Kelderek, staring from where he lay, suddenly called the man to mind. This blood-drenched craven was none other than the wealthy Deelguy slave-dealer Lalloc; fat, insinuating, dandified, with the manners, at once familiar and obsequious, of a presuming servant on the make. Over-dressed and smiling among his miserable, carefully- groomed wares, he had once been accustomed to publicize himself in Bekla as 'The high-class slave-dealer, purveyor to the aristocracy. Special needs discreetly catered for.' Kelderek remembered, too, how he had taken to calling himself 'U-Lalloc', until ordered by Ged-la-Dan to curb his impertinence and mind his place. There was little enough of the demi-mondain dandy about him now, crouching at Genshed's feet, dribbling with fear and exhaustion, his yellow robe smeared with dirt and his own blood clotted across his fat buttocks. The strap of his pack was twisted round his wrist and in one hand he was clutching the plaited thong of a clay thurible, or fire-pot, such as some travellers carry on lonely journeys and keep smouldering with moss and twigs. It was from this that the thin smoke was rising.
Kelderek remembered how in Bekla, Lalloc, coming once to the Barons' Palace to apply for the renewal of his licence, had fallen to deploring the wicked deeds of unauthorized slave-dealers. 'Your gracious Majesty will need no ashorrance that my colleagues and I, acting in the bost interests of the trade, would never have to do with soch men. To oss, profit is a secondary mottcr. We regard ourselves as your Mojcsty's servants, employed to move your own fixed quotas about the Empire as may suit your convenience. Now may I soggest -' and his rings had clicked as he placed his hands together and bowed, in the manner of the Deelguy. And whence, Kelderek had wondered, whence in truth had he obtained the pretty children who had stood on his rostrum in the market, tense and dry- eyed, knowing what was good for them? He had never enquired, for the taxes on Lalloc's turn-over had produced very large sums, all duly rendered – enough to pay and equip several companies of spearmen.
For a moment, as Lalloc's eye travelled over the children, it rested on Kelderek: but his momentary surprise, Kelderek could perceive, was due to no more than observing a grown man among the slaves. He did not recognize – how should he? – the former priest-king of Bekla.
Still Genshed stood silent, looking broodingly at the bleeding Lalloc as though wondering – as no doubt he was – in what way he could turn this unexpected meeting to his advantage. At length he said, 'Bit of trouble, Lalloc; been in it, have you?'
The other spread his bloody hands, shoulders shrugging, eyebrows lifting, head wagging from side to side.
'I was in Kabin, Gensh, when the Ikats come north. 'Thought I had plonty of time to gotting back to Bekla, but left it too late -you ever know soldiers go so fost, Gensh, you ever know? Cot off, couldn't gotting to Bekla' (one hand chopped downwards in a gesture of severance), 'no governor in Kabin – new governor, man called Mollo, been killed in Bekla, they were saying – the king kill him with his own honds – no one would take money to protect me. So I cross the Vrako. I think, 'I'll stay here till it's over, me and my nice lotde boys what I bought.' So we stay in some torrible village. I have to pay and pay, just not to be murdered. One day I hear the Ikat soldiers come over the Vrako, honting everywhere for the slave-dealers. I go north – ow, what 'orrible journey – rockon buy my way through Linsho. But I don't go through the forest, I come straight up the trock, walk right in among the soldiers. 'Ow I'm to know the Ikats gotting there first? Dirty thieves – take my lottle boys, all what I pay for. I drop everything, run into the forest. Then arrow cotch me in the thigh, ow my God the pain! They honting for me, not long. No, no, they don't need hont, clever bastards.' He spat. 'They know there's no food here, no shelter, no way to go onnywherc. O my God, Gensh, what we do now, ch? You go out through those trees they'll have you – they're waiting for oss – someone tell me Nigon they kill, Mindulla they kill -' 'Nigon's dead,' said Genshed.
'Yoss, yoss. You help me away, Gensh? We gotting across the Telthearna, gotting to Deelguy? You remomber how many lotde boys and girls I buy off you, Gensh, always buying off you, and I don't tell where-' Suddenly Shouter whistled and plucked Genshed by the sleeve. 'Look at the bastards!' he said, jerking his thumb.
