David Drake - The Mirror of Worlds

Chalcus would've woven the girl a chaplet if they were here now.

Perhaps that's shy Ilna'd wanted to stop. The mound was probably artificial. There were a number of rock outcrops scattered across the plain, but this was earthen and too regular an oval for nature to have raised it. There were no signs of a city on the plain they were crossing, no tumbles of weathered rock that had carvings on the protected undersides. Perhaps nomads had buried a chief and passed on in ancient times. The holly oak was very old, and there was no telling how long after the mound was raised that'd sprouted. Ilna could hear the crackle of Temple's fire and smelled meat grilling. The hunters must've returned with rabbits, though she hadn't noticed them. Berries weren't out at this time of year, but ordinarily Ilna would've plucked young plantains and dandelion leaves to go with the meat. She didn't feel like getting up now, however. I'm going to sleep after all, she thought; and presently she did. *** Sharina wore breeches and knee boots. Her garb scandalized the wardrobe servants, but Lord Attaper would've insisted on it for safety even if she hadn't made the decision herself on the basis of what Garric'd told her about the Coerli city. She didn't mind filth the way a delicately brought up girl might've. The things that hid in the filth were dangerous, though. Sharina stepped carefully over a human rib bone that'd been cracked for the marrow. If there was a better way to get blood poisoning than by stabbing a sliver of rotten bone into your flesh, it'd thankfully escaped Sharina's imagination.

Even Cashel wore wooden clogs as he tramped along like an ox on a muddy track. He looked about him at everything, as placid as a man could be. If there were cause for alarm, Cashel'd see it before the soldiers did, and Sharina trusted his response farther than she did that of the soldiers. Not that trouble was likely. The catmen seemed fascinated by their human visitors, but there was no hint of hostility. She brushed closer, though she didn't try to hug Cashel while they were walking between the Coerli dwellings. She wasn't afraid of an attack, but the close presence of this many Coerli was making her dizzy. "The smell'sawful," Sharina said. "I think it's worse than the tanyard back home. Though I don't see that it can be; maybe I've just gotten spoiled by living in a palace." "They're cats,"

Cashel murmured as they strode through the muck. "They eat meat. I'd never smelled so much piss from meat-eaters as there is here." "Oh!" said Sharina, and of course he was right. People in Barca's Hamlet had thought Cashel was slow because he didn't know a lot of the things they did; but many of the things other people knew were false.

Tenoctris rode ahead of them in a litter carried by two of the twenty Blood Eagles. Attaper led the escort personally. He wasn't happy with the situation, but he'd accepted that Sharina was regent in Garric's place. Sharina smiled slightly. Attaper'd also learned that she was the Prince's sister in more ways than one: she'd listen to advice, but when she turned her decision into an order, she meant it to be obeyed.

It was also possible that the day and a half Attaper had spent wandering in a mist with a company of his men had made him more willing to take direction than he'd been before he disobeyed Garric's direct order… The eight Coerli chieftains who'd been guiding them through the warren turned. The leading squad of Blood Eagles spread out in the open space that Garric had described, the Gathering Field. The Elders hopped onto the rocks; Tenoctris got out of the litter carefully. The Blood Eagles' spears were blunted with gilt balls. They held them crosswise to form a barrier against the Coerli spectators. The crowd pressed close, but the adult Coerli didn't try to push past the guards. There were females and kits among the spectators this morning, though, and one of the latter kept reaching toward Sharina. The mewling kit's mother gripped the scruff of her neck to keep her from squirming through the guards' legs. Sharina looked around. Tenoctris had made the arrangements, so this was the first time Sharina had seen the complete human contingent.

"Tenoctris?" she said, hoping her voice didn't convey the frustrated amazement she felt. "You haven't brought any interpreters." Perhaps some of the catmen present had learned human speech, but Tenoctris still should have one or more clerks from Lord Royhas' bureau to check the Coerli. Of course now that Garric was gone, no one could communicate well between the two races of the new kingdom…

Tenoctris glanced at Sharina in mild irritation. "Ah, I'd forgotten," she said. "I'll take care of it now. You'll need to talk to with your new wizard, of course." Tenoctris spoke in the catmen's own tongue.

