Lewvin, when she heard Pemmel's command not to wait, guessed that he would try to hold the bridge, and indeed, she heard the shouted exchange between him and their pursuers, and the cry of the dying man. It momentarily paralysed her with fear, but she allowed the horse to continue its steady trot, only knowing that she must leave the valley road as soon as she could. A track went off to the right and she made the horse follow it. Eventually they came to a hamlet, and among the wretched hovels there she found a broken-down barn. There was dry straw inside, but no sooner had the nurse settled down on it than Chaldez, who had been sleeping, awoke and began to cry.
Almost at once the flickering light of a rush torch appeared in the doorway and two figures came through. As they advanced, Lewvin saw that they were a man and a woman, their thin bodies dressed in the coarse, worn clothes of poor peasants. She decided to trust them, and hope they believed her fantastic story of trying to save a prince from his murderers.
The only name that meant anything to them was that of the king. They looked at Chaldez doubtfully; they had heard nothing of a princeling. Then suddenly the woman went down on her knees to the baby and kissed the corner of the skin that he was wrapped in; she had just seen the silver pin which fastened one of Lewvin's bundles, and never having set eyes on such a wonderful contrivance before recognised it as a sure sign of royalty. She whispered urgently to her husband, and he too made obeisance. Then she invited the nurse to bring Chaldez into her hovel. Lewvin was not sure if the invitation extended to her, but followed all the same.
The hovel stank; the woman drove out the five children who were lying around the blackened hearth in the centre, and made room for Chaldez and his nurse. Lewvin satisfied herself that the pair were unlikely to come to any harm and excused herself; somehow she must find out how Pemmel had fared at the bridge. At the valley road she stopped and listened. The night was very still. From the distance came the eerie yelping of a fox but there were no other sounds. Cautiously she made her way back to the bridge.
The moon shone intermittently through the broken clouds and when she was yet some distance from the bridge she could see the dark shape of a horse standing by it. She found Pemmel himself lying at the edge of the stream.
At first she thought he was dead but when she touched him he stirred. The stones all around him were dark and slippery with his blood. The sight of his gaping wounds appalled and sickened her. She took his sword, and using its point made holes in her cloak so that she could tear it into strips with which she bound up the worst of them. Then she helped him to his horse and heaved and pushed him until he was in the saddle, then slowly they rode back to the hamlet.
By the time they reached it birds were in full voice, and the clear eastern sky was alight with the approaching dawn. She laid Pemmel in the barn, where she tended him, helped by the peasant woman and her relatives while the men-folk came and stared and nudged one another before returning to their chores.
Pemmel was extremely weak, barely having the strength to open his eyes. With a great effort he told Lewvin about Shansi's ring and the Roe Aada ruby and what was to be done with them. He whispered that they were in the bundle on his saddle, along with a bag of gold. As the day advanced he grew weaker, and shortly after mid-day he died.
Lewvin felt destitute, and incapable now of continuing the journey to Istin; she refused to let the peasants remove his body, but sat beside it, in a stupor.
By the time dusk fell she had hardly moved. The nurse came and asked her if she would not go into one of the hovels for the night, but she stayed where she was, huddled in the remnants of her cloak.
The next morning one of the young men of the hamlet came, and after some initial shuffling in the straw and muttering about the harsh life he and his family were forced to lead, mentioned that he might be able to find help. She looked at him dully. It would cost her gold, he said. Her expression did not alter. He would need at least ten kara, he said.
Shansi had no intention of letting him see that she had any gold, so told him to go away and return later. When he did, she gave him what he had asked for; it was probably more gold, she reflected, than he handled in a year. He put it away carefully and told her to wait.
He was back just before nightfall, bringing with him another man, this one dressed altogether differently. Whereas the peasant wore rough woollen clothes, the other was drapped in skins and furs. His behaviour was much bolder. He said that his brother, and he indicated the young peasant, had told him that Lewvin wanted to be conducted with a baby and another woman to the Kell.
Lewvin nodded. He told her to collect her things and follow on her horse. It seemed he had travelled on foot, but he had no hesitation in taking Pemmel's horse. Lewvin and the nurse, with Chaldez in the sling on her back, set off after him.
