jewelled fruits.
The man holding it saw her interest and grinned hopefully. “You like?” he asked, in fractured Cymrian.
Laela’s other guide raised his pole and snapped something in Amorani.
“No, stop,” said Laela, taking the necklace. She turned it over in her fingers. “It’s beautiful! Did you make it yerself?”
The man nodded rapidly. “Make all myself,” he said. When Laela tried to give the necklace back, he pressed it into her hand, saying, “Keep. Free.”
Laela smiled and put it on. “Ta.” She paused. “Listen. .” She glanced at Inva, appealing to her for help, and then groped in the little bag she’d brought with her. After a moment she found the black jewel she’d found in her room back at Malvern, and which she had brought with her as a treasured possession. The jeweller’s eyes widened when he saw it. “I was wonderin’ if you could make somethin’ for this,” said Laela.
Inva translated. The jeweller replied, holding out his hand for the jewel.
Laela made sure there was no escape route for him and handed it over. “I thought a ring, or somethin’.”
The jeweller examined it expertly, muttering to himself. Finally, he looked up and smiled ingratiatingly as he spoke in Amorani.
“‘A gem unlike any I have ever seen,’” Inva translated. “‘I can make a fine setting for it. For a price.’”
There had been some Amorani money in her chamber, apparently meant for her. Laela had no idea how much it was worth, but she nodded anyway. “Give it the setting it deserves,” she said.
The jeweller grinned even more widely and led them to his own stall, where he showed off his tools with an expansive gesture and explained that it would take two days for the job to be finished.
Laela nodded in response and promised to be back.
“No, no,” the jeweller said, inclining his head toward her. “I bring.”
“All right, then,” said Laela.
She left, feeling excited, wondering what it would look like when it was done. The only thing she’d asked for in particular was that he use silver. It would suit the stone better.
After that, she wandered around the marketplace some more and bought a couple of trinkets before Inva suggested going back to her quarters before noon brought the worst of the heat.
Laela, sweating badly by now, agreed.
Back in her own room, Inva caught her unawares by saying, “Shall I bathe my lady before the food is served?”
Laela went red. “What? Er. . well-” She thought wistfully of cold water and pulled herself together. “A bath’d be nice, but I reckon I can do it on my own.”
Inva bowed. “As my lady commands.”
“My lady” went on to command that she be left alone to enjoy the stone tub full of scented water, and dressed herself while Inva and her colleague got the food ready.
While Laela was enjoying a light lunch of fruit, nuts, and flatbread, she found herself watching Inva with more and more curiosity.
“So what’s yer story?” she asked eventually.
Inva glanced up. “My lady?”
“The name’s Laela. I was just wonderin’ about yeh.”
Inva looked politely bewildered. “What were you wondering, my lady?”
“Well, yer a slave,” said Laela. “How come yeh speak Cymrian so well? Yer better spoken than I am, for gods’ sakes.”
Inva smiled very slightly. “I am a slave meant for the nobility, my lady. I can read and write, and know many of the finer arts.”
“Oh.” Laela paused. “To be honest, I ain’t never seen a slave until I came here, but back in my part of the world, slaves were just used for buildin’ houses an’ suchlike.”
For a moment, a hint of emotion showed through Inva’s reserve. “You’re from the land called Tara, my lady?”
“Yeah. The North, most of us call it.”
“Tell me, I. .” Inva broke off quickly and bowed her head. “I am sorry, my lady. I did not mean-”
Laela bit off a mouthful of bread. “Listen, Inva, I was brought up in a peasant village, an’ I don’t stand on ceremony,” she said, with her mouth full. “Just say it. I ain’t gonna bite yeh when I got bread.”
Inva smiled. “What is it like, my lady?” she asked. “The North?”
Laela thought about it. “Cold,” she said eventually. “I dunno how you people can live here. It’s like a bloody oven!”
“I know that it snows there,” Inva said, cautiously.
“Yeah. The coldest place in the world, is the North. It ain’t so bright there, either.”
“I can’t imagine it,” said Inva.
“I couldn’t have imagined this place, either,” said Laela. “But I bet you’ll like the North,” she added encouragingly. “It’s our place.”
Inva blinked. “When I was younger, I wondered what it would be like. But I don’t think it would be. . the place for me even if I could go there.”
“But yeh
“I’m sorry, my lady?”
“Arenadd-the King’s-here t’bring yeh home,” said Laela. “You an’ all of our people.”
Inva said nothing. She looked completely bewildered.
“He’s gonna take that off yeh,” said Laela, pointing to the collar. “Yeh can grow yer hair out again, live free in Malvern-be in yer own land at last.”
She didn’t get any of the joy or excitement she’d expected. Instead, she got the same blank look as before.
“But where would I live?” Inva said eventually.
“I dunno,” said Laela. “I’m sure there’d be somewhere. Don’t yeh wanna be free?”
Inva blinked and shook her head slowly, as if trying to push away an idea that bothered her. “I. . I don’t know. . my lady.”
Laela didn’t know what to say after that, but she felt inexplicably guilty as she finished her food, as if she’d somehow insulted her new friend.
Another day passed. Laela spent it seeing more of the city with Oeka and a couple of other griffiners. Her fellow Northerners seemed far less excited by Amoran than she was. They grumbled over the heat, insisted on wearing their own clothes instead of adopting the local dress, and showed awkward dislike toward the local people. Laela heard them muttering among themselves in the dark tongue, and wondered what they were so upset about. Maybe they were homesick.
She didn’t feel homesick herself. She missed Yorath, but she was happy enough in Amoran. Then again, she hadn’t lived in the North long enough to be that attached to it. Not enough to remember every detail of it after the months she’d been away.
That evening, tired out from the heat and suffering from a sudden fit of wistfulness over Yorath, she curled up on her bed and idly played with the other keepsake she’d brought. It was the note that had been with the gem, and she ran her fingers over the crude, faded letters, trying yet again to decode them. She’d learnt more about reading and writing on the voyage, and knew quite a few Northern words by now, but somehow none of these looked familiar. She knew the letters but not the words they made.
She tried sounding some of them out instead, talking to herself in an undertone.
“‘D. . deee’? ‘Deeeeaah’? ‘Efff’? ‘Arr’? Oh, blow this for a game of soldiers.” She put it down and sighed. Was she really so stupid that she still couldn’t read? Yorath made it look so easy. She sighed again and wondered how he was. Did he miss her, too?
She moped for some time before she realised she was doing it, and dragged herself out of bed to make herself stop. She hadn’t seen Arenadd since the night they’d arrived-it was probably time she went to see how he was doing.
Oeka came after her. “Where are you going?”
