Kelderek, at something of a loss but fortified by the Ikat wine, made no reply; yet was at least able to return his host's gaze with courteous expectancy and some degree of self-possession.
'One of our problems – and that not the least – is going to be first, establishing proper control over Zeray, and then developing this whole province. If you were ever right about one thing, Kelderek, it was when you spoke of the necessity of trade to the prosperity of ordinary people. Zeray is going to become an important trade route, bodi for Bekla and for Ikat. We couldn't monopolize it even if we wished, for the trade will have to come through Kabin as well and the Kabinese don't want to become independent of Bekla. So we're going to need someone to look after Zeray, preferably not a complete foreigner, but one who favours neither Bekla nor Ikat; someone who's keen on trade and understands its great importance.' 'I see,' said Kelderek politely.
'And then, of course, we really need someone with personal experience of the Telthearna,' went on Elleroth. 'You might not be aware of this, Kelderek, being so familiar with it yourself, but it's not everyone who knows how to pay the necessary attention and respect to the ways of a great river, its droughts and floods and fogs and currents and shoals – a river where a vital trade ferry crosses a swift and dangerous strait. That calls for experience, and knowledge that's become second nature.'
Kelderek drained his wine. His cup was wooden, of peasant workmanship, almost certainly turned, he thought, here in Tissarn. In the bowl, someone had taken a good deal of trouble over a very passable likeness of a kynat in flight
'Then, again, it would be highly desirable for this governor to have had some previous experience of ruling and exercising authority,' resumed Elleroth. 'Even with military help, Zeray's likely to be a tough business for a time, considering its present state and that of the whole province. And I think the appointment really calls for someone who knows something about fairly rough people at first hand -someone who's knocked about, as you might say, and knows how to rough it a bit himself. I doubt whether we'd find a land-owning aristocrat, or even a professional officer, prepared to take the job on. They almost all despise trade, and anyway who would be ready to leave land and estates, to go to Zeray? And what existing provincial governor would want to make the move? Difficult, Tan- Rion, isn't it?' 'Yes, sir,' said Tan-Rion. 'Very.'
'The place needs colonizing, too,' said Elleroth. 'Willing hands, that's going to be the great need. I suppose we ought to look for young people with nothing much to lose – people who need to be given a chance in life and aren't going to be too particular. It wouldn't be any good just dumping them down in Zeray, though; they'd find it too much for them, and only add to the criminal population. They'll need an eye kept on them by a kindly sort of governor who feels sympathetic and knows how to get something out of people that nobody else has much use for. Someone who's suffered a bit himself, I suppose. Dear me, it is a problem. I really cannot imagine where we are likely to unearth a person who fulfils all these different requirements. Melathys, my dear, have you any notion?'
'Oddly enough,' answered Melathys, her eyes bright in the lamplight, 'I believe I have. It must be clairvoyance – or else this excellent wine.'
'I will write to Santil-ke-Erketlis from Zeray,' said Elleroth, 'but I feel sure that he will accept my recommendation. Radu, my dear boy, it's time you were in bed; and Kelderek too, if I'm not presuming. You've both been ill and you look quite tired out. We ought to start several hours before noon tomorrow, if we possibly can.'
58 Siristrou
This being now the commencement of the tenth day that we have been travelling westwards from the western borders of Your Majesty's kingdom, through some of the most inhospitable country I have ever seen. At first, while we remained close to the shore of the river Varin (which our guide calls, in his tongue, 'Tiltharna') tiicre was forest and rocky scrubland – a continuation, in fact, of the kind of country found on Your Majesty's western borders, but wilder and, as far as we have seen, uninhabited. There are, of course, no roads and we ourselves did not come upon a single track. For much of the way we were obliged to dismount and lead the horses together with the pack-mules, so stony and treacherous was the ground. Neither did we see any craft upon the river; but this did not surprise us since, as Your Majesty knows, none has ever arrived in Zakalon from upstream. The guide tells us that below his country there lies a gorge (which he named Bercel), full of rapids and half-submerged rocks, so that it is not possible to travel thence to us by way of the river. That this man and his followers should have made the entire journey on foot, their nation being altogether ignorant of the use of horses, shows partly, I think, that this unknown country for which we are bound breeds a tough and resolute people and partly that the inhabitants – or some of them – must be most eager to develop trade with us.
