Nosh paid no attention, she twisted with full strength and freed the crystal from the now bent circlet. In her hold it was blazing nearly torch bright, while against her breast she could feel the answering warmth of the other two she had found.
“What…” Danus sounded astounded.
Nosh dropped the circlet. It had not been in her mind to reveal her own quest, nor could she now. She thought hurriedly of some excuse and answered as best she could.
“This, too, is a thing of power, Master merchant. Though the power is not evil, for this is an amulet of Lyr. But,”—a sudden thought came swiftly—“perhaps it is this that the rathhawk came seeking—why it followed the trail of your wagons. There is this—power calls power—white can summon black whether it will or not. This is of Lyr and I am pledged to Lyr—for fortune’s sake, Master Danus, leave this within my hands.”
“It is no real gem,” he said, rubbing his jawline with one hand. “A crystal only. But Sofina’s crown is dear to her. Yet you found and brought her to safety…”
Holding the Finger in one hand, Nosh felt in her belt bag and brought out the largest of those jade pebbles she had found in the dried streambed. She showed it to the merchant.
“Jade… How came you with such a fortune, Lady?”
“Will not your Sofina take this for her headdress? It needs but a bit of polish and the color is fine. As for where I got it… streambeds hold many pebbles and some of them are gems.”
“And you have the knowing fingers!” He looked at her as if he could not quite believe in it. “Well enough, Lady—the crystal for the jade, and if the crystal draws such as the hawks, we are better off without it.”
But were they, wondered Kryn, and continued to so wonder through the days which followed. There were no more attacks from the raiders—perhaps the destruction of the hawk stone had forestalled that. But there was the future to be considered.
Danus was eager to be on his way again but he had to overhaul his wagons and his loss of guards was a grim matter to him. Those from the refuge had their own problems and in the end Danus, Jarth, and Hasper, with Tuver to represent the men, talked it out.
It was plain that though they had made good strides toward health, those who had broken limbs at the refuge could not go journeying again. Were they to join with Danus as he first suggested, openly eager for the protection of those able to bear arms, the progress of the caravan would be greatly slowed.
At last they gained a compromise. Danus turned over to the outlaws several bales of furs, and some of his provisions—also the arms of those of his guards who had been killed. In turn, Kryn, with two of Jarth’s men, was to go with the caravan, be paid off once they reached Kasgar with funds enough to be able to buy what the outlaws would need. Though the cold season was on the way, the prairies were seldom struck by the worst of the storms and, in the meantime, those remaining would continue to rebuild and fortify Dast, establish again a headquarters.
When this decision was announced Nosh came to Jarth.
“Lord Jarth, you have dealt very fairly with me, though I have, unwittingly, brought upon you danger and even death. Now the time comes when I must be about the task Dreen set me, and so I go with the caravan that I may do so.”
Kryn was present when she said that and was in two minds himself. But perhaps if any ill followed them now, it would be better to have it strike the caravan than visit upon Dast the fate of the refuge. He hoped once the city was gained he would see no more of her and her uncanny hands.
Danus agreed eagerly. Over the days he had asked Nosh to examine and grade the rough stones he had bargained for in the north, and her expertise continued to amaze him. She had served as a judge willingly, wanting to make sure that the Master of the caravan would consider her journey favorably.
So at last came the morning when the great wagons creaked out of Dast at a much slower speed than they had entered. Sofina had regained her health enough to be able to ride in the lead one. She seemed wary of Nosh, making no overtures to the girl, and Nosh was content to have it so. At least Sofina had made no complaint about losing the crystal, which was now with its fellows in a new, neatly woven hair bag, safely bestowed against Nosh’s skin beneath layers of clothing.
CHAPTER 13
Since the number of mounts remaining for the caravan was limited, Nosh had thought to tramp the march even as she had during the journey across the Ryft and the one from the refuge to Dast. The varges which pulled these wagons were of a different breed than those ponderous animals used for burden bearing and field work. Nor had they been allowed to graze freely. They kept to a much brisker pace than those she had known.
Those mounts remaining were used for the scouts, who rode out on either side of the rutted wagon road, taking turns at a sweep of the territory. Though there was no more indication of any raiders gathering.
Nosh was keeping up with the men who formed the center guard about the train itself, though she had given her pack to be added to the load of the wagon Danus used now for his headquarters. However, it was the Master merchant himself who leaned down from the driver’s perch and called to her:
“Lady, mount up—would you be sore footed by nightfall? There is no need to travel so.”
Sofina sheltered in that wagon and Nosh hesitated. The woman’s attitude had been so reserved and off-putting during the days at Dast while the caravan was refitting that Nosh did not want to intrude upon her— even though Sofina had suffered her help while her wound healed. However, Danus had pulled up the double-varge team and she decided that this was not a matter for argument.
She had expected him to wave her into the covered back of the vehicle where his wife sheltered but instead he moved over on his own seat and motioned for her to join him.
