"This is Maia Serrelinda here, my lord," said Maia quickly. "I need to speak to you urgently: for your sake, not for mine."
"Maia?"he replied in a tone of astonishment. Then, with a quick note of alarm in his voice, "Who's with you? What's happened?"
"There's nothing wrong, my lord, but--"
"Where have you come from? Who's sent you?"
"I've got some very important news for you."
"Wait, then."
After a few moments Ta-Kominion came elbowing his way feet first out of the shelter and stood up. He was wearing a ragged shirt and breeches and looked, as she could see even in the dim starlight, like a man utterly worn out; a very different figure from the high-spirited youth who had opened the bidding at the barrarz. Her expression, as she took his hands in greeting, must have revealed her feelings, for before she could speak he said, "You needn't waste your sympathy on me: we've plenty worse. But Maia, how in Cran's name do you come to be wandering about alone in a place like this? Are you on the run or something?"
"You could call it that. But now you must tell me something, my lord, 'cos I've got to know this if I'm to help you. Is this Kembri's whole army, or are you here on your own?"
He took her arm and led her away among the trees. Like the tryzatt, he spoke in whispers.
"Why do you ask me that? Why have you come?"
"Answer my question and I'll explain. It can't hurt to tell me: I can't leave here without you let me, can I?"
As he hesitated she took his hands once more, looking up into his bloodshot, hollow eyes.
"Honest, my lord, I only want to help you: and I've risked my hfe to come here."
"Everyone's life's at risk here," replied he. "I wouldn't give much for our chances now and that's the truth. We left Kembri's army the night before last and we've been going ever since. The men are on their last legs. We've got no food left, either. But I'll get some of them back to Ortelga yet, you see if I don't."
"Listen to me, my lord. There's a way to put the whole thing right, if you'll only do as I say."
"But who's sent you?" he asked again, impatiently.
"Just listen, my lord, please! Sit down and listen to me."
Ta-Kominion sat down on the ground, his arms round his updrawn knees, looking up at her with an expression suggesting that although he would like to believe her, he felt that to do so would be foolish.
"About a mile away over there," said Maia, pointing, "is Lord Elleroth of Sarkid. He's on his own like you, and I should guess he's got about the same number of men."
Ta-Kominion seemed about to spring to his feet, but Maia restrained him.
"They know you're here, but they don't know yet whether it's only you or Kembri's whole army. What I'm trying to tell you is that they're as much afraid of you as what you are of them."
Ta-Kominion buried his face in his hands. "Oh, Shardik, that's about all we needed! Pinned against the river, too! That's basted everything!"
"No, it hasn't, my lord. Don't you see, if you're not fighting for the Leopards any more, Elleroth's got no quarrel with you? You ought to join him--he needs men--it'd be as big a weight off his mind as what it'd be off your'n. Why don't you come back with me now and talk to him?"
"It's a trick! A Beklan trick!" In the half-darkness the girl Berialtis had come up silently and was standing beside them, clutching a soldier's cloak round her. She was shivering in the hot night and looked no less wretched than everyone else whom Maia had seen. "Don't go, Komo! She's lying!"
Her dark eyes glared at Maia--the eyes of a fanatic, intensified by fear and privation.
Maia stood up and faced her. "All right, that's it, then; I done my best. My lord, I hope you'll have the kindness to let me go back where I come from."
"Be quiet, Berialtis," said Ta-Kominion. "I'm commanding here, not you. Maia, how can I be sure of this man Elleroth--heir of Sarkid, isn't he? How can I be sure I can trust him?"
"My lord, I'll be honest with you. Like I said, no one's sent me: I just thought this lot up on my own. Lord Elleroth doesn't even know I've come--"
"You're not his woman, then?"
"Oh, Cran, no! I just don't want to see the two of you tear each other to bits, that's all; 'cos that won't be no good to you nor nobody."
"Berialtis, go and wake Dy-Karn and bring him here. Don't argue; just do as I tell you for once."
