Crystal Gorge

“Just exactly what do you mean by ‘a journey,’ Dahlaine? I’m not going anyplace until you tell me what just happened.”

Dahlaine sighed. “We went from one place to another in a very short period of time. I just happen to have a mount that can go even faster than Beast. She’s a little noisy, but she can take me to where I want to go almost instantly.”

“I don’t think I’d call it ‘instantly,’ Dahlaine,” Ekial persisted. “It was morning when we were talking in the Land of Malavi, but it’s nighttime here.”

“That’s because we traveled east. We’re quite a ways to the east of your homeland.”

“A couple hundred miles, maybe?”

“Quite a bit farther than that. We can talk about that later, Ekial. It’s nighttime now, so you’ll need a place to sleep—and probably something to eat as well. Let’s go on inside and get you settled in for the night. You’ll be meeting people tomorrow that you should get to know. They’re on our side in this war, and that means that they’ll be your friends.”

Ekial shrugged. “You’re the one who’s paying,” he said, “so we’ll do things your way—for now, anyway.”

They went on into the stone house and down a long, torch-lit corridor that appeared to be totally deserted.

“Just how late at night is it, Dahlaine?” Ekial asked in a quiet voice.

“About midnight, I’d say. Why do you ask?”

“We’re a lot farther east of the meadowland than I thought, then.”

“Don’t worry about it. Let’s stop by the kitchen and get you something to eat.”

“I don’t really need anything,” Ekial replied. “I ate breakfast an hour or so ago.” He shook his head. “I think it’s going to take me a while to get used to this place.”

Then a young fellow came along the hallway from the other direction. He was obviously a Trogite, but the black leather clothes he wore almost exactly duplicated the standard clothing of Malavi horsemen, and that didn’t sit too well with Ekial.

“How are things going, Keselo?” Dahlaine asked the young man.

“They just got a lot better, Lord Dahlaine. Commander Narasan revoked Jalkan’s commission and put him in chains yesterday, and getting rid of Jalkan made the whole world seem brighter.” He looked somewhat inquiringly at Ekial.

“This is Prince Ekial of Malavi, Keselo,” Dahlaine said. “It’s quite likely that he’ll be joining us somewhat later, and I brought him here to observe the war here in my brother’s Domain.”

“A horse-soldier?” Keselo asked. Then he bowed. “I’m honored to meet you, Prince Ekial.”

“Am I supposed to talk to this one?” Ekial asked Dahlaine.

“It wouldn’t hurt, Ekial,” Dahlaine replied. “I’m fairly sure you two will be working together before long.”

“Not all Trogites are as corrupt as the cattle-buyers I’m sure you’ve encountered in the past, Prince Ekial,” the young man said. He hesitated slightly. “Just out of curiosity, what price will the Malavi demand for a cow this season?”

“We haven’t quite decided yet. I’d imagine that it’ll be about the same as it was last year.”

“I rather thought that might be the case. When you go home, you might want to tell your friends that you could get four or five times as much as the cattle-buyers have been paying you. The cattle-buyers have been swindling your people for generations now. When they sell one of the cows you sold them, they demand ten times as much as they paid you. I’ve seen the cattle-markets, Prince Ekial, so I know what I’m talking about. The cattle-buyers will scream and wave their arms about, but they will pay what you demand.”

Ekial stared at the young Trogite, and then he suddenly laughed. “I think I just found a friend, Dahlaine,” he said. Then he looked at the youthful Trogite. “We can talk about this later, Keselo. What moved you to tell me this, though? I thought that all Trogites are swindlers.”

“Not quite all of us, Prince Ekial. You’ll meet Commander Narasan before long, and he’s probably the most honorable man in the world.” Keselo smiled faintly. “There are bad Trogites, and then there are good ones.”

“We come up against the same sort of thing in the Land of Malavi,” Ekial agreed.

“That’s been going around a lot lately,” Keselo said with no hint of a smile.

As Ekial settled down to sleep in the room somewhere near the back of the huge stone house, he realized that he actually liked the young Trogite. Of course, the information Keselo had just given him could very well turn out to be incredibly valuable when he got back to the meadowland. Evidently, not all the Trogites in the whole wide world were scoundrels. That jarred Ekial’s view of the world just a bit, but he was fairly sure that he could learn to live with it.

It was just after dawn the following morning when Dahlaine came into the room where Ekial had intermittently slept, and he had a very handsome young man with him. “This is my younger brother, Veltan, Prince Ekial,” Dahlaine said. “This is his house—and his Domain, of course. I think it might be best if he were the one who introduced you to the outlanders.”

“I’m honored to meet you, Prince Ekial,” Veltan said.

“Likewise,” Ekial replied shortly. He looked at Dahlaine. “Are all these formalities really necessary?” he asked.

“Well, sort of, I think,” Dahlaine replied. “We’ve got a wide variety of people here, and formality seems to keep the fights from breaking out every time we turn around. In just a few minutes you’ll be meeting Queen Trenicia of the Isle of Akalla. I’d advise you to step around her rather carefully. She’s a warrior woman—which might seem a bit peculiar to you—but I wouldn’t make an issue of it. She’s a proud, bad-tempered woman, and she reaches for her sword any time somebody says anything she doesn’t like.”

Ekial smiled faintly. “A friend of mine—Ariga—rides a mare, and I’d swear that she’s the worst-tempered horse in all of Malavi. Females—animals as well as people—tend to get peculiar every so often.”

“I wouldn’t say anything along those lines in front of our sisters, Prince Ekial,” Veltan said with a grin.

“I’ll try to remember that,” Ekial said, rolling out of his bed. “I’ve given this a bit of thought, and I don’t think I should say very much to the local people or the outlanders during these little get-togethers. I’m here to learn, not to teach, so I’ll just watch and listen.”