The Far Side Of Forever Part 32

We kept going even after full dark had fallen; none of us or the mounts were particularly tired, and there wasn't much risk to losing our way. Su didn't need tight to see the trail, and the ground next to the road continued to be consistent and even. I didn't know what fearless leader expected to find at me end of the trail other than the end of his bright hopes along with it, but he seemed to be deter- mined to get there. I was too depressed to care if we made it or not, and the only bright spot I could find in what had happened was the fact that I'd never have to face Graythor and tell him I'd failed. I'd never sec Graythor again, or alt the people who were going to die because of that failure, but that didn't mean they wouldn't walk my dreams for as long as I lived.

"There!" Kadrim said suddenly from his place in front

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of me, drawing everyone's attention. "] had thought at first I was mistaken, yet now- There are campfires."

"Half a dozen at least, and no one making an effort to conceal their existence," Rik agreed, his voice out of the dark behind Dranna calm and thoughtful. "Kadrim, you and Su stay with the girls. Zail and I will take a closer, private look before we ride in and introduce ourselves."

We had ail come to a halt by then, and the fires they had been discussing were clearly visible to the right of the road, in what seemed to be a partially sheltered comer of the landscape. The campsite wasn't ail that easily seen from the direction in which we'd come, but it had to be clearly apparent to anyone riding in the opposite direction.

"What's the sense in creeping around?" I asked, dislik- ing being included in as one of "the girls." "Why can't we all go together? We'll have to deal with these people at some time or other, so why not now?"

"Best we leam first what it is we shall be dealing with," Kadrim answered very softly, his shadow-form looking ahead rather than turning back to me. "Hush now, girl, for your words may well carry-and our companions have already gone."

I turned back to see where" Rik and Zail had been riding, only to find their empty-saddlefl horses. Dranna had also turned to look, and when she saw that the two men were no longer behind us, she s.h.i.+vered somewhat and quickly faced forward again. Neither one of us had heard them leave, and that annoyed me; Kadrim had known they were gone from a good deal farther away, but Dranna and I had had to be told about it.

The horses had time to do a little snacking from the roadside vegetation before our intrepid scouts got back, no more than s.h.i.+fting shadows announcing their return. They mounted up again with a creak of leather, gathered up their reins, then Rik's outline looked around at us from his place behind Dranna.

"There are eight campfires, one for each of the families camped over there," he reported, his words soft but still carrying to all of us. "Men, women and children, no weapons visible, no horses but what looks like a small, common herd of goat-like animals. They don't seem to

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have much in the way of possessions, and they're defi- nitely camped rather than living in the area. They also have a few small wagons with wooden traces and cross- bars, which means they pull the things themselves. There are also no guardposts set up, nothing but a few of the older boys keeping an eye on the goats. The only thing I don't like about the look of them is how quiet they all are.

even the children. Some of the men exchanged a few words, and once one of the women spoke to two of the children, but that was about it. It didn't feet natural."

"They seemed to be afraid but not afraid," Zail put in, a groping in his tone. "They're not hiding, so they're probably not afraid of being discovered, but there's still a tension of some sort in them. It's their att.i.tude-i don't know how to describe it."

"You'll all have a chance to see it for yourselves."

Rikkan Addis said, tacitly agreeing with Zail. "We're going to pay their camp a visit, and find out what there is in the way of problems around here. I'm going to tell them we're from a very distant country, and don't know this part of the world at all. I want all of you to smile and be as friendly as possible-but don't move far from your horses, and let me do the talking. Let's go."

The plan sounded flimsy and inadequate, but there wasn't much of a chance to object to it even if I'd wanted to.

Fearless leader moved out of line and rode ahead, and then all of us were following him toward the campfires and the people who had kindled them.

We were moving at little more than a walk when we entered the large, communal camp, and every eye of every person there seemed to be on us. Counting men, women and children there must have been seventy people or more, and every one of them stood and stared at us in silence.

They were a small people, short and slim and somehow undernourished, even though they appeared to be fairly welt fed. They all had brown hair and large brown eyes, doe-eyes set in human faces, thin brown cloth covering'

their slender bodies, nothing in the way of shoes even on the adults. Just as Zail had said, there was something about the way they stood and stared at us, a bone-deep fright beneath their silence and immobility, a desire to run

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even though they didn't dare. The chill night-wind ruffling their clothing and hair didn't seem to bother them, not nearly as much as the sudden appearance of guests. When we came to a full stop there was a moment of hesitation.

and then one of the men came forward to stand alone.

"Good evening to you, friend," Rikkan Addis said with a smile as he looked down at him, deliberate warmth in his tone. "Can you tell me what country we now ride in? We come from very far away, you see, and have never ridden these lands before."

"There is no more than one country, lord," the man answered with what seemed like confusion, his accent so thick that it was difficult to follow. "The land is Filim, all of it, as far as a man can travel in a lifetime, in every direction there is. There is no place that is not Filim, for all of creation belongs to the G.o.d-king Thannar, blessed be his name."

