Shardik (66 page)

‘Perhaps loss and regret fill her life as they have come to fill mine, and she can add nothing except her presence in tins place. No doubt there are many such in Zeray.’

As they approached the tomb the Tuginda co
ughed again and the woman, startl
ed, turned quickly round. The face was young and, though still beautiful, thin with hardship and marred, as he had
guessed, by the lines of a settl
ed sorrow. Seeing her eyes widen with surpri
se and fear, he whispered urgently
, ‘Speak,
saiyett
, or she will

fly-‘

The woman was staring as though at a ghost; the knuckles of her clenched hands were pressed to her open mouth and suddenly, through her rapid breathing, came a low cry. Yet she neither ran nor turned to run, only staring on and on in incredulous amazement. He, too, stood still, afraid to move and trying to recall of what her consternation reminded him. Then, even as he saw her tears begin to flow, she sank to her knees, still gazing fixedly at the Tuginda, with a look like that of a child unexpectedly found by a searching mother and as yet uncertain whether that mother will show herself loving or angry. Suddenly, in a passion of weeping, she flung herself to
the
ground, grasping the Tuginda’s ankles and kissing her feet in
the
grass.

‘Saiye
tt,’ she cried through her tears, ‘oh, forgive me! Only forgive m
e, saiyett, and I will die at peace!
’

Lifting her head, she looked up at them, her face agonized and distorted with crying. Yet now Kelderek recognized her, and knew also where he had seen before that very look of fear. For it was Melathys who lay prostrate before them, clasping the Tuginda’s feet.

A quick gust of wind from the river ran through the trees and was gone, tossing and opening the pennant as some passer-by might idly have spread it with his hand and let it fall again. For a moment the emblem, a golden snake, showed plainly, rippling as though alive; then drooped and disappeared once more among the folds of the dark, pendent cloth.

43
The
‘Priestess’s
Tale
-

‘When he came,’ said
Melathys
, ‘when he came, and Ankray with him, I had already been here long enough to believe that it could be only a matter of time before I must die by one chance or
another
.

During the journey down the
river, before ever I reached Ze
ray, I had learned what I had to expect from men when I sought food or shelter. But the journey - that was an easy beginning, if only I had known. I was
still
alert and confident. I had a knife and knew how to use it, and there was always the river to carry me further down.’ She stopped, looking quickly across at Kelderek who, replete with his first full me
al since leaving Kabin, was sitti
ng beside the fire, soaking his lacerated feet in a bowl of warm water and herbs. ‘Did she call?’

‘No, sa
iyett,’ said Ankray, huge in
the
lamplight. He had entered the room while she was speaking. ‘The Tuginda is asleep now. Unless there’s anything more you need, I’ll watch beside her for
a
time.’

‘Yes, watch for an hour. Then I will sleep in her room myself. Lord
Kelderek
‘s needs I leave to you. And remember, Ankray, whatever befell
the
High Baron on Ortelga, Lord
Kelderek
has come to Zeray. That journey settl
es all scores.’

‘You know what they say,
saiyett
. In
Zeray
, Memory has a sharp sting and the wise avoid her.’

‘So I have heard. Go, then.’

The man went out, stooping at the doorway, and
Melathys
, before she resumed, refilled
Kelderek
‘s wooden beaker with rough wine from
the
goatskin hanging on
the
wall.

‘But there is no going on from Zeray. All journeys end here. Many, when they first come, believe that
they
will be able to cross the Telthearna, but none, so far as I know, has ever done so. The current in midstream is desperately strong and a mile below lies the Gorge of Bereel, where no craft can live among the rapids and broken rocks.’

‘Does no one ever leave by land?’

‘In Kabin province, if they find a man who is known to have crossed
the
Vrako from
the
east, he is either killed or compelled to return.’

‘That I can believe.’

‘Northwards from here, th
irty or forty miles upstream, the mountains come down almost to the shore. There is a gap - Linsho, they call it - no more than half a mile wide. Those who live there make all travellers pay a toll before they will let them pass. Many have paid all they possess to come south; but who could pay to go north?’

‘ Could none ?’

‘Kelderek, I s
ee you know nothing of Zeray. Ze
ray is
a
rock to which men cling for a last
little
while until death washes them away.

They have no homes, no past, no future, no hope, no honour and no money. We are rich in shame and in nothing else. I once sold my body for three eggs and a glass of wine. It should have been two eggs, but I drove a hard bargain. I have known a man murdered for one silver piece, which proved worthless to
the
murderer because it could be neither eaten, worn nor used as a weapon. There is no market in
Zeray
, no priest, no baker and no shoemaker. Men catch crows alive and breed them for food. When I came, trade did not exist. Even now it is only a trickle, as I will tell you. The sound of a scream at night goes unremarked and the possessions a man has he carries with him and never puts down.’

‘But thi
s house? You have food and wine; and the Tuginda, thank God, is in a comfortable bed.’

‘The doors and windows are strongly barred - have you noticed? But yes, you
are
right. Here,
we
have a
little
comfort: for how long is
another
matter, as you w
ill see when I have done my tale
.’

She poured more hot water into Kelderek’s foot-bowl, sipped her wine and was silent for a
little
, bending towards the fire and stretching her beautiful arms and body t
his way and that, as though bathing herself in its warmth
and light At length she continued.

