For a time Foila, Melito, the soldier, and I chatted among ourselves. Melito seemed to like him very well, though perhaps only because of the similarity of the name I had given him to his own. Then the soldier helped me into a sitting posture, lowered his voice, and said, 'Now I have to talk to you privately. As I said, I think I will leave here in the morning. From what I have seen of you, you won't be getting out for several days maybe not for a couple of weeks. I may never see you again.'
'Let us hope that isn't so.'
'I hope not either. But if I can find my legion, I may be killed by the time you're well. And if I can't find it, I'll probably go into another to keep from being arrested as a deserter.' He paused.
I smiled. 'And I may die here, of the fever. You didn't want to say that. Do I look as bad as poor Melito?'
He shook his head. 'Not as bad, no. I think you'll make it '
'That's what the thrush sang while the lynx chased the hare around the bay tree.'
Now it was his turn to smile. 'You're right; I was about to say that.'
'Is it a common expression in that part of the Commonwealth where you were brought up?'
The smile vanished. 'I don't know. I can't remember where my home is, and that's part of the reason I have to talk to you now. I remember walking down a road with you at night that's the only thing I do remember, before I came here. Where did you find me?'
'In a wood, I suppose about five or ten leagues south of here. Do you recall what I told you about the Claw as we walked?'
He shook his head. 'I think I remember you mentioning such a thing, but not what you said.'
'What do you remember? Tell me all of it, and I'll tell you what I know, and what I can guess.'
'Walking with you. A lot of darkness I fell, or maybe flew through it. Seeing my own face, multiplied again and again. A girl with hair like red gold and enormous eyes.'
'A beautiful woman?'
He nodded. 'The most beautiful in the world.'
Raising my voice, I asked if anyone had a mirror he would lend us for a moment.
Foila produced one from the possessions beneath her cot, and I held it up for the soldier. 'Is this the face?'
He hesitated. 'I think so.'
'Blue eyes?'
' I can't be sure.'
I returned the mirror to Foila. 'I will tell you again what I told you on the road, and I wish we had a more private place in which to do it. Some time ago a talisman came into my hands. It came innocently, but it does not belong to me, and it is very valuable sometimes, not always, but sometimes it has the power to heal the sick, and even to revive the dead. Two days ago, as I was traveling north, I came across the body of a dead soldier. It was in a forest, away from the road. He had been dead less than a day; I would say it's likely he had died sometime during the preceding night. I was very hungry then, and I cut his pack straps and ate most of the food he had been carrying with him. Then I felt guilty about doing that and got out the talisman and tried to restore him to life. It has failed often before, and this time I thought for a while it was going to fail again. It didn't, although he returned to life slowly and for a long time did not seem to know where he was or what was happening to him.'
'And I was that soldier?'
I nodded, looking into his honest blue eyes.
'May I see the talisman?'
I took it out and held it in the palm of my hand. He took it from me, examined both sides carefully, and tested the point against the ball of his finger. 'It doesn't look magical,'
he said.
'I'm not sure magical is the right term for it. I've met magicians, and nothing they did reminded me of this or the way it acts. Sometimes it glows with light it's very faint now, and I doubt if you can see it.'
'I can't. There doesn't seem to be any writing on it.'
'You mean spells or prayers. No, I've never noticed any, and I've carried it a long way. I don't really know anything about it except that it acts at times; but I think it is probably the kind of thing spells and prayers are made with, and not the kind that is made with them.'
'You said it didn't belong to you.'
I nodded again. 'It belongs to the priestesses here, the Pelerines.'
'You just came here. Two nights ago, when I did.'
'I came looking for them, to give it back. It was taken from them not by me some time ago, in Nessus.'
'And you're going to return it?' He looked at me as though he somehow doubted it.
'Yes, eventually.'
He stood up, smoothing his robe with his hands.
I said, 'You don't believe me, do you? Not about any of it.'
'When I came here, you introduced me to the others nearby, the ones you'd talked with while you lay here on your cot.' He spoke slowly, seeming to ponder every word. 'Of course I've met some people too, where they put me. There's one who isn't really wounded very badly. He's just a boy, a youngster off some small holding a long way from here, and he mostly sits on his cot and looks at the floor.'
