CHAPTER TWENTY EIGHT

It was afternoon by the time Pau was ready to leave, and then he made a detour into the town to buy, with the last of the fugitives’ money, dry straw for their bedding which was tied into bundles and put on to Arc, one of the donkeys.
A cart track follows the course of the River So. After crossing the open country surrounding the town, it pierces the endless Eujinni forest, its meandering route sometimes taking it to the river's edge and at other times so far away from it that Chaldez worried that they had missed a hidden fork and were now going in the wrong direction. And then another worry would assail him: that they would be attacked by bandits. Pau's repeated assurances that they were safe did little to ease his mind. The four of them seemed very vulnerable.
When close to the river, he gazed across its great width to the mysterious opposite bank, or glanced at the grey water seething and swirling slowly by. The river gave the impression of massive power, and he supposed it was deep enough to cover the highest tower.
As they ambled along at the unhurried pace of the two donkeys, Pau explained how he had had warning of the raid on the camp. He had gone into the town, he said, to buy provisions, and was haggling over the price of a rabbit when a rider had galloped by, shouting a warning that a troop of king's men was coming. It could only have meant trouble for the townsfolk, and the streets quickly emptied.
"I came back to tell Tassin," he said, "and she knew at once the danger you were in."
"What did I tell you?" cried Dan triumphantly. "Arwarnhi still protects you! Believe me, Chaldez, you will be a king yet."
For the first time since his conversation with Tassin the previous day Chaldez smiled, but he said nothing.
They walked all day without coming to a single village or hamlet. Once or twice they passed a clearing where someone was cultivating some poor-looking crops, but they saw no one.
That night they slept out, Pau showing Dan and Chaldez how to construct a shelter for themselves from leafy branches. Afterwards they helped him put up the tent, while Tassin cooked rabbit and flat bread on the hot stones around her fire.
The next day the forest gave way to a patch of open country and they came to a town. Chaldez and Pau played their zarathas and sang Sairish songs about Beddeka the Warrior, and Dan practised his sleight-of-hand on those townsfolk who were gullible enough to be tricked. By night-fall they had enough money to pay for a meal and beds in a rough inn.
For the next few days the pattern of their life changed little; sometimes they slept out, and when they came to a town they made what money they could, bought provisions and slept beneath a proper roof.
Sorrin, the capital, announced itself long before it came into view. The forest retreated from the river so that it was no more than a dark smudge in the distance, and the open countryside was well populated. In every town and village ferrymen touted for business. Chaldez became alarmed. He had thought they were going to avoid Sorrin.
"It's on the other bank," Pau told him. "We were bound to pass it, but you'll be perfectly safe. Well, tell me, who would think that a travelling minstrel was the Prince Chaldez, and that a magician was his chief minister? If we keep our heads nothing can go wrong."

"And if it does go wrong," Dan put in, "We won't keep our heads!" He laughed at his own joke, but Chaldez only frowned.
As they walked along at the pace of the two laden donkeys he wondered if he would recognise the city, but there was nothing familiar about the towers and jumbled grey roofs when eventually they came into sight. He had thought it to be the greatest city in the world, and yet from where he now was it looked quite modest. He recalled Raggan, the Kroyan port, and judged it to be more imposing. But whatever Sorrin's appearance, he could not be indifferent to it. For almost as long as he could remember it had had been the repository of all his hopes, and lately, of course, it had promised not only to reverse his fortunes but also to re-unite him with Doo.
How its aspect had changed! Now it menaced his very life.
A low bridge with a multitude of arches spans the river, linking the capital with a smaller town on their side of the river.
Despite Pau's calm reassurances, Chaldez became very nervous. Tassin insisted on stopping to buy some provisions, and a troop of king's men so alarmed Chaldez that he would have taken to his heels had Dan not gripped his arm and held him where he was.
Only when the town was well behind them did Chaldez begin to relax.
Pau said they would cross the river a bit farther up; in fact the forest was beginning to close in and they were passing through perhaps the last of the villages in the region when he suggested that they inquire for a ferryman.
The village is a dank, gloomy, dilapidated place, squeezed up against a high over-hanging cliff, festooned with creepers. The ferryman was mending the bottom of his boat, and appeared not to know where another crossing might be made. His repair, he said, would soon be done, so they decided to wait.
He worked unbelievably slowly, and it was two days before he could be persuaded to put his boat in the water, and even then it leaked.
On the far bank Dan called as they parted: "I hope it sinks under you!" and the ferryman shook his fist at them.
The cart track they now joined is similar to the one they had left, and the forest on this side of the river is just as dense and monotonous. Chaldez began to feel oppressed by it; none of them spoke much.
During the second night after their crossing it rained, and it rained throughout the next day, so they stayed where they were.
Pau said he would show them how to set snares. Dan was interested, but Chaldez remained huddled in the shelter they had made, staring out at the rain-blackened tree trunks and listening to the incessant patter of dripping water.
Tassin looked in at him. "There's no need for you to be out here," she said. "Come into the tent."
Reluctantly he crossed over to the tent. He had to bend down low to get in, his body blocking out the light so that he could not see anything.
"I'm here!" called Tassin softly.
Having moved farther in, he could now see that she was lying down, furs pulled up to her chin. They covered her completely except for a mesmerising sliver of smooth white thigh. Her lips betraying just the hint of a smile, she slowly, deliberately pulled the furs to one side, revealing her naked body. One languorous hand lay casually on the place which most fascinated him.