"Blessed be his name," echoed softly from everyone else, an immediate chorus that was like a sigh of the wind.

Dranna s.h.i.+vered at the sound of that chorus, beating the rest of us to it if everyone's expression meant they felt the way I did. Those people had said what they had automati- cally, without thinking about it,''and there was something horrible in that sort of thing.

' "The G.o.d-king Thannar,'' Rik repeated, nodding thought- fully as he abandoned his intended hne of attack. "And all of you are, of course, completely loyal to him. Tell me what you're doing out here, in the middle of nowhere."

The last sentence, I thought, had a lot of Persuasion riding along with it, and the small man proved it by responding at once.

"We have been sent from the city of Lar to the city of Nor," he said, still looking only at Rik. "Nor is the blessed city where our G.o.d-king keeps his court, and field workers and servants are always in short supply. Many of them get used up by the Sacred Guard, usually in their frolics, and have to be replaced by those from other dis- tricts and cities. It is the greatest of honors to be sent to Nor, and our families will be blessed even unto the final generation."

"1 see," Rik said, surely not missing the rote sound to

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what the man had said, his own face now expression less - "You've been sent from Lar to Nor, so you're going. And you certainly won't turn off somewhere, to lose yourselves in the wilderness and begin farms of your own, will you?"

"Such a thing is absolutely forbidden," the small man answered, his face paling and his voice beginning to qui- ver. "Those who are d.a.m.ned and forever tost may attempt such a thing, but never for long. Everyone is registered in the city of their birth, everyone, and if they cannot be accounted for, the Sacred Guard begins to search for them, with trackers and snifters. No one has ever been left unround, and when they are returned to civilization, they are taken to the Heavenly Court. Death by torture is preferable to being taken to the Heavenly Court."

The last words were muttered as the man looked down to the ground, and still none of the others standing around said anything. 1 didn't know who they thought Rikkan Addis was, but I had the feeling they would have answered his questions even if he hadn't used Persuasion. They had clearly been trained to respond to authority in whatever way authority demanded, and anyone who asked questions was obviously in authority.

"And how far away from here is the city of Nor?" Rik asked, his voice not far from a growl of rage. His right hand had turned to a fist where it rested on his thigh, as though he fought to keep it from closing on his sword hilt.

"Tomorrow morning will find us there," the man an- swered, raising his targe, innocent eyes again. "You, on your horses, will be there much sooner. They will cer- tainly be pleased to see you and the gift you bring."

"Gift?" Rik echoed, this time being the one who was confused. "What gift are you talking about?"

"Why, the gift you bring our G.o.d-king, of course," the man said, trying not to appear as though he were stepping out of his place. "Everyone was told about it, and we knew you were the ones as soon as you rode in. * You would say odd things and pretend to be strangers, we were told, but of course you wouldn't be. And those who report first sight of you to the Sacred Guard, even after you've reached Nor, are exempt from being chosen for the frolics

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for a full three months. We thank you for the opportunity, lord."

Rik'sjaw tightened as the man and his people all bowed to him, and he glanced at the rest of us with fury glowing in his bronze eyes. Simply trapping us on that world hadn't been enough for the enemy; he'd also arranged it so that everyone would be on the lookout for us, and we'd ridden into that camp as blind and unsuspecting as bunnies hopping into a trap.

"Nice going, fearless leader," I commented, knowing it no longer mattered who said what. "I realty have to hand it to you. I never expected anyone to be able to top my idiocy, but it looks like you've gone and done it."

"You were told to keep quiet." our glorious leader growled, the look in those eyes focusing this time on me.

"See if you can find enough intelligence in that empty blond head to understand simple instructions. It'll be hard for you, I know, but do your best."

Why, the absolute nerve of that imbecile! I gasped at what he'd said and opened my mouth to blast him back, but Kadrim's hand closed tight around my arm, distracting me and giving the imbecile enough time to turn back to the native. **

"You mentioned the gift we're -bringing to the G.o.d- king," he said to the small man who was beginning to look uncertain again. "You've answered all my questions correctly so far, and this will be the last. What gift do we bring?"

"Why, you bring the gift fit only for Thannar, blessed be his name," the man responded, smiling tremulously while the people behind him briefly became a chorus again. "The gift is one sent to him by a brother G.o.d in another creation, and he antic.i.p.ates it with great impa- tience. Our G.o.d-king is said to have a thousand females who serve his G.o.dhood, but none like the gift sent to him by his brother. She will s.h.i.+ne forever as his prized posses- sion, the female with hair tike clouds on a sun-bright day.

She will be his and his alone forevermore."

The man's eyes no longer looked at Rik or the ground, and ! just sat there with lips parted, saying nothing. It was me the man was looking at, just the way the rest of his

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