'My love,' he whispered, 'my princess, my bright jewel, don't weep! I'll take you away from Zeray. Whatever may happen, I'll never, never leave you. We'll go away and reach some safe place together. Only believe me!' He smiled down at her. 'I have nothing in the world, and I'll sacrifice all for your sake.'
'Kelderek.' She kissed him in her turn, gently, three or four times, and then laid her head on his shoulder. 'My darling. My heart is yours until the sun burns out. Oh, can there ever have been so sorry a place and so wretched an hour for declaring love?' 'How else?' he answered. 'How else could two such as we discover ourselves to be lovers, except by meeting at the end of the world, where all pride is lost and all rank and station overthrown?'
'I will school myself to have hope,' she said. 'I will pray for you every day that you are gone. Only send me news as soon as you can.' 'Gone?' he replied. 'Where?' 'Why, to Lak: to Lord Shardik. Where else?'
'My dear,' he said, 'set your mind at rest. I promised I would never leave you. I'm done with Shardik.'
At this she stood back and, spreading her two arms wide behind her, palms flat against the wall on either side, looked up at him incredulously.
'But – but you heard what Ankray said – we all heard him! Lord Shardik is in the forest near Lak – wounded – perhaps dying! Don't you believe it is Lord Shardik?'
'Once – ay, and not long ago -1 meant to seek death from Shardik in atonement for the wrong I had done both to him and to the Tuginda. Now I mean to live for your sake, if you'll have me. Listen, my darling. Shardik's day is done for ever, and for all I know Bekla's and Ortelga's day as well. These things ought not to concern us now. Our task is to preserve our lives – the lives of this household – until we can get to Lak, and then to help the Tuginda to return safely to Quiso. After that we shall be free, you and I. I'll take you away -we'll go to Deelguy or Terekenalt – further, if you like – anywhere where we can live a quiet, humble life, live like the plain folk we were meant to be. Perhaps Ankray will come with us. If only we're resolute, we'll have the chance to be happy at last, away from such loads as men's spirits were never meant to bear and such mysteries as they were never meant to pry into.'
She only shook her head slowly as the tears fell and fell from her eyes. 'No,' she whispered. 'No. You must set out for Lak at dawn tomorrow and I must stay here with the Tuginda.' 'But what am I to do?'
'That will be shown you. But above all you must keep a humble, receptive heart and the readiness to listen and obey.'
'It's nothing but superstition and folly I' he burst out. 'How can I, of all people, still remain a servant of Shardik – I, that have abused and harmed him more than any man-more even than Ta-Kominion? Only think of the peril to yourself and the Tuginda in remaining here with none but Ankray I The place is alive with danger now. At any moment it may become as though fifty Glabrons had risen from the grave -' At this she cried out and sank to the floor, sobbing bitterly and covering her face with her arms as though to ward off his unbearable words. Sorry, he knelt beside her, stroking her shoulders, speaking reassuringly as though to a child and trying to lift her up. At length she rose, nodding her head with a kind of weary hopelessness, as though in acceptance of what he had said of Glabron.
'I know,' she said. 'I'm sick with fear at the thought of Zeray. I could never survive that again – not now. But still you must go.' Suddenly she seemed to take heart, as though by a forced act of her own will. 4 You won't be alone for long. The Tuginda will recover and then we'll come to Lak and find you. I believe it! I believe it! Oh, my darling, how I long for it – how I shall pray for you! God's will be done.'
4Melathys, I tell you I'm not going. I love you. I won't leave you in this place.'
4 Each of us failed Lord Shardik once,' she answered, 4 but we won't do so again – not now. He's offering us both redemption, and by the Ledges we'll take it, even if it means death' Giving him her hands, she looked at him with the authority of Quiso in her face, even while the single, wan lamp-flame showed the tear-streaks down her checks.