He led the way to the edge of the forest and then plunged in among the crowded trees, riding through a darkness that completely baffled Lewvin's peering eyes but appeared to be no problem to his as he sometimes coaxed Pemmel's horse and sometimes urged it on with slaps, kicks and curses.
After riding for the best part of an hour they came into a clearing where several fires gave out enough light for Lewvin to see that they were in a rough encampment of skin tents and shelters made from branches.
Lewvin was to discover soon enough that they had been brought into the camp of Kiereg, leader of one of the numerous out-law bands that infested the vast forests of Sair. He was a short, powerfully-built man with black hair done into a plait that reached half way down his back. The lower part of his right ear was missing, and a scar that extended right along his jaw as far as his chin suggested how he might have lost it. He told Lewvin that he could arrange for her to be escorted to the Istin border, but how much could she pay him?
Lewvin said that they had had to leave Felewith in a great hurry and had been able to bring very little gold with them.
Kiereg looked at her quizzically. That was very unfortunate, he said, and Lewvin was suddenly horrified by what she had just told him, for surely he would realise that he had much to gain, and nothing to lose, by "selling" Chaldez to their enemies in Felewith.
She did, she corrected herself hurriedly, have some gold. Kiereg burst out laughing, and produced in one hand the purse of gold and in the other the two jewels. Their lives, he asked, in exchange for the gold and trinkets? Keep the gold, Lewvin told him, but without the ruby and ring their flight was pointless; he might as well kill them there and then.
He looked down at the two objects, and then tossed them to her. They would be leaving, he said, in the morning; time enough for her to show him how the ladies at the court of King Egmar were taught to give a man pleasure. Or would she prefer to entertain his followers?
She looked around her and saw that she and Kiereg were surrounded by on-lookers. Some were leering and nudging one another; others simply looked on inquisitively.
Never before had she experienced such a sensation of dread as now suddenly possessed her; she thought her legs would give way; her body was shaking convulsively and bathed in sweat. When she spoke her voice was hoarse and barely more than a whisper. "No" she said.
Kiereg cupped his ear theatrically. "What?" he demanded.
The moment of panic passed. Lewvin looked again at the figures surrounding her. Horror and fear still gripped her, but not as powerfully as a moment ago. In her cooler state of mind she was able to take in more, and she noticed now that there were some women among the men. She felt a moment's relief, but was quickly aware that there was no hint of sympathy in their expressions, only an intense, cruel excitement. Far from restraining their men, these women would goad them on, and this realisation filled her with rage. She spoke clearly and confidently, her head held high. "If I am to be ravished and murdered in the camp of Kiereg," she declared, "the gods will know why. Let Tin Wina be your judge."
Kiereg was taken aback by this. He said "you are safe with Kiereg. Come," and he led the way through the circle to his tent. "I'll have you tonight," he said, ushering her inside. "You can show Kiereg he is right in thinking you're too good for that lot out there."
Lewvin endured his rough love-making with something like detached indifference, as though she were watching from a distance the things he was doing to her. He grunted and humped, the urgency of his lust overwhelming his conscious being, and she felt immeasurably superior.
Their guide the next day was a tall, rangy man with red hair. He was known as the Fox. He had with him three other men, and Lewvin took these to be their escort. Their appearance was as uncouth as she had come to expect of Kiereg's men, and their language was coarse and vile. She assumed they knew about the ruby and Shansi's ring, and she wondered bleakly what their chances of survival were in the company of such men.
As before, she and the nurse and Chaldez were mounted on the horse they had brought from Felewith. The Fox and his companions were on foot, but this proved to be no handicap for they covered the ground rapidly.
By the end of the first day Lewvin was gaining confidence; the men were rough, but deferential towards Chaldez and his nurse to whom they were as polite as they probably knew how to be. Lewvin herself they more or less disregarded. That night they ate well and she slept soundly. By mid-morning of the fourth day of their flight from Felewith they were crossing the stream that marks the Istin border. By evening Segga was welcoming them to his great hall at Hissad, his tiny capital.