"We were hunting in the gorges to the south," said Thord. "We saw a
fire...." He told the story, of how they had found the stranger and the
body of the man from Kushat.
"Kushat!" said the Lord Ciaran softly. "Ah! And why, stranger, were you
going to Kushat?"
"My name is Stark. Eric John Stark, Earthman, out of Mercury." He was
tired of being called stranger. Quite suddenly, he was tired of the
whole business.
"Why should I not go to Kushat? Is it against some law, that a man may
not go there in peace without being hounded all over the Norlands? And
why do the men of Mekh make it their business? They have nothing to do
with the city."
Thord held his breath, watching with delighted anticipation.
The hands of the man in armor caressed the axe. They were slender hands,
smooth and sinewy--small hands, it seemed, for such a weapon.
"We make what we will our business, Eric John Stark." He spoke with a
peculiar gentleness. "I have asked you. Why were you going to Kushat?"
"Because," Stark answered with equal restraint, "my comrade wanted to go
home to die."
"It seems a long, hard journey, just for dying." The black helm bent
forward, in an attitude of thought. "Only the condemned or banished
leave their cities, or their clans. Why did your comrade flee Kushat?"
A voice spoke suddenly from out of the heap of rags that lay on the
pallet in the shadows of the corner. A man's voice, deep and husky, with
the harsh quaver of age or madness in it.
"Three men beside myself have fled Kushat, over the years that matter.
One died in the spring floods. One was caught in the moving ice of
winter. One lived. A thief named Camar, who stole a certain talisman."
Stark said, "My comrade was called Greshi." The leather belt weighed
heavy about him, and the iron boss seemed hot against his belly. He was
beginning, now, to be afraid.
* * * * *
The Lord Ciaran spoke, ignoring Stark. "It was the sacred talisman of
Kushat. Without it, the city is like a man without a soul."
As the Veil of Tanit was to Carthage, Stark thought, and reflected on
the fate of that city after the Veil was stolen.
"The nobles were afraid of their own people," the man in armor said.
"They did not dare to tell that it was gone. But we know."
"And," said Stark, "you will attack Kushat before the thaw, when they
least expect you."
"You have a sharp mind, stranger. Yes. But the great wall will be hard
to carry, even so. If I came, bearing in _my_ hands the talisman of Ban
Cruach...."
He did not finish, but turned instead to Thord. "When you plundered the
dead man's body, what did you find?"
"Nothing, Lord. A few coins, a knife, hardly worth the taking."
"And you, Eric John Stark. What did you take from the body?"