“Maybe we’ve been hurrying too much,” Kelder suggested. “Asha, would it help if you could ride?”
Irith glared at him for a second, then turned back to Asha and asked, “Do you want me to be a horse for awhile?”
“No!” Asha exclaimed, so loudly that she startled everybody, including herself; even Ezdral twitched at the sound. “No,” she repeated, more quietly, “that’s all right, Irith. Don’t be a horse.”
“What are they saying?” Azraya asked Kelder.
“Irith was asking Asha if she wanted to ride,” Kelder replied.
Azraya looked at Kelder, puzzled. “Ride what?” she asked.
Kelder realized that the Ethsharite was unaware of Irith’s magical abilities. “I’ll explain later,” he said.
“Can you walk again?” Irith asked Asha.
“Not yet,” Asha said. “Let’s just rest a little while.”
Kelder relayed the suggestion to Azraya, who made a noise of displeasure. “I was hoping we could cross three kingdoms today,” she said.
“I don’t think so,” Kelder told her.
“That’s stupid,” Azraya said. “Why do you travel with these people, anyway, Kelder?”
Irith glared at her.
“Asha doesn’t have any family,” he explained. “We happened to be there when her older brother got killed, so we’re sort of taking care of her for now. And Irith accidentally enchanted Ezdral, so we’re trying to find someone to break the spell.”
“He’s enchanted?”
“A love spell,” Kelder said. “That’s why he follows Irith.”
“Oh,” Azraya said. “So why is that your problem?”
“It’s not,” Kelder said, “I’m just trying to help out.” Saying openly that he wanted to be a champion of the lost and forlorn seemed somehow ridiculous. Fortunately, Azraya did not press for further explanation.
Upon further investigation the question of whether to press on turned out to be academic; Ezdral was unconscious.
“Now what?” Azraya asked.
Kelder sighed. “Now we wait here, eat some lunch — I have cheese in my pack — and when we can bring him around we go on.”
This did not sit well with either Azraya or Irith, but they both gave in, with ill-concealed annoyance. No one was about to try carrying Ezdral. Kelder suggested that even unconscious, he could be draped over Irith’s back while she was in equine form, but she rejected the idea.
“He’ll slip off,” she said in Ethsharitic, “and besides, I don’t want him on top of me. I don’t care what form I’m in, or whether he’s conscious, I don’t want him on top of me.”
This reference to changing forms led to Azraya asking questions about Irith’s magic, which Kelder tried to answer as he shared out the cheese and wafers he had bought in Krithimion. Irith was clearly annoyed by this discussion of her past, but did nothing to stop it; she was settled cross-legged on the grass by the roadside, with Asha curled up on her lap, and any attempt to shout back or stomp off would have disturbed the child.
While they ate, they chatted idly — or tried to. Asha’s ignorance of Ethsharitic, and Azraya’s ignorance of Trader’s Tongue, made conversation difficult. Irith grew steadily more aggravated by the constant demands either that she translate for someone, or that she wait while Kelder did so.
Later on, after the last crumb was gone, the three teenagers made a concerted effort to rouse Ezdral, but without success.
“May demons eat his guts out!” Irith said, following this up with comments in several languages Kelder did not understand.
Azraya just laughed.
That was the last straw for Irith.
“I’ll meet you in Syndisha,” she said, spreading wings, “if you ever get there!” She flapped, and took off.
Azraya stared in open-mouthed astonishment as Irith flew away to the south. “She really does fly!” she said.
“Yes, of course,” Kelder said. “I told you she did.”
Azraya looked at him with an unreadable expression, then back at Irith.
When the Flyer was out of sight, Azraya said, “Let me try the Sot again.” She began not merely shaking Ezdral, but slapping him, hard, first on one cheek, then the other.
“I wish Irith wouldn’t fly off like that,” Asha said, looking away uncomfortably.
“Me, too,” Kelder agreed, putting an arm around the girl’s shoulders.
Azraya gave up her attempt and stamped away, annoyed — not down the highway, but across the cornfield on one side. Kelder watched her go, wondering when she would be back — if ever. She was just as temperamental as Irith, though in a different way, and there was no prophecy assuring him that he would see her again.
Which was too bad; he did like Azraya, despite her temper.
Asha snuggled against him, and he looked down at her. Her blue tunic, the only garment she had, was wearing very thin — he wondered if Irith or Ezdral or Azraya could sew, an art he had never entirely mastered himself. They could buy fabric in Syndisha, though it would take a distressingly large portion of their money.
“Why didn’t you want to ride?” he asked her.
She looked up at him. “Because I can’t stand the way Ezdral looks at Irith when she’s a horse,” she said. “It makes me feel awful.”
Kelder nodded.
“I can understand that,” he said.
Together, they sat and waited.
Chapter Thirty
Azraya came back within a few minutes, and her next attempt to rouse Ezdral, a few minutes later, was successful. The four of them were on their way again shortly thereafter, and the sun was still only slightly past its zenith.
There were blue-uniformed guards at the Syndishan border, and without Irith along the party had no one they recognized; Kelder and Azraya had to make something called a “customs declaration,” informing a scribe of all the magical articles they carried (none), how much gold they had (none), what livestock they were bringing into the kingdom (none), and whether they intended to settle down or were just passing through.
Ezdral was only semi-conscious, so the officials informed Kelder that he was speaking for the Sot as well as himself. Asha being under age twelve, Azraya was arbitrarily chosen as her guardian and declared responsible for her actions as long as they were in Syndisha.
Azraya was not at all pleased about this, but tolerated it until one of the soldiers approached too closely. Then, suddenly, her belt knife was in her hand and she barked, “Don’t touch me!”
The soldier in question spoke no Ethsharitic, but he got the message. After that, the officials quickly finished up, and sent the party on its way.
They reached Syndisha Castle a little over an hour later, and as promised, Irith was waiting for them.
The castle was immense, incorporating the entire town; it was built in four concentric rings. Kelder could see that much, and Irith confirmed it, while admitting that she might have missed additional inner layers.
The outermost ring was a broad field between two stone walls that served as the public market, where farmers wheeled wagons of produce about, crying their wares, and various groups stood about, discussing various business.
The next ring was the town itself, a single circular street lined with inns and shops, with alleys branching off here and there and a single broad cross-street that led from the market gate across to the inner gate.
Irith said that the next layer in was where the wealthier townsfolk lived, and the king’s keep stood within that, but Kelder never saw those for himself except for glimpses through the gate.
“Why did they build it like this?” Kelder wondered aloud.