'Yes,' said Ohio. 'A nice little kingdom.' 'Where was it?' said Hearst. 'East of Ork? South of Brine?'
'No,' said Ohio. 'It was in the west. It was the kingdom of Talajar which lies in the Ravlish Lands.'
'I've heard of it,' said Hearst. 'There's a trading route by sea from there to Chi-ash-lan, in the Cold West.'
'You know it well,' said Ohio, greeding into another pickle.
'Yes,' said Hearst, 'I've done my own share of wandering.'
'This kingdom,' said Miphon. 'Were you born to it or did you acquire it?'
'Truth is, I acquired it,' said Ohio. 'Not alone – my brother Menator helped me, first to gain it, then to rule it. But we had a falling out. A quarrel over a woman. It ended with war.'
'And?'
'Our battles were interrupted by an invasion from the north, which pushed us both to the sea. Taking what ships we could, we sailed east to Argan. Menator sailed on down the coast, going south, while I chose the Eastern Ocean.'
'Where's Menator now?' said Hearst.
'I can't say,' said Ohio. 'But it's a small enough world. I'll find him.'
'When you lost your kingdom, did you ever think of going back to your own people?' said Miphon.
'What kind of woman's talk is that?' said Hearst.
Ohio laughed.
'Not so fierce, friend Hearst, not so fierce. Our own people? No, we couldn't have gone back. They were Galish merchants, so they could be anywhere on the Salt Road between Chi'ash-lan and the Castle of Controlling Power. But even if I could find them, that's no life for me. Always dickering-bartering with narrow-eyed sharpers, the rain wet, the hail cold, then the souther you get the hotter – dust, sweat, stink and muddy water-holes.'
'A pirate's life is hard,' said Miphon.
'You're fierce for the truth,' said Ohio. 'Well, it's a simple story: some of us were born for battle, and I'm one of them. That's my story told – but yours, I warrant, is rather more fancy.'
'Yes,' said Miphon. 'But it would take some telling.'
'We've got time,' said Ohio. 'The Collosnon know we must be hiding somewhere. They'll wait. A day, perhaps – or longer.'
'Settle yourself then,' said Hearst, 'and I'll begin.'
CHAPTER FORTY-TWO
Miphon, Hearst, Blackwood and Ohio went west on foot toward Skua, going as fast as they could over the broken country, retreating to the green bottle only when the weather became atrocious; they knew that every delay favoured Elkor Alish.
Eventually they arrived at Skua, the only harbour on the coast of Trest. The Collosnon had raised a small fort to house a token garrison, and had planted thickets of cold-climate sprite bamboo, notable for its grey leaves. Otherwise, they had made little mark on the place, except by building a breakwater to protect the minimal harbour.
The travellers, eager for news and for fresh food, ventured into town and asked their way to an inn. The locals spoke their own dialect, a degenerate version of Estral; Ohio could not follow it at all, but the other three could make themselves understood.
The inn was a dark place with a low ceiling; it stank of raw spirit. On the floor were the tattered ruins of what had once been a master-work tapestry, a story of courage and heroism done in fifty colours, but now torn and sea-stained: pirate booty, no doubt. Half a dozen tough, scar-faced men sat in the shadows watching the newcomers. Hung on one wall was the silvery coiled shell of a nautilus, a thing of grace and beauty completely unexpected in such a place.
'What hassing you?' said the innkeeper.
'Have you a room?' said Hearst.
'A room we have, but have you the wherefore? The dreamstay dark is free, so they say, but they roof costs here as they ever.'
'We have money,' said Hearst.
He displayed a fist-full of bronze triners, part of a coin-hoard found in the green bottle. The innkeeper took one and turned it over, peering at it dubiously.
'This is the brayoz, as we call he, but has you mynt?'
'Mynt?' said Hearst.
'Yes, mynt, mynt!'
'How about this?' said Miphon, displaying a silver ilavale.
'No, no,' said the innkeeper impatiently. 'Not yoller, it's not yoller we're wanting: have you mynt?'
'Is it gold you're wanting?' said Hearst.
'God, god, yes, that's a name for it.'
'We have no gold,' said Hearst.
In fact, they had gold sanarands by the dozen: but Hearst did not think it wise to display such wealth here in Skua.
'What's the problem?' said Ohio. 'Silver's not good enough for them,' said Hearst. 'Come on then, let's get out of here.' T don't want to spend another night in that bottle,' said Hearst.
'Neither do I,' said Blackwood, who hated being shut inside those glowing green walls, where there was never a breath of wind and never a sound of the living world.
'Come on,' said Ohio. 'There's no point in staying here. Come on, do what I say.'
Ohio hustled the others out of the inn and onto the street; before they had gone a dozen paces the innkeeper was calling them back.
'Don't listen to him,' said Ohio. 'Don't turn back.'
Ohio did not relent until the innkeeper had followed them a hundred paces down the road, and had agreed that a single piece of silver would cover food, drink and lodging for the night for the four of them.
The four sat round a fire in the inn that evening, listening to the local gossip. They learnt that the Collosnon, having lost thousands of men on their first attempt to conquer Trest and Estar, had abandoned their attempt to invade Argan, and, for the time being, were content to maintain their little garrison in Skua.
Of the rest of the world, there was little news; few travellers came to Skua, so the town made its own entertainment. Drinking proved a popular sport. After supper, which was a local dish known as widow's memory – it was comprised chiefly of sausages – the travellers managed, after some argument, to extract a ration of beer from the landlord.
About then, a storyteller announced a recital of one of the more popular stories told in Skua, the legend of Morgan Hearst, the Dragon slayer from Rovac.
'Dragonslayer?" said Ohio, turning to stare at Hearst; though Ohio had been told much, he had been fed no stories of dragons and the killing of the same.
'Quiet;' said Hearst, 'and listen to what they have to say.'
The storyteller, well primed with drink, stood on a table, looked around, burped, swayed, grabbed a roof-beam for balance, then in a loud voice began to declaim his story:
Now stay your pratiing chete, I say, And soft to listen long, A gentry cofe I mayn't be, But truth is in me gan: Yes, truth is in me gan, me lads. And in me gan a tale. Now stow you, stow you, hark and hear: It starts upon a night, I say, I starts upon a night. The darkmans is for some to stew, For some it is to nygle, For some the dice, for some the cup, 347 To bouse till lightmans come, But Morgan Hearst rode out that night, Through dewse a vyle rode he, Along the hygh pad to the mount: Maf he called it he.
He girt no shield, he girt no sword,
But strength walked strong with he,
For strong his teeth and wide his smile:
A grin he made it he.
A man of men, a menner man,
No fear he had it he.
No pannam had he none, no none of pek,
As climbed he height on height Till he was from the ground too tall to towre.
Hearst took a pull on his drink and swallowed it down. There was a strange taste to it, but one could hardly expect the best brewing in Skua. He remembered the fear of the climb, and his own drunken boasting afterwards. Once, he had longed to be worshipped as the world's hero. That seemed, now, like something which had happened in another lifetime.
He drank some more.
'Pour that away,' said Blackwood. 'There's something wrong with it.'
'What?' said Hearst, taking another mouthful.
'There's some kind of scum in it. Maybe a fungus.'
'A little mould never hurt anyone,' said Hearst, and swallowed down some more.