By the fourth day, the land was gradually becoming less boggy. Aurian began to come across little strips of cultivated land with the odd tethered goat, and crude huts of woven rushes—the hovels of peasants and fishermen. This meant that she was forced to switch to traveling by night, hiding in the leech-haunted reed beds by day for lack of anywhere better. The constant danger of discovery placed a terrible strain on her nerves. She had hoped to be able to steal food from the peasants to supplement her inadequate diet of fish, but these people were so desperately poor and wretched that she could rarely bring herself to do it.
On the sixth night, Aurian came to land that was totally cultivated. Every precious bit of soil between the river and the cliffs had been used. The dwellings that she came across had a more solid appearance, constructed as they were from withy and daub, and thatched with the ubiquitous rushes. Stunted trees had begun to appear, and in addition to the welcome cover they provided in this more populated area, Aurian was delighted to discover that they bore a harvest of nuts, though in her own lands, these would be well out of season. Still, who was com plaining? Aurian thanked the Gods for such a boon.
Two nights later, as she rounded a bend where the lon^ river valley kinked back upon itself, Aurian came upon the city. The sight of it took the Mage completely by surprise, making her forget the weariness of eight days’ hard travel. She had never seen anything like it! Bone-white in the moonlight, the buildings clustered thickly on the flat ground on either side of the river, then rose almost vertically on perilously constructed terraces hollowed back into the cliffs that loomed above the valley on either side. Narrow, sinister-looking warships crowded the riverside wharves, together with smaller craft and low, flat barges whose workmanlike appearance was much more comforting.
The city was much bigger than the Mage had expected, and its architecture seemed strange to her. The roofs were flat, or domed, or twisted into slender, fluted spires. Doors and windows tended to be arched, rather than the square utilitarian shapes with which she was familiar. Impossible bridges, looking slender as threads from the ground, were suspended across the chasm hundreds, even a thousand feet above. The very thought of them made Aurian feel sick and dizzy with her irrational terror of heights. She was puzzled by the lack of protective walls, not realizing that beyond the cliffs the city was guarded by something more powerful, more terrifying, than any defense that man could devise.
Aurian pushed her draggled hair out of her eyes and tried to get her tired brain to work. It would be easy enough to get into the city, but once inside—what then? How could she find Anvar and Sara in a place that size? Were they there at all? Were they even still alive? Why, oh why had she left them in the first place? The questions circled in her mind, but she found no answers.
Belatedly remembering her exposed position, Aurian turned right, toward the cliffs, and took shelter in a grove of low, twisted trees. She recognized them from others she had encountered on her way upriver, and as she had expected they held a bountiful crop of ripe nuts. With the child in her belly sapping her energy ever more quickly, Aurian was starving. Hurriedly, before she lost the last of the moonlight behind the dizzying cliffs, she gathered a large pile of nuts then sat down m comfortable concealment =among the roots of an old tree to eat, cracking open the hard shells with the hilt of her dagger. Aurian felt better for the food. Turning to the problem at hand, she began to employ Forral’s method of breaking it into manageable steps. So what were the first steps here? Stop worrying, to begin with! If Anvar and Sara were here, she would find them. If not—she’d deal with that when the time came. But first things first. In order to enter the city without arousing suspicion, she must steal some clothes to replace her ragged fighting gear. She had to look enough like the natives to pass as one of them, so she would need to see what they looked like and come up with an appropriate disguise. Fortunately the language would be no problem. Having accomplished her disguise, she would need whatever passed for money in these parts. Aurian realized with grim amusement that she was about to add thievery to her growing collection of skills, both magical and martial. Stretching her aching limbs, she allowed herself to relax. Now that she had a plan of sorts, she could rest for a while, hidden in the sheltering trees, exhausted, she fell dead asleep among the roots of the tree.
MIC was still asleep at dawn, when the bird hunters came with their dogs and nets. The dogs were on her in a flash, their yelps awakening her just in time to draw her sword and defend herself from their masters. The hunters were no warriors. Aurian killed one, and put another two out of action before their comrades managed to bring her down in their nets. By that time the commotion had attracted other peasants from the fields around, and Aurian found herself lying helplessly tangled in the nets, in the midst of an astonished, vociferous crowd. “See that pale skin!” “Look at that hair—the color of blood!” “A warrior?” “A Demon?” “A woman!” “She killed poor Harz!” “Fetch the Elder!”
Elder be damned, Aurian thought, and moved her hand a little, to summon Fire-magic to burn away the nets. The movement was injudicious. The peasants saw, and a heavy blow from a stave sent her down into unconsciousness.
Aurian awoke with a blinding headache, to find herself lying on the marble floor of a long, white hall. She was trussed in the nets, which had been bound tightly with rope. Her staff was still in her belt, but her sword was gone. The Mage cursed softly. It looked as though she had been taken to the city, andt brief period of observation told her that she was in some kind ot hall of justice. The judges, she discovered, were respectfully addressed as Arbiters. There were three of them, dressed alik in long white robes and flowing white headdresses, sitting behind a table on a raised platform at the far end of the chamber. Their faces were masked in white, rendering them anonymous and expressionless. To Aurian it was an unnerving sight. In her country, white was the color of death.
From tales that Forral had told her, Aurian thought that the brown, dark-haired, fine-boned people must be the Khazalim. In that case, the use of her magic would mean instant death—and she had already seen the bowmen that stood guard on the balcony that circled the upper gallery of the hall, She decided to leave magic as a last resort—to wait, and see if she could bluff it out. While her captors awaited their turn, Aurian heard the Arbiters deal with other cases. The punishments were unremittingly harsh. The loss of a man’s hand theft; castration and stoning, respectively, for an adultei couple. Gods, what would it be for murder? Fear clenched a of ice in Aurian’s stomach, and she tensed herself, ready ttf her life dearly. Not here though, not with those bowm
they wanted to execute her, surely they would take her outside . . .
It was Aurian’s turn. Her captors dragged her before the impassive Arbiters and placed her upon her knees, still bound, while the village Elder, his face haggard through hardship and pitted with the scars of disease, told his story. When he had finished his tale the Arbiters turned to the Mage, and she felt their cold eyes pierce her, taking in her alien appearance. Then the man in the center of the trio spoke. “Have you aught to say for yourself?”
How thankful she was that as a Mage, she knew their language! Aurian’s brain had been working with the lightning speed of desperation to concoct a plausible story that might save her life. Since they seemed so keen on fidelity, she had decided on rape. Haltingly, Aurian explained that she had been I traveling with her husband and his sister (in case Anvar and Ir Sara were somewhere in the city) and that they had been blown [south by the storm and shipwrecked. She had lost the others r;and made her way upriver in search of them. Eventually, she ihad fallen asleep beneath the tree and had awakened to find Herself molested by a gang of ragged men (that part was true, at ny rate). Half asleep and believing that she was about to be raped, she had defended herself as best she could, She was prepared to die rather than yield herself to any man but her husband .