"Merciful Zoria," she said quietly. "It's huge!"
"Some say Hierosol is bigger," Teodoros replied, wiping at his streaming forehead and cheeks. "But I think that is not true anymore." He smiled. "I forgot, you haven't seen Tessis before, have you?"
Briony shook her head, unable to think of anything to say. She felt very
small. How could she ever have felt that South march was so important an equal sister to nations like Syan? Any thought of revealing hersclf to the Syannese and asking for help suddenly seemed foolish. They would laugh at her, or ignore her.
"None other like it," Teodoros said." 'Fair white walls on which the gods themselves did smile, and towers that stirred the clouds, as the poet Vanderin put it. Once the entire world was theirs."
"It… it looks as though they still own a good share," said Briony.
By all the gods, she thought as they rolled down the wide thoroughfare, jostled and surrounded by dozens of other wagons and hundreds of other foot travelers, Finn says this is not even the biggest street in Tessis-that Lantern Broad is twice the size-but it's still wider across than Market Square!
She had never before in her life felt so much like-what had Finn called her that first day? "A straw-covered bumpkin just off the channel boat from Connord." Well, she might have been annoyed at the time, but it had turned out to be a fair assessment, because here she was gaping at everything like the ripest peasant at his first fair. They were still at least a mile from the city gates-she could see the crowned guard towers looming ahead like ar¬mored giants out of legend-but they were already passing through a thriv¬ing metropolis bigger and busier than the heart of Southmarch.
"Where are we going to stay?" she asked Teodoros, who was happily en¬sconced in the wagon again, watching it all pass by.
"An agreeable inn just in the shadow of the eastern gate," he called down. "We have stayed there before. I have made the arrangements for a tennight's stay, which will give us plenty of time to smooth the wrinkles out of Zona before we go looking for a spot closer to the center of town."
Feival Ulian wandered back. "You know, Finn, I know the fellow who built the Zosimion Theater near Hierarch's College Bridge. I heard that he's having trouble finding anyone to mount some work-a feud with the Royal Master of Revels or some such. I'll wager it's free."
"Good, Perhaps we shall move there after the inn."
"It might be free now…"
"No!" Teodoros seemed to realize that he'd been a bit harsh in his re¬fusal. "No, I've just… I've made the arrangements, already, good Feival. At the inn in Chakki's Hole. We would not get our money back."
Feival shrugged. "Certainly. But should I see if I can find out, for later…?"
"By all means." leodoros smiled anil nodded, as if trying to make up lot his earlier loud refusal.
Briony was a little puzzled by Finn's vehemence, but she had other things on her mind. She was merely floating, she realized-letting herself be swept along this road and through this foreign land like a leaf on a stream. In fact, she had been swept along ever since meeting the demigod dess Lisiya-only some three dozens day ago, yet already it seemed like a dream from her distant childhoold. She reached into her shirt and patted the charm Lisiya had given her, stroked the small, smooth bird skull. What should she do now? The demigoddess had only pointed her toward the players, but had told her nothing of what she should do or where she should go next. Briony suspected Lisiya wanted her to make her own de¬cisions, that in some way she was being tested-wasn't that what gods did to mortals?
But why? No one ever explained that curious whim. Why should the gods care whether mortals are worthy of anything? It was a bit like a person walking around in a stable, testing all the animals to see which were pure of heart or particularly clever, so they could be rewarded and the other beasts pun¬ished. She supposed people might do that to find which were the most obe¬dient animals-was that the gods' reasoning?
See, here I am, drifting again, she chided herself. What is Briony Eddon going to do now, that's the question. What's next? Before his death in the fire, Shaso had talked about raising an army, or at least enough men in arms to protect her when she revealed herself, a force to defend her from the Tollys' treach¬ery. He had talked of appealing to the Syannese king for troops and here she was in Syan. Most of all she wanted to go to Hierosol where her father was prisoner-she ached to see his face, to hear his voice-but she knew it was a foolish idea, that at best she would only join him in captivity. Shaso would tell her to cast her dice here, among old allies.
But would that be a good suggestion, or would it simply be Shaso, the old soldier, thinking as old soldiers did-no other way to reclaim a king¬dom except by force of arms?
Thinking of the old man scalded her heart, the terrible injustice she and her brother had done him, caging him like an animal for months and months… And now he is dead. Because of me. Because of my foolishness, my headstrong mistakes, my… my…
"Tim? Tim, what's wrong?" It was Feival, his handsome face full of sur¬prised concern. "Why are you weeping, pet?"
Briony wiped angrily at her cheeks. Could it be possible to act more like a girl? It was a good tiling all the players knew her secret. "Just…just thinking of something. Of someone."
Feival nodded wisely and turned away.
The tavern called The False Woman-a somewhat ill-omened name, 13riony couldn't help feeling, considering her own nested impostures- crouched in the corner of an old, beaten-down market in the northeastern part of the city, a neighborhood known as Chakki's Hole after the Chakkai people from the mountains of south Perikal who had come to the city as laborers and made this maze of dark streets their new home. The Hole, as inhabitants often called it, was so close to the high city walls that even just past noon on a clear day the winter sun was blocked and the whole neigh¬borhood in shade. One of the city's dozens of canals neatly separated it from the rest of the Perikalese district.
The sign hanging above the tavern doorway showed a woman with two faces, one fair and one foul, and a pointed hat of a type that hadn't been worn in a century or more. The taverner, a stout, mustached fellow named Bedoyas, ushered them through into the innyard with the air of a man forced to stable someone else's animals in his own bedroom. "Here. I'll send my boy around for the horses. You will drive not a single nail into my wood without my permission, understood?"
"Understood, good host," said Finn. "And if anyone is asking for us, send them to me. My name is Teodoros."
When Bedoyas had stumped off to see to other guests (not that he seemed to be overwhelmed with custom this winter) Briony helped the company begin setting up a stage-the most permanent they had built since she had been with them, because they would now be at least a ten-night in one place. Several of the men were in truth more carpenters than performers, and at least three of the shareholding players, Dowan Birch, Feival, and Pedder Makewell himself, had worked in the building trades.
Hewney claimed he had as well, but Finn Teodoros loudly suggested otherwise.
"What rubbish are you spouting, fat man?" Hewney was helping Feival and two of the others lash together the barrels that would be pillars for the stage. They did not bother to bring their own, since most inns had more than a few empties to spare, and The False Woman was no exception. "I have built more houses than you've eaten hot suppers!"
"You must have set up Tessis by yourself, then," said I'edder Makewell. "Look at the size of our Finn!"