Half a mile away, across the sunlight slope where the guard-house stood, twenty or thirty soldiers were coming towards the forest, trailing their long spears behind them over the grass. At a signal from their officer they extended their line, opening out to right and left as they approached the outskirts.
Not to one child, and to neither Radu nor Kelderek, did it occur mat they might, even now, call out or try to reach the soldiers. Had not Genshed just permitted them to prove to themselves that they could not?
His domination – that evil force of which Radu had spoken – lay all about them like a frost, unassailable, visible only in its effects, permeating their spirits with its silent power to numb and subdue. It lay within them – in their starved bodies, in their hearts, in their frozen minds. Not God Himself could melt this cold or undo the least part of Genshed's will. Kelderek, waiting until Bled was looking elsewhere and would not see his slow, fumbling struggle, lifted Shara once more in his arms, took the unresisting Radu by the hand and followed the slave-dealer back into the forest
Along the higher ground they went along the crest of the low ridge they had ascended earlier that afternoon, Lalloc hobbling beside Genshed and continually entreating not to be left behind. While he babbled, albeit in whispers and in phrases disjointed by shortness of breath, Genshed made no reply. Yet though he might seem inattentive, both to the children and to the fat purveyor of nice little boys, it appeared to Kelderek that nevertheless he remained most alert within himself; like a great fish that skulks below a ledge, at one and the same time watching for the least chance to dash between the legs of the wading netsmen and waiting motionless in the hope that its stillness may deceive them into believing it already gone.
52 The Ruined Village
And now began among the children that final disintegration which only the fear of Genshed had delayed so long. Despite the fog of ignorance and dread that covered them, one thing was clear to them all. Genshed's plans had failed. Both he and his overseers were afraid and did not know what to do next Bled walked by himself, hunched and muttering, his eyes on the ground. Shouter gnawed continually at his hand, while ever and again his head, with open mouth and closed eyes, dropped forward like that of an ox unable to pull its load. From all three, despair emanated as bats come fluttering from a cave, thicker as the light fails. The children began to straggle. Several, having fallen or Iain down on the ground, remained where they were, for Genshed and his whippers-in, now sharing the same evil trance as their victims, had neither purpose nor spirit to beat them to their feet.
It was plain that Genshed no longer cared whether the children lived or died. He paid them no heed, but pressed on at his own pace, concerned only to out-distance the soldiers: and when some of those who had fallen, seeing him disappearing ahead of them, struggled to their feet and somehow contrived to catch up with him again, still he spared them not a glance. Only of Kelderek and Radu did he remain steadily watchful, ordering them, knife in hand, to walk in front of him and stop for nothing.
As, when two animals have fought, the one that is beaten seems actually to grow smaller as it slinks away, so, since turning back from the edge of the forest, Radu had regressed from a youth to a child. The pride of bearing with which he had carried his rags and sores, as though they were honourable insignia of the House of Sarkid, had given place to an exhausted misery like that of a survivor from some disaster. He moved uncertainly here and there, as though unable to pick his way for himself, and once, with hands covering his face, gave way to a fit of sobbing which ceased only when breath failed him. As he lifted his head his eyes met Kelderek's with a look of panic- stricken despair, like that of an animal staring from a trap. 'I'm afraid to die,' he whispered. Kelderek could find no answer. 'I don't want to die,' repeated Radu desperately. 'Get on,' said Genshed sharply, from behind. 'Those were my father's soldiers!' 'I know,' answered Kelderek dully. 'They may find us yet.*
'They won't. Genshed will kill us first. O God, he frightens me so much! I can't hide it any more.'
'If the soldiers find us, they'll certainly kill me,' said Kelderek. 'I was your father's enemy, you see. It seems strange now.'
Startled, Radu looked quickly at him; but at the same moment Shara, awake at last, began to struggle on Kelderek's shoulders and to set up a thin wail of misery and hunger. 'Keep her quiet,' said Genshed instantly.
Radu, with some difficulty, took her from Kelderek, but as he did so slipped, so that the little girl gave a sharp cry of fear. Genshed covered the ground between them in four strides, gripped Radu by the shoulder with one hand and silenced the child with the other over her mouth. 'Once more and I'll kill her,' he said.
Radu cringed from him, whispering to Shara urgently. She became silent, and again they limped on among
