They drank the toast. Maia was startled by the quality of the wine. During the past year she had, of course, learned a great deal about wine; and to be perfectly honest, she thought, she could not remember to have tasted better, even at Sencho's. Just as she was thinking this, Zirek corroborated it.
"By Shakkarn, sir, that's a drop of the real stuff, all right! That ought to make victory certain enough for any-one, I'd say!"
"It comes up from Ikat," said Elleroth. "The vintner follows us about at enormous risk; to make his fortune, you know. He's caused more casualties than the enemy so far. Perhaps we should all have some more; what do you think?"
No one refused. Maia, silent, had the impression that Elleroth, under cover of this urbane drollery, was weighing them up and forming his conclusions. After a few moments he went on, "Anda-Nokomis, of course I know very well where you fit into our wicked schemes. In fact, I've already taken the liberty of sending a messenger to Santil to tell him you're with me." (For a moment Maia wondered how he could feel so certain, until she recalled that of course he would know about the withered hand.) "But tell me, now, about your friends." He looked genially from one to another. "Tolis says that apparently two of you are really and truly the hero and heroine who killed Sencho. You ought to be rewarded with a kingdom: two kingdoms. You, was it?" he said to Zirek. "And you, saiyett? May I have the honor of embracing you both?"
Maia thought it highly probable that this was
the first time in her life that Meris had been addressed as "saiyett." It must also surely have been the first time that she had blushed, which she did as Elleroth embraced her and kissed her on both cheeks.
The admiration of the young officers was warm. They began eagerly asking Zirek and Meris how they had contrived the killing and about their escape. After a little, however, and before Elleroth had had time to inquire about Zen-Kurel or Maia, Bayub-Otal interposed, "U-Elleroth, what I would like to suggest, if I may, is that we should go to our quarters now and make ourselves presentable; and then, after we've had something to eat--if that's not hoping for too much--I'll tell you how we all come to be here."
"Well, then, you must be sure to break off at the most exciting point," replied Elleroth, "and I'll be delighted to provide you with a bowl for people to put their melds in before you go on. But come along, let me show you the way. The water must be hot by now."
As she followed them out, Maia heard Bayub-Otal say-ing to Elleroth in a low voice, ". . . in private, really . . . few things need to be explained."
"Of course," answered Elleroth. "No questions until you're ready, then."
Outside, a woman of about thirty, with black hair and a missing front tooth, was waiting, evidently to take charge of Meris and herself. The excellent wine, on an empty stomach, had rather gone to Maia's head and she felt quite content to be shepherded along in a not unpleasant haze of evening air, failing light, wood-smoke and the shouts and calls of children, until they came to the shelter prepared for them.
"My name's Tekordis," said the woman chattily. "I was two years at Orthid, but now I've taken up with a tryzatt on the general's headquarters. How do you come to be here?"
"Oh, we're refugees from the Leopards," answered Maia, happy to be stripped off and sitting rather muzzily in a tub of warm water. "We were coming through the forest and had the good luck to run into Captain Mollo."
The woman, who was obviously impressed at their hav-ing been received personally by Elleroth, asked no more direct questions, but was plainly hoping to learn more if she could. Both girls, however, felt that it might be more prudent not to oblige her. Maia, changing into the rough but clean clothes she was given, nevertheless took care to retain her travel-stained tunic, with the money and valuables in its pockets.
Tekordis having found them a comb (which they were obliged to use for their nails as well as their hair), they felt they had done as much as they could by way of preparing for supper.
Walking back towards Elleroth's headquarters, they passed a group of soldiers throwing dice on the grass, who, as they went by, made their approval plain enough. Maia, well accustomed to this sort of thing, acknowledged them with a smile and a wave.
"Maia," asked Meris a few moments later, "have you got any money?"
Maia, never one to cavil at a little stretching of the strict truth in a good cause, shrugged her shoulders.
"Lend you ten meld if you like."
"We could make a damned sight more than that in a place like this," said Meris. "Or I could, anyway."
" 'Tain't for me to tell you what's what, Meris, but we're supposed to be guests of this Elleroth, and anyway Anda-Nokomis wouldn't--"
"Oh, balls!" said Meris. "You're a fine one to talk, Saiyett Serrelinda, aren't you? D'you think I don't remember you tickling up old Sencho and enjoying every minute of it? Give me that shit--"
"Shut up!" cried Maia angrily. "Haven't you made enough trouble already, without going looking for more here? Great Cran, 's far as I can make out you've only to hang on till you get to Erketlis to be set up for the rest of your life, and now you want to start working this place on your back! Anyway, here's that young Tolis coming to meet us. Elleroth's sent him to hurry us up, I s'pose."
Elleroth was as good as his word to Bayub-Otal. During the meal (too many damned flies! thought Maia: in the upper city, she'd forgotten how bad they could be at this time of year) he asked no questions, but talked instead of the Chalcon campaign, SantiFs victory on the Thettit-Ikat road and the dash he had made afterwards to take the Orthid slave-camp.
"Dear me, we did proceed rapidly," he remarked, stabbing with his knife at a lump of cheese. "I sincerely trust I'll never be required to do anything so energetic as that again."
"But did Santil order it, or did you dream it up by yourself?" asked Zen-Kurel.
