And in their tent they found all that they owned given back to them, as Merir had said, weapons and armor, well-cleaned and oiled. Roh gathered his bow into his hand like a man welcoming an old friend.
"Roh," Vanye said, suddenly apprehensive at the dark look.
Roh glanced up. For an instant the stranger was there, cold and menacing, for all the affront the lord Merir had offered him.
Then Roh slowly shed that anger, as if he willed it so, and laid the bow down on the furs. "Let us leave off wearing the armor, at least until the next day on the trail. There is no need to bear that weight on our aching shoulders, and doubtless we are not immediately in range of our enemies."
"Roh, deal well with me and I will deal so with you."
Roh gave him a hard look. "Worried, are you? Abomination. Abomination I am to them. How kind of you to speak for me."
"Roh-"
"Did you not tell them about her,about your half-qhalliege? What else is she? Not pure qhal.Nor human. Doubtless she has done what I have done, no higher nor nobler. And I think you have always known it."
Almost he struck… held his hand, trembling with the effort; there were the arrhendimoutside, their freedom at hazard. "Quiet," he hissed. "Be quiet."
"I have said nothing. There is much that I could say, and I have not, and you know it. I have not betrayed her."
It was truth. He stared at Roh's distraught face and reckoned that it was no more and no less than Roh believed. And Roh had not betrayed them.
"I know it," he said. "I will repay that, Roh."
"But you are not free to say so, are you? You forget what you are."
"My word is worth something… among them, and with her."
Roh's face tautened as if he had been struck. "Ah, you do grow proud, ilin,to think that. And you trade words with qhal-lords in their own language, and dispose of me how you will."
"You are lord of my mother's clan. I do not forget that. I do not forget that you offered me shelter, in a time when others of my kin would not."
"Ah, is it 'cousin,' now?"
There was no appeal to that hardness. It had been there since Arrhel gazed at him. Vanye turned his face from it. "I will do what I said, Roh. See you do the same. If you ask apology as my clan-lord, that I will give; if as my kinsman, that will I give; if it galls you that qhalspeak civilly to me and not to you… that involves another side of you that I have no reason to love; with himthere is no dealing, and I will not."
Roh said nothing. Quietly they packed their belongings into what would be easy to carry on the saddles. They put on only their weapons.
"I will do what I said," Roh offered finally.
It was Roh again. Vanye inclined his head in the respect he had withheld.
In not a long time, khemicame to summon them.
Chapter Thirteen
The company was forming up outside Merir's tent… six arrhendim,all told: two younger; two older, the khemeis'shair almost as white as his arrhend,with faces well-weathered by time; and an older pair of arrhendim,women of the arrhend…not quite as old, for the khemeisof that pair had hair equally streaked with silver and dark, while her arrhend,like all qhal,aged yet more slowly and had the look of thirty human years.
Horses had been readied for the two of them, and Vanye was well-pleased with them: a bay gelding for him and a sorrel for Roh, both deep-chested and strong, for all their gracefulness. Even the herds of Morija would have been proud of such as these.
They did not mount up; one horse remained riderless, a white mare of surpassing beauty, and the party waited. Vanye heaved his gear up to his saddle and bound it there, found also a waterflask and saddlebags and a good gray blanket, such things as he would have asked had he dared press at their charity. A khemeisfrom the crowd came offering them cloaks, one for him and one for Roh. They put them on gratefully, for the day was cool for their light clothing.
And when all that was done, they still waited. Vanye stood scratching the bay's chin and calming his restiveness. He felt himself almost whole again, whether by Arrhel's draught or by the touch of a horse under his hands and his weapons by him… fretting to be underway, to be beyond intervention or recall, lest some circumstance change Merir's mind.
One of the khemibrought a chain of flowers, and bound it in the mane of the white horse; and came others, bringing such flower chains for each of the departing arrhendim.
But it was Ellur who brought a white one for Roh's horse, and Sin came bearing a chain of bright blue. The boy reached high to bind it into the black mane, so that they swung there like a chain of tiny bells. And then Sin looked up at him.
Premonition came on him that he was looking on the boy for the last time, that there would be-one way or another– no return for him from this ride. Sin seemed to believe it too this time. Tears brimmed in his eyes, but he held them; he had been through Shathan: he was no longer the boy in Merrind.
"I have no parting-gift," Vanye said, searching his memory for something left that he owned but his weapons; and never had he felt his poverty as much as in that moment, that he had nothing left to spare. "Among our people we give something when we know the parting will be long."
"I made this for you," said Sin, and drew forth from his shirt a carving of a horse's head. It was made of wood, small, of surpassing skill, as there were so many talents in Sin's hands. Vanye took it, and thrust it within his collar. Then in desperation he cut a ring from his belt, plain steel and blue-black; it had once held spare leather, but he had none of that left either. He pressed it into Sin's hand and closed his brown fingers over it. "It is a plain thing, the only thing I have to give that I brought from home, from Morija of Andur-Kursh. Do not curse my memory when you are grown, Sin. My name was Nhi Vanye i Chya; and if ever I do you harm, it is not from wanting it. May there always be arrhendimin Shathan, and Mirrindim too. And when you are arrhendimyourselves, you and Ellur, see that it is so."
Sin hugged him, and Ellur came and took his hand. He chanced to look up at Roh, then, and Roh's face was sad. "Ra-koris was such a place," Roh said, naming his own hall in forested Andur. "If I had no reason to oppose the Shiua for my own sake, I would have now, having seen this place. But for my part I would save it, not take from it the only thing that might defend it."
The boys' hands were clenched in either of his; he stared at Roh and felt defenseless, without any argument but his oath.
"If she is dead," Roh said, "respecting your grief, cousin, I shall not even say evil of her-but you would be free then, and would you still carry out what she purposed? Would you take that from them? I think there is some conscience in you. They surely think so."
"Keep silent. Save your shafts for me, not them."
"Aye," Roh murmured. "No more of it." He laid his hand on his horse's neck, and looked about him, at the great trees that towered so incredibly above the tents. "But think on it, cousin."
There was a sudden murmuring in the crowd; it parted, and Merir passed through-a different Merir from the one they had seen, for the old lord wore robes made for riding; a horn bound in silver was at his side, and he bore a kit which he hung from the saddle of the white horse. The beautiful animal turned its head, lipped familiarly at his shoulder, and he caressed the offered nose and took up the reins. He needed no help to climb into the saddle.
"Be careful, Father," said one of the qhal."Aye," others echoed. "Be careful."
Arrhel came. Merir took the lady's hand from horseback. "Lead in my absence," he bade her, and pressed her hand before he let it go. The others were beginning to mount up.
A last time Vanye bade the boys farewell, and let them go, and climbed into the saddle. The bay started to move of his own accord as the other horses started away; and before he had ridden far he was drawn to look back. Sin and Ellur were running after him, to stay with him while they could. He waved at them, and they reached the edge of the camp. Trees began to come between. His last sight of them was of the two stopped forlornly at the forest margin, fair-haired qhalurlad and small, dark boy, alike in stance. Then the green leaves curtained them, and he turned in the saddle.
The company rode mostly in silence, with the two young arrhendimin the lead and the eldest riding close by Merir. Vanye and Roh rode after them, and the two arrhendimrode last… no swords did they bear, unlike the arrhendim,but bows longer than the men's, and their slim hands were leathered with half-glove and bracer, old and well-worn. The khemeisof that pair often lagged behind and out of sight, serving apparently as rearguard and scout as the khemeisof the pair in front tended to disappear ahead of them to probe the way.