‘What was the verdict?’ Laintal Ay asked Dathka immediately, coming to his side.
‘Open.’
‘He won’t stop her leaving if she’s bent on it?’
‘Depends how much he drinks during the night, he and Eline Tal and that crew — and that wretched hanger-on, Raynil Layan.’
‘She’s getting old, Dathka; should we allow her to go?’
He shrugged, using one of his favourite gestures, and looked at Vry and Oyre, who were standing close and listening. ‘Let’s leave with Shay Tal before Aoz Roon has us killed — I’m game if these two ladies will come too. We’ll head for Sibornal, the group of us.’
Oyre said, ‘My father would never kill you and Laintal Ay. That’s wild talk, whatever happened in the past.’
Another shrug from Dathka. ‘Are you prepared to vouch for his behaviour when Shay Tal’s gone? Can we trust him?’
‘That’s all over long ago,’ Oyre said. ‘Father’s settled happily with Dol now, and they don’t quarrel as much as they used, now a baby’s coming.’
Laintal Ay said, ‘Oyre, the world’s wide. Let’s leave with Shay Tal, as Dathka suggests, and make a new start. Vry, we’ll take you with us — you’ll be in danger here without Shay Tal’s support.’
Vry had not spoken. In her usual unobtrusive way, she merely formed part of the group; but she said now, firmly, ‘I can’t leave here. Dathka, I am complimented by your kind suggestion, but I must stay, whatever Shay Tal does. My work is yielding results at last, as I hope soon to announce.’
‘You still can’t bear my presence, can you?’ he said, looking grim.
‘Oh, I almost forgot something,’ she said sweetly.
She turned, evading Dathka’s brooding gaze, and pushed through the women to Shay Tal’s side.
‘You must measure all distances, Shay Tal. Don’t forget. Have a slave count the number of hoxney strides every day, with the direction taken. Write down details every night. Find out how far away the country of Sibornal is. Be as precise as you can.’
Shay Tal was majestic in the midst of the weeping and chattering that filled her chamber. Her hawk face preserved a closed look whenever addressed, as if already her spirit was remote from them. She said little, and that little was uttered in unemotional tones.
Dathka, after staring blankly at the walls, with their elaborate patterning of lichen, looked at Laintal Ay with his head on one side and gestured to the door. When Laintal Ay shook his head, Dathka made a characteristic moue and slipped out. ‘Pity you can’t train women like hoxneys,’ he said, as he disappeared.
‘At least he is consistently revolting,’ Oyre said disdainfully. She and Vry took Laintal Ay into a corner and began whispering to him. It was essential that Shay Tal should not leave on the morrow; he must help persuade her to wait for the following day.
‘That’s absurd. If she wants to go, she must go. We’ve been over all this. First you will not leave, now you don’t want her to leave. There’s a world out beyond the barricades you know nothing about.’
She coolly picked a sliver of straw from his hoxneys. ‘Yes, the world of conquest. I know — I hear enough of it from Father. The point is, there will be an eclipse tomorrow.’
‘That’s general knowledge. It’s a year since the last one.’
‘Tomorrow will be rather different, Laintal Ay,’ Vry said, warningly. ‘We simply wish Shay Tal to postpone her departure. If she leaves here on the day of the eclipse, people will associate the two events. Whereas we know there is no connection.’
Laintal Ay frowned. ‘What of it?’
The two women looked uneasily at each other.
‘We think that if she leaves tomorrow, ill things may follow.’
‘Ha! So you do believe there is a connection… The workings of the female mind! If the connection exists, then there’s no way we can evade it, is there?’
Oyre clutched her face in exaggerated disgust. ‘The male mind… Any excuse not to do anything, eh?’
‘You witches will meddle with what is no concern of ours.’
In disgust, they left him standing in the corner and pressed back into the crowd round Shay Tal.
The old women still chattered away, speaking of the miracle at Fish Lake, speaking obliquely, looking obliquely, to see if their reminiscences registered on the preoccupied Shay Tal. But Shay Tal gave no sign that she heard or saw them.
‘You look proper fed up with life,’ Rol Sakil commented. ‘Maybe when you reach this Sibornal, you’ll marry and settle down happily — if men are made there as they’re made here.’
‘Perhaps they’re made better there,’ another old woman responded, amid laughter. Various suggestions as to improvements were bandied about.
Shay Tal continued to pack, without smiling.
Her belongings were few. When she had finally assembled them in two skin bags, she turned to the crowd in her room and requested them to leave, as she desired to rest before her journey. She thanked them all for coming, blessed them, and said she would never forget them. She kissed Vry on the forehead. Then she summoned Oyre and Laintal Ay to her side.
She clutched one of Laintal Ay’s hands in her two thin ones, looking with unusual tenderness into his eyes. She spoke only when all but Oyre had left her room.
‘Be wary in all you do, for you are not self-seeking enough, you do not take enough care for yourself. You understand, Laintal Ay? I’m glad you have not struggled for the power that you may feel is your birthright, for it would only bring you sorrow.’
She turned to Oyre, her face lined with seriousness.
‘You are dear to me, for I know how dear you are to Laintal Ay. My council to you as we part is this: become his woman with all speed. Don’t put conditions on your heart, as I did, as your father once did — that leads to inevitable wretchedness, as I understand too late. I was too proud when young.’
Oyre said, ‘You are not wretched. You are still proud.’
‘One may be both wretched and proud. Heed what I say, I who understand your difficulties. Laintal Ay is the nearest thing I shall ever have to a son. He loves you. Love him — not just emotionally, also physically. Bodies are for roasting, not smoking.’
She looked down at her own dried flesh, and nodded them farewell.
Batalix was setting, true night descending.
Traders came to Oldorando in increasing numbers, and from all points of the compass. The important salt trade was conducted from the north and south, whence it arrived often by goat train. There was now a regular track from Oldorando westwards across the veldt, trodden by traders from Kace, who brought gaudy things such as jewels, stained glass, toys, silvery musical instruments, as well as sugar cane and rare fruits; they preferred money to barter, but Oldorando had no currency, so they accepted herbs, skin, suede, and grain instead. Sometimes the men from Kace used stungebags as beasts of burden, but the animals became rarer as the weather grew warmer.
Traders and priests still called from Borlien, although they had learned long ago to fear their treacherous northern neighbour. They sold pamphlets and broadsheets that told lurid tales in rhyme, and fine metal pots and pans.
From the east, by divergent ways, came many traders, and sometimes caravans. Dark little men with enslaved populations of Madis or phagors plied regular routes, on which Oldorando was merely one port of call. They brought delicately wrought ornaments and decorations which the women of Oldorando loved. Rumour had it that some of those women fared onwards with the dark men; certain it was that the easterners traded in young Madi women, who looked wild and lovely, but pined away when shut in a tower. Bad though their reputation was, the traders were tolerated for their wares — not decorations only, but woven rugs, carpets, tapestries, shawls, such as Oldorando had never seen before.