One of the Elders replied. Another, probably the youngest of the eight, rose on his rock with a low growl. Sharina realized she was clutching Cashel's forearm hard, though of course he didn't react. She opened her grip but continued to rest her fingertips on his solid muscles. A canal curved around the rear of the Gathering Field. Water flowed in it-bits of debris on the surface moved downstream, if not quickly-so it was the community's sewer rather than a cesspool.

Tenoctris walked between the seated Elders and pointed her right index finger toward the fluid which gleamed like fresh tar. "Pikran dechochoctha!" she cried in a voice that didn't sound like hers. A bolt of wizardlight crackled from the wizard's finger. For an instant the canal was a curve of crimson; then the water geysered upward, sizzling and still mounting. When it'd risen into a pillar that pierced the scattered clouds, it exploded outward in silver splendor.

Sharina felt a faint dampness. "Golden-furred lady!" a tiny voice called through the clamor. "Golden-furred lady!" The Corl kit is calling to me, Sharina realized. And I understand her. Tenoctris walked back to them, smiling in satisfaction. "There," she said.

"That'll take care of the communication problem, I think. For everyone who breathes the spray, that is, but the wind's carrying it in the direction of Valles." The channel began sluggishly to refill.

Tenoctris' curt incantation had lifted only the water, leaving on the bottom the trash and foulness which'd been suspended in it. Oily sewage slowly began to refill the channel. "How…," Sharina said, but she caught herself. She looked at Cashel. He didn't say anything, but the hand that didn't hold his quarterstaff touched the locket he'd taken to wearing. Tenoctriscouldn't explain how she'd ripped the water skyward and apparently done far more important things in the same action. That was wizardry, and Sharina wasn't a wizard. She might as well ask a Serian philosopher to describe his doctrine to her in his own language. What Sharina'd really meant was, "How did you gain such power, Tenoctris?" Cashel had already told her the answer to that, the being which'd met and merged with Tenoctris in the ancient tomb.

Sharina looked at Tenoctris, then back to Cashel. She squeezed his arm. "What do we do next, Tenoctris?" Sharina asked calmly. If Cashel was satisfied, then she'd assume that the old woman beside her continued to be the friend who'd helped save mankind so many times in the past. "Now I find you a wizard to provide counsel while I'm busy elsewhere," Tenoctris said. She gave Sharina a slight smile that wasn't a familiar expression on her face, then turned to the Elders.

"Chiefs of the True People!" she said, speaking in harsh glottals and sibilants which sounded in Sharina's mind-though not her ears-like the old noblewoman's usual cultured accents. "Take me to your Council of Wise Ones. The kingdom has business with one of them." The shaggy Elders muttered among themselves. Sharina could hear some of the words, but they were too cryptic for her to understand what was being said without a context. The oldest Corl got down from his boulder. "I will take you to the house of the council, beast," he said. "But I can tell you, none of our wise ones have the power you do." Tenoctris laughed triumphantly. "That's all right," she said. "Until very recently, I didn't have such power either." She went along after the Elder on her own feet instead of getting back in the litter. "No," said Sharina with a quick gesture to Attaper as he and his men tried to surround Tenoctris. "Follow us, but you and your men wait outside the building." She'd seen how Tenoctris' enchantment of the canal water had left several Blood Eagles trembling. They were brave men beyond question, but wizardry had the same subconscious effect on many people that snakes or spiders did. Sometimes that overwhelming fear came out as violent rage. The last thing the kingdom needed now was for a berserk soldier to begin slaughtering the catmen's chiefs and wizards. With Cashel behind her, Sharina entered the shingle-roofed longhouse to which their guide led. She had to duck to go under a transom meant for the Coerli. The last thing she glimpsed over her shoulder as she entered was the canal. It was full again, and as black as the heart of Evil.