They were stopped only twice. Each time Jaer did as he had been instructed, slobbered and wiped his nose on his sleeves while Jasmine leaned against the nearest wall in a picture of senile collapse. Each time Medlo groveled a bit and then led them on. There were cages on the walls. Some held bones, some held things which looked like bones but which still struggled feebly in the sun. After a time, Jaer stopped looking around him and concentrated on his boots, step after step. It took over an hour to cross the city and come to the walled acre of the caravansary. There they found a corner where they could get their backs to the wall and settled into the dust.
Jasmine asked about the occupants of the cages. ‘Why are they there?’ What have they done?’
‘Anything,’ said Medlo quietly. ‘Or nothing. The guards put them there for lack of obedience, for lack of attention to the bells, for having crossed eyes, for not having enough coin. I told you this place was a bad place. What did you think I meant?’
After a moment she said, ‘Do you mean they would put us in a cage, like that, for nothing?’
‘They could. They still may, unless you are very quiet and very inconspicuous. I thought you understood that.’
They understood it then. They melted into invisibility against the stone walls, letting the dust settle on them, watching the afternoon fogs rise once more to the very edge of the walls. Only after others in the yard had built fires did Jasmine risk setting a small blaze to huddle over, looking as old and juiceless as Jaer’s boots. Around them small groups gathered and dispersed, eyes peered from under hoods, voices muttered. Long lines of pack animals entered the great yard and clopped across it. Many of the caravanners went unrobed, their numbers protecting them. Animals were loaded and taken away. Medlo wandered away, only to return worried and pale. ‘No one goes east. We must find a train to join, or stay in Byssa through the night. This would not please me.’ He shook his head. ‘The people are more cautious than usual. I can find out nothing.’
Beyond the wall a chilling sound rose, freezing those in the yard in their positions as though they had been statues. Voices were chanting, harshly, violently, over the slow beat of a great drum which echoed off the far, fog-hidden banks of the Del. There was a clang of heavy metal, a rattle of chains, then the reverberation of iron wheels, the rumbling of an iron cage like that Jaer had heard on the road to Candor. He held himself rigid, trembling. The sound pounded away, gave way to an uneasy silence.
Into that silence a woman came into the yard, alone except for two enormous bridled hounds which walked at her side, eyes alert, backs straight under strapped packs. She gazed calmly about the yard, examining each group without hurry or nervousness, throwing back the hood which had covered her head to reveal silver hair drawn up through a slim circlet set with dark stones. Her eyes were so pale they seemed colourless, and her skin, also, was pale as the petals of a swamp flower. She moved with a striding, queenly grace.
Medlo muttered to himself, almost beneath his breath, ‘There’s a likely guardian. I like the dogs.’ He made a covert gesture which caught her glance. She regarded them for a moment, then came toward them, inclining her head.
‘Gavil-leona, dai. V’lai chaggan? Preon? Urdan?’
Medlo matched her nod, somewhat stiffly. ‘Medlo, dai. Benise urdan d’dao ni.’ He turned to the others. ‘She wants to know if we need huntress, guide or guard.’
‘I speak the western tongue,’ she interrupted him. ‘Yes. If you have need of a huntress, of a guide or guard, I seek such employment.’
Jasmine turned from the cooking pot, cackling like an old woman. ‘I hope you have food for those beasts. Otherwise, they may choose to eat one of us, or more than one if they are very hungry.’
The woman’s lips moved in what might have been a smile. ‘They eat at my let, starve at my order. They have eaten today.’
‘Then you are welcome. Medlo, here, can guide us well enough, but guards are much needed. How did you come to Byssa?’
She gestured toward the north. ‘There, through the broken lands.’
Jaer gaped at her. ‘Medlo says there are cannibals there.’
She let the smile cross her mouth once more and stroked the heads of the huge dogs beside her. ‘We were bothered only once.’
‘And her doggies have eaten today,’ cackled Jasmine. Jaer saw a look of honest amusement on the pale woman’s face.
‘They have, and I have, old woman. Make what you will of that.’ She began to dicker with Medlo for the amount of her fee, Jaer paying careful attention lest Medlo send the woman away. When it was mentioned that they intended to go eastward, the woman paused thoughtfully. ‘You will need at least one more weapon carrier, then, for the tribes there are more dangerous with each passing season. I have seen only one traveller move east this day, the driver of that wagon which was sent away with such ugly noise. This in itself is strange, for the caravans usually flow through Byssa like beer through a drover. Such scant traffic increases the danger. Still, find one more to share watch with me and I will go with you.’
She sat beside them in the dust and they watched the gate together. However, no one entered but a clot of priests who moved among the travellers demanding to know names and places of origin and reasons for travel. Medlo assumed that look of perky obsequious candour with which he masked fear. ‘Medlo, Holy One. From the westlands, now returning there. Only a poor musician with a poor wretched brother and an old servant. We will go east when a caravan goes.’
‘Leona,’ said the pale woman to the same
