The Strangers of Kindness (18 page)

When Kalda banged on the door Jared nearly jumped out of his tunic. He threw open the door. “Master Kalda!” He took a breath, then managed a more natural voice: “Come in, please. I will go get my master.” Kalda took a seat in the main room while Jared went to Pasha’s room.

He knocked softly, then harder. “Master Pasha, you have a visitor.” No response. “Master Pasha, it’s Master Kalda to see you.”

The door flew open. “Why didn’t you say so?” Pasha said, its eyes bright and its tone already that of the cheerful host. It preceded Jared out to greet the guest.

“Kalda, what a pleasure. Tea? Can I offer you tea or—”
 

Kalda’s face was grey. “No, Pasha, thank you. This is not a happy visit, I’m afraid. I have come to tell you that we will be moving our business elsewhere soon. Very soon.” His bony hands rubbed his elbows compulsively.

“Got a new building, then? Where is it? I’ll be your very first customer,” Pasha smiled.

“No, I’m afraid it’s not here. We’ve decided—” he took a deep breath, appearing to be in some pain—“we’ve decided to move to a small town closer to Jindar and the main trade route.”
 

“Oh, no! So I’m losing my delightful neighbors!” Pasha cried, and Jared had to admire his master’s acting ability. “Moving is such a lot of work. Not terribly soon, I hope?”

 
“As soon as we can pack up and get out of here,” Kalda muttered, his thin etiquette fraying under the strain.

“Now, Pasha!” Jared prayed, “Offer to trade me now! It’s the perfect chance!”

“My dear friend,” Pasha crooned, taking Kalda’s arm in hand, “You have a truly formidable task ahead of you. It occurs to me you could use more help than you have.”

Yes! Oh, thank you, Pasha!

His master oozed on, “I will send Jared over to assist you first thing in the morning.”

Kalda was clearly taken by surprise. “Really? You will? Oh, that would be so much help. We’ re very, uh, anxious to make this move.”

“Well,” Pasha went on, “of course you know we’ re both businessmen . . .”

This seemed more to Kalda’s understanding. “Ah. Of course, my friend. I wouldn’t think of not compensating you for his time. Just name the price.”

“No, you misunderstand me. In return for this trivial favor, I would ask you a truly momentous one.”

Jared wanted to laugh at Kalda’s suspicious expression.

“Which would be?”

“Jared, run get my sack of coins from the third bedroom, will you?”

It was Jared’s turn to be surprised, but he trotted off to obey.

“You know, Kalda, you have been so generous to send your little servant over here of an evening. You have a difficult move before you, and of course we mortals never know what lies ahead, especially when traveling. I would like to purchase Anna from you, my friend, so that you can take a good cushion of cash along with you.” Pasha smiled. “You don’t have to feed cash, and you can always find another slave where you’ re going. Please allow me to take her off your hands.”

Jared’s return, lugging the straining-at-the-seams bag of coins, broke the spell which seemed to have fallen on Kalda as Pasha spoke. Jared had heard it all, and could scarcely believe his ears. He set the bag down at the two merchants’ feet and backed away. With Anna’s fate balancing on a knife’s edge, he didn’t want to distract the bargaining.

Kalda cleared his throat. “Well, ahem, Pasha Sands! What an unexpected offer. I don’t know; my wife; I should consult with her, of course. There are a thousand little things a woman likes to have, attentions, services, you know, especially when she’s traveling. Ah, may I ask what price you had in mind? Just so I can tell her, of course.”

“I hadn’t thought about it. What price do you name?” Kalda gaped, then recovered. “Er, ah, I haven’t been thinking along these lines, either, my friend. Just out of my brain-pan, say, a hundred gold ones?”

Jared nearly gasped out loud. Outrageous!

“Then let’s make it two hundred,” Pasha said as though the money didn’t matter to it at all. Jared grinned inwardly; it didn’t!

Kalda gulped and stared at Pasha. Then, his wife’s opinion apparently forgotten, he stuck out a hand. “You have a deal!” he croaked.

