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live long.
I nodded. So it is said.
Pompino clicked his tongue at his totrix. We were passing a stand of withered trees and the branches
reached out like gray wraiths.
Men say that the tragedy of Princess Lilah cast a shadow over the kingdom.
Princess Lilah of Hyrklana! I had sent spies to seek news of her whereabouts and all had reported
failure.
It is indeed a tragedy. I would dearly love to know where she is now, By Kru by Havil.
The slip passed unnoticed.
Much of what we said I will report when the time is due; suffice it that Pompino, for all he was one of
those Khibils who consider themselves a cut above ordinary mortals, proved a stalwart companion, and
in the manner of Khibils, brave and resourceful and loyal. A task had been set to his hands and he would
fulfill that task with his dying breath.
He did grumble: What the confounded woman wants to go all this dolorous way to play Jikaida for is a
conundrum I would not burden Hoko the Amusingly Malicious with.
There were so many burning questions I had to ask that mention of Jikaida passed me by then... But
Pompino knew only that he took his orders from a great scarlet and gold bird, that he was paid
handsomely for his trouble in real gold, and that should he disobey he would be punished with
exceedingly unpleasant penalties. We did not go into their nature.
Why, Pompino? Why?
He looked puzzled. The gods are passing strange in their ways, Jak. Passing strange. But to serve the
gods, to serve the Everoinye, is not that a great pride and does it not confer stature upon a man? Is it not,
Jak, a High Jikai?
I had never looked on rushing about pulling the Star Lords chestnuts out of the fire as a High Jikai. That
great word, that supreme notion of high chivalry and courage and self-sacrifice, seemed to me sacred to
deeds writ in gold. As I did not answer he scowled. Well?
Yes, I said. Assuredly.
Because he had been the first to pelt down all naked into action and drive the Ochs away he had quite
naturally assumed the leadership of our twin mission. I did not bother my head over that. Let him imagine
he carried the burden. Truth to tell, I was happy to allow it and, equally, I liked him.
The posting house at the ford of Gilma was merely a single story house and surrounding wall all built of
the gray stones carried down from the frowning hills. We did not change the totrixes or the krahniks, for
we had not been pushing them and they were beasts of price. We set off early the next day and so came
down the long valley into Songaslad, a town of thieves.
Over the border some sixty dwaburs off lay the country of Aidrin in which lay the capital, the city called
Jikaida City. The journey was fraught with peril. It lay over badlands of an exceedingly bad badness. In
Songaslad, the town of thieves, caravans were formed for mutual protection on the journey. The lady
Yasuri sent her Rapa Jiktar to haggle for the price of a caravan s protection. Perforce, we waited, and
set a doubled guard over our possessions.
We lost only a good saddle, richly inlaid, a carpet of high price, and a set of golden candlesticks whose
theft almost gave the lady a fainting fit. Her companions, her handmaids in the coach with her, used
burned twigs of Sweet Ibroi to revive her. We concluded a deal with hawk-faced Ineldar the Kaktu, the
caravan master, forthwith.
So, a long straggling procession of carriages and wagons and riders and people trudging afoot, we
wended out of Songaslad, the town of thieves, to cross the Desolate Wastes, and so win our way to
Aidrin, and the rich country around LionardDen, Jikaida City.
Chapter Ten
Into the Desolate Waste
Many times have I journeyed in caravans across country inhospitable by reason of nature or man, and
on each occasion I vow never again, and know even as I vow that the lure of the adventure will always
drag me on. Each occasion is different. Kregen is a world of so many startling contrasts that the beauty
and terror mingle and fill the spirit with wild eagerness or desolation, with burning ambition to win against
all or a calm and joyous acceptance of the stupendous.
Nights under the stars! Ah they are never to be forgotten.
The Caravan labored along, crossing rivers and winding down long defiles, gaining the far slopes and so
rising to emerge onto the vasty plains where the mist lifted blue and eerie, like lantern smoke against
snow.
The totrix of the lady Yasuri s given into my charge and whom I rode across the Desolate Wastes was a
skewbald called Munky. I was careful of him. Accustomed I may be to walking barefoot across the
awful places of Kregen, I was now far more of a mind to ride rather than walk.
Oh, yes, despite all my deeper concerns, I enjoyed that caravan across the Desolate Wastes to Jikaida
City. And, if the truth be told, the land was not all desolate. Grass grew and the animals fed. There was
water in swift silver streams. Every now and then we crossed stony deserts, or sandy deserts; but we
prepared for them. The various places along the way were infested with drikingers and these bandits
attacked us, as was their custom. We fought them off.
Here we saw why the Star Lords had provided two men two kregoinye, I must now call them to
escort the person they had chosen to save for posterity. The Rapa escort fought well and earned their
hire along with all the other caravan guards. But, one by one, they went down, by arrow or spear, sword
or javelin. Soon my companion Pompino was given the escort command, with the rank of Jiktar, whereat
he smiled at me, and I warmed to him, realizing how much and how little he valued these titles. But we
saved the skin of the lady Yasuri.
It is not my intention to give a blow-by-blow account of that journey, much though the prospect tempts
me, for this was a kind of holiday. It is with some of the people of the caravan that my interest lies, and
therefore yours.
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