"Take your clothes off, Chaldez," she said, moving her hand. For a while he stood perfectly still while his eyes toured the vision at his feet, lingering on the soft, spreading breasts, the curve of her belly, and especially the dark triangle at the apex of her long, slender thighs.
When he did join her on the bed he was in too much of a hurry to do her justice, but she was good humoured about it. "I expect there's more where that came from?" she said, smiling.
Chaldez, his immediate excitement dissipated, became uncomfortably aware that he was trespassing. He asked about Pau.
"Do you think he would have gone without you if he minded what would happen?" she asked. She stroked his arm and when next she spoke her voice was hardly more than a whisper: "It takes him all day to set his snares," she said.
The thought that he had her husband's consent had an immediate effect on Chaldez, and he made fierce, ecstatic love. Tassin responded with erotic vigour.
When Pau and Dan returned it had stopped raining, and they found Tassin and Chaldez making a fire.
"You should have come," Dan said. "I've learnt a lot today."
"He's been very useful here," said Tassin. "I'd never have got my fire going without him - would I Chaldez?"
He was too embarrassed to reply.
That evening he tried to detect any change in Pau's demeanour, but the musician was very relaxed and in good spirits.
The following morning, very early, Dan, Chaldez and Pau inspected the traps and made a triumphant return bearing the prize of a wild piglet. Pau cleaned the carcass, they packed up, and well before mid-day were on the move again. That evening they had a feast, and the next day they came to a town.
None of them, it seemed, was anxious to exchange its bustle and interest for the gloomy monotony of the forest, and for their part, the townsfolk enjoyed the music which Chaldez and Pau played for them in the market square, and Dan took more money than he had ever done.
On the third day of their stay he was performing his favourite trick when a voice from the small crowd of on-lookers called out and accused him of cheating.
Dan blanched.
His challenger was insistent. "You're a charlatan!" he cried. "Here, I'll show you good people some real magic," and so saying he threw back the hood which had been covering his head.
Dan's sense of relief was expressed in a shout of joy. The stranger was his tutor and friend from the fair, Habre. The two embraced each other like long lost brothers.
Habre's wife, Eonni, whom Dan had been so much in love with, joined them. Then Tassin passed by, and soon there was a general re-union.
"Where are the others?" Chaldez asked, thinking at once of Meryn.
Habre explained that after visiting Sorrin, the fair had split up, part of it heading east towards the kingdom of Yeisia and part of it going north towards the territories of Sair Jy-Din. He and Eonni, he said, were returning to their homeland of Boa-Isgaad, an island possession of the great Sei Empire.
Chaldez had no idea where Boa-Isgaad was; he had not heard of it before, but mention of the Sei Empire excited him. He and the empire, he reflected, had a mutual enemy in Sigmar who had raped the imperial possessions of Laifya. Might they not, therefore, be mutual friends? The possibility intrigued him, but he said nothing. It was Dan who found out that in going to Boa-Isgaad, Habre and Eonni would have to pass through the lands of the Soans.
"Well then," he said, as though the matter was settled, "we'll travel together!"
Chaldez greeted the idea with such enthusiasm that even if Pau had had reservations, he dared not show them. And so it was agreed: the six of them would form their own travelling troop - for the time being, anyway.