Pasha shook his hand. “And Jared will come over in the morning to help you get ready. I won’t expect Anna until you’ re ready to leave.”

Kalda practically bowed himself backward through the door. It was all Jared could do to keep from laughing at him before he was safely out of the house. He spun around to face his master. “Pasha!” Then, no other words coming to mind, “Pasha!” he cried again.

The alien’s grin almost stretched beyond normal human proportions. “So. Did you think you’ re the only one with ideas, hey? It’s done, isn’t it! We shook hands? Little Anna’s coming here to us? Why are your eyes running wet? What’s the matter with you?” But it was only teasing. It pinched the skin on Jared’s arm and tugged him back and forth in glee. Jared yelped but it didn’t really hurt. He didn’t think anything could ever hurt again.

As the day went on, though, Jared noticed several times that Pasha seemed more pensive than the young man would have expected after their victory.

Pasha spent the whole night in its workshop, and when Jared awoke the next morning, there were two brand-new
nalshas
on the main room’s low table. Pasha lay flopped upon the couch in a parody of exhaustion, but Jared could see that the alien really was more fatigued than he’ d ever seen it. He bent over the couch.

“Are you all right, Master?”

“Yes, Jared, I am, in fact, wonderful. The
nalsha
-cradle can be assembled now. I can go home.”

Jared straightened up, torn by a confusion of emotions. He’ d heard the quiet joy in his master’s voice.
Don’ t spoil it for him.
“I have to go across the street, Pasha.”

“Eat first.”

Jared had forgotten his stomach, his heart was so full.
 

Dutifully he found a wad of bread and a pear in the cool-room. He ate them standing up, took a swig of water, and hurried out the door. The sooner he got the two carrion-crows gone, the sooner Anna would come to Pasha’s house. He couldn’t think beyond that.

Full noon, two days later, Pasha Sands, Jared and Anna stood in the town square waiting for the mayor’s arrival. A few dozen townspeople clustered under shop awnings, leaned patiently against the stone well, squatted on blankets spread with their wares. Silver bracelets and copper urns stabbed the eye with the sun’s reflected glare. Somewhere down a side-street a donkey brayed, and children’s laughter danced along the breeze. The aromas of cooking meats, fresh manure and foreign perfumes mingled pleasingly in the air. Pasha Sands surveyed the scene, drinking in the sights and sounds and smells of its adopted village.
Empty-handed I will come to your temple, Geilsharah, but not with an empty heart. What you allow me, in your wisdom and compassion, to do here today, is more than I deserve. Great is your love.

The mayor’s bursar cleared a path through the crowd, bellowing self-importantly. Then the mayor stood before the three petitioners, and the square fell expectantly silent. His Eminence beamed at Pasha. “You have a pronouncement for us, Pasha Sands?”

Pasha looked at Jared and Anna, standing so bravely before the public scrutiny with their eyes shining. It tore its gaze from them and turned to the mayor. “I came here a stranger, oh Excellence. Your community has taken me to its heart, indeed, I have thrived far beyond my expectations. As kind and generous as your people have been, I am quite certain that my life would have been much harder, and assuredly much lonelier, if not for the loyalty, hard work and friendship of this one named Jared, whom I purchased in the slave market not two streets from here.
 

“This young woman named Anna, who has come so recently into my possession, brought light of her own, and laughter and love into my house, rendering it, truly, a home.

“It is time now for me to leave this embracing environment, and to continue my journey in life. I go with a heavy heart, knowing I will never see again the friends I have made in this place. My sorrow is, however, leavened with joy, because I am able . . .” Pasha faltered, looking into Jared’s eyes, “because I do here proclaim that Jared and Anna are now free persons. As much as this means to them, to me it is but a tiny part of what I owe them.

“Further, since I will have no more use for the house on Merchant Street, the workshop located in its nether floor, or the coins which have been paid me for the glassware Jared made to support my establishment, I now pass them all on to him, to do with as he pleases.”

Jared gasped. Pasha smiled with great satisfaction; it hadn’t told the young man about this and the effect was most gratifying.

