[I am Thork. My companion is Lady Elyn.]
There ensued a round of smiling, and of bobbing heads to one another.
[The weather is cold this time of year,] said Heido through Tai, choosing a safe subject. [Not a likely time for travellers.]
[Aye, cold,] agreed Thork, [and though we would rather be before our hearth, we are on a pilgrimage we could not avoid. Our journey ahead is a long one of many days, and we have come to your village to trade for that which we will need in the weeks before us.]
[Coming from the east as you did, you are fortunate to have reached our village at all,] said Heido, Tai translating, [for there are evil bandits living in a dark tower atop a black rock within the Grey Mountains.]
[No more, Heido,] responded Thork, [The black rock fell in an earthquake, and all the bandits perished.]
Tai’s eyes flew wide, and when he translated Thork’s words to Heido, the headman leapt to his feet and danced a jig. Then he stepped to the door and shouted out the news. And a babble of sound rose up as the villagers heard of this good fortune. Then, regaining his composure, he returned to the mat and took up his tea, once again staid and proper.
[You bear bright news, Bearded One, and my village will sing tonight,] said Heido through Tai.
“What is happening, Thork?” queried Elyn, sounds of rejoicing coming from outside. “Why the clamor in the street?”
“I told them about the fall of Andrak’s holt,” answered Thork. “Other than that, it is small talk, about the weather, about our journeying through the winter, about our need for provisions. The real bargaining hasn’t begun.”
[Your Woman interrupts her betters, Bearded One,] said Tai. [Is she always this rude?]
[Aye.] grunted Thork, not translating the words for Elyn.
[Then I think you must beat her with a stick,] opined Tai, [three times a day, till she learns her place.]
Thork choked on his tea, spluttering, covering his mouth with his hand while Elyn pounded him on the back, Thork concealing his smile, while pitying the fool that would try to lay a rod upon the Warrior Maiden.
Heido, who also had not been privy to an understanding of the words between Thork and Tai, said in translation, [Your Woman, I have never seen red hair on a Woman before]-he smiled at Elyn-[or on anyone, for that matter-just black, like mine. And green eyes. Hair like fire, and eyes like emeralds. Do you wish to trade her? She would fetch a high price, I am sure: a pony or two, at least.]
Thork made a negating gesture with his hand, No, Heido nodding his understanding, for surely a green-eyed redheaded Woman was special, in all ways.
And once again Elyn spoke up: “Thork, I am going mad, sitting here without comprehension. What are they saying now?”
“They have opened the bartering,” answered Thork, without telling her just what they had asked for, or what they had offered in exchange.
Tai dourly shook his head at this unseemly interruption, upset that this Woman of the Bearded One did not know her place.
[What have you to trade, Bearded One called Thork?] asked Tai. [Perhaps we can find a common ground. Have your Woman bring in the goods.]
“They have asked that you bring in what we would barter,” said Thork, not looking the Princess in the eye.
Elyn, already nettled that she could not understand a word, balked. “What do they think I am, a thrall?”
Exactly. “We do not know their ways, my Lady,” responded Thork.
“Send someone else,” sniffed Elyn, thoroughly miffed. “Or get them yourself.”
“Elyn, you must go, for if I do,” growled Thork, sotto voce, “then I will lose face before them, and we’ll not get what we need.”
“You can tell them for me to go to Hèl!” responded Elyn, now the proud Warrior Maiden. “Tell them to have one of their own go fetch the gear.”
“They are afraid, for the horse might be a daemon.” Now Thork’s own temper began to rise. Yet, what he would have done-
“Daemon, faugh!” But Elyn jolted to her feet and angrily strode from the room.
Till this moment, Tai had never seen her standing. [My, she is a tall one, that Woman of yours, Master Thork; you will need a big stick.]
Glumly, Thork nodded.
Minutes later she returned, flinging the goods to the floor: tulwars, ring-mail leather armor, dagger, long-knife, helm, flint and steel, and other such. . all the gear that they had taken from the slain brigands.
At sight of these goods, Heido’s face fell, for what did any villager need with these things of War? What good were they? They couldn’t be eaten. They would not keep one warm on a cold night. They wouldn’t bring a Woman to one’s bed. They could not be fondled and admired for their beauty. And the small items-flint and steel, copper pans, knives and such-though useful, well, they just weren’t perfumes, jade, beaded necklaces. .
But Tai, ever a trader, got to the business at hand, and so the haggling began in earnest, Elyn often interrupting to ask what was happening, what they were saying, and old Tai urging Thork to [Beat her with a big stick, three times a day, then will your Woman stop all this chatter.]
Finally, Elyn gave up, and stalked from the chamber and out into the street. Once more the villagers gave back before her, for not only was she armed and armored, she also had flaming hair, and green eyes, and white skin. And surely a green-eyed one with a red head and white skin must be a demon, and must be treated with deference, else the demon might get angry; then would her knees turn backwards and her hands become many-fingered and clawed, and she would grow and fire would come from her nose and her great mouth would be filled with sharp fangs and. .
Elyn walked about the village, past brick huts and wood, and some of mud and wattle. And wherever she went, she was followed by villagers, remaining at a discreet separation. And she stared off into the distance, sighting along the vale through these low mountains, back toward the way they had come-grey ramparts rising up-and toward the way they were going-mountains falling to foothills and plains. Yet in the end, she came back into the square, to sit upon a log by the village well. And even though it was the afternoon-time to dip water, none came forward to do so.
After a long while, someone brought Elyn a bowl of rice, and a pair of small sticks, and a clay cup of goat’s milk, setting it down a goodly distance from her, then beckoning her forward while backing away. Elyn smiled when she saw, and nodded in gratitude, receiving bows in return from every one in the square. And when the Princess discovered that it was food, she gratefully dug in, with her fingers-What are these sticks for? — wondering why they had brought no spoon.
And once more the people drew back, for surely it must be an uncouth demon who eats with her fingers as would a child.
After the meal, Elyn strode about again, while villagers rushed to the well with buckets. She found a stable filled with ponies, their hair grown long with winter shag; and she led the gelding into the shelter, unsaddling and watering him and feeding him some grain. And while the steed munched upon oats, Elyn rubbed the beast down with handfuls of straw, then took the currycomb from a saddlebag and combed the knots from the mount’s winter coat, the shag thick and stubborn; but Elyn persisted, as she had done every evening on the trail.
She had just finished when Thork and Heido and Tai came in, and still angry, Elyn stomped out, returning to the square.
Perhaps an hour later, the three traders crossed the square and went back into the central building.
Again, someone brought the redheaded demon a meal, cooked snow peas, once more without a spoon, and now the mysterious small sticks were missing as well.