4Come, my dear and only beloved, we'll return now to the Tuginda and tell her that you're going to Lak.' For a moment he hesitated, then shrugged his shoulders. 'Very well. But be warned, I shall speak my mind.'
She took up the lamp and he followed her. The fire had sunk low and as they passed the hearth he could hear the minute, sharp, evanescent tinkling of the cooling stones and dying embers. Melathys tapped at the door of the Tuginda's room, waited a few moments and then went in. Kelderek followed. The room was empty.
Pushing him to one side in her haste, Melathys ran to the courtyard door. He called 'Wait! There's no need -' But she had already drawn the bolts and when he reached the door he saw her lamp-flame on the other side of the courtyard, steady in the still air. He heard her call and ran across. The latch of the outer door was in place, but the bolts had been drawn back. On the wood, hastily traced, as it appeared, with a charred stick, was a curving, star- like symbol. 'What is it?' he asked.
4It's the sign carved on the Tereth stone,' she whispered, distraught. 4It invokes the Power of God and His protection. Only the Tuginda may inscribe it without sacrilege. Oh God! She couldn't help leaving the bolts drawn, but this she could do for us before she went,' 'Quickly!' cried Kelderek. 'She can't have gone far.' He ran across the courtyard and beat on the shutters, shouting 'Ankray! Ankray!'
The moon gave light enough and they had not far to search. She was lying where she had fallen, in the shadow of a mud wall about half-way to the shore. As they approached, two men who were stooping over her made off as silently as cats. There was a broad, livid bruise at the back of her neck and she was bleeding from the mouth and nose. The cloak which she had been wearing over her hastily-donned clothes was lying in the mud a few feet away, where the men had dropped it.
Ankray picked her up as though she had been a child and together they hastened back; Kelderek, his knife ready in his hand, repeatedly turning about to make sure they were not being followed. But none molested them and Melathys was waiting to open the courtyard door. When Ankray had laid the Tuginda on her bed the girl undressed her, finding no grave injuries except the blow at the base of the skull. She watched beside her all night, but at dawn the Tuginda had not recovered consciousness.
An hour later Kelderek, armed and carrying money, food and the seal-ring of Bel-ka-Trazet, set out alone for Lak.
Book VI Genshed
48 Beyond Lak
It was afternoon of the following day; hot enough, even during this season of early spring, to silence the birds and draw from the forest a steamy, humid fragrance of young leaves and sprouting vegetation. The Telthearna glittered, coiling swiftly and silently down towards Lak and on to the strait of Zeray below. From a little north of Lak a region of forest, several miles across, stretched northwards as far as the open country round the Gap of Linsho, which divided it from the foothills and mountains beyond. It was from the southern extremities of this forest, dense and largely trackless, that the bear had been attacking the sheds and herds of Lak.
The shore hereabout was broken and indeterminate, undulating in a series of knoll-like promontories. Between these, the river penetrated up creeks and watery ravines, some of which ran almost half a mile inland. The promontories, grassy mounds on which grew trees and bushes, extended back from the waterside until, amongst thicker undergrowth, they ended abruptly in banks standing like little cliffs above the interior swamps. Frogs and snakes were numerous and at twilight, when the wading birds ceased their feeding, great bats would leave the forest to swoop for moths over the open river. It was a desolate place, seldom visited except by fishermen working offshore in their canoes.
Kelderek was lying at the foot of an ollaconda tree, almost concealed among the thick, exposed roots curving all about him like ropes. There was no breeze and except for the hum of the insects no sound from the forest. The opposite shore, bare and rocky, showed hazy in the sunlight, almost as distant as he remembered seeing it from Ortelga. Nothing but birds moved on the river's surface.
In the hot shade, the silence and solitude, he was deliberating upon an exploit so desperate that even now, when he had determined to attempt it, he was still half-hoping that it might be delayed or frustrated by the sudden appearance of fishermen or of some traveller along the shore. If fishermen came, he thought, he would take it as an