Pasha cocked an eye at the mayor. “Will that suffice? Do you need a longer speech?”

Jared and Anna, and several people who knew Pasha, broke into laughter. “Watch out!” the iron-monger called, “He’ll keep us here ‘til midnight!”

The mayor grinned and pounded Pasha’s shoulder. “No, indeed, that’s the prettiest speech I’ve heard in years. Are you sure you won’t stay with us? We could use a honey-tongued orator around here!”

Pasha declined, bobbing his head appreciatively. The mayor addressed Jared and Anna. “Whatever paths you have followed to this point, let me tell you on behalf of my people, here you are welcome.” He scanned the crowd. “Hear you now, all people of this town, this Jared and this Anna join us as full citizens with all rights and respect due any free person.” The cheers, as Jared and Anna embraced, warmed Pasha more than the sun.

The cold hour before dawn, the following morning. They stood on the beach where Pasha had first washed ashore. After dusk the evening before, they had wrapped each special
nalsha
in its own soft cloth and placed it carefully in a small cart Pasha rented for the task. Late in the night they had left the house, moving silently through the black shadowed streets, trailed by the village dogs.
 

Pasha’s four-legged admirers stayed behind at the outskirts of town, and now the three friends watched the starlit sea foaming in, licking the flanks of the beach, receding with a million sighs, only to surge again toward their feet. Jared thought the sky had never been so deep, the stars so sharp. Their glinting stung his eyes.
 

The moon was in its darkest phase. At the east rim of the world the first thought of dawn nibbled at the hem of the heavens.

“We’ d better get busy, Pasha, if you’ re to be ready when the sun comes up.”

He and Anna unwrapped the bowls and handed them, one by one, to their friend. That didn’t take very long, but Pasha fussed and re-arranged the bowls, stacking two together, changing its mind and stacking two different ones there, then separating those; every few minutes its eyes swept the sky. It murmured to itself in the unintelligible chant that Jared heard when his master was shaping the first
nalsha
. He found Anna’s hand in the darkness and they watched the proceedings, half-awed, half-amused.

At last the configuration seemed to satisfy the alien. It stood in the middle of the pattern and folded its human-like arms. “So. It’s almost time.” It blinked at them looking fierce.

“It’s too soon, Pasha!” burst from Anna’s lips. Jared squeezed her hand. Already tears made tracks down her cheeks. Narrow sheets of purple stretched from the eastern horizon, fading the stars in their path.

“I know, little one,” Pasha said tenderly. “Had I known the pain I’d be feeling right now, I may not have been so efficient making my
nalshas
. But it’s time, it’s past time, I must be on my way.”

A sudden question came to Jared. “Master—I mean Pasha: you mentioned once there are two paths your people may take. One is to produce a small one of your kind. What is the other path?” He peered at the alien, trying to read Pasha’s expression. A sliver of the sun lanced across the terrain piercing his eyes.

Pasha spoke even more softly. “The other path is
emppakka
, Jared.”

“You used that word before, when Viladi died.” Alarm leaped into Jared’s face.

“Be easy, my friend. Our two species are so different, Jared. There is no way for you to understand us completely. The best way for you to think of it is,
emppakka
is a sort of wedding.”

“You’ re going to your wedding?” Anna cried. “Why didn’t you tell us?” But Jared was silent; he had not forgotten that Pasha had no sex. He thought it must be some other sort of bonding than between a man and a woman. He did know the emotion Pasha’s eyes had held for several days now, and that was joy. “Joy,” he said out loud.

“What?” Pasha repeated, startled.

“This thing, this
emppakka
, fills you with joy, doesn’t it, Pasha.”

“Yes. Yes, it does, Jared. Even more than I have had from your companionship. The greatest joy possible for one of my kind.” It turned wide eyes to the sunrise, then to the pair watching. “You have told me that you people have an ending, Jared. Mine do not. If I am allowed
emppakka
, it will be even more true of me. Do you see, dear friends, you will be a part of me for all eternity? You will never really die.”

“Oh!” Anna cried, and covered her mouth, and tears flowed over her fingers. Jared held her close.