“I think he has made the same mistake again. This new woman’s a strange one, too. A half-wit or such like. She doesn’t speak or even look at you. Poor Trian, he has no luck with women. It comes of fishing near that Chasm, I say.”
“What do you mean?”
“Didn’t I say? Oh, the old woman, Loreli, she was found at the Chasm mouth years ago, or so they say. He should have left her there.”
“That was the old woman who took the younger one away? She referred to her as her daughter.”
“Yes, that was her. She seems to have taken a fondness for the young one and calls her daughter. Not the usual way is it, M’Lord? When you bring in younger women the older ones are rarely so pleased!”
“I would not know,” said Menish tersely. “Perhaps you can direct me to the midden.”
Astae’s familiarity disappeared and he gave Menish the information he wanted. Menish went outside and found it largely by following his nose rather than the innkeeper’s guidance.
How Thalissa had survived he could not guess, but somehow she had escaped from the Chasm and been rescued by a fisherman. Since then she had lived here in obscurity, unaware that her son was now Emperor of Relanor.
Chapter 7: Loreli
When he returned he met Azkun standing in the doorway waiting for him. The others were still eating and drinking. Althak, Menish noticed, was still watching Azkun from their table. Azkun’s strange eyes caught his attention again. Thalissa was alive, it was like his dream. Yet he had killed her once as certainly as if it had been with his own hands. How could she be alive? Somehow he had to speak with her. There were things he should tell her.
“I can find her for you,” said Azkun, fixing those eyes on him.
Menish paled. Find her? Thalissa? Did he know? Of course not. He had heard Menish’s conversation with Astae and he probably meant the young woman, not the old one. For the first time Menish wondered about this young woman who had also come from the Chasm; she must have been found the same day Azkun appeared.
“Find who?”
“The old woman.”
Menish felt dizzy. It must be that ale, or perhaps the smell of the midden. He sat down clumsily at the nearest bench and rubbed his eyes. Suddenly he glared at Azkun. “What do you know of her? You said you remembered nothing before the Chasm.”
Azkun shrugged and turned his gaze away.
“You asked him.” He nodded towards Astae, who was introducing a woman to one of the Vorthenki sailors. “You asked him about her.”
Was it that obvious? Had they all heard that conversation? He glanced over at the others but they were paying no attention. Grath was telling some story about cattle raiding, and even Althak was no longer watching them. Only Hrangil was not with the others, he was over at one of the far walls looking at the frescoes
“Sit down, Azkun. I want to talk to you.” It occurred to Menish that this was the first opportunity he had had to speak to Azkun away from his men. Azkun sat opposite him. Their table was otherwise unoccupied. “What do you know of this old woman?”
“I saw her face, but… not clearly. I thought she was a ghost. But she was unhappy, so unhappy. She saw you. That made her unhappy. I could find her again-”
“Hush,” said Menish, for he had been speaking too loudly. “I do not wish the others to find her.”
“Why not?”
Menish owed him an answer, he felt he owed those eyes much. “Because they might kill her if they found her.”
Azkun went pale and his hands trembled on the table as if he were fighting a fever.
“They won't find her,” Menish added quickly. “But I…” What? He wanted to speak with her. He wanted to know if there was any connection between herself and Azkun. More than that. He wanted to tell her why he had left her to Thealum. He wanted to expiate his guilt. None of this would make any sense to Azkun, it barely made sense to himself, and anyway he had no wish to condemn himself before a wild man. “I would like to speak to her.”
“Come then.”
“No, you don't understand. I must see her alone, and she'll not wish to see me. Her friends will prevent me from meeting her. Think no more of it, it's impossible.” He would have to content himself with the fact that she was alive and that he was not, after all, guilty of her murder.
He returned to the others and told Althak to ask Astae about that promised bath and then he and Bolythak could go and organise the boat for the next day. The local fishing boats would not do, but freighters worked their way up and down this coast and they usually called at Lianar. Astae would be able to direct them to the right people.
Astae, it appeared, had some trouble about the bath. He was quite nervous when he eventually led Menish out of the room and into another much smaller room. When he saw it Menish groaned in disappointment.
The Relanese were always bathing. They constructed huge bathrooms with pools and hypocausts to heat them. Such luxuries had spread to Anthor and the palace at Meyathal boasted two such bathrooms, but in Anthor the need for cleanliness was subservient to the inconvenience of carrying and heating water. Here, in the wild north lands, the Relanese had constructed a bathroom for the use of pilgrims to the Tor. It was not a very elaborate one. The pool was small and the mosaic work on the walls was roughly done, but it was a bathroom all the same.
What made Menish groan was the Vorthenki adaptation of it. Astae had not had the pool filled with water and heated with the hypocaust, it was possible he did not know how such things worked. Instead he had placed a copper tub in the empty pool and filled that. It looked ridiculous.
Astae managed a worried smile when Menish told him it would be satisfactory, for there was something obviously wrong. The Vorthenki did not normally find it necessary to wash.
But it was satisfactory. Menish sank his weary limbs into the hot water and felt the warmth soothe away the last vestiges of pain in his leg. There was no soap, of course, not even any of the coarse sand he had heard was used in Golshuz instead. It did not matter. The heat of the water was what he needed most.
Unfortunately when he emerged he realised that there were no towels and he had to pull his clothes on over his wet body. It was a minor inconvenience but it spoilt his comfort.
When he returned to the main room he found that Drinagish had been drinking too much and was singing. The others were trying to ignore him although he was clutching Grath’s shoulder and singing in his ear. Hrangil was trying, unsuccessfully, to talk to Azkun.
Menish sent Drinagish off to the bathroom in the hope that he would sober up before he made a greater fool of himself and then asked Bolythak where Althak was.
“He found a relative of his, a cousin of some sort named Akarth. He was asked to spend the night in his house. Althak said it would offend his cousin if he refused and he'll join us in the morning.”
“What about the ship to Atonir?”
“Yes, Sire, we found a man named Awan who's sailing early tomorrow. He's making for somewhere called Ramuz. Althak says he can take us on to Atonir from there. He said we must be ready before first light. I think Awan had read some Vorthenki omens about the time to sail.”
“I think it has something to do with the tide rather than omens,” said Hrangil. “There's a shallow place at the mouth of the harbour here that's easier to cross when the tide is high.” Apart from Althak, Hrangil was the only one of them who knew anything about the sea. “I think Ramuz is an island not far from Atonir. We passed it when I last came here.”
“It is the Vorthenki isle,” said Menish. “Sinalth launched his invasion from Ramuz and it's never been subdued by the Emperor. It's a lawless place I've heard, much like here.”
When Drinagish returned Menish told Astae that they would sleep in the bathroom rather than the main room. Many of the Vorthenki were already stretched out on straw pallets, a few of them had procured Astae’s women and their activities, conducted with no attempt at privacy, were offensive.