Maia

there's no movin' by day. We went by the stars. That was one of the tricks Zai had taught himself that no one before him had ever properly understood. Most people doan' take enough trouble. They think they're goin' in one direction, but really they're goin' in circles, so they die. We were goin' east. You picked a star as it rose and then went on it for a little while before pickin' another one risin' from the same place. Whatever star we were goin' on, one or other of us watched it all the time-never took his eyes off it. You might not be able to pick it out again, you see. As soon as daylight began to show at all, Zai used to stop us. We had to make a thorn fire and cook (while we had anythin' left to cook, that was) and then be in shelter before the sun hit us.

"Sometimes there might be natural shelter from the sun- a cave, or a dry cleft-tibas, they call them. Sometimes, banzi, we used to hold our water for hours, and then piss on skins, wrap up in them and bury ourselves in the sand. Anythin' to keep moisture in the body.

"That was Zai's other trick-he'd found out how to spot water. There are a few-a very few-holes and wells out there, and those you can spot by the scrub-by the plants; and sometimes by birds. But then-and this was the trick- there are patches of water-or sometimes just patches of moisture-underground: and those you have to tell by insects, or by huntin' with a forked stick in your two hands. That's a kind of witchcraft, though-I can't explain. There were times when we had to scoop up mud and suck it. And I never complained, not once.

"I doan' know how far we went every night. Usually about ten miles, I should guess. The ground-it's soft goin', but it's very difficult and slow. Zai used to mark the days on a notched stick. We crossed the Govig in fifty-five days; quicker than either of his other two crossin's. He'd learned the tricks, you see, and learned the way, too. Some of the places we came to he recognized. And he was always cheerful: he kept us all in heart. I knew he'd get us through. I suffered-oh, yes!-and often I was frightened half crazy- the drums!-but I never once thought really I was goin' to die. Not with Zai there."

"The drums?" said Maia.

"You hear things that aren't real, banzi, and sometimes you even see things that aren't real. I've lain petrified with fear and listened to the drums; and not by night, either-

in broad, still daylight. There's a power out there that wants to kill you-doesn' want you to cross the Govig- and we'd challenged that power. It was Kantza-Merada that saved us. I saw her once, walkin' in a great, whirlin' column of sand, taller than the Red Tower in Tedzhek, and that was the most frightenin' thing of all. Only her face was turned away; else we'd all have died, Zai said.

"When we came out of the Govig we were nothin' but skin and bone, and there were only four of us. One of the men, M'Tesu, had been stung by a kreptoor in his blanket. You have to shake your blankets, always, and he'd forgotten; just once. That was enough.

"Where we came out, it's hardly twenty miles to Herl-Belishba from the edge of the desert. Zai had friends in Herl-people who'd helped him when he came before. They were timber merchants. We stayed with them until we'd got our strength back, and they gave us clothes, too. They weren't new clothes, but at least they weren't in tatters, like ours. And of course they were the sort of clothes people wear here. Made us look less conspicuous, black or no. Zai promised to pay them in Beklan money on the way back. They trusted him, you see.

"And then we went up to Bekla. It's six days' journey, and half-way you have to cross the Zhairgen on the Renda-Narboi-the Bridge of Islands. The Zhairgen's all of a hundred and fifty yards wide at the Renda-Narboi.

"But when we got to Bekla, banzi, we found the city full of fear-fear and uncertainty. There was civil war. No one knew who the rulers were from one day to the next, and there was no countin' on law and order. That was the Leopard revolution-we'd walked right into the middle of it: Fornis, Kembri and the others; those that set up Du-rakkon.

"Zai went straight to the big house of Senda-na-Say in the upper city, but we never saw Senda-na-Say. They told us he'd gone east, into Tonilda. His steward told us we were welcome to stay in the servants' quarters until things were quieter and Lord Senda-na-Say had time to spare for us. He said things would get better soon; but they never did.

"There was no open fightin' in the city-only murder behind closed doors: and no one knew who was still alive from day to day, let alone who was in power. Zai said it

was the worst possible luck for a trader, and we must just lie low and hope for the best.