The next time she spoke, it was in Sairish. She asked if they belonged to the fair.
Chaldez told her that he and his friend were hoping to escape from a dangerous man in Reard who wanted to sell them as slaves. At that she looked most concerned. "Have you eaten?" she asked. Chaldez and Dan shook their heads. She stood up, and waved to someone who was apparently beyond them. They turned and saw a man striding towards them. "My husband," she told Chaldez.
Her husband, a small, spare man with a thin, untidy beard which sprouted from sunken cheeks, eyed the two youths with something like suspicion. His wife spoke to him; he looked from her to them, and then made a curt remark.
"Where are you from?" the woman asked. Chaldez told her they had been slaves in Theigia, had been taken by the Theigans to Kroya where they had escaped, and that they were hoping to make their way to Sorrin, where they had friends. She looked genuinely amazed. "Theigia . . . Kroya . . . Sorrin," she repeated. "I know of Kroya and Sorrin," she said, "but what is 'Theigia'?"
"Many days' journey across the sea," said Chaldez. She looked impressed, and spoke again to her husband. He gave them a rather comical look, and raised his eyebrows. Then he smiled and shook their hands, and after that they were assured of food and company.
The woman's name was Perol, and her husband, a ropemaker from Laifya, was Tradzer. Their daughter, whom Chaldez and Dan soon met, was Meryn, a 17-year old with long dark hair and a pretty little face. From the moment she met Chaldez she could hardly take her round hazel eyes off him; and when he caught her staring at him she blushed a deep pink and tried to pretend that she had not been looking at him at all. Then, catching her eye, he would smile at her and she would blush even more. She only spoke Laifyan, and they had no means of communicating with words.
At first she kept her distance but during the first day, as they walked all together along the undulating track, she came closer until eventually she was at his side.
The ropemaker had a donkey which carried his materials and finished products and the family's tent; Tradzer himself and Perol carried the remainder of their possessions in large bundles upon their backs. Chaldez insisted he carry something, and Dan reluctantly shouldered a burden too.
The convoy of which they were part moved forward extremely slowly; Chaldez found it was necessary to check almost every other step. And once or twice when they were about to move off after a hold-up, Tradzer's donkey would decide she was not ready to go onwards, and no amount of coaxing, shoving, cursing or beating would make her change her mind.
The pattern of their lives changed little during the following few days; Chaldez and Dan slept on the cart among skins and furs, and ate their meals and travelled with Tradzer. In the evenings Chaldez, watched by the adoring Meryn, helped Tradzer erect his rope-making equipment, and held the twine for him when ordered to do so, and generally made himself useful.
Dan hung around until he found his own friends, a magician and master of sleight-of-hand called Habre whose wife, a blazing-eyed beauty called Eonni, he fell in love with - so he told Chaldez. "She'll sleep with me, I know it," he confided in him confidently. But whenever Chaldez saw him with Habre and Eoni he seemed far more interested in learning the secrets of sleight-of-hand than in seduction.
From Tradzer Chaldez picked up some Laifyan; learning a new language was a challenge which he found both fascinating and rewarding. He was a quick learner, and Tradzer enjoyed teaching him.
One day Sigmar came into their conversation. Chaldez tried to disguise his sudden interest. "I've heard of him," he said as casually as he could. "They say he murdered his brother, King Egmar of Sair."
"I wouldn't be surprised," remarked Tradzer. "He drove me out of my home. I have not returned since, and I doubt that I ever will."
When Chaldez pressed him for an explanation he said that Sigmar's army had invaded his country - one of the Laifyan states - and destroyed the town where he lived. "My family, my brothers, my sisters, my mother and father, all perished. I fled for my life. I would not go back. There are too many memories for me in that place."