'We forded two tributaries of the Varin, each – since we encountered both near the confluence – with some difficulty. Indeed, at the second crossing we lost a mule and one of our tents. That was the day before yesterday; and soon afterwards we left the forest wilderness and entered upon the desert through which we are now travelling. This is a country of thorn-scrub and fine, blowing sand * bad going both for horses and mules – and of black rocks, which give it a forbidding appearance. There is a kind of flat-bodied, spiny-legged creature, something between a crab and a spider, about as big as a man's fist, which crawls slowly over the sand. It does no harm that I can perceive, yet I could wish that I had not seen it. Drinking-water of a sort we can get from the Varin, but it is sandy and warm, for the desert peters out into pools and flats and the true, flowing river is more or less inaccessible behind these. This country is said by our guide to form the southern extremity of a land called Deelguy * so far as I can understand, a semi-barbarian kingdom of warrior-bandits and cattlc-thieves, living among forests and hill-valleys. Inhabited Deelguy, however, lies a good fifteen leagues to the north. The truth seems to be that this desert, being land that nobody wants, is allowed to remain in name part of the territory of the king of Deelguy, a monarch whose frontiers (and authority) are in any case vague in extent.
'Your Majesty will recall that when the man Tan-Rion, who is now our guide, managed to convey in audience with you that he came from a country beyond the Varin possessing resources for trade, Your Majesty's councillors, including, I admit, myself, found it hard to believe that such a country could exist without our prior knowledge. However, the difficulty of this journey, together with the circumstance that the inhabitants have succeeded only during the past year in establishing a reliable crossing of the Varin at a point within reach of Zakalon, now make this more credible to me: and in short, I have become convinced that, as you yourself said, this may well prove to be a land with resources worth our attention. Tan-Rion has described – if I have followed him – the mining both of iron and of several kinds of gems: also the carving of wood and stone – though into precisely what kinds of artefact. I confess I do not know. He has also talked of corn, wine and cattle. Much of the possible trade, I think, will have to await either the construction of a road, or else the development of a water-route. (It has not escaped me that it might later prove practicable to bring goods across the Varin and then to embark them again from some suitable point on this shore, below the rapids.) As to what we may barter, I have only to remind Your Majesty that apparently the entire country knows nothing of horses and that none of these people has ever seen the sea.
'As to their language, I am happy to say that I seem to be making some little progress. In fact there are, it appears, two languages in general use beyond the Varin; the first, called Beklan, being commoner in the northern parts while the second, Yeldashay, is spoken, more generally in the south. They have similarities, but I am concentrating on Beklan, in which I can now rub along after a fashion.' Writing they use very little and it seems to fascinate my soldier-instructor when I write down the sound of what he says. He tells me that it is but three years since the end of a civil war – something to do with the invasion of Bekla by a foreign tribe who apparently went in for slavery – I confess that I could not altogether make it out. But now they are at peace, and since relations between north and south have improved, the prospects for our embassage seem very fair, coming at the present time.
'Today we shall – if I have not been deceived – actually cross the Varin to a town from which it will be possible to travel inland to Bekla. I shall, of course, continue to keep Your Majesty informed
Siristrou, son of Balko, son of Mereth of the Two Lakes, High Councillor of His Ascendant Majesty King Luin of Zakalon, glanced through the unfinished letter, gave it to his servant to pack with the rest of the baggage and made his way out of the tent to where the horses were picketed in a patch of scrub. Heaven only knew how or when the letter would get delivered anyway. It would, however, look well to have kept a fairly continuous record, as showing that he had the king and his interest constantly in mind. He had allowed himself a mention of the nasty drinking- water, though saying nothing of his disordered stomach and of the flux which he daily feared might turn to
