‘Luterin will kill you when he discovers what you are doing,’ she said.
‘Shut up and enjoy it, you hussy. I’ll take care of him when the time comes.’ He seized her in a bear’s embrace, and with his ankles wrapped about hers, parted her thighs, and thrust into her. His thrusting set the rickety bunk banging against the rail of the verandah.
Sharagatt was divided into two parts. There was Sharagatt and North Sharagatt. The two parts were close. Little more than a hundred yards and a clifflike corner of rock separated them. Sharagatt was protected by wedges of mountainside above it. On North Sharagatt cold katabatic winds poured, lowering the temperature by several degrees. The teams that made the northward journey were stabled only in North Sharagatt. Sharagatt itself would have made them soft.
It took Shokerandit two hours to see that all was arranged for the journey. He knew the folk he had to deal with. They were mountain people who called themselves Ondod, which meant — according to who was translating from their complex language — either ‘Spirit People’ or ‘Spirited People’.
One Ondod would be driver. With him would be his phagor slave. He had a good sledge and an eight-dog asokin team.
While he was inspecting the harness inch by inch, Toress Lahl appeared, her face pale and sullen.
‘It’s freezing here,’ she said listlessly.
He went over to the supplies he had acquired and brought back a woollen one-piece undergarment. Smiling, he handed it to her. ‘This is for you. Put it on now.’
‘Where?’
‘Here.’ He caught her meaning, glanced at the Ondod and phagors standing there. ‘Oh, these people have no shame. Put your new garment on.’
‘I’m the one with shame,’ she said. But she did as she was told, while the others watched smiling.
He went back to checking everything and interrogating their Ondod driver, by name Uuundaamp, a small person with brilliant black eyes, pockmarked cheeks, and a narrow moustache that faded out into lashes across his cheekbones. He was fourteen, and had made the difficult journey many times.
As Uuundaamp took Shokerandit out to see the team, Toress Lahl joined them in her new gear, glancing at the Ondod questioningly.
‘All drivers are young,’ Shokerandit told her. ‘They live on meat, and generally die young.’
At the back of the store, a door opened into a yard. Here were the pens, separated by high wire. Dirty snow lay on the ground. The noise of the dogs was deafening.
Uuundaamp walked the narrow path between the pens. On either side, asokins hurled themselves at the wire, teeth snapping, saliva running from their jaws. The horned dogs stood as high as a man’s hip, and were covered in thick fur, brown, white, grey, black, or mixed.
‘This our team — gumtaa team — very good asokin,’ Uuundaamp said, pointing out the contents of one pen and glancing slyly up at Shokerandit. ‘Before we go here, you two give one meat chunk for lead dog, make friend together him. Then you alway friend together him. Ishto?’
‘Which is the lead dog, the black one?’ Shokerandit asked.
Uuundaamp nodded. ‘Same black one, he lead dog. He name Uuundaamp, all same me. People say, he same size me, only not so fierce.’
The black asokin had finely marked and curled horns, pointing outwards at the ends. Uuundaamp’s body was covered with bristling black fur. Only his chest was white, and the underside of his tail. The Ondod Uuundaamp pointed out this latter feature; it was distinctive, making Uuundaamp easy for the rest of the pack to follow.
Uuundaamp turned to Toress Lahl. ‘Lady, to you warning. You give one meat this Uuundaamp, like I say. Then never no more. You never give no meat other asokin, understand? These asokin, they keep rules. We obey. Ishto?’
‘Ishto,’ she said. That mountain word of acceptance she had picked up on the way from Rivenjk.
He stared up at her, black eyes merry. ‘You big woman. I no feed you one piece meat. Beside, my woman, she come Kharnabhar together us. One thing more. Most important. Never you try pat these asokin, see? He take him hand like one piece meat.’
Toress Lahl shivered and laughed. ‘I wouldn’t dare try to pat them.’
‘We’ll collect. Fashnalgid and then we’ll be away,’ Shokerandit said when he had checked everything thoroughly. The stores and provisions were adequate; the sledge would not be overloaded. He linked his arm in hers. ‘You are well, aren’t you? It’s completely useless to be ill on the trail.’
‘Can’t we leave Fashnalgid behind?’
‘No. He’s okay. He’d be a good man if anything happened. Let me tell you that I am anxious in case the Oligarch’s agents are on our track. Perhaps they think that if we reach my father and tell him our history, he will turn the army against the Oligarchy. Many of my father’s associates are military. I checked here, and one of the sledges is booked to leave at fifteen — just an hour after us. They said that four men hired it. If we can leave earlier, all the better for us. I have a gun.’
‘I’m frightened. Can you trust these Ondod?’
‘They’re not human. They’re related to the Nondads of Campannlat. He’s got eight fingers on each hand — you’ll see when he takes his gloves off. They tolerate the phagors but they never really ally themselves with humans. They’re tricky. You must pay them and please them, or they can be difficult.’
While they were talking, they were walking back from North Sharagatt to Sharagatt. The change in temperature was marked.
She clung to his arm and said resentfully, ‘Why did you make me strip off in front of them? You don’t have to humiliate me just because I’m a slave.’
He laughed. ‘Oh, that was part of pleasing them. They wanted to see. They’ll think the better of me for it.’
‘I don’t think the better of you for it.’
‘Ah, but I am lead dog.’
She said viciously, ‘Why didn’t you come into my sleeping bag? Are you weird or something? Aren’t I supposed to be yours to biwack whenever you feel the urge?’
‘Oh, you want me now? That’s a change of tune.’ He gave a short angry laugh. ‘Then you’ll be pleased about tonight’s arrangements.’
They collected Fashnalgid, who was drinking spirits at a wayside stall. Shokerandit then spent a while in a small shop, haggling over the price of a bright yellow-and-red striped blanket. The inevitable pattern of the Great Wheel was woven among its stripes.
‘Beholder, how you waste your money!’ Fashnalgid said. ‘I thought you’d been so careful to get all the necessary supplies already.’
‘I like the look of this blanket. Pretty, isn’t it?’
He paid up and draped the colourful blanket over his shoulder before starting back for North Sharagatt. Other travellers took no apparent notice of him; all were dressed unpredictably against the cold mountain air. Fashnalgid looked on in amazement as, at another stall, Shokerandit paid dear for a skinned smoked kid.
A man at the North Travel Stores said that Uuundaamp was asleep. Shokerandit went alone to the makeshift dwelling carved from the rock at the back of the store, behind the asokin pens. Some Ondod were sitting on the floor eating strips of raw meat. Others slept with their women on shelves built against the cliff.
Uuundaamp was wakened, and came forward scratching his armpits and yawning, showing teeth almost as sharp as those of his animals.
‘You make hard chief, start three hour too much. I no your man till fifteen.’
‘Sorry. Look, I want to start soonest. I bring you present, ishto?’
He threw the smoked baby goat on the floor. Uuundaamp immediately sat down on the floor and called to his friends. He pulled out a knife and beckoned to Shokerandit with it. ‘All come eat, friend. Gumtaa. Then make quick start.’