him fierce.
'Let's horse horse,' said Haveros, in Eparget. Then, this 222
pungent saying being entirely untranslatable, he said in Galish: 'Get going.' Then, in Estral, pointing the two boys up the river: 'Go!' Then, to Yen Olass: 'Get yourself down from there.’
'How?' said Yen Olass.
'Jump,' said Draven. 'We can pick up the pieces.' Yen Olass snorted. She grabbed hold of an overhead branch.
'Careful,' said Resbit.
'Tree,' said Yen Olass. 'Drop me in the dirt and you'll get yourself ringbarked.’
She had just learnt about ringbarking in the last few days, from the soldier Saquarius, of all people.
She swung herself down, hand over hand, sprays of raindrops shaking loose as the branch lurched beneath her weight. Then she dropped the last little bit, and brushed a few fragments of bark from her hands.
'Onward,' said Haveros.
And on they went. They were so wet by now that they hardly noticed when the rain eased. Just before they halted to rest at mid-morning, the rain stopped, but the sky was still encumbered by everlast cloud. They had no food to spare for a snack; instead, they squatted amidst the trees, resting in silence.
Yen Olass watched Jalamex kneading water from Quenerain's hair. The princess liked to have people waiting on her, and had more or less managed to coerce Jalamex into being her servant. She had tried to get Yen Olass to do things for her, too – 'Grease my boots, serf – but had failed. Yen Olass took the attitude that here they were all equal, fugitives struggling to preserve their lives. So she had refused the princess – but saw no need for Quenerain to be rude to her. Surely Quenerain could have tried to make friends. At times, Yen Olass had almost liked her.
Quenerain saw Yen Olass watching her, and gave her a look which meant 'One day I'll have you underfoot.' Yen Olass put her little finger to her tongue, which in Gendormargensis was the ultimate gesture of contempt; the princess looked away, pretending she had not seen.
At that moment, Yen Olass felt very homesick. She remembered Gendormargensis and her room in tooth 44, Moon Stallion Strait. She remembered her cat Lefrey. She had been so comfortable there. But that was long ago and far away. Now she was here, in the evergreen forest north of Lake Armansis, squatting on a soggy mass of decaying leaves which, in time, would mulch down to earth. No sound but the talk of the river and the drip-drop- thrup of water filtering down through leaves. That's another thing about trees: when the sky stops raining, the trees don't.
'Yen Olass,' said Resbit.
Yen Olass started. She had been drifting away, allowing her own thoughts to take her away from the world, bearing her away like a river.
'What is it?' said Yen Olass.
Resbit had a snail on her hand. Very delicately, it eased its tiny speck-black eyes out to the limits of their tubes. Fascinating. Yen Olass watched as it began to migrate across cold wet female skin.
It didn't get very far.
Yen Olass reached out, pinched the snail between thumb and finger, crackled its shell, picked away the pieces then bit the snail in half. She chewed it with determination rather than enjoyment, giving the remaining half to Resbit, who accepted this love offering with a smile.
Then they sat together in the forest, shoulder to shoulder. Yen Olass let her head lean against Resbit. She closed her eyes. She wondered about the Rovac warrior, Elkor Alish, who had coupled with Resbit. By day or by
