"Not at all, Anda-Nokomis. Karnat's publicly declared you the rightful Ban of Suba. We're all waiting for you."
"Was it Karnat who sent you here, then?" asked Bayub-Otal.
"Karnat wanted someone to cross the Valderra and find out as much as possible, so I took it on, with these lads here. There were two things he wanted us to do and we've done them--or as good as. One was to reconnoiter a route for the army from the Valderra to Bekla, and the other was to find out what was going on in Chalcon. We've been the very devil of a way east, Anda-Nokomis--well to the other side of the highway from Bekla to Gelt. And if he takes my advice, that's the way Karnat'll be coming; east as far as the Gelt road and then straight down it to Bekla-- keep north of all that rough country you must just have come through. The Leopards won't be expecting that."
Bayub-Otal nodded and after a moment Lenkrit went on, "We're on our way back now. We must have done something like twenty miles since yesterday evening. We've been going by night, you see, ever since we crossed the Valderra. We happened on this cave on our way east five nights ago, and lay up here for a day. We were reckoning to get back to it this morning and what do we find but you? You were lucky, because it's been daggers first and questions afterwards--not in Urtah, but all the time we've been in Bekla province. It's much too obvious that we're Subans, you see."
"Well, but the Chalcon news?" said Bayub-Otal.
Lenkrit paused a moment; then drew from beneath his cloak a wooden, tubular object, pierced with holes and roughly stained red and blue. Maia, taken unawares, could not suppress a quick "Oh!" of recognition and surprise. It was a Tonildan shepherd-boy's home-made pipe--an object familiar to almost any Tonildan. She had once made one herself; and played it, too, after a fashion.
"You've seen one of these before, then?" asked Lenkrit, looking round at her.
She nodded, but said nothing. "Daggers first and questions afterwards." Had they, then, killed the Tonildan boy the pipe had belonged to?
"Don't worry, Maia," said he, reading her thoughts. "It was fairly come by. I was given it two days ago by a little lad herding goats on the edge of the Tonildan Waste. Shepherd-boys were about the only people we dared question, you see. Grown men and women would have been much too risky. We told these boys we were traveling merchants and asked them what news they'd heard lately. This particular lad was very sharp and sensible. He told us his father was just back from Puhra, where all the market-talk was about Chalcon and Santil-ke-Erketlis. I was so pleased with him that I gave him five meki--more than he'd ever had in his life, I dare say--and he was so pleased with me that he gave me his pipe.
"Well, the news, Anda-Nokomis--and I think it's probably reliable--is that Santil's near enough openly in arms against Bekla. He wasn't going to wait to be treated like that other poor fellow--what was his name?--Enka-Mor-det. He's left his estate and gone into the Chalcon hills-- taken his servants, tenants--the lot. And men are joining him from all over, apparently."
"Have the Leopards sent anyone against him, then?" asked Bayub-Otal.
"The lad couldn't say. But he did tell us one other thing which made me prick up my ears. He said his father had heard rumors of some sort of trouble further south, too. Who would that be, do you suppose?"
"Elleroth of Sarkid; the Ban's son? He's the most likely."
"Just what I thought myself. Listen, Anda-Nokomis: suppose--just suppose--that Karnat, with his army half as big again with Suban auxiliaries, crosses the Valderra and succeeds in going straight on to Bekla."
"Well?"
"Then Suba's rewarded for its indispensable help by being made an independent province in its own right-- which it always should have been. You rule it, Anda-No-komis--which everyone wants, seeing you're the rightful, legal heir, and son of the finest Suban girl that ever--"
"And Karnat?"
"Once there was peace, I doubt Karnat would require a great deal more from Suba. Well, come to that, we haven't got much to give him, have we? Frogs, ducks, reeds--Suba's always been a place on its own. Karnat himself s only valued it because it put him east of the Zhairgen. But you must come and talk to him yourself, Anda-No-komis."
"I fully intend to," replied Bayub-Otal, "as soon as I can get there. He's at Melvda-Rain, I suppose?"
Lenkrit nodded. "He's an honest man: we all think so. As for the Subans, it's you they're ready to fight for-- Nokomis's boy, that that damned Fornis cheated out of his inheritance."