"Well, he--er--he may have mentioned it to me in passing as a sporting possibility," replied Elleroth. "I honestly find it difficult to have any very clear recollection: that march--I began to fear that creation would expire before we got there. I was praying ardently to be struck down with sunstroke, but I confess with no very lively hope of success. And the dried meat and bad water kept on making me sick. Digestion is the great secret of life, after all. Do have some more cheese; then you can at least console yourselves by eating while I talk. That may not only comfort you a little for the quality of the conversation but also increase our mutual confidence."
"You're sure of that, are you?" said Zen-Kurel, smiling and helping himself to the cheese. , "So sure that I'll be delighted to offer you an appointment as a captain in this band of ragamuffins, if you like," answered EUeroth. "We're a trifle short of officers at the moment. They will keep on doing such foolish things--"
"Not for lack of example, sir," put in one of his captains.
"I do set a bad example, I know," sighed EHeroth, nodding dolefully. "We don't actually pay anyone for partic-ipating in this rabble, you know," he went on, turning back to Zen-Kurel, "but if you'd care to take part in the loot of Bekla--"
"It's been looted already, sir, I rather think, both by the Palteshis and the Lapanese," replied Zen-Kurel.
"Yet you yourself succeeded in bringing away some-- er--swag of this exceptional quality?" asked EUeroth, smiling towards Maia.
It was said as lightly and charmingly as any compliment ever paid, yet an awkward silence fell. Maia bit her lip and looked down at the table. EUeroth, perceiving that he had unwittingly said something unfortunate, hesitated, clearly hoping that someone would come to his rescue. It was Zen-Kurel himself who answered him.
"No, in point of fact it was she who brought us away: otherwise we'd still be there; or else dead. We're all greatly in her debt. But tell me, Lord Elleroth, if I'm not asking you to betray any secrets, what's your strategy in trying to reach Bekla through Purn? You've set yourselves an even harder job than Orthid this time, haven't you?"
"I'm sadly afraid we may have," replied Elleroth, taking his cue gratefully, "but if anyone can get us through that forest, Mollo will. We're lucky to have a pioneer commander like him. As for the strategy--well; that's supposed to be a little surprise for Kembri, really. You see, he knows where Santil is, but at the moment he doesn't know where we are: at least, I don't think he does. He must think his right flank's completely secure, resting on Purn. So I thought, well, supposing we were to go up through the forest, and then pop out--pop out, you know, just nip across and cut the Ikat-Bekla road behind him, that might make him feel slightly uncomfortable. What d'you think?" It was clear that he respected Zen-Kurel and was genuinely seeking his opinion.
Zen-Kurel paused, reflecting. "If you can do it, yes; but the forest's very bad, you know. And it can't be long now until the rains, either. Besides, we don't know, do we?-- Kembri may already be falling back on Bekla."
As their military talk continued, Maia began to feel so tired and drowsy that she could hardly keep her eyes open. Snatches of the conversation reached her meaninglessly through a daze. The discomfort of her period, the anxiety of the previous night in the forest, the long swim ending in the terror and near-disaster of the waterfall--all these had by now exhausted even her youthful vitality. Looking across at Meris, she could see that she was in little better case.
The young officers, delighted by the unexpected surprise of having two such girls as guests in the middle of a hard campaign, would hardly have noticed if she had made no response at all to their sallies and tall stories. They were per
fectly happy just to look at her; to speak to her and merely to enjoy her presence.
They were not going to let her go for as long as they could keep her. She realized that if she did not extricate herself, no one was going to do it for her.
She turned to Elleroth. "My lord, if you won't mind, I'm really that worn out I'd like to go to bed now. We've had a very hard day and I'm almost asleep as 'tis: I reckon Meris feels the same. Would you be so kind as to excuse us?"
Elleroth, as might have been expected, was immediately all courtesy, begging the girls' pardon for his lack of consideration and asking whether they needed anything else which he could provide. He was about to call a servant to accompany them back to their quarters when Zirek also begged to be excused, saying that he too felt very tired. One of the officers thereupon suggested that by way of an end to the evening they should all escort the girls to their shelter and sing them a song. This was enthusiastically received. Maia, only too glad that she was really going to be allowed to go to sleep, consented as gracefully as any-one could have wished; and thereupon she and Meris, amid much laughter and cheering, were carried shoulder-high into the sultry, brilliantly starred night and--after a little tipsy altercation about the right way--back to their shelter, leaving Elleroth alone with Bayub-Otal and Zen-Kurel.
"Through the forest? Well, apart from anything else, you see," said Elleroth, refilling the wine-cups himself (he had dismissed the servants), "we have to stay on the move if we're to keep ourselves in supplies. There aren't a lot of us, it's true--rather less than five hundred, now--and since we got back here we've been able to get stuff sent up from Sarkid. But I can't go on drawing on Sarkid for more than another few days. Then there's the whole question of reward--loot, boodle, plunder and spoil. My men are all volunteers and I haven't paid one of them a meld as yet. They've fought and marched splendidly, but all they've got out of it so far is women. You know that old story, 'Oh, gods, not rape again!' Now that they've blooded themselves on that Elvair-ka-Virrion fellow, what we need is a really impressive exploit, leading to a dramatic victory. Not to mince words, I'd like to be the first heldro into Bekla and send a runner to Santil with the news. You see, he's still got Kembri between him and Bekla, but I've only got Purn. Santil will be taking on Kembri and I shan't be there. So I really ought to have a go at Purn, if only to justify my existence, don't you think? And, of course, cut off Kembri's retreat, if we can."