During their grading of his gemstones they had at least become less than strangers. Nosh knew that Danus still found it difficult to believe in her talent, but she was indifferent to his continued skepticism. Though he had asked many questions, she had put him off with few answers—saying nothing of Lyr’s crystal storehouse— rather placing credit for her talent to the training of Dreen.
She had not even shown him that packet of stones which she had found in her roaming in the Ryft. But she listened carefully to all he had to say in return about the markets for his own finds. And the idea grew in her mind that the best way to start her hunt—if any of the Fingers existed in Kasgar—might well be to find a place with some dealer in gems and learn all the sources for the trade.
However, that was not going to be easy, according to what she had learned from Danus. The gem traders of Kasgar were a tightly organized guild that admitted no newcomers easily—the trade being largely confined to several families who had carried it on generation after generation.
The present head of this guild was a woman, Lathia D’Arcit, whose clan had several generations ago fought their way to the head offices of the guild.
“There was talk,” Danus was speaking now since a question from her brought him back to the satisfaction of revealing just how much he himself knew of the internal affairs of the guild—though as a mere outland buyer of gems he had but a very small standing—not even a vote in the general body. “There was talk that a woman was not fitted for such a post—but Lathia is not one to be overlooked and she had double interest, for she inherited from her clan father his shares in the general holdings and also from her husband, who was a cousin by birth, and who never came back from a venture westward about which he was very tight-mouthed before he left and concerning which nothing was to be later learned.
“Thus she came to the headmastership of the guild, calling in the votes of all beholden to her, her father, and her husband—and they were many. But within four seasons she had proved that, woman or not, she was a true guild master. Her household is a fortress—she is the only one who has never lost to the creepers—”
“The creepers?” Nosh interrupted.
Danus appeared disturbed. “Lady, wherever there is wealth
there are those who want it without extending themselves in labor. The creepers are those that flit by night, none seeing them to know, preying cunningly on any who have storage of rich goods. It is said that they are also banded together and have a master to set their ploys for them. But of that we do not talk in Kasgar. It is better not to meddle in matters concerning those who are fast and clever with the knife.”
“There is no guard then?” Nosh was puzzled. That a city might be so burdened with thieves puzzled her. Though she could not remember any city for herself, she had heard enough reminiscences in the refuge to know something of the life within the walls of the High King’s holdings and the like. And one of the outlaws had served as a city guard there before he was framed by an enemy and hunted to the hills.
“There are guards, yes,” Danus admitted. “And those who can afford such employ their own, always for travel as I do. But the creepers are sly and clever—they are said to be able to so loot a man’s possessions that he is not even aware until they are long gone. Also,” he hesitated and then added, “they are said to pay tax even as do honest merchants and the Governing Three….” He shook his head. “That is no matter to be talked about, Lady. All kinds live within city walls and one is never sure of any except a bond friend or a clan kin. To be without such in Kasgar is dangerous….”
“I am without such,” Nosh said.
“Just so, thus I am warning you, Lady. Those of the gate will take note of your coming, there will be inquiry as to your business and where you will stay as you conduct that. You have a gift of which I can make use— take service with me and there will be no question.”
Nosh considered his offer. What did she truly know of this man save as he had revealed himself during the days at Dast? In a way he was beholden to her in the matter of the hawk stone—for if that had continued in his possession, she now believed he would certainly still be in danger. A city for her would be worse than any wilderness—there she would feel at home as she had been in the Ryft and in the Heights—but with strangers living strange lives, packed house to house within walls—that was a different matter and one she could not yet picture for herself. Still she was somehow sure that she had made the right choice in coming with Danus. To remain in Dast would not have furthered her quest and she could not expect what she sought to seek her out.
“How long would such service last?” she asked now. Again from the talk of the band she had heard something of apprenticeships intended to last for a number of seasons and she had no intention of tying herself by a bond of that kind.
“For as long as you desire, Lady. I have stock in my keeping which I wish to offer at the winter fair—if you could grade and sort for me, it would be worth a fair percentage of the sales take. You are welcome to live under my roof—and,”—he raised his head a fraction, there was a note of pride in his voice—“that is not the least of the merchant halls. Sofina is also new to life in cities—you might well explore together when she wishes to go to the market, the temple, or the Center Garden.”
“This sounds a fair bargain, Master Danus,” Nosh agreed. “You speak of a temple—is then the worship of the One established also in Kasgar?”
Danus shook his head vigorously. “Not so, Lady. We have heard aplenty of the suffering under that service. Our city protectors are the Three Gifted Ones—there is Armish the thinker, Coshon, the warrior, and the Lady Paulla who loves, and heals, and wishes all well. A man or a woman will call upon the one of the Three who will best forward what is desired. There were other gods in the past—even,”—he gave Nosh a sidewise look— “they tell of one who came to preach of Lyr, a power unknown. Some listened and there was a temple built— but the priest vanished and there was none to follow him. So the temple was left to decay—until Varlard took a portion of it for a storehouse for his hides. Your pardon, Lady, if I seem to speak disrespectfully of what you hold as a power, but that is the way it is.”