"You let yourself be taken in by this Beklan bitch; an unbeliever! I haven't forgotten that filthy barrarz, if you have--"
"Neither have I," said Ta-Kominion, getting up. "I'll go myself: you'd better come with me, Maia."
Reaching his shelter, they found a group of four or five young men whispering together.
"These are all the officers we've got left," said Ta-Ko-minion. "Captain Dy-Karn, my second-in-command: Maia Serrelinda."
There were murmurs of surprise. "You'd better tell them, Maia, what you've just told me," said Ta-Kominion.
Maia did so.
"But this Elleroth's an out-and-out heldro, isn't he?" asked Dy-Karn. "Why else would he be with Erketlis? If you trust us all to him, Komo--"
"All I can say is I've met him," said Maia, "and I don't reckon as he's one to take unfair advantage. I can't say n'more, 'ceptin' they're all as scared of you as what you are of them." As they hesitated, she added, "You don't have to surrender to them nor any o' that. Just offer to join them. Any road, what else you going to do?"
"By the Ledges, and I reckon she's about right there!" said another of the officers. "No food, men worn out, couldn't fight if they had to--"
"When we left Kembri, you see," said Ta-Kominion to Maia, "no one else knew what we were going to do, naturally. We reckon his lot can't last even until the rains. Erketlis'll destroy them; and we weren't going to wait for that. We were reckoning on crossing the Zhairgen by the Ikat high road, but we found the bridge held by Beklans-- too many for us: so we had to come on downstream. I've been hoping we might get across somehow at Nybril, but obviously we can't get to Nybril if Elleroth's in the way."
"Elleroth's got a raft on ropes across the Zhairgen," said Maia. "He's cutting his way through Purn, but he needs more men to make sure of it before the rains. If you was to join him, I reckon he could probably feed you an' all. How many you got?"
"Only about three hundred and fifty now. We lost a lot in Chalcon."
"The girl's right, my lord," said Dy-Karn. "After all, we can always tell this Elleroth that if he won't have us, we'll sell our lives very dear. I'll come with you if you want."
In the event three Ortelgans set out with Maia; Ta-Kominion, Dy-Karn and an older officer named Selta-Quaid, who limped on a stick and appeared to have been wounded in h
alf a dozen places from head to foot. The men had been woken and were standing to arms. Word had, of course, got round of what was toward. As they passed through the different groups there were murmurs of "Good luck, sir!"
"Tell 'em we're not beat yet, general!" "Bring us back a few sheep, sir!" and the like. It was plain that Ta-Kominion still retained their loyalty and confidence.
The short summer night was drawing to an end and the sky behind them paling. The wilderness seemed as empty and almost as silent as before, save for the first pipings of awakening birds. She herself felt ready to drop. She had been tired enough the night before, and had had only an hour or two of sleep.
But Sphelthon: ah! he was asleep now; deeply and peacefully. She could feel it in her heart, his peace, gleaming like dew on a meadow. He was gone, but had left his blessing upon her. She had poured out on his poor, far-away grave the offering of her night's fear and resolution, and it had been sufficient even for Frella-Tiltheh.
She was startled from these thoughts by her name being called from a distance. All four of them stopped in their tracks, listening. The sound was coming from some way off among the broken woodland. There was, to say the least, nothing furtive about it. It was like the crying of wares by a street-trader. "Maia! Maia!" Whoever was calling plainly did not care who heard him. After the long hours of stealth and whispering, the concealment and silence of the tense night wanderings, the effect seemed almost preternatural, a shattering of normality sharp as lightning or the sudden falling of a tree.
After a few moments Maia (who had recognized the voice) replied, "Here I am!" There was strenuous movement in the bushes some way off, a sound of running footsteps and next moment Zen-Kurel, armed, burst out of the undergrowth and halted a moment at the sight of the Ortelgans. Then he drew his sword.
Maia's companions instantly drew also, but she ran forward, stopping midway between them and Zen-Kurel.
"What's happened, captain? What's brought you here?"
He looked at her, opened his mouth to speak and then looked away, seeming out of countenance.