Learning Laifyan allowed Chaldez to speak to Meryn. She was too shy at first to do more than give him monosyllabic answers to his questions, but she laughed readily whenever he made a joke. He liked that. He had not had such an appreciative audience since leaving the royal stavista at Jeggan; it was not in Doo's character to laugh and be flippant, and although she never expressed disapproval when he became light-hearted, he invariably sensed that she felt it was not appropriate behaviour. With Meryn he found he was as amusing as ever. When they were walking together he was able to make her laugh with almost every comment and remark he made, and sometimes she would make a joke of a her own, and then, surprised at her wit, he would laugh out loud, and her eyes would shine with pleasure.
On reaching a town, the leaders of the fair - there were three chief families - would seek permission to set up camp in an open space as close to it as possible, and from here the main business of the fair would be conducted for two, three or more days. Sometimes it was possible to use the market place, and sometimes the town burgesses had no wish for the fair to visit at all, in which case the convoy would thread its way between the houses, stopping work and bringing the town's folk to their doors and windows until it had passed. Then the jugglers and acrobats would go into action to show them what they were missing.
When the fair set down outside a town Chaldez liked to wander among the traders and craftsmen, and watch the performers. One of them was a musician who played the zaratha, its familiar sound drawing Chaldez like a magnet.
The musician was a lean man whose hair and beard were long and untrimmed. His age was impossible to guess; he might have been 10 or 15 years older than Chaldez, or as little as two. His piercing blue eyes were like tiny bright windows in the brown, taught skin of his face. Chaldez would stand watching, at a distance. The musician sometimes looked up, and seeing him there, smile at him before fixing his eyes once more on his instrument. Eventually he stopped playing, laid the instrument down and asked "Do you play?". He spoke Sairish.
"I did learn, once," said Chaldez haltingly. "But it was a long time ago."
The musician played some more, for the benefit of some town's folk who were passing, and then he declared that he had done enough for the time being. "My wife will have prepared some food," he said. "You're welcome to share it with us."
Chaldez found out that his new friend was called Pau, and his wife Tassin. They had no children.
For his part, Chaldez told them that he had escaped from enemies in Kroya and was on his way to Sorrin.
As Chaldez ate the bread and cheese which constituted their mid-day meal he knew that Tassin was admiring him. "She's very beautiful," he thought to himself. Brown hair, falling to her waist, framed a long face with features that were fine and handsome. Her mouth was especially beautiful, with full, perfectly sculptured lips, and she had a way of looking so that her eyelids were slightly lowered, their long lashes curtaining the large brown eyes behind them. In the middle of her left cheek was a mole, its dark presence accentuating her pale skin and prominent cheek bone.
He was just finishing his meal when Meryn came by. She gave his companions a disapproving look. Chaldez stood up. "I thought I'd lost you," he said.
"You thought you'd lost me!" she exclaimed. "I've been looking all over for you."
"This is the musician Pau," Chaldez said hurriedly, "and his wife Tassin."
"I know," said Meryn coldly.
"Pau is going to teach me the zaratha," Chaldez told her. As he spoke he gave Pau a pleading look. Nothing of this nature had been mentioned. Pau nodded and smiled.
Meryn did not seem to be impressed. "I may see you later," she said, and walked off.
Chaldez smiled uneasily at Pau and Tassin. "Her mother and father have been looking after me," he said. "They've been very kind."
"We know them," Tassin said, and then added, as though to reassure him: "They are good people." Chaldez looked at her, and she was looking straight into his eyes. "Their daughter is in love with you. But I expect you know."
Chaldez wanted to die. He looked away quickly. And then Tassin made him even more embarrassed: "And I think you may be in love with her."
Pau laughed. "Don't tease him," he said to his wife. She turned and went into their tent. He asked: "Well, Chaldez - do you really want me to teach you the zaratha?"
Chaldez was embarrassed again. "I'm sorry," he muttered, "but I had to say something."
"I understand. But you haven't answered my question."
"I would like you to teach me.” Chaldez was not inclined to mention he had played the instrument a little many many years ago - in another life, it seemed to him now. He watched Pau’s face, and encouraged, he added “and please, you might help me improve my Sairish…?
Pau smiled at that. “Two for the price of one? Why not?“