"Well," said Bayub-Otal, standing up somewhat abruptly, "when do we start? You'll be wanting to sleep now, I dare say, if you've come twenty miles during the night."
"Yes, we'll lie up here today, Anda-Nokomis, and get across into Urtah tonight. After that it'll be easy enough until we come to the Valderra. You see, the Beklans have got outposts--standing patrols--all along the east bank, from Rallur right up to the hills in the north."
"Where's the main Beklan army itself, then?" asked Bayub-Otal.
"At Rallur. They've built a light bridge across the Olmen--just above where it runs into the Valderra--so that they can move south quickly if they have to. But all the signs are that they think they won't have to; anyway, they've got hardly any outposts downstream. They must feel sure that we can only get across upstream."
He smiled and Bayub-Otal, nodding, smiled too. To' Maia, though she had not really been following all that Lenkrit had said, it was clear enough that they had some unspoken knowledge in common.
"When the three of us came across," resumed Lenkrit after a few moments, "my people put on a little act about half a mile away--you know, shouting and pretending they were coming over--to distract the Beklan patrol: so we got across the ford without being spotted. But there'll be nothing like that coming back. It's true there are several fords to choose from, but every single one of them's watched. I think," said Lenkrit with a certain relish, "I think we'll hardly avoid a little scuffle."
Bayub-Otal nodded again. "Well, you'd better sleep now. That boy there's half asleep already."
45: ACROSS THE VALDERRA
To Maia there was no tedium in idling away the hours. After the past two days, merely to lie in the sun and do nothing was pleasant. Besides, she had been used enough, in years gone by, to minding sheep and goats on the waste, and this was not much different. The sun moved. The leaves rustled. One lay on one's back and looked up at the marching clouds. After a time evening came.
They set off about two hours after sunset. According to Lenkrit it was no more than six or seven miles to the Olmen, but after some time Maia reckoned that they must already have gone further. At first they went straight down through the woods, but once out on the open plain Lenkrit proceeded cautiously, keeping wide of the two or three villages they encountered. Once, when dogs began to bark, he went back a good half-mile before taking them off the track and round by way of the village fields.
Despite this caution she became keenly aware--for it C frightened her--of a potential ruthlessness in her new companions. 'Tain't so much what they're doing now, she thought, it's what they'd be ready to do if they was put to it. It was true that the Subans were not looking for trouble; but they were clearly prepared to shed blood if they had to. Once, when two drovers, who from their overheard talk seemed to be out late in search of a strayed beast, passed close by without seeing them, it was plain enough that at a word from Lenkrit the young men would have knifed them. Maia wondered how many people they had in fact killed since first leaving Suba.
The river, when at length they reached it some two or three hours after midnight, was much as Lenkrit had already described it to her--slow-flowing and about sixty feet wide, meandering across the plain between treeless banks. One of the young men took a cord from his pack, tied one end to the hilt of his knife and plumbed the depth. It was about five feet under the bank.
"We did better coming," said Lenkrit. "It was only waist-deep. Still, we can't spend time looking for a better place. We'll just have to flounder across as best we can."
"It's flowing so slowly
, it'll be very little deeper in the middle," said Bayub-Otal. "We ought to be able to wade it, just."
"But do you think the bottom will be firm enough, Anda-Nokomis?" asked Tescon.
As they stood debating the matter among themselves, Maia began to feel a mixture of impatience and mischief. No one had consulted her: it had not even occurred to them that she, a girl, might be of any use.
In the near-darkness, she wandered quietly a little distance upstream. Then, sitting down on the bank, she slipped off her clothes, rolled them round her sandals and, holding the light bundle over her head, slid down into the water and turned on her back.
To get across took her less than half a minute. She had drifted scarcely any distance with the current.
Pulling herself out, she walked back until she was opposite the Su-bans.
"My lord!"
They spun round, clutching their weapons as though Kembri himself were upon them. All but Pillan looked startled out of their wits. For a few moments none said a word. Then Bayub-Otal, taking care not to raise his voice, said, "Maia! How did you get over?"
"Swam, my lord. Would you like me to take the packs and that over for you?"
And without waiting for an answer she once more lowered herself into the water and swam across.