“The truth is always best, Master Danus,” she replied quickly but her thoughts were busy. So a forsaken temple to Lyr stood somewhere in Kasgar—and where better might one hope to find what she now sought? Dreen had said that those who served closely in the great shrine had scattered—taking with them to far places the separate Fingers. Let her discover the shrine of which Danus spoke and she might be advanced another Finger on the path she must follow.
“Will you be one to speak again for this goddess?” he asked now.
“No. I am no priestess full pledged to her, though I was taught by such. What I have learned of Lyr gives me warmth and soothing of spirit, but that is for me—I do not seek to push my belief upon others.”
He gave a grunt of relief. “Our Three are not jealous, mind you—not as the One who would make all subservient to His Voices—yet they serve us and we do not go seeking elsewhere. To tamper with gods and goddesses is sometimes a perilous thing.”
“Danus!” The call from behind arose over the creaking of the great cart wheels. Sofina had raised her voice high, and there was a peremptory ring in her call.
The merchant planted the long goad in its socket at the edge of his seat. He nodded toward the varges….
“They will follow the wagon ahead. If they balk, call.”
Nosh nodded as the man climbed over the bench into the covered part of the wagon. He had given her a lot to think about, though she could not make any firm plans until she saw Kasgar, learned more of the city. Now she became aware of raised voices: however, they were speaking in a strange tongue and she could not understand the words, only the timbre of sound. Sofina’s must be the higher one soaring up, a note of anger plain to distinguish. Danus offered a low rumble and to Nosh it sounded very much as if he were trying to soothe his wife, to lighten that anger.
She watched, as the discussion continued, carefully keeping her face toward the front, attempting to make it clear that she was no eavesdropper, watching the changing of the scouts. Two were caravan guards and the third, who had drawn in from before the wagon train, was Kryn.
He swung down from his mount, accepted a sparse drink from the skin offered him by the driver in the wagon ahead. They exchanged words with the outlaw ready to take his place while he, at the gesture of the wagoner, climbed up to join him, so vanishing from view. She was glad that his duties kept him busy and away from the train much of the time.
He had made it so plain that he considered her a danger and that he was relieved when she had announced her wish to join Danus and so pass out of the life of the outlaws. Though Jarth, who had suffered far more from her unhappy act, had been sorry to see her go, pressing on her a choice of weapons, so that the knife at her belt was not thinned with age, and urging her to take care. Yet he had also seemed to understand that this was a thing she must do.
She had heard Kryn’s story—of the blotting out of his Hall clan and his outlawry due to the Voice. So she did not resent his contempt for all to do with gods, and his hatred of their power. Once she had reached Kasgar she would probably never see him again, not that that would greatly matter.
Yet she found herself continuing to think of him. Among the outlaws he was closest in age to herself— although his life had roughened him into a semblance of mature manhood. He had known disaster even as she. It was a pity, she found herself thinking suddenly, that his bitterness had warped him so.
Her thoughts flowed to her memory of Dreen and their long companionship. She had learned to trust the priestess, to look upon her as a wall between the ills of the world and her own self. Dreen had given her so much since that morning when she had stepped from among the rocks to welcome her into the Ryft. There was an emptiness in her, but Nosh quickly overlaid those memories with thoughts of the city and of what she might accomplish there.
She did not regret her bargain with Danus. It seemed to her to be a fair one. She would be exchanging service for service, and his stories of the guild and its tight grip upon the whole of the gem trade would suggest that a newcomer such as herself, especially one who looked li
ke a road beggar, would have short shrift if she were to approach even the smallest of the clans. This Lathia D’Arcit—there was very little chance of approaching such as that one.
There was to be a fair wherein all the caravan merchants would show their gleanings for the season. Yes, she could do the grading for Danus and make sure that he knew the value of every stone. Several times during his testing of her she had been able to confound him that a showy piece had not the value of a duller stone. Also—there was the hawk stone—were there other dangers such as that afloat?
She knew from her studies with Dreen that there did exist gems which were the focus of ill fortune and that those through whose hands they passed would suffer. Whether her gift could pinpoint such stones Nosh had no idea. But she was coming to believe more and more in her talent and to attempt to use it in other directions.
Dreen had told her that in the past there had been those who could read whole histories in stones—“seeing” each owner, being able to tell if a gem were stolen or acquired honestly. Perhaps if she had the run of Danus’s fair collection, she could do some experimenting in that way. There was also his story of Lyr’s shrine—she must learn the way to that. Her hand went to the bundle of the Fingers—she had had to shear a long lock and weave the bag larger—following Dreen’s pattern. If she came near one of those she hunted these, she was sure, would prove a believable guide.
There was a stir and Danus climbed back beside her. The merchant’s face was flushed and his mouth straight set. He spoke without glancing in her direction:
“Lady, you have freely consented to join this household and lend your talent to its aid. Sofina…” he paused as if he could not easily find the words he wanted now, “Sofina has seen very little of the world outside the boundaries of the land held by her people. She is not used to many of the customs of the outer world. I would ask of you that you take nothing she may say in the heat of ignorance as meant to truly belittle you….” Again he paused.