' 'Could be important, then,' said the tryzatt. ' 'Could be, if he's Ortelgan, and come to us with a message from Bekla. Can you tell us who you are?' he asked Kelderek, who met his eye but answered nothing.
'I reckon he's come from Bekla, but something's put things out of his mind, like – shock and that,' said the first soldier.
'That'll be it,' said the tryzatt. 'He's an Ortelgan – been working secretly for Lord Elleroth One-Hand maybe: and either those swine in Bekla tortured him – look what they did to the Ban, burned his bloody hand off, the bastards – or else his wits are turned with wandering all this way north to find us.'
'Poor devil, he looks all in,' said a dark man with a broad belt of Sarkid leatherwork bearing the Corn-Sheaves emblem. 'He must have walked till he dropped. After all, we couldn't be much further north if we tried, could we?'
'Well,' said the tryzatt, 'whatever it is, we'd better take him along. I've got to make a report by sunset, so the captain can sort him out then. Listen,' he said, raising his voice and speaking very slowly, in order to make sure that the foreigner standing two feet away from him could understand a language he did not know, 'you – come -with us. You – give – message – Captain, see?'
'Message,' replied Kelderek at once, repeating the Yeldashay. 'Message – Shardik.' He stopped and broke into a fit of coughing, leaning over his staff.
'All right, now don't you worry,' said the tryzatt reassuringly, buckling his belt, which he had slackened for the purpose of talking. 'We' – he pointed, miming with his hands – 'take – you – town -Captain – right? You'd better lend him a hand,' he added to the two men nearest him. 'We'll be 'alf the mucking night else.'
Kelderek, his arms drawn over the soldiers' shoulders for support, went with them down the hill. He was glad of their help, which was given respectfully enough – for they were uncertain what rank of man he might be. He for his part understood hardly a word of their talk and was in any case preoccupied in trying to remember what message it was that he had to send, now that he had at last found the soldiers who had vanished so mysteriously in the dawn. Perhaps, he thought, they might have some food to spare.
The main part of the army was encamped in the meadows outside the walls of Kabin, for the town and its inhabitants were being treated with clemency and in such dwellings as had been commandeered there was room for no more than the senior officers, their aides and servants and the specialist troops, such as scouts and pioneers, who were under the direct control of the commander-in-chief. The tryzatt and his men, who belonged to these, entered the town gates just as they were about to be shut for the night and, ignoring questions from comrades and bystanders, conducted Kelderek to a house under the south wall. Here a young officer wearing the stars of Ikat questioned him, first in Yeldashay and then, seeing that he understood very little, in Beklan. To this Kelderek replied that he had a message. Pressed, he repeated ' Bekla' but could say no more; and the young officer, unwilling to browbeat him and pitying his starved and filthy condition, gave orders to let him wash, eat and sleep. Next morning, as one of the cooks, a kindly fellow, was again washing his gashed arm, a second, older officer came into the room, accompanied by two soldiers, and greeted him with straightforward civility.
'My name is Tan-Rion,' he said in Beklan. 'You must excuse our haste and curiosity, but to an army in the field time is always precious. We need to know who you are. The tryzatt who found you says that you came to him of your own accord and told him that you had a message from Bekla. If you have a message, perhaps you can tell me what it is.'
Two full meals, a long and comfortable night's sleep and the attentions of the cook had calmed and to some extent restored Kelderek.
'The message – should have gone to Bekla,' he answered haltingly, 'but the best chance – is lost now.'
The officer looked puzzled. To Bekla? You are not bringing a message to us, then?' 'I – have to send a message.' 'Is your message to do with the fighting in Bekla?' 'Fighting?' asked Kelderek.
'You know that there has been a rising in Bekla? It began about nine days ago. As far as we know, fighting is still going on. Have you come from Deelguy, or whence?'
Confusion descended again upon Kelderek's mind. He was silent and the officer shrugged his shoulders.
'I am sorry – I can see that you are not yourself – but time may well be very short. We shall have to search you – that for a start'
Kelderek, who had become no stranger to humiliation, stood unresisting as the soldiers, not ungently and with a kind of rough courtesy, set about their task. They placed their findings on the window ledge – a stale crust, a strip of cobbler's leather, a reaper's whetstone which he had found lying in a ditch two days before, a handful of dried, aromatic herbs which the gate-keeper's wife had given him against lice and infection, and a talisman of red-veined stone which must once have belonged to Kavass.
'All right, mate,' said one of the soldiers, handing him back his jerkin. 'Steady, now. Nearly done, don't worry.'
Suddenly the other soldier whistled, swore under his breath and then, without another word, held out to the officer on the palm of his hand a small, bright object which glittered in the sunlight. It was the stag emblem of Santil-ke-Erketlis.
37 Lord One-Hand
The officer, startled, took the emblem and examined it, drawing the chain through the ring and fastening the clasp carefully, as though to allow himself time to think. At length, with an uncertainty that he had not shown before, he said, 'Will you be good enough to – to tell me – I am sure you will understand why I have to know -whether this is your own?'
Kelderek held out his hand in silence but the officer, after a moment's hesitadon, shook his head.
'Have you come here in search of the Commander-in-Chief himself? Perhaps you are a member of his household? If you can tell me it will make my task easier.'
Kelderek, to whom the memory was now beginning to return of much that had befallen him since leaving Bekla, sat down upon the bed and put his head in his hands. The officer waited patiently for him to speak. At last Kelderek said, 'Where is General Zelda? If he is here, I must sec him immediately.' 'General Zelda?' replied the officer in bewilderment.
One of the soldiers spoke to him in a low voice and together they went to the further end of the room.
'This man's an Ortelgan, sir,' said the soldier, 'or else I'm one myself.'
'I know that,' replied Tan-Rion. 'What of it? He's some agent of Lord Elleroth who's lost his wits.'
'I doubt he is, sir. If he's an Ortelgan, then clearly he's not a household officer of the Commander-in-Chief. You heard him ask for General Zelda. I agree it's plain that some shock's confused his mind, but my guess is that he's made his way into the middle of the wrong army without realizing it. If you come to think of it, he'd hardly be expecting to find us here in Kabin.' Tan-Rion considered.
'He could still have come by that emblem honestly. In his case it might be no more than a token to prove who he was working for. Nobody knows what strange people may have been reporting direct to General Erketlis or carrying his messages these last few months. Suppose, for instance, that Lord Elleroth made use of this man while he was in Bekla? When is General Erketlis expected to return, have you heard?'
'Not until the day after tomorrow, sir. He got wind of a big slave-column on the move west of Thettit-Tonilda and heading for Bekla; to reach it in time meant some very hard going, so the General took a hundred men from the Falaron regiment and said he'd do the job himself.'
'Very like him. I'm only afraid he may try that sort of thing once too often. Well, at that rate I suppose we'll have to keep this man until he gets back.'