‘They say women delight to be desired, and so perhaps they do — some, and somewhere else. I have stood screaming
with
fear while two men I hated fought each other with knives to decide which of them should force himself upon me. I have been dragged out of a burning hut at night by
the
man who had killed my bed-mate
in his sleep. In less than three
months I belonged to five men, two of whom were murdered, while
a third left Ze
ray afte
r trying to stab me. Like all those
who leave, he went not because he wished to reach somewhere else, but because he was afraid to remain.

‘I am not boasting,
Kelderek
, believe me. These were not matters to boast of. My life was a nightmare. There was no refuge at all — nowhere to hide. There were not forty women in Zeray all told -
hags, drabs, girls living in terror because they knew too much about some vile crime. And I came to it a virgin priestess of Quiso, not twenty-one years old.’ She paused a moment and then said, ‘In
the
old days on Quiso, when
we
fished for bramba
we
used live bait. God forgive me, I could never do
that
again. Once I tried to burn my face in the
fire,
but for that I found no more courage than I had had to encounter Lord Shardik.

‘One night I was
with
a man named Glabron, a To
nildan who was feared even in Ze
ray. If a man could only make himself feared enough, a band would form round him to kill and rob, to put food in
their
stomachs and stay alive a little longer. They would frighten others away from the fishing-places, keep watch for newcomers to waylay and so on. Sometimes they would set out to raid villages beyond Zeray, though usually it was
little
enough they got for their trouble. It’s very small pickings here, you see. Men fought and robbed for the bare living. A man who could neither fight nor steal could expect to live perhaps three months. Three years is
a
good life for the hardest of men in Zeray.

“There’s a tavern of sorts, down near the shore at this end of the town. They call it “The Green Grove” - after some place in Ikat, I believe; or is it Bekla?’

‘
Bekla
.’

‘Ikat or Bekla, I never heard that the drink
there
could turn men blind, nor yet that the landlord sold rats and lizards for food. Glabron exacted some wretched pittance in return for not destroying the place and for protecting it from others like h
imself. He was vain - yes, in Ze
ray he was vain - and must needs have the pleasure of others’ envy: that they should watch him eat when they were hungry and hear him insulting those whom they feared
; oh yes, and he must be tormenti
ng their lust with the sight of what he kept for himself. “You’ll take me there once too often,” I said. “For God’s sake, isn’t it enoug
h that I’m your property, and Ke
riol’s body’s floating down the
Telthearna
? Where’s the sport in waving
a
bone at starving dogs?” Glabron never argued with anyone, least of all with me. I wasn’t there for talk, and he himself was about as ready with words as a pig.

‘They’d had a success that evening. Some days before, a body had been washed ashore with a
little
money on it, and two of Glabron’s men had gone inland and come back with a sheep. Most of it
they
ate themselves, but a part they exchanged for drink. Glabron grew so drunk that I became more afraid
than
ever. In
Zeray
a man’s life is never so much in danger as when he’s drunk. I knew his enemies and I was expecting to sec one or more of them come in at any moment. It was dim enough in
the
room - lamplight’s a scarce luxury here - but suddenly I noticed two strangers who’d entered. One had his face almost buried in the top of a great, fur cloak and the
other
, a huge man, was looking at me and whispering to him. They were only two to Glabron’s six or seven, but I knew what could happen in that place and I was frantic to get away.

‘Glabron was singing a foul song - or thought he was singing it -and I plucked at his sleeve and interrupted him. He looked round for
a
moment and
then
hit me across the face with the back of his hand. He was just going on when the muffled stranger walked across to the table. His cloak was still held across his face and only one of his eyes showed over the top. He kicked the table and rocked it, so that they all looked up at him.

⁴
“I don’t like your song,” he said to Glabron, in Beklan. “I don
‘t
like the way you treat
this
girl; and I don’t like you either.”

‘As soon as he spoke
I knew who he was. I thought, “
I can’t bear
it.”
I wanted to warn him, but I couldn’t utter a word. Glabron answered nothing for a few moments, not because he was particularly taken aback, but because it was always his way to go slowly and calmly about killing a man. He liked to make an effect - that was part of the fear he inspired - to let people see
that
he killed deliberately and not in a fit of rage.

‘ “Oh, don’t you, I say,” he said at length, when he was sure the whole room was listening. “I wonder whom I have the honour of addressing, don’t you know?”

‘ “I’m the devil,” says the other man, “come for your soul, and not a moment too soon either.” And with that he dropped his arm. They’d never seen him before, of course, and in that dim light the face which he disclosed was not the face of a human being. They were all superstitious men - ignorant, with evil consciences, no religion and a great fear of the
unknown. They leapt away from hi
m, cursing and falling over each other. The Baron already had his sword out under his cloak, and in that moment he ran Glabron through
the
th
roat, grabbed me by the arm, cut down
another
man who was in his way and was out in
the
dark with me and Ankray before anyone had had time even to draw a knife.

‘I won’t tell you all the rest of the story - or not tonight. Later there’ll be time. But I suppose you can well believe that nothing like Bel-ka-Trazet had ever been seen here before. For three months he and I and Ankray never slept at one and the same time. In six months he was lord of Zeray, with men at his back whom he could trust to do his bidding.

‘He and I lived in this house, and people used to call me his queen - half in jest and half in earnest No one dared to show me anything but respect. I don’t think they would have believed the truth - that Bel-ka-Trazet never touched me. “I doubt whether you’ve learned a very good opinion of men,” he said to me once
, “and as for me, it’s l
ittle enough I’ve got left in the way of self-respect. At least while I’m alive I can still honour a priestess of Quiso, and that will be better for us both.” Only Ankray knows that secret. The rest of Zeray must believe that
we
were fated to be childless, or else that his injuries -