They went fifty yards or so—a difficult jerky fifty yards, because Olob was extremely frightened and did not want to move, in spite of the names the soldier called him—and came to a steep road branching to the right. The soldier dragged Olob into it. Moril had forgotten this road. It worried him that Kialan would have to cross it on his way to the last Upland.
“Where does this road go?” he asked Brid.
“To a sort of extra valley at one side,” Brid said. “We camped here the year before last. Don’t you remember? Moril, they will let us go, won’t they?”
Moril glanced down at the soldiers. “We haven’t done anything wrong,” he said carefully. But the wine jar came into his mind as he said it, and he wondered why on earth he had not left it behind somewhere.
A twig snapped in the wood up to the right. Moril looked up. And looked away quickly, in case the soldiers noticed. He had a very clear sight of Kialan staring down at the cart, alarmed and rather puzzled, as if he had not gathered what was going on. Moril stared at the steep road ahead and tried to will Kialan to cross the road while he had the chance and go on North. But he was very much afraid Kialan intended to follow the cart.
The trees opened like the end of a tunnel, and they came out into the valley. Brid gave a little moan. Beyond two groups of soldiers, evidently on guard, were tents, weapons, horses, and many more soldiers, as far as they could see. It was a long, thin valley, and winding, so that half of it was out of sight. But they had no doubt that the part of it they could not see was also full of soldiers and weapons and tents.
The nearest tent was a very large one. There was a chair outside it, and in that chair sat Tholian. His head turned as the cart came out from among the trees. As far as he could tell from this distance, Moril thought Tholian smiled. And he saw that Clennen’s method was not going to help them here. In fact, he doubted if any method was going to be much use.
“Get down,” one of the soldiers said to Brid and Moril.
They climbed down, Brid a little awkward in her boots, Moril clutching the cwidder, and stood where they had a lower and even busier view of the teeming valley ahead. Moril dimly remembered that the year before last there had been fields and crops growing here. There was no sign of them now. As they were taken toward Tholian, he saw nothing but men drilling and training, all down the valley. It was filled with orders and curses, and the thick warm smell of many people and horses. The grass, and any crops there might have been, were trampled to earth, except for a green stretch round the large tent where Tholian sat.
Tholian signaled to the soldiers to make Brid and Moril stand to one side of the patch of grass, and turned his pale eyes from them to the soldiers. “Just these two in the cart?” he asked.
Moril seized the opportunity to look over his shoulder to see what had become of Olob and the cart. He was glad to find one of the soldiers struggling to tie the unwilling Olob to a tree beside the road.
“Could I have your attention, cousin?” he heard Tholian say, and he turned back hurriedly. Tholian sounded irritated. But when Moril looked at him, he was smiling. He could have been friendly in spite of his queer, shallow eyes. “We are related, aren’t we?” he said.
Moril thought about it. “I suppose so. But it’s Mother who’s your cousin.”
“Once removed,” said Tholian. “Which makes us twice removed, I believe.”
“I’m surprised you acknowledge it at all,” said Brid. “Considering—”
“Why not?” said Tholian. “It doesn’t hurt you. But don’t deceive yourselves into thinking your mother’s going to get a penny of dowry out of me. I’m content to do as my grandfather wanted. Ganner’s a fool if he thinks I’m going to make him rich on Lenina’s account.”
This seemed a very odd thing for Tholian to start talking about. Moril wondered if he was a trifle mad. “I shouldn’t think Ganner does think that,” he said.
“He’s fond of Mother, you see,” explained Brid.
Tholian laughed. “Fool, isn’t he?” He was so contemptuous that Brid all but sprang to Ganner’s defense. “But I stayed for the wedding,” Tholian said, before Brid could speak, “which was more than you did. You threw Ganner into a fine old fuss by leaving like that, you know. Your mother took it much more calmly. So I promised them I’d look out for you on the road and send you back to Markind when I found you.”
“That was kind of you,” Brid said coldly. Nevertheless, both she and Moril were beginning to feel distinctly easier. If Tholian were regarding them simply as silly young relations and himself as doing Ganner a favor, then the position was nothing like as bad as they had feared. It would be exasperating to be sent back to Markind, but at least Kialan, with luck, could get North on foot from here.
“Didn’t Mother recognize you?” Moril said slowly, rather puzzled at the way Tholian was now being a friend of the family.
“Of course,” Tholian said, not at all disconcerted. “But as I’m Ganner’s overlord, there wasn’t much she could say. Not that she would. She has a way of saying things in silence, your mother. By the way, what became of your brothers?”
They saw he had just been showing them how much he knew. It gave them both a jolt. Moril reacted best, because he was able to rely on his habitual sleepy look. He went on staring at Tholian in a vague, friendly way, though he had never felt less vague or less friendly in his life. But Brid was so shaken that she had to put on an act.
“Funny you should ask,” she said, with artificial brightness. “We don’t quite know—”
“Yes, we do, Brid,” Moril said, fearing she was going to babble herself into trouble. “Dagner went back to Markind.” It was a risky thing to say, but Moril knew that if Tholian already knew that Dagner had been arrested and why, it did not matter what he said anyway.
“Did he, indeed?” said Tholian, and there was no telling whether he had heard about Dagner or not. “And what about the other brother—er—Collen, was it?”
Moril knew Tholian had not seen Kialan in Markind. If he had, none of them would have been allowed to leave. He must have heard Ganner talk about him later. And no one would be surprised to find Ganner had got something wrong. Moril opened his mouth to say they had not got another brother, but Brid, to his annoyance, came in first, with tremendous verve: “Oh, Collen! He’s so stupid you never know what he’ll do! But we think he went with Dagner.”
“Curious,” said Tholian. His untrustworthy eyes slid over Brid, and over her again. “Now I thought I was reliably informed that there were three of you giving a show in Updale this morning.”
That had obviously been a fatal mistake. But how could they have known Tholian was so near? The only thing to do was to say that the third one had been Dagner. Moril drew a breath to say it, but once more, Brid rushed in. “Yes, of course. But that’s what I was telling you. Collen went back after that. He said he was going to Neathdale and he—er—he got a lift in a farm wagon.”
Moril sadly wished that Brid would let him do the talking. Brid was not as clever as she thought she was. No doubt she had thought she was doing very well, but she had first admitted Kialan’s existence and now that he was quite near, and Moril knew there was no need to have done either. Tholian had never seen Kialan in their company. He was only going by guess. But now he was almost certain. He was looking at Brid, worrying her by just looking, and obviously enjoying the way he was worrying her.