Ahl drank her beer and left, riding home thoughtfully.
"Where have you been?" her mother asked.
"At Sorg Harbor."
"You are turning into a restless woman, and you still need to get a haircut."
"You're right that I've become restless," Ahl said. "I think I'll pay another visit to the marshes."
"Better that than the ocean," her mother said. "But I expect you to settle down soon."
The next day Ahl took her questions to the marsh witch and found Leweli visiting. Her cousin's fur -- like her own -- had not been cut recently, though for a different reason. The marsh was full of bugs, Leweli said. She wanted as much protection as she could get. "And Merhit, in spite of all her skills, is
not a barber."
The fur had grown to its full length and was as gray as fog. The baby nursing at Leweli's upper left breast was the same color, though dappled.
"I've never seen anything like this before," Leweli said, sounding worried.
"It's common among the island folk," said Ahl. "Baby spots they call the condition. The spots usually fade, though now and then a person remains dappled. I have seen old grandmothers with spots and venerable men as well."
Her cousin frowned, looking at the child, who had finished eating and gone to sleep. "I hope they fade. Though I don't suppose it will matter, if she spends her life in a marsh."
"She won't," Merhit said firmly.
At this point Ahl explained her problem. How could she take Leweli and the baby south, if there were no ships in port except those belonging to relatives? "I could make up a story, explaining why we need to go south. But I have never been
a good liar."
"This is true," said Leweli.
"And you know that any Sorg captain would check the story with my mother."
"You will have to go in disguise," said the witch. "How fortunate that both of you have uncut fur. You can pass as foreigners."
"Until we open our mouths and Sorg voices come out," Ahl said. "In any case, it's too late in the season. I don't think any of our family's ships will be going out again."
The witch frowned and was silent for a while. Finally she said, "The Taig ship will be leaving. Go with them."
"Two women and a child, traveling alone? How likely are they to take us?"
"This plan is doomed," said Leweli. "I'll have to stay here with you, Merhit."
"First of all, the marsh is unhealthy," the witch replied. "Secondly, I have visitors. Sooner or later you will be discovered. Imagine the trouble we'll be in then. Finally, I know the child belongs with her father's kin. I have seen
that."
No way to argue with a witch who's had a vision. Ahl was silent. Leweli placed the baby in a basket lined with vegetation. The tiny hands were closed. Ahl couldn't see the bare skin of the palms. But the soles of the feet were visible and dark gray. So were the four nipples, emerging from the fog-gray fur like buds. Even the dappling seemed lovely to Ahl, since it reminded her of the Helwar and Ki.
"Tell me everything that has happened to you since you left my house two days ago," Merhit said finally. "Maybe there's something that will help me find a path out."
Ahl complied. After she finished Leweli said, "Would the actors take us north with them? It sounds as if they're in trouble already; they might not mind a bit more trouble, especially if we paid them."
Ahl realized she hadn't thought about money. "Do we have any?"
"I do," Merhit said. "So does your mother."
"Are you suggesting that I rob my mother?" Ahl asked, horrified.
"One thing at a time," said Merhit. "I want to answer Leweli first. You shouldn't go north. There's a war on, as you ought to remember, and it has gotten so bad that even women aren't entirely safe. I've heard stories of bandits --" She paused, apparently unwilling to continue. "The child belongs in the south."
The child opened her eyes, revealing sea-gray irises. It was a southern color. Leweli had blue eyes, as did Ahl and Merhit and almost all the Sorg.
"Have you named her?" Ahl asked, remembering Ki's gray eyes.
"Not yet. When I need to call her something, it's Darling or Dapple. A real name will come later, if she lives."
"I'm going to meet with the actors," Merhit said. Moving quickly, as witches do when they have made up their minds, she saddled her tsin and rode off. This was
not the animal we know in modern times, descended from chargers used by warriors on the Great Central Plain. Instead this was a swamp tsin: short, stocky, thick-legged and broad-footed. Its coat was greenish-tan with pale, thin, vertical stripes which enabled it to blend with the marsh reeds. No breed of tsina is better over dubious ground. No breed is harder to find if it doesn't want finding.
Ahl knew all of this, of course, and paid no attention to the tsin. Instead she settled down to admire the baby and talk with her cousin.
Admiring a baby takes time, if it's done properly; and talking about one's family takes even longer. The afternoon passed without notice. All at once the light was slanting, and the witch rode back in view.
"Well?" asked Ahl.
Merhit dismounted, groaned and robbed her behind. "It's just as I thought. I know the actor. He's been here often, though his former tours were luckier. What the innkeeper told you is true. His company has split apart, and he is left with one companion. They don't want to go back north. 'War is bad for every kind of
art," Perig said to me, 'except the art of war.' There may be other reasons, unpaid bills or the kinds of trouble actors get into.
"I offered him money to go south across the ocean and take the two of you, disguised as actors. Obviously it's a dubious enterprise, but he's desperate; and he knows I'm a good and reliable witch. I cured him of a throat inflammation that wouldn't go away. That was several years ago, but an actor remembers!
"He'll meet the two of you tomorrow at sunrise on the marsh road. Keep going till you meet him."
"Are we leaving already?" Leweli asked in a worried tone.
"Of course not. He has to train you. I'll mind the baby."
That was that. Ahl rode home on her animal, which was a crossbreed, larger and swifter than a true marsh tsin and less careful about where it put its feet: a good animal for ordinary use and warfare on solid ground.
That evening she sat with her mother and two aunts in a porch with gauze curtains. Hanging lanterns filled the room with light. Ahl's senior relatives sewed, while Ahl sharpened a favorite knife. Long and narrow, it was the best tool she had for cleaning fish.
"We're getting tired of waiting for you to settle down," an aunt said.
"We don't usually produce flighty women in this house," the second aunt added.
Ahl's mother kept at her cross-stitch, saying nothing, though she glanced at her daughter.
"Give me a few more days," Ahl said. "It's disturbing to live in a foreign place."
"We'll remember this in the future," her mother said.
The aunts tilted their heads in agreement.
"If we send any of our family off a second time, it will be men."
"Or women who are not promising."
"Though your kin haven't come back restless, as you have," Ahl's mother added.
Ahl ran her whetstone along the knife's blade. "What can I say?"
"There is nothing to say," her mother replied. "Remember who you are. And do!"
Ahl excused herself soon after that and went to her bed, not through the house's winding corridors, but outside though the garden. The air was cool and full of the scent of herbs. The sky was clear and starry. A meteor blazed in the north. Watching it, she swore two things. By the Goddess, she would find her way back to the Helwar and Ki. By the Goddess, she would not turn out like her mother!